Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 29, 1918.djvu/267

 The Rosary in Magic and Religion. 257

knot-writing, each knot having a separate meaning, the different coloured cords also having each its own signifi- cance.^ In China in the times of Yung-ching-che, it is stated that the people used Httle cords marked by different knots, which, by their numbers and distances, served them instead of writing.^ In the rosary used by the Shin Gon sect of Buddhists in Japan there is a knot formed by the union of two strings which hang from the main string of beads, and it is said to resemble an ancient Chinese character which means " man," being one of a combination of characters used in representing one of the many attributes of Buddha.3

The use of knots as mnemonic signs for purely secular purposes still persists in many countries. In this country it is a common practice to tie a knot in a handkerchief as an aid to memory. The same custom is found in India, the knot being usually tied in the strings of the paejamas (drawers).^ Such customs are apt to disappear with the advance of culture and the introduction of less cumbrous methods, being retained only for religious purposes. Such a survival of the use of knots for keeping records is seen in some rosaries at the present day in the Greek Orthodox Church, in Egypt, and in India. It will be noted that these rosaries made of knots are highly ceremonial. I shall speak of them later on when dealing with the different religions.

I should like to draw the attention of the Society to an article written by Dr. Gaster in Folklore^ vol. xxv., June 30th, 1914, pp. 254-258, where he suggests that knots provide us with the origin of the rosary beads. I hope to

1 E. B. Tylor, Early Hist, of Mankind {London, 1865), pp. 154-158. See also Marquis de Nadaillac, Pre-Historic Amert'ca, pp. 456-458 ; fig. 202.

p. 4.
 * A. Y. Goquet, Origine des lots, des arts et des sciences (Paris, 1758), vol. i.

'^Joiini. Asiatic Soc. of Japan, ix. (1881), 177.

•* R. C. Temple, Punjab Notes and Queries, ii. (1S85), 571.