Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 29, 1918.djvu/287

 The Rosary in Magic and Religion. 277

the case of men, as a single string, with the two ends un- attached and hanging free. Occasionally these two ends are attached at two different points of a girdle. This form is also seen in some old pictures.^

The materials composing the beads varied, and still vary, very much, often depending, as is the case among other religions, on the rank and wealth of the devotee. Chaplets of wood were used at funerals by poor bedesmen, and in 1 45 1 Lord John Scrope wills that " twenty-four poor men clothed in white gowns and hoods, each of them having a new set of wooden beads," should pray (on them) for him at his funeral, with the liberty to " stand, sit, or kneel " at their pleasure.^

The Rosary as a Charm. I now give an example of what might perhaps be called a magico-religious use of the rosary. In certain parts of Poland, namely in the districts of Piotrkow, Czestochowa and Plock, the following custom is in use to keep off hghtning.

During a storm a rosary with beads of cedar-wood from the Holy Land — or one made in imitation — is carried round the house three times, together with a little bell called " the bell of Loreto," and sometimes also a lighted candle, blessed on Candlemas Day. The bell is rung, and the rosary is used with the words " God save us " at the large beads and " Holy Mother, be our mediator " at the small ones.^

Orthodox Churches. In Greek and Slavic monasteries part of the investiture of the Little Habit and the Great Habit is a rosary in the form of a knotted cord which is bestowed ceremonially upon the monk or nun. The knotted cord, as I have already pointed out, is possibly a very primitive form of rosary, and, in this case, it is seen sur- viving in a highly ceremonial function.

^ Cf. Feasey, The Keliqiiiary, vol. v., No. 3, p. 167.

^ Ibid. p. 173.

' I am indebted to Miss Czaplicka for this information.