Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 29, 1918.djvu/289

Rh terminals are inscribed in Church Slavic (ancient Slavic) with the words "Jesus Christ, have mercy upon me, a sinner." This kind of rosary calls to mind the popular name for it, viz. lestovka, as it certainly might be thought to resemble a ladder in shape. This rosary is also used for counting a number of prostrations. The vervitsa is a purely monastic or ascetic devotion; it is not indulged in by the Orthodox laity, though the laity of the Russian sects, called "Old Believers," have adopted it.

Coptic. The rosaries used by the Copts of Egypt have forty-one, or sometimes sixty-one, beads. They are used for counting a similar number of repetitions of the "Kyrie eleison." This petition is repeated in Arabic or Coptic, with the addition, at the end, of a short prayer in Coptic. Sometimes the Copts resort to what is, presumably, a more primitive method of keeping record of their prayers, and count on their fingers.

Jewish. It now remains to mention the use of the rosary by the Jews. Among these people it has lost all religious importance, having been taken over by them from the Turks and Greeks. They use it merely as a pastime on the Sabbaths and holy days. No manual labour being permitted on those days, they occupy themselves with passing the beads through their fingers. These rosaries sometimes have thirty-two beads, sometimes ninety-nine. Dr. Gaster has suggested to me that there may be a cabalistic reason for the number thirty-two. It is the mystical number for the "ways of wisdom" by which God created the world. They stand at the beginning of the so-called Book of Creation, and they play an important role in the cabalistic literature. It may be that this has influenced the number of beads on the smaller rosaries.

I desire to thank the Society for giving me this opportunity of speaking on a subject which I have found most