Girdles: their origin and development, particularly with regard to their use as charms in medicine, marriage, and midwifery / [Walter J. Dilling].

  • Dilling, Walter J. (Walter James), 1886-1950.
Date:
1913-14
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Girdles: their origin and development, particularly with regard to their use as charms in medicine, marriage, and midwifery / [Walter J. Dilling]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    13/64 (page 341)
    significations. At the Iguvian annual May procession of the boundaries a sacred girdle was worn on the right shoulder in a manner similar to that of the Vedic Brahmans and perhaps derived from them.2 The oldest extant charm connected with girdles is derived from the Atharva-Veda (vi, 133), and is as follows3:— “ The god that bound on this girdle, that fastened [it] together, and that joined [it] for us, the god by whose instruction we move— may he seek the further shore, and may he release us. “Offered to art thou, offered unto; thou art the weapon of seers; partaking first of the vow, be thou a hero-slayer, O girdle. “Since I am death’s student, soliciting from existence a man for Yama, him do I, by incantation, by fervor, by toil, tie with this girdle. “Daughter of faith, born out of fervor, sister of the being-making seers was she; do thou, O girdle, assign to us thought, wisdom ; also assign to us fervor and Indra’s power. “Thou whom the ancient beingmaking seers bound about, do thou embrace me, in order to length of life, O girdle.” In the mythical Wahosadha, or great medicine birth of Buddha, the sun-physician, who came into the world with a branch of sandalwood in his hand, explaining that this branch was medicine, we find that he received, amongst his religious equipments, the girdle of the circling sun which bound days and nights into a perfect whole.4 We find girdles in use in the Greek and Roman Liturgies, and in the ninth century Anastasius mentions “ mursenulse,” or jewelled girdles, in the shape of lampreys and eels.5 The early Christians employed zodiacal amulets in the form of girdles,0 and the girdle of the Ephod amongst the Israelitish priests contains, perhaps, a curious relic of the older sun- worship ritual, in that, while the priest was engaged in sacrifice, the free ends were thrown over the left shoulder.7 The “orarium” was also directed to be worn over the left shoulder by the Fourth Council of Toledo, and the “pallium” in its application bears the same traces of 1 Iguvian Tables, ii, b. 27, 29 ; vi, b. 49. - Hewitt, “Primitive Traditional History,” vol. i, p. 376. •! “Atharva-Veda,” trails, by Whitney Lanman, Cambridge, Mass., 1905, p. 380 et seq. 4 Rhys Davids, “Buddhist Birth Stories: The Nidanakatha,” London, 1880, pp. 86-88. Addis-Arnold, “A Catholic Dictionary,” 1903, sixth edition, p. 403. 0 A. Lillie, “Buddhism in Christendom,” 1887, p. 122; Martigny “Diet, d’Antiquites Chretiennes,” Paris, 1865, art. “Zodiaque.” ' R. A. S. Macalister, “Ecclesiastical Vestments,” London, 1896, p. 4.