(M192) A similar power to bind and hamper spiritual as well as bodily activities is ascribed by some people to rings. Thus in the Greek island of Carpathus, people never button the clothes they put upon a dead body and they are careful to remove all rings from it; “for the spirit, they say, can even be detained in the little finger, and cannot rest.”(1165) Here it is plain that even if the soul is not definitely supposed to issue at death from the finger-tips, yet the ring is conceived to exercise a certain constrictive influence which detains and imprisons the immortal spirit in spite of its efforts to escape from the tabernacle of clay; in short the ring, like the knot, acts as a spiritual fetter. This may have been the reason of an ancient Greek maxim, attributed to Pythagoras, which forbade people to wear rings.(1166) Nobody might enter the ancient Arcadian sanctuary of the Mistress at Lycosura with a ring on his or her finger.(1167) Persons who consulted the oracle of Faunus had to be chaste, to eat no flesh, and to wear no rings.(1168) (M193) On the other hand, the same constriction which hinders the egress of the soul may prevent the entrance of evil spirits; hence we find rings used as amulets against demons, witches, and ghosts. In the Tyrol it is said that a woman in childbed should never take off her wedding-ring, or spirits and witches will have power over her.(1169) Among the Lapps, the person who is about to place a corpse in the coffin receives from the husband, wife, or children of the deceased a brass ring, which he must wear fastened to his right arm until the corpse is safely deposited in the grave. The ring is believed to serve the person as an amulet against any harm which the ghost might do to him.(1170) The Huzuls of the Carpathians sometimes milk a cow through a wedding-ring to prevent witches from stealing its milk.(1171) In India iron rings are often worn as an amulet against disease or to counteract the malignant influence of the planet Saturn. A coral ring is used in Gujarat to ward off the baleful influence of the sun, and in Bengal mourners touch it as a form of purification.(1172) A Masai mother who has lost one or more children at an early age will put a copper ring on the second toe of her next infant’s right foot to guard it against sickness.(1173) Masai men also wear on the middle finger of the right hand a ring made out of the hide of a sacrificial victim; it is supposed to protect the wearer from witchcraft and disease of every kind.(1174) We have seen that magic cords are fastened round the wrists of Siamese children to keep off evil spirits;(1175) that some people tie strings round the wrists of women in childbed, of convalescents after sickness, and of mourners after a funeral in order to prevent the escape of their souls at these critical seasons;(1176) and that with the same intention the Bagobos put brass rings on the wrists or ankles of the sick.(1177) This use of wrist-bands,