That is to say, he takes off the evil influence of the knots. So, too, witches sought in Scotland to compass evil by tying knots. Witches, it was thought, could supply themselves with the milk of any neighbor's cows if they had a small quantity of hair from the tail of each of the animals. The hair they would twist into a rope and then a knot would be tied on the rope for every cow which had contributed hair. Under the clothes of a witch who was burned at St. Andrews, in 1572, was discovered 'a white claith, like a collore craig, with stringis, wheron was mony knottis vpon the stringis of the said collore craig.' When this was taken from her, with a prescience then wrongly interpreted, she said: 'Now I have no hope of myself.' 'Belyke scho thought,' runs the cotemporary account, 'scho suld not have died, that being vpon her,' but probably she meant that to be discovered with such an article in her possession was equivalent to the sentence of death. So lately as the beginning of the last century, two persons were sentenced to capital punishment for stealing a charm of knots, made by a woman as a device against the welfare of Spalding of Ashintilly."[694] "Charmed belts are commonly worn in Lancashire for the cure of rheumatism. Elsewhere, a cord round the loins is worn to ward off toothache. Is it possible that there is any connection between this belt and the cord which in Burmah is hung round the neck of a possessed person while he is being thrashed to drive out the spirit which troubles him? Theoretically the thrashing is given to the spirit, and not to the man, but to prevent the spirit escaping too soon a charmed cord is hung round the possessed person's neck. When the spirit has been sufficiently humbled and has declared its name it may be allowed to escape, if the doctor does not prefer to trample on the patient's stomach till he fancies he has killed the demon."[695] "The numerous notices in the folklore of all countries of magic stones, holy girdles, and other nurses' specials, attest the common sympathy of the human race."[696] This is from Brand:[697] "Devonshire cure for warts. Take a piece of twine, tie in it as many knots as you have warts, touch each wart with a knot, and then throw the twine behind your back into some place where it may soon decay--a pond or a hole in the earth; but tell no one what you have done. When the twine is decayed your warts will disappear without any pain or trouble, being in fact charmed away." "In our time, the anodyne necklace, which consists of beads turned out of the root of the white Bryony, and which is hung round the necks of infants, in order to assist their teething, and to ward off the convulsions sometimes incident to that process, is an amulet."[698] "Rowan, ash, and red thread," a Scotch rhyme goes, "keep the devils frae their speed."[699]