Girdles : their origin and development, particularly with regard to their use as charms in medicine, and midwifery / by Walter J. Dilling, M.B., Ch. B., lecturer in pharmacology, Aberdeen University.

  • Dilling, Walter James, 1886-1950
Date:
1914
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Girdles : their origin and development, particularly with regard to their use as charms in medicine, and midwifery / by Walter J. Dilling, M.B., Ch. B., lecturer in pharmacology, Aberdeen University. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    antique cases are difficult to trace. That they originally derived their virtues from religious associations is un¬ doubted, and several of the undermentioned cases afford ample evidence of this tact. In the great majority of instances, however, the religious significance has been lost to us, undoubtedly owing to omission of accurate descriptions of the girdles and their mode of application. I he earliest notice I have traced of the girdle used as an amulet is derived from Festus :— “ ^ arrius asserts, on the contrary, that the same remedies are called amulets which Caia Csecilia, the wife of Traquinius Priscius, is supposed to have invented and introduced into her girdle which is in the Temple of Sancus, who is called Deus fidius, and girt about a statue of his. Out of this girdle, those in danger (or sick persons) took little chips; the same was called “praebia” (amulets), because they prevented evils.”1 Another early Roman account is that mentioned by Pliny the Elder; he states that if the girdle which they wore every day were tied with a Hercules knot, a knot tied very hard, in which no ends were visible, it would be productive of certain beneficial effects, and that Hercules was the first to discover this fact.2 As Hercules is one of the oldest heroes of Greek mythology, and the idea embodied goes back further still, this instance—if Pliny be correct in his statement—must be of extreme antiquity. A very interesting, if obscure, example comes from a poetic charm in Bale’s “ Interlude” concerning the Laws of Nature, Moses, and Christ (1562), cited fully by Brand3:— “ A Dram of a Shepe’s Tyrdle, And good Saynt Frances Gyrdle, With the Hamlet of a Hyrdle, Are wholsom for the Pyppe.” In Macedonia we meet with the girdle as an amulet, but usually associated with a charm of some sort; these charms were, as a rule, worn suspended from the neck, but in many cases traces of the girdle custom arise, as in the following:— “ To cure a woman of haemorrhage write on a piece of papyrus and tie it to her belly with one thread and say “Our Father” and the following prayer : “ The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the 1 Sexti Pompeii Festi, u De Verborum Significatione,” Lib. XIV, s.v. praebia and prsedia ; c.p. Yarro, “de Lingua Latina,” Lib. VII, section 107 2 Pliny, “Historia Naturalis,” Lib. XXVIII, ch. 17. J. Brand, “Popular Antiquities,” London, 1900, p. 749.