The Witch's Knot and the Rosary

The Wicca witch was covered both ways
For on her person she carried both her rosary
(Fifty Hail Mary with beads fifty)
And her witche's ladder
A string of forty beads, or sometimes just forty knots
The Witch's Knot of Clovis days
Not much different from
The prayer ropes of
The Desert Fathers of the third century
The Vita Christi rosary, dated to the year 1300
As discovered by theologian Andreas Heinz of Trier
Beads, knots, whatever
A matter of protection for others and her

Intriguing closeness of numbers
Though the maths differ
The catholics pleading to Mary
The witch doing all to keep Evil at bay

Both stemming from who-knows-when
Beyond antiquity
Both from rather pagan days
And still flourishing today
In their separate ways.