Note 468 — Chapter V · PRE-CHRISTIAN GNOSTICS: THE ESSENES

The girdle has been thought to be identical with the kosti or sacred thread of the Parsis. The use of the hatchet or pick was to bury the ejecta, perhaps for sanitary reasons. The Essenes were said to be further divided into four classes (Josephus, loc. cit. § 10), but Josephus does not say what these classes were, and it is doubtful whether there is any foundation for the statement.