they come to us, not only from the earliest Christian times, but that they were in use among the Jews. And it is not at all unlikely that the Blessed Virgin used something very similar to a string of beads in counting her prayers. So completely identified did beads become (in the course of time) with the counting of prayers, that the word "bead" signified prayer. The advantage of a string of beads for those who had a certain number of prayers to say was, that it allowed the mind and heart to be concentrated entirely on God. while the hand mechanically told the number by passing a bead between the fingers.
The one hundred and fifty beads represent the psalms of David. The devotion ol such of the Jews and of the early Christians as could read and procure books was the reading of the psalms. In order to furnish a substitute to those who could not read or procure books, vocal prayers were assigned to the number of one hundred and fifty - to be told by transferring a pebble (for every prayer) from one pocket to another, or by passing a bead through the fingers.
The Rosary was recited in this form until the thirteenth century. While, since that era it has developed, and been made eminently practical, yet there is nothing in it to-day that did not spring from the germs it held then.
It was then aptly called the people's psalter. The psalms of David are very suggestive of he Rosary as developed by St Dominic.
