the.com/prayer beads

means A strung set of beads used to count prayers, chants, or mantras so the mind can rest on meaning instead of tallying.

from The word 'bead' itself comes from Old English 'bede,' meaning 'prayer' — so prayer beads are almost redundant, literally 'prayer-prayers.' The practice of counting devotions on knotted cords or strung beads arose independently in several traditions; the English word 'rosary' comes from Latin 'rosarium,' a 'rose garden,' since prayers were poetically imagined as roses offered up one by one. Similar counting strings — the Hindu and Buddhist mala, the Islamic misbaha — developed in their own contexts, suggesting the same simple need surfaced again and again: fingers wanting something to hold while the mind reaches elsewhere.