Chapter C

_The Plant "Hæmony"_ (Vol. ii., p. 88.).--I think MR. BASHAM, who asks for a reference to the plant "hæmony", referred to by Milton in his _Comus_, will find the information which he seeks in the following extract from Henry Lyte's translation of Rembert Dodoen's _Herbal_, at page 107, of the edition of 1578. The plant is certainly not called by the name of "hæmony," nor is it described as having prickles on its leaves; but they are plentifully shown in the engraving which accompanies the description.

"_Allysson._--The stem of this herbe is right and straight,
parting itself at the top into three or foure small branches.
The leaves be first round, and after long whitish and _rough_,
or somewhat woolly in handling. It bringeth foorth at the top of
the branches little _yellow_ floures, and afterward small rough
whitish and flat huskes, and almost round fashioned like
bucklers, wherein is contained a flat seede almost like to the
seed of castell or stocke gilloflers, but greater.

"Alysson, as Dioscorides writeth, groweth upon rough mountaynes,
and is not found in this countrey but in the gardens of some
herboristes.

"The same hanged in the house, or at the gate or entry, keepeth
man and beast from _enchantments and witching_."

K.P.D.E.

As a "Note" to DR. BASHAM'S "Query", I would quote Ovid's _Metamorph._, lib vii. l. 264-5.:

"Illic Hæmoniá radices valle resectas.
Seminaque, et flores, et succos incoquit acres."

T.A.

_Practice of Scalping amongst the Scythians--Scandinavian Mythology._--In Vol. ii., p. 12., I desired to be informed whether this practice has prevailed amongst any people besides the American Indians. As you have established no rule against an inquirer's replying to his own Query, (though, unfortunately for other inquirers, self-imposed by some of your correspondents) I shall avail myself of your permission, and refer those who are interested in the subject to Herodotus, _Melpomene 64_, where they will find that the practice of scalping prevailed amongst the Scythians. This coincidence of manners serves greatly to corroborate the hypothesis that America was peopled originally from the northern parts of the old continent. He has recorded also their horrid custom of drinking the blood of their enemies, and making drinking vessels of their skulls, reminding us of the war-song of the savage of Louisiana:--

"I shall devour their (my enemies') hearts, dry their flesh,
drink their blood; I shall tear off their scalps, and make cups
of their skulls." (Bossu's _Travels_.) "Those," says this
traveller through Louisiana, "who think the Tartars have chiefly
furnished America with inhabitants, seem to have hit the true
opinion; you cannot believe how great the resemblance of the
Indian manners is to those of the ancient Scythians; it is found
in their religious ceremonies, their customs, and in their food.
Hornius is full of characteristics that may satisfy your
curiosity in this respect, and I desire you to read him."--Vol.
i. p. 400.

But the subject of the "Origines Americanæ" is not what I now beg to propose for consideration; it is the tradition-falsifying assertion of Mr. Grenville Pigott, in his _Manual of Scandinavian Mythology_ (as quoted by D'Israeli in the _Amenities of English Literature_, vol. i. p. 51, 52.), that the custom with which the Scandinavians were long reproached, of drinking out of the skulls of their enemies, has no other foundation than a blunder of Olaus Wormius, who, translating a passage in the death-song of Regner Lodbrog,--

"Soon shall we drink out of the curved trees of the head,"

turned the trees of the head into a skull, and the skull into a hollow cup; whilst the Scald merely alluded to the branching horns, growing as trees from the heads of aninals, that is, the curved horns which formed their drinking cups.

T.J.

_Cromwell's Estates.--Magor_ (Vol. ii., p. 126.).--I have at length procured the following information respecting _Magor_. It is a parish in the lower division of the hundred of Caldicot, Monmouthshire. Its church, which is dedicated to St. Mary, is in the patronage of the Duke of Beaufort.

SELEUCUS.

_"Incidis in Scyllam," &c._ (Vol. ii., p. 85.).--MR. C. FORBES says he "should be sorry this fine old proverb should be passed over with no better notice than seems to have been assigned to it in Boswell's _Johnson_," and then he quotes some account of it from the _Gentleman's Magazine_. I beg leave to apprise MR. FORBES that there is no notice whatsoever of it in Boswell's _Johnson_, though it is introduced (_inter alia_) in a note of _Mr. Malone's_ in the later editions of Boswell; but that note contains in substance all that MR. FORBES'S communication repeats. See the later {142} editions of Boswell, under the date of 30th March, 1783.

C.

_Dies Iræ_ (Vol. ii., p. 72. 105.).--Will you allow me to enter my protest against the terms "extremely beautiful and magnificent," applied by your respectable correspondents to the _Dies Iræ_, which, I confess, I think not deserving any such praise either for its poetry or its piety. The first triplet is the best, though I am not sure that even the merit of that be not its _jingle_, in which King David and the Sybil are strangely enough brought together to testify of the day of judgment. Some of the triplets appear to me very poor, and hardly above macaronic Latin.