Chapter I: The Anglo-Saxon Herbals (2)

With the notable exception of vervain, it is curious how little prominence is given in Saxon plant lore to the herbs which were held most sacred by the Druids, and yet it is scarcely credible that some of their wonderful lore should not have been assimilated. But in these manuscripts little or no importance attaches to mistletoe, holly, birch or ivy. There is no mention of mistletoe as a sacred herb.[30] We find some mention of selago, generally identified with _lycopodium selago_, of which Pliny tells us vaguely that it was "like savin." The gathering of it had to be accompanied in Druid days with mystic ceremonies. The Druid had his feet bare and was clad in white, and the plant could not be cut with iron, nor touched with the naked hand. So great were its powers that it was called "the gift of God." Nor is there any mention in Saxon plant lore of the use of _sorbus aucuparia_, which the Druids planted near their monolithic circles as protection against unseen powers of darkness. There is, however, one prescription which may date back to the Roman occupation of Britain. It runs thus: "Take nettles, and seethe them in oil, smear and rub all thy body therewith; the cold will depart away."[31] It has always been believed that one of the varieties of nettle (_Urtica pilulifera_) was introduced into England by the Roman soldiers, who brought the seed of it with them. According to the tradition, they were told that the cold in England was unendurable; so they brought these seeds in order to have a plentiful supply of nettles wherewith to rub their bodies and thereby keep themselves warm. Possibly this prescription dates back to that time.

From what hoary antiquity the charms and incantations which we find in these manuscripts have come down to us we cannot say. Their atmosphere is that of palæolithic cave-drawings, for they are redolent of the craft of sorcerers and they suggest those strange cave markings which no one can decipher. Who can say what lost languages are embedded in these unintelligible words and single letters, or what is their meaning? To what ancient ceremonies do they pertain, and who were the initiated who alone understood them? At present it is all mysterious, though perhaps one day we shall discover both their sources and their meaning. They show no definite traces of the Scandinavian rune-lays concerning herbs, though one of the charms is in runic characters. It is noteworthy that in the third book, which is evidently much older than the first two parts of the _Leech Book_, the proportion of heathen charms is exceptionally large. In one prescription we find the names of two heathen idols, Tiecon and Leleloth, combined with a later Christian interpolation of the names of the four gospellers. The charm is in runic characters and is to be followed by a prayer. Many of the mystic sentences are wholly incomprehensible, in others we find heathen names such as Lilumenne, in others a string of words which may be a corrupt form of some very ancient language. Thus a lay to be sung in case a man or beast drinks an insect runs thus:--"Gonomil, orgomil, marbumil, marbsai, tofeth," etc.[32]

If some of the charms have a malignant sound, others were probably as soothing in those days as those gems are still which have survived in our inimitable nursery rhymes.

For instance, the following has for us no meaning, but even in the translation it has something of the curious effect of the words in the original. A woman who cannot rear her child is instructed to say--"Everywhere I carried for me the famous kindred doughty one with this famous meat doughty one, so I will have it for me and go home."

In the _Lacnunga_ there is a counting-out charm which is a mixture of an ancient heathen charm combined with a Christian rite at the end.

"Nine were Noddes sisters, then the nine came to be eight,
and the eight seven, and the seven six, and the six five,
and the five four, and the four three, and the three two,
and the two one, and the one none. This may be medicine for
thee from scrofula and from worm and from every mischief.
Sing also the Benedicite nine times."--_Lacnunga_, 95.[33]

One of the most remarkable narrative charms is that for warts copied below from the _Lacnunga_. It is to be sung first into the left ear, then into the right ear, then above the man's poll, then "let one who is a maiden go to him and hang it upon his neck, do so for three days, it will soon be well with him."

"Here came entering
A spider wight.
He had his hands upon his hams.
He quoth that thou his hackney wert.
Lay thee against his neck.
They began to sail off the land.
As soon as they off the land came, then began they to cool.
Then came in a wild beast's sister.
Then she ended
And oaths she swore that never could this harm the sick, nor him
who could get at this charm, nor him who had skill to sing this
charm. Amen. Fiat."--_Lacnunga_, 56.

Of the world-wide custom of charming disease from the patient and transferring it to some inanimate object we find numerous examples. This custom is not only of very ancient origin, but persisted until recent times even in this country. As commonly practised in out-of-the-way parts of Great Britain it was believed that the disease transferred to an inanimate object would be contracted by the next person who picked it up, but in the Saxon herbals we find an apparently older custom of transferring the disease to "running water" (suggestive of the Israelitish scapegoat), and also that of throwing the blood from the wound across the wagon way. These charms for transferring disease seem originally to have been associated with a considerable amount of ceremonial. For instance, in those to cure the bite of a hunting spider we find that a certain number of scarifications are to be struck (and in both cases an odd number--three and five); in the case of the five scarifications, "one on the bite and four round about it," the blood is to be caught in "a green spoon of hazel-wood," and the blood is to be thrown "in silence" over a wagon way. In the _Lacnunga_ there are traces of the actual ceremonial of transferring the disease, and the Christian prayer has obviously been substituted for an older heathen one. The charm is in unintelligible words and is followed by the instruction, "Sing this nine times and the Pater Noster nine times over a barley loaf and give it to the horse to eat." In a "salve against the elfin race" it is noticeable that the herbs, after elaborate preparation, are not administered to the patient at all, but are thrown into running water.

"A salve against the elfin race and nocturnal goblin
visitors: take wormwood, lupin.... Put these worts into a
vessel, set them under the altar, sing over them nine
masses, boil them in butter and sheep's grease, add much
holy salt, strain through a cloth, throw the worts into
running water."--_Leech Book_, III. 61.

One charm in the _Lacnunga_ which is perhaps not too long to quote speaks of some long-lost tale. It appears to be a fragment of a popular lay, and one wonders how many countless generations of our ancestors sang it, and what it commemorates:--

"Loud were they loud, as over the land they rode,
Fierce of heart were they, as over the hill they rode.
Shield thee now thyself; from this spite thou mayst escape thee!
Out little spear if herein thou be!
Underneath the linden stood he, underneath the shining shield,
While the mighty women mustered up their strength;
And the spears they send screaming through the air!
Back again to them will I send another.
Arrow forth a-flying from the front against them;
Out little spear if herein thou be!
Sat the smith thereat, smoke a little seax out.
Out little spear if herein thou be!
Six the smiths that sat there-- making slaughter-spears:
Out little spear, in be not spear!
If herein there hide flake of iron hard,
Of a witch the work, it shall melt away.
Wert thou shot into the skin, or shot into the flesh,
Wert thou shot into the blood, or shot into the bone,
Wert thou shot into the limb-- never more thy life be teased!
If it were the shot of Esa, or it were of elves the shot
Or it were of hags the shot; help I bring to thee.
This to boot for Esa-shot, this to boot for elfin-shot.
This to boot for shot of hags! Help I bring to thee.
Flee witch to the wild hill top ... ...
But thou--be thou hale, and help thee the Lord."

Who were these six smiths and who were the witches? One thinks of that mighty Smith Weyland in the palace of Nidad king of the Niars, of the queen's fear of his flashing eyes and the maiming of him by her cruel orders, and of the cups he made from the skulls of her sons and gems from their eyes. We think of these as old tales, but instinct tells us that they are horribly real. We may not know how that semi-divine smith made himself wings, but that he flew over the palace and never returned we do not doubt for an instant. To the fairy stories which embody such myths children of unnumbered generations have listened, and they demand them over and over again because they, too, are sure that they are real.

Nor is the mystery of numbers lacking in these herbal prescriptions, particularly the numbers three and nine. In the alliterative lay of the nine healing herbs this is very conspicuous. Woden, we are told, smote the serpent with nine magic twigs, the serpent was broken into nine parts, from which the wind blew the nine flying venoms. There are numerous instances of the patient being directed to take nine of each of the ingredients or to take the herb potion itself for three or nine days. Or it is directed that an incantation is to be said or sung three or nine times, or that three or nine masses are to be sung over the herbs. This mystic use of three and nine is conspicuous in the following prescription:--

"Against dysentery, a bramble of which both ends are in the
earth take the newer root, delve it up, cut up nine chips
with the left hand and sing three times the Miserere mei
Deus and nine times the Pater Noster, then take mugwort and
everlasting, boil these three worts and the chips in milk
till they get red, then let the man sip at night fasting a
pound dish full ... let him rest himself soft and wrap
himself up warm; if more need be let him do so again, if
thou still need do it a third time, thou wilt not need
oftener."--_Leech Book_, II. 65.

The leechdom for the use of dwarf elder against a snake-bite runs thus:--[34]

"For rent by snake take this wort and ere thou carve it off
hold it in thine hand and say thrice nine times Omnes malas
bestias canto, that is in our language Enchant and overcome
all evil wild deer; then carve it off with a very sharp
knife into three parts."--_Herb. Ap._, 93.

Some of the most remarkable passages in the manuscripts are those concerning the ceremonies to be observed both in the picking and in the administering of herbs. What the mystery of plant life which has so deeply affected the minds of men in all ages and of all civilisations meant to our ancestors, we can but dimly apprehend as we study these ceremonies. They carry us back to that worship of earth and the forces of Nature which prevailed when Woden was yet unborn. That Woden was the chief god of the tribes on the mainland is indisputable, but even in the hierarchy of ancestors reverenced as semi-divine the Saxons themselves looked to Sceaf rather than to Woden, who himself was descended from Sceaf. There are few more haunting legends than that of our mystic forefather, the little boy asleep on a sheaf of corn who, in a richly adorned vessel which moved neither by sails nor oars, came to our people out of the great deep and was hailed by them as their king. Did not Alfred himself claim him as his primeval progenitor, the founder of our race? There is no tangible link between his descendant Woden and the worship of earth, but the sheaf of corn, the symbol of Sceaf, carries us straight back to Nature worship. Sceaf takes his fitting place as the semi-divine ancestor with the lesser divinities such as Hrede and Eostra, goddess of the radiant dawn. It is to this age that the ceremonies in the picking of the herbs transport us, to the mystery of the virtues of herbs, the fertility of earth, the never-ceasing conflict between the beneficent forces of sun and summer and the evil powers of the long, dark northern winters. Closely intertwined with Nature worship we find the later Christian rites and ceremonies. For the new teaching did not oust the old, and for many centuries the mind of the average man halted half-way between the two faiths. If he accepted Christ he did not cease to fear the great hierarchy of unseen powers of Nature, the worship of which was bred in his very bone. The ancient festivals of Yule and Eostra continued under another guise and polytheism still held its sway. The devil became one with the gloomy and terrible in Nature, with the malignant elves and dwarfs. Even with the warfare between the beneficent powers of sun and the fertility of Nature and the malignant powers of winter, the devil became associated. Nor did men cease to believe in the Wyrd, that dark, ultimate fate goddess who, though obscure, lies at the back of all Saxon belief. It was in vain that the Church preached against superstitions. Egbert, Archbishop of York, in his Penitential, strictly forbade the gathering of herbs with incantations and enjoined the use of Christian rites, but it is probable that even when these manuscripts were written, the majority at least of the common folk in these islands, though nominally Christian, had not deserted their ancient ways of thought.[35] When the Saxon peasant went to gather his healing herbs he may have used Christian prayers[36] and ceremonies, but he did not forget the goddess of the dawn. It is noteworthy how frequently we find the injunction that the herbs must be picked at sunrise or when day and night divide, how often stress is laid upon looking towards the east, and turning "as the sun goeth from east to south and west." In many there is the instruction that the herb is to be gathered "without use of iron" or "with gold and with hart's horn" (emblems of the sun's rays). It is curious how little there is of moon lore. In some cases the herbs are to be gathered in silence, in others the man who gathers them is not to look behind him--a prohibition which occurs frequently in ancient superstitions. The ceremonies are all mysterious and suggestive, but behind them always lies the ancient ineradicable worship of Nature. To what dim past does that cry, "Erce, Erce, Erce, Mother of Earth" carry us?

"Erce, Erce, Erce, Mother of Earth!
May the All-Wielder, Ever Lord grant thee
Acres a-waxing, upwards a-growing
Pregnant [with corn] and plenteous in strength;
Hosts of [grain] shafts and of glittering plants!
Of broad barley the blossoms
And of white wheat ears waxing,
Of the whole earth the harvest!
Let be guarded the grain against all the ills
That are sown o'er the land by the sorcery men,
Nor let cunning women change it nor a crafty man."

And that other ancient verse:--

"Hail be thou, Earth, Mother of men!
In the lap of the God be thou a-growing!
Be filled with fodder for fare-need of men!"

It is of these two invocations that Stopford Brooke (whose translations I have used) writes: "These are very old heathen invocations used, I daresay, from century to century and from far prehistoric times by all the Teutonic farmers. Who 'Erce' is remains obscure. But the Mother of Earth seems to be here meant, and she is a person who greatly kindles our curiosity. To touch her is like touching empty space, so far away is she. At any rate some Godhead or other seems here set forth under her proper name. In the Northern Cosmogony, Night is the Mother of Earth. But Erce cannot be Night. She is (if Erce be a proper name) bound up with agriculture. Grimm suggests Eorce, connected with the Old High German 'erchan' = simplex. He also makes a bold guess that she may be the same as a divine dame in Low Saxon districts called Herke or Harke, who dispenses earthly goods in abundance, and acts in the same way as Berhta and Holda--an earth-goddess, the lady of the plougher and sower and reaper. In the Mark she is called Frau Harke. Montanus draws attention to the appearance of this charm in a convent at Corvei, in which this line begins--'Eostar, Eostar, eordhan modor.' ... The name remains mysterious. The song breathes the pleasure and worship of ancient tillers of the soil in the labours of the earth and in the goods the mother gave. It has grown, it seems, out of the breast of earth herself; earth is here the Mother of Men. The surface of earth is the lap of the Goddess; in her womb let all growth be plentiful. Food is in her for the needs of men. 'Hail be thou, Earth!' I daresay this hymn was sung ten thousand years ago by the early Aryans on the Baltic coast."

Even in a twelfth-century herbal we find a prayer to Earth, and it is so beautiful that I close this chapter with it:--

"Earth,[37] divine goddess, Mother Nature who generatest all
things and bringest forth anew the sun which thou hast given
to the nations; Guardian of sky and sea and of all gods and
powers and through thy power all nature falls silent and
then sinks in sleep. And again thou bringest back the light
and chasest away night and yet again thou coverest us most
securely with thy shades. Thou dost contain chaos infinite,
yea and winds and showers and storms; thou sendest them out
when thou wilt and causest the seas to roar; thou chasest
away the sun and arousest the storm. Again when thou wilt
thou sendest forth the joyous day and givest the nourishment
of life with thy eternal surety; and when the soul departs
to thee we return. Thou indeed art duly called great Mother
of the gods; thou conquerest by thy divine name. Thou art
the source of the strength of nations and of gods, without
thee nothing can be brought to perfection or be born; thou
art great queen of the gods. Goddess! I adore thee as
divine; I call upon thy name; be pleased to grant that which
I ask thee, so shall I give thanks to thee, goddess, with
one faith.

"Hear, I beseech thee, and be favourable to my prayer.
Whatsoever herb thy power dost produce, give, I pray, with
goodwill to all nations to save them and grant me this my
medicine. Come to me with thy powers, and howsoever I may
use them may they have good success and to whomsoever I may
give them. Whatever thou dost grant it may prosper. To thee
all things return. Those who rightly receive these herbs
from me, do thou make them whole. Goddess, I beseech thee;
I pray thee as a suppliant that by thy majesty thou grant
this to me.

"Now I make intercession to you all ye powers and herbs and
to your majesty, ye whom Earth parent of all hath produced
and given as a medicine of health to all nations and hath
put majesty upon you, be, I pray you, the greatest help to
the human race. This I pray and beseech from you, and be
present here with your virtues, for she who created you hath
herself promised that I may gather you into the goodwill of
him on whom the art of medicine was bestowed, and grant for
health's sake good medicine by grace of your powers. I pray
grant me through your virtues that whatsoe'er is wrought by
me through you may in all its powers have a good and speedy
effect and good success and that I may always be permitted
with the favour of your majesty to gather you into my hands
and to glean your fruits. So shall I give thanks to you in
the name of that majesty which ordained your birth."

FOOTNOTES:

[2] Nec non et si quos sæcularis scientiæ libros nobis ignotos adepturi sitis, ut sunt de medicinalibus, quorum copia est aliqua apud nos, sed tamen segmenta ultra marina quæ in eis scripta comperimus, ignota nobis sunt et difficilia ad adipiscendum.--Bonifac., _Epistolæ_, p. 102.

[3] A catalogue of the books of that foundation cited by Wanley (Hickes, _Thesaur._ Vol. II. Præf. ad Catalogum) contains the entry "Medicinale Anglicum," and the MS. described above has on a fly-leaf the now almost illegible inscription "Medicinale Anglicum." There is unfortunately no record as to the books which, on the dissolution of the monasteries, may possibly have found their way from Glastonbury to the royal library.

[4] This chapter consists of prescriptions containing drugs such as a resident in Syria would recommend. It is interesting to find this illustration of Asser's statement, that he had seen and read the letters which the Patriarch of Jerusalem sent with presents to the king. From Asser also we learn that King Alfred kept a book in which he himself entered "little flowers culled on every side from all sorts of masters." "Flosculos undecunque collectos a quibus libet magistris et in corpore unius libelli mixtim quamvis sicut tunc suppetebat redigere."--ASSER, p. 57.

[5] The stories of miraculous cures by famous Anglo-Saxon bishops and abbots are for the most part too well known to be worth quoting, but the unfair treatment of the leech is perhaps nowhere more clearly shown than in Bede's tale of St. John of Beverley curing a boy with a diseased head. Although the leech effected the cure, the success was attributed to the bishop's benediction, and the story ends, "the youth became of a clear countenance, ready in speech and with hair beautifully wavy."

[6] A small but striking instance of Saxon knowledge, or rather close observation, of plants is to be found in the following description of wolf's teazle in the _Herbarium of Apuleius_:--"This wort hath leaves reversed and thorny and it hath in its midst a round and thorny knob, and that is brown-headed in the blossoms and hath white seed and a white and very fragrant root." The word "reversed" is not in the original and was therefore added by the Saxon translator, who had observed the fact that all the thistle tribe protect their leaves by thorns pointing backwards as well as forwards.

[7] It is interesting to remember that even as late as the sixteenth century plantain was called "waybroad." See _Turner's Herbal_.

[8] There are numerous Latin MSS. of this book, chiefly in Italian libraries, several being in the Laurentian Library at Florence. The book was first printed at Rome, probably soon after 1480, by Joh. Philippus de Lignamine, who was also the editor. De Lignamine, who was physician to Pope Sixtus IV., says that he found this MS. in the library of the monastery of Monte Cassino. In the first impression the book is dedicated to Cardinal de Gonzaga; in the second impression to Cardinal de Ruvere. (The copy in the British Museum is of the second impression.) In this small quarto volume the illustrations are rough cuts. It is interesting to remember that these are the earliest known printed figures of plants. The printed text contains a large number of Greek and Latin synonyms which do not appear in the Saxon translation. Subsequent editions were printed in 1528 (Paris) and in the Aldine Collection of Latin medical writers, 1547 (Venice).

[9] Cratevas is said to have lived in the first century B.C. Pliny, Dioscorides and Galen all quote him.

[10] Erlanger, _Beiträge zur englischen Philologie_, No. XII. (+peri didaxeôn+), eine Sammlung von Rezepten in englischer Sprache.

[11] Printed by De Renzi in _Collectio Salernitana_, Vol. IV. (Naples, 1856).

[12] _English Medicine in the Anglo-Saxon Times._

[13] On the preceding blank page there is an inscription in late seventeenth-century handwriting--

"This boucke with letters is wr [remainder of word illegible]
Of it you cane no languige make.
Ba C.
A happie end if thou dehre [dare] to make
Remember still thyn owne esstate,
If thou desire in Christ to die
Thenn well to lead thy lif applie
barbara crokker."

It is at least probable that Wanley, who at this period was collecting Anglo-Saxon manuscripts for George Hickes, secured this MS. from "barbara crokker." Her naïve avowal of her inability to read the MS. suggests that she probably had no idea of the value of the book, and when one remembers Wanley's reputation for driving shrewd bargains one cannot help wondering what he paid for this treasure. Those must have been halcyon days for collectors, when a man who had been an assistant in the Bodleian Library with a salary of £12 a year could buy Saxon manuscripts!

[14] _Herb. Ap._, I.

[15] For "elf-shot" herbal remedies see also _Leech Book_, III. 1, 61, 64.

[16] "The visitation raises again questions which were so anxiously propounded three years ago. In what manner does an epidemic of this kind arise? How is it propagated? We are still to a great extent in the dark in regard to both these points. Indeed, it has recently been suggested that we do not 'catch' influenza at all, but that certain climatic or other conditions favour the multiplication on an important scale of micro-organisms normally present in the human air passages. It would be foolish to pretend to any opinion on a subject which is at present almost entirely speculative: yet the theory we have quoted may serve to show how complicated and difficult are the issues involved."--_The Times_, January 13, 1922.

[17] Translation from Dr. Charles Singer's _Early English Magic and Medicine_. Proceedings of the British Academy.

[18] _Leech Book of Bald_, Book II. 64.

[19] _Id._ Book I. 72. For other references to flying venom see _Leech Book of Bald_, I. 113; II. 65.

[20] _Lacnunga_, 6.

[21] _Cuneiform Texts_, Part XVII. pl. 50.

[22] The directions for the vapour bath are given in such a brief and yet forceful way that I cannot imagine anyone reading it without feeling at the end as though he had run breathlessly to collect the herbs, and then prepared the bath and finally made the ley of alder ashes to wash the unfortunate patient's head. Like all these cheerful Saxon prescriptions, this one ends with the comforting assurance "it will soon be well with him," and one wonders whether in this, as in many other cases, the patient got well in order to avoid his friends' ministrations. The prescription for a vapour bath made with herbs runs thus:--

"Take bramble rind and elm rind, ash rind, sloethorn, rind of apple tree and ivy, all these from the nether part of the trees, and cucumber, smear wort, everfern, helenium, enchanters nightshade, betony, marrubium, radish, agrimony. Scrape the worts into a kettle and boil strongly. When it hath strongly boiled remove it off the fire and seat the man over it and wrap the man up that the vapour may get up nowhere, except only that the man may breathe; beathe him with these fomentations as long as he can bear it. Then have another bath ready for him, take an emmet bed all at once, a bed of those male emmets which at whiles fly, they are red ones, boil them in water, beathe him with it immoderately hot. Then make him a salve. Take worts of each kind of those above mentioned, boil them in butter, smear the sore limbs, they will soon quicken. Make him a ley of alder ashes, wash his head with this cold, it will soon be well with him, and let the man get bled every month when the moon is five and fifteen and twenty nights old."

[23] _Leech Book_, I. 60.

[24] _Lacnunga_, 48.

[25] In an incantation against fever we find the instruction:--

"The sick man ... thou shalt place
... thou shalt cover his face
Burn cypress and herbs ...
That the great gods may remove the evil
That the evil spirit may stand aside
. . . . . . .
May a kindly spirit a kindly genius be present."

R. Campbell Thompson, _Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia_, p. 29. See also p. 43. Cf. also Tobit vi. 7.

[26] _A Pomeranian Rite._--An attempt was made a few days ago to cast a devil out of a woman living in a village of the Lauenberg district of Pomerania, on the Polish frontier. She appears to have been of a sour and somewhat hysterical temperament, and three of the village gossips came to the conclusion that she was a victim of diabolical possession and resolved to effect a cure by means of enchantment. They first of all gathered the herbs needed for the purpose in the forest at the proper conjunction of the stars. Then a tripod was formed of three chairs, and to these the patient was bound. Beneath her was fixed a pail of red-hot coal on which the herbs were scattered. As the fumes of the burning weeds veiled the victim the three neighbours crooned the prescribed exorcism. The louder the woman shrieked the louder they sang, and after the process had been continued long enough to prove effective, in their opinion, they ran away, believing that the devil would run out of the woman after them. She, however, continued to shriek. Her cries were heard by a man, who released her.--_The Times_, December 5, 1921.

[27] It is interesting to find the same beliefs amongst the ancient Babylonians.

"Fleabane on the lintel of the door I have hung
S. John's wort, caper and wheatears
With a halter as a roving ass
Thy body I restrain.
O evil spirit get thee hence
Depart O evil Demon.
. . . . . . .
In the precincts of the house stand not nor circle round
'In the house will I stand,' say thou not,
'In the neighbourhood will I stand,' say thou not.
O evil spirit get thee forth to distant places
O evil Demon hie thee unto the ruins
Where thou standest is forbidden ground
A ruined desolate house is thy home
Be thou removed from before me, By Heaven be thou exorcised
By Earth be thou exorcised."

Trans. of Utukke Limnûte Tablet "B." R. C. Thompson, _Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia_.

[28] Sonny (_Arch. f. Rel._, 1906, p. 525), in his article "Rote Farbe im Totenkulte," considers the use of red to be in imitation of blood. The instruction to bind on with red is found even in the _Grete Herball_ of 1526. "Apium is good for lunatyke Folke yf it be bounde to the pacyentes heed with a lynen clothe dyed reed," etc.

[29] See W. G. Black, _Folk Medicine_.

[30] Even modern science has not yet succeeded in solving some of the mysteries connected with this remarkable plant. For instance, although the apple and the pear are closely related, mistletoe very rarely grows on the pear tree, and there is no case on record of mistletoe planted on a pear tree by human hands surviving the stage of germination. There are, it is true, two famous mistletoe pears in this country--one in the garden of Belvoir Castle and the other in the garden of Fern Lodge, Malvern, but in both cases the seed was sown naturally. It grows very rarely on the oak, and this possibly accounts for the special reverence accorded by the Druids to the mistletoe oak.

[31] _Leech Book_, I. 81.

[32] _Lacnunga_, 9.

[33] This closely resembles a Cornish charm for a tetter.

"Tetter, tetter, thou hast nine brothers,
God bless the flesh and preserve the bone;
Perish thou, tetter, and be thou gone.
Tetter, tetter, thou hast eight brothers."

Thus the verses are continued until tetter having "no brother" is ordered to be gone.--R. Hunt, _Popular Romances of the West of England_, p. 414.

[34] For further instances of the mystic use of three and nine see also _Leech Book_, I. 45, 47, 67.

[35] St. Eloy, in a sermon preached in A.D. 640, also forbade the enchanting of herbs:--

"Before all things I declare and testify to you that you shall observe none of the impious customs of the pagans, neither sorcerers, nor diviners, nor soothsayers, nor enchanters, nor must you presume for any cause to enquire of them.... Let none regulate the beginning of any piece of work by the day or by the moon. Let none trust in nor presume to invoke the names of dæmons, neither Neptune, nor Orcus, nor Diana, nor Minerva, nor Geniscus nor any other such follies.... Let no Christian place lights at the temples or the stones, or at fountains, or at trees, or at places where three ways meet.... Let none presume to hang amulets on the neck of man or beast.... Let no one presume to make lustrations, nor to enchant herbs, nor to make flocks pass through a hollow tree, or an aperture in the earth; for by so doing he seems to consecrate them to the devil. Let none on the kalends of January join in the wicked and ridiculous things, the dressing like old women or like stags, nor make feasts lasting all night, nor keep up the custom of gifts and intemperate drinking. Let no one on the festival of St. John or on any of the festivals join in the solstitia or dances or leaping or caraulas or diabolical songs."--From a sermon preached by St. Eloy in A.D. 640.

[36] A Christian prayer for a blessing on herbs runs thus:--

"Omnipotens sempiterne deus qui ab initio mundi omnia instituisti et creasti tam arborum generibus quam herbarum seminibus quibus etiam benedictione tua benedicendo sanxisti eadem nunc benedictione olera aliosque fructus sanctificare ac benedicere digneris ut sumentibus ex eis sanitatem conferant mentis et corporis ac tutelam defensionis eternamque uitam per saluatorem animarum dominum nostrum iesum christum qui uiuit et regnat dominus in secula seculorum. Amen."

[37] Translation from _Early English Magic and Medicine_ by Dr. Charles Singer. Proceedings of the British Academy, Vol. IV.