The Folk-lore of Plants Part 27

"If a fir-tree be touched, withered, or burned with lightning, it signifies that the master or mistress thereof shall shortly die."

It is difficult, as we have already noted in a previous chapter, to discover why some of our sweetest and fairest spring-flowers should be a.s.sociated with ill-luck. In the western counties, for instance, one should never take less than a handful of primroses or violets into a farmer's house, as neglect of this rule is said to affect the success of the ducklings and chickens. A correspondent of _Notes and Queries_ (I.

Ser. vii. 201) writes:--"My gravity was sorely tried by being called on to settle a quarrel between two old women, arising from one of them having given one primrose to her neighbour's child, for the purpose of making her hens hatch but one egg out of each set of eggs, and it was seriously maintained that the charm had been successful." In the same way it is held unlucky to introduce the first snowdrop of the year into a house, for, as a Suss.e.x woman once remarked, "It looks for all the world like a corpse in its shroud." We may repeat, too, again the familiar adage:--

"If you sweep the house with blossomed broom in May, You are sure to sweep the head of the house away."

And there is the common superst.i.tion that where roses and violets bloom in autumn, it is indicative of some epidemic in the following year; whereas, if a white rose put forth unexpectedly, it is believed in Germany to be a sign of death in the nearest house; and in some parts of Ess.e.x there is a current belief that sickness or death will inevitably ensue if blossoms of the whitethorn be brought into a house; the idea in Norfolk being that no one will be married from the house during the year. Another ominous sign is that of plants shedding their leaves, or of their blossoms falling to pieces. Thus the peasantry in some places affirm that the dropping of the leaves of a peach-tree betokens a murrain; and in Italy it is held unlucky for a rose to do so. A well-known ill.u.s.tration of this superst.i.tion occurred many years ago in the case of the unfortunate Miss Bay, who was murdered at the piazza entrance of Covent Garden by Hackman (April 1779), the following account of which we quote from the "Life and Correspondence of M. G. Lewis":-- "When the carriage was announced, and she was adjusting her dress, Mr.

Lewis happened to make some remark on a beautiful rose which Miss Kay wore in her bosom. Just as the words were uttered the flower fell to the ground. She immediately stooped to regain it, but as she picked it up, the red leaves scattered themselves on the carpet, and the stalk alone remained in her hand. The poor girl, who had been depressed in spirits before, was evidently affected by this incident, and said, in a slightly faltering voice, 'I trust I am not to consider this as an evil omen!'

But soon rallying, she expressed to Mr. Lewis, in a cheerful tone, her hope that they would meet again after the theatre--a hope, alas! which it was decreed should not be realised." According to a German belief, one who throws a rose into a grave will waste away.

There is a notion prevalent in Dorsetshire that a house wherein the plant "bergamot" is kept will never be free from sickness; and in Norfolk it is said to be unlucky to take into a house a bunch of the gra.s.s called "maiden-hair," or, as it is also termed, "dudder-gra.s.s."

Among further plants of ill omen may be mentioned the bluebell (_Campanula rotundifolia_), which in certain parts of Scotland was called "The aul' man's bell," and was regarded with a sort of dread, and commonly left unpulled. In c.u.mberland, about c.o.c.kermouth, the red campion (_Lychnis diurna_) is called "mother-die," and young people believe that if plucked some misfortune will happen to their parents. A similar belief attaches to the herb-robert (_Geranium robertianum_) in West c.u.mberland, where it is nicknamed "Death come quickly;" and in certain parts of Yorkshire there is a notion that if a child gather the germander speedwell (_Veronica chamoedrys_), its mother will die during the year. Herrick has a pretty allusion to the daffodil:--

"When a daffodil I see Hanging down her head t'wards me, Guess I may what I must be: First, I shall decline my head; Secondly, I shall be dead; Lastly, safely buried."

In Germany, the marigold is with the greatest care excluded from the flowers with which young women test their love-affairs; and in Austria it is held unlucky to pluck the crocus, as it draws away the strength.

An ash leaf is still frequently employed for invoking good luck, and in Cornwall we find the old popular formula still in use:--

"Even ash, I do thee pluck, Hoping thus to meet good luck; If no good luck I get from thee, I shall wish thee on the tree."

And there is the following well-known couplet:--

"With a four-leaved clover, a double-leaved ash, and a green-topped leave, You may go before the queen's daughter without asking leave."

But, on the other hand, the finder of the five-leaved clover, it is said, will have bad luck.

In Scotland [3] it was formerly customary to carry on the person a piece of torch-fir for good luck--a superst.i.tion which, Mr. Conway remarks, is found in the gold-mines of California, where the men tip a cone with the first gold they discover, and keep it as a charm to ensure good luck in future.

Nuts, again, have generally been credited with propitious qualities, and have accordingly been extensively used for divination. In some mysterious way, too, they are supposed to influence the population, for when plentiful, there is said to be a corresponding increase of babies.

In Russia the peasantry frequently carry a nut in their purses, from a belief that it will act as a charm in their efforts to make money.

Sternberg, in his "Northamptonshire Glossary" (163), says that the discovery of a double nut, "presages well for the finder, and unless he mars his good fortune by swallowing both kernels, is considered an infallible sign of approaching 'luck.' The orthodox way in such cases consists in eating one, and throwing the other over the shoulder."

The Icelanders have a curious idea respecting the mountain-ash, affirming that it is an enemy of the juniper, and that if one is planted on one side of a tree, and the other on the other, they will split it. It is also a.s.serted that if both are kept in the same house it will be burnt down; but, on the other hand, there is a belief among some sailors that if rowan-tree be used in a ship, it will sink the vessel unless juniper be found on board. In the Tyrol, the _Osmunda regalis_, called "the blooming fern," is placed over the door for good teeth; and Mr. Conway, too, in his valuable papers, to which we have been often indebted in the previous chapters, says that there are circ.u.mstances under which all flowers are injurious. "They must not be laid on the bed of a sick person, according to a Silesian superst.i.tion; and in Westphalia and Thuringia, no child under a year old must be permitted to wreathe itself with flowers, or it will soon die. Flowers, says a common German saying, must in no case be laid on the mouth of a corpse, since the dead man may chew them, which would make him a 'Nachzehrer,' or one who draws his relatives to the grave after him."

In Hungary, the burnet saxifrage (_Pimpinella saxifraga_) is a mystic plant, where it is popularly nicknamed Chaba's salve, there being an old tradition that it was discovered by King Chaba, who cured the wounds of fifteen thousand of his men after a b.l.o.o.d.y battle fought against his brother. In Hesse, it is said that with knots tied in willow one may slay a distant enemy; and the Bohemians have a belief that seven-year-old children will become beautiful by dancing in the flax.

But many superst.i.tions have cl.u.s.tered round the latter plant, it having in years gone by been a popular notion that it will only flower at the time of day on which it was originally sown. To spin on Sat.u.r.day is said in Germany to bring ill fortune, and as a warning the following legend is among the household tales of the peasantry:--"Two old women, good friends, were the most industrious spinners in their village, Sat.u.r.day finding them as engrossed in their work as on the other days of the week. At length one of them died, but on the Sat.u.r.day evening following she appeared to the other, who, as usual, was busy at her wheel, and showing her burning hand, said:--

'See what I in h.e.l.l have won, Because on Sat.u.r.day eve I spun.'"

Flax, nevertheless, is a lucky plant, for in Thuringia, when a young woman gets married, she places flax in her shoes as a charm against poverty. It is supposed, also, to have health-giving virtues; for in Germany, when an infant seems weakly and thrives slowly, it is placed naked upon the turf on Midsummer day, and flax-seed is sprinkled over it; the idea being that as the flax-seed grows so the infant will gradually grow stronger. Of the many beliefs attached to the ash-tree, we are told in the North of England that if the first parings of a child's nails be buried beneath its roots, it will eventually turn out, to use the local phrase, a "top-singer," and there is a popular superst.i.tion that wherever the purple honesty (_Lunaria biennis_) flourishes, the cultivators of the garden are noted for their honesty.

The snapdragon, which in years gone by was much cultivated for its showy blossoms, was said to have a supernatural influence, and amongst other qualities to possess the power of destroying charms. Many further ill.u.s.trations of this cla.s.s of superst.i.tion might easily be added, so thickly interwoven are they with the history of most of our familiar wild-flowers. One further superst.i.tion may be noticed, an allusion to which occurs in "Henry V." (Act i. sc. i):--

"The strawberry grows underneath the nettle, And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best Neighbour'd by fruit of baser quality;"

It having been the common notion that plants were affected by the neighbourhood of other plants to such an extent that they imbibed each other's virtues and faults. Accordingly sweet flowers were planted near fruit-trees, with the idea of improving the flavour of the fruit; and, on the other hand, evil-smelling trees, like the elder, were carefully cleaned away from fruit-trees, lest they should become tainted. [4]

Further superst.i.tions have been incidentally alluded to throughout the present volume, necessarily a.s.sociated as they are with most sections of plant folk-lore. It should also be noticed that in the various folk-tales which have been collected together in recent years, many curious plant superst.i.tions are introduced, although, to suit the surroundings of the story, they have only too frequently been modified, or the reverse. At the same time, embellishments of the kind are interesting, as showing how familiar these traditionary beliefs were in olden times to the story-teller, and how ready he was to avail himself of them.

Footnotes:

1. See Baring-Gerald's "Curious Myths of the Middle Ages."

2. Ingram's "Florica Symbolica," p. 326.

3. Stewart's "Popular Superst.i.tions of the Highlanders."

4. See Ellacombe's "Plant-lore of Shakespeare," p. 319.

CHAPTER XXI.

PLANTS IN FOLK-MEDICINE.

From the earliest times plants have been most extensively used in the cure of disease, although in days of old it was not so much their inherent medicinal properties which brought them into repute as their supposed magical virtues. Oftentimes, in truth, the only merit of a plant lay in the charm formula attached to it, the due utterance of which ensured relief to the patient. Originally there can be no doubt that such verbal forms were prayers, "since dwindled into mystic sentences." [1] Again, before a plant could work its healing powers, due regard had to be paid to the planet under whose influence it was supposed to be; [2] for Aubrey mentions an old belief that if a plant "be not gathered according to the rules of astrology, it hath little or no virtue in it." Hence, in accordance with this notion, we find numerous directions for the cutting and preparing of certain plants for medicinal purposes, a curious list of which occurs in Culpepper's "British Herbal and Family Physician." This old herbalist, who was a strong believer in astrology, tells us that such as are of this way of thinking, and none else, are fit to be physicians. But he was not the only one who had strict views on this matter, as the literature of his day proves--astrology, too, having held a prominent place in most of the gardening books of the same period. Michael Drayton, who has chronicled so many of the credulities of his time, referring to the longevity of antediluvian men, writes:--

"Besides, in medicine, simples had the power That none need then the planetary hour To help their workinge, they so juiceful were."

The adder's-tongue, if plucked during the wane of the moon, was a cure for tumours, and there is a Swabian belief that one, "who on Friday of the full moon pulls up the amaranth by the root, and folding it in a white cloth, wears it against his naked breast, will be made bullet-proof." [3] Consumptive patients, in olden times, were three times pa.s.sed, "Through a circular wreath of woodbine, cut during the increase of the March moon, and let down over the body from head to foot." [4] In France, too, at the present day, the vervain is gathered under the different changes of the moon, with secret incantations, after which it is said to possess remarkable curative properties.

In Cornwall, the club-moss, if properly gathered, is considered "good against all diseases of the eye." The mode of procedure is this:--"On the third day of the moon, when the thin crescent is seen for the first time, show it the knife with which the moss is to be cut, and repeat this formula:--

'As Christ healed the issue of blood, Do thou cut what thou cuttest for good.'

At sundown, the operator, after carefully washing his hands, is to cut the club-moss kneeling. It is then to be wrapped in a white cloth, and subsequently boiled in water taken from the spring nearest to its place of growth. This may be used as a fomentation, or the club-moss may be made into an ointment with the b.u.t.ter from the milk of a new cow." [5]

Some plants have, from time immemorial, been much in request from the season or period of their blooming, beyond which fact it is difficult to account for the virtues ascribed to them. Thus, among the Romans, the first anemone of the year, when gathered with this form of incantation, "I gather thee for a remedy against disease," was regarded as a preservative from fever; a survival of which belief still prevails in our own country:--

"The first spring-blown anemone she in his doublet wove, To keep him safe from pestilence wherever he should rove."

On the other hand, in some countries there is a very strong prejudice against the wild anemone, the air being said "to be so tainted by them, that they who inhale it often incur severe sickness." [6] Similarly we may compare the notion that flowers blooming out of season have a fatal significance, as we have noted elsewhere.

The sacred a.s.sociations attached to many plants have invested them, at all times, with a scientific repute in the healing art, instances of which may be traced up to a very early period. Thus, the peony, which, from its mythical divine origin, was an important flower in the primitive pharmacopoeia, has even in modern times retained its reputation; and to this day Suss.e.x mothers put necklaces of beads turned from the peony root around their children's necks, to prevent convulsions and to a.s.sist them in their teething. When worn on the person, it was long considered, too, a most effectual remedy for insanity, and Culpepper speaks of its virtues in the cure of the falling sickness. [7] The thistle, sacred to Thor, is another plant of this kind, and indeed instances are very numerous. On the other hand, some plants, from their great virtues as "all-heals," it would seem, had such names as "Angelica" and "Archangel" bestowed on them. [8]

In later times many plants became connected with the name of Christ, and with the events of the crucifixion itself--facts which occasionally explain their mysterious virtues. Thus the vervain, known as the "holy herb," and which was one of the sacred plants of the Druids, has long been held in repute, the subjoined rhyme a.s.signing as the reason:--

"All hail, thou holy herb, vervin, Growing on the ground; On the Mount of Calvary There wast thou found; Thou helpest many a grief, And staunchest many a wound.

In the name of sweet Jesu, I lift thee from the ground."

To quote one or two further instances, a popular recipe for preventing the p.r.i.c.k of a thorn from festering is to repeat this formula:--

"Christ was of a virgin born, And he was p.r.i.c.ked with a thorn, And it did neither bell nor swell, And I trust in Jesus this never will."

In Cornwall, some years ago, the following charm was much used, forms of which may occasionally be heard at the present day:--