Many plants, both in England and on the Continent, have been specially

named after the Devil. Thus we find that, on account of the fœtid

odour of the gum or juice obtain from its root, _Ferula Assafœtida_

is known in Germany, Sweden, and Italy as Devil’s Dung (_Stercus

Diaboli_), although it is employed in Persia and Arabia as a medicine,

The Poplar-leaved Fig is the Devil’s tree; the berry of the Deadly

Nightshade, the Devil’s berry: the plant itself is called Death’s Herb,

and in olden times its fruit bore the name of Dwale-berry--the word

_dvale_, which is Danish, meaning a deadly trance. An old German name

for the Briony was Devil’s Cherry. The Germans, also, called the Petty

Spurge (_Euphorbia Peplus_) _Teufelsmilch_, Devil’s Milk; a species

of ground Moss, _Teufelsklaeun_, Devil’s Claws. The Clematis is the

Devil’s Thread; Indigo, Devil’s Dye; and the Mandrake, from the lurid

glare its leaves emit during the night-time, the Devil’s Candle. In

an old work we find the description of a small herb called _Clavis

Diaboli_, which is so poisonous that if cattle eat it they immediately

begin to swell, and eventually die, unless by good luck they should

happen to catch sight of another plant of the same species, when the

poison is dispelled and the animals will recover. We are likewise

assured that the seed is so poisonous as to render it unsafe for anyone

to walk over a plant of this genus unless his feet have previously been

wrapped in the leaves.

_Scabiosa succisa_ is generally known as the Devil’s-Bit Scabious, a

name it obtained from a notion which was formerly very prevalent that

the short blackish root of the plant had originally been bitten short

by the Devil out of spite to mankind, because he knew that otherwise

it would be good for many profitable uses. This belief was also very

general on the Continent, as the plant bears a corresponding name in

France, Germany, and Holland. Dr. Prior quotes a legend recorded by

Threlkeld, that “the root was once longer, until the Devil bit away the

rest, for spite; for he needed it not to make him sweat who is always

tormented with fear of the day of judgment.” According to the _Ortus

Sanitatis_, on the authority of Oribasius, the plant was called _Morsus

Diaboli_, “because with this root the Devil practised such power, that

the mother of God, out of compassion, took from the Devil the means

to do so with it any more; and in the great vexation that he had that

the power was gone from him, he bit it off, so that it grows no more

to this day.” Gerarde says: “The great part of the root seemeth to be

bitten away: old fantasticke charmers report that the Devil did bite it

for envie, because it is an herbe that hath so many good vertues, and

is so beneficial to mankinde.” After recounting minor virtues, the old

herbalist remarks that Devil’s Bit is potential against the stingings

of venomous beasts, poisons, and pestilent diseases, and will consume

and waste away plague sores, if pounded and laid upon them.

The _Nigella Damascena_ is called Devil-in-the-Bush, from its round

capsules peering from a bush of finely-divided involucre. The long awns

of _Scandix Pecten_ are termed the Devil’s Darning Needles, the beans

of its seed vessels being called Venus’ comb. The Dodder (_Cuscuta_)

has gained the opprobrious epithet of Devil’s Guts, from the

resemblance of its stem to cat-gut, and its mischievous tendencies.

The acrid milk or sap extracted from the Euphorbia has, from its

poisonous qualities, obtained the name of Devil’s Milk. The poisonous

Puff-balls (_Lycoperdon_) are called Devil’s Snuff-boxes, on account of

the dust or particles they contain, which have long borne an ill name.

Gerarde says that “it is very dangerous for the eies, for it hath been

often seene that divers have beene pore-blinde ever after when some

small quantitie thereof hath beene blowne into their eies.” The Fungus

_Exidia glandulosa_ (Witches’ Butter) is known in Sweden as the Devil’s

Butter.

Although the Devil extends his authority over so many plants, it

is satisfactory to know that the St. John’s Wort is a dispeller of

demons (_Fuga dæmonum_), and that there is in Russia a plant called

the Devil-chaser. Prof. De Gubernatis tells us that he has received

from the Princess Galitzin Prazorova the following particulars of this

plant, which is known as _Certagon_. It grows in meads and woods, is

somewhat thorny, and bears a deep-blue flower. It protects infants

from fright, and drives away the Devil. Sometimes the plant is boiled

in water, and the children are bathed in it. At other times the plant

is merely placed in the cradle. If mourners are prostrated with grief

and the recollection of the departed one (which is simply a visitation

of the Devil) it is only necessary to hold up a sprig of the mystic

_Certagon_, when the excessive grief will be assuaged, and the Devil

will be compelled to flee. The best way to exorcise an evil spirit

from the dead is to sit on the pall, to chew some seeds of Camphor

while combing the hair of the corpse, and finally to wave aloft the

_Certagon_--the Devil-chaser.

Noxious, Deadly, and Ill-Omened Plants.

Prof. De Gubernatis remarks that “there are good and bad herbs, and

good and bad plants: the good are the work of Ormuzd, the bad the

work of Ahriman.” All these bad herbs, plants, and trees, noxious,

poisonous, and deadly--the dangerous classes in the vegetable

kingdom--are of evil augury, and belong to the category of Plants of

the Devil.

There are many trees and plants which emit emanations highly injurious,

and in some cases fatal to life. Perhaps the most notorious of these is

the deadly Upas, which rises in the ‘Valley of Death’ in Java, where it

is said to blight all neighbouring vegetation, and to cause the very

birds that approach it in their flight to drop down lifeless. No animal

can live where its baneful influence extends, and no man durst approach

its pestilential shade.

The _Strychnos Tienté_ is the plant which yields the Upas Tienté, one

of the Javanese poisons; it contains strychnia, and is as deadly as

strychnine itself. The _Upas Antiar_ is another Javanese poison--a

bitter, milky juice, which acts violently on the heart.

The noxious exudations of the Manchineel-tree are said to cause certain

death to those who rashly sleep beneath its foliage. The wonderfully

fragrant blossoms of the _Magnolia grandiflora_ emit so strong a

perfume that, when inhaled in the immediate neighbourhood of a group

in flower, it becomes overpowering. The Indians will never sleep under

Magnolia in blossom.

Linnæus has mentioned a case in which the odour of the Oleander, or

Rose-bay (_Nerium Oleander_), proved fatal. The foliage and flowers of

this shrub will exercise a deadly influence on many quadrupeds: hence

it is called in India the Horse-killer, and in Italy, Ass-bane.

The Elder-tree is reputed to exhale so narcotic a scent when in

flower, that it is unwholesome for animals to rest under its shade;

and it is considered unadvisable to plant one of these trees where its

exhalations can be wafted into a sleeping apartment. On account of this

pungent smell, country people often strike with Elder-boughs the leaves

of fruit-trees and vegetables, in order that by being impregnated with

the scent of the Elder-berries, they may prove noisome to troublesome

insects.

The _Jatropha urens_, a native of Brazil, is a plant the properties

of which are so noxious that its possession is absolutely fraught

with danger. Not many years ago the Curator of Kew Gardens was one

day reaching over a plant when its fine bristly stings touched his

wrist: the first sensation was a numbness and swelling of the lips; the

action of the poison was on the heart, circulation was stopped, and the

unfortunate Curator soon fell unconscious. A doctor was fetched, who

administered antidotes effectually; but no gardener could afterwards

be got to come within arm’s length of the diabolical plant; and both

it and another specimen, subsequently introduced, shortly afterwards

mysteriously disappeared from the house.

The _Nitraria tridentata_, which is by some believed to be the

Lotos-tree of the ancients, grows in the Desert of Soussa, near Tunis,

and is called _Damouch_ by the Arabs, who are fully alive to the

semi-intoxicating qualities of its berries, which produce a state of

lassitude similar to the infatuating food of the Lotophagi.

Alex. Pouchkine has given a vivid description of the Indian _Antchar_,

thought to be a variety _Aconitum ferox_. Growing in a wild and

sterile desert, this _Antchar_ has its roots and the sickly verdure

of its branches steeped in poison. Melted by the mid-day heat, the

poison filters through the plant’s outer skin in clammy drops: in the

evening these become congealed into a transparent gum. Birds turn aside

directly they see this deadly plant; the tiger avoids it; a passing

puff of wind shakes its foliage,--the wind hurries on tainted and

infected; a shower waters for an instant its drooping leaves, and from

its branches forthwith falls a deadly rain on the burning soil. But a

man has made a sign: another man obeys. The _Antchar_ must be procured.

He departs without hesitation; and on the morrow brings back the

deadly gum, and some drooping stalks and leaves, while from his pallid

brow the cold sweat falls in streams. He staggers, falls on the mats of

the tent, and, poor miserable slave, expires at the feet of his proud

master. And the prince steeps his ruthless arrows in the cruel poison;

they are destined to carry destruction to his neighbours across the

frontier.

In Mexico there grows a herb, familiarly known there as the Loco or

Rattle Weed, which has such a powerful effect on animals, that horses

eating it are driven raving mad.

In Scotland there is a certain weed that grows in and about the Borgie

Well at Cambuslang, near Glasgow, which possesses the awful property of

making all who drink of its waters mad. Hence the local saying:

“A drink of the Borgie, a bite of the weed,

Sets a’ the Cam’slang folk wrang in the head.”

Some few plants are repellent from the obnoxious smells which they

emit: among these are the _Phallus impudicus_, and many of the

Stapelias. One--the Carrion-flower--has an odour so like putrid meat,

that flesh flies, attracted by it, deposit their ova in the flowers;

and when the maggots are in due course produced, they perish miserably

for lack of food.

Zahn, in his _Speculæ Physico-Mathematico-Historicæ_ (1696) enumerates

several trees and plants which had, in his day, acquired a very

sinister reputation. He tells us that--

“Herrera speaks of a tree, in Granada, called _Aquapura_, which is so

poisonous, that when the Spaniards, at first ignorant of its deadly

power, slept under its shade, their members were all swelled, as if

they had taken dropsy. The barbarians also, who lingered naked or

intoxicated under it, had their skin broken by large swellings, which

distended their intestines, and brought them to a miserable death.

“There is a tree in Hispaniola, bearing Apples of a very fragrant

smell, which, if they are tasted, prove hurtful and deadly. If any one

abides for a time beneath its shade he loses sight and reason, and

cannot be cured save by a long sleep. Similar trees are found in the

island Codega.

“In the same island, Hispaniola, another kind of tree is found which

produces fruit formed like Pears, very pleasant to the sight, and of

delicious odour. If any one lies beneath its shade and falls asleep,

his face begins to swell, and he is seized with severe pain in the

head, and with the sorest cold. In the same island another tree is

found, whose leaf, if touched, causes at once a tumour of a very

painful nature to break out, which can only be checked and healed

by frequent washing with sea water. There also grows a plant called

_Cohobba_, which is said to be lymphatic. It intoxicates by its mere

smell, and renders fanatical, Cardanus believes this plant to be of

the _Stramonium_ (_Datura_) family, which infuriates those who drink it.

“In New Andalusia very poisonous trees are seen. If one of their leaves

were to fall upon a person, he would be killed at once, unless the

place be quickly smeared with the spittle of a fasting man. These trees

are called pestiferous and pestilent, from the sudden death which they

cause, like the plague.

“In the island of San Juan de Porto Ricco grow certain small

fruit-bearing trees which are so pernicious that if a person lies down

and sleeps beneath their shade, he is seized with paralysis and cannot

move from the place. Should, perchance, a fish taste of their fallen

leaves, and a man eat the fish, he either dies at once or at least

loses all his hair.

“On an island near Brazil a very pleasant tree is said to grow, whose

leaves are not unlike those of the Laurel. But if any person should

touch ‘a leaf of this tree, and then touch his face and eyes with the

hand, he is at once deprived of sight and suffers the severest pains

in his eyes. Not far distant, however, there grows another tree, whose

leaves, if rubbed over the eyes, restore the eyesight, and remove the

pains.

“Kircher relates that a wonderful tree is found in the Philippine

Islands. Its leaves, facing eastward, are healthy, but those facing

westward are poisonous.

“Clusius states that in America there is a kind of Larch, which

makes men who sleep under its shade so delirious, that when they are

awakened, they are out of their minds and assume strange attitudes.

Some act like prophets, some like soldiers, some like merchants,

everyone for the time being as his natural propensity impels him.

“In the bishopric of New Spain, called Antequera, around the valley of

Guaxaca, a strange poisonous plant is found which, if given to anyone

in food or drink, at once causes death. If it is dried and removed

anywhere, according to the time from its being cut, it kills. Thus: if

it has been cut for a year, so after a year it causes death; if for a

month, then after a month it brings death.

“The inhabitants of Macassar in the island of Celebes obtain from a

certain tree growing there a most deadly and virulent poison, in which

they dip their weapons. So pestiferous is this poisonous tree, that the

earth around it for some distance produces neither grass nor vegetable

life of any kind. Although instant death may sometimes be avoided by

means of antidotes, yet the victim is doomed to die even after a lapse

of two or three years. Married men and Mushroom-eaters are more subject

to the action of this poison than other people.

“_Ophiusa_, in the island of Elephantine, in Ethiopia, has a livid and

horrid appearance. If persons drink it they become dreadfully afraid of

serpents--so much so, that they commit suicide. Palm wine, however, is

said to counteract its influence.

“The plant called _Apium risus_ is noxious, through causing those who

partake of it to die of excessive laughter. Apuleius says that this

is more particularly the case when the herb is taken by a person who

has not broken his fast. From the fact that the plant was also known

as _Sardonia_ arose the expression “sardonic smile.” People who taste

it do not die at once from laughter, but, as Salustius relates, rather

from the contraction of the nerves of the lips and the muscles of the

mouth; but they appear to die by laughing.

“In Bactria and around the Dnieper, a plant called _Gelotophyllis_

is said to grow, which, if it be drunk with wine and myrrh, produces

continuous laughter. A similar result is produced by _Arum Ægyptiacum_,

when eaten, and by the flowers or seed of the _Datura_.

“_Therionarca_ grows in Cappadocia and Mysia. All wild animals which

touch it become torpid, and can only regain animation by being

besprinkled with the water voided by hyænas.”

[Tailpiece]

[Headpiece]

CHAPTER IX.

Plants of the Witches.

Hecate, the Grecian goddess of the infernal regions, presided over

magic and enchantment, and may fairly be styled the goddess, queen,

and patroness of Witches and sorcerers. She was acquainted with the

properties of every herb, and imparted this knowledge to her daughters

Medea and Circe.[13] To this trio of classical Witches were specially

consecrated the following herbs:--The Mandrake, the Deadly Nightshade,

the Common Nightshade, the Wolfs-bane, the Pontic Azalea, the Cyclamen,

the Cypress, Lavender, Hyssop-leaved Mint, the Poley or Mountain

Germander, the Ethiopian Pepper, the Corn Feverfew, the Cardamom, the

Musk Mallow, the Oriental Sesame, the rough Smilax, the Lion’s-foot

Cudweed (a love philtre), and Maidenhair, a plant particularly dear to

Pluto. Medea was specially cognisant of the qualities of the Meadow

Saffron, Safflower, Dyer’s Alkanet, the clammy Plantain or Fleawort,

the Chrysanthemum, and the brown-berried Juniper. All these plants

are, therefore, persistently sought for by Witches, who have not only

the power of understanding and appreciating the value of herbs, but

know also how to render harmless and innocuous plants baleful and

deadly. Thus we find that an Italian Witch, condemned in 1474, was

shown to have sown a certain noxious powder amidst the herbage near her

dwelling, and the unfortunate cows, stricken at first with the Evil

Eye, were at length attacked with a lingering but deadly malady. So,

again, in the ‘Tempest,’ Shakspeare tells us that in the magic rings

traced on the grass by the dance of the Elves, the herbage is imbued

with a bitterness which is noisome to cattle. These rings, which are

often to be met with on the Sussex Downs, are there called Hag-tracks,

because they are thought to be caused by hags and Witches who dance

there at night.

[13] Early Greek writers describe Circe as the daughter of Sol and

Perseis, and Medea as her niece.

It is recorded that, during the period of the Witch persecutions,

whoever found himself unexpectedly under an Elder-tree was

involuntarily seized with such horror, that he in all probability fell

into an ecstatic or hysterical state. Although not one of the trees

dedicated to Hecate and her Witch progeny, the Elder appears to have

invariably possessed a certain weird attraction for mischievous Elves

and Witches, who are fond of seeking the shelter of its pendent boughs,

and are wont to bury their satanic offspring, with certain cabalistic

ceremonies, beneath its roots.

These satanic children of Witches are elfish creatures, sometimes

butterflies, sometimes bumble bees, sometimes caterpillars or worms.

They are called good or bad things--Holds or Holdikens. The Witches

injure cattle with them; conjure them into the stem of a tree; and,

as we have seen, bury them under the Elder-bushes; then, as the

caterpillars eat the foliage of the tree, the hearts of those people

are troubled of whom the Witches think.

The ill-omened _Cercis Siliquastrum_, or Judas Tree, is reputed to

be specially haunted by Witches, who experience a grim pleasure in

assembling around the tree on which the traitorous disciple is said to

have hung himself. Perhaps it is they who have spread the tradition

that death overtakes anyone who is unfortunate enough to fall into one

of these trees.

The Witches of the Tyrol are reputed to have a great partiality for

Alder-trees.

Witches are fond of riding about through the air in the dead of night,

and perform long journeys to attend their meetings. Matthison tells us

that

“From the deep mine rush wildly out

The troop of Gnomes in hellish rout:

Forth to the Witches’ club they fly;

The Griffins watch as they go by.

The horn of Satan grimly sounds;

On Blocksberg’s flanks strange din resounds,

And Spectres crowd its summit high.”

Their favourite steeds for these midnight excursions are besoms, which

are generally to be found ready to hand; but the large Ragwort (which

in Ireland is called the Fairies’ Horse) is highly prized for aerial

flights. Bulrushes are also employed for locomotive purposes, and other

plants are used for equipments, as we read in ‘The Witch of Fife’:--

“The first leet night, quhan the new moon set,

Quhan all was dousse and mirk,

We saddled our naigis wi’ the Moon-fern leif,

And rode fra Kilmerrin Kirk.

Some horses were of the Brume-cane framit,

And some of the greine Bay-tree,

But mine was made of are Humloke schaw,

And a stout stallion was he.”

William of Auverne, who wrote in the thirteenth century, states that

when the Witches of his time wished to go to the place of rendezvous,

they took a Reed or Cane, and, on making some magical signs, and

uttering certain barbarous words, it became transformed into a horse,

which carried them thither with extraordinary rapidity.

If the Witches are married, it becomes necessary to administer to

their husbands a potion that shall cause them to slumber and keep them

asleep during the Witches’ absence in the night. For this purpose the

Sleep-Apple, a mossy sort of excrescence on the Wild Rose, and Hawthorn

(called in the Edda Sleep-Thorn), are employed, because they will not

allow anyone to awake till they are taken away. A very favourite plant

made use of by American Witches to produce a similar result, is the

_Flor de Pesadilla_, or Nightmare Flower of Buenos Ayres, a small,

dark-green foliaged plant, with lanceolate leaves and clusters of

greenish-white flowers, which emit a powerful narcotic smell. From the

acrid milky juice pressed from the stem of this plant, Witches obtain

a drug which, administered to their victims, keeps them a prey all

night to terrible dreams, from which they awake with a dull throbbing

sensation in the brain, while a peculiar odour pervades the chamber,

causing the air to appear heavy and stifling.

Ben Jonson, in his ‘Masque of Queens,’ introduces therein a conventicle

of Witches, who, as part of the business which has brought them

together, relate their deeds. One of the hags, who has been gathering

that mysterious plant of superstition, the Mandragora, croaks:--

“I last night lay all alone

On the ground, to hear the Mandrake groan;

And plucked him up, though he grew full low;

And, as I had done, the cock did crow.”

Another, whose sinister proceedings have excited the neighbouring

watch-dogs, remarks:--

“And I ha’ been plucking plants among

Hemlock, Henbane, Adder’s-tongue;

Nightshade, Moonwort, Libbard’s-bane,

And twice by the dogs was like to be ta’en.”

And a third, who has procured a supply of the plants needful for the

working of the Witches’ spells, says:--

“Yes, I have brought to help our vows

Homed Poppy, Cypress boughs,

The Fig-tree wild that grows on tombs,

And juice that from the Larch-tree comes.”

One of the principal results of the knowledge possessed by Witches of

the properties of herbs was the concoction by them of noxious or deadly

potions with which they were enabled to work their impious spells.

Ovid tells us how Medea, in compounding a poisonous draught, employed

Monk’s-hood or Wolfs-bane, the deadly _Aconitum_, that sprang up from

the foam of the savage many-headed Cerberus, the watch-dog of the

infernal regions:--

“Medea to dispatch a dang’rous heir

(She knew him) did a poisonous draught prepare,

Drawn from a drug long while reserved in store,

For desp’rate uses, from the Scythian shore,

That from the Echidnæan monster’s jaws

Derived its origin.”

Medea’s sister, the Enchantress Circe, having been neglected by a youth

for whom she had conceived a passion, turned him, by means of a herb

potion, into a brutal shape, for

“Love refused, converted to disdain.

Then, mixing powerful herbs with magic art,

She changed his form who could not change his heart.”

So intimate was the acquaintance of this celebrated Witch with the

subtle properties of all plants, that by the aid of the noxious juices

she extracted from them, she was enabled to exercise marvellous powers

of enchantment. At her bidding,

“Now strange to tell, the plants sweat drops of blood,

The trees are toss’d from forests where they stood;

Blue serpents o’er the tainted herbage slide,

Pale glaring spectres on the æther ride.”

Circe was assiduous in “simpling on the flow’ry hills,” and her

attendants were taught to despise the ordinary occupations of women:

they were unburdened by household cares,

“But culled, in canisters, disastrous flowers

And plants from haunted heaths and Fairy bowers,

With brazen sickles reap’d at planetary hours

Each dose the goddess weighed with watchful eye;

So nice her art in impious pharmacy.”

Old Gerarde tells us that Circe made use in her incantations and

witchcrafts of the Mullein or Hag-taper (_Verbascum Thapsus_); and

Gower relates of Medea that she employed the Feldwode, which is

probably the same plant, its Anglo-Saxon name being _Feldwyrt_.

“Tho toke she Feldwode and Verveine,

Of herbes ben nought better tweine.”

The composition of philtres, and the working of spells and incantations

to induce love, are amongst the most highly prized of witches’

functions, investing them with a power which they delight to wield, and

leading to much pecuniary profit.

In Moore’s ‘Light of the Haram,’ the Enchantress Namouna, who was

acquainted with all spells and talismans, instructs Nourmahall to

gather at midnight--“the hour that scatters spells on herb and

flower”--certain blossoms that, when twined into a wreath, should act

as a spell to recall her Selim’s love. The flowers gathered, the

Enchantress proceeds to weave the magic chaplet, singing the while--

“I know where the wing’d visions dwell

That around the night-bed play;

I know each herb and floweret’s bell,

Where they hide their wings by day;

Then hasten we, maid,

To twine our braid,

To-morrow the dreams and flowers will fade.

“The image of love, that nightly flies

To visit the bashful maid;

Steals from the Jasmine flower, that sighs

Its soul, like her, in the shade.

The dream of a future happier hour,

That alights on misery’s brow,

Springs out of the silvery Almond flower

That blooms on a leafless bough.

“The visions that oft to worldly eyes

The glitter of mines unfold,

Inhabit the mountain herb that dyes

The tooth of the fawn like gold.

The phantom shapes--oh, touch not them!--

That appal the murderer’s sight,

Lurk in the fleshly Mandrake’s stem,

That shrieks when pluck’d at night!

“The dream of the injur’d, patient mind,

That smiles at the wrongs of men,

Is found in the bruis’d and wounded rind

Of the Cinnamon, sweetest then.

Then hasten we, maid,

To twine our braid,

To-morrow the dreams and flowers will fade.”

The chief strength of poor witches lies in the gathering and boiling of

herbs. The most esteemed herbs for their purposes are the Betony-root,

Henbane, Mandrake, Deadly Nightshade, Origanum, Antirrhinum, female

Phlox, Arum, Red and White Celandine, Millefoil, Horned Poppy, Fern,

Adder’s-tongue, and ground Ivy. Root of Hemlock, “digged in the

dark,” slips of Yew, “slivered in the moon’s eclipse,” Cypress, Wild

Fig, Larch, Broom, and Thorn are also associated with Witches and

their necromancy. The divining Gall-apple of the Oak, the mystic

Mistletoe, the Savin, the Moonwort, the Vervain, and the St. John’s

Wort are considered magical, and therefore form part of the Witches’

pharmacopœia--to be produced as occasion may require, and their juices

infused in the hell-broths, philtres, potions, and baleful draughts

prepared for their enemies. Cuckoo-flowers are gathered in the meadows

on the first of May. Chervil and Pennyroyal are used because they both

have the effect of making anyone tasting their juices see double.

Often many herbs are boiled together--by preference seven or nine.

Three kinds of wood make bewitched water boil. Witch-ointments, to be

effective, must contain seven herbs.

One of the favourite remedies of Scotch Witches is the Woodbine or

Honeysuckle. In effecting their magical cures, they cause their

patients to pass a certain number of times (usually nine) through

a “girth” or garland of Woodbine, repeating the while certain

incantations and invocations. According to Spenser, Witches in the

Spring of every year were accustomed to do penance, and purify

themselves by bathing in water wherein Origane and Thyme had been

placed:--

“Till on a day (that day is every Prime,

When witches wont do penance for their crime)

I chaunst to see her in her proper hew,

Bathing herself in Origane and Thyme.”

In Lower Germany, the Honeysuckle is called _Albranke_, the

Witch-snare. Long running plants and entangled twigs are called

Witch-scapes, and the people believe that a Witch hard pursued could

escape by their means.

On the _Walpurgisnacht_, the German Witches are wont to gather Fern to

render themselves invisible. As a protection against them, the country

people, says Aubrey, “fetch a certain Thorn, and stick it at their

house door, believing the Witches can then do them no harm.” On the way

to the orgies of this night, the Oldenburg Witches are reputed to eat

up all the red buds of the Ash, so that on St. John’s Day the Ash-trees

appear denuded of them.

The German Witches are cunning in the use and abuse of roots: for

example, they recommend strongly the _Meisterwurzel_ (root of the

master), the _Bärwurzel_ (root of the bears), the _Eberwurzel_ (root of

the wild boar), and the _Hirschwurzel_ (root of the stag--a name given

to the Wild Parsley, to the Black Gentian, and to the _Thapsia_), as a

means of making a horse run for three consecutive days without feeding

him.

On St. John’s Eve, the Witches of Russia are busily engaged searching

on the mountains for the _Gentiana amarella_, and on the morning of St.

John’s Day, for the _Lythrum silicaria_, without having found which no

one can hope to light upon the former herb. These herbs being hostile

to Witches, are sought by them only to be destroyed.

In Franche-Comté they tell of a certain satanic herb, of which the

juice gives to Witches the power of riding in the air on a broomstick

when they wish to proceed to their nocturnal meeting.

Plants used for Charms and Spells.

In mediæval times the sick poor were accustomed to seek and find

the relief and cure of their ailments at the hands of studious,

kind-hearted monks, and gentle, sympathetic nuns; but after the

Reformation, the practice of the healing art was relegated either to

charitable gentlewomen, who deemed it part of their duty to master

the mysteries of simpling, or to the Wise Woman of the village,

who frequently combined the professions of midwife and simpler,

and collected and dispensed medical herbs. Too often, however, the

trade in simples and herbs was carried on by needy and ignorant

persons--so-called herbalists, quack doctors, and charlatans, or aged

crones, desirous of turning to account the superficial knowledge

they possessed of the properties of the plants which grew on the

neighbouring hill-sides, or were to be found nearer at hand in the

fields and hedgerows. As these simplers and herbalists often made

serious mistakes in their treatment, and were willing, as a rule, to

supply noisome and poisonous herbs to anyone who cared to pay their

price, it is not to be wondered at that they were often regarded with

dread by their ignorant neighbours, and that eventually they came to be

stigmatised as Wizards and Witches.

In the preface to “The Brittish Physician,” a work issued by one Robert

Turner, “botanical student,” two hundred years ago, the author, after

expatiating on the value of herbs and plants, adds: “but let us not

offer sacrifices unto them, and say charms over them, as the Druids

of old and other heathens; and as do some cacochymists, Medean hags,

and sorcerers nowadays, who, not contented with the lawful use of the

creatures, out of some diabolical intention, search after the more

magical and occult vertues of herbs and plants to accomplish some

wicked ends; and for that very cause, King Hezekiah, fearing lest the

herbals of Solomon should come into profane hands, caused them to be

burned.” The old herbalist was doubtless acquainted with many of the

superstitious practices of the “Medean hags”--the Wise Women, old

wives, and Witches of the country--to whom he so scathingly refers.

These ill-favoured beldames had a panacea for every disease, a charm or

a potion for every disorder, a talisman or amulet against every ill. In

addition to herbs, Rowan-tree, salt, enchanted flints, south-running

water, and doggrel verses were the means employed for effecting a cure;

whilst diseases were supposed to be laid on by forming pictures and

images of clay or wax, by placing a dead hand or mutilated member in

the house of the intended victim, or by throwing enchanted articles

at his door. In reality, however, the mischief was done by means of

poisonous herbs or deadly potions, cunningly prepared by the Witch and

her confederates.

One of the most remarkable of the many superstitions inculcated by

these ignorant and designing Witches and quacks, was the notion that

diseases could be transferred from human beings to trees. Gilbert

White has recorded that at Selborne there stood, in his time, a row

of Pollard-Ashes which, when young and flexible, had been severed and

held open by wedges, while ruptured children, stripped naked, were

pushed through the apertures, under a belief that their infirmity would

be thereby cured. Children were also passed through cleft trees, to

cast out all witchcraft, or to neutralise its baleful effects, and to

protect them from the influence of Witches; and sometimes they were

passed through the branches of a Maple, in order that they might be

long-lived. Sick sheep were made to go through the cleft of a young

Oak, with a view of transferring their diseases to the spirit of the

tree. People afflicted with ague were directed to repair to the Cross

Oaks which grew at the junctions of cross-roads, for the purpose of

transferring to them their malady. Aguish patients were ordered to

proceed without speaking or crossing water, to a lofty Willow, to make

a gash in it, breathe three times into the crevice, close it quickly,

and hasten away without looking back: if they did this correctly, the

ague was warranted to leave them. A twisted neck or cuts in the body

were thought to be cured by twisting a Willow round the affected part.

In the West of England, peasants suffering from blackhead were bidden

to crawl under an arched Bramble, and if they had the toothache, the

prescribed remedy was for them to bite the first Fern that appeared in

Spring. In other parts of the country toothache was cured by sticking

into the bark of a young tree the decayed tooth after it had been

drawn. If a child did not willingly learn to walk, the Wise Woman of

the village would direct its troubled mother to make it creep through

the long withes of the Blackberry-bush, which were grown down to the

earth, and had taken fresh root therein. Sufferers from gout were

relieved by the Witch transferring the disorder to some old Pine-tree,

or rather to the genius inhabiting it. Many magical arts attended the

transference of the disease to the spirit of the vicarious tree, and

the operation was generally accompanied by the recital of some formula.

Amongst the forms of adjuration was the following commencement: “Twig,

I bind thee; fever, now leave me!” A sufferer from cramp was ordered

to stretch himself on a Plum-tree, and say, “Climbing-plant, stand!

Plum-tree, waver.”

If we seek for the origin of this superstitious notion of transferring

diseases to trees, we shall find a clue in the works of Prof.

Mannhardt, who recounts the names of demons which in Germany are

identified with nearly all the maladies of plants, and particularly

with those of Wheat and vegetables.[14] The superstitious country

people, struck with the affinity which exists between the vegetable

world and the animal world, came, in course of time, to think that the

same demon caused the disease of plants and that of man; and therefore

they conceived that, in order to safeguard mankind, it was only

necessary to confine the demon in the plant. Examples of this belief

are still to be found in our own country, and similar superstitious

observances are common on the Continent. The German peasant creeps

through an Oak cleft to cure hernia and certain other disorders; and

the Russian moujik splits an Ilex in order to perform a similar

curative operation. De Gubernatis tells us that the Venetian peasant,

when fever-stricken, repairs to a tree, binds up the trunk, and says

to it thrice, without taking breath, “I place thee here, I leave thee

here, and I shall now depart.” Thereupon the fever leaves the patient;

but if the tree be a fruit tree, it will from that time cease to yield

fruit. In the Netherlands, a countryman who is suffering from the ague

will go early in the morning to an old Willow-tree, tie three knots in

a branch, and say: “Good morning, old one! I give thee the cold; good

morning, old one.” This done, he will turn round quickly, and run off

as fast as he can, without looking behind him.

[14] The names of certain of these demons will be found in the previous

chapter.

But to revert to the superstitious practices of English Witches, Wise

Women, and midwives. One of their prescriptions for the ague was as

follows:--A piece of the nail of each of the patient’s fingers and

toes, and a bit of hair from the nape of the neck, being cut whilst

the patient was asleep, the whole were wrapped up in paper, and the

ague which they represented was put into a hole in an Aspen tree,

and left there, when by degrees the ague would quit the patient’s

body. A very old superstition existed that diseases could be got rid

of by burying them: and, indeed, Ratherius relates that, so early as

the tenth century, a case of epilepsy was cured by means of a buried

Peach-blossom; it is not surprising, therefore, that English Witches

should have professed themselves able to cure certain disorders in this

fashion; and accordingly we find that diseases and the means of their

cure were ordered by them to be buried in the earth and in ants’ nests.

One of the Witches’ most reliable sources of obtaining money from

their dupes was the concoction of love-philtres for despondent swains

and love-sick maidens. In the composition of these potions, the

juices of various plants and herbs were utilised; but these will be

found adverted to in the chapter on Magical Plants. Fresh Orchis was

employed by these cunning and unscrupulous simplers, to beget pure

love; and dried Orchis to check illicit love. Cyclamen was one of the

herbs prescribed by aged crones for a love potion, and by midwives it

was esteemed a most precious and invaluable herb; but an expectant

mother was cautioned to avoid and dread its presence. If, acting on

the advice of the Wise Woman, she ate Quince- and Coriander-seed,

her child, it was promised, would assuredly be ingenious and witty;

but, on the contrary, should she chance to partake too bountifully of

Onions, Beans, or similar vaporous vegetable food, she was warned that

her offspring would be a fool, and possibly even a lunatic. Mothers

were also sagely cautioned that to preserve an infant from evil, it

was necessary to feed it with Ash-sap directly it was born; and they

were admonished that it should never be weaned while the trees were in

blossom, or it would have grey hair.

As relics of the charms and prescriptions of the old Witches, countless

superstitions connected with plants are to be found at the present day

rife in all parts of the country. Of these the following are perhaps

the principal:--For the cure of diseases: Blue Cornflowers gathered

on Corpus Christi Sunday stop nose-bleeding if they are held in the

hand till they are warm. Club Moss is considered good for all diseases

of the eyes, and Euphrasy and Rue for dimness of sight. Cork has the

power of keeping off the cramp, and so have Horse-chesnuts if carried

in the pocket. Elder-sticks in the pocket of a horseman when riding

prevent galling; and the same, with three, five, or seven knots, if

carried in the pocket will ward off rheumatism. A Potato (stolen, if

possible) or a piece of Rowan-wood in the trousers pocket will also

cure rheumatism. The roots of Pellitory of Spain and Tarragon, held

between the teeth, cure the toothache, and so will splinters of an Oak

struck by lightning. Hellebore, Betony, Honesty, and Rue are antidotes

against madness. The root of a male Peony, dried and tied to the neck,

cures epilepsy and relieves nightmare. Castoreum, Musk, Rue-seed, and

Agnus Castus-seed are likewise all remedies for nightmare. Chelidonium

placed under the bare feet will cure jaundice. A twig of Myrtle carried

about the person is efficacious in cases of tumour in the groin. Green

Wormwood placed in the shoes will relieve pains in the stomach of the

wearer. Spurge and Laurel-leaves, if broken off upwards, will cause

vomiting; if downwards, purging. Plantain laid under the feet removes

weariness; and with Mugwort worn beneath the soles of his feet a man

may walk forty miles without tiring. Agnus Castus, if carried in the

hand, will prevent weariness; and when placed in a bed preserves

chastity. Henbane, laid between the sheets, also preserves chastity,

and will besides kill fleas. Necklaces of Peony-root, worn by children,

prevent convulsions. The excrescence found in Rose-bushes, known as

“Robin Redbreast’s Cushion,” when hung round children’s necks, will

cure whooping-cough. Pansy-leaves, placed in the shoe, or Sage-leaves

eaten, will cure ague. The roots of white Briony, bruised and applied

to any place, when the bones are broken, help to draw them forth, as

also splinters, arrow-heads, and thorns in the flesh. The root of an

Iris, if it grow upwards, will attract all thorns from the flesh; if,

on the contrary, it inclines downwards, it will cure wounds. A piece

of Oak, rubbed in silence on the body, on St. John’s Day, before the

sun rises, heals all open wounds. An Apple is deemed potent against

warts, and so is a green Elder-stick, rubbed over them, and then buried

in muck, to rot. Sometimes the Elder-stick has a notch cut in it for

each wart; it is then rubbed over the warts, and finally burned.

Warts are also cured by pricking them with a Gooseberry-thorn passed

through a wedding-ring; and by rubbing them with a Bean-shell, which is

afterwards secretly taken under an Ash-tree by the operator, who then

repeats the words--

“As this Bean-shell rots away,

So my warts shall soon decay.”

Catmint will cause those of the most gentle and mild dispositions to

become fierce and quarrelsome. Crocus-flowers will produce laughter and

great joy. Rosemary, worn about the body, strengthens the memory. He

who sows seed should be careful not to lay it on a table, otherwise it

will not grow. In sowing peas, take some of them in your mouth before

the sun goes down, keep them there in silence while you are sowing the

rest, and this will preserve them from sparrows. A piece of wood out of

a coffin that has been dug up, when laid in a Cabbage-bed, will defend

it from caterpillars. A bunch of wild Thyme and Origanum, laid by the

milk in a dairy, prevents its being spoiled by thunder: Sunflowers are

also held to be a protection against thunder. A bunch of Nettles laid

in the barrel, in brewing, answers the same purpose. Water Pepper, put

under the saddle of a tired horse, will refresh him and cause him to

travel well again. Basil, if allowed to rot under an earthen jar, will

become changed into scorpions, and the frequent smelling of this herb

is apt to generate certain animals like scorpions in the brain. The Oak

being a prophetic tree, a fly in the gall-nut is held to foretell war;

a maggot, dearth; a spider, pestilence.

Probably the most frequent visitors to the Witch’s cottage were vain

and silly maidens, desirous either of procuring some potion which

should enhance their rustic charms, or of learning from the lips of the

Witch the mysteries of the future. To such credulous applicants the

beldame would impart the precious secrets, that Lilies of the Valley,

gathered before sunrise, and rubbed over the face, would take away

freckles; and that Wild Tansy, soaked in butter-milk for nine days,

and then applied as a wash to the face, would cause the user to look

handsome. For those who were anxious to consult her as to their love

affairs, or desired to test her powers of divination, the Witch had

an abundant stock of charms and amulets, and was prepared with mystic

and unerring spells. She would take a root of the Bracken-fern, and,

cutting its stem very low down, would show to the inquiring maiden the

initial letter of her future husband’s name. She knew where to procure

two-leaved and four-leaved Clover, and even-leaved Ash, by the aid of

which lovers would be forthcoming before the day was over. She could

instruct a lass in the mystic rite of Hemp-sowing in the churchyard at

midnight on St. Valentine’s Eve. She knew and would reveal where Yarrow

was to be found growing on a dead man’s grave, and would teach country

wenches the charmed verse to be repeated when the magic plant should

be placed beneath their pillow. She could superintend the construction

of “The Witches’ Chain” by three young women, and could provide the

necessary Holly, Juniper, and Mistletoe-berries, with an Acorn for

the end of each link; and she would instruct them how to wind this

mystic chain around a long thin log of wood, which was to be placed on

the fire, accompanied by many magical rites (the secret of which she

would divulge), and then burnt, with the promised result that just as

the last Acorn was consumed, each of the three maidens should see her

future husband walk across the room, or if she were doomed to celibacy,

then a coffin or some misshapen form.

The Witch was cunning in the composition of draughts which should

procure dreams, and the secret of many of these potions is still known

and treasured. Thus: fresh Mistletoe-berries (not exceeding nine in

number), steeped in a liquid composed of equal proportions of wine,

beer, vinegar, and honey, taken as pills on an empty stomach before

going to bed, will cause dreams of your future destiny (providing you

retire to rest before twelve) either on Christmas-eve or on the first

and third of a new moon. Similar dreams may be procured by making a

nosegay of various-coloured flowers, one of a sort, a sprig of Rue, and

some Yarrow off a grave; these must be sprinkled with a few drops of

the oil of Amber, applied with the left hand, and bound round the head

under the night-cap, when retiring to bed, which must be supplied with

clean linen. A prophetic dream is to be procured through the medium

of what is known as “Magic Laurel,” by carrying out the following

formula:--Rise between three and four o’clock in the morning of your

birthday, with cautious secresy, so as to be observed by no one, and

pluck a sprig of Laurel; convey it to your chamber, and hold it over

some lighted brimstone for five minutes, which you must carefully

note by a watch or dial; wrap it in a white linen cloth or napkin,

together with your own name written on paper, and that of your lover

(or if there is more than one, write all the names down), write also

the day of the week, the date of the year, and the age of the moon;

then haste and bury it in the ground, where you are sure it will not be

disturbed for three days and three nights; then take it up, and place

the parcel under your pillow for three nights, and your dreams will be

truly prophetic as to your destiny. A dream of fate is to be procured

on the third day of the months between September and March by any odd

number of young women not exceeding nine, if each string nine Acorns on

a separate string (or as many Acorns as there are young women), wrap

them round a long stick of wood, and place it in the fire, precisely

at midnight. The maidens, keeping perfect silence, must then sit round

the fire till all the Acorns are consumed, then take out the ashes, and

retire to bed directly, repeating--

“May love and marriage be the theme,

To visit me in this night’s dream;

Gentle Venus, be my friend,

The image of my lover send;

Let me see his form and face,

And his occupation trace;

By a symbol or a sign,

Cupid, forward my design.”

Plants Antagonistic to Witchcraft.

The Rowan, Mountain Ash, or Care-tree has a great repute among country

folk in the cure of ills arising from supernatural as well as natural

causes. It is dreaded and shunned by evil spirits; it renders null

the spells of Witches and sorcerers, and has many other marvellous

properties. A piece of Rowan wood carried in the pocket of a peasant

acts as a charm against ill-wishes, and bunches of Care suspended over

the cow’s stall and wreathed around her horns will guard her from the

effects of the Evil Eye and keep, her in health, more especially if her

master does not forget to repeat regularly the pious prayer--

“From Witches and Wizards, and long-tailed Buzzards,

And creeping things that run in hedge-bottoms,

Good Lord, deliver us!”

The Ash, in common with the Rowan-tree, possesses the property of

resisting the attacks of Witches, Elves, and other imps of darkness; on

this account Ash-sap is administered to newly-born children, as without

some such precaution the Fairies or Witches might change the child, or

even steal it.

“Rowan, Ash, and red thread

Keep the Devils frae their speed.”

The Hazel, according to German tradition, is inimical to Witches and

enchanters. North says that by means of Hazel-rods Witches can be

compelled to restore to animals and plants the fecundity of which by

their malign influence they had previously deprived them.

Elder, gathered on the last day of April, and affixed to the doors and

windows of the house, disappoints designing Witches and protects the

inhabitants from their diabolical spells.

Mistletoe, as a distinctly sacred plant, is considered a talisman

against witchcraft. A small sprig of this mystic plant worn round the

neck is reputed to possess the power of repelling Witches, always

provided that the bough from which it was cut has not been allowed to

touch the earth after being gathered. Plucked with certain ceremonies

on the Eve of St. John, and hung up in windows, it is considered an

infallible protection against Witches, evil spirits, and phantoms, as

well as against storms and thunder.

Cyclamen would appear to be considered a preservative from the assaults

of witchcraft and evil spirits, if we may judge from the following

couplet:--

“St. John’s Wort and fresh Cyclamen she in her chamber kept,

From the power of evil angels to guard him while he slept.”

Vervain and St. John’s Wort, carried about the person, will prove a

sure preservation against the wiles of Satan and the machinations and

sorcery of Witches.

“Gin you would be leman of mine,

Lay aside the St. John’s Wort and the Vervain.”

Dill has also the reputation of counteracting the enchantments of

Witches and sorcerers--

“The Verdain and the Dill

That hindreth Witches of their will.”

St. John’s Wort (_Hypericum_), the _Fuga Dæmonum_ of the old

writers, is a plant detested by Witches, who are scared when in its

neighbourhood.

“St. John’s Wort, scaring from the midnight heath

The Witch and Goblin with its spicy breath.”

Herb Paris, according to Matthiolus, takes away all evil done by

witchcraft; Pimpernel is potent to prevent it; and Angelica worn round

the neck will defeat the malignant designs of Witches, who moreover, it

is satisfactory to know, detest the Bracken Fern, because if its stem

be cut, there will be found therein the monogram of Christ. Flowers of

a yellow or greenish hue, growing in hedgerows, are also repugnant to

them.

In the Tyrol there exists a belief that by binding Rue, Broom,

Maidenhair, Agrimony, and ground Ivy, into one bundle, the bearer of

the same is enabled to see and know Witches.

[Tailpiece]

[Headpiece]

CHAPTER X.

Magical Plants.

In remote ages, the poisonous or medicinal properties of plants were

secrets learnt by the most intelligent and observant members of

pastoral and nomadic tribes and clans; and the possessor of these

secrets became often both medicine-man and priest, reserving to himself

as much as possible the knowledge he had acquired of herbs and their

uses, and particularly of those that would produce stupor, delirium,

and madness; for by these means he could produce in himself and others

many startling and weird manifestations, which the ignorance of his

fellows would cause them to attribute to Divine or supernatural causes.

The _Zuckungen_, or convulsions, ecstacies, temporary madness, and

ravings, that formerly played so important a part in the oracular and

sacerdotal ceremonies, and which survive even at the present day, had

their origin in the tricks played by the ancient medicine-man in order

to retain his influence over his superstitious brethren. The exciting

and soporific properties of certain herbs and plants, and the peculiar

phenomena which, in skilful hands, they could be made to produce in

the victim, were well known to the ancient seers and priests, and so

were easily foretold; while the symptoms and effects could be varied

accordingly as the plants were dried, powdered, dissolved in water,

eaten freshly gathered, or burnt as incense on the altars. The subtle

powers of opiates obtained from certain plants were among the secrets

carefully preserved by the magi and priests.

According to Prosper Alpinus, dreams of paradise and celestial visions

were produced among the Egyptians by the use of Opium; and Kaempfer

relates that after having partaken of an opiate in Persia, he fell into

an ecstatic state, in which he conceived himself to be flying in the

air beyond the clouds, and associating with celestial beings.

From the juice of the Hemp, the Egyptians have for ages prepared an

intoxicating extract, called _Hashîsh_, which is made up into balls

of the size of a Chestnut. Having swallowed some of these, and thereby

produced a species of intoxication, they experience ecstatic visions.

Among the Brahmins, the Soma, a sacred drink prepared from the pungent

juice of the _Asclepias acida_, or _Cyanchum viminale_, was one of the

means used to produce the ecstatic state. Soma juice was employed to

complete the phrensied trances of the Indian Yogis or seers: it is said

to have the effect of inducing the ecstatic state, in which the votary

appears in spirit to soar beyond the terrestrial regions, to become

united with Brahma, and to acquire universal lucidity (_clairvoyance_).

Windischmann observes that in the remote past, the mystic Soma was

taken as a holy act--a species of sacrament; and that, by this means,

the soul of the communicant became united with Brahma. It is frequently

said that even Parashpati partook of this celestial beverage, the

essence, as it is called, of all nourishment. In the human sacrifices,

the Soma-drink was prepared with magical ceremonies and incantations,

by which means the virtues of the inferior and superior worlds were

supposed to be incorporated with the potion.

John Weir speaks of a plant, growing on Mount Lebanon, which places

those who taste it in a state of visionary ecstacy; and Gassendi

relates that a fanatical shepherd in Provence prepared himself for the

visionary and prophetic state by using Stramonium.

The Laurel was held specially sacred to Apollo, and the Pythia who

delivered the answer of the god to those who consulted the famous

oracle at Delphi, before becoming inspired, shook a Laurel-tree that

grew close by, and sometimes ate the leaves with which she crowned

herself. A Laurel-branch was thought to impart to prophets the faculty

of seeing that which was obscure or hidden; and the tree was believed

to possess the property of inducing sleep and visions. Among the

ancients it was also thought useful in driving away spectres. Evelyn,

remarking on the custom of prophets and soothsayers sleeping upon

the boughs and branches of trees, or upon mattresses composed of

their leaves, tells us that the Laurel and _Agnus Castus_ were plants

“which greatly composed the phansy, and did facilitate true visions,

and that the first was specially efficacious to inspire a poetical

fury.” According to Abulensis, he adds, “such a tradition there goes

of Rebekah, the wife of Isaac, in imitation of her father-in-law.” And

he thinks it probable that from that incident the Delphic Tripos, the

Dodonæan Oracle in Epirus, and others of a similar description, took

their origin. Probably, when introducing the Jewish fortune-tellers in

his sixth satire, Juvenal alludes to the practice of soothsayers and

sibyls sleeping on branches and leaves of trees, in the lines--

“With fear

The poor she-Jew begs in my Lady’s ear,

The grove’s high-priestess, heaven’s true messenger,

Jerusalem’s old laws expounds to her.”

The Druids, besides being priests, prophets, and legislators, were also

physicians; they were acquainted, too, with the means of producing

trances and ecstacies, and as one of their chief medical appliances

they made use of the Mistletoe, which they gathered at appointed times

with certain solemn ceremonies, and considered it as a special gift

of heaven. This plant grew on the Oak, the sacred tree of the Celts

and Druids; it was held in the highest reverence, and both priests

and people then regarded it as divine. To this day the Welsh call

_Pren-awr_--the celestial tree--

“The mystic Mistletoe,

Which has no root, and cannot grow

Or prosper but by that same tree

It clings to.”

The sacred Oak itself was thought to possess certain magical properties

in evoking the spirit of prophecy: hence we find the altars of the

Druids were often erected beneath some venerated Oak-tree in the sombre

recesses of the sacred grove; and it was under the shadow of such trees

that the ancient Germans offered up their holy sacrifices, and their

inspired bards made their prophetic utterances. The Greeks had their

prophetic Oaks that delivered the oracles of Jupiter in the sacred

grove of Dodona--

“Such honours famed Dodona’s grove acquired,

As justly due to trees by heaven inspired;

When once her Oaks did fate’s decrees reveal,

And taught wise men truths future to foretel.”--_Rapin._

The Arcadians attributed another magical power to the Oak, for they

believed that by stirring water with an Oaken bough rain could be

brought from the clouds.

The Russians are acquainted with a certain herb which they call

_Son-trava_, or Dream Herb, which has been identified with the

_Pulsatilla patens_. This plant is said to blossom in the month of

April, and to put forth an azure-coloured flower; if this is placed

under the pillow, it will induce dreams, and these dreams are said to

be fulfilled. In England, a four-leaved Clover similarly treated will

produce a like result.

Like the Grecian sorceresses, Medea and Circe, the Vedic magicians

were acquainted with numerous plants which would produce love-philtres

of the most powerful character, if not altogether irresistible. The

favourite flowers among the Indians for their composition are the

Mango, Champak, Jasmine, Lotus, and Asoka. According to Albertus

Magnus, the most powerful flower for producing love is that which

he calls _Provinsa_. The secret of this plant had been transmitted

by the Chaldeans. The Greeks knew it as _Vorax_, the Latins as

_Proventalis_ or _Provinsa_; and it is probably the same plant now

known to the Sicilians as the _Pizzu’ngurdu_, to which they attribute

most subtle properties. Thus the chastest of women will become the

victim of the most burning passion for the man who, after pounding the

_Pizzu’ngurdu_, is able to administer it to her in any sort of food.

Satyrion was a favourite herb with magicians, sorceresses, Witches,

and herbalists, who held it to be one of the most powerful incentives

of amatory passions. Kircher relates the case of a youth who, whenever

he visited a certain corner of his garden, became so inflamed with

passionate longings, that, with the hope of obtaining relief, he

mentioned the circumstance to a friend, who, upon examing the spot,

found it overgrown with a species of Satyrion, the odour from which had

the effect of producing amatory desires.

The Mandrake, Carrot, Cyclamen, Purslain (_Aizoon_), Valerian,

Navel-wort (_Umbilicus Veneris_), Wild Poppy (_Papaver Argemone_),

Anemone, _Orchis odoratissima_, _O. cynosorchis_, _O. tragorchis_,

_O. triorchis_, and others of the same family, and Maidenhair Fern

(_Capillus Veneris_) have all of them the property of inspiring love.

In Italy, Basil is considered potent to inspire love, and its scent is

thought to engender sympathy. Maidens think that it will stop errant

young men and cause them to love those from whose hands they accept a

sprig. In England, in olden times, the leaves of the Periwinkle, when

eaten by man and wife, were supposed to cause them to love one another.

An old name appertaining to this plant was that of the “Sorcerer’s

Violet,” which was given to it on account of its frequent use by

wizards and quacks in the manufacture of their charms against the

Evil Eye and malign spirits. The French knew it as the _Violette des

Sorciers_, and the Italians as _Centocchio_, or Hundred Eyes.

In Poland, a plant called _Troizicle_, which has bluish leaves and red

flowers, has the reputation of causing love and forgetfulness of the

past, and of enabling him who employs it to go wherever he desires.

Helmontius speaks of a herb that when held in the palm of the hand

until it grows warm, will rapidly acquire the power of detaining the

hand of another until it not only grows warm, also, but the owner

becomes inflamed with love. He states that by its use he inspired a dog

with such love for himself, that he forsook a kind mistress to follow

him, a stranger. This herb is said to be met with everywhere, but

unfortunately the name is not given.

Cumin is thought to possess a mystical power of retention: hence it

has found its way into many a love-philtre, as being able to ensure

fidelity and constancy in love.

Among the plants and flowers to which the power of divination has been

ascribed, and which are consulted for the most part by rustic maidens

in affairs of the heart, are the Centaury, Bluet, or Horseknot, the

Starwort, the Ox-eye Daisy, the Dandelion, Bachelor’s Buttons, the

Primrose, the Rose, the Poppy, the Hypericum, the Orpine, the Yarrow,

the Mugwort, the Thistle, the Knotweed, Plantain, the Stem of the

Bracken Fern, Four-leaved and Two-leaved Clover, Even Ash-leaves, Bay

or Bay-leaves, Laurel-leaves, Apples and Apple-pips, Nuts, Onions,

Beans, Peascods, Corn, Maize, Hemp-seed, &c.

Albertus Magnus states that _Valeria_ yields a certain juice of amity,

efficacious in restoring peace between combatants; and that the

herb _Provinsa_ induces harmony between husband and wife. Gerarde,

in his ‘Herbal,’ mentions a plant, called _Concordia_, which he

says is _Argentina_, or Silver-weed (_Potentilla anserina_); and in

Piedmont, at the present time, there grows a plant (_Palma Christi_),

locally known as _Concordia_, which the peasantry use for matrimonial

divinations. The root of the plant is said to be divided into two

parts, each bearing a resemblance to the human hand, with five fingers:

if these hands are found united, marriage is sure; but if separated,

a rupture between the lovers is presaged. There is also, in Italy, a

plant known as _Discordia_, likewise employed for love divinations. In

this plant the male flowers are violet, the female white; the male and

female flowers blossom almost always the one after the other--the male

turns to the East, the female to the West.

In the Ukraine, there grows a plant called there _Prikrit_, which,

if gathered between August 15th and October 1st, has the property

of destroying calumnies spread abroad in order to hinder marriages.

In England, the Baccharis, or Ploughman’s Spikenard, is reputed to

be able to repel calumny. In Russia, a plant called _Certagon_, the

Devil-chaser, is used to exorcise the devil, who is supposed to haunt

the grief-stricken husband or wife whom death has robbed of the loved

one. This grief-charming plant is also used to drive away fear from

infants. The Sallow has many magical properties: no child can be born

in safety where it is hung, and no spirit can depart in peace if its

foliage be anywhere near.

The Zuñis, a tribe of Mexican Indians, hold in high veneration a

certain magical plant called _Té-na-tsa-li_, which they aver grows

only on one mountain in the West, and which produces flowers of many

colours, the most beautiful in the world, whilst its roots and juices

are a panacea for all injuries to the flesh of man.

The Indian _Tulasi_, or Sacred Basil (_Ocimum sanctum_) is

pre-eminently a magical herb. By the Hindus it is regarded as a plant

of the utmost sanctity, which protects those that cultivate it from

all misfortunes, guards them from diseases and injuries, and ensures

healthy children. In Burmah, the _Eugenia_ is endowed with similar

magical properties, and is regarded by the Burmese with especial

reverence.

The Onion, if suspended in a room, possesses the magical powers of

attracting and absorbing maladies that would otherwise attack the

inmates.

In Peru, there is said to grow a wonderful tree called _Theomat_. If a

branch be placed in the hand of a sick person, and he forthwith shows

gladness, it is a sign that he will at length recover; but if he

shows sadness and no sign of joy, that is held to be a certain sign of

approaching death.

In England, the withering of Bay-leaves has long been considered

ominous of death: thus Shakspeare writes--

“’Tis thought the King is dead; we will not stay.

The Bay-trees in our country are all withered.”

The smoke of the green branches of the Juniper was the incense offered

by the ancients to the infernal deities, whilst its berries were burnt

at funerals to keep off evil spirits.

The Peony drives away tempests and dispels enchantments. The St. John’s

Wort (called of old _Fuga dæmonum_) is a preservative against tempests,

thunder, and evil spirits, and possesses other magical properties which

are duly enumerated in another place.

The Rowan-tree of all others is gifted with the powers of magic, and is

held to be a charm against the Evil Eye, witchcraft, and unholy spells.

The Elder, the Thorn, the Hazel, and the Holly, in a similar manner,

possess certain properties which entitle them to be classed as magical

plants. Garlic is employed by the Greeks, Turks, Chinese, and Japanese,

as a safeguard against the dire influences of the Evil Eye.

The extraordinary attributes of the Fern-seed are duly enumerated in

Part II., under the head of FERN, and can be there studied by all who

are desirous of investigating its magic powers.

The Clover, if it has four leaves, is a magical plant, enabling him who

carries it on his person to be successful at play, and have the power

of detecting the approach of malignant spirits. If placed in the shoe

of a lover, the four-leaved Clover will ensure his safe return to the

arms and embraces of his sweetheart.

The Mandrake is one of the most celebrated of magical plants, but for

an enumeration of its manifold mystic powers readers must be referred

to the description given in Part II., under the head of MANDRAKE. This

plant was formerly called _Circeium_, a name derived from Circe, the

celebrated enchantress. The Germans call it _Zauberwurzel_ (Sorcerer’s

root), and the young peasant girls of the Fatherland often wear bits of

the plant as love charms.

The marshes of China are said to produce a certain fruit which the

natives call _Peci_. If any one puts with this fruit a copper coin into

his mouth, he can diminish it with no less certainty than the fruit

itself, and reduce it to an eatable pulp.

In France, Piedmont, and Switzerland, the country-people tell of a

certain Herb of Oblivion which produces loss of memory in anyone

putting his foot upon it. This herb also causes wayfarers to lose their

way, through the unfortunates forgetting the aspects of the country,

even although they were quite familiar to them before treading on the

Herb of Forgetfulness. Of a somewhat similar nature must have been the

fruit of the Lotos-tree, which caused the heroes of the Odyssey to

forget their native country.

King Solomon, whose books on Magic King Hezekiah destroyed lest their

contents should do harm, ascribed great magical powers to a root

which he called _Baharas_ (or _Baara_). Josephus, in his History of

the Jewish Wars, states that this wonderful root is to be found in

the region of Judæa. It is like a flame in colour, and in the evening

appears like a glittering light; but upon anyone approaching it with

the idea of pulling it up, it appears to fly or dart away, and will

avoid its pursuer until it be sprinkled either with menstrual blood or

_lotium femininum_.

“The Mandrake’s charnel leaves at night”

possess the same characteristic of shining through the gloom, and, on

that account, the Arabians call it the Devil’s Candle.

The ancients knew a certain herb called _Nyctilopa_, which had the

property of shining from afar at night: this same herb was also known

as _Nyctegredum_ or _Chenomychon_, and geese were so averse to it, that

upon first spying it they would take to instant flight. Perhaps this

is the same plant as the _Johanniswurzel_ or Springwort (_Euphorbia

lathyris_), which the peasants of Oberpfalz believe can only be found

among the Fern on St. John’s Night, and which is stated to be of a

yellow colour, and to shine at night as brightly as a candle. Like

the Will-o’-the-Wisp, the _Johanniswurzel_ eludes the grasp of man by

darting and frisking about.

Several plants are credited with possessing the power of preservation

from thunder and lightning. Pliny mentions the _Vibro_, which he calls

_Herba Britannica_, as a plant which, if picked before the first

thunderblast of a storm was heard, was deemed a safeguard against

lightning. In the Netherlands, the St. John’s Wort, gathered before

sunrise, is credited with protective powers against lightning. In

Westphalia, the _Donnerkraut_ (the English Orpine, or Live-long) is

kept in houses as a preservative from thunder. In England, the Bay

is considered a protection from lightning and thunder; the Beech was

long thought to be a safeguard against the effects of lightning; and

Houseleek or Stonecrop, if grown upon a roof, is still regarded as

protecting the house from being struck by lightning. The _Gnaphalium_,

an Everlasting-flower, is gathered on the Continent, on Ascension Day,

and suspended over doorways, to fulfil the same function. In Wales, the

Stonecrop is cultivated on the roof to keep off disease.

The Selago, or Golden Herb of the Druids, imparted to the priestess who

pressed it with her foot, the knowledge of the language of animals and

birds. If she touched it with iron, the sky grew dark, and a misfortune

befell the world.

The old magicians were supposed to have been acquainted with certain

plants and herbs from which gold could be extracted or produced. One

of these was the Sorb-tree, which was particularly esteemed for its

invaluable powers; another was a herb on Mount Libanus, which was

said to communicate a golden hue to the teeth of the goats and other

animals that grazed upon it. Niebuhr thinks this may be the herb which

the Eastern alchymists employed as a means of making gold. Father

Dundini noticed that the animals living on Mount Ida ate a certain

herb that imparted a golden hue to the teeth, and which he considered

proceeded from the mines underground. It was an old belief in Germany,

by the shores of the Danube, and in Hungary, that the tendrils and

leaves of the Vines were plated with gold at certain periods, and

that when this was the case, it was a sure sign that gold lay hidden

somewhere near.

Plutarch speaks of a magical herb called _Zaclon_, which, when bruised

and thrown into wine, would at once change it into water.

Some few plants, like the well-known _Sesame_ of the ‘Arabian Nights,’

are credited with the power of opening doors and obtaining an entry

into subterranean caverns and mountain sides. In Germany, there is a

very favourite legend of a certain blue Luck-flower which gains for its

fortunate finder access to the hidden recesses of a mountain, where

untold riches lie heaped before his astonished eyes. Hastily filling

his pockets with gold, silver, and gems, he heeds not the presence

of a dwarf or Fairy, who, as he unknowingly drops the Luck-flower

whilst leaving the treasure-house, cries “Forget not the best of all.”

Thinking only of the wealth he has pocketed, he unheedingly passes

through the portal of the treasure cave, only just in time to save

himself from being crushed by the descending door, which closes with an

ominous clang, and shuts in for ever the Luck-flower, which can alone

open the cave again.

In Russia, a certain herb, which has the power of opening, is known as

the _Rasriv-trava_. The peasants recognise it in this manner: they cut

a good deal of grass about the spot where the _Rasriv-trava_ is thought

to grow, and throw the whole of it into the river; thereupon this magic

plant will not only remain on the surface of the water, but it will

float against the current. The herb, however, is extraordinarily rare,

and can only be found by one who also possesses the herb _Plakun_ and

the Fern _Paporotnik_. The Fern, like the Hazel, discovers treasures,

and therefore possesses the power of opening said to belong to the

_Rasriv-trava_, but the latter is the only plant that can open the

locks of subterranean entrances to the infernal regions, which are

always guarded by demons. It also has the special property of being

able to reduce to powder any metal whatsoever.

The Primrose is in Germany regarded as a _Schlüsselblume_, or

Key-flower, and is supposed to provide the means of obtaining ingress

to the many legendary treasure-caverns and subterranean passages under

hill and mountain sides dating back from the remote times when the

Goddess Bertha was wont to entice children to enter her enchanted halls

by offering them pale Primroses.

The Mistletoe, in addition to its miraculous medicinal virtues,

possesses the power of opening all locks; and a similar property is by

some ascribed to Artemisia, the Mandrake, and the Vervain.

The Moonwort, or Lesser Lunary (_Botrychium Lunaria_)--the _Martagon_

of ancient wizards, the _Lunaria minor_ of the alchymists--will open

the locks of doors if placed in proper fashion in the keyhole. It is,

according to some authorities, the _Sferracavallo_ of the Italians, and

is gifted with the power of unshoeing horses whilst at pasture.

Grimm is of opinion that the _Sferracavallo_ is the _Euphorbia

lathyris_, the mystic Spring-wort, which, like the Luck-flower,

possesses the wondrous power of opening hidden doors, rocks, and secret

entrances to treasure caves, but which is only to be obtained through

the medium of a green or black woodpecker under conditions which will

be found duly recorded in Part II., under the head of SPRINGWORT.

The Mouse-ear is called _Herba clavorum_ because it prevents the

blacksmith from hurting horses when he is shoeing them.

Magic Wands and Divining Rods.

At so remote a period as the Vedic age we find allusions to magic

wands or rods. In the Vedas, the Hindu finds instructions for cutting

the mystic _Sami_ branch and the _Arani_. This operation was to be

performed so that the Eastern and Western sun shone through the fork

of the rod, or it would prove of no avail. The Chinese still abide

by these venerable instructions in the cutting of their magic wands,

which are usually cut from the Peach or some other fruit tree on the

night preceding the new year, which always commences with the first

new moon after the Winter solstice. The employment of magic wands and

staffs was in vogue among the Chaldæans and Egyptians, who imparted the

knowledge of this system of divination to the Hebrews dwelling among

them. Thus we find the prophet Hosea saying, “My people ask counsel

at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them.” Rhabdomancy,

or divination by means of a rod, was practised by the ancient Greeks

and Romans, and the art was known in England at the time of Agricola,

though now it is almost forgotten. In China and Eastern lands, the art

still flourishes, and various kinds of plants and trees are employed;

the principal being, however, the Hazel, Osier, and Blackthorn. The

Druids were accustomed to cut their divining-rods from the Apple-tree.

In competent hands, the Golden Rod is said to point to hidden springs

of water, as well as to hidden treasures of gold and silver.

“Some sorcerers do boast they have a rod,

Gathered with vows and sacrifice,

That, borne aloft, will strangely nod

To hidden treasure where it lies.”--_Shepherd_ (1600).

In Cornwall, the divining-rod is still employed by miners to discover

the presence of mineral wealth; in Lancashire and Cumberland, the

belief in the powers of the magic wand is widely spread; and in

Wiltshire, it is used for detecting water. The _Virgula divinatoria_ is

also frequently in requisition both in Italy and France. Experts will

tell you that, in order to ensure success, certain mystic rites must

be performed at the cutting of the rod: this must be done after sunset

and before sunrise, and only on certain special nights, among which

are those of Good Friday, Epiphany, Shrove-Tuesday, and St. John’s

Day, the first night of a new moon, or that preceding it. In cutting

the divining-rod, the operator must face the East, so that it shall

be one which catches the first rays of the morning sun, or it will be

valueless. These conditions, it will be found, are similar to those

contained in the Hindu Vedas, and still enforced by the Chinese. Some

English experts are of opinion that a twig of an Apple-tree may be

used as successfully as a Hazel wand--but it must be of twelve months’

growth. The seventh son of a seventh son is considered to be the most

fitting person to use the rod. In operating, the small ends, being

crooked, are to be held in the hands in a position flat or parallel

to the horizon, and the upper part at an elevation having an angle

to it of about seventy degrees. The rod must be grasped strongly and

steadily, and then the operator walks over the ground: when he crosses

a lode, its bending is supposed to indicate the presence thereof.

According to Vallemont, the author of a treatise on the divining-rod,

published towards the end of the seventeenth century, its use was not

merely confined to indicate metal or water, but it was also employed in

tracking criminals; and an extraordinary story is told of a Frenchman

who, guided by his rod, “pursued a murderer, by land, for a distance

exceeding forty-five leagues, besides thirty leagues more by water.”

From an article in the ‘Quarterly Review,’ No. 44, the statements

in which were vouched by the Editor, it would seem that a Lady Noel

possessed the faculty of using the divining-rod. In operating, this

lady “took a thin forked Hazel-twig, about sixteen inches long, and

held it by the end, the joint pointing downwards. When she came to the

place where the water was under the ground, the twig immediately bent;

and the motion was more or less rapid as she approached or withdrew

from the spring. When just over it, the twig turned so quick as to

snap, breaking near the fingers, which, by pressing it, were indented

and heated, and almost blistered; a degree of agitation was also

visible in her face. The exercise of the faculty is independent of any

volition.”

In Germany, the divining-rod is often called the wishing-rod, and as

it is by preference cut from the Blackthorn, that tree is known also

as the Wishing Thorn. In Prussia, the Hazel rod must be cut in Spring

to have its magical qualities thoroughly developed. When the first

thunderstorm is seen to be approaching, a cross is made with the rod

over every heap of grain, in order that the Corn so distinguished

may keep good for many a month. In Bohemia, the magic rod is thought

to cure fever; it is necessary, however, when purchasing one, not to

raise an objection to the price. In Ireland, if anyone dreams of buried

money, there is a prescribed formula to be employed when digging for

it--a portion of which is the marking upon a Hazel wand three crosses,

and the recital of certain words, of a blasphemous character, over it.

Sir Thomas Browne tells us that, in his time, the divining-rod was

called Moses’ Rod; and he thinks, with Agricola, that this rod is of

Pagan origin:--“The ground whereof were the magical rods in poets, that

of Pallas in Homer, that of Mercury that charmed Argus, and that of

Circe which transformed the followers of Ulysses. Too boldly usurping

the name of Moses’ Rod, from which notwithstanding, and that of Aaron,

were probably occasioned the fables of all the rest. For that of Moses

must needs be famous, unto the Egyptians, and that of Aaron unto many

other nations as being preserved in the Ark until the destruction of

the Temple built by Solomon.” The Rabbis tell us that the rod of Moses

was, originally, carved by Adam out of a tree which grew in the Garden

of Eden; that Noah, who took it into the Ark with him, bequeathed it to

Shem; that it descended to Abraham; that Isaac gave it to Jacob; that,

during his sojourn in Egypt, he gave it to Joseph; and that finally it

became the property of Moses.

[Tailpiece]

[Headpiece]

CHAPTER XI.

Fabulous, Wondrous, and Miraculous Plants.

We have seen how, among the ancient races of the earth, traditions

existed which connected the origin of man with certain trees. In the

_Bundehesh_, man is represented as having first appeared on earth under

the form of the plant _Reiva_ (_Rheum ribes_). In the Iranian account

of man’s creation, the primal couple are stated to have first grown up

as a single tree, and at maturity to have been separated and endowed

with a distinct existence by Ormuzd. In the Scandinavian Edda, men

are represented as having sprung from the Ash and Poplar. The Greeks

traced the origin of the human race to the maternal Ash; and the Romans

regarded the Oak as the progenitor of all mankind. The conception of

human trees was present in the mind of the Prophet Isaiah, when he

predicted that from the stem of Jesse should come forth a rod, and from

his roots, a branch. The same idea is preserved in the genealogical

trees of modern heraldry; and the marked analogy between man and trees

has doubtless given rise to the custom of planting trees at the birth

of children. The old Romans were wont to plant a tree at the birth

of a son, and to judge of the prosperity of the child by the growth

and thriving of the tree. It is said in the life of Virgil, that the

Poplar planted at his birth flourished exceedingly, and far outstripped

all its contemporaries. De Gubernatis records that, as a rule, in

Germany, they plant Apple-trees for boys, and Pear-trees for girls. In

Polynesia, at the birth of an infant, a Cocoa-nut tree is planted, the

nodes of which are supposed to indicate the number of years promised to

the little stranger.

According to a legend that Hamilton found current in Central India,

the Khatties had this strange origin. When the five sons of _Pându_

(the heroes whose exploits are told in the _Mahâbhârata_) had become

simple tenders of flocks, Karna, their illegitimate brother, wishing to

deprive them of these their last resource, prayed the gods to assist

him: then he struck the earth with his staff, which was fashioned

from the branch of a tree. The staff instantly opened, and out of it

sprang a man, who said that his name was Khat, a word which signifies

“begotten of wood.” Karna employed this tree-man to steal the coveted

cattle, and the Khatties claim to be descended from this strange

forefather.

The traditions of trees that brought forth human beings, and of

trees that were in themselves partly human, are current among most

of the Aryan and Semitic races, and are also to be found among the

Sioux Indians. These traditions (which have been previously noticed

in Chapter VII.) have probably given rise to others, which represent

certain trees as bearing for fruit human beings and the members of

human beings.

In the fourteenth century, an Italian voyager, Odoricus du Frioul, on

arriving at Malabar, heard the natives speaking of trees which, instead

of fruit, bore men and women: these creatures were scarcely a yard

high, and their nether extremities were attached to the tree’s trunk,

like branches. Their bodies were fresh and radiant when the wind blew,

but on its dropping, they became gradually withered and dried up.

In the first book of the _Mahâbhârata_, reference is made, in the

legend of Garuda, to an enormous Indian Fig-tree (_Ficus religiosa_),

from the branches of which are suspended certain devotees of dwarfed

proportions, called _Vâlakhilyas_.

Among the Arabs, there exists a tradition of an island in the Southern

Ocean called Wak-Wak, which is so-named because certain trees growing

thereon produce fruit having the form of a human head, which cries

_Wak! Wak!_

Among the Chinese, the myth of men being descended from trees is

reversed, for we find a legend current in the Flowery Land that, in the

beginning, the herbs and plants sprang from the hairs of a cosmic giant.

The Chinese, however, preserve the tradition of a certain lake by

whose margin grew great quantities of trees, the leaves of which

when developed became changed into birds. In India, similar trees

are referred to in many of the popular tales: thus, in “The Rose of

Bakavali” mention is made of a garden of Pomegranate-trees, the fruit

of which resembled earthenware vases. When these were plucked and

opened, out hopped birds of beautiful plumage, which immediately flew

away.

Pope Pius II., in his work on Asia and Europe, published towards the

end of the fifteenth century, states that in Scotland there grew on the

banks of a river a tree which produced fruits resembling ducks; these

fruits, when matured, fell either on the river bank or into the water:

those which fell on the ground perished instantly; those which fell

into the water became turned at once into ducks, acquired plumage, and

then flew off. His Holiness remarks that he had been unable to obtain

any proof of this wondrous tree existing in Scotland, but that it was

to be found growing in the Orkney Isles.

As early as the thirteenth century, Albertus Magnus expressed his

disbelief in the stories of birds propagated from trees, yet there

were not wanting writers who professed to have been eye-witnesses of

the marvels they recounted respecting Bernicle or Claik Geese. Some of

these witnesses, however, asserted that the birds grew on living trees,

while others traced them to timber rotted in the sea, or boughs of

trees which had fallen therein. Boëce, who favoured the latter theory,

writes that “because the rude and ignorant people saw oft-times the

fruit that fell off the trees (which stood near the sea) converted

within a short time into geese, they believed that yir-geese grew upon

the trees, hanging by their nebbis [bills] such like as Apples and

other fruits hangs by their stalks, but their opinion is nought to be

sustained. For as soon as their Apples or fruit falls off the tree into

the sea-flood, they grow first worm-eaten, and by short process of time

are _altered_ into geese.” Munster, in his ‘Cosmographie,’ remembers

that in Scotland “are found trees which produce fruit rolled up in

leaves, and this, in due time, falling into water, which it overhangs,

is converted into a living bird, and hence the tree is called the

Goose-tree. The same tree grows in the island of Pomona. Lest you

should imagine that this is a fiction devised by modern writers, I

may mention that all cosmographists, particularly Saxo Grammaticus,

take notice of this tree.” Prof. Rennie says that Montbeillard seems

inclined to derive the name of Pomona from its being the orchard of

these goose-bearing trees. Fulgosus depicts the trees themselves

as resembling Willows, “as those who had seen them in Ireland and

Scotland” had informed him. To these particulars, Bauhin adds that, if

the leaves of this tree fall upon the land, they become birds; but if

into the water, then they are transmuted into fishes.

Maundevile speaks of the Barnacle-tree as a thing known and proved in

his time. He tells us, in his book, that he narrated to the somewhat

sceptical inhabitants of Caldilhe how that “in oure contre weren trees

that beren a fruyt that becomen briddes fleiynge: and thei that fallen

on the erthe dyen anon: and thei ben right gode to mannes mete.”

Aldrovandus gives a woodcut of these trees, in which the foliage

resembles that of Myrtles, while the strange fruit is large and

heart-shaped.

[Illustration: [TO FACE PAGE 118.

The Barnacle or Goose Tree.

_From ‘Aldrovandi Ornithologia.’_]

Gerarde also gives a figure of what he calls the “Goose-tree,

Barnacle-tree, or the tree bearing geese,” a reproduction of which

is annexed. And although he speaks of the goose as springing from

decayed wood, &c., the very fact of his introducing the tree into

the catalogue of his ‘Herbal,’ shows that he was, at least, divided

between the above-named opinions. “What our eyes have seen,” he

says, “and what our hands have touched, we shall declare. There is a

small island in Lancashire, called the Pile of Foulders, wherein are

found broken pieces of old ships, some whereof have been thrown thither

by shipwracke, and also the trunks and bodies, with the branches

of old and rotten trees cast up there likewise; whereon is found a

certain spume or froth, that in time breedeth unto certaine shells,

in shape like to those of the muskle, but sharper pointed, and of a

whitish colour, wherein is contained a thing in forme like a lace of

silke finely woven, as it were, together, of a whitish colour; one end

whereof is fastned unto the inside of the shell, even as the fish of

oisters and muskles are; the other end is made fast unto the belly of

a rude mass, or lumpe, which, in time, commeth to the shape and forme

of a bird. When it is perfectly formed, the shell gapeth open, and the

first thing that appeareth is the foresaid lace or string; next come

the legs of the bird hanging out, and as it groweth greater it openeth

the shell by degrees, till at length it is all come forth, and hangeth

onely by the bill; in short space after it commeth to full maturitie,

and falleth into the sea, where it gathereth feathers, and groweth to

a fowle bigger than a mallard and lesser than a goose, having blacke

legs and bill or beake, and feathers blacke and white, spotted in such

manner as is our magpie; called in some places a pie-annet, which the

people of Lancashire call by no other name than tree-goose; which place

aforesaid, and all those parts adjoyning, do so much abound therewith,

that one of the best is bought for threepence. For the truth hereof, if

any doubt, may it please them to repaire unto me, and I shall satisfie

them by the testimonie of good witnesses.

[Illustration: The Goose Tree. From _Gerarde’s Herbal_.]

Martin assures us that he had seen many of these fowls in the shells,

sticking to the trees by the bill, but acknowledges that he had never

descried any of them with life upon the tree, though the natives [of

the Orkney Isles] had seen them move in the heat of the sun.

In the ‘Cosmographiæ of Albioun,’ Boëce (to whom we have before

referred) considered the nature of the seas acting on old wood more

relevant to the creation of barnacle or claik geese than anything else.

“For,” he says, “all trees that are cassin into the seas, by process

of time appears at first worm-eaten, and in the small holes or bores

thereof grows small worms. First they show their head and neck, and

last of all they show their feet and wings. Finally, when they are come

to the just measure and quantity of geese, they fly in the air, as

other fowls wont, as was notably proven in the year of God one thousand

four hundred and eighty in the sight of many people beside the castle

of Pitslego.” He then goes on to describe how a tree having been cast

up by the sea, and split by saws, was found full of these geese, in

different stages of their growth, some being “perfect shapen fowls;”

and how the people, “having ylk day this tree in more admiration,” at

length deposited it in the kirk of St. Andrew’s, near Tyre.”

Among the more uninformed of the Scotch peasantry, there still exists a

belief that the Soland goose, or gannet, and not the bernicle, grows by

the bill on the cliffs of Bass, of Ailsa, and of St. Kilda.

Giraldus traces the origin of these birds to the gelatinous drops of

turpentine which appear on the branches of Fir-trees.

“A tree that bears oysters is a very extraordinary thing,” remarks

Bishop Fleetwood in his ‘Curiosities of Agriculture and Gardening’

(1707), “but the Dominican Du Tertre, in his Natural History of Antego,

assures us that he saw, at Guadaloupa, oysters growing on the branches

of trees. These are his very words. The oysters are not larger than

the little English oysters, that is to say, about the size of a crown

piece. They stick to the branches that hang in the water of a tree

called _Paretuvier_. No doubt the seed of the oysters, which is shed

in the tree when they spawn, cleaves to those branches, so that the

oysters form themselves there, and grow bigger in process of time,

and by their weight bend down the branches into the sea, and then are

refreshed twice a day by the flux and reflux of it.”

The Oyster-bearing Tree, however, is not the only marvel of which

the good Bishop has left a record: he tells us that near the island

Cimbalon there lies another, where grows a tree whose leaves, as they

fall off, change into animals: they are no sooner on the ground, than

they begin to walk like a hen, upon two little legs. Pigafetta says

that he kept one of these leaves eight days in a porringer; that it

took itself to walking as soon as he touched it; and that it lived only

upon the air. Scaliger, speaking of these very leaves, remarks,

as though he had been an eye-witness, that they walk, and march away

without further ado if anyone attempts to touch them. Bauhin, after

describing these wonderful leaves as being very like Mulberry-leaves,

but with two short and pointed feet on each side, remarks upon the

great prodigy of the leaf of a tree being changed into an animal,

obtaining sense, and being capable of progressive motion.

[Illustration: TO FACE PAGE 121.]

The Barometz, or Vegetable Lamb.

_From Zahn’s ‘Speculæ Physico-Mathematico-Historicæ.’_]

Kircher records that in his time a tree was said to exist in Chili,

the leaves of which produced worms; upon arriving at maturity, these

worms crawled to the edge of the leaf, and thence fell to the earth,

where after a time they became changed into serpents, which over-ran

the whole land. Kircher endeavours to explain this story of the

serpent-bearing tree by giving, as a reason for the phenomenon, that

the tree attached to itself, through its roots, moisture pregnant with

the seed of serpents. Through the action of the sun’s rays, and the

moisture of the tree, this serpent-spawn degenerates into worms, which

by contact with the earth become converted into living serpents.

The same authority states that in the Molucca islands, but more

particularly in Ternate, not far from the castle of the same name,

there grew a plant which he describes as having small leaves. To this

plant the natives gave the name of _Catopa_, because when its leaves

fall off they at once become changed into butterflies.

Doctor Darwin, in his botanical poem called ‘The Loves of the Plants,’

thus apostrophises an extraordinary animal-bearing plant:--

“Cradled in snow and fanned by Arctic air,

Shines, gentle Barometz! thy golden hair;

Rooted in earth, each cloven hoof descends,

And round and round her flexile neck she bends;

Crops the gray coral-moss and hoary Thyme,

Or laps with rosy tongue the melting rime,

Eyes with mute tenderness her distant dam,

Or seems to bleat, a vegetable Lamb.”

In the curious frontispiece to Parkinson’s ‘Paradisus,’ which will

be found reproduced at the commencement of this work, it will

be noticed that the Barometz, or Vegetable Lamb, is represented

as one of the plants growing in Eden. In Zahn’s _Speculæ

Physico-Mathematico-Historicæ_ (1696) is given a figure of this plant,

accompanied by a description, of which the following is a translation:--

“Very wonderful is the Tartarian shrub or plant which the natives call

_Boromez_, _i.e._, Lamb. It grows like a lamb to about the height of

three feet. It resembles a lamb in feet, in hoofs, in ears, and in the

whole head, save the horns. For horns, it possesses tufts of hair,

resembling a horn in appearance. It is covered with the thinnest bark,

which is taken off and used by the inhabitants for the protection of

their heads. They say that the inner pulp resembles lobster-flesh, and

that blood flows from it when it is wounded. Its root projects and

rises to the _umbilicus_. What renders the wonder more remarkable is

the fact that, when the _Boromez_ is surrounded by abundant herbage,

it lives as long as a lamb, in pleasant pastures; but when they become

exhausted, it wastes away and perishes. It is said that wolves have a

liking for it, while other carnivorous animals have not.”

Scaliger, in his _Exotericæ Exercitationes_, gives a similar

description, adding that it is not the fruit, the Melon, but the whole

plant, that resembles a lamb. This does not tally with the account

given by Odorico da Pordenone, an Indian traveller, who, before

the _Barometz_ had been heard of in Europe, appears to have been

informed that a plant grew on some island in the Caspian Sea which

bore Melon-like fruit resembling a lamb; and this tree is described

and figured by Sir John Maundevile, who, in speaking of the countries

and isles beyond Cathay, says that when travelling towards Bacharye

“men passen be a Kyngdom that men clepen Caldilhe; that is a fulle

fair Contree. And there growethe a maner of fruyt as thoughe it waren

Gowrdes; and whan thei ben rype, men kutten hem a to, and men fynden

with inne, a lytylle Best, in flessche, in bon, and blode, as though

it were a lytylle Lomb, with outen wolle. And men eten bothe the Frut

and the Best; and that is a gret marveylle. Of that Frute I have eten;

alle thoughe it were wonderfulle; but that I knowe wel that God is

marveyllous in his werkes.”

[Illustration: The Lamb Tree. From _Maundevile’s Travels_.]

Maundevile, who in his book has left a record of so many marvellous

things which he either saw or was told of during his Eastern travels,

mentions a certain Indian island in the land of Prester John, where

grew wild trees which produced Apples of such potent virtue that the

islanders lived by the mere smell of them: moreover if they went on a

journey, the men “beren the Apples with hem: for yif thei hadde lost

the savour of the Apples thei scholde dyen anon.” In another island in

the same country, Sir John was told were the Trees of the Sun and of

the Moon that spake to King Alexander, and warned him of his death.

Moreover, it was commonly reported that “the folk that kepen the trees,

and eten of the frute and of the bawme that growethe there, lyven wel

400 yere or 500 yere, be vertue of the fruit and of the bawme.” In

Egypt the old traveller heard of the Apple-tree of Adam, “that hav a

byte at on of the sydes;” there also he saw Pharaoh’s Figs, which grew

upon trees without leaves; and there also he tells us are gardens that

have trees and herbs in them which bear fruit seven times in the year.

One of the most celebrated of fabulous trees is that which grew in

the garden of the Hesperides, and produced the golden Apples which

Hercules, with the assistance of Atlas, was able to carry off. Another

classic tree is that bearing the golden branch of Virgil, which is by

some identified with the Mistletoe. Among other celebrated mythical

trees may be named the prophetic Oaks of the Dodonæan grove; the

Singing Tree of the ‘Arabian Nights,’ every leaf of which was a mouth

and joined in concert; and the Poet’s Tree referred to by Moore, in

‘Lalla Rookh,’ which grows over the tomb of Tan-Sein, a musician of

incomparable skill at the court of Akbar, and of which it is said that

whoever chews a leaf will have extraordinary melody of voice.

Wondrous Plants.

In Bishop Fleetwood’s curious work, to which reference has already been

made, we find many extraordinary trees and plants described, some of

which are perhaps worthy of a brief notice. He tells us of a wonderful

metal-sapped tree known as the _Mesonsidereos_, which grows in Java,

and even there is very scarce. Instead of pith, this tree has an iron

wire that comes out of the root, and rises to the top of the tree. “But

the best of all is, that whoever carries about him a piece of this

ferruginous pith is invulnerable to any sword or iron whatever.” In

_Hirnaim de Typho_ this tree is said to produce fruit impenetrable by

iron.

There are some trees that must have fire to nourish them. Methodius

states that he saw on the top of the mountain Gheschidago (the Olympus

of the ancients), near the city of Bursa, in Natolia, a lofty tree,

whose roots were spread amidst the fire that issues from the vents of

the earth; but whose leafy and luxuriant boughs spread their shade

around, in scorn of the flames in the midst of which it grew.

This vegetable salamander finds its equal in a plant described by

Nieuhoff as growing in rocky and stony places in the kingdom of Tanju,

in Tartary. This extraordinary plant cannot be either ignited or

consumed by fire; for although it becomes hot, and on account of the

heat becomes glowing red in the fire, yet so soon as heat is removed,

it grows cold, and regains its former appearance: in water, however,

this plant is wont to become quite putrid.

Of a nature somewhat akin to these fire-loving plants must be the

Japanese Palm, described by A. Montanus. This tree is said to shun

moisture to such an extent, that if its trunk be in the least wet,

it at once pines away and perishes as though it had been poisoned.

However, if this arid tree be taken up by the roots, throughly dried in

the sun, and re-planted with sand and iron filings around it, it will

once more flourish, and become covered with new branches and leaves,

provided that so soon as it has been re-planted, the old leaves are cut

off with an iron instrument and fastened to the trunk.

The Bishop remarks that “one of the most wonderful plants is that which

so mollifies the bones, that when we have eaten of it we cannot stand

upon our legs. An ox who has tasted of it cannot go; his bones grow so

pliant, that you may bend his legs like a twig of Ozier. The remedy is

to make him swallow some of the bones of an animal who died from eating

of that herb: ’tis certain death, and cannot be otherwise, for the

teeth grow soft immediately, and ’tis impossible even to eat again.”

“There is a plant that produces a totally opposite effect. It hardens

the bones to a wondrous degree. A man who has chewed some of it, will

have his teeth so hard as to be able to reduce flints and pebbles into

impalpable powder.”

Maundevile describes some wonderful Balm-trees that in his time grew

near Cairo, in a field wherein were seven wells “that oure Lord Jesu

Christ made with on of His feet, whan He wente to pleyen with other

children.” The balm obtained from these trees was considered so

precious, that no one but the appointed tenders was allowed to approach

them. Christians alone were permitted to till the ground in which they

grew, as if Saracens were employed, the trees would not yield; and

moreover it was necessary that men should “kutten the braunches with a

scharp flyntston or with a scharp bon, whanne men wil go to kutte hem:

For who so kutte hem with iren, it wolde destroye his vertue and his

nature.”

The old knight has left a record of his impressions of the country near

the shores of the Dead Sea, and has given a sketch of those Apple-trees

of which Byron wrote--

“Like to the Apples on the Dead Sea’s shore,

All ashes to the taste.”

These trees producing Dead Sea fruit he tells us bore “fulle faire

Apples, and faire of colour to behold; but whoso brekethe hem or

cuttethe hem in two, he schalle fynd with in hem Coles and Cyndres, in

tokene that, be wratthe of God, the cytees and the lond weren brente

and sonken in to Helle.”

[Illustration: Dead Sea Fruit. From _Maundevile’s Travels_.]

In Zahn’s _Speculæ Physico-Mathematico-Historicæ_ we read of a peculiar

Mexican tree, called _Tetlatia_ or _Gao_, which causes both men and

animals to lose their hair if they rub themselves against its trunk

or sleep beneath its branches. Then we are told of a tree growing in

Sofala, Africa, which yields no leaf during the whole year, but if a

branch be cut off and placed in water, it grows green in ten hours, and

produces abundance of leaves. Again, we read of the _Zeibas_, immense

trees “in the new Kingdom of Granada,” which fifteen men could scarcely

encompass with their arms; and which, wonderful to relate, cast all

their leaves every twelve hours, and soon afterwards acquire other

leaves in their place.

A certain tree is described as growing in America, which bears flowers

like a heart, consisting of many white leaves, which are red within,

and give forth a wonderfully sweet fragrance: these flowers are said to

comfort and refresh the heart in a remarkable manner. A curious account

is given of a plant, which Nierenbergius states grows in Bengal, which

attracts wood so forcibly, that it apparently seizes it from the hands

of men. A similar plant is said to exist in the island of Zeilan,

which, if placed between two pieces of wood, each distant twenty paces

from it, will draw them together and unite them.

Respecting the _Boriza_, a plant also known as the _Lunaria_ or Lunar

Herb, Zahn states that it is so called because it increases and

decreases according to the changes of the moon: for when the moon is

one day old, this plant has one leaf, and increases the number of

leaves in proportion to the moon’s age until it is fifteen days old;

then, as the moon decreases, its leaves one by one fall off. In the

no-moon period, being deprived of all its leaves, it hides itself. Just

as the _Boriza_ is influenced by the moon, so are certain shrubs under

the sway of the sun. These shrubs are described as growing up daily

from the sand until noon, when they gradually diminish, and finally

return to the earth at sunset.

Gerarde tells us that among the wonders of England, worthy of great

admiration, is a kind of wood, called Stony Wood, alterable into the

hardness of a stone by the action of water. This strange alteration of

Nature, he adds, is to be seen in sundry parts of England and Wales;

and then he relates how he himself “being at Rougby (about such time

as our fantasticke people did with great concourse and multitudes

repaire and run headlong unto the sacred wells of Newnam Regis, in the

edge of Warwickshire, as unto the water of life, which could cure all

diseases),” went from thence unto these wells, “where I found growing

ouer the same a faire Ashe-tree, whose boughs did hang ouer the spring

of water, whereof some that were seare and rotten, and some that of

purpose were broken off, fell into the water and were all turned into

stones. Of these boughes or parts of the tree I brought into London,

which when I had broken in pieces, therein might be seene that the pith

and all the rest was turned into stones, still remaining the same shape

and fashion that they were of before they were in the water.”

[Illustration: The Stone Tree. From _Gerarde’s Herbal_.]

In Hainam, a Chinese island, grows a certain tree known as the Fig of

Paradise. Its growth is peculiar: from the centre of a cluster of six

or seven leaves springs a branch with no leaves, but a profusion of

fruit resembling Figs. The leaves of this tree are so large and so far

apart, that a man could easily wrap himself up in them; hence it is

supposed that our first parents, after losing their innocence, clothed

themselves with the leaves of a tree of this species.

The island of Ferro, one of the Canaries, is said to be without rivers,

fountains, and wells. However, it has a peculiar tree, as Metellus

mentions, surrounded by walls like a fountain. It resembles the

Nut-tree; and from its leaves there drops water which is drinkable by

cattle and men. A certain courtesan of the island, when it was first

subdued, made it known to the Spaniards. Her perfidy, however, is said

to have been discovered and punished with death by her own people.

Bishop Fleetwood gives the following description, by Hermannus

Nicolaus, of what he calls the Distillatory Plant:--“Great are the

works of the Lord, says the wise man; we cannot consider them without

ravishment. The Distillatory Plant is one of these prodigies of nature,

which we cannot behold without being struck with admiration. And what

most surprises me is the delicious nectar, with which it has often

supplied me in so great abundance to refresh me when I was thirsty to

death and unsufferably weary.... But the greatest wonder of it is the

little purse, or if you will, a small vessel, as long and as big as the

little finger, that is at the end of each leaf. It opens and shuts with

a little lid that is fastened to the top of it. These little purses

are full of a cool, sweet, clear cordial and very agreeable water.

The kindness this liquor has done me when I have been parched up with

thirst, makes me always think of it with pleasure. One plant yields

enough to refresh and quench the thirst of a man who is very dry. The

plant attracts by its roots the moisture of the earth, which the sun

by his heat rarifies and raises up through the stem and the branches

into the leaves, where it filtrates itself to drop into the little

recipients that are at the end of them. This delicious sap remains in

these little vessels till it be drawn out; and it must be observed

that they continue close shut till the liquor be well concocted and

digested, and open of themselves when the juice is good to drink.

’Tis of wonderful virtue to extinguish speedily the heats of burning

fevers. Outwardly applied, it heals ring-worms, St. Anthony’s Fire, and

inflammations.”

Plants Bearing Inscriptions and Figures.

Gerarde has told us that in the root of the Brake Fern, the figure of

a spread-eagle may be traced; and Maundevile has asserted that the

fruit of the Banana, cut it how you will, exhibits a representation

of the Holy Cross. L. Sarius, in his Chronicles to the year 1559,

records that, in Wales, an Ash was uprooted during a tempest, and in

its massive trunk, rent asunder by the violence of the storm, a cross

was plainly depicted, about a foot long. This cross remained for many

years visible in the shattered trunk of the Ash, and was regarded

with superstitious awe by the Catholics as having been Divinely sent

to reprove the officious zeal of Queen Elizabeth in banishing sacred

images from the Churches.

In Zahn’s work is an account--“resting on the sworn testimony of the

worthiest men,” and on the authority of an archbishop--of the holy name

JESU found in a Beech that had been felled near Treves. The youth, who

was engaged in chopping up this tree, observed while doing so, a cloud

or film surrounding the pith of the wood. Astonished at the sight, he

called his uncle Hermann, who noticed at once the sacred name in a

yellow colour, changing to black. Hermann carried the wood home to his

wife, who had long been an invalid, and she, regarding it as a precious

relic, received much comfort, and finally, in answer to daily prayer,

her strength was restored. After this, the wood was presented to the

Elector Maximilian Henry, who was so struck with the phenomenon, that

he had it placed in a rich silver covering, and publicly exposed as

a sacred relic in a church; and on the spot where the tree was cut,

he caused a chapel to be erected, to preserve the name of Jesu in

everlasting remembrance.

In the same work, we are told that in a certain root, called

_Ophoides_, a serpent is clearly represented; that the root of

_Astragalus_ depicts the stars; that in the trunk of the _Quiacus_,

a dog’s head was found delineated, together with the perfect figure

of a bird; that the trunk of a tree, when cut, displayed on its inner

surface eight Danish words; that in a Beech cut down by a joiner, was

found the marvellous representation of a thief hanging on a gibbet;

and that in another piece of wood adhering to the former was depicted

a ladder such as was used in those days by public executioners: these

figures were distinctly delineated in a black tint. In 1628, in the

wood of a fruit-tree that had been cut down near Haarlem, in Holland,

the images of bishops, tortoises, and many other things were seen;

and one Schefferus, a physician, has recorded that near the same

place, a piece of wood was found in which there was given “a wonderful

representation by Nature of a most orderly star with six rays.” Evelyn,

in his ‘Sylva,’ speaks of a tree found in Holland, which, being cleft,

exhibited the figures of a chalice, a priest’s alb, his stole, and

several other pontifical vestments. Of this sort, he adds, was an

Oxfordshire Elm, “a block of which wood being cleft, there came out

a piece so exactly resembling a shoulder of veal, that it was worthy

to be reckoned among the curiosities of this nature.” Evelyn also

notices a certain dining-table made of an old Ash, whereon was figured

in the wood fish, men, and beasts. In the root of a white Briony was

discovered the perfect image of a human being: this curious root was

preserved in the Museum at Bologna. Many examples of human figures in

the roots of Mandrakes have been known, and Aldrovandus tell us that he

was presented with a Mandrake-root, in which the image was perfect.

Vegetable Monstrosities.

It is related that, in the year 1670, there was exposed for sale,

in the public market of Vratislavia, an extraordinary wild Bugloss,

which, on account of the curiosity of the spectators and the different

superstitious speculations of the crowd, was regarded not only as

something monstrous but also as marvellous. This Bugloss was a little

tortuous and 25 inches in length. Its breadth was 4 inches. It

possessed a huge and very broad stem, the fibres of which ran parallel

to each other in a direct line. It bore flowers in the greatest

abundance, and had at least one root.

Aldrovandus, in his _Liber de Monstris_, describes Grapes with beards,

which were seen in the year 1541 in Germany, in the province of

Albersweiler. They were sent as a present, first to Louis, Duke of

Bavaria, and then to King Ferdinand and other princes.

Zahn figures, in his work, a Pear of unusual size which was gathered

from a tree growing in the Royal Garden at Stuttgart, towards the

close of June, 1644. This Pear strongly resembled a human face, with

the features distinctly delineated, and at the end, forming a sort of

crown, were eight small leaves and two young shoots with a blossom at

the apex of each. This curious and unique vegetable monstrosity was

presented to his Serene Highness the Prince of Wurtemburg.

In the same book is given a description of a monstrous Rape--bearing

a striking resemblance to the figure of a man seated, and exhibiting

perfectly body, arms, and head, on which the sprouting foliage took

the place of hair. This Rape grew in the garden of a nobleman in the

province of Weiden, in the year 1628.

Mention is made of a _Daucus_ which was planted and became unusually

large in size. Some pronounced it to be a Parsnip, having a yellow

root, and thin leaves. This Parsnip had an immense root, like a human

hand, which, from its peculiar growth, had the appearance of grasping

the _Daucus_ itself.

In Zahn’s book are recorded many other vegetable marvels: amongst

them is the case of a Reed growing in the belly of an elephant; a ear

of Wheat in the nose of an Italian woman; Oats in the stomach of a

soldier; and various grains found in wounds and ulcers, in different

parts of the human body.

Miraculous Trees and Plants.

There are some few plants which have at different times been

prominently brought into notice by their intimate association with

miracles. Such a one was the branch of the Almond-tree forming the rod

of Aaron, which, when placed by Moses in the Tabernacle, miraculously

budded and blossomed in the night, as a sign that its owner should

be chosen for High Priest. Such, again, was the staff of Joseph of

Arimathea, which, when driven, one Christmas-day, into the ground

at Glastonbury, took root and produced a Thorn-tree, which always

blossomed on that day. Such, again, was the staff of St. Martin, from

which sprang up a goodly Yew, in the cloister of Vreton, in Brittany;

and such was the staff of St. Serf, which, thrown by him across the

sea from Inchkeith to Culross, straightway took root and became an

Apple-tree.

In the same category must be included the tree miraculously secured by

St. Thomas, the apostle of the Indians, and from which he was enabled

to construct a church, inasmuch as when the sawdust emitted by the

tree when being sawn was sown, trees sprang up therefrom. The tree

(represented as being a species of _Kalpadruma_) was hewn on the Peak

of Adam, in Ceylon, by two servants of St. Thomas, and dragged by

him into the sea, where he appears to have left it with the command,

“_Vade, expecta nos in portu civitatis Mirapolis._” ... When it reached

its destination, this tree had grown to such an enormous bulk, that

although the king and his army of ten thousand troops, with many

elephants, did their utmost to secure it and drag it on shore, they

were unable to move it. Mortified at his failure, the king descried

the holy Apostle Thomas approaching, riding upon an ass. The holy

Apostle was accompanied by his two servants, and by two great lions.

“Forbear,” said he, addressing the king: “Touch not the wood, for it is

mine.” “How can you prove it is yours?” enquired the king. Then Thomas,

loosing his girdle, threw it to the two servants, and bade them tie it

around the tree; this they speedily did, and, with the assistance of

the lions, dragged the huge trunk ashore. The king was astonished and

convinced by the miracle, and at once offered to Thomas as much land

whereon to erect a church to his God as he cared to ride round on his

ass. So with the aid of the miraculous tree the Apostle Thomas set to

work to build his church. When his workmen were hungry he took some of

the sawdust of the tree, and converted it into Rice; when they demanded

payment, he broke off a small piece of the wood, which instantly became

changed into money.

Popular tradition has everywhere preserved the remembrance of a certain

_Arbor secco_, which, according to Marco Polo, Frate Odorico, and

the Book of Sidrach, existed in the East. This _Arbor secco_ of the

Christians is the veritable Tree of the Sun of the ancient pagans.

Marco Polo calls the tree the Withered Tree of the Sun, and places

it in the confines of Persia; Odorico, near Sauris. According to

Maundevile, the tree had existed at Mamre from the beginning of the

world. It was an Oak, and had been held in special veneration since the

time of Abraham. The Saracens called it _Dirpe_, and the people of the

country, the Withered Tree, because from the date of the Passion of Our

Lord, it has been withered, and will remain so until a Prince of the

West shall come with the Christians to conquer the Holy Land: then “he

shalle do synge a masse undir that dry tree, and than the tree shalle

waxen grene and bere bothe fruyt and leves.” Fra Mauro, in his map of

the world, represents the Withered Tree in the middle of Central Asia.

It has been surmised that this Withered Tree is no other than that

alluded to by the Prophet Ezekiel (xvii., 24): “And all the trees of

the field shall know that I the Lord have brought down the high tree,

have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree.”

[Illustration: Arbor Secco, or The Withered Tree. From _Maundevile’s

Travels_.]

Sulpicius Severus relates that an abbot, in order to test the patience

of a novice, planted in the ground a branch of Styrax that he chanced

to have in his hand, and commanded the Novice to water it every day

with water to be obtained from the Nile, which was two miles from the

monastery. For two years the novice obeyed his superior’s injunction

faithfully, going every day to the banks of the river, and carrying

back on his shoulder a supply of Nile water wherewith to water the

apparently lifeless branch. At length, however, his steadfastness was

rewarded, for in the third year the branch miraculously shot out very

fine leaves, and afterwards produced flowers. The historian adds that

he saw in the monastery some slips of the same tree, which they took

delight to cultivate as a memento of what the Almighty had been pleased

to do to reward the obedience of his servant.

Another miraculous tree is alluded to in Fleetwood’s ‘Curiosities,’

where, on the authority of Philostratus, the author describes a certain

talking Elm of Ethiopia, which, during a discussion held under its

branches between Apollonius and Thespesio, chief of the Gymnosophists,

reverently “bowed itself down and saluted Apollonius, giving him the

title of Wise, with a distinct but weak and shrill voice, like a woman.”

The blind man to whom our Saviour restored his sight said, at first,

“I see men walking as if they were trees!” one Anastasius of Nice,

however, has recorded that, oppositely, he had seen trees walk as if

they were men. Bishop Fleetwood remarks that this Anastasius, being

persuaded that by miraculous means our neighbours’ trees may be brought

into our own field, relates that a heretic of Zizicum, of the sect of

the Pneumatomachians, had, by the virtue of his art, brought near to

his own house a great Olive-tree belonging to one of his neighbours,

that he and his disciples might have the benefit of the freshness of

the shade to protect them from the heat of the sun. By this art, also,

it was that the plantation of Olives, belonging to Vectidius, changed

its place.

Maundevile has preserved a record of a tree of miraculous origin, that

in his time grew in the city of Tiberias. The old knight writes:--“In

that cytee a man cast an brennynge [a burning] dart in wratthe after

oure Lord, and the hed smote in to the eerthe, and wex grene, and it

growed to a gret tree; and yit it growethe, and the bark there of is

alle lyke coles.”

[Illustration: Miraculous Tree of Tiberias. From _Maundevile’s

Travels_.]

Among flowers, the Rose--the especial flower of martyrdom--has been

the most connected with miracles. Maundevile gives it a miraculous

origin, alleging that at Bethlehem the faggots lighted to burn an

innocent maiden were, owing to her earnest prayers, extinguished and

miraculously changed into bushes which bore the first Roses, both

white and red. According to monastic tradition, the martyr-saint

Dorothea sent a basket of Roses miraculously to the notary Theophilus,

from the garden of Paradise. The Romish legend of St. Cecilia relates

that after Valerian, her husband, had been converted and baptised by

St. Urban, he returned to his home, and heard, as he entered it, the

most enchanting music. On reaching his wife’s apartment, he beheld

an angel standing near her, who held in his hand two crowns of Roses

gathered in Paradise, immortal in their freshness and perfume, but

invisible to the eyes of unbelievers. With these the angel encircled

the brows of Cecilia and Valerian, and promised that the eyes of

Tiburtius, Valerian’s brother, should be opened to the truth. Then he

vanished. Soon afterwards Tiburtius entered the chamber, and perceiving

the fragrance of the celestial Roses, but not seeing them, and knowing

that it was not the season for flowers, he was astonished, yielded to

the fervid appeal of St. Cecilia, and became a Christian.

St. Elizabeth, of Hungary, is always represented with Roses in her

lap or hand, in allusion to a legend which relates that this saint,

the type of female charity, one day, in the depth of winter, left

her husband’s castle, carrying in the skirts of her robe a supply of

provisions for a certain poor family; and as she was descending the

frozen and slippery path, her husband, returning from the chase, met

her bending under the weight of her charitable burden. “What dost thou

here, my Elizabeth?” he asked: “let us see what thou art carrying

away.” Then she, confused and blushing to be so discovered, pressed

her mantle to her bosom; but he insisted, and opening her robe, he

beheld only red and white Roses, more beautiful and fragrant than any

that grow on this earth, even at summer-tide, and it was now the depth

of winter! Turning to embrace his wife, he was so overawed by the

supernatural glory exhibited on her face, that he dared not touch her;

but, bidding her proceed on her mission, he took one of the Roses of

Paradise from her lap, and placed it reverently in his breast.

Trithemius narrates that Albertus Magnus, in the depths of winter, gave

to King William on the festival of Epiphany a most elegant banquet in

the little garden of his Monastery. Suddenly, although the monastery

itself was covered with snow, the atmosphere in the garden became

balmy, the trees became covered with leaves, and even produced ripe

fruit--each tree after its kind. A Vine sent forth a sweet odour and

produced fresh grapes in abundance, to the amazement of everyone.

Flocks of birds of all kinds were attracted to the spot, and, rejoicing

at the summer-like temperature, burst into song. At length, the

wonderful entertainment came to an end, the tables were removed, and

the servants all retired from the grounds. Then the singing of the

birds ceased, the green of the trees, shrubs, and grasses speedily

faded and withered, the flowers drooped and perished, the masses of

snow which had so strangely disappeared now covered everything, and a

piercing cold of great intensity obliged the king and his fellow-guests

to seek shelter and warmth within the Monastery walls. Greatly

astonished and moved at what he had seen, King William called Albertus

to him, and promised to grant him whatever he might request. Albertus

asked for land in the State of Utrecht, whereon to erect a Monastery of

his own order. His request was granted, and he also obtained from the

King many other favours.

It is recorded that on the same day that Alexander de’ Medici, the

Duke of Florence, was treacherously killed, in the Villa of Cosmo de’

Medici, an abundance of all kinds of flowers burst into bloom, although

quite out of the flowering season; and on that day the Cosmian gardens

alone appeared gay with flowers, as though Spring had come.

Father Garnet’s Straw.