"Merlin! Merlin! turn again;
Leave the oak-branch where it grew.
Seek no more the cress to gain,
Nor the herb of golden hue."
Merlin, the reputed great enchanter, flourished in Britain about the fifth
century. He is said to have resided in great pomp at the court of "Good
King Arthur." You all know the beautiful rhyme about the latter, if not
about "Merlin! Merlin!" etc.
"When good King Arthur ruled the land,--
He was a goodly king,--
He stole three pecks of barley-meal
To make a bag pudding."
Sublime poetry! Easy mode of obtaining the barley-meal (or Scotch
territory). Merlin attached many superstitious beliefs to some of our
medicinal plants. The "cress" is supposed to be the mistletoe. "The herb
of gold"--golden herb--was a rare plant, held in great esteem by the
peasant women of Brittany, who affirmed that it shone like gold at a
distance. It must be gathered by or before daybreak.
The most ridiculous part of the affair was in the searching for the "herb
of golden hue." None but devout females, blessed by the priests for the
occasion, were permitted the great privilege of gathering it. In order to
be successful in the search, the privileged person started before
daylight, barefooted, bareheaded, and _en chemise_. (Of course the priest
knew the individual, and when she was going.) The root must not be cut or
broken, but pulled up entire. If any one trod upon the plant, he or she
would fall into a trance, when they could understand the language of fowls
and animals--a belief not half as ridiculous as that of the present day,
that a person may fall into a trance, and understand the language of the
dead; yes, dead and decayed, the organs of speech gone! Yet thousands
believe such stuff to-day.
_The Mandrake._--Great superstition was formerly attached to this root,
and even now is, in some rural districts. The root often resembles the
lower half of a human being, and it was credulously believed it would
shriek and groan when pulled from its mother earth. This notion is
expressed in Romeo and Juliet:--
"Mandrakes, torn out of the earth,
That mortals, hearing them, run mad."