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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Storyology, by Benjamin Taylor
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Storyology
+       Essays in Folk-Lore, Sea-Lore, and Plant-Lore
+
+
+Author: Benjamin Taylor
+
+
+
+Release Date: September 6, 2009  [eBook #29921]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STORYOLOGY***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Stephanie Eason, and the
+Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+(http://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+STORYOLOGY:
+
+Essays in Folk-Lore, Sea-Lore, and Plant-Lore
+
+by
+
+BENJAMIN TAYLOR.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+London:
+Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster Row, E.C.
+1900.
+
+
+
+
+  To
+  HER MEMORY
+  IN
+  WHOSE DEAR COMPANIONSHIP
+  THESE PAPERS
+  WERE WRITTEN
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The principal object of this Foreword is to inform the expert
+Folkloreist and the case-hardened Mythologist (comparative or otherwise)
+that the following pages are intended for those who, being neither
+expert nor case-hardened, come under that gracious and catholic
+term--general reader. The writer addresses not the scholiast, but the
+ordinary person who likes to read about what he has not time to study.
+
+Some portion of what is here printed has appeared in a once popular
+magazine now defunct. The author hastens to add, for the relief of the
+irreverent, that the journal long survived the ordeal of the
+publication. Nevertheless this book appears on its merits, or otherwise,
+and seeks no support from past attainment. Neither does it make any
+pretension to originality of matter or method, though it may, perhaps,
+contain one or two new ideas.
+
+It is unnecessary to add that the publication is made only at the
+tearful entreaty of multitudinous friends. That, of course, is well
+understood among myth-hunters.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+       CHAPTER                            PAGE
+
+        PREFACE                            vii
+
+     I. STORYOLOGY                           1
+
+    II. THE MAGIC WAND                      23
+
+   III. THE MAGIC MIRROR                    41
+
+    IV. THE MAGIC MOON                      58
+
+     V. THE DEVIL'S CANDLE                  78
+
+    VI. THE SEA AND ITS LEGENDS             91
+
+   VII. MOTHER CAREY AND HER CHICKENS      104
+
+  VIII. DAVY JONES'S LOCKER                113
+
+    IX. SOME FLOWERS OF FANCY              121
+
+     X. ROSEMARY FOR REMEMBRANCE           137
+
+    XI. HERB OF GRACE                      149
+
+   XII. THE ROMANCE OF A VEGETABLE         163
+
+  XIII. THE STORY OF A TUBER               176
+
+   XIV. THE CENTRE OF THE WORLD            188
+
+        INDEX                              201
+
+
+
+
+STORYOLOGY.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+STORYOLOGY.
+
+
+I.
+
+What is a myth?
+
+According to Webster, it is 'a fabulous or imaginary statement or
+narrative conveying an important truth, generally of a moral or
+religious nature: an allegory, religious or historical, of spontaneous
+growth and popular origin, generally involving some supernatural or
+superhuman claim or power; a tale of some extraordinary personage or
+country that has been gradually formed by, or has grown out of, the
+admiration and veneration of successive generations.' Here is a choice
+of three definitions, but not one of them is by itself satisfying. Let
+us rather say that a myth is a tradition in narrative form, more or less
+current in more or less differing garb among different races, to which
+religious or superhuman significations may be ascribable. We say 'may
+be' ascribable because, although the science of comparative mythology
+always seeks for such significations, it is probable that the modern
+interpretations are often as different from the original meaning as
+certain abstruse 'readings' of Shakespeare are from the poet's own
+thoughts.
+
+In their introduction to Tales of the Teutonic Lands, Cox and Jones
+declare that the whole series of Arthurian legends are pure myths. These
+tales, they say, can be 'traced back to their earliest forms in phrases
+which spoke not of men and women, but of the Dawn which drives her white
+herds to their pastures'--the white clouds being the guardians of the
+cattle of the Sun--'of the Sun which slays the dew whom he loves, of the
+fiery dragon which steals the cattle of the lord of light, or the Moon
+which wanders with her myriad children through the heaven.' It is
+claimed that 'a strict etymological connection has been established'
+with regard to a large number of these and similar stories, 'but the
+link which binds the myth of the Hellenic Hephaistos with that of the
+Vedic Agni justifies the inference that both these myths reappear in
+those of Regin and of Wayland, or, in other words, that the story of the
+Dame of the Fine Green Kirtle is the story of Medeia, and that the tale
+of Helen is the legend of the loves of Conall Gulban. Elsewhere one
+reads that in the myth of Endymion, the Sun who has sunk to his
+dreamless sleep, the Moon appears as Asterodia journeying with her fifty
+daughters through the sky. 'In the Christian myth she becomes St. Ursula
+with her eleven thousand virgins--this Ursula again appearing in the
+myth of Tannhäuser, as the occupant of the Horselberg, and as the fairy
+queen in the tale of True Thomas of Ercildoune.' By the same method of
+comparative mythology, the whole series of the Arthurian stories are
+placed 'in that large family of heroic legends which have their origin
+in mythical phrases describing the phenomena of the outward world, and
+more especially those of the day and of the year.'
+
+This seems hard, for it compels us to believe that our remote ancestors
+were very much more intelligent, and imaginative, and poetical, and
+religious than anything else which they have sent down to us would have
+suggested. It is true that Cox and Jones do not deny that the names
+which figure in many of these legends, as in those of Greece, may have
+been the names of real personages, but yet the narrative, they say, must
+not be taken as historical. This may be true, but in what sense can we
+regard it as more probable that the story-makers invented allegories,
+and clothed them with the names of contemporary or preceding heroes,
+than that they invented tales of wonder to fit these heroes? Is it
+easier to believe, for instance, that Arthur came after the myths, and
+was tacked on to them, than that the myths, or stories, came after
+Arthur, and were tacked on to him? Is there anything in the story of St.
+Ursula and her virgins which could not have had natural 'spontaneous
+growth' in an age of deep devotional faith in miracles, that we must be
+compelled to regard it as purely a mediævalized version of the Greek
+myth of the sun and moon?
+
+I am not writing for experts and scholars, and therefore do not use the
+scientific terms and allusions familiar to students of these matters. I
+am merely writing for ordinary persons, who are often puzzled and pained
+by the extraordinary meanings which specialists contrive to twist out of
+simple and familiar things. It is not too much to say that the
+professional mythologists are among the most troublesome meddlers who
+disturb the repose of '_the average reader_.' Even Mr. Ruskin suffers in
+this connection. In The Queen of the Air he has given us one of his most
+delightful books, but there are probably few, outside the circle of
+philologists and comparative mythologists, who have not thought in
+reading the lovely interpretations of the myths of Athena, that there
+was more of Ruskin than of the Ancient Greek in the meaning evolved.
+Somehow, it seems easier to think that these things were conceived by a
+Professor of Art in the nineteenth century, than that they were the
+deliberate convictions of a primitive people ever so many centuries
+before Christ--a people, too, known to be steeped in sensualities, and
+addicted to very barbarous practices.
+
+Are there, then, reasons for supposing that comparative mythologists are
+not always right--that, in fact, their science is but a doubtful science
+after all? Mr. Andrew Lang boldly says that there are. In Custom and
+Myth his object is to show the connection between savage customs--or
+rather the customs of savage and uncivilized races--and ancient myths.
+But before this branch of Storyology is reached, we must consider the
+question of the relation between our familiar nursery-tales, the
+folk-lore of our own and other countries, and the old romances, with
+these same myths. There is something more than monotony in the theory
+which 'resolves most of our old romances into a series of remarks about
+the weather.' The author of Primitive Culture (Mr. Tylor) rebels against
+this theory. There is no legend, no allegory, no nursery-rhyme, he says,
+safe from it, and, as an amusing illustration, he supposes the Song of
+Sixpence to be thus interpreted by the mythologists. Obviously, the
+four-and-twenty blackbirds are four-and-twenty hours, and the pie to
+hold them is the underlying earth covered with the over-arching sky. How
+true a touch of nature is it, 'when the pie is opened,' that is, when
+day breaks, 'the birds begin to sing!' The King is the Sun, and his
+'counting out his money' is pouring out the sunshine, the golden shower
+of Danae; the Queen is the Moon, and her transparent honey the
+moonlight. The maid is the rosy-fingered Dawn, who rises before the Sun,
+her master, and hangs out the clothes (the clouds) across the sky; the
+particular blackbird who so tragically ends the tale, by 'nipping off
+her nose,' is the hour of sunrise. The time-honoured rhyme really wants,
+as Mr. Tylor remarks, only one thing to prove it a sun-myth, and that
+one thing is some other proof than a mere argument from analogy.
+
+The same proof is wanting for those who would argue that the story of
+Red Riding Hood is only another dawn-myth. Mr. Hussin holds this view,
+but is not the story of the Cat and the Well capable of the same kind of
+reading? Pussy is the earth; Tommy, who shoves her into the well, is the
+evening or twilight; the well is Night; Johnny Stout is the Dawn who
+pulls the earth out of darkness again. There is no limit to this kind of
+application of so elastic a theory. But the very ease with which such
+explanations can be attached to any nursery-rhyme or folk-tale should
+warn us against their probability. As Mr. Tylor says: 'Rash inferences
+which, on the strength of mere resemblances, derive episodes of myth
+from episodes of nature, must be regarded with utter distrust, for the
+student who has no more stringent criterion than this for his myths of
+sun, and sky, and dawn, will find them wherever it pleases him to seek
+them.'
+
+The mention of the story of Red Riding Hood suggests a familiar
+folk-tale, upon which that of Red Riding Hood may or may not have been
+founded, but which certainly forms the basis of a good many similar
+tales, and has been the subject of a good deal of wise exposition by the
+mythologists. In the story of the Wolf and the Seven Little Kids, as
+told by Grimm, there is a goat who goes out one day, leaving her seven
+little ones safely locked in the house, after warning them to beware of
+the wolf, whom she describes. The wolf comes begging for entrance,
+pretending to be their mother, but they distrust first his voice and
+then his black paws. He gets his paws whitened and comes back, showing
+them against the window as proof that he is indeed their mother.
+Therefore they open the door, and he swallows six of them, one after the
+other, without going through the ceremony of mastication. After this he
+goes back to the wood and falls asleep under a tree, where the
+disconsolate mother finds him. With the assistance of the seventh and
+youngest kid, who had escaped by hiding herself in the clock-case, the
+wolf is cut open, and the six kids jump out all alive and kicking.
+Stones are then placed in the wolf's stomach, and it is sewed up. When
+the wolf wakens he cannot account for the jumbling and tumbling in his
+stomach, so he goes to the well to get a drink. But the weight of the
+stones makes him top-heavy; he falls in and is drowned.
+
+Now, there is nothing more remarkable in this story than there is in
+scores of our nursery or household tales, in which not only animals but
+also inanimate objects are gifted with speech, and in which the love of
+the marvellous rises superior to natural laws.
+
+According to Cox, we must understand the myth of the Wolf and Kids thus:
+'The wolf is here the night, or the darkness, which tries to swallow up
+the seven days of the week, and actually swallows six. The seventh--the
+youngest--escapes by hiding herself in the clock-case; in other words,
+the week is not quite run out, and before it comes to an end, the mother
+of the goats unrips the wolf's stomach and places stones in it in place
+of the little goats, who come trooping out, as the days of the week
+begin again to run their course.'
+
+Very plausible this, from a comparative mythologist's point of view,
+and not easy to dispute--until we find that a similar tale is current
+all over the world where clock-cases are even yet unknown. We are told
+that the negroes of Georgia have such a legend; that the natives of
+Australia have one; that the Zulus have it; that the Indians of North
+America and of British Guiana, and the Malays, all have versions of it.
+In Brittany it is traceable in the legend of Gargantua; in Germany there
+are several variations; and in Greece it finds its counterpart in the
+legend of Saturn or Cronus. The Kaffirs tell the same story of a
+cannibal, but the way the negroes have it is like this: 'Old Mrs. Sow
+had five little pigs, whom she warned against the machinations of Brer
+Wolf. Old Mrs. Sow died, and each little pig built a house for himself.
+The youngest pig built the strongest house. Brer Wolf, by a series of
+stratagems, entrapped and devoured the four elder pigs. The youngest pig
+was the wisest, and would not let Brer Wolf come in by the door. He had
+to enter by way of the chimney, fell into a great fire the youngest pig
+had lighted, and was burned to death.' Here we have no clock-case, and
+no resurrection of the victims, but otherwise the _motif_ of the story
+is the same. Certainly the negroes did not receive this tale from the
+white races, and it seems equally certain that they had no notion of
+typifying the dawn or the night, or anything else, but only the popular
+notion among nearly all primitive peoples that the youngest is usually
+the most specially gifted and blessed.
+
+This is Mr. Lang's view: 'In the tale of the Wolf and the Seven Kids,
+the essence is found in the tricks whereby the wolf deceives his
+victims; in the victory of the goat; in the disgorging of the kids
+alive; and the punishment of the wolf (as of Cronus in Hesiod) by the
+stone which he is obliged to admit into his system. In these events
+there is nothing allegorical or mystical, no reference to sunrise or
+storms. The crude ideas and incidents are of world-wide range, and suit
+the fancy of the most backward nation.' The only thing in Grimm's tale
+which differs materially from those of 'world-wide range' is the
+clock-case--clearly a modern addition, but an item which forms an
+essential factor in Cox's definition of the 'myth.'
+
+So much by way of illustration; but dozens of tales might be produced,
+all pointing the same way. This is to the belief that, although stories
+have unquestionably been transmitted from race to race throughout the
+ages, and so have become widely distributed over the world, all the
+current nursery, or household, or folk, stories have not necessarily
+been so transmitted from some one creative race of myth-makers. We have
+just seen how an evidently modern interpolation (a clock-case) has come
+to be regarded as an essential part of a myth, and it is surely easier
+to believe that the other features are relics of some ancient customs of
+which we have no record, than that they bear the ingenious references to
+natural phenomena which the mythologists suppose.
+
+Max Müller holds that all the stories of princesses, imprisoned or
+enchanted, and delivered by young lovers, 'can be traced back to
+mythological tradition about the Spring being released from the bonds
+of Winter.' But he requires, first, to have the names of the personages
+of the story, because he traces the connection more by their etymology
+than by the incidents of the narrative--of which more anon. With regard
+to purely nursery or household tales, the question seems to resolve
+itself pretty much into this: Are they the remains of an older and
+higher mythology, or are they the foundations upon which the priests and
+medicine-men and minstrels of later ages built their myths? Are they, in
+short, surviving relics, or were they germs? The favourite scientific
+theory adopts the former view; I incline to the latter. There are many
+of the familiar folk-tales which it is impossible to explain, and there
+are many, doubtless, which are in some sort fragments of the old
+mythologies filtered to us through Greece. But, on the whole, it is more
+reasonable to conclude that the simple stories of the marvellous or
+irrational have their origin in 'the qualities of the uncivilized
+imagination.'
+
+Thus, with regard to the current superstitions of our peasantry and of
+the Highlanders, it is much more rational to consider them, as Dr.
+Robert Chambers did, as 'springing from a disposition of the human mind
+to account for actual appearances by some imagined history which the
+appearances suggest,' than as relics of the old-world mythologies. The
+untutored mind disregards the natural, even in these days of applied
+science. There is an old weir across the Tweed which the common people,
+forgetting the mill, that had disappeared, pointed out as the work of
+one of the imps of Michael Scott, the wizard. Wherever there are
+three-topped hills there is sure to be a legend of the work of this same
+Michael, or some other wizard. In the same way, deep, clear lakes exist
+in various parts of the country, concerning which traditions survive of
+cities lying at the bottom, submerged for their wickedness, or by the
+machinations of some evil spirit. Old buildings exist in many parts in
+such unfavourable situations that popular tradition can only account for
+the singularity by the operation of some unfriendly spirit transporting
+them from their original locality. Large solitary rocks off the coast,
+or on hilltops, have been deposited where they are by witches. Water
+springing from a rock by the roadside has always been the result of the
+stroke of some magician or saint. Large depressions on hillsides are
+generally the footprints of giants, like the mark left by Buddha's foot
+as he ascended to heaven, still to be seen on a hill in Ceylon. The
+circular green marks in the fields are the rings drawn by the fairies
+for their midnight dances, and a scaur or cliff bearing the marks of
+volcanic action or of lightning is invariably associated with some tale
+of diabolic fury. Almost every reader can add instances of natural
+appearances or effects idealized by the workings of the imagination of
+uncivilized or uncultivated minds.
+
+
+II.
+
+One of the most common forms of these idealized phenomena is that known
+as the 'Fairy-ring,' about which Nether Lochaber has said, in the
+Highlands of Scotland, 'We can perfectly understand how in the good old
+times, ere yet the schoolmaster was abroad, or science had become a
+popular plaything, people--and doubtless very honest, decent people,
+too--attributed those inexplicable emerald circles to supernatural
+agency; if, indeed, anything connected with the "good folks" or "men of
+peace" could properly be called supernatural in times when a belief in
+fairies and every sort of fairy freak and frolic was deemed the most
+correct and natural thing in the world. Did not these circles, it was
+argued, appear in the course of a single night? In the sequestered
+woodland glade, nor herd nor milkmaid could see anything odd or unusual
+as the sun went down, and lo! next morning, as they drove their flocks
+afield, there was the mysterious circle, round as the halo about the
+wintry moon.... And if we know better nowadays than to believe these
+green circles to be fairy-rings, we also know better than to give the
+slightest credence to certain authors of our own day who have gravely
+asserted that they are caused by electricity.... Fairy-rings ... are in
+truth caused by a mushroom (_Agaricus pratensis_), the sporule dust or
+seed of which, having fallen on a spot suitable for its growth,
+instantly germinates, and, constantly propagating itself by sending out
+a network of innumerable filaments and threads, forms the rich green
+rings so common everywhere.'
+
+Hardly more excusable than the electricity theorists, thinks this
+writer, are those learned authors who tell us that the West received the
+first hint of the existence of fairies from the East at the time of the
+Crusades, and that almost all our fairy lore is traceable to the same
+source, 'the fact being that Celt and Saxon, Scandinavian and Goth, Lapp
+and Finn, had their "dûergar," their "elfen" without number, such as
+dun-elfen, berg-elfen, munt-elfen, feld-elfen, sae-elfen and
+waeter-elfen--elves or spirits of downs, hills and mountains, of the
+fields, of the woods, of the sea, and of the rivers, streams and
+solitary pools--fairies, in short, and a complete fairy mythology, long
+centuries before Peter the Hermit was born, or Frank and Moslem dreamt
+of making the Holy Sepulchre a _casus belli_.'
+
+There is something very suggestive in these remarks, and one thought
+suggested is particularly in the direction of our inquiry, and that is,
+may not the theory of the Aryan mythological origin of our folk-tales be
+as imaginary and as groundless as the theory of the Oriental origin of
+fairies? At the same time, let us admit that the superstitious belief in
+capnomancy--_i.e._, divination by smoke--still said to be prevalent in
+some parts of the Highlands, is probably the relic of the old sacrifices
+by fire to the gods. In so far the superstition has a mythological
+significance, but then, are we not driven back to the consideration
+whether these gods were not actual personages in the minds of the old
+Celtic worshippers, and not symbols of natural phenomena?
+
+So much, however, for popular superstitions; and, as regards folk-tales,
+we must, in speculating as to their origin,[1] 'look not into the
+clouds, but upon the earth; not in the various aspects of nature, but in
+the daily occurrences and surroundings.' The process of diffusion must
+always remain uncertain. 'Much may be due to the identity everywhere of
+early fancy, something to transmission,' but 'household tales occupy a
+middle place between the stories of savages and the myths of early
+civilization.'[2] And as nursery-rhymes are but the simplified form of
+household or folk-tales, let us consider with Mr. Lang the relation
+between savage customs and ancient myths.
+
+The foundation of the method of comparative mythology is the belief that
+'myths are the result of a disease of language, as the pearl is the
+result of a disease of the oyster.' The method of inquiry is to examine
+the names which occur in the stories, and having found or invented a
+meaning for these names, to argue back from them to a meaning in the
+myths. But then almost each scholar has his peculiar fancy in etymology,
+and while one finds a Sanskrit root, another finds a Greek, a third a
+Semitic, and so on. Even when they agree upon the derivation of the
+proper names, the scholars seldom agree upon the interpretation of them,
+and thus the whole system is full of perplexity and confusion to all who
+approach its study with unbiassed minds. There is a further division
+among the mythologists, for there are some who have a partiality for
+sun-myths, others for cloud-myths, sky-myths and fire-myths, and each
+seeks to work out an interpretation of an old-world story to suit his
+own taste in myths. How can they be all right? And in whom can we have
+confidence when we find so much disagreement, first, on the derivation
+of names, and second, on their meaning after the derivation is
+discovered? And then, how do we know that words had the same meaning to
+the ancients as they have to us? Was the sky, for instance, to the
+original story-makers 'an airy, infinite, radiant vault,' as it is to
+us, or was it a material roof, or even a person? And, further, how is it
+that we find the same myth, with slight alterations, in various parts of
+the world, but with totally different names?
+
+In opposition to the method of reading myths by the philological
+analysis of names, there is the method of reading them by folk-lore,
+_i.e._, by a comparison of the folk-tales and customs of primitive
+peoples. The student of folk-lore has to collect and compare the similar
+relics of old races, the surviving superstitions and traditions, and the
+ideas which still live. He is thus led to compare the usages, myths, and
+ideas of savages with those which remain among the European
+peasantry--classes which have least altered by education, and have shown
+the smallest change in progress. It is thus that we find even in our own
+country and in our own day such things as the beliefs in fairies and
+divination by smoke, which are as old as time. Similarly, the
+harvest-custom which is still practised by the children in parts of
+rural England and Scotland--the dressing up of the last gleaning in
+human shape, and conducting it home in musical procession--is parallel
+with a custom in ancient Peru, and with the Feast of Demeter of the
+Sicilians. But that does not necessarily prove any original connection
+between Peruvians, Scotch and Sicilians, any more than the fact that the
+negroes of Barbadoes make clay figures of their enemies and mutilate
+them, as the Greeks and Accadians of old used to do, proves any
+connection between the negroes and the Greeks and Accadians. If we find
+the Australians spreading dust round the body of a dead man in order to
+receive the impression of the footprints of any ghostly visitor, the
+same custom has been observed among the Jews, among the Aztecs, among
+the French, and even among the Scotch. Where we find, therefore, an
+apparently irrational and anomalous custom in any country, we must look
+for a country where a similar custom prevails, and where it is no longer
+irrational and anomalous, but in harmony with the manners and ideas of
+the people among whom it prevails. When we read of Greeks dancing about
+in their 'mysteries' with live serpents, it seems unintelligible, but
+when we read of Red Indians doing the same thing with live rattlesnakes,
+we can understand the meaning because we can see implied a test of
+physical courage. May not a similar motive have originated the Greek
+practices?
+
+The method of folk-lore, then, is 'to compare the seemingly meaningless
+customs or manners of civilized races with the similar customs and
+manners which exist among the uncivilized, and still retain their
+meaning. It is not necessary for comparison of this sort that the
+uncivilized and the civilized race should be of the same stock, nor need
+we prove that they were ever in contact.'[3] Similar conditions of mind
+produce similar practices, apart from identity of race, or borrowing of
+ideas and manners. In pursuing this method we have to compare the
+customs and tales of the most widely separated races, whereas the
+comparative mythologists, who hold it correct to compare Greek, Slavonic,
+Celtic and Indian stories because they occur in languages of the same
+family, and Chaldean and Greek stories because the Chaldeans and the
+Greeks are known to have been in contact, will not compare Greek,
+Chaldean, Celtic, or Indian stories with those of the Maoris, the
+Eskimos, or the Hottentots, because these last belong to a different
+language-family, and are not known to have ever been in contact with
+Aryan races.
+
+The 'bull-roarer,' a toy familiar to most children, is one example
+selected by Mr. Lang. It is a long, thin, narrow piece of wood,
+sharpened at both ends; attached to a piece of string, and whirled
+rapidly and steadily in the air, it emits a sound which gradually
+increases to an unearthly kind of roar. The ancient Greeks employed at
+some of their sacred rites a precisely similar toy, described by
+historians as 'a little piece of wood, to which a string was fastened,
+and in the mysteries it is whirled round to make a roaring noise.' The
+performers in the 'mysteries' at which this implement was used daubed
+themselves all over with clay. Demosthenes describes the mother of
+Æschines as a dabbler in mysteries, and tells how Æschines used to
+assist her by helping to bedaub the initiate with clay and bran. Various
+explanations have been offered of these practices, but let us see how
+they tally with any prevailing customs. First, the bull-roarer is to be
+found in almost every country in the world, and among the most primitive
+peoples. It is so simple an instrument that it is within the scope of
+the mechanical genius of the most degraded savages, and therefore it is
+quite unnecessary to suppose that the idea of it was ever transmitted
+from race to race. And as an instrument employed in religious rites or
+mysteries, it is found in New Mexico, in Australia, in New Zealand and
+in Africa, to this day. Its use in Australia is to warn the women to
+keep out of the way when the men are about to celebrate their tribal
+mysteries. It is death for women to witness these rites, and it is also
+forbidden for them to look upon the sacred turndun, or bull-roarer. In
+the same way, among the Greeks, it was forbidden for men to witness the
+rites of the women, and for women to witness those of the men. Among the
+Indians of Zuni, Mr. Cushing found the same implement used by the
+priests to summon the tribe to the sacrificial feasts. In South Africa,
+Mr. Tylor has proved that the bull-roarer is employed to call the men
+only to the celebration of sacred functions, and the instrument itself
+is described in Theal's Kaffir Folklore.
+
+Now, the same peoples who still employ the bull-roarer as a sacred
+instrument also bedaub their bodies with clay, for no apparent reason
+unless it may be to frighten their enemies or repel intruders. We thus
+find still prevailing in our own time among savage races practices which
+are perfectly analogous to practices which prevailed among the Greeks.
+The reasonable inference, therefore, is not that the bull-roaring and
+body-daubing were first used in the rites of a civilized race of Greeks,
+and thence transmitted to Africa, Australia and America, but that the
+employment of these things by the Greeks was a survival of the time when
+the Greeks were in the same savage condition as are the peoples among
+whom we find the same things now.
+
+The Greek story of Saturn is familiar to every schoolboy. Saturn, it
+will be remembered, wounds and drives away his father, Uranus, because
+of his unkindness to himself and his brothers. Afterwards Saturn marries
+his sister Rhea, and has several children--Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon
+and Zeus--whom he swallowed as they were born, lest they might serve him
+as he served Uranus. But Rhea didn't like this, and at the time when
+Zeus was born she ran away to a distant place. Saturn followed, and,
+asking for the child, was given a stone, which he swallowed without
+looking at it. Zeus grew up in security, and in due time gave his father
+a dose which made him disgorge, first, the stone (which was placed at
+Delphi, where it became an object of public worship), and then the
+children, one after another, all living and hearty.
+
+The tale is told in various ways, but these are the main incidents. It
+is interpreted by the mythologists to typify, in its first part, the
+birth of the world and the elements; and the second part is held by some
+to typify the operations of time, by others the alternations of night
+and day--the stone swallowed by Saturn being the sun, which he
+afterwards disgorges at daybreak. By others Saturn is held to be the sun
+and ripener of the harvests; by others, again, the storm-god, who
+swallows the clouds, whose sickle is the rainbow, and whose blood is the
+lightning; by others still Saturn is regarded as the sky, which swallows
+and reproduces the stars, and whose sickle is the crescent moon. There
+is a great deal of diversity of opinion, it will be observed, about this
+myth of Saturn, or Cronus, but it is curious to note how all the leading
+incidents of this myth may be traced in various parts of the world.[4]
+Among the Maoris, the story of Tûtenganahaû is told, and this is a story
+of the severing of heaven and earth, very similar to the Greek story. In
+India and in China, legends tell of the former union of heaven and
+earth, and of their violent separation by their own children. As regards
+the swallowing performances of Saturn, they find analogues in tales
+among the Australians, among the Red Indians, among the natives of
+British Guiana, and among the Kaffirs.
+
+The conclusion, then, is that the first part of the Saturn myth is
+evidently the survival of an old nature-myth which is common to races
+who never had any communication with the Greeks. The second part is
+unintelligible, except as just such a legend as might be evolved by
+persons in the same savage intellectual condition as, say, the Bushmen,
+who account for celestial phenomena by saying that a big star has
+swallowed his daughter and spat her out again.
+
+Any myth which accounts for the processes of nature or the aspects of
+natural phenomena may, says Mr. Lang, conceivably have been invented
+separately, therefore it is not surprising to find the star-stories of
+savages closely resembling those of civilized races. The story of the
+lost sister of the Pleiades, according to the Greek myth, finds a
+parallel in a tradition among the Australians. Of star-lore generally,
+it may be said that it is much the same even among the Bushmen of
+Africa, as it was among the Greeks and Egyptians, and as it is among the
+Australians and Eskimos.
+
+Another interesting inquiry is to trace the legend current among the
+Greeks, and known to us as that of Jason and the Golden Fleece, in the
+Storyology of the Africans, the Norse, the Malagasies, the Russians, the
+Italians, the Samoans, the Finns, the Samoyedes and the Eskimo. Some of
+the resemblances are so exceedingly close and curious as to severely
+shake our belief in the dawn-sun-spring-lightning interpretations of the
+mythologists. They drive us to the conclusion that the Jason myth is not
+a story capable of explanation as a nature-myth, or as a result of 'a
+disease of language'; for as is pertinently remarked, 'So many languages
+could not take the same malady in the same way; nor can we imagine any
+stories of natural phenomena that would inevitably suggest this tale to
+so many diverse races.' The rational theory is that the Jason story,
+like its analogues among strange races, had its origin in a time of
+savage conditions, when animals were believed to talk, when human
+sacrifices and cannibalism were practised, and when efforts to escape
+being eaten were natural.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE MAGIC WAND.
+
+
+It is sufficiently remarkable that the rod, besides being an emblem of
+authority, is also an instrument of the supernatural. An indispensable
+instrument, one may say; for was ever a magician depicted in book, in
+picture, or in the mind's eye, without a wand? Does even the most
+amateurish of prestidigitateurs attempt to emulate the performances of
+the once famous Wizard of the North, without the aid of the magic staff?
+The magician, necromancer, soothsayer, or conjurer, is as useless
+without his wand as a Newcastle pitman is without his 'daug.'
+
+At first thought it might be assumed that the association of the rod or
+wand with necromancy is merely an indication of power or authority, in
+the same way as the sceptre is associated with kingship. But there is
+something more in it. Magic has been well called 'the shadow of
+religion,' and the early religious idea found expression in symbols.
+These symbols, as we know, have in many cases retained a certain
+significance long after the ideas they were meant to convey have been
+lost, or abandoned, or modified. If we bear these things in mind, it is
+not difficult to discover a religious origin for the symbolic wand of
+necromancy.
+
+Mr. Moncure Conway, in his book on Demonology and Devil-lore, mentions a
+thing which seems peculiarly apposite to our subject. In the old town of
+Hanover there is a certain schoolhouse, in which, above the teacher's
+chair, there was originally a representation of a dove perched upon a
+rod--the rod in this case being meant to typify a branch. Below the dove
+and rod there was this inscription: 'This shall lead you unto all
+Truth.' But the dove has long since disappeared, and there remains now
+but the rod and the inscription. It is natural that the children of the
+school should apply the admonition to the rod, ignorant that the rod was
+but the supporter of a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Thus has the pious
+design of inculcating a Divine lesson left only an emblem of mysterious
+terror. In some way, too, has the magic wand lost its religious
+significance and become but a dread implement of the occult.
+
+Yet we might trace the origin of the magician's wand to the very same
+root as that of the iron rod of the Hanover schoolhouse. We may find it
+in the olive-branch brought by the dove into the ark--a message of
+Divine love and mercy--and therefore a connecting-link between human
+needs and desires and superhuman power. To construe a mere symbol into a
+realized embodiment of the virtue symbolized were surely as easy in this
+case as in that of the Eucharist.
+
+But if this suggestion of the origin of the magician's wand be thought
+too hypothetical, there will be less objection to our finding it in
+Aaron's rod. Moses was commanded to take a rod from the chiefs of each
+of the twelve tribes, and to write upon each rod the name. The rods were
+then to be placed in the Tabernacle, and the owner of the one which
+blossomed was designated as the chosen one. The rod of the house of Levi
+bore the name of Aaron, and this was the only one of the twelve which
+blossomed. Here once more was the rod used to connect human needs with
+Divine will; but now a special virtue is made to appear in the rod
+itself. This virtue appeared again, when Pharaoh called all the
+sorcerers and magicians of Egypt to test their enchantments with
+Aaron's. All these magicians bore wands, or rods, and when they threw
+them on the ground the rods turned into serpents. Aaron's rod also
+turned into a serpent, and swallowed all the others. Now, here we find
+two things established. First, that even in these early days necromancy
+was a profession, and the rod a necessary implement of the craft; and,
+second, that the rod was esteemed not merely an emblem of authority, or
+a mere ornament of office, but as a thing of superhuman power in itself
+although the power could only be evoked by the specially gifted.
+
+We find the beginning of the idea in the story of Moses' rod which
+turned into a serpent when he cast it on the ground at the Divine
+command. This was what led up to the trial of skill with the Egyptian
+magicians, and seems to have been the first suggestion in early history
+of the miraculous virtues of the rod. Then we must remember that it was
+by the stretching forth of the rod of the prophet that all the waters of
+Egypt were made to turn into blood, and that the plagues of frogs and
+lice were wrought, and that the hail was called down from heaven which
+destroyed the crops and flocks of the Egyptians. In fact, all the
+miracles performed in the land of Egypt were made to appear more or less
+as the result of the application of the magic rod, just as to this day
+the clever conjurer appears to produce his wonderful effects with his
+wand.
+
+It was by the stretching forth of the rod of Moses that the Red Sea
+divided, and that the water sprang from the rock. The staff of Elisha
+and the spear of Joshua may also be cited in this connection, and other
+examples in Holy Writ may occur to the reader. They are mentioned here
+in no spirit of irreverence, but merely as evidence that the magic
+virtue of the rod was a fixed belief in the minds of the early writers.
+
+Belief in the vitalizing power of the rod may be found embalmed in many
+a curious mediæval legend. The budding rod, borrowed from the tradition
+of Aaron's, is, for instance, very frequent. Thus in the story of St.
+Christophoros, as preserved in Von Bülow's Christian Legends of Germany,
+we read of the godly man carrying the Child-Christ on his back through a
+raging torrent, and afterwards lying down on the banks of the stream,
+exhausted, to sleep. The staff which he stuck in the ground ere he lay
+down, budded and blossomed before he awoke, and in the morning he found
+a great umbrageous tree bearing fruit, and giving shelter to hundreds of
+gorgeous birds. There are many such legends in the traditions of all the
+Christian nations, and the collection and comparison of them would be an
+interesting and instructive task, but one too large for our present
+purpose.
+
+It is related by Holinshed, in connection with many wonderful visions
+which were seen in Scotland about A.D. 697, that once when the Bishop
+was conducting the service in the church of Camelon, with the
+crozier-staff in his hand, 'it was kindled so with fire that by no means
+it could be quenched till it was burnt even to ashes.' This was supposed
+to have been the handiwork of the devil, who has on other occasions used
+the staff or wand to emphasize his intentions or mark his spite. Thus,
+of the famous Dr. Fian it is narrated in the 'Newes from Scotland,
+declaring the damnable Life of Doctor Fian, a notable Sorcerer, who was
+burned at Edenborough in Januarie last 1591; which Doctor was Register
+to the Devill, that sundrie times Preached at North-Baricke Kirke to a
+number of notorious Witches,' etc.--that he made the following, among
+his other confessions: 'That the devill had appeared unto him in the
+night before, appareled all in blacke, with a white wand in his hande,
+and that the devill demanded of him if he would continue his faithfull
+service according to his first oath and promise made to that effect,
+whome (as hee then said) he utterly renounced to his face, and said unto
+him in this manner: "Avoide, avoide, Satan, for I have listened too
+much unto thee, and by the same thou hast undone me, in respect whereof
+I utterly forsake thee." To whom the devill answered, "That once, ere
+thou die, thou shalt be mine," and with that (as he sayed) the devill
+brake the white wand, and immediately vanished from sight.' After which,
+the chronicle goes on to tell how the redoubtable doctor actually
+escaped from prison, and began to resume his Satanic practices.
+
+This brings us to the most frequent use of the rod in superstitions--for
+the purposes of divination. There is a suggestion of the practice by
+Nebuchadnezzar, when he 'stood at the parting of the way, at the head of
+two ways, to use divinations, he made his arrows bright,' etc. He then
+threw up a bundle of arrows to see which way they would alight, and
+because they fell on the right hand he marched towards Jerusalem.
+Divination by the wand is also suggested in the shooting of an arrow
+from a window by Elisha, and by the strokes upon the ground with an
+arrow by which Joash foretold the number of his victories.
+
+Sir Thomas Browne speaks of a common 'practice among us to determine
+doubtful matters by the opening of a book and letting fall of a staff.'
+The 'staff' business is not quite so familiar in present days, but the
+opening of a book for prophetic guidance is, perhaps, more common than
+most people suppose.
+
+Sir Thomas Browne also speaks of a 'strange kind of exploration and
+peculiar way of Rhabdomancy' used in mineral discoveries. That is,
+'with a fork of hazel, commonly called Moses his rod, which, freely held
+forth, will stir and play if any mine be under it. And though many there
+are,' says the learned doctor, 'who have attempted to make it good, yet
+until better information, we are of opinion, with Agricola, that in
+itself it is a fruitless exploration, strongly scenting of pagan
+derivation and the _virgula divina_ proverbially magnified of old. 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.'
+
+One may look in vain, perhaps, for modern instances of the divining-rod
+under the name of 'Moses his rod,' as old Sir Thomas found it.
+
+It is curious, however, that Sir Thomas Browne, who was so fond of
+delving among ancient writers, makes no reference to a striking passage
+in Herodotus. That historian, speaking of the Scythians, says, 'They
+have amongst them a great number who practise the art of divination. For
+this purpose they use a number of willow-twigs in this manner: they
+bring large bundles of these together, and having untied them, dispose
+them one by one on the ground, each bundle at a distance from the rest.
+This done, they pretend to foretell the future, during which they take
+up the bundles separately and tie them again together.'
+
+From this it may be seen that while the divining-rod was a familiar
+instrument 450 years before Christ, it was also then disbelieved in by
+some. Curious to think that what the old historian of Halicarnassus was
+wise enough to ridicule four centuries and a half before the birth of
+Christ, there are yet people, nineteen centuries after His advent,
+simple enough to accept!
+
+Herodotus goes on to tell that this mode of divination was hereditary
+among the Scythians, so how many centuries earlier it may have been
+practised one can hardly guess. He says that the 'enaries, or effeminate
+men, affirm that the art of divination was taught them by the goddess
+Venus,' a statement which will carry some significance to those who are
+familiar with the theories so boldly advocated by the author of Bible
+Folklore.
+
+Now, the attempt to divine by means of rods, arrows, staffs or twigs is
+evidently a good deal older than Herodotus, and it is to be found among
+almost every race of people on the face of the earth. Let us say
+'almost,' because Mr. Andrew Lang instances this as one form of
+superstition which is not prevalent among savage races; or rather, to
+use his exact words, 'is singular in its comparative lack of copious
+savage analogues.' The qualification seems to be necessary, because
+there are certainly some, if not 'copious,' instances among savage
+peoples of the use of the divining-rod in one form or other. And Mr.
+Lang is hardly accurate in speaking of the 'resurrection' of this
+superstition in our own country. It has, in fact, never died, and there
+is scarcely a part of the country where a 'diviner' has not tried
+his--or her, for it is often a woman--skill with the 'twig' from time to
+time. These attempts have seldom been known beyond the immediate
+locality and the limited circle of those interested in them, and it is
+only of late years, since folklore became more of a scientific and
+general study, that the incidents have been seized upon and recorded by
+the curious. From the time of Moses until now the 'rod' has been almost
+continuously used by innumerable peoples in the effort to obtain
+supplies of water.
+
+In ancient times it was used, as we have seen, for a variety of other
+purposes; but its surviving use in our generation is to indicate the
+locality of hidden springs or of mineral deposits. There are cases on
+record, however, so recently as the last century, when the rod was used
+in the detection of criminals, and a modified application of it to a
+variety of indefinite purposes may even be traced to the planchette,
+which, at this very day, is seriously believed in by many persons who
+are ranked as 'intelligent.'
+
+Now, of the use of the divining-rod in England, Mr. Thiselton-Dyer thus
+wrote some years ago: 'The _virgula divinatoria_, or divining-rod, is a
+forked branch in the form of a Y, cut off a hazel-stick, by means of
+which people have pretended to discover mines, springs, etc.,
+underground. It is much employed in our mining districts for the
+discovery of hidden treasure. In Cornwall, for instance, the miners
+place much confidence in its indications, and even educated, intelligent
+men oftentimes rely on its supposed virtues. Pryce, in his Mineralogia
+Cornubiensis, tells us that many mines have been discovered by the rod,
+and quotes several; but after a long account of the method of cutting,
+tying and using it, rejects it, because 'Cornwall is so plentifully
+stored with tin and copper lodes, that some accident every week
+discovers to us a fresh vein,' and because 'a grain of metal attracts
+the rod as strongly as a pound, for which reason it has been found to
+dip equally to a poor as to a rich lode.'
+
+But in Lancashire and Cumberland also, Mr. Dyer goes on to say, 'the
+power of the divining-rod is much believed in, and also in other parts
+of England.' The method of using it is thus described. 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. Mr. Dyer's explanation of the result is simple: 'The position
+of the hands in holding the rod is a constrained one--it is not easy to
+describe it; but the result is that the hands, from weariness speedily
+induced in the muscles, grasp the end of the twig yet more rigidly, and
+thus is produced the mysterious bending. The phenomena of the
+divining-rod and table-turning are of precisely the same character, and
+both are referable to an involuntary muscular action resulting from
+fixedness of idea. These experiments with a divining-rod are always made
+in a district known to be metalliferous, and the chances are, therefore,
+greatly in favour of its bending over or near a mineral lode.'
+
+The theory of 'involuntary muscular action' is a favourite explanation,
+and the subject is one well worthy of the investigation of all students
+of psychology. But how does this theory square with the story of
+Linnæus, told by a writer in _The Gentleman's Magazine_ in 1752? 'When
+Linnæus was upon his voyage to Scania, hearing his secretary highly
+extol the virtues of his divining-rod, he was willing to convince him of
+its insufficiency, and for that purpose concealed a purse of 100 ducats
+under a ranunculus which grew up by itself in a meadow, and bid the
+secretary find it if he could. The wand discovered nothing, and
+Linnæus's mark was soon trampled down by the company who were present,
+so that when Linnæus went to finish the experiment by fetching the gold
+himself, he was utterly at a loss where to find it. The man with the
+wand assisted him, and told him that it could not lie in the way they
+were going, but quite the contrary; so pursued the direction of the
+wand, and actually dug out the gold. Linnæus adds, that such another
+experiment would be sufficient to make a proselyte of him.'
+
+The explanation of this case by the incredulous would, of course, be
+that the owner of the wand had made a private mark of his own, and thus
+knew better than Linnæus where the gold lay.
+
+The divining-rod, however, is not used only in districts which are known
+to abound in metalliferous deposits, when minerals are being searched
+for, but has frequently been used by prospectors in new countries. Thus
+we recall that Captains Burton and Cameron in their book about the Gold
+Coast, tell how the rod was used by the early British explorers on the
+Gambia River. One Richard Jobson, in 1620, landed and searched various
+parts of the country, armed with mercury, nitric acid, some large
+crucibles, and a divining-rod. He washed the sand and examined the rocks
+beyond the Falls of Barraconda, with small success for a long time. At
+last, however, he found what he declared to be 'the mouth of the mine
+itself, and found gold in such abundance as surprised him with joy and
+admiration.' But what part the divining-rod played in the discovery is
+not related, and, for the rest, 'the mine' has disappeared as
+mysteriously as it was discovered. No one else has seen it, and all the
+gold that now comes from the Gambia River is a small quantity of dust
+washed down from the mountain-ridges of the interior. It is curious,
+however, to find civilized Europeans carrying the divining-rod to one of
+the districts where, according to Mr. Andrew Lang, it has no analogue
+among the primitive savages.
+
+I have mentioned, on the authority of Mr. Thiselton-Dyer, some of the
+districts of England in which the divining-rod is still more or less
+used. But something of its more extended use may be learned from Mr.
+Hilderic Friend's Flowers and Flower-Lore. That writer informs us of a
+curious custom of the hop-pickers of Kent and Sussex for ascertaining
+where they shall stand to pick. One of them cuts as many slips of hazel
+as there are bins in the garden, and on these he cuts notches from one
+upwards. Each picker then draws a twig, and his standing is decided by
+the number upon it. This is certainly an interesting instance of the
+divination by twigs reduced to practical ends. The same writer regards
+the familiar 'old-wife' fortune-telling by tea-leaves as merely another
+variation of this old superstition. It does seem to have some analogy to
+several of the practices to which we have briefly referred, and one
+finds another analogy in the Chinese custom of divining by straws.
+
+The divining-rod of England is described by Mr. Friend much in the same
+way as by Mr. Dyer. But, according to Mr. Friend, hazel was not always,
+although it has for a long time been, the favourite wood for the
+purpose. Elder, at any rate, is strictly forbidden, as deemed incapable
+of exhibiting magical powers. In Wiltshire and elsewhere Mr. Friend
+knows of the magic rod having been used recently for detecting water. It
+must be cut at some particular time when the stars are favourable, and
+'in cutting it, one must face the east, so that the rod shall be one
+which catches the first rays of the morning sun, or, as some say, the
+eastern and western sun must shine through the fork of the rod,
+otherwise it will be good for nothing.'
+
+The same superstition prevails in China with regard to rods cut from the
+magic peach-tree. In Prussia, it is said, hazel-rods are cut in spring,
+and when harvest comes they are placed in crosses over the grain to keep
+it good for years, while in Bohemia the rod is used to cure fevers. A
+twig of apple-tree is, in some parts, considered as good as a hazel-rod,
+but it must be cut by the seventh son of a seventh son. Brand records
+that he has known ash-twigs used, and superstitiously regarded, in some
+parts of England; but the hazel is more generally supposed to be popular
+with the fairies, or whoever may be the mysterious spirits who guide the
+diviner's art. Hence perhaps the name, common in some parts, of
+witch-hazel, although, of course, philologists will have it that the
+true derivation is wych. In Germany the witch-hazel is the
+_zauber-streuch_, or the magic-tree, and it is probable that both witch
+and wych are from the Anglo-Saxon _wic-en_, to bend. It is curious, at
+any rate, that while in olden times a witch was called _wicce_, the
+mountain-ash, which, as we have seen, has supposed occult virtues, was
+formerly called _wice_. Whether this root has any connection with
+another name by which the magic wand is known--viz., the
+wishing-rod--may be doubted, but there is clearly a close connection
+between the hazel-twig of superstitious England and the
+_Niebelungen-rod_ of Germany, which gave to its possessor power over all
+the world.
+
+Of the employment of the divining-rod for the detection of criminals
+there are many cases on record, but the most famous in comparatively
+recent times is that of Jacques Aymar of Lyons. The full details of the
+doings of this remarkable person are given by Mr. Baring-Gould in his
+Curious Myths of the Middle Ages; but the story is told more concisely
+by another writer: 'On July 5, 1692, a vintner and his wife were found
+dead in the cellar of their shop at Lyons. They had been killed by blows
+from a hedging-knife, and their money had been stolen. The culprits
+could not be discovered, and a neighbour took upon him to bring to Lyons
+a peasant out of Dauphiné, named Jacques Aymar, a man noted for his
+skill with the divining-rod. The Lieutenant-Criminel and the Procureur
+du Roi took Aymar into the cellar, furnishing him with a rod of the
+first wood that came to hand. According to the Procureur du Roi the rod
+did not move till Aymar reached the very spot where the crime had been
+committed. His pulse then beat, and the wand twisted rapidly. Guided by
+the wand, or by some internal sensation, Aymar now pursued the track of
+the assassins, entered the court of the Archbishop's palace, left the
+town by the bridge over the Rhone, and followed the right bank of the
+river. He reached a gardener's house, which he declared the men had
+entered, and some children confessed that three men, whom they
+described, had come into the house one Sunday morning. Aymar followed
+the track up the river, pointed out all the places where the men had
+landed, and, to make a long story short, stopped at last at the door of
+the prison of Beaucaire. He was admitted, looked at the prisoners, and
+picked out as the murderer a little hunchback, who had just been
+brought in for a small theft. The hunchback was taken to Lyons, and he
+was recognised on the way by the people at all the stages where he had
+stopped. At Lyons he was examined in the usual manner, and confessed
+that he had been an accomplice in the crime, and had guarded the door.
+Aymar pursued the other culprits to the coast, followed them by sea,
+landed where they had landed, and only desisted from his search when
+they crossed the frontier. As for the hunchback, he was broken on the
+wheel, being condemned on his own confession.'
+
+This is briefly the story of Jacques Aymar, which is authenticated by
+various eye-witnesses, and of which many explanations have been tendered
+from time to time. Mr. Baring-Gould commits himself to no definite
+expression of opinion, but says: 'I believe that the imagination is the
+principal motive force in those who use the divining-rod; but whether it
+is so solely I am unable to decide. The powers of Nature are so
+mysterious and inscrutable that we must be cautious in limiting them,
+under abnormal conditions, to the ordinary laws of experience.' As,
+however, Jacques Aymar failed ignominiously under all the subsequent
+trials to which he was subjected, the most reasonable explanation of his
+success, with regard to the Lyons murder, is that he was by nature a
+clever detective, and that he was favoured by circumstances after he had
+once caught a clue.
+
+To return to the employment of the divining-rod in England, we find
+numerous instances of its application in searching for water, and these
+instances happen to be among the best authenticated of any on record.
+Some years ago a writer in the _Times_ boldly declared that he had
+himself seen the rod successfully used in seeking for water. He had even
+tried it himself, with the determination that the rod should not be
+allowed to twist, 'even if an ocean rolled under his feet.' But he
+confessed that it did twist in spite of him, and that at the place was
+found a concealed spring.
+
+Then it is recorded of Lady Milbanke, mother of Lord Byron's wife, that
+she had found a well by the violent twisting of the twig held in the
+orthodox way in her hand--turning so violently, indeed, as almost to
+break her fingers. Dr. Hutton was a witness of the affair, and has
+recorded his experience, which is quoted in a curious book called
+Jacob's Rod, published in London many years ago. This case, and others,
+were cited by a writer in the twenty-second volume of the _Quarterly
+Review_. De Quincey also asserted that he had frequently seen the
+divining-rod successfully used in the quest of water, and declared that,
+'whatever science or scepticism may say, most of the tea-kettles in the
+Vale of Wrington, North Somersetshire, are filled by Rabdomancy.' Mr.
+Baring-Gould also quotes the case of a friend of his own who was
+personally acquainted with a Scotch lady who could detect hidden springs
+with a twig, which was inactive in the hands of others who tried it on
+the same spots.
+
+Other instances might be cited, but enough has been said to show that
+the magic rod, from the earliest periods, has been an instrument of
+supernatural attributes, and that even to this day in our own country it
+is still believed by some to have the special faculty of indicating the
+presence of minerals and water. With regard to minerals, there are no
+instances so well authenticated as those concerning the discovery of
+water. With regard to these last a considerable amount of haziness still
+exists, and, without venturing to pronounce them all fictions or
+productions of the imagination, it may be possible to find an
+explanation in a theory of hydroscopy. It is held that there are some
+few persons who are hydroscopes by nature--that is to say, are endowed
+with peculiar sensations which tell them the moment they are near water,
+whether it be evident or hidden, a concealed watercourse or a
+subterranean spring. If the existence of such a faculty, however
+exceptional, be clearly established, it will afford an explanation of
+certain successes with the divining-rod.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE MAGIC MIRROR.
+
+
+There is an old superstition, current, probably, in most parts of the
+country, that the breaking of a mirror will be followed by bad
+luck--usually a death in the family. This is, doubtless, the survival of
+a still older superstition--the belief in certain magic qualities of the
+mirror, which enabled it in certain circumstances to reflect the distant
+and to forecast the future. Nor was this superstition so childish as
+were some other popular delusions of old, for it had a certain
+philosophic basis. It is the peculiar property of the mirror to
+represent truth; to reproduce faithfully that which is; to show us
+ourselves as others see us. This is the idea expressed by Hamlet: 'To
+hold the mirror up to Nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her
+own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure.'
+
+The mirror has been, from time immemorial, a favourite form of charm for
+the exorcism of devils, and, indeed, to this day some of the African
+tribes believe that the best defence they have against their extremely
+ugly devil is a mirror. If they keep one at hand, the devil must see
+himself in it before he can touch them, and be so terrified at his own
+ugliness that he will turn tail and flee.
+
+We may take this symbolically--that a man shrinks from his worst self
+when it is revealed to him; but the untutored mind is prone to mistake
+symbol for fact. In this way, while the ancient philosophers may have
+used the mirror as a symbol of the higher nature of man, so polished and
+clarified that it showed him his lower nature in all its deformity, the
+crowd came to regard the crystal as an actual instrument of divination.
+
+Some of the oldest romances in the world have to do with the magical
+operation of the mirror. In the Gesta Romanorum there is a story of a
+knight who went to Palestine, and who while there was shown by an
+Eastern magician in a mirror what was going on at home. In the Arabian
+Nights the story of Prince Ahmed has a variant, an ivory tube through
+which could be discovered the far-distant--a sort of anticipation of Sam
+Weller's 'double million magnifying gas microscope of hextra power.'
+
+In the story of Prince Zeyn Alasnam, the enchanted mirror was able to
+reflect character, and was called the Touchstone of Virtue. Here again
+we have Hamlet's idea of holding the mirror up to Nature. The young
+King, Zeyn Alasnam, had eight beautiful statues of priceless value, and
+he wanted a ninth to make up his set. The difficulty was to find one
+beautiful enough; but the Prince of Spirits promised to supply one as
+soon as Zeyn should bring him a maiden at least fifteen years old, and
+of perfect beauty; only the maiden must not be vain of her charms, and
+she must never have told an untruth. Zeyn employed his magic mirror, and
+for a long time without success, as it always became blurred when he
+looked into it in the presence of a girl. At last he found one whose
+image was faithfully and brilliantly reflected--whose modesty and
+truthfulness were attested by the mirror. He took her with reluctance to
+the Prince of Spirits, because he had fallen in love with her himself;
+but his faithfulness to the contract was duly rewarded. On returning
+home, he found that the ninth statue, placed on its pedestal by the
+Prince of Spirits according to promise, was no cold marble, but the
+peerless and virtuous maiden whom he had discovered by means of his
+mirror.
+
+Paracelsus, in one of his treatises on Magic, gives the following
+account of the uses to which 'the witches and evil spirits' sometimes
+put the mirror.
+
+'They take a mirror set in a wooden frame and put it into a tub of
+water, so that it will swim on the top with its face directed towards
+the sky. On the top of the mirror, and encircling the glass, they lay a
+cloth saturated with blood, and thus they expose it to the influence of
+the moon; and this evil influence is thrown towards the moon, and
+radiating again from the moon, it may bring evil to those who love to
+look at the moon. The rays of the moon, passing through the ring upon
+the mirror, become poisoned, and poison the mirror; the mirror throws
+back the poisoned ether into the atmosphere, and the moon and the mirror
+poison each other, in the same manner as two malicious persons, by
+looking at each other, poison each other's souls with their eyes. If a
+mirror is strongly poisoned in this manner, the witch takes good care of
+it; and if she desires to injure someone, she takes a waxen image made
+in his name, she surrounds it with a cloth spotted with blood, and
+throws the reflex of the mirror through the opening in the middle upon
+the head of the figure, or upon some other part of its body, using at
+the same time her evil imagination and curses; and the man whom the
+image represents may then have his vitality dried up, and his blood
+poisoned by that evil influence, and he may become diseased and his body
+covered with boils.'
+
+This, of course, is not divination, but sorcery.
+
+Paracelsus gives very minute directions for the making of a magic
+mirror. The material should be the 'electrum magicum,' which is a
+compound of ten parts of pure gold, ten of silver, five of copper, two
+of tin, two of lead, one part of powdered iron, and five parts of
+mercury. When the planets Saturn and Mercury conjoin, the lead has to be
+melted and the mercury added. Then the metal must cool, while you wait
+for a conjunction of Jupiter with Saturn and Mercury; when that occurs,
+you melt the amalgam of lead and mercury, and add the tin, previously
+melted in a separate crucible, at the exact moment of conjunction. Again
+you wait for a conjunction of either of the above-named planets with
+the Sun, when you add the gold; with the Moon, when you add the silver;
+with Venus, when you add the copper. Finally, when a conjunction of
+either of the planets occurs with Mars, you must complete your mixture
+with the powdered iron, and stir up the whole molten mass with a dry rod
+of witch-hazel.
+
+Thus far your metal; but the mirror is not made yet. It must be of about
+two inches diameter, and must be founded in moulds of fine sand at the
+moment when a conjunction of Jupiter and Venus occurs. The mirror must
+be smoothed with a grindstone and polished with tripoly and a piece of
+lime-wood; but all the operations must be conducted only when the
+planetary influences are favourable.
+
+By selecting the proper hours, three different mirrors may be prepared,
+and then, at a time of conjunction of two 'good' planets, while the Sun
+or Moon 'stands on the house of the lord of the hour of your birth,' the
+three mirrors should be placed in pure well-water and left for an hour.
+After this they may be wrapped in clean linen and kept ready for use.
+
+With a mirror made in this way from the 'electrum magicum,' Paracelsus
+says:
+
+'You may see the events of the past and the present, absent friends or
+enemies, and see what they are doing. You may see in it any object you
+may desire to see, and all the doings of men in daytime or at night. You
+may see in it anything that has been ever written down, said, or spoken
+in the past, and also see the person who said it, and the causes that
+made him say what he did, and you may see in it anything, however secret
+it may have been kept.'
+
+Mirrors made of the 'electrum magicum' are warranted antipathetic to all
+evil influences, because there is hidden in the metal a 'heavenly power
+and influence of the seven planets.'
+
+The plastic and creative power of the mind is the power of imagination;
+but the power of imagination is, or should be, controlled by the will.
+It is not alone the mediæval dabblers in the occult who have adopted, or
+endeavoured to adopt, various means for suspending the will and making
+the imagination passive.
+
+The ancient Pythoness, as Dr. Franz Hartmann, the modern German exponent
+of the Science of Magic, pointed out, attempted to heighten her
+receptivity by the inhalation of noxious vapours; uncivilized peoples
+use poison, or the maddening whirl of the dance; others use opium, Indian
+hemp, or other narcotics--all for the same purpose, to suspend the will,
+render the mind a blank, and excite the brain so as to produce morbid
+fancies and illusions. The fortune-teller and the clairvoyant employ
+methods of their own for concentrating their attention, so as produce a
+condition of mental passivity. The Indian adept prides himself on being
+able to extract volition and suspend imagination by the mere exercise of
+will.
+
+A favourite device to bring about mental passivity has always been by
+staring at mirrors, or crystal, or sheets of water, or even pools of ink.
+
+'There are numerous prescriptions for the preparation of magic mirrors,'
+says Dr. Hartmann in his work on Magic, 'but the best magic mirror will
+be useless to him who is not able to see clairvoyantly, while the
+natural clairvoyant may call that faculty into action by concentrating
+his mind on any particular spot, a glass of water, ink, a crystal, or
+anything else. For it is not in the mirror where such things are seen,
+but in the mind; the mirror merely serves to assist in the entering of
+that mental state which is necessary to produce clairvoyant sight. The
+best of all mirrors is the soul of man, and it should be always kept
+pure, and be protected against dust, and dampness, and rust, so that it
+may not become tarnished, but remain perfectly clear, and able to
+reflect the light of the divine spirit in its original purity.'
+
+A German writer of the fifteenth century takes a less favourable view of
+what he calls pyromancy, although pyromancy is really divination by
+fire. He reports the practices of certain Masters of Magic, who made
+children look into a wretched mirror for the purpose of obtaining
+information in an unholy manner. 'Young boys are said to behold future
+things and all things, in a crystal. Base, desperate, and faint-hearted
+Christians practise it, to whom the shadow and the phantom of the devil
+are dearer than the truth of God. Some take a clear and beautifully
+polished crystal, or beryl, which they consecrate and keep clean, and
+treat with incense, myrrh, and the like. And when they propose to
+practise their art, they wait for a clear day, or select some clean
+chamber in which are many candles burning. The Masters then bathe, and
+take the pure child into the room with them, and clothe themselves in
+pure white garments, and sit down and speak in magic sentences, and then
+burn their magic offering, and make the boy look into the stone, and
+whisper in his ears secret words which have, as they think, some holy
+import, but which are verily words of the devil.'
+
+A sixteenth-century German tells of a man at Elbingen, in Prussia, who
+'predicted hidden truths' by means of a mirror, and sold the knowledge
+to his customers. Many crystal-seeing old hags are referred to as being
+upon terms of intimacy with Black Kaspar. Indeed, in German literature,
+both historical, philosophical, legendary, and romantic, we find endless
+references to the magic mirror and the divining crystal.
+
+Modern romancists still find dramatic use for the old superstitions.
+Quite recently a novel of the present day centred its interest upon an
+ancient mirror, which exchanged its reflection for the mind of him who
+gazed into it--a practical and startling realization of the idea that
+the glass reveals one's true self. Then, not to multiply incidents,
+Wilkie Collins, in The Moonstone, introduces what Mr. Rudyard Kipling in
+another story calls the 'ink-pool'; and readers of Dante Gabriel
+Rossetti will recall to mind the doings of the Spirits of the Beryl.
+
+In a large number of stories the magic mirror is not a looking-glass at
+all. But the beryl, the ink-pool, Dr. Dee's famous spherical speculum,
+the rock crystal, or even a glass of water, may all, according to the
+adepts, have the same properties as Vulcan's mirror, in which Penelope,
+the wife of Ulysses, beheld, according to Sir John Davies, a vision of
+all the wonder and grandeur of Queen Elizabeth's Court to be. Even a
+polished sword-blade has been asserted to have made an effective magic
+mirror, and it is recorded that Jacob Boehme penetrated into the
+innermost secrets of nature and the hearts of men by means of a tin cup.
+
+As to cups, the Septuagint gives one to understand that the cup placed
+by Joseph in the sack of Benjamin in Egypt was not an ordinary
+drinking-vessel, but a divining-cup. Now, the way of divining with a cup
+was to fill it with pure water, and to read the images which were then
+reflected.
+
+Some writers have supposed, from the mention of Urim and Thummim in
+Exodus, that divination by mirror was a recognised institution among the
+Jews. Urim signifies 'lights,' and Thummim 'reflections,' and the names
+were applied to the six bright and six dark precious stones on the
+breastplate of the high priest when he went to seek special revelations.
+
+Cambuscan's mirror was, according to Chaucer, of Oriental origin. It was
+given by the King of Tartary to the King of Araby, and it seemed to
+possess all the virtues of several kinds of magic mirrors. Thus it
+showed whether love was returned, whether an individual confronted with
+it were friend or foe, and what trouble was in store for those who
+consulted it. Merlin's mirror, also called Venus's looking-glass, had
+some of these properties, but was made in Wales, and was given by
+Merlin to King Ryence. It revealed what was being done by friend or foe
+at a distance, and it also enabled the fair Britomart to read the
+features, and also the name, of her future husband.
+
+The consultation of a pool, on certain special occasions, for the
+lineaments of 'the coming man,' has been a common enough practice with
+love-sick damsels in much more recent times.
+
+The wonderful looking-glass of Lao, described by Lien Chi Altangi in
+Goldsmith's Citizen of the World, reflected the mind as well as the
+body, and the Emperor Chusi used to make his ladies dress both their
+heads and their hearts before it every morning. Great, however, as are
+the Chinese in divination, and numerous as are their superstitions, we
+do not find, _pace_ Oliver Goldsmith, that the mirror occupies any
+prominent place in their magic.
+
+One of the most famous dealers in catoptromancy (divination by mirror)
+in this country was Dr. John Dee, who flourished about the middle of the
+sixteenth century. He had a speculum called the Shew Stone, and
+sometimes the Holy Stone, with which he divined by the aid of a medium
+named Kelly. This Kelly was a notoriously bad character, so his example
+does not carry out the popular idea that the seer must be a stainless
+child, or some absolutely pure-minded being. Dr. Dee professed to have a
+number of regular spirit-visitors, whom he described with much
+circumstantial minuteness, and thus his mirror-magic seems to have
+possessed more of the character of spiritualistic manifestations than
+of the usual Oriental crystallomancy.
+
+The famous Cagliostro--Prince of Scoundrels, as Carlyle called him--used
+a bottle of pure water, into which he directed a child to gaze, with
+results which were not always satisfactory.
+
+The Orientalist, Lane, published some sixty years ago, or more, a
+circumstantial narrative of an experience he had with an Egyptian
+magician, along with Mr. Salt, a British Consul. Invocations were
+liberally used, in order to summon the two genii of the magician, and
+verses were recited from the Koran, in order that the eyes of the
+medium--a boy--should be opened in a supernatural manner. The magician
+selected one at random from a group of boys, and drew in the palm of the
+boy's right hand a magic square, inscribed with Arabic figures. He then
+poured ink into the centre, and told the boy to gaze fixedly, while he
+himself proceeded to drop more written invocations, on slips of paper,
+into a chafing-dish.
+
+For some time the boy saw nothing but the reflection of the magician,
+and then he began to describe various scenes. At last Lane asked that
+Lord Nelson should be called up, and the boy said that he saw a man in
+dark-blue clothes, with his left arm across his breast. It was explained
+that the boy saw things as in a mirror, and that Nelson's empty right
+sleeve worn across the breast naturally appeared in the glass as the
+left arm. Now, the boy may have heard of Nelson, but could scarcely have
+seen him, though the figure of so famous a man must have been familiar
+to the magician. Hypnotism has, therefore, been suggested as the
+explanation of what Lane witnessed, and which seemed so miraculous at
+the time.
+
+Many scholars, philosophers, and scientific students of mediæval times,
+who had no pretence to magic, had yet firm faith in the power of
+mirrors, constructed in a special manner and under auspicious planetary
+influences, to reveal both the distant-present and the future.
+
+One of the modern adepts was a French magician, who foretold by his
+mirror the death of a Prince, and the regency of the Duc d'Orleans.
+
+There are many published prescriptions for the making of a magic mirror,
+but that which has already been given from Paracelsus is a fair specimen
+of the ultra-scientific method. Among directions for the use of the
+crystal may be cited those of Barth:
+
+'When a crystal has been ground and polished, it is dedicated to some
+spirit or other; this is called its consecration. Before being used, it
+is charged--that is, an invocation is made to the spirit, wherein a
+vision is requested of the things that one wishes to experience.
+Ordinarily, a young person is chosen to look into the glass and behold
+the prayed-for vision. After a little time the crystal becomes enveloped
+in a cloud, and a tiny vision appears, which represents in miniature the
+persons, scenes, and things that are necessary to supply the required
+information. When the information has been obtained, the crystal is
+discharged, and after receiving thanks for the services he has
+performed, the spirit is dismissed.'
+
+In modern crystal-gazing and mirror-reading, however, there is no
+invocation.
+
+An American spiritualist says that he once put a crystal into the hands
+of a lady who knew nothing about its reputed virtues, but who
+straightway began to describe a scene which she saw in it, and which
+turned out afterwards to be a simultaneous incident at Trebizond. The
+mediumistic influence of the spirit of a North American Indian may not
+commend the story to non-spiritualists.
+
+The experiences of the Countess Wurmbrand, as related in her curious
+book, Visionen im Wasserglass, are more matter-of-fact, perhaps, but
+were also assisted by a mysterious spirit, who enabled her to read
+pictures in the glass and to describe them to her husband. She was more
+successful in her time than more recent experimenters and psychologists
+of her own country have been since.
+
+The Society for Psychical Research have given much attention to the
+subject, and have reported some remarkable observations--especially
+those of Miss Goodrich, a lady who has made several scores of
+experiments of her own in crystal-reading, always taking notes
+immediately. She tried the back of a watch, a glass of water, a mirror,
+and other reflecting surfaces, before arriving at the conclusion that
+polished rock crystal affords the best speculum for divination.
+
+Having reached this point, the lady draped her selected crystal in
+black, set it where no surrounding objects could be reflected in it, and
+sought it when in search of light and leading. Sometimes her
+consultations were very practical. Thus, one finds among her notes:
+
+'I had carelessly destroyed a letter without preserving the address of
+my correspondent. I knew the county, and searching a map, recognised the
+name of the town, one unfamiliar to me, but which I was sure I should
+know when I saw it. But I had no clue to the name of the house or
+street, till at last it struck me to test the value of the crystal as a
+means of recalling forgotten knowledge. A very short inspection supplied
+me with "Hibbs House," in gray letters on a white ground, and having
+nothing better to suggest from any other source, I risked posting my
+letter to the address so strangely supplied. A day or two brought an
+answer headed "Hibbs House" in gray letters on a white ground.'
+
+Let us take an example of another of Miss Goodrich's crystal-readings,
+and let it be remembered that they are all reported as experiments of
+our own day:
+
+'One of my earliest experiences was of a picture, perplexing and wholly
+unexpected--a quaint oak chair, an old hand, a worn black coat-sleeve
+resting on the arm of the chair--slowly recognised as a recollection of
+a room in a country vicarage which I had not entered, and but seldom
+recalled, since I was a child of ten. But whence came this vision? What
+association has conjured up this picture? What have I done to-day? At
+length the clue is found. I have to-day been reading Dante, first
+enjoyed with the help of our dear old vicar many a year ago.'
+
+And again: 'I happened to want the date of Ptolemy Philadelphus, which I
+could not recall, though feeling sure that I knew it, and that I
+associated it with some event of importance. When looking in the
+crystal, some hours later, I found a picture of an old man, with long,
+white hair and beard, dressed like a Lyceum Shylock, and busy writing in
+a large book with tarnished massive clasps. I wondered much who he was,
+and what he could possibly be doing, and thought it a good opportunity
+of carrying out a suggestion which had been made to me of examining
+objects in the crystal with a magnifying-glass. The glass revealed to me
+that my old gentleman was writing in Greek, though the lines faded away
+as I looked, all but the characters he had last traced, the Latin
+numerals LXX. Then it flashed into my mind that he was one of the Jewish
+Elders at work on the Septuagint, and that this date, 277 B.C., would
+serve equally well for Ptolemy Philadelphus. It may be worth while to
+add, though the fact was not in my conscious memory at the moment, that
+I had once learnt a chronology on a mnemonic system which substituted
+letters for figures, and the _memoria technica_ for this date was, "Now
+Jewish Elders indite a Greek copy."'
+
+One may, perhaps, find a simple and easy explanation of Miss Goodrich's
+mirror-reading, in a theory of unconscious cerebration. The crystal
+simply assisted her memory, and recalled incidents and scenes, just as
+a chance odour, a bar of music, a word, a look, a name, will often do
+for most of us. Clearly there is nothing necessarily either magic or
+spiritualistic in this particular example of the magic mirror.
+
+There are, however, some other experiments recorded which seem to be
+only explainable on a theory of telepathy; but Mr. Max Dessoir,
+commenting on the evidence of Miss Goodrich in an American Review,
+attributes the whole phenomena merely to 'revived memory.'
+
+This is all very well as to past events, but what shall we say to a case
+such as the following, among Miss Goodrich's experiments?
+
+'In January last I saw in the crystal the figure of a man crouching at a
+small window, and looking into the room from the outside. I could not
+see his features, which appeared to be muffled, but the crystal was
+particularly dark that evening, and the picture being an unpleasant one,
+I did not persevere. I concluded the vision to be a result of a
+discussion in my presence of the many stories of burglary with which the
+newspapers had lately abounded, and reflected with a passing
+satisfaction that the only windows in the house divided into four panes,
+as were those of the crystal picture, were in the front attic, and
+almost inaccessible. Three days later a fire broke out in that very
+room, which had to be entered from outside through the window, the face
+of the fireman being covered with a wet cloth as a protection from the
+smoke, which rendered access through the door impossible.'
+
+Was this coincidence, or prevision, or what Mr. Dessoir calls the
+'falsification of memory'? The thing was either a miracle, which none of
+us is prepared to accept, or the after-confusion of a vague foreboding
+with an actual occurrence in the mind of the observer. Mr. Dessoir
+suggested another explanation of crystal pictures in the doctrine of the
+double consciousness of the human soul; but that opens up another
+subject.
+
+While we have seen that mirror and crystal-reading is one of the most
+ancient of occult practices, we have also seen that it is practised in
+our own country even at this day. Moreover, it is said that there is in
+England a wholesale manufacture of magic mirrors as a regular
+industry--the site of which, however, the present writer is unable to
+specify.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE MAGIC MOON.
+
+
+Certainly since, and probably long before, Job 'beheld the moon walking
+in brightness,' all the peoples of the earth have surrounded that
+luminary with legends, with traditions, with myths, and with
+superstitions of various kinds. In our time, and in our own country, the
+sentiment with which the orb of night is regarded is a soft and pleasing
+one, for
+
+  'That orbèd maiden, with white fire laden,
+    Whom mortals call the moon,'
+
+is supposed to look with approval upon happy lovers, and with sympathy
+upon those who are encountering the proverbial rough places in the
+course of true love. Why the moon should be partial to lovers one might
+easily explain on very prosaic grounds--perhaps not unlike the reasoning
+of the Irishman who called the sun a coward because he goes away as soon
+as it begins to grow dark, whereas the blessed moon stays with us most
+of the night!
+
+Except Lucian and M. Jules Verne, one does not readily recall anyone who
+professes to have been actually up to the moon. Lucian had by far the
+most eventful experience, for he met Endymion, who entertained him
+royally, and did all the honours of the planet to which he had been
+wafted from earth in his sleep. The people of Moonland, Lucian assures
+us, live upon flying frogs, only they do not eat them; they cook the
+frogs on a fire and swallow the smoke. For drink, he says, they pound
+air in a mortar, and thus obtain a liquid very like dew. They have
+vines, only the grapes yield not wine, but water, being, in fact,
+hailstones, such as descend upon the earth when the wind shakes the
+vines in the moon. Then the Moonfolk have a singular habit of taking out
+their eyes when they do not wish to see things--a habit which has its
+disadvantages, for sometimes they mislay their eyes and have to borrow a
+pair from their neighbours. The rich, however, provide against such
+accidents by always keeping a good stock of eyes on hand.
+
+Lucian also discovered the reason of the red clouds which we on earth
+often see at sunset. They are dyed by the immense quantity of blood
+which is shed in the battles between the Moonfolk and the Sunfolk, who
+are at constant feud.
+
+The reason why the gentler sex are so fond of the moon is satirically
+said to be because there is a man in it! But who and what is he? An old
+writer, John Lilly, says: 'There liveth none under the sunne that knows
+what to make of the man in the moone.' And yet many have tried.
+
+One old ballad, for instance, says:
+
+  'The man in the moon drinks claret,
+    But he is a dull Jack-a-Dandy.
+  Would he know a sheep's head from a carrot,
+    He should learn to drink cyder and brandy'
+
+--which may be interesting, but is certainly inconsequential. It is
+curious, too, that while the moon is feminine in English, French, Latin
+and Greek, it is masculine in German and cognate tongues. Now, if there
+is a man in the moon, and if it be the case, as is asserted by
+antiquarians, that the 'man in the moon' is one of the most ancient as
+well as one of the most popular superstitions of the world, the
+masculine is surely the right gender after all. Those who look to
+Sanscrit for the solution of all mythological, as well as philological,
+problems will confirm this, for in Sanscrit the moon is masculine. Dr.
+Jamieson, of Scottish Dictionary fame, gets out of the difficulty by
+saying that the moon was regarded as masculine in relation to the earth,
+whose husband he was; but feminine in relation to the sun, whose wife
+she was!
+
+With the Greeks the moon was a female, Diana, who caught up her lover
+Endymion; and Endymion was thus, probably, the first 'man in the moon.'
+The Jews, again, have a tradition that Jacob is in the moon; and there
+is the nursery story that the person in the moon is a man who was
+condemned for gathering sticks on Sunday. This myth comes to us from
+Germany--at all events, Mr. R. A. Proctor traced it there with much
+circumstantiality. Mr. Baring-Gould, however, finds in some parts of
+Germany a tradition that both a man and a woman are in the moon--the man
+because he strewed brambles and thorns on the church path to hinder
+people from attending Sunday mass, and the woman because she made butter
+on Sunday. This man carries two bundles of thorns, and the woman her
+butter-tub, for ever. In Swabia they say there is a mannikin in the
+moon, who stole wood; and in Frisia they say it is a man, who stole
+cabbages. The Scandinavian legend is that the moon and sun are brother
+and sister--the moon in this case being the male. The story goes that
+Mâni, the moon, took up two children from earth, named Bil and Hjuki, as
+they were carrying a pitcher of water from the well Brygir, and in this
+myth Mr. Baring-Gould discovers the origin of the nursery rhyme of Jack
+and Jill. 'These children,' he says, 'are the moon-spots, and the fall
+of Jack, and the subsequent fall of Jill, simply represent the vanishing
+of one moon-spot after another as the moon wanes.'
+
+In Britain there are references in the ancient monkish writings to a man
+in the moon; and in the Record Office there is an impression of a seal
+of the fourteenth century bearing the device of a man carrying a bundle
+of thorns in the moon. The legend attached is, 'Te Waltere docebo cur
+spinas phebo gero' ('I will teach thee, Walter, why I carry thorns to
+the moon'), which Mr. Hudson Taylor, who describes the seal, thinks to
+be an enigmatical way of saying that honesty is the best policy--the
+thorns having evidently been stolen.
+
+Chaucer has more than one reference to the man in the moon, and so have
+most of the older poets. Shakespeare not only refers frequently to 'a'
+man, but in the Midsummer Night's Dream Peter Quince distinctly
+stipulates that the man who is to play 'the moon' shall carry 'a bush of
+thorns.'
+
+The man in the moon, according to Dante, is Cain, carrying a bundle of
+thorns, and yet in that planet he found located only those comparatively
+mild sinners who had partly neglected their vows. A French legend, on
+the other hand, identifies 'the man' with Judas Iscariot. _Per contra_,
+in India the Buddhist legend places a hare in the moon, carried there by
+Indra for kindly service rendered to him on earth.
+
+May not this hare of the Indian mythology be the moon-dog of some of our
+own legends? Peter Quince, we know, recommended that the moon should
+have a dog as well as a bundle of sticks, and the association of the
+quadruped in the story is very common. The North American Indians
+believe that the moon is inhabited by a man and a dog. The Maoris
+believe in the man, but not in the dog, which is not surprising when we
+remember the limited fauna of the antipodes. The Maori legend runs
+something like this. A man called Rona went out one night to fetch water
+from a well, but, falling, sprained his ankle so as to be unable to
+return home. All at once the moon, which had risen, began to approach
+him. In terror he clung to a tree, which gave way, and both tree and
+Rona fell on the moon, where they remain even unto this day. Here we
+have clearly a variation of the 'bundle of sticks' legend, but there is
+an absence of apparent cause and effect in the Maori legend which is
+unsatisfactory.
+
+More precise is the Bushman legend, quoted by Dr. Bleek. According to
+this, the moon is a man who incurs the wrath of the sun, and is
+consequently pierced by the knife (the rays) of the latter, until there
+is only a little piece of him left. Then he cries for mercy for his
+children's sake, and is allowed to grow again until once more he offends
+his sunship; the whole process being repeated monthly.
+
+Dr. Rink relates a curious tradition of the Eskimo, not quite quotable
+here, the gist of which is that a man who desired to make his sister his
+wife was transformed into the moon, while the woman became the sun.
+Something like the same legend has been traced as far south as Panama.
+Another notable thing about Eskimo traditions is that the moon is
+associated with fertility in woman. This superstition is both very
+ancient and very widespread, and, indeed, seems to have been the root
+both of the moon-worship of the Oriental nations and of the mysterious
+rites of the Egyptians referred to by Herodotus. Luna is identified by
+some mythologists with Soma of the Indian mythology, _i.e._, the emblem
+of reproduction.
+
+In China, according to Dr. Dennys, the man in the moon is called
+Yue-lao, and he is believed to hold in his hands the power of
+predestining marriages. He is supposed to tie together the future
+husband and wife with an invisible silken cord, which never parts while
+life lasts. Miss Gordon-Cumming, in her interesting account of
+Wanderings in China, relates that, in the neighbourhood of Foo-Chow, she
+witnessed a great festival being held in honour of the full moon, which
+was mainly attended by women. There was a Temple-play, or sing-song,
+going on all day and most of the night, and each woman carried a stool
+so that she might sit out the whole performance. This recalls what Mr.
+Riley states in The Book of Days, as related by John Andrey in the
+seventeenth century: 'In Scotland, especially among the Highlanders, the
+women make a courtesy to the new moon, and our English women in this
+country have a touch of this, some of them sitting astride on a gate or
+stile the first evening the new moon appears, and saying, "A fine moon!
+God bless her!" The like I observed in Herefordshire.'
+
+As illustrative of this superstition may be instanced a curious practice
+in this country, in olden times, of divination by the moon. It is quoted
+by Mr. Thiselton-Dyer from an old chap-book: 'When you go to bed (at the
+period of harvest moon) place under your pillow a Prayer-Book open at
+the part of the matrimonial service, which says, "With this ring I thee
+wed"; place on it a key, a ring, a flower, and a sprig of willow, a
+small heart-cake, a crust, and the following cards: a ten of clubs, nine
+of hearts, ace of spades, and ace of diamonds. Wrap all these in a thin
+handkerchief, and, on getting into bed, cover your hands, and say:
+
+  "Luna, every woman's friend,
+  To me thy goodness condescend:
+  Let me this night in visions see
+  Emblems of my destiny."
+
+
+It is certainly hard to imagine pleasant dreams as the result of such a
+very uncomfortably-stuffed pillow.
+
+In this same connection may be named other items of folklore related by
+Mr. Dyer. For instance, in Devonshire it is believed that if on seeing
+the first new moon of the year you take off one stocking and run across
+a field, you will find between two of your toes a hair which will be the
+colour of the lover you are to have. In Berkshire the proceeding is more
+simple, for you merely look at the new moon, and say:
+
+  'New moon, new moon, I hail thee!
+  By all the virtue in thy body,
+  Grant this night that I may see
+  He who my true love shall be!'
+
+
+The result is guaranteed to be as satisfactory as it is in Ireland,
+where the people are said to point to the new moon with a knife, and
+say:
+
+  'New moon, true morrow, be true now to me,
+  That I to-morrow my true love may see!'
+
+
+In Yorkshire, again, the practice was to catch the reflection of the new
+moon in a looking-glass, the number of reflections signifying the number
+of years which will elapse before marriage. All these superstitions are
+suggestive of that which Tylor calls 'one of the most instructive
+astrological doctrines'--namely, that of the 'sympathy of growing and
+declining nature with the waxing and waning moon.' Tylor says that a
+classical precept was to set eggs under the hen at new moon, and that a
+Lithuanian precept was to wean boys on a waxing and girls on a waning
+moon--in order to make the boys strong and the girls delicate. On the
+same grounds, he says, Orkney-men object to marry except with a growing
+moon, and Mr. Dyer says that in Cornwall, when a child is born in the
+interval between an old and a new moon, it is believed that he will
+never live to manhood.
+
+Dr. Turner relates several traditions of the moon current in Samoa.
+There is one of a visit paid to the planet by two young men--Punifanga,
+who went up by a tree, and Tafaliu, who went up on a column of smoke.
+There is another of a woman, Sina, who was busy one evening cutting
+mulberry-bark for cloth with her child beside her. It was a time of
+famine, and the rising moon reminded her of a great bread-fruit--just as
+in our country it has reminded some people of a green cheese. Looking
+up, she said: 'Why cannot you come down and let my child have a bit of
+you?' The moon was so indignant at being taken for an article of food,
+that she came down forthwith and took up woman, child and wood. There
+they are to this day, for in the full moon the Samoans still see the
+features of Sina, the face of the child, and the board and mallet.
+
+Mr. Andrew Lang finds in an Australian legend of the moon something
+oddly like Grimm's tale of the Wolf and the Kids, which, again, he
+likens to the old Greek myth of Cronos. The Australian legend is that
+birds were the original gods, and that the eagle especially was a great
+creative power. The moon was a mischievous being, who walked about the
+earth doing all the evil he could. One day he swallowed the eagle. The
+eagle's wives coming up, the moon asked where he could find a well. They
+pointed out one, and while he was drinking, they struck him with a stone
+tomahawk, which made him disgorge the eagle. This legend is otherwise
+suggestive from the circumstances that among the Greeks the eagle was
+the special bird of Zeus, and it was the eagle which carried off
+Ganymede.
+
+There is another Australian fable that the moon was a man, and the sun a
+woman of doubtful reputation who appears at dawn in a coat of red
+kangaroo-skin belonging to one of her lovers. In Mexico, also, the moon
+is a man, across whose face an angry immortal once threw a rabbit; hence
+the marks on the surface of the planet. These same marks are accounted
+for in the Eskimo legend already mentioned as the impressions of the
+woman's sooty fingers on the face of her pursuer. By some mythologists
+the moon is thought to be Medea, but it is more common to interpret
+Medea as the daughter of the sun, _i.e._, the dawn.
+
+It is certainly not a little curious to find the moon-lore, as the
+star-lore, having so many points of resemblance among such
+widely-separated and different peoples as the Greeks, the Egyptians, the
+Australians, the Eskimos, the Bushmen of South Africa, the North
+American Indians, and the New Zealand Maoris. The comparative
+mythologists would argue from this resemblance a common origin of the
+myth, and a distribution or communication from one race to the other.
+The folk-lore mythologists would infer nothing of the sort. They say
+there is nothing remarkable in all savage races imputing human motives
+and sex to the heavenly bodies, for, in fact, to this day there are
+savages, as in the South Pacific, who suppose even stones to be male and
+female, and to propagate their species. On this method of interpretation
+the hypothesis is not that the Australians, Indians, etc., received
+their myths from, say, the Greeks, either by community of stock or by
+contact and borrowing, but because the ancestors of the Greeks passed
+through the same intellectual condition as the primitive races we now
+know. And thus it is that in listening to the beautiful legends of the
+Greeks, we are but, as Bacon says, hearing the harsh ideas of earlier
+peoples 'blown softly through the flutes of the Grecians.'
+
+Now, beside the personality of the moon, and the peculiar influence he
+or she is supposed to exercise on mortals, there has survived an old
+superstition that the moon has direct influence on the weather. Apropos
+of this association, there is a pretty little Hindoo legend which is
+current in Southern India, and which has been translated by Miss Frere,
+daughter of Sir Bartle Frere. This is the story as told her by her
+Lingaet ayah:
+
+'One day the Sun, the Moon, and the Wind went out to dine with their
+uncle and aunt, the Thunder and Lightning. Their mother (one of the most
+distant stars you see far up in the sky) waited alone for her
+children's return. Now, both the Sun and the Wind were greedy and
+selfish. They enjoyed the great feast that had been prepared for them,
+without a thought of saving any of it to take home to their mother; but
+the gentle Moon did not forget her. Of every dainty dish that was
+brought round she placed a small portion under one of her beautiful long
+fingernails, that the Star might also have a share in the treat. On
+their return, their mother, who had kept watch for them all night long
+with her bright little eye, said: "Well, children, what have you brought
+home for me?" Then the Sun (who was eldest) said: "I have brought
+nothing home for you. I went out to enjoy myself with my friends, not to
+fetch a dinner for my mother!" And the Wind said: "Neither have I
+brought anything home for you, mother. You could hardly expect me to
+bring a collection of good things for you, when I merely went out for my
+own pleasure." But the Moon said: "Mother, fetch a plate; see what I
+have brought you;" and shaking her hands, she showered down such a
+choice dinner as never was seen before. Then the Star turned to the Sun,
+and spoke thus: "Because you went out to amuse yourself with your
+friends, and feasted and enjoyed yourself without any thought of your
+mother at home, you shall be cursed. Henceforth your rays shall ever be
+hot and scorching, and shall burn all that they touch. All men shall
+hate you, and cover their heads when you appear"; and this is why the
+sun is so hot to this day. Then she turned to the Wind, and said: "You
+also, who forgot your mother in the midst of your selfish pleasures,
+hear your doom. You shall always blow in the hot, dry weather, and shall
+parch and shrivel all living things, and men shall detest and avoid you
+from this very time"; and this is why the wind in the hot weather is
+still so disagreeable. But to the Moon she said: "Daughter, because you
+remembered your mother, and kept for her a share in your own enjoyment,
+from henceforth you shall be ever cool, and calm, and bright. No noxious
+glare shall accompany your pure rays, and men shall always call you
+blessed"; and that is why the moon's light is so soft, and cool, and
+beautiful even to this day.'
+
+It is remarkable, nevertheless, that among Western peoples, at any rate,
+the moon has usually been associated with the uncanny. It is an old
+belief, for instance, that the moon is the abode of bad spirits; and in
+the old story of the Vampire it is notable that the creature, as a last
+request, begged that he might be buried where no sunlight, but only
+moonlight, might fall on his grave. Witches were supposed to be able to
+control the moon, as witness the remark of Prospero in The Tempest:
+
+  'His mother was a witch, and one so strong,
+  That could control the moon.'
+
+
+The Rev. Timothy Harley, who has collected much moon-lore, suggests that
+if the broom on which witches rode to the moon be a type of the wind,
+'we may guess how the fancy grew up that the airy creation could control
+those atmospheric vapours on which the light and humidity of the night
+were supposed to depend.'
+
+But the 'glamour' of the moon is not a mere poetic invention or a
+lover's fancy. Mr. Moncure Conway reminds us that _glám_, in its
+nominative form _glámir_, is a poetical name for the moon, to be found
+in the Prose Edda. It is given in the Glossary as one of the old names
+for the moon. Mr. Conway also says that there is a curious old Sanscrit
+word, _glau_ or _gláv_, which is explained in all the old lexicons as
+meaning the moon. Hence 'the ghost or goblin Glam (of the old legend of
+Grettir) seems evidently to have arisen from a personification of the
+delusive and treacherous effects of moonlight on the benighted
+traveller.'
+
+Similar delusive effects are found referred to in old Hindoo writings,
+as, for instance, in the following passages from Bhása, a poet of the
+seventh century:
+
+'The cat laps the moonbeams in the bowl of water, thinking them to be
+milk; the elephant thinks that the moonbeams threaded through the
+intervals of the trees are the fibres of the lotus-stalk; the woman
+snatches at the moonbeams as they lie on the bed, taking them for her
+muslin garment. Oh, how the moon, intoxicated with radiance, bewilders
+all the world!'
+
+Again:
+
+'The bewildered herdsmen place the pails under the cows, thinking that
+the milk is flowing; the maidens also put the blue lotus-blossom in
+their ears, thinking that it is the white; the mountaineer's wife
+snatches up the jujube fruit, avaricious for pearls. Whose mind is not
+led astray by the thickly-clustering moonbeams?'
+
+Such was the 'glamour' of Glam (the moon) in ancient eyes, and still it
+works on lovers' hearts. The fascination has been felt and expressed by
+nearly all the poets, and by none better, perhaps, than by Sir Philip
+Sidney:
+
+  'With what sad steps, O moon, thou climb'st the skies!
+      How silently, and with how wan a face!
+      What, may it be, that even in heavenly place
+  That busy archer his sharp arrow tries?
+      Sure if that long with love-acquainted eyes
+  Can judge of love, thou feel'st a lover's case.
+      I read it in thy looks--thy languish'd grace
+  To me, that feel the like, thy state descries.'
+
+
+The number of human beings who have, articulately or inarticulately,
+cried with Endymion, 'What is there in thee, Moon, that thou should'st
+move my heart so potently?' are not to be measured in ordinary figures.
+
+To return, however, to the bad side of Luna's character. We read that in
+Assyria deadly influences were ascribed to the moon. In Vedic mythology
+there is a story, which Mr. Moncure Conway tells in Demonology and
+Devil-lore, of a quarrel between Brahma and Vishnu as to which was the
+first born. Siva interferes, and says he is the first born, but will
+recognise as his superior whoever is able to see the crown of his head
+or the soles of his feet. Vishnu thereupon transforms himself into a
+boar, pierces underground, and thus sees the feet of Siva, who salutes
+him on his return as the firstborn of the gods. Now, De Gubernatis
+regards this fable as 'making the boar emblem of the hidden moon'; and
+Mr. Conway thinks there is no doubt that the boar at an early period
+became emblematic of the wild forces of Nature. 'From being hunted by
+King Odin on earth, it passed to be his favourite food in Valhalla, and
+a prominent figure in his spectral hunt.' But it is with the moon, not
+with Odin, that we are at present concerned, and so note two curious
+items mentioned by Conway. In Sicilian legend, he says, 'Zafarana, by
+throwing three hog's bristles on embers, renews her husband's youth';
+and in Esthonian legend, a prince, by eating pork, acquires the faculty
+of understanding the language of birds. All this opens up a very
+suggestive field of inquiry. Thus, Plutarch says that the reason why the
+Jews would not eat swine's flesh was because Adonis was slain by a boar,
+and Bacchus and Adonis, he says, were the same divinities. Now, if we
+turn to Herodotus, we find that wonderful narrator saying: 'The only
+deities to whom the Egyptians offer swine are Bacchus and Luna; to these
+they sacrifice swine when the moon is full, after which they eat the
+flesh,' which at other times they disdained. The meaning of these
+sacrifices is understood by those interested, and I do not propose to go
+further into the matter. All I wish to do is to point out the curious
+involvements, among so many nations, of the moon and the boar.
+
+May we not even trace a connection with the superstition current in
+Suffolk, according to 'C. W. J.,' in The Book of Days? 'C. W. J.' says
+that in his part of the world it is considered unlucky to kill a pig
+when the moon is on the wane; and if it is done, the pork will waste in
+boiling. 'I have known,' he says, 'the shrinking of bacon in the pot
+attributed to the fact of the pig having been killed in the moon's
+decrease; and I have also known the death of poor piggy delayed or
+hastened so as to happen during its increase.' Truly the old
+superstitions die hard!
+
+The moon's supposed influence on the weather is a matter of general
+knowledge. The writer last quoted mentions it as a very prevalent belief
+that the general condition of the atmosphere throughout the world,
+during any lunation, depends on whether the moon changed before or after
+midnight. Another superstition is, that if the new moon happens on a
+Saturday the weather will be bad during the month. On the other hand, in
+Suffolk the old moon in the arms of the new one is accounted a sign of
+fine weather; contrary to the belief in Scotland, where, it may be
+remembered, in the ballad of Sir Patrick Spens, it is taken as a presage
+of storm and disaster.
+
+Shakespeare has many allusions to the moon's influence on the weather,
+as: 'The moon, the governess of floods, pale in her anger, washes the
+air'; 'The moon, one thinks, looks with a watery eye; and when she
+weeps, weeps every little flower'; 'Upon the corner of the moon there
+hangs a vaporous drop profound'; and so forth. Then we have the old
+proverb: 'So many days old the moon is on Michaelmas Day, so many floods
+after.' Other beliefs are mentioned by Mr. Harley, such as, that if
+Christmas comes during a waning moon, we shall have a good year, and
+the converse; that new moon on Monday is a certain sign of good weather;
+that a misty moon indicates heavy rain; that the horns of the moon
+turned upward predict a good, and turned downward a bad, season; that a
+large star near the moon is a certain prognostication of storm.
+
+In fact, the superstitions in this connection are legion, and are not
+confined to any country. They are as common in China, where the moon is
+still worshipped, as they are in England, where, in some places, old men
+still touch their hats and maidens still bob a courtesy in sight of the
+new moon. Thus the relics of moon-worship are about us still, as well as
+a strong popular belief that the moon is an active physical agent. That
+the actual influence of the moon on the tides lies at the basis of the
+belief in its influence on the weather is probable; and, at any rate, it
+is curious that the Persians held that the moon was the cause of an
+abundant supply of water and rain; while in a Japanese fairy-tale the
+moon is made to rule over the blue waste of the sea with its
+multitudinous salt waters. The horticultural superstitions about sowing
+and planting according to the age of the moon is, no doubt, a product of
+the fusion of the meteorological superstition and that of the old-world
+belief in Luna being the goddess of reproduction.
+
+Any who have still doubts on the meteorological question cannot do
+better than refer to a letter of Professor Nichol's--once Professor of
+Astronomy in the University of Glasgow--which is quoted in The Book of
+Days. He asserts positively, as the result of scientific observation,
+that no relation whatever exists between the moon and the weather.
+
+But does any exist between the moon and the brain? 'Whom the gods would
+destroy, they first make mad'; and the moon was supposed to be the
+instrument--nay, still is, as the very word 'lunacy' implies. The old
+astrologers used to say that she governed the brain, stomach, bowels,
+and left eye of the male, and the right eye of the female. Some such
+influences were evidently believed in by the Jews, as witness Psalm
+cxxi.: 'The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.' It
+may be remarked that Dr. Forbes Winslow is not very decided in
+dismissing the theory of the influence of the moon on the insane. He
+says it is purely speculative, but he does not controvert it. The
+subject is, however, too large to enter upon here. Whether or not it be
+true that 'when the moon's in the full then wit's on the wane,' it
+certainly is not true, as appears to be believed in Sussex, that the new
+May Moon has power to cure scrofulous complaints.
+
+Before leaving the subject, it is well to mention a remarkable
+coincidence to which Mr. Harley draws attention. In China, where
+moon-worship largely prevails, during the festival of Yue-Ping, which is
+held during the eighth month annually, incense is burned in the temples,
+cakes are made like the moon, and at full moon the people spread out
+oblations and make prostrations to the planet. These cakes are
+moon-cakes, and veritable offerings to the Queen of Heaven, who
+represents the female principle in Chinese theology. 'If we turn now to
+Jeremiah vii. 18, and read there, "The women knead dough to make cakes
+to the Queen of Heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings unto other
+gods," and remember that, according to Rashi, these cakes of the Hebrews
+had the image of the god or goddess stamped upon them, we are in view of
+a fact of much interest.' The interest becomes greater when we learn
+that in parts of Lancashire there exists a precisely similar custom of
+making cakes in honour of the Queen of Heaven.
+
+From these facts, the discovery of two buns, each marked with a cross,
+in Herculaneum, and other evidences, we are driven to the conclusion
+that the 'hot-cross buns' of Christian England are in reality but a
+relic of moon-worship!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE DEVIL'S CANDLE.
+
+
+So much legendary lore and so many strange fables have had their origin
+in the mandrake, or the 'Devil's Candle,' as the Arabians call it, that
+it is worth while to endeavour to trace if any, and what, analogy there
+be between it and the mandragoras of the Greeks and the Soma of the
+Indian mythology.
+
+The mandrake is so called from the German _Mandragen_, 'resembling
+man'--at least, so says Mr. Thiselton-Dyer; but this derivation is not
+quite satisfactory. The botanical name is _Mandragora officinalis_, and
+sometimes the May-apple, or _Podophyllum peltatum_, is also called
+mandrake; but the actual plant of fact and fancy belongs to the
+_Solanum_, or potato family.
+
+Although one may doubt if the English name be really derived from the
+German _Mandragen_, it is certain that the Germans have long regarded
+the plant as something uncanny. Other names which they have for it are
+_Zauberwurzel_, or Sorcerer's Root, and _Hexenmännchen_, or Witch's
+Mannikin, while they made little dolls or idols from it, which they
+regarded with superstitious veneration, and called _Erdmann_, or
+Earth-man.
+
+Yet in other places, according to one authority, the mandrake was
+popularly supposed to be 'perpetually watched over by Satan; and if it
+be pulled up at certain holy times and with certain invocations, the
+evil spirit will appear to do the bidding of the practitioner.' A
+superstition once common in the South of England was that the mandrake
+had a human heart at its root, and, according to Timbs, it was generally
+believed that the person who pulled it would instantaneously fall dead;
+that the root shrieked or groaned whenever separated from the earth; and
+that whoever heard the shriek would either die shortly afterwards or
+become afflicted with madness.
+
+To this last superstition there is direct reference made by Shakespeare
+in Romeo and Juliet:
+
+  'And shrieks like mandrakes torn out of the earth,
+  That living mortals hearing them run mad.'
+
+
+Frequent allusions to this superstition are to be found in the old
+poets, although it is held by some that the effects claimed for
+decoctions of the mandrake really refer to those of the nightshade. This
+confusion has certainly arisen at times, but the most general idea
+concerning the mandrake was that it was a stimulant rather than a
+narcotic. It is true that Shakespeare regarded mandragora as an opiate,
+for he makes Cleopatra to exclaim:
+
+  'Give me to drink mandragora,
+  That I might sleep out this great gap of time
+  My Antony is away.'
+
+
+And, again, when in Othello he makes Iago say:
+
+  'Nor poppy, nor mandragora,
+  Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world
+  Can ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep
+  Which thou owedst yesterday.'
+
+
+But, on the other hand, we find Apuleius--himself, by the way, not
+unsuspected of magical arts--writing that when the root of the mandrake
+is steeped in wine it produces vehement intoxication. The same idea is
+reflected in Mrs. Browning's Dead Pan:
+
+  'In what revels are ye sunken
+  In old Ethiopia?
+  Have the Pygmies made you drunken,
+  Bathing in mandragora,
+  Your divine pale lips that shiver
+  Like the lotus in the river?'
+
+
+And there can be little doubt that the mysterious 'Lhasis,' referred to
+by Sir William Davenant[5]--a word whose etymology is so obscure--is
+nothing else than the mandrake or mandragora; if so, then we see that
+the plant was valued for its exciting and stimulating effects rather
+than as an opiate.
+
+Many commentators and most dictionaries dispose of Reuben's mandrakes as
+something altogether different from the plant now known by the name; but
+there is really no warrant for such a conclusion. The _Mandragora
+officinalis_ is quite common in Celicia, Syria, and elsewhere in the
+East, and is easily identifiable with the root of Baaras, which Josephus
+describes in the Wars of the Jews. This root, he says, is in colour like
+to that of flame, and towards the evening it sends out a certain ray
+like lightning. It is not easily to be pulled, it will not yield
+quietly, and it is certain death to anyone who dares pull it, unless he
+hangs it with the head downwards. As to the uses of the root, Josephus
+continues: 'After all his pains in getting it, it is only valuable on
+account of one virtue it hath: that if it only be brought to sick
+persons, it quickly drives away those called Demons, which are no other
+than the spirits of the wicked, which enter into men that are alive and
+kill them, unless they can obtain some help against them'; and the root
+was esteemed a useful stimulant, although in Baaras, at any rate, it
+seems to have lost its reputation as a love-philtre. It is noteworthy
+that Josephus also tells how Solomon had great skill in enchantments,
+and cast out devils by means of this root--an accomplishment he is said
+to have learned from some of the numerous foreign ladies with whom he
+surrounded himself.
+
+Now, it is interesting to turn from the old Jewish historian to the old
+English herbalist, Gerarde, who in 1597 wrote in his Herball pointing
+out how, by 'the corruption of time and the errour of some,' mandragora
+has been mistaken for what he calls Circaea, or Enchanter's Nightshade.
+But of the mandrake, or mandragoras, Gerarde says: 'There hath been many
+ridiculous tales brought up of this plant, whether of old wives, or some
+runagate surgeons, or physickemongers, I know not; but sure some one or
+more that sought to make themselves famous or skillful above others were
+the first brochers of the errour'--that the root resembles a man. 'They
+add further,' he says, 'that it is never, or very seldome, to be found
+growing naturally, but under a gallowes, where the matter that hath
+fallen from the dead body hath given it the shape of a man, and the
+matter of a woman the substance of a female plant, with many other such
+doltish dreames. The fable further affirms that he who would take up a
+plant thereof ... he should surely die in short space after.'
+
+This is clearly Josephus's 'root of Baaras' over again. Gerarde further
+holds it to be the identical mandragoras of the Greeks, and called
+Circaea because it was used by Circe for love-potions and enchantments.
+If this be so, then what was the 'moly' given to Odysseus by Hermes
+wherewith to counteract the charms of Circe? Was it a totally different
+plant, or was it merely the same applied on the homoeopathic principle?
+Mr. Andrew Lang thinks they cannot be the same, because the 'moly' is
+described by Homer as having a black root and a white flower, while the
+mandragoras is described by Pliny as having a yellow flower and white,
+fleshy roots. But we know that Homer is somewhat confusing in the matter
+of colours, and it is possible that various shades of the purplish
+flower of the true mandrake might appear to one observer as white, and
+to another as yellow. Upon the whole, the probability is that the two
+names meant one and the same plant, for the characteristics are too
+peculiar to be alike possessed by different species. If the moly were
+not mandragoras there is nothing else known to modern botany that it
+could be, unless it were rue, with which some scholars have sought to
+identify it, but not very successfully.
+
+The learned author of Pseudosia Epidemica, or Vulgar Errors, at any
+rate, was clearly of opinion that moly and mandragoras were one and the
+same. He quotes also from Pliny that the ancient way of pulling the root
+was to get on the windward side of the plant, and with a sword to
+describe three circles about it, whilst the operator kept his face
+turned to the west. The dangers attending the plucking of mandrakes are
+shrewdly disposed of by Sir Thomas Browne with the remark that it is
+'derogatory unto the Providence of God ... to impose so destructive a
+quality on any plant ... whose parts are usefull unto many.' The same
+author mentions the superstition that the mandrake grows under gallows,
+fructified by the decaying bodies of criminals, that it grows both male
+and female, and that it shrieks upon eradication. This last idea he
+derides as 'false below confute, arising perhaps from a small and
+stridulous noise which, being firmly rooted, it maketh upon divulsion of
+parts.' 'A slender foundation,' he remarks, 'for such a vast conception;
+for such a noise we sometimes observe in other plants--in parsnips,
+liquorish, eringium, flags, and others.'
+
+The belief that the root of the mandrake resembles the human figure is
+characterized by the writer last quoted, as a 'conceit not to be made
+out by ordinary inspection, or any other eyes than such as regarding the
+clouds behold them in shapes conformable to pre-apprehensions.' It is
+traceable to the bifurcation of the root; a formation, however, which
+is frequently found 'in carrots, parsnips, briony, and many others.'
+There is no other importance, therefore, to be attached to 'the epithet
+of Pythagoras, who calls it anthropomorphon, and that of Columella, who
+terms it semihomo;' nor to Albertus, 'when he affirmed that mandrakes
+represent mankind with the distinction of either sex.' The roots, which
+were commonly sold in various parts of Europe 'unto ignorant people,
+handsomely made out the shape of man or woman. But these are not
+productions of nature but contrivances of art, as divers have noted....
+This is vain and fabulous, which ignorant people and simple women
+believe; for the roots which are carried about by impostors are made of
+the roots of canes, briony, and other plants.' And the method of
+manufacture is then explained by the erudite doctor. It is evident from
+what has been cited that the prevalence of the superstition, and the
+existence of the German _erdmann_, were matters of common knowledge in
+the latter half of the seventeenth century.
+
+But the superstition can be traced still later, for as recently as 1810
+some of these root-images were to be seen on sale in certain parts of
+France, and were purchased as love-charms. It is said that even now at
+this very day bits of the _Mandragoras officinalis_ are worn by the
+young men and maidens of Greece to bring them fortune in their
+love-affairs.
+
+In some parts of England--viz., in Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and
+Somersetshire--the briony is called mandrake, and a small portion of the
+root is frequently given to horses among their food to make them sleek
+and improve their condition, and it is still also sold 'for medicinal
+and other purposes.' Yet in other places it is called 'Devil's Food,'
+because Satan is supposed to be perpetually watching over it and to
+jealously guard its magical properties. It is partly on this account,
+and partly because of its supposed effect in stimulating the passions,
+that the Arabs sometimes call the mandrake Tuphacel-sheitan, or Devil's
+Apple, although it is otherwise known as the Stone Apple. In many parts
+of Europe the mandrake is believed to possess, in common with some other
+plants, the power of opening locks and unshoeing horses.
+
+The belief that the mandrake had some peculiar association with the
+devil has made it a favourite plant with sorcerers and workers of
+enchantment in all ages. Lord Bacon refers to it as a favourite in his
+time, 'whereof witches and impostors make an ugly image, giving it the
+form of a face at the top of the root,' and leaving the natural threads
+of the root 'to make a broad beard down to the foot.' Mr. Moncure
+Conway, however, says that the superstition rightly belonging to the
+mandrake was often transferred to other roots--probably in ignorance as
+to the identity of the real plant.
+
+'Thus,' he says, 'the author of Secrets du Petit Albert says that a
+peasant had a bryonia root of human shape, which he received from a
+gipsy. He buried it at a lucky conjunction of the moon with Venus' (the
+reader will not fail to note the reference to the Goddess of Love) 'in
+spring, and on a Monday, in a grave, and then sprinkled it with milk in
+which three field-mice had been drowned. In a month it became more
+humanlike than ever. Then he placed it in an oven with vervain, wrapped
+it afterwards in a dead man's shroud, and so long as he kept it he never
+failed in luck at games or work.'
+
+Then we learn from the same author that a German horse-dealer, of
+Augsburg, once lost a horse, and being poor, wandered in despair to an
+inn. There some men gave him a mandrake, and on his return home he found
+a bag of ducats on the table. His wife, however, did not like the
+business, and persuaded the man to return to give back the root to those
+from whom he got it. But he could not find the men again, and soon after
+the house was burned down, and both horse-dealer and wife perished.
+
+The only suggestion from this story is that the mandrake was supposed to
+bring 'devil's luck,' although, if so, it is difficult to understand why
+the _erdmanns_ were so carefully preserved from generation to
+generation. One German writer, Rist, says that he has seen one more than
+a century old, which had been kept in a coffin, on which was a cloth
+bearing a picture of a thief on the gallows and a mandrake growing
+underneath.
+
+Coles, who wrote The Art of Simpling, in 1656, says the witches use the
+mandrake-roots, 'according to some, or, as I rather suppose, the roots
+of briony, which simple people take for the true mandrake, and make
+thereof an ugly image, by which they represent the person on whom they
+intend to exercise their witchcraft.' But their professions must at
+times have been even larger, for it is on record that a witch was
+executed near Orleans, in France, about 1605, who was charged with
+having kept a living mandrake-fiend, having the form of a female ape!
+
+So much for the mandrake, of which, however, a good deal more might be
+said. But what has been said serves to establish that it was identical
+with the mandragora, and with the mandragoras of the Greeks; that it was
+probably also the briony; that superstitions have attached to it in all
+countries and from time immemorial, which ascribed to it occult virtues;
+that the powers it exercised varied a good deal according to locality
+and time, but that two main conceptions have almost universally
+prevailed, viz., that it was a stimulant, and a potent instrument in
+affairs of the heart.
+
+What, then, is the Soma, or Homa, of the Hindu mythology--the ambrosia
+of the Indian gods? It has been the subject of much discussion and some
+difference among comparative mythologists. Soma was the chief deity
+among the ancient Hindus--the author of life, the giver of health, the
+protector of the weak, and the guide to immortality. Once he took upon
+himself the form of man, but was slain by men and braised in a mortar.
+The similarity with the Christian legend is remarkable, and the method
+of death should be borne in mind. After his death, Soma rose in flame to
+heaven, 'to be the benefactor of the world and the mediator between God
+and man.'
+
+One of the articles of faith with the Hindus, therefore, is that they
+must hold communion with Soma, and they are taught thus to pray to him:
+'O Soma! thou art the strength of our heroes and the death of our
+enemies, invincible in war! Fulfil our vows in battle, fight for us!
+None can resist thee; give us superiority! O Soma immortal! May we drink
+to thee and be immortal like thee!' Mr. Baring-Gould says that the whole
+legend of Soma is but the allegorical history of the plant _Sarcostemma
+viminalis_, which is associated with passionate love 'because of the
+intoxicating liquor which is derived from its juice. It is regarded as a
+godsend. The way in which it is prepared is by crushing it in a mortar;
+the juice is then thrown on the sacrificial flame and so rises to
+heaven.' The same writer tells us that a similar worship prevailed among
+the Iranians, who called the juice Homa, but they did not ferment it,
+and although they ascribed to it divine attributes, they did not make
+Homa a supreme deity. But both with them and with the Hindus, 'the
+partaking of the juice was regarded as a sacramental act, by virtue of
+which the receiver was embued with a portion of the divine nature.'
+
+Another writer, the author of Bible Folklore, says that the 'old Soma
+was the same as the Persian Homa, a brilliant god, who gives sons to
+heroes, and husbands to maidens. The juice of the plant, pounded in an
+iron mortar, is greenish in colour, and is strained through a cloth and
+mixed with the sap of a pomegranate branch; the yellow juice is then
+strained through a vessel with nine holes. Among the Parsees it is
+drunk, not as by the Brahmins in large quantities by sixteen priests,
+but in small quantities by the two chief priests, and is thus not
+intoxicating.'
+
+The symbol is confused with the deity, and 'Soma is at once the
+life-giving spring of the juice of immortality, and the juice itself'--a
+confusion not without analogy in some of the superstitions narrated of
+the mandrake. But of old Soma was drunk as mead was drunk by the
+Scandinavians, before and after battle. It gave power and good fortune
+as well as light and happiness, and when elevated into a god was
+supposed to be the origin of all creation.
+
+Now, of the _Sarcostemma_ it is to be noted that it belongs to the
+family of _Asclepiadaceæ_, which have all something more or less
+'fleshy' looking about some parts of them, which, like the _Apocyneæ_,
+were in the old world credited with medicinal properties, and which are
+generally acrid, stimulating, and astringent. There are many poisonous
+members of the family, such as the dog's-bane and wolf's-bane of our own
+country, favourite plants with the enchanters, while the cowplant of
+Ceylon is of the same species.
+
+In Garrett's Dictionary of India it is stated that the Soma of the Vedas
+is no longer known in India, and the same statement is repeated by many
+writers. It is certainly not indubitable that the _Sarcostemma
+viminalis_ was the plant of wondrous virtues that was deified. On the
+other hand, we find that these ascribed virtues closely resemble those
+attributed to the mandrake, and it is known that the Aryan people
+received many of their ideas and superstitions from the old Jewish
+tribes.
+
+We have seen, further, that belief in the peculiar power of the mandrake
+in certain directions was a settled belief at a very early period of the
+Jewish history, and we thus arrive at the very probable suggestion that
+the original Soma was neither more nor less than the mandrake of Reuben,
+the 'Baaras root' of Josephus, the mandragoras of the Greeks, the moly
+of Homer, the mandragora of Shakespeare, the mandragen of Germany, and
+the mandrake, again, of England.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE SEA AND ITS LEGENDS.
+
+
+One of the oldest superstitions connected with the sea is undoubtedly
+that which associated peril with the malefic influence of some
+individual on shipboard. We find it in the case of the seamen of Joppa,
+who, when overtaken by a 'mighty tempest' on the voyage to Tarshish,
+said to each other, 'Come and let us cast lots, that we may know for
+whose cause this evil is cast upon us.' The lot, as we know, fell upon
+Jonah, and after some vain wrestling with the inevitable, the men at
+last 'took up Jonah and cast him forth into the sea, and the sea ceased
+from her raging.'
+
+Without offering here any comment on, or explanation of, the Scriptural
+narrative, let us compare it with the following remarkable story, which
+that indefatigable delver after old-world wonders, Charles Kirkpatrick
+Sharpe, reproduced.
+
+Somewhere about midsummer of the year 1480, a ship, sailing out of the
+Forth for a port in Holland, was assailed by a furious tempest, which
+increased to such a remarkable degree for the mild season of the year,
+that the sailors were overcome with fear, and gave themselves up for
+lost. At length an old woman, who was a passenger by the vessel, came on
+deck and entreated them to throw her overboard as the only means of
+preserving their own lives, saying that she had long been haunted by an
+'incubus' in the shape of a man, from whose grasp she could not free
+herself. Fortunately for all parties there was another passenger on
+board--a priest--who was called to the rescue. After a long admonition,
+and many sighs and prayers, 'there issued forth of the pumpe of the
+ship,' says Hollinshed, 'a foul and evil-favoured blacke cloud, with a
+mightie terrible noise, flame, smoke, and stinke, which presentlie fell
+into the sea, and suddenlie, thereupon, the tempest ceassed, and the
+ship passing in great quiet the residue of her journie, arrived in
+safetie at the place whither she was bound.'
+
+There is doubtless some association between this class of superstition
+and the old Talmudic legend, according to which the devils were
+specially angered when, at the creation, man received dominion over the
+things of the sea. This was a realm of unrest and tempest, which the
+devils claimed as belonging to themselves. But, says the legend,
+although denied control of the life that is in the sea, the devils were
+permitted a large degree of power over its waters, while over the winds
+their rule was supreme.
+
+There is scarcely a current legend or superstition which cannot be
+traced to very remote sources. Thus, in the Chaldæo-Babylonian
+cosmogony there was a Triad which ruled the three zones of the
+universe: the heaven, by Anu; the surface of the earth and the
+atmosphere, by Bel; and the under-world, by Nonah. Now, Nonah is held to
+be both the same as the Assyrian Hea, or Saviour, and as the Noah of the
+Bible. So when Tiamat, the dragon, or leviathan, opens 'the fountains of
+the great deep,' and Anu, 'the windows of heaven,' it is Hea, or Noah,
+who saves the life of man.
+
+This legend is supposed by M. François Lenormant to explain an allusion
+in one of the most ancient Accadian manuscripts in the British Museum to
+'the serpent of seven heads, that beats the sea.' This Hydra was the
+type of the destructive water-demon who figures in the legends of all
+countries.
+
+In the same way, to the Syrian fish deities, Dagon and Artergatis, must
+we look for the origin of our Undines and fish-maidens, and mermaidens.
+
+The 'Nixy' of Germany has by some been supposed traceable to 'Old Nick';
+but this is not probable, since St. Nicholas has been the patron-saint
+of sailors for many centuries. It was during the time of the Crusades
+that a vessel on the way to the Holy Land was in great peril, and St.
+Nicholas assuaged a tempest by his prayers. Since then he has been
+supposed to be the protector of mariners, even as Neptune was in ancient
+times; and in most Roman Catholic countries you will find in seaport
+towns churches dedicated to St. Nicholas, to which sailors resort to
+return thanks for preservation at sea, and to make votive offerings.
+
+The German Nixy was, no doubt, a later form of the old Norse water-god
+Nikke. You meet with him again, in another form, in Neckan, the
+soulless, of whom Matthew Arnold sings:
+
+  'In summer on the headlands
+    The Baltic sea along
+  Sits Neckan with his harp of gold,
+    And sings his plaintive song.'
+
+
+The 'Nixa' along the Baltic coast was once, however, much feared by the
+fishermen. It was the same spirit which appears as the Kelpie in
+Scotland--a water-demon which caused sudden floods to carry away the
+unwary, and then devoured them.
+
+There was a river-goddess in Germany, whose temple stood at Magdeburg,
+of whom a legend exists that she also once visited earth and went to
+market in a Christian costume, where she was detected by a continual
+dripping of water from the corner of her apron. Generally speaking,
+however, the Nixies may be described as the descendants of the Naiads of
+ancient times, and as somewhat resembling the Russian Rusalkas, of which
+the peasantry live in much dread.
+
+A Russian peasant, it is said, is so afraid of the water-spirits that he
+will not bathe without a cross round his neck, nor ford a stream on
+horseback without signing a cross on the water with a scythe or knife.
+In some parts these water-spirits are supposed to be the transformed
+souls of Pharaoh and his host, when they were drowned, and the number is
+always being increased by the souls of those who drown themselves.
+
+It is said that 'in Bohemia' fishermen have been known to refuse aid to
+drowning persons lest 'Vodyany' would be offended and prevent the fish
+from entering the nets.
+
+This 'Vodyany,' however, seems rather a variant of the old Hydra, who
+reappears in the diabolical names so frequently given to boiling springs
+and dangerous torrents. The 'Devil's Tea-kettles' and 'Devil's
+Punch-bowls' of England and America have the same association as the
+weird legends connected with the Strudel and Wirbel whirlpools of the
+Danube, and with the rapids of the Rhine, and other rivers. Curiously
+enough, we find the same idea in The Arabian Nights, when 'The sea
+became troubled before them, and there arose from it a black pillar
+ascending towards the sky, and approaching the meadow, and behold it was
+a Jinn of gigantic stature.'
+
+This demon was a waterspout, and waterspouts in China are attributed to
+the battles of dragons. 'The Chinese,' says Mr. Moncure Conway, 'have
+canonised of recent times a special protectress against the storm-demons
+of the coast, in obedience to the wishes of the sailors.'
+
+The swan-maidens, who figure in so many legends, are mere varieties of
+the mer-maiden, and, according to the Icelandic superstition, they and
+all fairies were children of Eve, whom she hid away on one occasion when
+the Lord came to visit her, because they were not washed and
+presentable! They were, therefore, condemned to be invisible for ever.
+
+A Scotch story, quoted by Mr. Moncure Conway, rather bears against this
+theory. One day, it seems, as a fisherman sat reading his Bible, a
+beautiful nymph, lightly clad in green, came to him out of the sea, and
+asked if the book contained any promise of mercy for her. He replied
+that it contained an offer of salvation to 'all the children of Adam,'
+whereupon she fled away with a loud shriek, and disappeared in the sea.
+But the beautiful stories of water-nymphs, of Undines and Loreleis, and
+mer-women, are too numerous to be even mentioned, and too beautiful, in
+many cases, to make one care to analyze.
+
+There is a tradition in Holland that when, in 1440, the dikes were
+broken down by a violent tempest, the sea overflowed the meadows. Some
+women of the town of Edam, going one day in a boat to milk their cows,
+discovered a mermaid in shallow water floundering about with her tail in
+the mud. They took her into the boat, brought her to Edam, dressed her
+in women's clothes, and taught her to spin, and to eat as they did. They
+even taught her something of religion, or, at any rate, to bow
+reverently when she passed a crucifix; but they could not teach her to
+speak. What was the ultimate fate of this remarkable creature is not
+disclosed.
+
+Everybody, of course, is familiar with the old sea-legend of the _Flying
+Dutchman_, whether in stories of phantom ships, or in the opera of
+Wagner. The spirit of Vanderdecken, which is still supposed to roam the
+waters, is merely the modern version of our old friend, Nikke, the
+Norwegian water-demon. This is a deathless legend, and used to be as
+devoutedly believed in as the existence of Mother Carey, sitting away up
+in the north, despatching her 'chickens' in all directions to work
+destruction for poor Jack. But Mother Carey really turns out on inquiry
+to be a most estimable being, as we shall presently see.
+
+'Sailors,' says Brand, in his Popular Antiquities, 'usually the boldest
+Men alive, are yet frequently the very abject slaves of superstitious
+Fear. They have various puerile Apprehensions concerning Whistling on
+Shipboard, carrying a Corpse, etc., all which are Vestiges of the old
+Woman in human Nature, and can only be erased by the united Efforts of
+Philosophy and Religion.'
+
+It is to be regretted, however, that the good Brand did not devote as
+much attention to the superstitions of sailors as he did to those of
+some other folks.
+
+As is the case with almost all folk-lore, little variety is to be found
+in the sea superstitions of different nations. The ideas of the
+supernatural on shipboard are pretty much the same, whether the flag
+flown be the Union Jack, the German Eagle, the French Tricolor, the
+American Stars and Stripes, or even the Chinese Dragon. These
+superstitions are numerous, and are tenaciously preserved, but yet it
+would not be fair to say that seamen are, as a class, more superstitious
+than landsmen of their own rank. The great mystery of the sea; the
+uncertainty of life upon its bosom; the isolation and frequent
+loneliness; the wonder of the storms, and calms, and lights--everything
+connected with a sailor's occupation is calculated to impress him with
+the significance of signs and omens.
+
+That mariners do not like to have a corpse on board is not remarkable,
+for many people ashore get rather 'creepy' if they have to sleep in a
+house where lies a dead body. Moreover, the old idea of bad luck which
+led to the throwing overboard of Jonah, is in this case transferred from
+the living to the dead. The objection to whistling is also explainable
+by the time-honoured practice of 'whistling for a wind,' for an
+injudicious whistler might easily bring down a blow from the wrong
+quarter.
+
+There are some animals and birds which have a peculiar significance at
+sea. The cat, for instance, is generally disliked, and many sailors will
+not have one on board at any price. If there is one which becomes
+unusually frisky, they will say the cat has got a gale of wind in her
+tail. On one part of the Yorkshire coast, it is said, sailors' wives
+were in the habit of keeping black cats to insure the safety of their
+husbands at sea, until black cats became so scarce and dear that few
+could afford to buy one. Although Jack does not like a cat in the ship,
+he will not throw one overboard, for that would bring on a storm.
+
+Miss L. A. Smith, in her book about the Music of the Waters, states that
+a dead hare on a ship is considered a sign of an approaching hurricane;
+and Cornish fishermen declare that a white hare seen about the quays at
+night indicates that there will be rough weather.
+
+The pig is an object of aversion to Japanese seamen, and also to Filey
+fishermen, who will not go to sea if they meet one in the early morning.
+But, indeed, the pig seems to be generally disliked by all
+seafarers--except in the form of salt pork and bacon.
+
+Rats, however, are not objected to; indeed, it would be useless to
+object, for they overrun all ships. And rats are supposed to leave a
+vessel only when it is going to sink. A Welsh skipper, however, once
+cleared his ship of them without the risk of a watery grave, by drawing
+her up to a cheese-laden ship in harbour. He quietly moored alongside,
+and, having left the hatches open all night, cast off with a chuckle in
+the morning, leaving a liberal legacy to his neighbour.
+
+The stormy petrel is supposed to herald bad weather, and the great auk
+to tell that land is very near. This is true enough as regards the auk,
+which never ventures beyond soundings; but one doubts the truth of the
+popular belief that when the sea-gulls hover near the shore, a storm is
+at hand. The Scotch rhyme runs:
+
+  'Seagull, seagull, sit on the sand;
+  It's never good weather when you're on the land!'
+
+
+Mr. Thiselton-Dyer quotes from Sinclair's Statistical Account of
+Scotland, in confirmation of this belief, that in the county of Forfar,
+'when they appear in the fields, a storm from the southeast generally
+follows; and when the storm begins to abate, they fly back to the
+shore.' This does not accord with the present writer's experience of the
+west coast of Scotland, where the sea-gulls frequent the lochs and
+hillsides far inland all the summer. Naturally there are storms
+sometimes after their appearance, but just as often fine weather
+continues. As well say that the flocks of these beautiful birds that
+follow in the wake of a tourist steamer, to pick up unconsidered
+trifles, presage sea-sickness to the passengers!
+
+One has heard that in Cornwall sailors will not walk at night along
+portions of the shore where there have been many wrecks, because they
+believe that the souls of the drowned haunt such localities, and that
+the 'calling of the dead' is frequently audible. Some even say that they
+have heard the voices of dead sailors hailing them by name. One can
+readily excuse a timorousness in Jack in such circumstances. Many
+persons besides sailors shrink from localities which have been the
+scenes of murder or sudden death.
+
+Friday is the sailor's pet aversion, as an unlucky day on which to sail
+or begin work. But this is not surprising, when we remember that Friday
+has everywhere more superstition and folk-lore attached to it than any
+other day in the week, originating, perhaps, as Mr. Thiselton-Dyer
+suggests, from the fact that it was the day on which Christ was
+crucified. Lord Byron had the superstitious aversion to Friday; and even
+among the Brahmins no business must be commenced on this day. In
+Lancashire a man will not 'go a-courting on Friday'; and Brand says: 'A
+respectable merchant of the city of London informed me that no person
+will begin any business, that is, open his shop for the first time, on a
+Friday.' The 'respectable merchant' might be hard to find nowadays, but
+still one does not need to go to sailors to find a prejudice against
+Friday.
+
+Other things which are accounted unlucky by superstitious seamen are: to
+sneeze on the left side at the moment of embarking; to count the men on
+board; to ask fishermen, before they start, where they are bound for; to
+point with the finger to a ship when at sea; to lose a mop or
+water-bucket; to cut the hair or nails at sea, except during a storm.
+
+These are a few of the sea superstitions as preserved in rhyme:
+
+  'The evening gray, and the morning red,
+  Put on your hat or you'll wet your head.'
+
+(Meaning that it will rain.)
+
+  'When the wind shifts against the sun,
+  Trust it not, for it will run.'
+
+(That is, soon change again.)
+
+  'When the sun sets in the clear,
+  An easterly wind you need not fear.
+
+  'The evening red and morning gray
+  Are sure signs of a fine day.'
+
+(A distich not peculiar to followers of the sea.)
+
+  'But the evening gray and morning red
+  Makes the sailor shake his head.'
+
+
+This refers to the barometer:
+
+  'First rise, after low,
+  Indicates a stronger blow.'
+
+And this:
+
+  'Long foretold, long last;
+  Short notice, soon past.'
+
+These, however, are hardly superstitions, but maxims based on
+experience. Of the same character are the following:
+
+                  'In squalls
+  When the rain's before the wind
+  Halyards, sheets, and braces mind.'
+
+Also,
+
+  'When the wind's before the rain
+  Soon you may make sail again.'
+
+And
+
+  'When the glass falls low,
+  Prepare for a blow;
+  When it rises high,
+  Let all your kites fly.
+
+  'A rainbow in the morning,
+  Sailors take warning;
+  A rainbow at night
+  Is the sailor's delight.'
+
+
+The Manx fishermen have some curious sayings about herrings. Thus the
+common expression, 'As dead as a herring,' is due to them. They say
+also, 'Every herring must hang by its own gills'; and their favourite
+toast is, 'Life to man and death to fish.' They count one hundred and
+twenty-four fish to the hundred, thus: they first sort out lots of one
+hundred and twenty, then add three to each lot, which is called 'warp,'
+and then a single herring, which is called 'tally.' Before shooting the
+nets at sea, every man goes down on his knees at a sign from the skipper
+of the boat, and, with his head uncovered, prays for a blessing on the
+fishing. This, at least, used to be the general practice, but in how
+prevailing at the present day is doubtful.
+
+The sound of the death-bell is often supposed to be heard at sea before
+a wreck, and this idea may be either associated with the bell-buoy which
+marks many sunken, dangerous rocks, or with the religious ceremonies of
+the old days.
+
+At Malta it is, or was, usual to ring the church bells for an hour
+during a storm 'that the wind may cease and the sea be calmed,' and the
+same custom prevails both in Sicily and Sardinia.
+
+A Cornish legend of the bells of a church, which were sent by ship that
+was lost in sight of the town, owing to the blasphemy of the captain,
+says that the bells are supposed to be in the bay, and they announce by
+strange sounds the approach of a storm.
+
+There is a suggestion of Sir Ralph the Rover in this legend; but,
+indeed, the superstitions of those connected with the sea are so
+interwoven, that it is not easy to disentangle them, and they are
+numerous enough to need a book to themselves. No doubt our mariners
+derived many of them from the old Spanish navigators who once swayed the
+main, for the Spaniards are one of the most superstitious peoples in the
+world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+MOTHER CAREY AND HER CHICKENS.
+
+
+Who was Mother Carey the appearance of whose 'chickens' is supposed by
+the mariner to foretell a coming storm? This question is often asked,
+but seldom answered, and so a little light on the subject is desirable.
+
+Charles Kingsley gives a very vivid picture of her. In his charming book
+about The Water-Babies, he tells how little Tom, in search of his old
+master, Grimes, is instructed to find his way to Peacepool and Mother
+Carey's Haven, where the good whales go when they die. On his way he
+meets a flock of petrels, who invite him to go with them, saying: 'We
+are Mother Carey's own chickens, and she sends us out over all the seas
+to show the good birds the way home.' So he comes to Peacepool at last,
+which is miles and miles across; and there the air is clear and
+transparent, and the water calm and lovely; and there the good whales
+rest in happy sleep upon the slumbering sea.
+
+In the midst of Peacepool was one large peaked iceberg. 'When Tom came
+near it, it took the form of the grandest old lady he had ever seen--a
+white marble lady, sitting on a white marble throne. And from the foot
+of the throne there swam away, out and in, and into the sea, millions of
+new-born creatures, of more shapes and colours than man ever dreamed.
+And they were Mother Carey's chickens, whom she makes out of the
+sea-water all the day long.'
+
+Now, this beautiful fancy of Kingsley's--and how beautiful it is can
+only be realized by a reading of the whole story--is based upon fact, as
+all beautiful fancies must be.
+
+The fundamental idea of Kingsley's picture is that of a fruitful and
+beneficent mother. And Mother Carey is just the Mater Cara of the
+medieval sailors. Our Mother Carey's chickens are the 'Birds of the Holy
+Virgin,' of the South of Europe, the 'Oiseaux de Nôtre Dame' of the
+French seamen.
+
+One reason for associating the petrel with the Holy Mother may possibly
+have been found in its supposed sleeplessness. The bird was believed
+never to rest, to hatch its eggs under its wings, and to be incessantly
+flying to and fro on the face of the waters on messages of warning to
+mariners. Even to this day sailors believe that the albatross, the
+aristocratic relative of the petrel, sleeps on the wing; and the power
+of the albatross, for good and evil, readers of the Ancient Mariner will
+remember. We say for good and evil, because opinion fluctuated. Thus:
+
+  'At length did cross an albatross,
+  Through the fog it came;
+  As if it had been a Christian soul,
+  We hailed it in God's name.'
+
+
+When the mariner with his crossbow did shoot the albatross, the crew
+said:
+
+  'I had done a hellish thing,
+  And it would work them woe;
+  For all averred I had killed the bird
+  That made the breeze to blow.
+  "Ah, wretch!" said they, "the bird to slay,
+  That made the breeze to blow!"'
+
+
+And once more, when the weather cleared, they changed:
+
+  'Then all averred I had killed the bird
+  That brought the fog and mist;
+  "'Twas right," said they, "such birds to slay,
+  That bring the fog and mist!"'
+
+
+Coleridge got his idea from Wordsworth, who got it from a passage in
+Shelvocke's voyages, where a long spell of bad weather was attributed to
+an albatross following the ship.
+
+The poet who sang,
+
+  'Oh, stormy, stormy peterel!
+    Thou art a bird of woe,
+  Yet would I thou could'st tell me half
+    Of the misery thou dost know!'
+
+has, however, misunderstood the feeling with which that little harbinger
+is regarded. So have many other persons. The petrel is not a bird of
+woe, but a bird of warning.
+
+The Virgin Mary--Mater Cara--was the special protectress of the early
+Christian seamen, just as Amphitrite had been the tutelary genius of
+his Greek, and Venus of his Roman, progenitors, and just as Isis, the
+moon goddess, had been the patroness of the Egyptian navigators. The
+Catholic mariner still believes that the Virgin has especial power over
+the winds and the sea.
+
+At Marseilles is the shrine of the Nôtre Dame de la Garde, greatly
+venerated by all the Provençal sailors; at Caen is the shrine of Nôtre
+Dame de Deliverance; at Havre, that of Nôtre Dame des Neiges. Brand
+tells, in his book of Antiquities, that on Good Friday Catholic mariners
+'cock-bill' their yards in mourning and hang and scourge an effigy of
+Judas Iscariot. The practice still continues, and as recently as 1881 a
+London newspaper contained an account of the ceremony performed on board
+several Portuguese vessels in the London Docks. The proceedings always
+closed with a Hymn to the Virgin Mary.
+
+In Rome, at the Church of Santa Maria della Navicella, there is a small
+marble ship which was offered by Pope Leo the Tenth in execution of a
+vow after his escape from shipwreck. The first thing done by Magellan
+and his crew after their safe return to Seville was to perform penance
+barefooted, clad only in their shirts, and bearing lighted tapers in
+their hands, at the shrine of Our Lady of Victory. And it is related of
+Columbus, that on safe arrival after a storm at the Azores, 'The Admiral
+and all the crew, bearing in remembrance the vow which they had made the
+Thursday before, to go barefooted, and in their shirts, to some church
+of Our Lady at the first land, were of opinion that they ought to
+discharge this vow. They accordingly landed, and proceeded, according to
+their vow, barefooted, and in their shirts, toward the hermitage.'
+
+Countless instances might be cited, but these will suffice to show the
+estimation in which Mater Cara was held by Catholic seamen.
+
+How it came to be supposed that the smaller _Procellariæ_ are only
+visible before a storm is not very apparent. In point of fact, there is
+no more reason for associating the petrel specially with storms than
+there is for the belief expressed in the old Scotch couplet quoted in
+the last chapter:
+
+  'Seagull, seagull, sit in the sand;
+  It's never good weather when you're on the land!'
+
+
+As a matter of fact, seagulls do fly far inland in fine weather, and
+especially during ploughing-time. And also, as a matter of fact, the
+petrel lives at sea both in fine weather and foul, because he is
+uncomfortable on land. It is only the breeding season that he spends on
+shore; while the seagull is just as much at home on the land as on the
+sea.
+
+The scientific name of the petrel tribe is _Procellariæ_, from the Latin
+_procella_--a storm. It is a large family, all the members of which are
+distinguished by a peculiar tube-like arrangement of the nostrils. Their
+feet, also, are peculiar in being without any back toe, so that they can
+only with great difficulty rise on the wing from dry land.
+
+Mother Carey's chickens are among the smaller species of this family,
+and they have both a shorter bill and a longer leg than their relatives.
+But all the _Procellariæ_ are noted for ranging further from land than
+any other of the sea-birds. Thus they are often visible from ship-board
+when no other animal life can be sighted; and thus it was, doubtless,
+that their appearance suggested safe harbour, and consequent thanks to
+Mater Cara, to the devout seaman.
+
+Why the petrels are associated with storms is thus not easily explained,
+seeing that they are abroad in all weathers; but a feasible suggestion
+was advanced by Pennant. It is that they gather from the water
+sea-animals which are most abundant before or after a storm, when the
+sea is in a state of unusual commotion. All birds are highly sensitive
+to atmospheric changes, and all sea-birds seem to develop extra activity
+in threatening and 'dirty' weather.
+
+There is another interesting thing about Mother Carey's chicken, and
+that is, that he is also called petrel, from the Italian 'Petrello,' or
+Little Peter. This is because he is supposed to be able, like the
+apostle, to walk on the water, and as in fact he does after a fashion,
+with the aid of his wings.
+
+Now, St. Peter, both as a fisherman and for his sea-walking, was always
+a favourite saint with sailors, and was often invoked during storms. He
+was the patron saint of Cortez, as he was also of the Thames watermen.
+There is an old legend that St. Peter went on board a fisherman's boat
+somewhere about the Nore, and that it carried him, without sails or
+oars, to the very spot which he selected as the site for Westminster
+Abbey.
+
+In the Russian ports of the Baltic there is firm belief in a species of
+water-spirits called Rusalkas, who raise storms and cause much damage to
+the shipping. The great anniversary of these storm-spirits is St.
+Peter's Day. The John Dory is St. Peter's fish, and it is said that the
+spots on each side of its mouth are the marks of the apostle's thumb and
+forefinger. It was called 'janitore,' or doorkeeper, because in its
+mouth was found the penny with which the temple-tax was paid. Now, St.
+Peter also was the doorkeeper of heaven, and from janitore to John Dory
+was an easy transition.
+
+With fishermen, as was natural, St. Peter was held in high honour; and
+in Cornwall and Yorkshire, until recently, it was customary to light
+bonfires, and to hold other ceremonies, on St. Peter's Day, to signalize
+the opening of the fishing season, and to bespeak luck. An old writer
+says of these customs at Guisboro', in Yorkshire, that:
+
+'The fishermen, on St. Peter's daye, invited their friends and kinfolk
+to a festivall kept after their fashion, with a free hearte, and no show
+of niggardnesse. That day their boats are dressed curiously for the
+showe, their masts are painted, and certain rytes observed amongst them
+with sprinkling their bows with good liquor, which custome or
+superstition, sucked from their ancestors, even continueth down unto
+this present tyme.'
+
+Perhaps at 'this present tyme' the ceremonies are not so elaborate; but
+survivals of the 'custome or superstition' are to be found yet in our
+fishing villages.
+
+It is probable that the observers of St. Peter's Day do not know the
+origin of their curious customs. It is certain that sailors, as a class,
+do not now know why their favourite little bird is called petrel. We
+have tried to remove the stigma which in modern times has come to rest
+upon Mother Carey's chickens. Let us no longer do them wrong by
+supposing that they are always the harbingers of woe. They have a busy
+and a useful life, and it is one, as we have seen, with tender, even
+sacred, associations.
+
+It may be recalled as an interesting, although not an agreeable item,
+that in the days of the French Revolution there was a notorious brood of
+Mother Carey's chickens in Paris. They were the female rag-tag-and-bobtail
+of the city, whose appearance in the streets was understood to forebode
+a fresh political tumult. What an insult to our feathered friends to
+bestow their honoured name on such human fiends!
+
+The real Mother Carey is she who appeared to Tom and Ella in Peacepool,
+after they had learned a few things about themselves and the world. They
+heard her voice calling to them, and they looked, crying:
+
+'"Oh, who are you, after all? You are our dear Mrs.
+Do-as-you-would-be-done-by."
+
+'"No, you are good Mrs. Be-done-by-as-you-did; but you are grown quite
+beautiful now!"
+
+'"To you," said the Fairy; "but look again."
+
+'"You are Mother Carey," said Tom, in a very low, solemn voice, for he
+had found out something which made him very happy, and yet frightened
+him more than all that he had ever seen.
+
+'"But you are grown quite young again."
+
+'"To you," said the Fairy; "but look again."
+
+'"You are the Irishwoman who met me the day I went to Harthover!"
+
+'And when they looked again she was neither of them, and yet all of them
+at once.
+
+'"My name is written in my eyes, if you have eyes to see it there."
+
+'And they looked into her great, deep soft eyes, and they changed again
+and again into every hue, as the light changes in a diamond.
+
+'"Now read my name," said she at last, and her eyes flashed for one
+moment, clear, white, blazing light; but the children could not read her
+name, for they were dazzled, and hid their faces in their hands.
+
+'They were only water-babies, and just beginning to learn the meaning of
+love.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+DAVY JONES'S LOCKER.
+
+
+This expression of what may be called nautical slang has now become
+almost classic. At all events, everybody knows it; and most people may
+be presumed to know that to 'go to Davy Jones's Locker' is equivalent to
+'losing the number of your mess,' or, as the Californian miners say,
+'passing in your checks.' Being especially a sea-phrase, it means, of
+course, to be drowned. But how did the phrase originate? And who was
+Davy Jones? These questions must have frequently occurred to many, and
+it is worth while seeking an answer to them. There is an explanation for
+everything, if one only knows how to look for it.
+
+This saying about Davy Jones is a very old one--so old, that it cannot
+possibly have any reference to the famous Paul Jones. In fact, one hears
+very often of 'Davy's Locker' without any reference to 'Jones' at all.
+Then 'Davy,' again, is a vulgar slang expression for affidavit, but it
+is also used in thief-parlance by way of an oath. 'So help me Davy!' is
+the slang equivalent for the concluding sentence of the oath
+administered in the police-courts with which these gentry are familiar.
+It has thus been inferred that 'Davy' is a slang expression of somewhat
+blasphemous import; but this is by no means certain.
+
+It is much more likely to be associated with, or to have the same origin
+as, the 'Duffy' of the West Indian negroes. Among them Duffy means a
+ghost; and in the vocabulary of the gutter it may easily have been taken
+as the equivalent of soul. The transition from Duffy to Davy is by no
+means difficult.
+
+But how, then, did the vagabond users of 'flash' language get hold of
+this word? It is probable enough that it was brought home by the sailors
+from the West Indies, and picked up at the docks by the waifs and strays
+of our vast vagrant population. On the other hand, it is just as likely
+that the West Indian negroes picked up 'Duffy' from our own sailors; and
+that, in fact, Duffy is just the nigger contraction of Davy Jones. There
+is certainly a very close connection, both in sound and meaning, between
+the two expressions.
+
+We must go further back and further away, however, to get to the root of
+this matter. And, if we inquire diligently, we shall find our Davy in
+the Deva of the Indian mythology. The original Sanskrit meaning of Deva
+was 'The Shining One,' but in the operation of what has been called 'the
+degradation of Deities' in the Oriental religions, it became synonymous
+with our devil. In fact, we owe the word 'devil' to this same Sanskrit
+root; and it is noteworthy that while Deva meant the Good Spirit to the
+Brahmans, it meant the Evil Spirit to the Parsees. In this root we may
+also find the explanation of the gipsy word for God, which, curiously
+enough, is Devel.
+
+While it is easy to trace the transition from Deva to the sailor's Davy,
+one may note another curious thing. The name of the fabulous Welshman,
+Taffy, the thief, is a corruption of Dyved, which, as signifying an evil
+spirit, is the Cymric form of Deva. This would almost suggest that the
+addition of the apparent surname, Jones, was a Welsh performance. But
+this is only an amusing conjecture, not without a certain aptness.
+
+For the origin of Jones we must look to Jonah, who in nautical history
+is regarded as the embodiment of malevolence at sea. The prophet Jonah
+is not the only one who has been committed to the deep to appease the
+storm-fiends, whose anger his presence was supposed to have aroused. It
+is easy to account for this from the Bible narrative. 'The mariners were
+afraid, and cried every man unto his God. And they said, every one to
+his fellow, "Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose
+cause this evil is upon us." So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon
+Jonah. So they took up Jonah and cast him forth into the sea, and the
+sea ceased from her raging.'
+
+The superstition of sailors is proverbial, and to this day they believe
+in good or ill luck being brought to a vessel by persons and things. In
+olden times there were many sacrifices to this Jonah superstition; and
+even in comparatively recent times, Holcroft, the actor, on a voyage to
+Scotland, narrowly escaped a watery grave, because the men took him for
+'the Jonas.' And to this day 'He's a Jonah' is an expression often
+enough heard on ship-board applied to some unwelcome passenger.
+
+Here, then, we have the Sanskrit origin of Davy, and the Biblical origin
+of Jones, both words embodying much the same idea to the mind of the
+primitive seamen.
+
+But what of the 'locker'?
+
+This, of course, is a familiar piece of ship-furniture which it was not
+difficult to transfer to the mythical demon of the deep. Lieutenant
+Bassett thought that the locker might be the whale's belly in which
+Jonah found refuge; but this is hardly in harmony with the meaning of
+the phrase. In the sense in which it is thus used, locker does not mean
+a temporary resting-place or submarine harbour of refuge, but a place of
+final deposit. It is possible, indeed, to find the origin of the word
+locker as here applied in Loki, the personification of evil in the
+Scandinavian mythology. Loki, like Deva, was not always an evil spirit,
+but he became eventually identified with Satan. He became a flame-demon,
+a sort of incarnate spirit of fire.
+
+There is good reason for believing in this theory of the Scandinavian
+origin of the word 'locker' as used in the connection we are
+considering. It is to be remembered that, in olden times, death by
+drowning was even more dreaded than now, because drowned bodies were
+supposed to be debarred from the Resurrection. Going far back, we find
+that the sea was the abode of Typhoeus, who, besides being a
+hurricane-raising, was also a fire-breathing, demon, and was feared as
+the quencher of the sun, who sank at night into his bosom. The legend of
+St. Brandan and his burning islands preserved the idea that Hades was
+very near to the bottom of the ocean. Thus, then, we may readily
+perceive the conception of Loki having his receptacle for drowned
+mariners in the bed of the sea. A belief prevailed long into the Middle
+Ages that the sea-bottom was the abode of many demons, who lay in wait
+for passengers, to drag them down to the infernal depths.
+
+Thus, then, Davy Jones's Locker became, by a mixture of theogonies, 'the
+ocean, the deep sea-bottom, the place to which the body was committed,
+and to which the souls of the wicked fled.'
+
+This meaning is now somewhat modified. Sailors do not, as Smollett says
+they did in his day, regard Davy Jones as the fiend who presides over
+all the evil spirits of the deep, and who is seen in various shapes,
+warning the devoted wretches of death and woe. In fact, it is not Davy
+Jones they think of at all now, but his Locker; for to go to Davy's
+Locker is to be lost at sea and to find a watery grave.
+
+There is, however, a curious survival of the personal element still to
+be traced in some of the sailors' chanties. Take, for instance, that
+remarkable one about 'Burying the Dead Horse,' which still puzzles the
+passengers on board the packets sailing to the Antipodes. Without going
+into the question of the song and its attendant ceremonies just now,
+the following lines may be quoted as bearing on our subject:
+
+  'You poor old horse, what brought you here,
+  After carrying turf for many a year?
+  From Bantry Bay to Ballyack,
+  When you fell down and broke your back?
+  You died from blows and sore abuse,
+  And were salted down for the sailors' use.
+  The sailors they the meat despise;
+  They turned you over and ---- your eyes;
+  They ate the meat and picked the bones,
+  And gave the rest to Davy Jones.'
+
+
+All the offal of a ship is thrown over to Davy Jones--doubtless because
+there is nothing else to be done with it.
+
+The favourite demon, if one may use the expression, of British sailors
+is now Old Nick, and one may trace his origin even more easily than that
+of Davy Jones. We can follow him through Saxon, German, Danish and
+Norwegian transitions to one of the names of Odin--Hnickar--for even
+All-father Odin shared the fate of his Oriental predecessors, and became
+demonized. Others, again, have carried the name Hnickar back still
+further to the Egyptian Nika, the serpent of the lower world, 'the
+Typhonic enemy of the Sun in his night-journey.'
+
+It is to the same root that we owe the Necken of the Baltic, and the
+Nixies--the water-fays--of the German legends. It is to the Norwegian
+Nökke, also, that we owe the Wild Huntsman of the Sea, on which the
+story of the _Flying Dutchman_ and a host of other legends of demon
+vessels and demon mariners are founded.
+
+There is, however, some confusion in the nautical mythology between the
+original Old Nick and the popular Saint Nicholas. This saint became the
+Christian successor of Neptune, as the protector of seamen. 'This
+saintly Poseidon,' says Mr. Conway, 'the patron of fishermen, in time
+became associated with the demon whom the British sailor feared if he
+feared nothing else. He was also of old the patron of pirates; and
+robbers were called "St. Nicholas' clerks."'
+
+It is certainly one of the curiosities of plutology that the patron
+saint of children who is still honoured at Christmas as Santa Claus
+should be the same as the dreaded Old Nick of the seafarers.
+
+These investigations are extremely interesting, and may lead us far; but
+our present purpose is merely to find an explanation of a popular
+phrase.
+
+It is more difficult to explain a number of other marine personalities,
+who are as lively to-day on shipboard as they were generations ago.
+There is, for instance, old Mister Storm-Along, of whom the chanty-man
+sings:
+
+  'When Stormy died, I dug his grave--
+  I dug his grave with a silver spade;
+  I hove him up with an iron crane,
+  And lowered him down with a golden chain.'
+
+Who was he? And who was the famous Captain Cottington, of whom it is
+related, in stentorian tones and with tireless repetition, that:
+
+  'Captain Cottington, he went to sea,
+  Captain Cottington, he went to sea-e-e-e,
+  Captain Cottington, he went to sea,
+  Captain Cottington, he went to sea-e!'
+
+
+Who, also, was 'Uncle Peleg,' of whom a somewhat similarly exhaustive
+history is chanted? And, still more, who was the mysterious Reuben
+Ranzo, with whose name every fo'cs'le of every outward-bound British or
+American ship is constantly resounding?
+
+  'Pity Reuben Ranzo--
+    Ranzo, boys, a Ranzo!
+  Oh, pity Reuben Ranzo--
+    Ranzo, boys, a Ranzo!'
+
+He had a remarkable career, this Reuben, according to the song. He was a
+tailor by trade; went to school on the Monday, learnt to read on
+Tuesday, and by Friday he had thrashed the master. Then he went to sea,
+and, after some ignominious experiences, married the captain's daughter,
+and became himself the captain of a whaler. But who was he? And how does
+he come to exercise such a fascination over all mariners, even unto this
+day?
+
+This is one of the mysteries of the ocean. The sea is covered with
+mystery, and with phantom shapes. Every ship that sails is peopled with
+a crew of dim shadows of the past that none can explain.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+SOME FLOWERS OF FANCY.
+
+
+That the lily should symbolize purity seems appropriate enough, but why
+should parsley in olden times have been associated with death? It is
+recorded that a few bundles of parsley once threw a whole Greek army
+into panic, because in Greece the tombs of the dead were strewn with the
+herb. With them 'to be in need of parsley' was equivalent to being
+beyond hope.
+
+The name itself offers little explanation of this superstition, for it
+is derived from the Latin _petroselinum_, which, again, was taken from
+the Greek name signifying the 'plant of the rocks.' According to the
+myth, however, it sprang from the blood of Archemorus, or Orpheltes, the
+son of Lycurgus, King of Nemæa. Archemorus was killed by a serpent while
+his foster-mother was showing the soldiers of Adrastus where they might
+find a fountain. On the place where he died there sprang up the parsley,
+which the Greeks, in grief for his loss, wove into chaplets for the
+victors at the Nemæan games. At these games it was always customary to
+deliver a funeral oration in memory of Archemorus, while the
+participators were dressed in mourning. Hence the association of parsley
+with death among the Greeks, and the long-prevailing Western belief that
+the plant is 'unlucky,' is only another instance of the marvellous
+longevity of superstitions.
+
+It is said by Mr. Thiselton-Dyer that in Devonshire to transplant
+parsley is accounted a serious offence against the tutelary spirit of
+the herb, and is certain to be punished within the year by some great
+misfortune. In South Hampshire the country people will never give
+parsley away, for fear of trouble; and in Suffolk it is believed that if
+it be sown on any other day than Good Friday it will not grow double.
+The _Folklore Record_, some years ago, gave the case of a gentleman near
+Southampton whose gardener refused to sow some parsley-seed when
+ordered, because 'it would be a bad day's work' for him to do so; the
+most he would do was to bring a plant or two, and throw them down for
+the master to pick up if he chose. To give them, however, the man
+regarded as fatal.
+
+But even to move parsley is regarded in some places to be unlucky, and
+we have heard of a parish clerk in Devonshire who was bedridden, and who
+was popularly supposed to owe his trouble to having moved some
+parsley-beds. There is a similar superstition in Germany, and many
+readers have probably often come across an old saying, that 'Parsley
+fried will bring a man to his saddle and a woman to her grave.' The
+allusion to the saddle is obscure; but it is obvious that all the
+superstitious dread of parsley is a survival of the old Greek fable
+immortalized in the Nemæan games.
+
+That the rose should be associated with death may appear strange to
+some, yet so it was. The Greeks certainly used the rose in their funeral
+rites and for the decoration of their tombs. The Romans used it for
+similar purposes, and often bequeathed legacies for the express purpose
+of keeping their tombs adorned with the flower. Whether it was by them
+that the practice was introduced into England is not capable of direct
+proof, but it is worthy of note that at Ockley, a place where the Romans
+were often located in large numbers, it was a custom of comparatively
+recent experience for girls to plant roses upon the graves of their dead
+lovers. Hence, no doubt, its origin in Gay's riddle:
+
+  'What flower is that which royal honour craves,
+  Adjoins the Virgin, and 'tis strewn on graves?'
+
+The answer is 'Rosemary,' which, although sometimes understood to mean
+the Rose of the Virgin Mary, is neither a rose, nor is it in any special
+way associated with the Virgin.
+
+On the other hand, the rose is associated by most Catholics with the
+Mother of the Saviour, and in Italy especially, during the celebrations
+of May, the rose is abundantly used. By some it has been thought that
+the early association of the rose with death led to the expression
+'under the rose,' applied to anything to be done in secret or silence.
+Others, again, have ascribed the origin of that expression to the
+perfect beauty of the flower, which, as language is unable to portray
+it, may be a symbol of silence. Sir Thomas Browne, however, says the
+origin was either in the old custom of wearing chaplets of roses during
+the 'Symposiack meetings,' or else because the rose was the flower of
+Venus, 'which Cupid consecrated unto Harpocrates, the god of silence.'
+There is a basis of probability in both theories, and all know that the
+rose was peculiarly the property of the Goddess of Love. Indeed,
+according to the old fable, the flower was originally white until dyed
+by the blood which flowed from the foot of Venus, pierced by a thorn as
+she ran to the aid of her loved Adonis. Hence Spenser says:
+
+  'White as the native rose, before the change
+  Which Venus's blood did in her leaves impress.'
+
+
+According to others, however, it was the blood of Adonis which dyed the
+flower. Thus Bion, in his Lament: 'A tear the Paphian sheds for each
+blood-drop of Adonis, and tears and blood on the earth are turned to
+flowers. The blood brings forth the rose, and the tears the wind-flower.
+Woe, woe, for Adonis! he hath perished, the lovely Adonis!' This
+tradition is preserved in the German name, _Adonis-blume_, which,
+however, is usually applied to the anemone.
+
+The rose being the emblem of love, and love having a natural abhorrence
+of publicity, it is not difficult to conceive the connection with
+silence. It is said that the Romans used to place a decoration of roses
+in the centre of their dining-rooms, as a hint to the guests that all
+that was said at the banqueting-table was in the nature of 'privileged
+communications,' and in old Germany a similar custom long prevailed. In
+the sixteenth century a rose was placed over confessionals, and the
+inference is that the hint was then well understood.
+
+There was also an obvious meaning in the adoption by the Jacobites of
+this flower as the emblem of the Pretender, to whose service they were
+secretly sworn. It was the white rose that was especially affected by
+the Stuarts, and the Pretender's birthday, the 10th of June, was for
+long known as 'White Rose Day,' much as 'Primrose Day' is now definitely
+associated with the late Lord Beaconsfield. The story of the Wars of the
+Roses is, of course, known to everybody, and how, in consequence of
+these feuds, the rose became the emblem of England, as the thistle is of
+Scotland, and the shamrock of Ireland.
+
+In the East there is even more of poetic significance attached to the
+rose than with us. It is related of Sadi, the Persian poet, that, when a
+slave, he earned his freedom by the adroit use of the flower. One day he
+presented a rose to his master, with the remark, made with all humility,
+'Do good to thy servant whilst thou hast the power, for the season of
+power is often as transient as the duration of this flower.' This was in
+allusion to the Eastern fancy, which makes the white rose the emblem of
+life--transient and uncertain. In Persia they have a festival called
+'The Feast of the Roses,' which lasts during the blooming of the
+flowers. One of their great works is called The Garden of Roses, and in
+all their poems and tales they closely associate the rose with the
+bulbul or nightingale. The belief is that the bird derives his melody
+from the beauteous flower, and they say, 'You may place a handful of
+fragrant herbs and flowers before the nightingale, but he wants nothing
+more than the odour of his beloved rose.'
+
+Thomas Moore seizes, with happy effect, on this legend in Lalla Rookh,
+which poem, indeed, is redolent of roses. But poetry generally is as
+full of the rose as the rose is of poetry, and it would take a volume to
+deal adequately with all the fancies and superstitious associations of
+the queen of flowers. Before quitting the subject, however, we should
+not overlook the Oriental traditions of how the rose received its
+various colours. It is said that when Mohammed was journeying to heaven,
+the sweat which fell from his forehead produced white roses, and that
+which fell from Al Borak produced yellow roses. But an older tradition
+is given by Sir John Mandeville. It is that of Zillah, the beauteous
+maiden of Bethlehem, who, being falsely accused, was condemned to be
+burned alive. At the stake the flames passed over her and shrivelled up
+her accuser, while, on the spot where she stood, sprang up a garden of
+roses--red where the fire had touched, and white where it had passed.
+'And theise werein the first roseres that ever ony man saughe.'
+
+Reference has been made to the lily as the emblem of purity, but,
+curiously enough, this innocent-looking flower has its baleful
+superstitions as well.
+
+In Devonshire it is accounted unlucky to plant a bed of
+lilies-of-the-valley, and to do so is to ensure misfortune, if not
+death, within a year. Yet this flower has always been closely associated
+with the Virgin Mary, and according to one legend, it sprang from some
+of the milk which fell to the ground as she was nourishing the infant
+Jesus. The Greeks, however, had a similar legend, ascribing the origin
+of the flower to a drop of Juno's milk. The Greeks have always made a
+favourite of the lily, and even to this day use it largely in making up
+bridal wreaths, while the sacred significance which Christians have
+found in the flower may be traceable to our Lord's use of it in imagery.
+
+In this connection the legend of the budding lily of St. Joseph may be
+recalled, and also the fact that the mediæval painters generally
+depicted the Madonna with a lily in her hand. There is a tradition that
+the lily was the principal ornament in the crown of Solomon, and that it
+typified love, charity, purity, and innocence--a combination of virtues
+hardly to be found in the character of the wise King himself.
+
+Nor must we forget that the sacred flower of the East--the lotus--is a
+lily, and that even to name it seems to carry ineffable consolation to
+the Buddhist. Thus, the universal prayer of the Buddhists--that prayer
+which is printed on slips and fastened on cylinders which are
+incessantly revolving in Thibet--'Om mani padme hum!' means simply, 'Oh,
+the jewel in (or of) the lotus! Amen!' So Sir Edwin Arnold, in The
+Light of Asia:
+
+  'Ah, Lover! Brother! Guide! Lamp of the Law!
+  I take my refuge in Thy name and Thee!
+  I take my refuge in Thy Law of Good!
+  I take my refuge in Thy Order! Om!
+  The dew is on the lotus. Rise, Great Sun,
+  And lift my leaf, and mix me with the wave.
+  "Om mani padme hum," the sunrise comes.
+  The dewdrop slips into the shining sea!'
+
+
+The lily, or lotus, was held sacred also in ancient Egypt, and the
+capitals of many of the buildings bear the form of an open lotus-flower.
+And naturally, in a land of Buddhism like China, the lotus occupies
+there an important place, both in art, in poetry, and in popular fancy.
+It is recorded that the old Jews regarded the lily, or lotus (_Lilium
+candidum_), as a protection against enchantment, and it is said that
+Judith wore a wreath of lilies when she went to visit Holofernes, by way
+of counteractant charm.
+
+The lotus which is the sacred lily of the East must not be confounded
+with the mysterious plant mentioned by Ulysses, and of which Tennyson
+has sung--the plant of oblivion and sensuousness. That there is an
+element of enchantment about the lily we have seen is still believed in
+our own country, but the association of misfortune with it is not
+universal. On the contrary, in some parts the leaf of the lily is
+supposed to have curative virtues in cases of cuts and wounds, and
+Gerarde, the old herbalist, even says that 'the flowers of
+lily-of-the-valley, being close stopped up in a glass, put into an
+ant-hill, and taken away again a month after, ye shall find a liquor in
+the glass, which being outwardly applied, helpeth the gout.' One hears,
+perhaps, of no modern experiments having been made with this remedy. But
+if not to cure gout, the flower has, it appears, been used to pay rents,
+for Grimm says that some lands in Hesse were held upon the condition of
+presenting a bunch of lily-of-the-valley every year. This, of course,
+would not be the whole burden, and the custom had, no doubt, a religious
+origin and significance.
+
+The flower is often associated with the sword of justice, and both the
+Dominicans and the Cistercians held it in high honour. It is worth
+noting, too, that some traditions make the lily the favourite flower of
+St. Cecilia, although the popular legend makes the angel bring her a
+bouquet of roses every night from Paradise.
+
+But how did the lily become the badge of France? One tradition is that
+it was adopted by the French kings because it was the emblem of purity,
+and closely associated with both Christ and Solomon. One old legend has
+it that after one of the great battles of the Crusaders, the French
+banners were found covered with lilies. According to others, the Fleur
+de lys is merely a corruption of Fleur de Luce, or Fleur de Louis, and
+was not a lily at all, but the purple iris, which Louis the Seventh
+adopted for his emblem on his departure to the Holy Land. On the other
+hand, there is a legend that a shield of azure bearing the device of
+three golden lilies was presented by an angel to Clothilde, the wife of
+Clovis, and it is claimed that the lily has been the true national
+emblem of France ever since the time of that Sovereign. Whatever the
+origin, however, of Fleur de lys, it certainly means lily now, and the
+Lily of France is a symbol as definite as the Rose of England, as the
+Shamrock of Ireland, or as the Thistle of Scotland.
+
+It is curious how much superstition and romance have clustered round the
+humble clover-leaf. Not one of us, perhaps, but has in childhood spent
+hours in looking for the four-leaved clover that was to bring untold
+luck. What trouble to find it! What joy when found! And what little
+profit beyond the joy of the search! As the old couplet has it, somewhat
+inconsequently:
+
+  'With a four-leav'd clover, double-topp'd ash, and green-topp'd seave,
+  You may go before the queen's daughter without asking leave.'
+
+
+The advantage here suggested is not very obvious, but the Devonshire
+people had a more defined idea of the virtue of the double clover, and
+they state it thus:
+
+  'An even-leaved ash,
+    And a four-leaved clover;
+  You'll see your true lover
+    Before the day's over.'
+
+
+But in Cambridgeshire it seems that the two-leaved clover is the object
+of desire, for there the saying goes:
+
+  'A clover, a clover of two,
+  Put it on your right shoe;
+  The first young man you meet,
+  In field, or lane, or street,
+  You shall have him,
+  Or one of his name.'
+
+This, while presenting a considerable amount of uncertainty in the
+result has, at least, the merit of presaging something.
+
+In other parts, however, and in more ancient days, the carrying of the
+four-bladed clover was believed to bring luck in play and in business,
+safety on a journey, and the power of detecting evil spirits. In Germany
+the clover was held almost sacred whenever it had two or four blades.
+Now, as to luck, a curious thing is stated by the author of the Plant
+Lore of Shakespeare. He says that clover is a corruption of _clava_, a
+club, and that to this day we preserve the emblem of luck on our
+playing-cards in painting the suit of clubs. Somehow the etymology does
+not seem very satisfying; but at any rate we all know what 'living in
+clover' means.
+
+Yet, perhaps, everyone does not know that in rural districts the clover
+is looked upon as a capital barometer, the leaves becoming rough to the
+feel when a storm is impending. A writer, quoted by Mr. Thiselton-Dyer,
+says that when tempestuous weather is coming the clover will 'start and
+rise up as if it were afraid of an assault.'
+
+It is probable that the association of good luck with the four-bladed
+clover arose from its fancied resemblance to the cross. Support is given
+to this hypothesis by the traditional origin of the shamrock as the
+badge of Ireland. In the account given of St. Patrick in The Book of
+Days, it is stated that once when the Saint wanted to illustrate the
+doctrine of the Trinity to his pagan hearers, he plucked a piece of the
+common white clover. Now, it seems that the trefoil is called
+_shamrakh_ in Arabic, and was held sacred in Persia. And it is
+remarkable that Pliny says the trefoil is an antidote against the bites
+of snakes and scorpions. It is not by any means certain that the common
+clover was the original shamrock of Ireland; and even to this day many
+claim the title for the wood-sorrel. Still, for fifty years, at any
+rate, the popular belief has been that the trefoil-clover is the plant
+which was plucked by St. Patrick, who drove out the snakes from Ireland,
+who is still her patron-saint, and whose badge is worn to this day.
+
+But how did the name come from Arabia, and what is the connection
+between Pliny's theory and the legend, of St. Patrick's victory over the
+vermin? These remain among the unsolved mysteries of folk-lore.
+
+With the emblem of Scotland--the thistle--not so many classical
+associations and active superstitions are to be found, but yet it is not
+devoid of folk-lore. Of course opinions differ as to what was or is the
+true Scotch thistle, but of the several varieties of thistles many
+beliefs are entertained. One variety--the Carline--is esteemed in some
+parts as a barometer, as it closes up when rain is approaching. In
+Tartary there is a variety which grows to such a size that it is planted
+for shelter on the windward side of the huts on the Steppes. This
+thistle is called the 'Wind Witch,' because, after the heat of the
+summer is past, the dried portions take the form of a ball, with which
+the spirits are supposed to make merry in the autumnal gales.
+
+The origin of the name thistle is probably Scandinavian, and associated
+with Thor. The plant was, at any rate, sacred to the Scandinavian god,
+and was believed by the old Vikings to receive the colour of the
+lightning into its blossom, which thereupon became endowed with high
+curative and protective virtues. There was a species of thistle on
+Dartmoor which used to be called Thormantle, and was used in that
+district as a febrifuge. Some writers have said that in Poland some
+infantile disorders are supposed to be the work of mischievous spirits
+using thistle-seed.
+
+The Lady's Thistle, which some believe to be the true Scotch thistle, is
+one of the many plants associated with the Virgin. The tradition,
+according to Brand, is that the white spots on the leaves are due to the
+falling of some drops of the Holy Mother's milk, a legend we have seen
+to be attached also to the lily. Then the great Emperor Charlemagne's
+name is blended with that of the Carline Thistle, the story being that
+during the prevalence of an epidemic among his troops he prayed to God
+for help. An angel appeared, and indicated, by firing an arrow, a plant
+which would allay the disease. This was the _Carlina acaulis_, which, of
+course, cured all the sick soldiers, and possibly may have some of the
+febrifuge virtues which the Dartmoor people fancied existed in another
+kind of thistle. Nettle-soup is still a familiar housewife's remedy for
+some childish ailments.
+
+In some parts of Germany there is a superstition that sores upon horses'
+backs may be cured by gathering four red thistle-blossoms before
+daybreak, and placing them in the form of a square upon the ground with
+a stone in the middle. It is not easy to trace the probable origin of
+this belief, but many of the old herbalists mention the thistle as
+efficacious in cases of vertigo, headache, jaundice, and 'infirmities of
+the gall.' Says one, 'It is an herb of Mars, and under the sign Aries.'
+Therefore, 'it strengthens the attractive faculty in man and clarifies
+the blood, because the one is ruled by Mars. The continual drinking the
+decoction of it helps red faces, tetters, and ringworms, because Mars
+causeth them. It helps the plague, sores, boils, itches, the bitings of
+mad dogs and venomous beasts, all which infirmities are under Mars.'
+This same writer agrees with Dioscorides that the root of a thistle
+carried about 'doth expel melancholy and removes all diseases connected
+therewith.' In other words, the thistle was held to possess all the
+virtues now claimed for podophyllum, blue-pill, and dandelion--a
+universal antibilious agent!
+
+But how did the thistle become the emblem of Scotland? Well, there are
+as many traditions on the subject as there are opinions as to which
+variety of the plant is the true Scottish thistle. It would be tedious
+here to refer to all, so let us just note that although the _Carduus
+Marianus_, or the Blessed or Lady's Thistle--the origin of whose name we
+have given--is very commonly accepted, so competent an authority on
+Scottish lore as the author of Nether Lochaber rejects both that and all
+other varieties in favour of the _Cnicus acaulis_, or the stemless
+thistle. In doing this, he founds his belief upon the following
+tradition: Once, during the invasion of Scotland by the Norsemen, the
+invaders were stealing a march in the dark upon the Scots, when one of
+the barefooted scouts placed his foot upon a thistle, which caused him
+to cry out so loudly that the Scots were aroused, and, flying to their
+horses, drove back the Danes with great slaughter. Now, this could not
+happen, says Dr. Stewart, with any of the tall thistles, but only with
+the stemless thistle, which has sharp, fine spikes, and grows close on
+the ground.
+
+This, at least, is as reasonable an explanation as any of the great
+national badge of Scotland. It but remains to add that the first mention
+of the thistle as a national emblem occurs in an inventory of the jewels
+and other effects of James the Third, about 1467, and its first mention
+in poetry is in a poem by Dunbar, written about 1503, to commemorate the
+marriage of James the Fourth with Margaret Tudor, and called The
+Thrissell and the Rois. The Order of the Thistle dates from James the
+Seventh of Scotland and Second of England, about 1687.
+
+And now, as we began with the wreath of parsley, which symbolized death,
+let us end with the crown of orange-blossoms, which, among us, now
+symbolizes the twofold life of the married state. Among the Greeks, the
+brides used to wear garlands of myrtle and roses, because both of these
+plants were associated with the Goddess of Love. In China the orange
+has, from time immemorial, been an emblem of good luck, and is freely
+used to present to friends and guests. But although the orange is said
+to have been first brought by the Portuguese from China in 1547,
+nevertheless this fruit is supposed to have been the golden apple of
+Juno, which grew in the Garden of Hesperides. As the golden apple was
+presented to the Queen of Heaven upon her marriage with Jupiter, we may
+find here a definite explanation of the meaning attached to the fruit.
+
+But, besides this, it seems that orange-blossom was used centuries ago
+by Saracen brides in their personal decorations on the great day of
+their lives. It was meant to typify fruitfulness, and it is to be noted
+that the orange-tree bears both fruit and blossom at the same time, and
+is remarkable for its productiveness. It is possible, then, that the
+idea of orange-blossom for bridal decoration was brought from the East
+by the Crusaders; but it is uncertain at what date the custom began to
+be followed in England. However introduced, and whether retained as a
+symbol or merely for the exquisite beauty of the flower, it will
+continue to hold its place in the affections of the maiden-bride, to
+whom it seems to sing:
+
+  'Honour, riches, marriage-blessing,
+  Long continuance and increasing,
+  Hourly joys be still upon you,
+  Juno sings her blessings on you.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+ROSEMARY FOR REMEMBRANCE.
+
+
+'Doth not Rosemary and Romeo both begin with a letter?' asks Juliet's
+nurse. Yes, but what did she mean by the query, and by the further
+remark that 'Juliet hath the prettiest sententions of it, of you and
+rosemary, that it would do you good to hear it'? For answer we must make
+some search into the beliefs and customs of the past.
+
+Rosemary is the 'Ros-marinus' of the old herbalists, but it is not a
+native of Britain, and there is no exact record of when it was
+introduced here from the South of Europe. Mention of 'Ros-marinus'
+occurs in an Anglo-Saxon vocabulary of the eleventh century, where it is
+translated Feld-madder and Sun-dew. There is some doubt whether this has
+reference to the actual plant now known to us as rosemary, but in no
+case was it the Rose of Mary, as some have supposed. It is not a rose,
+and the 'Mary' is from 'marinus,' or 'maris.' The old English spelling
+was Rosmarin, or Rosmarine; in these forms one finds the word used by
+Gower, and Shenstone, and other old poets.
+
+In the South of Europe the rosemary has long had magic properties
+ascribed to it. The Spanish ladies used to wear it as an antidote
+against the evil eye, and the Portuguese called it the Elfin plant, and
+dedicated it to the fairies. The idea of the antidote may have been due
+to a confusion of the name with that of the Virgin; but as a matter of
+fact the 'Ros-marinus' is frequently mentioned by old Latin writers,
+including Horace and Ovid. The name came from the fondness of the plant
+for the sea-shore, where it often gets sprinkled with the 'ros,' or dew
+of the sea, that is to say, sea-spray. Another cause of confusion,
+perhaps, was that the leaves of the plant somewhat resemble those of the
+juniper, which in mediæval times was one of the plants held sacred to
+the Virgin Mary. In the island of Crete, it is said, a bride dressed for
+the wedding still calls last of all for a sprig of rosemary to bring her
+luck.
+
+And thus we come to find rosemary in close association with both
+marriage and death, just as the hyacinth was, and perhaps still is,
+among the Greeks. It is interesting to trace the connection by which the
+same plant came to have two such different uses.
+
+One of the earliest mentions of rosemary in English literature is in a
+poem of the fourteenth century called 'The Gloriouse Rosemaryne,' which
+begins thus:
+
+  'This herbe is callit rosemaryn,
+  Of vertu that is gode and fyne;
+  But all the vertues tell I ne can,
+  Nor, I trowe, no erthely man.'
+
+
+Nevertheless, the poet proceeds to record at great length many
+astounding virtues, including the restoration of youth to the aged by
+bathing in rosemary water.
+
+The 'cheerful rosemarie' and 'refreshing rosemarine' of Spenser was once
+a great favourite in England, although now it is hardly allowed garden
+space. Sir Thomas More said: 'I let it run all over my garden walls, not
+only because my bees love it, but because 'tis the herb sacred to
+remembrance, and therefore to friendship: whence a sprig of it hath a
+dumb language that maketh it the chosen emblem at our funeral wakes and
+in our burial grounds.'
+
+The popularity of the plant was doubtless due to the long-enduring scent
+and verdure of the leaves. It is one of the most lasting of evergreens,
+and the pleasant aromatic odour lingers very long after the leaves have
+been gathered.
+
+Fragrance and endurance, then, are the characteristics of a plant which
+came to be commonly accepted as an emblem of constancy, and also of
+loving remembrance. Thus it is that Herrick sings of it:
+
+  'Grow for two ends, it matters not at all,
+  Be't for my bridal or my burial.'
+
+
+Thus it is that we find Friar Laurence over Juliet's body, saying:
+
+  'Dry up your tears, and stick your rosemary
+  On this fair corse,'
+
+which is certainly not what the nurse meant when she told Romeo of the
+'prettiest sententions.'
+
+High medicinal properties were ascribed to the rosemary, so much so that
+old Parkinson writes: 'Rosemary is almost as great use as bayes, both
+for outward and inward remedies, and as well for civill as physicall
+purposes; inwardly for the head and heart, outwardly for the sinews and
+joynts; for civill uses, as all do know, at weddings, funerals, etc., to
+bestow among friends; and the physicall are so many that you might as
+well be tyred in the reading as I in the writing, if I should set down
+all that might be said of it.'
+
+One of the 'physicall' uses was in stirring up the tankard of ale or
+sack, and at weddings a sprig was usually dipped in the loving-cup to
+give it fragrance as well as luck.
+
+The virtues of the plant are celebrated in a curious wedding sermon
+quoted by Hone:
+
+'The rosemary is for married men, the which by name, nature, and
+continued use, man challengeth as properly belonging to himself. It
+overtoppeth all the flowers in the garden boasting man's rule; it
+helpeth the brain, strengtheneth the memory, and is very medicinal for
+the head. Another property is, it affects the heart. Let this
+ros-marinus, this flower of man, ensign of your wisdom, love, and
+loyalty, be carried not only in your hands but in your heads and
+hearts.'
+
+One does not easily reconcile this laudation with the popular
+superstition that wherever the rosemary flourished there should the
+woman be the ruling power. And to this superstition, be it noted, has
+been ascribed the disfavour into which the plant has fallen among
+gardeners since Shakespeare's time.
+
+The medical properties may have been over-rated by old Parkinson, but
+some are recognised even to this day. Thus rosemary is used as an
+infusion to cure headaches, and is believed to be an extensive
+ingredient in hair-restorers. It is also one of the ingredients in the
+manufacture of Eau-de-Cologne, and has many other uses in the form of
+oil of rosemary. It is said that bees which feed on rosemary blossoms
+produce a very delicately-flavoured honey. Perfumers are greatly
+indebted to it. According to De Gubernatis, the flowers of the plant are
+proof against rheumatism, nervous indisposition, general debility,
+weakness of sight, melancholy, weak circulation, and cramp. Almost as
+comprehensive a cure as some of our modern universal specifics!
+
+The medicinal properties of rosemary have been held by some to account
+for its funeral uses. At all events, an ingenious writer of the
+seventeenth century held that the custom of carrying a sprig at a
+funeral had its rise from a notion of an 'alexipharmick' or preservative
+virtue in the herb which would protect the wearer from 'pestilential
+distempers,' and be a powerful defence 'against the morbid effluvias of
+the corpse.' For the same reason, this writer asserts, it was customary
+to burn rosemary in the chambers of the sick, just like frankincense,
+'whose odour is not much different from rosemary, which gave the Greeks
+occasion to call it Libanotis, from Libanos (frankincense).'
+
+The hyssop of the Bible is believed by some to be rosemary, and it is
+said that in the East it was customary to hang up a bunch in the house
+as a protection against evil spirits, and to use it in various
+ceremonies against enchantment. Perhaps there was some connection
+between this custom and that of the Greeks referred to by Aristotle, who
+regarded indigestion as the effect of witchcraft, and who used rue as an
+antidote. The dispelling of the charm was just the natural physical
+action of the herb.
+
+In Devonshire, however, there was a more mystic use for rosemary in
+dispelling the charms of witches. A bunch of it had to be taken in the
+hand and dropped bit by bit on live coals, while the two first verses of
+the sixty-eighth psalm were recited, followed by the Lord's Prayer.
+Bay-leaves were sometimes used in the same manner; but if the afflicted
+one were suffering physically, he had also to take certain prescribed
+medicines. Rosemary worn about the body was believed to strengthen the
+memory and to add to the success of the wearer in anything he might
+undertake.
+
+It is as an emblem of remembrance that rosemary is most frequently used
+by the old poets. Thus Ophelia:
+
+  'There is rosemary for you, that's for remembrance;
+  I pray you, love, remember.'
+
+And in The Winter's Tale:
+
+  'For you there's rosemary and rue; these keep
+  Seeming and savour all the winter long;
+  Grace and remembrance be with you both.'
+
+And thus Drayton:
+
+  'He from his lass him lavender hath sent,
+    Showing her love, and doth requital crave;
+  Him rosemary his sweetheart, whose intent
+    Is that he her should in remembrance have.'
+
+
+Quotations might be easily multiplied, but the reader will find in
+Brand's Popular Antiquities numerous references to the plant by writers
+of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
+
+As an emblem of rejoicing, rosemary was also often used. Hone quotes a
+contemporary account of the joyful entry of Queen Elizabeth into London
+in 1558, wherein occurs this passage: 'How many nosegays did her Grace
+receive at poor women's hands? How often times stayed she her chariot
+when she saw any simple body offer to speak to her Grace? A branch of
+rosemary given to her Grace, with a supplication by a poor woman about
+Fleet Bridge, was seen in her chariot till her Grace came to
+Westminster.' The object of the particular floral offering in this case
+is not very obvious, unless as an emblematic tribute to the maiden
+queen.
+
+Rosemary used to be carried in the hand at weddings, as well as strewed
+on the ground and dipped in the cup. Thus Stow narrates of a wedding in
+1560, that 'fine flowers and rosemary were strewed for them coming
+home'; and Brand cites numerous instances from old plays. In one, 'the
+parties enter with rosemary, as if from a wedding'; and in Beaumont and
+Fletcher's Scornful Lady, the question is asked about a wedding, 'Were
+the rosemary branches dipped?' This dipping, moreover, was in scented
+water as well as in the loving-cup, and hence the allusion in Dekker's
+Wonderful Year to a bride who had died on her wedding-night:
+
+'Here is a strange alteration; for the rosemary that was washed in sweet
+water to set out the bridal is now wet in tears to furnish her burial.'
+
+It is on record that Anne of Cleves wore rosemary at her wedding with
+Henry the Eighth; and in an account of some marriage festivities at
+Kenilworth, attended by Queen Elizabeth, there is frequent mention of
+the plant. An idea of how it was sometimes used is given in a
+description of a sixteenth century wedding quoted by the Rev. Hilderic
+Friend: 'The bride being attired in a gown of sheep's russet and a
+kirtle of fine worsted, attired with abillement of gold' (milliner's
+French even then!); 'and her hair, yellow as gold, hanging down behind
+her, which was curiously combed and plaited' she was led to church
+between two sweet boys, with bride-laces and rosemary tied about her
+silken sleeves. There was a fair bride-cup of silver-gilt carried before
+her, wherein was a goodly branch of rosemary gilded very fair, and hung
+about with silken ribands of all colours.'
+
+Coles says that the garden rosemary was called _Rosmarinus coronarium_,
+because the women made crowns and garlands of it. Ben Jonson says that
+it was customary for the bridesmaids to present the bridegroom next
+morning with a bunch of rosemary. And Brand says that as late as 1698
+the custom still prevailed in England of decking the bridal bed with
+sprigs of rosemary.
+
+In Jonson's Tale of a Tub, one of the characters assembled to await the
+intended bridegroom says: 'Look an' the wenches ha' not found un out,
+and do present un with a van of rosemary and bays, enough to vill a
+bow-pott or trim the head of my best vore-horse; we shall all ha'
+bride-laces and points, I see.' And again, a country swain assures his
+sweetheart at their wedding: 'We'll have rosemary and bayes to vill a
+bow-pott, and with the same I'll trim the vorehead of my best
+vore-horse'--so that it would seem the decorative use was not confined
+to the bride, the guests, and the banquet.
+
+As a love-charm the reputation of rosemary seems to have come from the
+South. There is an old Spanish proverb which runs:
+
+  'Who passeth by the rosemarie,
+    And careth not to take a spray,
+  For woman's love no care has he,
+    Nor shall he, though he live for aye.'
+
+
+Mr. Thiselton-Dyer says that rosemary is used in some parts of the
+country, as nut-charms are on Halloween, to foretell a lover; only, St.
+Agnes' Eve is the occasion on which to invoke with a sprig of rosemary,
+or thyme, with this formula:
+
+  'St. Agnes, that's to lovers kind,
+  Come, ease the troubles of my mind.'
+
+
+For love-potions, decoctions of rosemary were much employed.
+
+As to funereal uses, those who are familiar with Hogarth's drawings will
+remember one of a funeral party with sprigs of rosemary in their hands.
+Misson, a French traveller (_temp._ William the Third), thus describes
+English funeral ceremonies: 'When they are ready to set out, they nail
+up the coffin, and a servant presents the company with sprigs of
+rosemary. Everyone takes a sprig and carries it in his hand till the
+body is put into the grave, at which time they all throw their sprigs in
+after it.' Hence Gay:
+
+  'To show their love, the neighbours far and near,
+  Follow'd with wistful looks the damsel's bier;
+  Sprigg'd rosemary the lads and lasses bore,
+  While dismally the parson walk'd before.
+  Upon her grave the rosemary they threw.'
+
+
+Whether the fact that the rosemary buds in January has anything to do
+with its funereal uses admits of conjecture, as Sir Thomas Browne would
+say; but that fact was certainly present to the writer of the following
+verses, which were worthily rescued by Hone from a 'fugitive copy,'
+although the writer's name has been lost:
+
+  'Sweet-scented flower! who art wont to bloom
+      On January's front severe,
+      And o'er the wintry desert drear
+  To waft thy waste perfume!
+  Come, thou shalt form my nosegay now,
+  And I will bind thee round my brow;
+      And, as I twine the mournful wreath,
+  I'll weave a melancholy song,
+  And sweet the strain shall be, and long--
+      The melody of death.
+
+  'Come, funeral flower! who lov'st to dwell
+      With the pale corse in lonely tomb,
+      And throw across the desert gloom
+  A sweet decaying smell.
+  Come, pressing lips, and lie with me
+  Beneath the lonely alder-tree,
+      And we will sleep a pleasant sleep,
+  And not a care shall dare intrude
+  To break the marble solitude,
+      So peaceful and so deep.
+
+  'And hark! the wind-god, as he flies,
+      Moans hollow in the forest trees,
+      And, sailing on the gusty breeze,
+  Mysterious music dies.
+  Sweet flower! the requiem wild is mine.
+  It warns me to the lonely shrine--
+      The cold turf-altar of the dead.
+  My grave shall be in yon lone spot,
+  Where, as I lie by all forgot,
+      A dying fragrance thou wilt o'er my ashes shed.'
+
+
+In South Wales, in Cheshire, and in Bucks, the custom still obtains,
+according to Mr. Hilderic Friend, for each mourner to carry a sprig of
+rosemary to the grave, into which it is thrown. For weddings, rosemary
+was dipped in scented water, but for funerals in plain water. Hence the
+reference in an old play, quoted by Hone:
+
+              'If there be
+  Any so kind as to accompany
+  My body to the earth, let them not want
+  For entertainment. Prythee, see they have
+  A sprig of rosemary, dipp'd in common water,
+  To smell at as they walk along the streets.'
+
+
+In Dekker's Wonderful Year there is a description of a charnel-house
+pavement strewed with withered rosemary, hyacinth, cypress, and yew.
+During the Plague rosemary was in such demand for funerals that, says
+Dekker, what 'had wont to be sold for twelvepence an armfull went now at
+six shillings a handfull.' Certainly a remarkable rise. What the price
+was in 1531 we know not; but in an account of the funeral expenses of a
+Lord Mayor of London, who died in that year, appears an item, 'For
+yerbes at the bewyral £0 1 0'--which presumably refers to rosemary.
+
+'Cypresse garlands,' wrote Coles, 'are of great account at funeralls
+among the gentiler sort; but Rosemary and Bayes are used by the commons
+both at funeralls and weddings. They are all plants which fade not a
+good while after they are gathered and used, as I conceive, to intimate
+unto us that the remembrance of the present solemnity might not die
+presently, but be kept in minde for many yeares.'
+
+We have now seen something of the many significations of rosemary, and
+find an explanation of why the same plant was used for both weddings and
+funerals, in the fact that it emblemised remembrance by its evergreen
+and fragrant qualities. One may have doubts about the truth of the story
+of the man of whom it is recorded that he wanted to be married again on
+the day of his wife's funeral because the rosemary which had been used
+at her burial would come in usefully and economically for the wedding
+ceremony. But if the story is too good to be true, there is suggestion
+enough in the circumstance referred to by Shakespeare, that
+
+  'Our bridal flowers serve for a buried corpse.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+HERB OF GRACE.
+
+
+Why did Ophelia say: 'There's rue for you, and here's some for me; we
+may call it herb grace o' Sundays, for you must wear your rue with a
+difference'? For the same reason that Perdita says, in The Winter's
+Tale, when welcoming the guests of her reputed father and the shepherd:
+
+                    'Reverend sirs,
+  For you there's rosemary and rue; these keep
+  Seeming and savour all the winter long;
+  Grace and remembrance be to you both,
+  And welcome to our shearing.'
+
+
+Remembrance, as we have already seen in the last chapter, was symbolized
+by the rosemary, and by both Ophelia and Perdita the rue is taken as the
+symbol of grace. How this came to be is what we have now to consider;
+but perhaps Mr. Ellacombe, author of Plant-Lore of Shakespeare, is
+stretching rather far in suggesting that the rue was implied by Antony,
+when he used the word 'grace' in addressing the weeping followers
+(Antony and Cleopatra, Act IV., Scene 2) thus:
+
+  'Grace grow where these drops fall.'
+
+
+What Ophelia said was: 'There's rosemary, that's for remembrance. Pray,
+love, remember. And there is pansies, that's for thought. There's fennel
+for you, and columbines. There's rue for you, and here's some for me. We
+may call it herb-grace o' Sundays. Oh! you may wear your rue with a
+difference.'
+
+There was a method in her madness, and she was distributing her flowers
+according to the characters and moods of the recipients. Fennel, for
+instance, emblemised flattery, and columbine ingratitude. Rue emblemised
+either remorse or repentance--either sorrow or grace--so 'you may wear
+your rue with a difference.'
+
+So we find the gardener in Richard II. saying, after the departure of
+the anxious Queen:
+
+  'Here she did fall a tear; here in this place
+  I'll set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace;
+  Rue, even for ruth, here shortly shall be seen,
+  In the remembrance of a weeping Queen.'
+
+
+The herb was believed to be endowed with high moral and medicinal
+properties, yet was supposed to prosper better in one's garden if stolen
+from that of a neighbour. But originally it was associated with sorrow
+and pity. The word rue is doubtless of the same root as 'ruth,' and to
+rue is to be sorry for, to have remorse. Ruth is the English equivalent
+of the Latin _ruta_, and in early English appeared as 'rude.' As regret
+is always more or less a mark of repentance, it was the most natural
+thing in the world for the herb of ruth, or sorrow, to become the herb
+of repentance; and as repentance is a sign of grace, so rue became known
+as 'herb of grace.' This, in brief, is the connection, but it is worth
+noting in passing that rue is only once mentioned in the Bible, and then
+only along with a number of other bitter herbs, and without any special
+significance.
+
+There is this association between rue and rosemary, that both are
+natives of some of the more barren coasts of the Mediterranean, and that
+both were very early admitted to the English herb-garden. The old
+herbalists make frequent mention of rue, and even in Anglo-Saxon times
+it seems to have been extensively used in medicine. Three
+peculiarities--a strong, aromatic smell, a bitter taste, and a
+blistering quality in the leaves--were quite sufficient to establish it
+in the pharmacopoeia of the herb doctors.
+
+The curative qualities of what Spenser calls the 'ranke-smelling rue'
+were reputedly of a very varied sort. Most readers will remember the
+reference in Paradise Lost:
+
+  'Michael from Adam's eyes the film removed,
+  Which the false fruit which promised clearer sight
+  Had bred; then purged with euphraie and rue
+  The visual nerve, for he had much to see.'
+
+And perhaps its most popular use was as an eyewash. The old writers have
+recorded some hidden virtues known only to the animal world, such as
+that weasels prepared themselves for a rat-fight by a diet of rue. Old
+Parkinson, the herbalist, says that 'without doubt it is a most
+wholesome herb, although bitter and strong.' He speaks of a 'bead-rowl'
+of the virtues of rue, but warns people of the 'too frequent or
+over-much use thereof.'
+
+As both a stimulant and a narcotic the plant has even now recognised
+virtues, and is not without its uses in modern medicine. The Italians
+are said to eat the leaves in salad, but hardly of that species--_Ruta
+montana_--which botanists say it is dangerous to handle without gloves.
+Our garden species is _Ruta graveolens_ and is used by the French
+perfumers in the manufacture of 'Thieves Vinegar,' or 'Marseilles
+Vinegar,' once accounted an effective protection against fevers and all
+infectious diseases.
+
+A curious instance of the value of the herb in this respect occurred in
+1760. In the summer of that year a rumour arose, and rapidly spread in
+London, that the plague had broken out in St. Thomas's Hospital.
+Immediately there was what would nowadays be called a 'boom' in rue, the
+price of which rose forty per cent. in a single day in Covent Garden. To
+allay the popular alarm a manifesto was issued, signed by the
+physicians, surgeons, and apothecaries of the hospital, certifying that
+there were no other than the 'usual' diseases among the patients in the
+wards.
+
+Another explanation of the origin of the name 'herb of grace' has been
+given than that referred to above. Warburton, among others, thinks that
+the name was adopted because the old Romanists used the plant on Sundays
+in their 'exorcisms.' However this may be, rue, or the herb of grace,
+has been in this country long accounted an antidote of witchcraft. But
+then, so it was in the days of Aristotle, before it became 'herb of
+grace,' and when it was hung round the neck as an amulet. The fact is,
+however, that rue became an antidote of witchcraft because it had become
+a noted implement in enchantment.
+
+Through its numerous reputed properties, rue early found its way into
+the magic cauldron.
+
+  'Then sprinkles she the juice of rue,
+  With nine drops of the midnight dew,
+  From lunary distilling,'
+
+as Drayton has it. In this incantation, again, we have the association
+with moonwort; and the connection is further illustrated in an old
+oracle ascribed to Hecate: 'From a root of wild rue fashion and polish a
+statue; adorn it with household lizards; grind myrrh, gum, and
+frankincense with the same reptiles, and let the mixture stand in the
+air during the waning of a moon; then address your words.'
+
+With regard to the association with moonwort, it is interesting to
+recall that this is one of the plants supposed to be employed by birds
+for opening nests and removing impediments. Thus in an anecdote gravely
+related to Aubrey, we find this virtue mentioned: 'Sir Bennet Hoskins
+told me that his keeper at his parke at Morehampton, in Herefordshire,
+did for experiment's sake drive an iron naile thwart the hole of a
+woodpecker's nest, there being a tradition that the dam will bring some
+leafe to open it. He layed at the bottom of the tree a cleane sheet, and
+before many houres passed, the naile came out, and he found a leafe
+lying by it on the sheete. They say the Moonwort will doe such things.'
+
+On the same subject Coles, the botanist, writes: 'It is said, yea, and
+believed, that Moonwort will open the locks wherewith dwelling-houses
+are made fast, if it be put into the keyhole.' And Culpeper, the
+herbalist, writes thus: 'Moonwort is a herb which, they say, will open
+locks and unshoe such horses as tread upon it. This some laugh to scorn,
+and these no small fools neither; but country people that I know call it
+Unshoe-the-horse. Besides, I have heard commanders say that on White
+Down in Devonshire, near Tiverton, there were found thirty horseshoes
+pulled off from the feet of the Earl of Essex's horses, being there
+drawn up in a body, many of them being newly shod, and no reason known,
+which caused much admiration.' As well it might! This power of the
+moonwort is said to be still believed in in Normandy, and a similar
+virtue was also ascribed to the vervain and the mandrake, both
+associated with rue.
+
+This curious property of moonwort it is which is referred to in Divine
+Weekes thus:
+
+  'Horses that, feeding on the grassy hills,
+  Tread upon moonwort with their hollow heels,
+  Though lately shod, at night go barefoot home,
+  Their maister musing where their shoes become.
+  Oh, moonwort! tell me where thou hid'st the smith,
+  Hammer and pinchers, thou unshodd'st them with?
+  Alas! what lock or iron engine is't
+  That can the subtle secret strength resist?
+  Still the best farrier cannot set a shoe
+  So sure but thou, so shortly, canst undo.'
+
+
+The old alchemists, however, had a more profitable use for moonwort than
+the unshoeing of horses; they employed it for converting quicksilver
+into pure silver, at a time when that metal was neither 'degraded' nor
+'depreciated.'
+
+There is an old and pleasant belief, of which John Ruskin makes
+effective use in driving home one of his morals, that flowers always
+bloom best in the gardens of those who love them. One could easily find
+a rationalistic explanation of this sentiment, of course, but it is akin
+to a superstition entertained in some parts that wherever the moonwort
+flourishes the owner of the garden is honest.
+
+The ingredients thrown into the mystic cauldron by European sorcerers
+were in close imitation of those of the ancient alchemists. Moncure
+Conway has pointed out that among the ingredients used by English and
+Scotch witches were plants gathered, as in Egypt, at certain seasons or
+phases of the moon. Chief among such plants were rue and vervain. The
+Druids called vervain the 'Holy herb,' and gathered it when the dog-star
+rose, placing a sacrifice of honey in the earth from which they removed
+it.
+
+In old Greece and Rome vervain was sacred to the god of war, and in
+Scandinavia it was also sacred to Thor. It was, moreover, carried by
+ambassadors of peace, and was supposed to preserve from lightning any
+house decorated with it. In later times it was believed that a
+decoction of vervain and rue, mixed, had such a remarkable effect on
+gun-metal that anyone using a gun over which the liquid had been poured
+would shoot 'as straight as a die.' This may be news to our modern
+musketry instructors.
+
+Had this belief, one may wonder, anything to do with the special effect
+on the eye always supposed to be possessed by rue? Its virtue as an
+eye-salve, at any rate, may explain how it came to be regarded as
+capable of bestowing the 'second sight.' To this day, in the Tyrol it is
+still believed to confer fine vision. If hallucinations were, as Moncure
+Conway assumes, the basis of belief in second sight, then we can
+understand the reputed virtues of rue in its narcotic qualities. We have
+seen how it came to be called 'herb of grace,' yet some think it got
+this name through being used in witchcraft by exorcists to try the
+devil.
+
+Speculating on why herbs and roots should have been esteemed magical,
+Mr. Andrew Lang concludes that it is enough to remember that herbs
+really have medicinal properties, and that untutored people invariably
+confound medicine with magic. Thus it was easy to suppose that a plant
+possessed virtue not only when swallowed, but when carried in the hand.
+The same writer examines the theory that rue was the Homeric moly, which
+in a former chapter we identified with the mandrake. But Lang rejects
+that theory, and says that rue was called 'herb of grace' and was used
+for sprinkling holy water because in pre-Christian times it had been
+supposed to have effect against the powers of evil. The early
+Christians were thus just endeavouring to combine the old charm of rue
+with the new potency of holy water.
+
+'Euphrasy and rue,' says Lang, 'were employed to purge and purify mortal
+eyes. Pliny is very learned about the magical virtues of rue. Just as
+the stolen potato is sovran for rheumatism, so "rue stolen thriveth the
+best." The Samoans think that their most valued vegetables were stolen
+from heaven by a Samoan visitor. It is remarkable that rue, according to
+Pliny, is killed by the touch of a woman, in the same way as, according
+to Josephus, the mandrake is tamed. These passages prove that the
+classical peoples had the same extraordinary superstitions about women
+as the Bushmen and Red Indians. Indeed, Pliny describes a magical manner
+of defending the crops from blight by aid of women, which is actually
+practised in America by the red-man.'
+
+Although rue was found in the witches' cauldron, it is also to be found
+as a popular specific against the blight of witchcraft. Concerning this,
+however, Moncure Conway says that 'the only region on the Continent
+where any superstition concerning rue is found resembling the form it
+assumed in England as affecting the eye is in the Tyrol, where it is one
+of five plants--the others being broom-straw, agrimony, maidenhair, and
+ground-ivy--which are bound together, and believed, if carried about, to
+enable the bearer to see witches, or if laid over the door, to keep any
+witch who shall seek to enter fastened on the threshold.'
+
+In Scandinavia and North Germany, St. John's wort was used in much the
+same way for the same purpose.
+
+As to the vervain, which we have seen to be associated with rue, this is
+a plant the use of which against witchcraft was more widely distributed,
+just as its medical virtues were also more extensively known. The
+vervain, indeed, was a sacred plant among the Greeks, as well as among
+the Druids, who gathered it with solemn religious ceremonies, as they
+did the sacred mistletoe. Vervain was most esteemed, however, as a love
+potion, but the connection between its virtues in this respect, and its
+power over witches and spirits of evil, opens up a branch of inquiry
+away from our present purpose.
+
+We speak of vervain in connection with rue, because it was the 'holy
+herb,' just as rue was the 'herb of grace.' Not only was the vervain
+sacred among the early Druids, but it acquired an early sanctity among
+Christians. Thus the legend runs:
+
+  'All hail, thou holy herb, vervain,
+    Growing on the ground;
+  On the Mount of Calvary
+    There wast thou found!
+  Thou helpest many a grief,
+    And staunchest many a wound;
+  In the name of sweet Jesu,
+    I lift thee from the ground.'
+
+
+Mr. Thiselton-Dyer says that a wreath of vervain is now presented to
+newly-married brides in Germany, but whether this is a survival of the
+sanctity of the plant, or of its ancient reputation as a love-philtre
+and charm, is not very clear.
+
+It is to be feared that vervain has sadly fallen out of favour in this
+country, although not many years ago a pamphlet was written to recommend
+the wearing of vervain tied by white satin ribbon round the neck, as
+preservative against evil influences and infection.
+
+'On the Continent'--rather a wide term--Mr. Hilderic Friend says, 'the
+three essential plants for composing a magic wreath are rue,
+crane's-bill, and willow.' The crane's-bill is the Herb Robert, or Robin
+Hood, and the willow has always been connected with lovers. Such a
+wreath, then, is made by lovers when they wish to see their 'fate.'
+Love-sick maidens will employ such a wreath to find out how long they
+have yet to remain single. They walk backwards towards some selected
+tree, and as they walk throw the wreath over their heads until it
+fastens on one of the branches. Failure to 'catch on' requires another
+backward walk, and so on--each failure to buckle the tree counting as a
+year of spinsterhood. It seems rather an awkward way of getting at the
+future, but if not more blind than other processes of love divination,
+would at least require the guarantee of the absence of tight-lacing
+among the maidens practising it.
+
+Aristotle mentions the use made by the Greeks of rue as a charm against
+evil spirits, and he accounts for it, somewhat singularly, by the habit
+of the Greeks in not sitting down to table with strangers. The
+explanation is, that when they ate with strangers they were apt to
+become excited and nervous, and so to eat too rapidly, with the result
+of flatulence and indigestion. These effects were equivalent to
+bewitchment, as, indeed, disorders of the digestive organs are
+frequently regarded by many Eastern peoples even to this day. As rue was
+found to be an effectual antidote to these distressing symptoms, it
+became a charm against enchantment.
+
+Among many old-wife recipes for the cure of warts is the use of rue.
+Most people know the old folk-jingle:
+
+  'Ashen tree, ashen tree,
+  Pray bury these warts of me,'
+
+which has to be accompanied by the thrust of a pin into the bark of the
+tree. The idea was doubtless to extract the sap, for the application of
+thistle-juice and the juice of the ranunculus are said to prove
+efficacious in removing warts. In Devonshire they use the juice of an
+apple, but in some parts of the country rue is preferred. Other
+wart-curing plants are the spurge, the poppy, the celandine, the
+marigold, the briony, and the crowfoot.
+
+As old Michael Drayton remarked:
+
+  'In medicine, simples had the power
+  That none need then the planetary hour
+  To helpe their workinge, they so juiceful were.'
+
+There is a substratum of truth in this, although it requires a wide
+stretch of imagination, as well as a profundity of faith, to believe
+that consumption can be cured by passing the body of the patient three
+times through a wreath of woodbine cut during the increase of the March
+moon. Yet to this day some French peasants believe that the curative
+properties of vervain are most pronounced when the plant is gathered,
+with proper invocations, at a certain phase of the moon.
+
+The notion that animals are acquainted with the medical properties of
+plants is an old one, probably older than either Pliny or Aristotle. Our
+own Gerarde, the herbalist, tells that the name celandine was given to
+that flower (which Wordsworth loved) from a word meaning swallow,
+because it is used by swallows to 'restore sight to their young ones
+when their eyes be put out.'
+
+Then Coles, the old botanist, also writes: 'It is known to such as have
+skill of Nature what wonderful care she hath of the smallest creatures,
+giving to them a knowledge of medicine to help themselves, if haply
+diseases are among them. The swallow cureth her dim eyes with Celandine:
+the wesell knoweth well the virtue of Herb Grace: the dove the verven:
+the dogge dischargeth his mawe with a kind of grass: and too long it
+were to reckon up all the medicines which the beasts are known to use by
+Nature's direction only.'
+
+A Warwickshire proverb runs to this effect:
+
+  'Plant your sage and rue together,
+  The sage will grow in any weather,'
+
+the meaning of which is not very clear--but obscurity is a common
+complaint of rhymed proverbs. Another rhyme, however, in which rue
+appears, has a more practical note:
+
+  'What savour is better, if physicke be true,
+  For places infected, than wormwood and rue?'
+
+Rue, indeed, seems to have been in special request as a disinfectant
+long before carbolic acid was invented, or Condy heard of, yet, perhaps,
+containing the germ of the idea materialised in 'Sanitas.' For
+disinfecting purposes wormwood and rue were used sometimes together, and
+sometimes separately.
+
+The connection between plants and heraldic badges is often close, and
+although we do not find rue frequent in heraldry, one curious instance
+of it is interesting. In 809 an Order was created whereof the collar was
+made of a design in thistles and rue--the thistle because 'being full of
+prickles is not to be touched without hurting the skin,' rue because it
+'is good against serpents and poison.'
+
+Here we have a suggestion of the lizards of the old oracle quoted
+above.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE ROMANCE OF A VEGETABLE.
+
+
+There used to be a popular acrostic the foundation of which is the
+subject of much speculation. It turned upon two lines of Scott's famous
+poem, and ran thus:
+
+  '"Charge, Chester, charge!
+  On, Stanley, on!"
+    Were the last words of Marmion.
+  Were I in gallant Stanley's place,
+  When Marmion urged him to the chase,
+  A word you then would all espy,
+  That brings a tear to every eye.'
+
+The answer is 'Onion,' and the speculation which results is: Why does a
+raw onion make the eyes water?
+
+The Greeks, being aware of this characteristic, called the onion
+_kromuon_; and when they ate it raw, they prudently closed their eyes.
+
+Shakespeare's players in the Taming of the Shrew knew all about it:
+
+  'If the boy have not a woman's gift,
+  To rain a shower of commanded tears,
+  An onion will do well for such a shift,
+  Which in a napkin, being close conveyed,
+  Shall in despite enforce a watery eye.'
+
+
+So did Lafeu:
+
+  'Mine eyes smell onions, I shall weep anon.'
+
+
+So also did Domitius Enobarbus, who comforted Antony, on reporting the
+death of Fulvia, by saying, 'Indeed, the tears live in an onion that
+should water this sorrow,' and who called himself 'onion-eyed' when the
+Roman addressed his followers before the battle.
+
+The fact, then, has been known for centuries, but the explanation only
+since chemistry came to be applied to matters of common life. The onion
+belongs to the genus _Allium_, all the species of which possess a
+peculiar, pungent, acrid juice, with a powerful odour. The garlic has a
+stronger smell than the onion, but the onion has more of the volatile
+oil which all the members of the genus possess.
+
+The constituents which make the genus valuable as food are: albumen,
+sugar, mucilage, phosphate of lime, and certain salts. All the members
+of the onion tribe yield a heavy volatile oil when distilled with
+water--an oil so pungent and concentrated that an ounce of it will
+represent the essence of forty pounds of garlic. This oil is a compound
+of sulphur, carbon, and hydrogen, and is called sulphide of allyl,
+because of its origin in the allium tribe. It is the more volatile,
+sulphurous fumes of this oil which ascend as an onion is cut that cause
+the eyes to water, just as sulphur fumes do anywhere. It is the less
+volatile portion of the oil which gives such permanence and adhesiveness
+to the onion odour as to render a knife that has been used to cut one
+offensive for a long time afterwards, in spite of washing.
+
+In the Arabian Nights the purveyor for the Sultan of Casgar tells a
+story of a man who lost his thumbs and great-toes through eating garlic.
+This was a youth who had married a beauteous bride, but was unfortunate
+enough on his marriage-day to eat of a dish strongly flavoured with
+garlic. The lady was so annoyed that she ordered the bridegroom to be
+bound, and his thumbs and toes cut off, as punishment for presuming to
+come to her without first purifying his fingers. Ever afterwards the
+unfortunate husband always washed his hands one hundred and twenty times
+with alkali, after dining off a garlic ragout, for, of course, he did
+not use a fork. But had he known Menander the Greek's receipt, he might
+have saved his digits. This was to roast beetroot on hot embers for the
+removal of the odour of garlic.
+
+It might be more generally known that if either walnuts, or raw parsley,
+be eaten along with onions, the smell of the latter will be destroyed,
+and digestion of them assisted.
+
+There is, one must admit, a certain association of vulgarity with the
+onion. It is a valuable food, and an indispensable accessory to the
+culinary artist; but as used by many people it is not suggestive of
+refinement. And yet the bulb has not only an honourable character--it
+has a sort of sacred history.
+
+Both Pliny and Juvenal, among old writers, and many Egyptologists of our
+own time and country, have recorded that the ancient Egyptians
+worshipped the onion. It is true that Wilkinson, who wrote on the
+Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, doubts the evidence of
+this; but he adds that the onion was admitted as a common offering on
+every altar, and that the priests were forbidden to eat it. In Ellis's
+History of Madagascar it is noted that the Malagasy of our time regard
+the onion as unclean, and forbidden by the idols. The symbolization of
+the universe in the concentric folds of the onion may be taken as an
+explanation of the high reverence in which it was assuredly held by some
+ancient races.
+
+Whether or not the onion was sacred in Egypt, the garlic, as Herodotus
+tells us, was the daily food of the Egyptian labourer. And the Jews,
+when they left Egypt, looked back with fondness to these delicacies. 'We
+remember the fish which we did eat freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, and
+the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic,' so they told
+Moses. The onion is still a common food in Egypt, and sometimes almost
+the only one of the poorer classes. Moreover, the onions of Egypt are
+much sweeter than, and superior in quality to, those of Europe. It is
+also noteworthy that the onion grows coarser and more bitter as it is
+traced northward.
+
+Herodotus says that sixteen hundred talents were expended on garlic,
+onions, and radishes for the workmen during the building of the
+Pyramids; and it is recorded that an onion taken from the sarcophagus of
+an Egyptian mummy two thousand years old was planted and made to grow.
+We have also the authority of Pliny for what he calls the foolish
+superstition of the Egyptians in swearing by garlic and onions, calling
+these vegetables to witness when taking an oath.
+
+Botanists seem now agreed that the original habitat of the onion was the
+mountainous region of Central Asia; and, according to the _Gardener's
+Chronicle_, it is still found in a wild state in the Himalayas.
+
+The Mohammedans do not seem to have reverenced the _Allium_ tribe. On
+the contrary, they have a tradition that when Satan stepped out of the
+Garden of Eden after the fall of man, garlic sprang up where he planted
+his left foot, and onion where he planted his right foot. This is the
+reason alleged why Mohammed could never bear the smell of either, and
+even fainted when he saw them.
+
+Among the Greeks both onions and garlic were held in high regard, both
+as articles of food and as medicaments. Theophrastus wrote a book on
+onions, as did also Palladius. Then Homer tells that the onion was an
+important part of the banquet that Hecamede spread before Nestor and
+Machaon:
+
+  'Before them first a table fair she spread,
+  Well polished, and with feet of solid bronze;
+  On this a brazen canister she placed,
+  And Onions as a relish to the wine,
+  And pale, clear honey, and pure barley meal.'
+
+
+Among the Romans the onion seems to have been the common food of the
+people, although Horace could not understand how they digested it. Its
+use for promoting artificial tears was also well understood by them, for
+Columella speaks of _Lacrymosa cæpe_, and Pliny of _Cæpis odor
+lacrymosus_. Ovid, again, says that both onions and sulphur were given
+to criminals to purify them from their crimes, upon the old theory of
+purgation by fumigation. The Romans thought not only that the onion gave
+strength to the human frame, but that it would also improve the
+pugnacious quality of their gamecocks. Horace, however, thought that
+garlic was a fit poison for anybody who committed parricide. The Emperor
+Nero, on the other hand, thought that eating leeks improved the human
+voice, and as he was ambitious of being a fine singer, he used to have a
+leek diet on several days in each month.
+
+The onion tribe must have been held in reverence elsewhere than in
+Egypt, for, according to Mr. Thiselton-Dyer, in Poland the flower-stalk
+of the leek is placed in the hands of Christ in pictures and statues.
+
+On Halloween, in some parts of the country, girls attempt a method of
+divination by means of a 'Saint Thomas onion.' They peel it, wrap it up
+in a clean handkerchief, and, placing it under their heads, repeat the
+following rhyme:
+
+  'Good St. Thomas, do me right,
+  And see my true love come to-night,
+  That I may see him in the face,
+  And him in my kind arms embrace.'
+
+
+On the other hand, to dream of an onion is supposed in some parts to
+foretell sickness.
+
+Or else:
+
+  'To dream of eating onions means
+  Much strife in the domestic scenes,
+  Secrets found out, or else betrayed,
+  And many falsehoods made and said.'
+
+
+It is also a portent of the weather:
+
+
+  'Onion's skin very thin,
+  Mild winter's coming in;
+  Onion's skin thick and tough,
+  Coming winter cold and rough.'
+
+
+It was the practice in some places to hang up or burn an onion as a
+safeguard against witchcraft, and the theory of this was that the devil
+respected it because it was an ancient object of worship. This seems a
+survival of the Egyptian story; but Mr. Hilderic Friend says that the
+Arabs, Chinese, and many other peoples, to this day employ onions,
+leeks, or garlic for preventing witchcraft, and that he himself has
+frequently seen them tied up with a branch of sago-palm over the doors
+of Eastern houses for this purpose.
+
+The old custom of throwing an onion after a bride is doubtless well
+known. It had the same origin as the old Scotch custom of throwing a
+besom after a cow on its way to market, to avert the evil-eye, and
+insure luck.
+
+The idea of bad dreams being associated with the onion seems due to the
+old herbalists. At all events, Coghan wrote in 1596: 'Being eaten raw,
+they engender all humourous and contemptible putrefactions in the
+stomacke, and cause fearful dreams, and, if they be much used, they
+snarre the memory and trouble the understanding.'
+
+Old Gerarde had no opinion of the medical properties of the tribe. Of
+both leeks and garlic he wrote most disparagingly, as 'yielding to the
+body no nourishment at all,' but 'ingendereth naughty and sharpe bloud.'
+
+Some of the other old herbalists treat it more kindly, and some ascribe
+almost every virtue to garlic and onion. Garlic came to be known as
+'Poor Man's Treacle,' and in some old works is thus often described. But
+the word treacle here has no reference to molasses, and is probably
+derived from the Greek _theriakos_, meaning venomous, for garlic was
+regarded as an antidote against poison, and as a remedy for the plague.
+
+Pliny long ago wrote of garlic as a remedy for many of the mental and
+physical ailments of the country people. It was used by the Romans to
+drive away snakes; and the Romans seem to have adopted this idea from
+the ancient Greeks. It was recommended by one old English writer as a
+capital thing with which to frighten away birds from fruit-trees; and
+has been recently recommended, in solution, as the best preservative of
+picture-frames from the defilement of flies. Bacon gravely tells of a
+man who lived for several days on the smell of onions and garlic alone;
+and there was an old belief that the garlic could extract all the power
+from a loadstone.
+
+The belief that the eating of onions will acclimatize a traveller seems
+not uncommon in Eastern countries. Thus, in Burnes' Travels into Bokhara
+it is recorded that at Peshawur 'Moollah Nujieb suggested that we should
+eat onions in all the countries we visited, as it is a popular belief
+that a foreigner becomes acclimated from the use of that vegetable.'
+
+And in Morier's Travels in Persia it is said: 'Those who seek for
+sulphur, which is found at the highest accessible point of the mountain
+of Damarvend, go through a course of training previous to the
+undertaking, and fortify themselves by eating much of garlic and
+onions.'
+
+The general explanation given of how the leek became the emblem of
+Wales, and is worn on St. David's Day, is this: In 640 King Cadwallader
+gained a complete victory over the Saxons, owing to the special
+interposition of St. David, who ordered the Britons always to wear leeks
+in their caps, so that they might easily recognise each other. As the
+Saxons had no such recognisable headmark, they attacked each other as
+foes, and aided in their own defeat.
+
+There is a more poetic story. It is that St. David lived in the valley
+of Ewias, in Monmouthshire, spending his time in contemplation:
+
+                           'And did so truly fast
+  As he did only drink what crystal Hodney yields,
+  And fed upon the leeks he gathered in the fields,
+  In memory of whom, in each revolving year,
+  The Welshmen, on his day, that sacred herb do wear.'
+
+
+St. David, however, died in 544, and therefore it is probable that the
+leek was a common and favourite vegetable in Wales during his
+lifetime--that is to say, more than thirteen hundred years ago. A still
+more prosaic explanation of the Welsh emblem is sometimes offered. It is
+that it originated in a custom of the Welsh farmers when helping each
+other in a neighbourly way to take their leeks and other vegetable
+provender with them. Now, as the word leek is from the Anglo-Saxon
+_leac_, which originally meant any vegetable, it is probable enough that
+the Saxons sneeringly applied the word to the Welsh on account of their
+vegetarian proclivities. We cannot, of course, be sure that the leek was
+worn as a badge in Cadwallader's time, but we have at any rate
+Shakespeare's authority for concluding that it was worn by the Welsh
+soldiers at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356.
+
+The phrase 'to eat the leek'--meaning to retract and 'knuckle-under'--is
+supposed to have originated in that famous scene in Shakespeare's Henry
+the Fifth, where Fluellan the Welshman compels Pistol to swallow the
+vegetable at which he had been expressing such abhorrence. But there is
+earlier evidence that the leek was regarded as something ignominious in
+England. Thus in Chaucer:
+
+  'The beste song that ever was made
+  Is not worth a leke's blade,
+  But men will tend ther tille.'
+
+
+Without dwelling on the culinary uses of the onion tribe, which have
+been exhaustively described by others, a few applications, not generally
+known, may be briefly noted.
+
+In olden times there was a famous ointment called Devil's Mustard, which
+was supposed to cure cancer, remove tumours, and so forth. It was a
+compound of garlic and olive-oil, and had a smell which was enough to
+frighten away any disease--or else to create one. Then the fair dames
+of old had a favourite cosmetic for the hands and face, and one also
+which was used as an antiseptic, which was largely composed of garlic.
+Leek ointment, again, made of pounded leeks and hog's lard, was used as
+a liniment for burns and scalds.
+
+It is said that in India, where dyspepsia is common, garlic is found to
+be a great palliative. It is in many countries regarded as a sure
+antidote against contagion; and persons have been known to put a small
+piece in the mouth before approaching the bed of a fever-stricken
+patient. Whether it has any real virtue of the kind one may doubt, but
+let us hope that it has more than is ascribed to some so-called
+disinfectants--the power to kill one bad smell with another.
+
+In The Family Dictionary, popular in our grandfathers' time, appears the
+following certain remedy for the plague: 'Take away the core of an
+onion, fill the cavity with treacle dissolved or mixed with lemon-juice,
+stop up the hole with the slice you have cut off, roast the whole on hot
+ashes so long till well incorporated and mixed together, then squeeze
+out the juice of the roasted onion, and give it to a person seized with
+the plague. Let him presently lie down in his bed and be well covered up
+that he may perspire. This is a remedy that has not its equal for the
+plague, provided the patient perspires presently.'
+
+And if it did promote perspiration, one can well believe that it might
+be curative.
+
+Not only has garlic been esteemed as an antidote to the bite of snakes,
+but it has also been regarded as a cure for hydrophobia, while onions
+have been claimed as a cure for small-pox, and leeks as an antidote for
+poisonous fungi. Old Celsus, from whom Paracelsus took his name,
+regarded several of the onion tribe as valuable in cases of ague, and
+Pliny had the same belief. In our own time the onion is held to be an
+excellent anti-scorbutic, and is thought to be more useful on ship-board
+than lime-juice in preventing scurvy.
+
+In fact, in all skin diseases, and in many inflammatory disorders,
+preparations of the onion have a real value. The juice is also useful in
+stopping bleeding, although one may hesitate to believe, as was
+popularly supposed, that a drop of it will cure earache, and that
+persistent application will remove deafness.
+
+There still exists, however, a belief that onion-juice is the best
+hair-restorer in the market, in spite of its disagreeable smell.
+
+It would take too long to mention all the virtues that have been
+claimed, with more or less reason, for all the members of the _Allium_
+genus, but it is a curious fact that the onion, which relieves dyspepsia
+and aids the digestion of some, is a certain cause of indigestion in
+others. Is it not said that Napoleon, who was a martyr to indigestion,
+lost the Battle of Leipsic through having partaken of a too hurried meal
+of beefsteak and onions? It is a savoury dish, but has worked woe to
+many. One does not wonder that the old writers declared that onions
+brought bad dreams--if they were eaten raw, or badly cooked, at late
+supper.
+
+It is open to grave doubt whether the author of The Family Dictionary
+was right in saying that 'they that will eat onions daily will enjoy
+better health than otherwise.' What is one man's meat is another man's
+poison; and certainly there is no article in common use which produces
+such opposite effects upon the human system as the onion. It has often
+been found beneficial to individuals in feverish attacks, and yet the
+malingerers in our garrison hospitals know well how to promote febrile
+symptoms by a hearty consumption of garlic.
+
+A fitting conclusion to this chapter will be the summary of Sir John
+Sinclair, the author of a Code of Health and Longevity:
+
+  'Onyons in physick winneth no consent,
+  To cholerick folke they are no nutriment;
+  By Galen's rule, such as phlegmatic are
+  A stomacke good within them do prepare.
+  Weak appetites they comfort, and the face
+  With cheerful colour evermore they grace,
+  And when the head is naked left of hair,
+  Onyons, being sod or stamp'd, again repair.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE STORY OF A TUBER.
+
+
+The planting of a tuber by Clusius, in 1588, in the Botanical Gardens at
+Vienna, is often referred to as the introduction of the potato into
+Europe. As a matter of fact, however, this was not the first planting,
+for the Spaniards brought the real potato--_Solanum tuberosum_--home to
+Spain about 1580. From Spain it extended to Italy, and became at once a
+common article of food there. From Spain it also extended to Belgium,
+and was cultivated there; and it was from a Belgian that Clusius got the
+roots which he planted at Vienna in 1588.
+
+Then, again, it has been said that Christopher Columbus was the first
+European who ever tasted a potato, and that was in 1492, when he reached
+Cuba. From Cuba he brought samples back with him to Genoa. This would
+make our history one hundred years older, only it so happens that the
+_Solanum tuberosum_ is not a native of these parts, and could not have
+been at Cuba when Columbus was there. What he tasted and brought home
+was the _Convolvulus batatas_, or sweet potato, a very different
+article, although it gave its name, 'batatas,' to our tuber in the
+modified form of 'potato.'
+
+The real potato is a native of Chili, and it has been proved to the
+satisfaction of naturalists that it did not exist in North America
+before the arrival of Europeans. How, then, could Sir John Hawkins bring
+it from Santa-Fé in 1565, or Sir Walter Raleigh from Virginia in 1584?
+Well, in the first place, it was the sweet potato that Sir John brought;
+and in the second place, before Sir Walter went to Virginia, the
+Spaniards had brought there the real potato on returning from some of
+their South American expeditions. In 1580 they sent it home, and there
+is evidence that by 1580 the _Solanum tuberosum_ had been planted in
+North America. By the time Raleigh brought it to England, however, it
+was already a familiar root in Italy.
+
+But did he bring it? There are some who say that it was Sir Francis
+Drake who brought the roots and presented them to Sir Walter Raleigh,
+who planted them on his estate near Cork in the year 1594. M'Culloch,
+however, says that 1610 was the year of the introduction into Ireland,
+and other writers say that Raleigh knew so little of the virtues of the
+plant he was naturalizing that he caused the apples, not the tubers, to
+be cooked and served upon his own table. Buckle, however, says that the
+common, or Virginian, potato was introduced by Raleigh in 1586, and
+Lyte, who wrote in that year, does not mention the plant; but Gerarde,
+who published the first edition of his Herbal in 1597, gave a portrait
+of himself with a potato in his hand.
+
+Here, then, we have some negative certainties and some positive
+uncertainties. Columbus did not take the real potato to Genoa in 1492;
+Hawkins did not bring it to England in 1565. The Spaniards did take it
+to Spain in or about 1580; but whether Raleigh was the first to bring it
+to Britain, and in what year, remains open to doubt.
+
+During the whole of the seventeenth century the potato was quite a
+rarity in this country, and up to 1684 was cultivated only in the
+gardens of the gentry. In Scotland it does not seem to have been grown
+at all, even in gardens, before 1728. Phillips, in the History of
+Cultivated Vegetables, says that in 1619 the price in England was one
+shilling a pound. He further says that great prejudices existed against
+it, that it was alleged to be poisonous, and that in Burgundy the
+cultivation of it was prohibited.
+
+These early prejudices against the potato are explainable on the
+supposition that the people did not know how to cook it, and possibly
+ate it raw, in which state it is certainly unwholesome, if not actually
+poisonous. Then, again, it belongs to a family of ill-repute, the
+_Solanacæ_, of which the deadly nightshade and the mandrake are members,
+as well as more honoured specimens like the tomato, tobacco, datura, and
+cayenne-pepper plants. The mandrake, of course, was the subject of
+ancient dislike, and perhaps it was natural for our superstitious
+progenitors to regard with suspicion any relative of that lugubrious
+root.
+
+Even the tempting appearance of the tomato did not suffice to win favour
+for it when first introduced into Europe, until somebody discovered
+that, although undoubtedly sent by the infidels to poison the
+Christians, the Bon Dieu had interfered, and transformed it into an
+agreeable and wholesome fruit.
+
+One meets with two references to the potato in Shakespeare, and these
+are said to be the earliest notices of it in English literature. Thus in
+Troilus and Cressida: 'The devil luxury, with his fat rump, and potato
+finger, tickles these together!' In the Merry Wives, Falstaff says: 'Let
+the sky rain potatoes; let it thunder to the time of Green Sleeves; hail
+kissing-comfits, and snow Eringoes.'
+
+There are several references in the early dramatists, which the curious
+reader may find collected in a note in Steevens's Shakespeare, but which
+hardly serve our purpose. There is one reference, however, by Waller,
+which is interesting:
+
+  'With candy'd plantains and the juicy pine,
+  On choicest melons and sweet grapes they dine,
+  And with potatoes fat their wanton kine,'
+
+because it seems to be the case that, prior to 1588, the Italian
+peasants used the potato as food for their pigs as well as for
+themselves.
+
+We are constrained, however, to conclude that Shakespeare and the old
+dramatists referred to the sweet potato, sometimes called the Spanish
+potato. 'Eringoes,' mentioned by Falstaff, were candied roots. Eringo is
+curiously suggestive of 'Gringo,' which was the name of contempt applied
+by the Spaniards to all foreigners, but especially Englishmen. The word
+would seem to have been imported by the gentlemen-adventurers from the
+Spanish Main, in the time of Good Queen Bess. If we take 'candied roots'
+in association with 'kissing-comfits,' we are compelled to conclude that
+Falstaff's potato was the 'batatas,' the sweet, fleshy roots of which
+were described by Columbus to be 'not unlike chestnuts in taste.'
+
+Certain it is that the potato was not regarded in this country as an
+object of national importance until 1662, when the Royal Society advised
+that it should be planted. In the history of the Society there is the
+record of a recommendation of a committee, dated 1662, urging all the
+Fellows who possessed land to plant potatoes, and persuade their friends
+to do the same, 'in order to alleviate the distress that would accompany
+a scarcity of food.'
+
+In Scotland, the first mention of the potato occurs in the household
+book of the Duchess of Buccleuch and Monmouth. From Chambers's
+Traditions of Edinburgh we learn that the price in 1701 was half-a-crown
+a peck. Robertson, of Irvine discovered what he thought the earliest
+evidence of potatoes in Scotland in the household book of the Eglinton
+family. The date of this entry, however, was 1733, and Robert Chambers
+showed that the date in the Buccleuch book was thirty-two years earlier.
+
+Further information is given by the Duke of Argyle in Scotland As It
+Was, And As It Is. There we learn that, until long past the middle of
+the eighteenth century, little or nothing was known of the potato in
+Scotland, although in after years it brought about the most prodigious
+effects on the population. The Celts of Ireland first began to use it as
+an adjunct, and then as a main article of food. From them it passed over
+to the Celts of the Hebrides, and was introduced into South Uist by
+Macdonald of Clanranald in 1743. The Highlanders, always suspicious of
+novelties, resisted the use of it for some years; and the neighbouring
+island of Bernera was not reached until 1752. It was soon found,
+however, that the tuber would grow luxuriantly almost anywhere--even on
+sand, and shingle, and in bogs. It was quickly planted in those patches
+of ditched-off land known in the Highlands as 'lazy beds'--a not
+inappropriate term, which in Ireland is applied to patches of potatoes
+not sown in drills.
+
+In Ireland and in the Highlands it quickly came to be the main food of
+the people during the greater portion of the year; but in the Lowlands
+of Scotland, and the rural districts of England, it was only used as a
+food accessory, though it soon became an important article of commerce.
+It has often happened that the potato crops have realized higher prices
+than any other product of the farm.
+
+It has been sometimes stated that the man who planted the first field of
+potatoes in Scotland died within the last forty years. This is an error.
+The first field planted in the Lowlands was at Liberton Muir, about the
+year 1738, by a farmer named Mutter, who died in 1808. An attempt had
+been made some years earlier by a farm-labourer, named Prentice, near
+Kilsyth, but not as a farming operation.
+
+In any case we do not get farther back than about 1730 for
+potato-planting in Scotland, whereas in England, by 1684 the
+recommendations of the Royal Society had been largely adopted,
+especially in Lancashire, where the first serious beginning seems to
+have been made. On the other hand, the cultivation has not extended so
+rapidly in England as in either Ireland or Scotland.
+
+The annual crop of Ireland is estimated as, on the average, equal to
+about one thousand three hundred and twenty pounds per inhabitant; that
+of Scotland, about three hundred and ninety pounds; and that of England,
+about one hundred and twenty pounds. Germany is the next largest
+producer to Ireland, and also the next largest consumer--the crops being
+equal to about one thousand and sixty pounds per head. Holland and
+Belgium each produce about five hundred and eighty pounds, and France
+about five hundred and fifty pounds, of potatoes per inhabitant per
+annum.
+
+It is curious that, although Spain and Italy were the first cultivators
+and users in Europe, the product of each of these countries is now only
+about fifty-five pounds per head.
+
+The annual value of the entire potato crop of Europe may be stated at
+about one hundred and sixty million pounds; and that of the United
+Kingdom at about one-tenth of this total. That of North America is about
+twenty million pounds more; and it is a curious instance of the vagaries
+of time that the _Solarium tuberosum_ is now known in America as the
+'Irish potato,' to distinguish it from the batatas, or sweet potato.
+
+All this immense development of cultivation does not complete the
+topographical record of our tuber. It has been introduced into India,
+and is now successfully cultivated both in Bengal and in the Madras
+Presidency. It has found a home in the Dutch East Indies and in China;
+and its tastes and habits are affectionately studied in Australia. But
+as in the tropics it has to be grown at an altitude of three thousand
+feet, or more, above sea-level, it can never become so common in hot
+countries as in Europe.
+
+It is not only as a food-plant that the potato has secured the respect
+and affection of mankind. Starch is made from it both for the laundry
+and for the manufacture of farina, dextrin, etc. The dried pulp from
+which the starch has been extracted is used for making boxes. From the
+stem and leaves an extract is made of a narcotic, used to allay pain in
+coughs and other ailments. In a raw state the potato is used as a
+cooling application for burns and sores. A spirit is distilled from the
+tuber, which in Norway is called 'brandy,' and in other places is used
+for mixing with malt and vine liquors. Many of the farinaceous
+preparations now so popular in the nursery and sick-room are made
+largely of potato-starch; and in some places cakes and puddings are made
+from potato-flour.
+
+To the potato are also ascribed properties of another kind. The folklore
+of the plant is meagre, considering its wide distribution, but there are
+a number of curious superstitions connected with it. In some parts there
+is a belief that it thrives best if planted on Maundy Thursday; in
+others, that if planted under certain stars it will become watery. In
+Devonshire the people believe that the potato is a certain cure for the
+toothache--not taken internally, but carried about in the pocket. It is
+by several writers mentioned as a reputed cure for rheumatism in the
+same way; only it is prescribed that, in order to be an effective cure
+in such cases, the potato should be stolen. Mr. Andrew Lang mentions an
+instance of faith in the practice of this cure, which he came across in
+a London drawing-room. He regards this belief as a survival of the old
+superstitions about mandrake, and as analogous to the habit of African
+tribes who wear roots round the neck as protection against wild animals.
+
+The value of the potato as food has been much discussed; but it seems to
+rank next to the plantain, and a long way behind either rice or wheat.
+The author of the Chemistry of Common Life has pointed to the remarkable
+physiological likeness of tribes of people who live chiefly on rice,
+plantain, and potato. The Hindu, the negro, and the Irishman are all
+remarkable for being round-bellied, and this peculiarity is ascribed to
+the necessity of consuming a large bulk of food in order to obtain the
+requisite nourishment.
+
+It is not, of course, the root of the plant which we consume. The tubers
+known to the table are the swollen portions of the underground branches,
+and the so-called 'eyes' are really leaf-buds. It is by cuttings from
+these tubers, however, that the plant is mostly propagated. About
+three-fourths of the weight of the potato is water, and this may
+explain the injurious effect which excessive rainfall has on the crops.
+The disease which attacks the plant, and has been the cause of Irish
+famines, past and prospective, is a species of fungus, which first
+attacks and discolours the straws, and then spreads downwards to the
+tubers, increasing the quantity of water in them, reducing the quantity
+of starch, and converting the albumen into casein.
+
+When this disease once appears it is apt to spread over wide areas where
+the same climatic influences prevail, and when the disease appears in
+any strength the crops are rapidly rendered unfit for human food. The
+trouble of the Irish peasantry of the West is that they have no
+alternative crop to fall back on when the potato fails. Their plots are
+too small for cereals, and they cannot be persuaded to cultivate
+cabbages and other vegetables along with their tubers. It is thus that,
+when the day of tribulation comes, the potato appears to be really a
+curse rather than a blessing to agricultural Ireland.
+
+There have been frequent projects for reverting to original types--that
+is to say, for obtaining a fresh supply of the indigenous plant from
+South America, and breeding a new stock, as it were. It is a possible
+mode of extirpating the disease which may be resorted to.
+
+The Irish famine of 1847 was due to the failure of the potato crops in
+1846, preceded by two or three years of bad crops. This failure was due
+to disease, and the eating of the diseased tuber brought on a
+pestilence, so that altogether the deaths by starvation and epidemics in
+that disastrous period amounted to nearly a million and a quarter
+persons. To deal with the distress various sums were voted by Parliament
+to the total amount of over ten millions sterling. This was supplemented
+by private philanthropy in this country, and by generous aid from the
+United States and some European countries. What was the actual money
+cost to the world at large of the failure of the Irish potato crop in
+1846 can never be accurately known; but the amount was so enormous as to
+create a serious economic problem in connection with the homely tuber.
+
+There have been several partial failures since in Ireland, although
+nothing so extensive as that of 1846, and in 1872 the disease was very
+bad in England. In that year, indeed, the importation of foreign
+potatoes rose to the enormous value of one million six hundred and
+fifty-four thousand pounds to supply our own deficient crops. In 1876,
+again, there was great excitement and alarm about the 'Colorado beetle,'
+an importation from America, which was destined, it was said, to destroy
+all our potato-fields. But the beetle proved comparatively harmless, and
+seems now to have disappeared from these shores.
+
+The Englishman and Scotchman cannot do without his potato as an adjunct;
+but the error of the Irishman is in making it the mainstay of his life.
+The words of Malthus in this connection put the matter in a nutshell,
+much as he has been abused for his theory of the effects of the potato
+on population. 'When the common people of a country,' he says, 'live
+principally upon the dearest grain, as they do in England on wheat,
+they have great resources in a scarcity, and barley, oats, rice, cheap
+soups, and potatoes, all present themselves as less expensive, yet, at
+the same time, wholesome means of nourishment; but when their habitual
+food is the lowest in this scale, they appear to be absolutely without
+resource, except in the bark of trees--like the poor Swedes--and a great
+portion of them must necessarily be starved.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE CENTRE OF THE WORLD.
+
+
+Where is it? 'At Charing Cross, of course,' says the self-assured
+Londoner; and in one sense he may not be far wrong. 'At Boston,' says
+the cultured inhabitant of the 'hub' of the universe. 'Wherever I am,'
+says the autocrat who essays to sway the destinies of nations. Well, we
+all know the story of the Head of the Table, and even if we did not know
+it, instinct would tell us where to look. But the centre of the world,
+in an actual, physical, racial, and mundanely comprehensive sense--where
+is it?
+
+One does not find it so easy to answer the question as did good old
+Herodotus, who scouted as absurd the idea of the earth being circular.
+'For my own part,' says the Father of History--and of lies, according to
+some people--'I cannot but think it exceedingly ridiculous to hear some
+men talk of the circumference of the Earth, pretending without the
+smallest reason or probability that the ocean encompasses the Earth,
+that the Earth is round as if mechanically formed so, and that Asia is
+equal to Europe.'
+
+Herodotus found no difficulty in describing the figure and size of the
+portions of the earth whose existence he recognised, but then he said,
+'from India eastward the whole Earth is one vast desert, unknown and
+unexplored.' And for long after Herodotus, the Mediterranean was
+regarded as the central sea of the world, and in the time of Herodotus,
+Rhodes was accounted the centre of that centre.
+
+It is very interesting, however, to trace how many centres the world has
+had in its time--or rather within the range of written history. The old
+Egyptians placed it at Thebes, the Assyrians at Babylon, the Hindus at
+Mount Meru, the Jews at Jerusalem, and the Greeks at Olympus, until they
+moved it to Rhodes. There exists an old map in which the world is
+represented as a human figure, and the heart of that figure is Egypt.
+And there exists, or did exist, an old fountain in Sicily on which was
+this inscription: 'I am in the centre of the garden; this garden is the
+centre of Sicily, and Sicily is the Centre of the whole Earth.'
+
+It is a grand thing to be positive in assertion when you are sure of
+your ground, and the builder of this fountain seems to have been sure of
+his. But then other people can be positive too, and in that vast desert
+eastward of India, imagined by Herodotus, there is the country of China,
+which calls itself the Middle Kingdom, and the Emperor of which, in a
+letter to the King of England in this very nineteenth century, announced
+that China is endowed by Heaven as the 'flourishing and central Empire'
+of the world.
+
+And yet, once upon a time, according to some old Japanese writings,
+Japan was known as the Middle Kingdom; and the Persians claimed the same
+position for Persia; and according to Professor Sayce, the old Chaldeans
+said that the centre of the earth was in the heart of the impenetrable
+forest of Eridu.
+
+This forest, by the way, was also called the 'holy house of the Gods,'
+but it does not seem to have had anything to do with the Terrestrial
+Paradise, the exact location of which Mr. Baring-Gould has laboriously
+tried to identify through the legends of the nations. It is a curious
+fact that a ninth-century map, in the Strasburg Library, places the
+Terrestrial Paradise--the Garden of Eden--in that part of Asia we now
+know as the Chinese Empire, and it is also so marked in a map in the
+British Museum.
+
+In a letter supposed to have emanated from the mysterious if not
+mythical Prester John, it is written: 'The river Indus which issues out
+of Paradise flows among the plains through a certain province, and it
+expands, embracing the whole province with its various windings. There
+are found emeralds, sapphires, carbuncles, topazes, chrysolites, onyx,
+beryl, sardius, and many other precious stones. There, too, grows the
+plant called Asbestos.'
+
+And all this was reported to be just three days' journey from the garden
+from which Adam was expelled, but as the geographical position of the
+province was not specified the information was a trifle vague. Prester
+John, however, described a wonderful fountain, the virtues of which
+correspond with those of a well in Ceylon described by Sir John
+Mandeville, and this is why some people say that the Garden of Eden was
+in the Island of Spices.
+
+There is a twelfth-century map of the world at Cambridge, which shows
+Paradise on an island opposite the mouth of the Ganges. And in the story
+of St. Brandan, the saint reaches an island somewhere 'due east from
+Ireland,' which was Paradise, and on which he met with a man who told
+him that a stream--which no living being might cross--flowing through
+the island, divided the world in twain. Another centre!
+
+In an Icelandic story of the fourteenth century are related the
+marvellous adventures of one Eirek of Drontheim, who, determined to find
+out the Deathless Land, made his way to Constantinople. There he
+received a lesson in geography from the Emperor. The world, he was told,
+was precisely one hundred and eighty thousand stages, or about one
+million English miles, round, and is not propped up on posts, but is
+supported by the will of God. The distance between the earth and heaven,
+he was told, is one hundred thousand and forty-five miles, and round
+about the earth is a big sea called the ocean.
+
+'But what is to the south of the earth?' asked the inquisitive Eirek.
+
+'Oh,' replied the Emperor, 'the end of the earth is there, and it is
+called India.'
+
+'And where shall I find the Deathless Land?' he inquired; and he was
+told that slightly to the east of India lies Paradise.
+
+Thereupon Eirek and a companion started across Syria, took ship and
+arrived at India, through which they journeyed on horseback till they
+came to a strait which separated them from a beautiful land. Eirek
+crossed over and found himself in Paradise, and, strange to say, an
+excellent cold luncheon waiting for him. It took him seven years to get
+home again, and, as he died soon after his return, the map of the route
+was lost.
+
+Still, Eirek's Paradise may not improbably have been Ceylon.
+
+The latest location of the Garden of Eden is by a recent traveller in
+Somaliland, in the north-east shoulder of Africa and south of the Gulf
+of Aden. This is in the neighbourhood of the country of Prester John,
+but in its present aspects can by no means be regarded as a Terrestrial
+Paradise.
+
+Sir John Mandeville's description of the Terrestrial Paradise which he
+discovered gives it as the highest place on the earth--so high that the
+waters of the Flood could not reach it. And in the very centre of the
+highest point is a well, he said, that casts out the four streams,
+Ganges, Nile, Tigris, and Euphrates--all sacred streams. Now, in the
+Encyclopædia of India it is stated that 'The Hindus at Bikanir Rajputana
+taught that the mountain Meru is in the centre surrounded by concentric
+circles of land and sea. Some Hindus regard Mount Meru as the North
+Pole. The astronomical views of the Puranas make the heavenly bodies
+turn round it.' So here again we have a mountain as the terrestrial
+centre.
+
+In the Avesta there is reference to a lofty mountain at the centre of
+the world from which all the mountains of the earth have grown, and at
+the summit of which is the fountain of waters, whereby grow two
+trees--the Heavenly Soma, and another tree which yields all the seeds
+that germinate on earth. From this fountain, according to the Buddhist
+tradition, flow four streams to the four points of the compass, each of
+them making a complete circuit in its descent.
+
+This central mountain is the Navel of Waters where originated all
+matter, and where sits Yama under the Soma tree--just as in the Norse
+legend the Norns, or Fates, sit by the great central earth-tree,
+Yggdrasil.
+
+According to the Greek tradition, Jupiter, in order to settle the true
+centre of the earth, sent out two eagles, one from east and one from
+west. They met on the spot on which was erected the Temple of Delphi,
+and a stone in the centre of that temple was called the Navel of the
+World. A golden eagle was placed on each side of this stone. The design
+is preserved in many examples of Greek sculpture, and the stone itself
+is mentioned in several of the Greek plays.
+
+With reference to this, Mr. Lethaby, in his Architecture, Mysticism, and
+Myth, observes: 'We may see embodied in this myth of the centre-stone
+the result of the general direction of thought; as each people were
+certainly "the people" first born and best beloved of the gods, so their
+country occupied the centre of the world. It would be related how the
+oldest and most sacred city, or rather temple, was erected exactly on
+the navel. A story like this told of a temple would lead to the marking
+in the centre of its area the true middle point by a circular stone, a
+stone which would become most sacred and ceremonial in its import.'
+
+And Dr. Schliemann thus writes of a central circle he unearthed in the
+palace at Tirynthus: 'In the exact centre of the hall, and therefore
+within the square enclosed by the four pillars, there is found in the
+floor a circle of about 3·30 m. diameter. There can be little doubt that
+this circle indicates the position of the hearth in the centre of the
+megaron. The hearth was in all antiquity the centre of the house, about
+which the family assembled, at which food was prepared, and where the
+guest received the place of honour. Hence it is frequently indicated by
+poets and philosophers as the navel or centre of the house. In the
+oldest time it was not only symbolically but actually the centre of the
+house, and especially of the megaron. It was only in later days, in the
+palaces of the great Romans, that it was removed from the chief rooms
+and established in a small by-room.'
+
+All which may be true enough, and yet the placing of the hearthstone in
+the centre of the house may have had less reference to the earth-centre
+idea, than to the fact that in the circular huts of primitive man it was
+necessary to have a hole at the apex of the roof. Still, it is
+interesting to note that, as in the Imperial palace at Constantinople,
+so on the floor of St. Peter's at Rome, and elsewhere, is a flat
+circular slab of porphyry, associated with all ceremonials.
+
+Is there any connection between the old central hearthstone and the
+Dillestein--Lid of Hell--one meets with in Grimm?
+
+We have seen that the centre of the world is placed in Europe, in Asia,
+and in Africa, but who would expect to find it in America many centuries
+ago? Yet the traditions of Peru have it that Cuzco was founded by the
+gods, and that its name signifies 'navel'; and traditions of Mexico
+describe Yucatan as 'the centre and foundation' of both heaven and
+earth. We must, however, go back to the East as the most likely quarter
+in which to find it, and as the quarter to which the eyes of man have
+been most consistently turned.
+
+To successive centuries of both Jews and Christians Jerusalem has been
+the centre of the world, and the Temple the centre of Jerusalem. The
+Talmud gives directions to those who are in foreign countries to pray
+with their faces towards the sacred land; to those in Palestine to pray
+with their faces towards Jerusalem; to those in Jerusalem to pray with
+their faces towards the Mount; to those in the Temple to pray with their
+faces towards the Holy of Holies. Now, this was not merely because this
+sacred spot was a ceremonial centre, but also because it was regarded as
+the geographical centre of the earth. According to the Rabbis the Temple
+was built on the great central rock of the world.
+
+It is written in the Talmud: 'The world is like the eyeball of man: the
+white is the ocean that surrounds the wall, the black is the world
+itself, and the pupil is Jerusalem, and the image of the pupil is the
+Temple.' And again: 'The land of Israel is situated in the centre of the
+world, and Jerusalem in the centre of the land of Israel, and the Temple
+in the centre of Jerusalem, and the Holy of Holies in the centre of the
+Temple, and the foundation-stone on which the world was grounded is
+situated in front of the ark.' And once more: 'When the ark was removed
+a stone was there from the days of the first Prophets. It was called
+Foundation. It was three digits above the earth.'
+
+This claim is direct enough, and at Jerusalem to this day in the Dome of
+the Rock, supposed to occupy the site of Solomon's Temple, is a bare
+stone which, as Sir Charles Warren was assured, rests on the top of a
+palm-tree, from the roots of which issue all the rivers of the world.
+The Mohammedans have accepted this same stone as the foundation-stone of
+the world, and they call it the Kibleh of Moses. It is said that Mahomet
+once intended making this the sacred centre of Islam, instead of Mecca,
+but changed his mind, and predicted that at the Last Day the black
+stone--the Kaabah--will leave Mecca and become the bride of the
+Foundation-stone at Jerusalem. So that there can be no possible doubt of
+the centre of sacred influences.
+
+Concerning the stone at Jerusalem, Professor Palmer says: 'This Sakhrah
+is the centre of the world, and on the day of resurrection--it is
+supposed--the Angel Israfil will stand upon it to blow the last trumpet.
+It is also eighteen miles nearer heaven than any other place in the
+world, and beneath it is the source of every drop of sweet water that
+flows on the face of the earth. It is supposed to be suspended
+miraculously between heaven and earth. The effect upon the spectators,
+however, was so startling, that it was found necessary to place a
+building round it and conceal the marvel.'
+
+According to Hittite and Semitic traditions mentioned by Professor Sayce
+and Professor Robertson Smith, there was a chasm in this central spot
+through which the waters of the Deluge escaped.
+
+Right down to and through the Middle Ages Jerusalem was regarded by all
+Christians as the centre of the world; sometimes as the navel of the
+earth; and sometimes as the middlemost point of heaven and earth. The
+Hereford map of the thirteenth century, examined by Mr. Lethaby, shows
+the world as a plane circle surrounded by ocean, round whose borders are
+the eaters of men, and the one-eyed, and the half-men, and those whose
+heads do grow beneath their shoulders. 'Within this border we find
+everything the heart could desire; the sea is very red, the pillars of
+Hercules are pillars indeed; there is the Terrestrial Paradise enclosed
+by a battlemented wall, and unicorns, manticoras, salamanders, and other
+beasts of fascinating habits are clearly shown in the lands where they
+live. The centre of all is Jerusalem, a circular walled court, within
+which again is a smaller circle, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.'
+
+Even when the earth was recognised as a sphere, the idea of Jerusalem
+being the centre was not given up. Dante held to it, and veracious Sir
+John Mandeville endeavoured thus to explain away the difficulty: 'In
+going from Scotland or from England towards Jerusalem, men go always
+upwards, for our land is in the low part of the earth towards the west;
+and the land of Prester John is in the low part of the world towards the
+east; and they have the day when we have the night, and on the contrary
+they have the night when we have the day; for the earth and sea are of a
+round form, and as men go upward towards one point they go downward to
+another. Also you have heard me say that Jerusalem is in the middle of
+the world; and that may be proved and shown there by a spear which is
+fixed in the earth at the hour of midday, when it is equinoctial, which
+gives no shadow on any side.' Ingenious, if not convincing!
+
+The Greek Church still regard Jerusalem as the middle of the world, and
+Mr. Curzon tells that in their portion of the Holy Sepulchre they have a
+magnificently decorated interior, in the centre of which is a globe of
+black marble on a pedestal, under which, they say, the head of Adam was
+found, and which they declare to be the exact centre of the globe.
+
+The Mohammedans generally, however, regard the Kaabah at Mecca as--for
+the present, at any rate--the true centre. This stone is supposed to
+have been lowered directly from heaven, and all mosques are built to
+look towards it. Even in the modern schools of Cairo, according to Mr.
+Loftie, the children are taught that Mecca is the centre of the earth.
+
+The Samaritans, however, look upon Gerizim as the holy mountain and
+centre of the religious and geographical world. And the Babylonians
+regarded the great Temple of Bel, according to Professor Sayce, as the
+house of the Foundation Stone of Heaven and Earth.
+
+Gaya, again, is the Mecca of the Buddhists, where Buddha sat under the
+tree when he received enlightenment. This tree is the Bodhi tree
+described by Buddhist writers as surrounded by an enclosure rather of an
+oblong than of a square shape, but with four gates opening to the four
+cardinal points. In the middle of the enclosure is the diamond throne
+which a voice told Buddha he would find under a Pipal tree, which
+diamond throne is believed to be of the same age as the earth. 'It is
+the middle of the great Chiliocosm; it goes down to the limits of the
+golden wheel and upwards it is flush with the ground. It is composed of
+diamonds; in circuit it is a hundred paces or so. It is the place where
+the Buddhas attain the sacred path of Buddhahood. When the great earth
+is shaken this spot alone is unmoved. When the true law decays and dies
+it will be no longer visible.'
+
+According to Sir Monier Williams, a stone marked with nine concentric
+circles is shown at Gaya as the diamond throne, and the Chiliocosm is
+not the centre of the world alone but of the Universe.
+
+But in China, also a land of Buddhists, we find another centre, and in
+India there is an iron pillar at Delhi, dating from the fourth century,
+supposed by the Brahmans to mark the centre from their point of view.
+And in Southern India the Tamils have the Temple of Mandura, in the
+innermost sanctuary of which a rock comes through the floor, the roots
+of which are said to be in the centre of the earth.
+
+The Indian Buddhists, of course, denied that China could be the Middle
+Kingdom, as the place where Buddha lived must necessarily be the centre.
+Nevertheless, the centre is now found by Chinese Buddhists in the Temple
+of Heaven at Pekin, where is one circular stone in the centre of circles
+of marble terraces, on which the Emperor kneels surrounded by
+circles--including that of the horizon--and believes himself to be in
+the Centre of the Universe and inferior only to Heaven.
+
+But in the sixth century a certain Chinese traveller, called Sung-Yun,
+went to India for Buddhist studies, and he made his way by the Pamirs,
+the watershed of the great Asiatic rivers Indus and Oxus. And of this
+country he wrote:
+
+'After entering the Tsung Ling mountains, step by step, we crept upwards
+for four days, and reached the highest point of the range. From this
+point as a centre, looking downwards, it seemed just as though we were
+poised in mid-air. Men say that this is the middle point of heaven and
+earth.'
+
+This was written more than thirteen hundred years ago, and men to-day
+still call this part of Asia the Roof of the World.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+  A
+
+  Aaron's rod, 25
+
+  Æschines, 18
+
+  Agricola, 29
+
+  Albertus, 84
+
+  Animal instinct of cure by plants, 161
+
+  Anthropomorphon, 84
+
+  Architecture, Mysticism and Myth, 193
+
+  Ahmed, Prince, 42
+
+  Aristotle, 153
+
+  Arthurian legends, 23
+
+  Asterodia, 2
+
+  Australian legends, 8, 20, 21
+
+
+  B
+
+  Baaras, root of, 80
+
+  Bacchus, 73
+
+  Bacon, 68, 85
+
+  Baring-Gould's Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, 37-39, 60, 61, 88
+
+  Barth, 52
+
+  Benjamin's sack, 49
+
+  Beryl, the, 48
+    the spirits of the, 48
+
+  Bhása, 71
+
+  Bion's Lament, 124
+
+  Black Kaspar, 48
+
+  Bodhi Tree, 199
+
+  Book of Days, 73, 75
+
+  Brand's Popular Antiquities, 97, 100, 107
+
+  Breton legends, 8
+
+  British Guiana legends, 8-20
+
+  Britomart, 50
+
+  Browne, Sir Thomas, 28, 29, 83
+
+  Browning's, Mrs., Dead Pan, 80
+
+  Buddha's foot, 11
+
+  'Bull-roarer,' the, 17, 18
+
+  Bushman legend, 63
+
+
+  C
+
+  Cagliostro, 51
+
+  Cain in the Moon, 62
+
+  Cambuscan's mirror, 49
+
+  Camelon, 27
+
+  Capnomancy, 13
+
+  Cat and the Well, 6
+
+  Catoptromancy, 50
+
+  Celestial Paradise, 189
+
+  Chaldæo-Babylonian legends, 92
+
+  Chaucer, 49, 62
+
+  Chinese legends, 20, 95
+
+  Cingalese legends, 11
+
+  Circaea, or Enchanter's Nightshade, 81
+
+  Circe, 82
+
+  Cleopatra, 79
+
+  Clover leaf, the, 130
+
+  Coles' Art of Simpling, 86
+
+  Columbus, 107
+
+  Columella, 84
+
+  Conway's Demonology, etc., 24, 71, 72, 85, 95
+
+  Cornish legends, 66-103
+
+  Cox and Jones's Tales of Teutonic Lands, 2, 3, 7, 9
+
+  Cronus, 8, 9, 20
+
+  Crusade legends, 129, 136
+
+  Crusades, the, 13, 93
+
+  Cupid, 124
+
+
+  D
+
+  Danae, 5
+
+  Dante, 62
+
+  Davy Jones, 114
+
+  Dawn Myths, 2, 5, 6
+
+  Dee's, Dr., Spherical Speculum, 48, 50
+
+  De Gubernatis, 72
+
+  Dekker's Wonderful Year, 147
+
+  Delphi, 19
+
+  Demeter, 19
+
+  Demosthenes, 18
+
+  Dessoir, Max, 56
+
+  Devil's Kettles, 95
+
+  Devil's Punch-bowls, 95
+
+  Devonian legends, 65, 122, 127
+
+  Dioscorides, 134
+
+  Divination by smoke, 15
+
+  Divining-rod, the, 30-32
+
+  Dove and the ark, 24
+
+  'Duffy,' 114
+
+  Dutch legend, 96
+
+
+  E
+
+  Earth-man, 79
+
+  Eden, the Garden of, 190
+    Eastern idea of, 191
+    Icelandic idea of, 191
+    Mandeville's, Sir J., 192
+    Somaliland, 192
+    Prester John's, 190
+
+  Ellacombe's Plant-Lore of Shakespeare, 149
+
+  Endymion, 72
+
+  Esquimo legend, 67
+
+  Esthonian legend, 73
+
+  Eucharist, the, 24
+
+
+  F
+
+  Fairy-lore, 12, 13
+
+  'Fairy-ring,' the, 12
+
+  Feast of Demeter, 16
+
+  Fian, Dr., 27
+
+  Fleur de lys, the, 130
+
+  Flying Dutchman, the, 96
+
+  Folk-lore methods, 15, 16
+    Bible, 88
+
+  Friend's Flowers and Flower-Lore, 147
+
+
+  G
+
+  Ganymede, 67
+
+  Gargantua, legend of, 8
+
+  Garlic (or 'Poor Man's Treacle'), Pliny on, 170
+    Bacon on, 170
+    Eastern belief in, 170, 173
+
+  Garrett's Dictionary of India, 89
+
+  Gaya and Buddha, 199
+
+  Gerarde's Herball (1597), 81, 128
+
+  Gerizim, 199
+
+  German legends, 60, 93, 94
+
+  Gesta Romanorum, 42
+
+  Glam (the moon), 72
+
+  Goldsmith's Citizen of the World, 50
+
+  'Good folks,' 12
+
+  Goodrich's, Miss, experiments in crystal-reading, 53-55
+
+  Gordon-Cumming's, Miss, Wanderings in China, 64
+
+  Greek legends, 3, 4, 10, 19, 21, 60, 67, 82, 127
+
+  Grimm, Fairy Tales, 6, 66, 129
+
+
+  H
+
+  Hades, 19
+
+  Hamlet, 41
+
+  Harpocrates, 124
+
+  Hartmann, Dr. Franz, 46
+
+  Hephaistos, 2
+
+  Hera, 19
+
+  Hermes, 82
+
+  Herodotus, 29, 30, 63, 73
+
+  Hesiod, 9
+
+  Highland superstitions, 10, 12, 13
+
+  Hindu legends, 20, 68, 71
+
+  Holcroft, the actor, 116
+
+  Holinshed, 27
+
+  Holy Spirit, symbol of the, 24
+
+  Homa, 87, 88
+
+  'Hot-cross buns,' 77
+
+  Hussin, 6
+
+  Hutton's Jacob's Rod, 39
+
+  Hydra, the, 93
+
+
+  I
+
+  Icelandic legend, 95
+
+  'Ink-pool,' the, 48
+
+  Israfil, 196
+
+
+  J
+
+  Jack and Jill, 61
+
+  Jacques Aymar of Lyons, story of, 37, 38
+
+  Jacob Boehme's tin cup, 49
+
+  Jamieson, Dr., and the Moon, 60
+
+  Jason and the Golden Fleece, 21
+
+  Jewish legends, 60, 90
+
+  Jobson, Richard (divining-rod), 34
+
+  Jonah, 115
+
+  Jonson's Tale of a Tub, 145
+
+  Josephus, 65, 81
+
+  Judas Iscariot, 62, 107
+
+
+  K
+
+  Kaabah-stone, 198
+
+  Kaffir legend, 20
+
+  Kingsley's Water-Babies, 105, 111
+
+
+  L
+
+  Lane's Magician, 51
+
+  Lang's Custom and Myth, etc., 4, 8, 14, 17, 21, 30, 34, 66, 82
+
+  Lao's looking-glass, 50
+
+  Leek, the, in Welsh tradition, 171
+
+  Legends:
+    Australian, 8, 20, 21
+    Breton, 8
+    Bushman, 63
+    Ceylon, 11
+    Chaldæo-Babylonian, 92
+    Chinese, 20, 95
+    Cornish, 66, 103
+    Devonian, 65, 122, 127
+    Dutch, 96
+    Eskimo, 67
+    Esthonian, 73
+    German, 60, 93, 94
+    Greek, 3, 4, 10, 19, 21, 50, 67, 82, 127
+    Highland, 12
+    Hindu, 20, 68, 71
+    Icelandic, 95
+    Jewish, 60, 90
+    Kaffir, 20
+    Lenormant, François, 93
+    Lid of Hell, 195
+    Malay, 8
+    Maori, 62, 63
+    North American, 8, 62
+    of British Guiana, 8, 20
+    of St. Cecilia, 129
+    of St. David, 171
+    of St. Patrick, 131
+    of St. Peter, 109
+    of the Crusaders, 129, 136
+    Persian, 125
+    Roman, 124
+    Russian, 94, 110
+    Scandinavian, 61
+    Sicilian, 73
+    Syrian, 93
+    Talmudic, 92
+    Zulu, 8
+
+  Lethaby on Architecture and Myths, 193
+
+  Levi, house of, 25
+
+  Lhasis, 80
+
+  Lien Chi Altangi, 50
+
+  Lilly, John, 59
+
+  Linnæus, story of, 33
+
+  Lotus legends, 128
+    the Buddhist, 127
+    the Egyptian, 128
+
+  Lucian, 59
+
+  Luna, 63, 73
+
+
+  M
+
+  Magic, 23
+
+  Magellan, 107
+
+  Malay legends, 8
+
+  Mandrake, the, 78, 83
+    anthropomorphon, 84
+    or Devil's Apple, 85
+    or Stone Apple, 85
+
+  Mandura, 200
+
+  Maori legends, 62, 63
+
+  Mecca, 198
+
+  Medea, 67
+
+  Merlin's mirror, 49
+
+  Michael Scott, 11
+
+  Middle Kingdom, the, according to Herodotus, 189
+    Eastern idea of, 189, 197, 200
+    Jewish tradition of, 196
+    Jupiter's, 193
+    Mecca, the, 199
+    Mexican tradition of, 195
+    Prester John, 198
+
+  Midsummer Night's Dream, 62
+
+  Milbanke, Lady, 39
+
+  Mister Storm-Along, 119
+
+  Mohammed, legend of, 126
+
+  Moonfolk, Lucian's, 59
+
+  Moon-lore, Australian, 67
+    Bushman, 67
+    Egyptian, 67
+    English, 70, 74, 76
+    Eskimo, 67
+    Greek, 67, 87
+    Maori, 67
+    North American Indian, 67
+    South African, 67
+
+  Moon, the, 2, 58
+
+  Moon-worship, 76
+
+  Moonwort, 153, 154
+    Conway, Moncure, 155
+    Culpeper, 154
+    in Divine Weekes, 154
+    in legend, 153
+
+  Moses' rod, 25, 26, 29
+
+  Mother Carey's chickens, 97, 104, 109
+
+  Müller, Max, 9
+
+  Mythology, Chinese, 63
+    Eskimo, 63
+    German, 133
+    Greek, 10, 78, 121
+    Hindu, 63, 87
+    Scandinavian, 116
+    Vedic, 72
+
+
+  N
+
+  Nautical superstitions, 98, 100
+
+  Navel of the World, 193
+
+  Nebuchadnezzar, 28
+
+  Neptune, 93
+
+  Nether Lochaber, 12
+
+  Nikke, 96
+
+  North American legends, 8, 62
+
+
+  O
+
+  Odin, 73
+
+  Odysseus, 82
+
+  Old Nick, 93
+
+  Onion among the Romans, 167
+    as food, 164
+    Homer on, 167
+    in The Arabian Nights, 165
+    Juvenal on, 165
+    Malagasy use of, 166
+    Mohammedan legends of, 167
+    myths, 168, 169
+    Napoleon and, 174
+    of the Greeks, 163, 165
+    of Herodotus, 166
+    Pliny on, 165, 167
+    Shakespeare on, 163
+    Sinclair, Sir J., on, 175
+
+  Ophelia, 148
+
+  Othello, 80
+
+
+  P
+
+  Paracelsus's magic mirror, 43, 44
+
+  Paradise, the Garden of, 190
+
+  Parkinson the Herbalist, 151
+
+  Penelope, 49
+
+  Persian legend, 125
+
+  Peter the Hermit, 13
+
+  Pharaoh, 25
+
+  Pleiades, the, 21
+
+  Pliny, 132
+
+  Plutarch, 73
+
+  Pope Leo X., 107
+
+  Poseidon, 19
+
+  Potato, the, as food, 184
+    Buckle on, 177
+    Christopher Columbus and, 176
+    folklore of, 183
+    Gerarde on, 177
+    in Scotland and Ireland, 181
+    in Shakespeare, 179
+    introduction into Europe, 176
+    Sir Francis Drake and, 177
+
+  Prince Zeyn Alasnam, story of, 42
+
+  Proctor, R. A., 60
+
+  Prose Edda, 71
+
+  Prospero, 70
+
+  Pryce's Mineralogia Cornubiensis, 32
+
+  Pseudosia Epidemica, 83
+
+  Pyromancy, 47
+
+  Pythagoras, 84
+
+
+  R
+
+  Rashi, 77
+
+  Red Riding Hood, 5, 6
+
+  Rhabdomancy, 28, 39
+
+  Rhea, 19
+
+  Riley's Book of Days, 64
+
+  Rink, Dr., 63
+
+  Rod, Moses', 25, 26
+    of the house of Levi, 25
+    the, 23
+    the divining, 30, 32
+
+  Roman legend, 124
+
+  Romeo and Juliet, 79
+
+  Rona in the Moon, 62
+
+  Roof of the World, the, 100
+
+  Rosemary, 123
+
+  Roses, Feast of the, 125
+
+  Rue as a disinfectant, 162
+    as salad, 152
+    derivation of, 150
+    in Aristotle, 153, 159
+    in Drayton, 153
+    in Ellacombe's Plant-Lore of Shakespeare, 149
+    in French perfumery, 152
+    in Milton, 151
+    in Parkinson, 151
+    in Pliny, 157
+    in Shakespeare, 149, 153
+    in Spenser, 151
+    in Warburton's works, 152
+
+  Ruskin's Queen of the Air, 4
+
+  Russian legend, 94, 110
+
+  Ruth, 150
+
+  Ryence, King, 50
+
+
+  S
+
+  St. Brandan, 117
+
+  St. Cecilia, legend of, 129
+
+  St. Christophoros, story of, 26
+
+  St. David, legends of, 171
+
+  St. David's Day, origin of, 171
+
+  St. Joseph, legend of, 127
+
+  St. Nicholas, 93
+
+  St. Patrick, 131
+
+  St. Peter, legend of, 109
+
+  St. Peter's Day, 110
+
+  St. Ursula, 2, 3
+
+  Satan, 79, 85
+
+  Saturn, 8, 19, 20
+
+  Scandinavian legend, 61
+
+  Schliemann, Dr., 194
+
+  Sea chanties, 119, 120
+
+  Septuagint, the, 49
+
+  Shakespeare, 2, 62, 79
+
+  Sharpe, Charles Kirkpatrick, 92
+
+  Shelvocke's voyages, 106
+
+  Shew Stone, 50
+
+  Sicilian legend, 73
+
+  Sidney, Sir Philip, 72
+
+  Solomon's Temple, 196
+
+  Soma, 63, 87, 89, 90, 193
+
+  Song of Sixpence, 5
+
+  Sorcerer's Root, 78
+
+  Spring Myths, 10
+
+  Stormy petrel, 99
+
+  Sung-Yun and the Pamirs, 200
+
+  Superstitions:
+    Accadian, 16
+    Aztec, 16
+    Bushmen, 21
+    Chinese, 75
+    Greek, 16
+    Highland, 10, 12
+    Jewish, 16, 76
+    Nautical, 98, 100, 117
+    Peruvian, 16
+    Red Indian, 16, 20
+    Sicilian, 16
+
+  Syrian legend, 92
+
+
+  T
+
+  Talmudic legend, 92
+
+  Tannhäuser, 3
+
+  Tylor's Primitive Culture, 5, 65
+
+  Tempest, the, 70
+
+  Theal's Kaffir Folklore, 18
+
+  Thiselton-Dyer, 31, 34, 64, 78, 100, 131, 145
+
+  Thistle, the, 132
+    Stewart, Dr., on, 135
+    of Dioscorides, 134
+
+  Timbs, 79
+
+  True Thomas of Ercildoune, 3
+
+  Tûtenganahaû, story of, 20
+
+  Tweed, the, 10
+
+  Tylor, 6, 65
+
+  Typhoeus, 117
+
+
+  U
+
+  Ulysses, 42
+
+  Urim and Thummim, 49
+
+
+  V
+
+  Vampire, the, 70
+
+  Vedic Agni, 2
+
+  Venus, 30
+
+  Venus's looking-glass, 49
+
+  Verne, Jules, 59
+
+  Vervain of the Druids, 158
+    Friend on the, 159
+    of the Greeks, 158
+    Thiselton-Dyer on, 158
+
+  Virgin Mary, 106
+
+  Von Bülow's Christian Legends of Germany, 26
+
+  Vulcan's mirror, 49
+
+
+  W
+
+  Warburton, 152
+
+  Warts, the cure of, 160
+
+  'White Rose Day,' 125
+
+  Winslow, Forbes, 76
+
+  Winter's Tale, The, 149
+
+  Winter Myths, 10
+
+  Witches' broom, the, 70
+
+  Witches' Mannikin, 78
+
+  Wolf and Seven Little Kids, 6, 7, 9, 66
+
+  Wurmbrand's Visionen im Wasserglass, 53
+
+
+  Y
+
+  Yama, 193
+
+  Yggdrasil, 193
+
+
+  Z
+
+  Zafarana, 73
+
+  Zeus, 19, 67
+
+  Zillah, legend of, 126
+
+  Zulu legend, 8
+
+
+
+
+_Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster Row, London._
+
+
+
+
+Footnotes:
+
+[1] Farrer: Primitive Manners.
+
+[2] Lang: Custom and Myth.
+
+[3] Lang.
+
+[4] See Custom and Myth.
+
+[5] In 'The Cruel Brother: A Tragedy.'
+
+
+
+
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+Passages in italics are indicated by _underscore_.
+
+The misprint "Lihgtning" was corrected to "Lightning" (page 68).
+
+The misprint "Catroptromancy" was corrected to "Catoptromancy" (index).
+
+Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation have been retained from the original.
+
+Additional spacing after some of the quotes is intentional to indicate
+both the end of a quotation and the beginning of a new paragraph as
+presented in the original text.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STORYOLOGY***
+
+
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+<head>
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" />
+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Storyology, by Benjamin Taylor</title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+
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+    body{margin-left: 12%; margin-right: 12%;}
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+<body>
+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Storyology, by Benjamin Taylor</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: Storyology</p>
+<p>       Essays in Folk-Lore, Sea-Lore, and Plant-Lore</p>
+<p>Author: Benjamin Taylor</p>
+<p>Release Date: September 6, 2009  [eBook #29921]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STORYOLOGY***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>E-text prepared by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Stephanie Eason,<br />
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h1>STORYOLOGY:</h1>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h2>Essays in Folk-Lore, Sea-Lore, and<br /> Plant-Lore</h2>
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h4>BY</h4>
+<h2>BENJAMIN TAYLOR.</h2>
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/cover.png" alt="emblem" /></div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h4>LONDON:<br />
+ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.<br />
+1900.</h4>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h4>To</h4>
+<h2>HER MEMORY</h2>
+<h4>IN</h4>
+<h3>WHOSE DEAR COMPANIONSHIP</h3>
+<h3>THESE PAPERS</h3>
+<h3>WERE WRITTEN</h3>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE.</h2>
+
+
+<p class='dropcap'><span class="caps">The</span> principal object of this Foreword is to inform the expert
+Folkloreist and the case-hardened Mythologist (comparative or otherwise)
+that the following pages are intended for those who, being neither
+expert nor case-hardened, come under that gracious and catholic
+term&mdash;general reader. The writer addresses not the scholiast, but the
+ordinary person who likes to read about what he has not time to study.</p>
+
+<p>Some portion of what is here printed has appeared in a once popular
+magazine now defunct. The author hastens to add, for the relief of the
+irreverent, that the journal long survived the ordeal of the
+publication. Nevertheless this book appears on its merits, or otherwise,
+and seeks no support from past attainment. Neither does it make any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span>
+pretension to originality of matter or method, though it may, perhaps,
+contain one or two new ideas.</p>
+
+<p>It is unnecessary to add that the publication is made only at the
+tearful entreaty of multitudinous friends. That, of course, is well
+understood among myth-hunters.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" summary="Table of Contents">
+<tr><td><small>CHAPTER</small></td><td>&nbsp;</td><td align="right"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>PREFACE</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_vii">vii</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">I.</a></td><td>STORYOLOGY</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">II.</a></td><td>THE MAGIC WAND</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_23">23</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">III.</a></td><td>THE MAGIC MIRROR</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_41">41</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">IV.</a></td><td>THE MAGIC MOON</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_58">58</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">V.</a></td><td>THE DEVIL'S CANDLE</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_78">78</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">VI.</a></td><td>THE SEA AND ITS LEGENDS</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_91">91</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">VII.</a></td><td>MOTHER CAREY AND HER CHICKENS</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_104">104</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">VIII.</a></td><td>DAVY JONES'S LOCKER</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_113">113</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">IX.</a></td><td>SOME FLOWERS OF FANCY</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_121">121</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">X.</a></td><td>ROSEMARY FOR REMEMBRANCE</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_137">137</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">XI.</a></td><td>HERB OF GRACE</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_149">149</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">XII.</a></td><td>THE ROMANCE OF A VEGETABLE</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_163">163</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">XIII.</a></td><td>THE STORY OF A TUBER</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_176">176</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">XIV.</a></td><td>THE CENTRE OF THE WORLD</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_188">188</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>INDEX</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_201">201</a></td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+<h2>STORYOLOGY.</h2>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/line.png" alt="line" /></div>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h3>
+
+<h4>STORYOLOGY.</h4>
+
+<h5>I.</h5>
+
+<p class='dropcap'><span class="caps">What</span> is a myth?</p>
+
+<p>According to Webster, it is 'a fabulous or imaginary statement or
+narrative conveying an important truth, generally of a moral or
+religious nature: an allegory, religious or historical, of spontaneous
+growth and popular origin, generally involving some supernatural or
+superhuman claim or power; a tale of some extraordinary personage or
+country that has been gradually formed by, or has grown out of, the
+admiration and veneration of successive generations.' Here is a choice
+of three definitions, but not one of them is by itself satisfying. Let
+us rather say that a myth is a tradition in narrative form, more or less
+current in more or less differing garb among different races, to which
+religious or superhuman significations may be ascribable. We say 'may
+be' ascribable because,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> although the science of comparative mythology
+always seeks for such significations, it is probable that the modern
+interpretations are often as different from the original meaning as
+certain abstruse 'readings' of Shakespeare are from the poet's own thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>In their introduction to Tales of the Teutonic Lands, Cox and Jones
+declare that the whole series of Arthurian legends are pure myths. These
+tales, they say, can be 'traced back to their earliest forms in phrases
+which spoke not of men and women, but of the Dawn which drives her white
+herds to their pastures'&mdash;the white clouds being the guardians of the
+cattle of the Sun&mdash;'of the Sun which slays the dew whom he loves, of the
+fiery dragon which steals the cattle of the lord of light, or the Moon
+which wanders with her myriad children through the heaven.' It is
+claimed that 'a strict etymological connection has been established'
+with regard to a large number of these and similar stories, 'but the
+link which binds the myth of the Hellenic Hephaistos with that of the
+Vedic Agni justifies the inference that both these myths reappear in
+those of Regin and of Wayland, or, in other words, that the story of the
+Dame of the Fine Green Kirtle is the story of Medeia, and that the tale
+of Helen is the legend of the loves of Conall Gulban. Elsewhere one
+reads that in the myth of Endymion, the Sun who has sunk to his
+dreamless sleep, the Moon appears as Asterodia journeying with her fifty
+daughters through the sky. 'In the Christian myth she becomes St. Ursula
+with her eleven thousand virgins&mdash;this Ursula again appearing in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> the
+myth of Tannh&auml;user, as the occupant of the Horselberg, and as the fairy
+queen in the tale of True Thomas of Ercildoune.' By the same method of
+comparative mythology, the whole series of the Arthurian stories are
+placed 'in that large family of heroic legends which have their origin
+in mythical phrases describing the phenomena of the outward world, and
+more especially those of the day and of the year.'</p>
+
+<p>This seems hard, for it compels us to believe that our remote ancestors
+were very much more intelligent, and imaginative, and poetical, and
+religious than anything else which they have sent down to us would have
+suggested. It is true that Cox and Jones do not deny that the names
+which figure in many of these legends, as in those of Greece, may have
+been the names of real personages, but yet the narrative, they say, must
+not be taken as historical. This may be true, but in what sense can we
+regard it as more probable that the story-makers invented allegories,
+and clothed them with the names of contemporary or preceding heroes,
+than that they invented tales of wonder to fit these heroes? Is it
+easier to believe, for instance, that Arthur came after the myths, and
+was tacked on to them, than that the myths, or stories, came after
+Arthur, and were tacked on to him? Is there anything in the story of St.
+Ursula and her virgins which could not have had natural 'spontaneous
+growth' in an age of deep devotional faith in miracles, that we must be
+compelled to regard it as purely a medi&aelig;valized version of the Greek
+myth of the sun and moon?</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>I am not writing for experts and scholars, and therefore do not use the
+scientific terms and allusions familiar to students of these matters. I
+am merely writing for ordinary persons, who are often puzzled and pained
+by the extraordinary meanings which specialists contrive to twist out of
+simple and familiar things. It is not too much to say that the
+professional mythologists are among the most troublesome meddlers who
+disturb the repose of '<i>the average reader</i>.' Even Mr. Ruskin suffers in
+this connection. In The Queen of the Air he has given us one of his most
+delightful books, but there are probably few, outside the circle of
+philologists and comparative mythologists, who have not thought in
+reading the lovely interpretations of the myths of Athena, that there
+was more of Ruskin than of the Ancient Greek in the meaning evolved.
+Somehow, it seems easier to think that these things were conceived by a
+Professor of Art in the nineteenth century, than that they were the
+deliberate convictions of a primitive people ever so many centuries
+before Christ&mdash;a people, too, known to be steeped in sensualities, and addicted to very barbarous practices.</p>
+
+<p>Are there, then, reasons for supposing that comparative mythologists are
+not always right&mdash;that, in fact, their science is but a doubtful science
+after all? Mr. Andrew Lang boldly says that there are. In Custom and
+Myth his object is to show the connection between savage customs&mdash;or
+rather the customs of savage and uncivilized races&mdash;and ancient myths.
+But before<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> this branch of Storyology is reached, we must consider the
+question of the relation between our familiar nursery-tales, the
+folk-lore of our own and other countries, and the old romances, with
+these same myths. There is something more than monotony in the theory
+which 'resolves most of our old romances into a series of remarks about
+the weather.' The author of Primitive Culture (Mr. Tylor) rebels against
+this theory. There is no legend, no allegory, no nursery-rhyme, he says,
+safe from it, and, as an amusing illustration, he supposes the Song of
+Sixpence to be thus interpreted by the mythologists. Obviously, the
+four-and-twenty blackbirds are four-and-twenty hours, and the pie to
+hold them is the underlying earth covered with the over-arching sky. How
+true a touch of nature is it, 'when the pie is opened,' that is, when
+day breaks, 'the birds begin to sing!' The King is the Sun, and his
+'counting out his money' is pouring out the sunshine, the golden shower
+of Danae; the Queen is the Moon, and her transparent honey the
+moonlight. The maid is the rosy-fingered Dawn, who rises before the Sun,
+her master, and hangs out the clothes (the clouds) across the sky; the
+particular blackbird who so tragically ends the tale, by 'nipping off
+her nose,' is the hour of sunrise. The time-honoured rhyme really wants,
+as Mr. Tylor remarks, only one thing to prove it a sun-myth, and that
+one thing is some other proof than a mere argument from analogy.</p>
+
+<p>The same proof is wanting for those who would argue that the story of
+Red Riding Hood is only<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> another dawn-myth. Mr. Hussin holds this view,
+but is not the story of the Cat and the Well capable of the same kind of
+reading? Pussy is the earth; Tommy, who shoves her into the well, is the
+evening or twilight; the well is Night; Johnny Stout is the Dawn who
+pulls the earth out of darkness again. There is no limit to this kind of
+application of so elastic a theory. But the very ease with which such
+explanations can be attached to any nursery-rhyme or folk-tale should
+warn us against their probability. As Mr. Tylor says: 'Rash inferences
+which, on the strength of mere resemblances, derive episodes of myth
+from episodes of nature, must be regarded with utter distrust, for the
+student who has no more stringent criterion than this for his myths of
+sun, and sky, and dawn, will find them wherever it pleases him to seek them.'</p>
+
+<p>The mention of the story of Red Riding Hood suggests a familiar
+folk-tale, upon which that of Red Riding Hood may or may not have been
+founded, but which certainly forms the basis of a good many similar
+tales, and has been the subject of a good deal of wise exposition by the
+mythologists. In the story of the Wolf and the Seven Little Kids, as
+told by Grimm, there is a goat who goes out one day, leaving her seven
+little ones safely locked in the house, after warning them to beware of
+the wolf, whom she describes. The wolf comes begging for entrance,
+pretending to be their mother, but they distrust first his voice and
+then his black paws. He gets his paws whitened and comes back, showing
+them against the window<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> as proof that he is indeed their mother.
+Therefore they open the door, and he swallows six of them, one after the
+other, without going through the ceremony of mastication. After this he
+goes back to the wood and falls asleep under a tree, where the
+disconsolate mother finds him. With the assistance of the seventh and
+youngest kid, who had escaped by hiding herself in the clock-case, the
+wolf is cut open, and the six kids jump out all alive and kicking.
+Stones are then placed in the wolf's stomach, and it is sewed up. When
+the wolf wakens he cannot account for the jumbling and tumbling in his
+stomach, so he goes to the well to get a drink. But the weight of the
+stones makes him top-heavy; he falls in and is drowned.</p>
+
+<p>Now, there is nothing more remarkable in this story than there is in
+scores of our nursery or household tales, in which not only animals but
+also inanimate objects are gifted with speech, and in which the love of
+the marvellous rises superior to natural laws.</p>
+
+<p>According to Cox, we must understand the myth of the Wolf and Kids thus:
+'The wolf is here the night, or the darkness, which tries to swallow up
+the seven days of the week, and actually swallows six. The seventh&mdash;the
+youngest&mdash;escapes by hiding herself in the clock-case; in other words,
+the week is not quite run out, and before it comes to an end, the mother
+of the goats unrips the wolf's stomach and places stones in it in place
+of the little goats, who come trooping out, as the days of the week
+begin again to run their course.'</p>
+
+<p>Very plausible this, from a comparative myth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>ologist's point of view,
+and not easy to dispute&mdash;until we find that a similar tale is current
+all over the world where clock-cases are even yet unknown. We are told
+that the negroes of Georgia have such a legend; that the natives of
+Australia have one; that the Zulus have it; that the Indians of North
+America and of British Guiana, and the Malays, all have versions of it.
+In Brittany it is traceable in the legend of Gargantua; in Germany there
+are several variations; and in Greece it finds its counterpart in the
+legend of Saturn or Cronus. The Kaffirs tell the same story of a
+cannibal, but the way the negroes have it is like this: 'Old Mrs. Sow
+had five little pigs, whom she warned against the machinations of Brer
+Wolf. Old Mrs. Sow died, and each little pig built a house for himself.
+The youngest pig built the strongest house. Brer Wolf, by a series of
+stratagems, entrapped and devoured the four elder pigs. The youngest pig
+was the wisest, and would not let Brer Wolf come in by the door. He had
+to enter by way of the chimney, fell into a great fire the youngest pig
+had lighted, and was burned to death.' Here we have no clock-case, and
+no resurrection of the victims, but otherwise the <i>motif</i> of the story
+is the same. Certainly the negroes did not receive this tale from the
+white races, and it seems equally certain that they had no notion of
+typifying the dawn or the night, or anything else, but only the popular
+notion among nearly all primitive peoples that the youngest is usually
+the most specially gifted and blessed.</p>
+
+<p>This is Mr. Lang's view: 'In the tale of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> Wolf and the Seven Kids,
+the essence is found in the tricks whereby the wolf deceives his
+victims; in the victory of the goat; in the disgorging of the kids
+alive; and the punishment of the wolf (as of Cronus in Hesiod) by the
+stone which he is obliged to admit into his system. In these events
+there is nothing allegorical or mystical, no reference to sunrise or
+storms. The crude ideas and incidents are of world-wide range, and suit
+the fancy of the most backward nation.' The only thing in Grimm's tale
+which differs materially from those of 'world-wide range' is the
+clock-case&mdash;clearly a modern addition, but an item which forms an
+essential factor in Cox's definition of the 'myth.'</p>
+
+<p>So much by way of illustration; but dozens of tales might be produced,
+all pointing the same way. This is to the belief that, although stories
+have unquestionably been transmitted from race to race throughout the
+ages, and so have become widely distributed over the world, all the
+current nursery, or household, or folk, stories have not necessarily
+been so transmitted from some one creative race of myth-makers. We have
+just seen how an evidently modern interpolation (a clock-case) has come
+to be regarded as an essential part of a myth, and it is surely easier
+to believe that the other features are relics of some ancient customs of
+which we have no record, than that they bear the ingenious references to
+natural phenomena which the mythologists suppose.</p>
+
+<p>Max M&uuml;ller holds that all the stories of princesses, imprisoned or
+enchanted, and delivered by young lovers, 'can be traced back to
+mythological<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> tradition about the Spring being released from the bonds
+of Winter.' But he requires, first, to have the names of the personages
+of the story, because he traces the connection more by their etymology
+than by the incidents of the narrative&mdash;of which more anon. With regard
+to purely nursery or household tales, the question seems to resolve
+itself pretty much into this: Are they the remains of an older and
+higher mythology, or are they the foundations upon which the priests and
+medicine-men and minstrels of later ages built their myths? Are they, in
+short, surviving relics, or were they germs? The favourite scientific
+theory adopts the former view; I incline to the latter. There are many
+of the familiar folk-tales which it is impossible to explain, and there
+are many, doubtless, which are in some sort fragments of the old
+mythologies filtered to us through Greece. But, on the whole, it is more
+reasonable to conclude that the simple stories of the marvellous or
+irrational have their origin in 'the qualities of the uncivilized
+imagination.'</p>
+
+<p>Thus, with regard to the current superstitions of our peasantry and of
+the Highlanders, it is much more rational to consider them, as Dr.
+Robert Chambers did, as 'springing from a disposition of the human mind
+to account for actual appearances by some imagined history which the
+appearances suggest,' than as relics of the old-world mythologies. The
+untutored mind disregards the natural, even in these days of applied
+science. There is an old weir across the Tweed which the common people,
+forgetting the mill, that had disappeared, pointed out as the work of
+one of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> the imps of Michael Scott, the wizard. Wherever there are
+three-topped hills there is sure to be a legend of the work of this same
+Michael, or some other wizard. In the same way, deep, clear lakes exist
+in various parts of the country, concerning which traditions survive of
+cities lying at the bottom, submerged for their wickedness, or by the
+machinations of some evil spirit. Old buildings exist in many parts in
+such unfavourable situations that popular tradition can only account for
+the singularity by the operation of some unfriendly spirit transporting
+them from their original locality. Large solitary rocks off the coast,
+or on hilltops, have been deposited where they are by witches. Water
+springing from a rock by the roadside has always been the result of the
+stroke of some magician or saint. Large depressions on hillsides are
+generally the footprints of giants, like the mark left by Buddha's foot
+as he ascended to heaven, still to be seen on a hill in Ceylon. The
+circular green marks in the fields are the rings drawn by the fairies
+for their midnight dances, and a scaur or cliff bearing the marks of
+volcanic action or of lightning is invariably associated with some tale
+of diabolic fury. Almost every reader can add instances of natural
+appearances or effects idealized by the workings of the imagination of
+uncivilized or uncultivated minds.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span></p>
+<h5>II.</h5>
+
+<p>One of the most common forms of these idealized phenomena is that known
+as the 'Fairy-ring,' about which Nether Lochaber has said, in the
+Highlands of Scotland, 'We can perfectly understand how in the good old
+times, ere yet the schoolmaster was abroad, or science had become a
+popular plaything, people&mdash;and doubtless very honest, decent people,
+too&mdash;attributed those inexplicable emerald circles to supernatural
+agency; if, indeed, anything connected with the "good folks" or "men of
+peace" could properly be called supernatural in times when a belief in
+fairies and every sort of fairy freak and frolic was deemed the most
+correct and natural thing in the world. Did not these circles, it was
+argued, appear in the course of a single night? In the sequestered
+woodland glade, nor herd nor milkmaid could see anything odd or unusual
+as the sun went down, and lo! next morning, as they drove their flocks
+afield, there was the mysterious circle, round as the halo about the
+wintry moon.... And if we know better nowadays than to believe these
+green circles to be fairy-rings, we also know better than to give the
+slightest credence to certain authors of our own day who have gravely
+asserted that they are caused by electricity.... Fairy-rings ... are in
+truth caused by a mushroom (<i>Agaricus pratensis</i>), the sporule dust or
+seed of which, having fallen on a spot suitable for its growth,
+instantly germinates, and, constantly propagating itself by sending out
+a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> network of innumerable filaments and threads, forms the rich green
+rings so common everywhere.'</p>
+
+<p>Hardly more excusable than the electricity theorists, thinks this
+writer, are those learned authors who tell us that the West received the
+first hint of the existence of fairies from the East at the time of the
+Crusades, and that almost all our fairy lore is traceable to the same
+source, 'the fact being that Celt and Saxon, Scandinavian and Goth, Lapp
+and Finn, had their "d&ucirc;ergar," their "elfen" without number, such as
+dun-elfen, berg-elfen, munt-elfen, feld-elfen, sae-elfen and
+waeter-elfen&mdash;elves or spirits of downs, hills and mountains, of the
+fields, of the woods, of the sea, and of the rivers, streams and
+solitary pools&mdash;fairies, in short, and a complete fairy mythology, long
+centuries before Peter the Hermit was born, or Frank and Moslem dreamt
+of making the Holy Sepulchre a <i>casus belli</i>.'</p>
+
+<p>There is something very suggestive in these remarks, and one thought
+suggested is particularly in the direction of our inquiry, and that is,
+may not the theory of the Aryan mythological origin of our folk-tales be
+as imaginary and as groundless as the theory of the Oriental origin of
+fairies? At the same time, let us admit that the superstitious belief in
+capnomancy&mdash;<i>i.e.</i>, divination by smoke&mdash;still said to be prevalent in
+some parts of the Highlands, is probably the relic of the old sacrifices
+by fire to the gods. In so far the superstition has a mythological
+significance, but then, are we not driven back to the consideration
+whether these gods were not actual personages in the minds of the old
+Celtic worshippers, and not symbols of natural phenomena?</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>So much, however, for popular superstitions; and, as regards folk-tales,
+we must, in speculating as to their origin,<small><a name="f1.1" id="f1.1" href="#f1">[1]</a></small> 'look not into the
+clouds, but upon the earth; not in the various aspects of nature, but in
+the daily occurrences and surroundings.' The process of diffusion must
+always remain uncertain. 'Much may be due to the identity everywhere of
+early fancy, something to transmission,' but 'household tales occupy a
+middle place between the stories of savages and the myths of early
+civilization.'<small><a name="f2.1" id="f2.1" href="#f2">[2]</a></small> And as nursery-rhymes are but the simplified form of
+household or folk-tales, let us consider with Mr. Lang the relation
+between savage customs and ancient myths.</p>
+
+<p>The foundation of the method of comparative mythology is the belief that
+'myths are the result of a disease of language, as the pearl is the
+result of a disease of the oyster.' The method of inquiry is to examine
+the names which occur in the stories, and having found or invented a
+meaning for these names, to argue back from them to a meaning in the
+myths. But then almost each scholar has his peculiar fancy in etymology,
+and while one finds a Sanskrit root, another finds a Greek, a third a
+Semitic, and so on. Even when they agree upon the derivation of the
+proper names, the scholars seldom agree upon the interpretation of them,
+and thus the whole system is full of perplexity and confusion to all who
+approach its study with unbiassed minds. There is a further division
+among the mythologists, for there are some who <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>have a
+partiality for sun-myths, others for cloud-myths, sky-myths and
+fire-myths, and each seeks to work out an interpretation of an old-world
+story to suit his own taste in myths. How can they be all right? And in
+whom can we have confidence when we find so much disagreement, first, on
+the derivation of names, and second, on their meaning after the
+derivation is discovered? And then, how do we know that words had the
+same meaning to the ancients as they have to us? Was the sky, for
+instance, to the original story-makers 'an airy, infinite, radiant
+vault,' as it is to us, or was it a material roof, or even a person?
+And, further, how is it that we find the same myth, with slight
+alterations, in various parts of the world, but with totally different names?</p>
+
+<p>In opposition to the method of reading myths by the philological
+analysis of names, there is the method of reading them by folk-lore,
+<i>i.e.</i>, by a comparison of the folk-tales and customs of primitive
+peoples. The student of folk-lore has to collect and compare the similar
+relics of old races, the surviving superstitions and traditions, and the
+ideas which still live. He is thus led to compare the usages, myths, and
+ideas of savages with those which remain among the European
+peasantry&mdash;classes which have least altered by education, and have shown
+the smallest change in progress. It is thus that we find even in our own
+country and in our own day such things as the beliefs in fairies and
+divination by smoke, which are as old as time. Similarly, the
+harvest-custom which is still practised by the children in parts<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> of
+rural England and Scotland&mdash;the dressing up of the last gleaning in
+human shape, and conducting it home in musical procession&mdash;is parallel
+with a custom in ancient Peru, and with the Feast of Demeter of the
+Sicilians. But that does not necessarily prove any original connection
+between Peruvians, Scotch and Sicilians, any more than the fact that the
+negroes of Barbadoes make clay figures of their enemies and mutilate
+them, as the Greeks and Accadians of old used to do, proves any
+connection between the negroes and the Greeks and Accadians. If we find
+the Australians spreading dust round the body of a dead man in order to
+receive the impression of the footprints of any ghostly visitor, the
+same custom has been observed among the Jews, among the Aztecs, among
+the French, and even among the Scotch. Where we find, therefore, an
+apparently irrational and anomalous custom in any country, we must look
+for a country where a similar custom prevails, and where it is no longer
+irrational and anomalous, but in harmony with the manners and ideas of
+the people among whom it prevails. When we read of Greeks dancing about
+in their 'mysteries' with live serpents, it seems unintelligible, but
+when we read of Red Indians doing the same thing with live rattlesnakes,
+we can understand the meaning because we can see implied a test of
+physical courage. May not a similar motive have originated the Greek practices?</p>
+
+<p>The method of folk-lore, then, is 'to compare the seemingly meaningless
+customs or manners of civilized races with the similar customs and
+manners<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> which exist among the uncivilized, and still retain their
+meaning. It is not necessary for comparison of this sort that the
+uncivilized and the civilized race should be of the same stock, nor need
+we prove that they were ever in contact.'<small><a name="f3.1" id="f3.1" href="#f3">[3]</a></small> Similar conditions of mind
+produce similar practices, apart from identity of race, or borrowing of
+ideas and manners. In pursuing this method we have to compare the
+customs and tales of the most widely separated races, whereas the
+comparative mythologists, who hold it correct to compare Greek,
+Slavonic, Celtic and Indian stories because they occur in languages of
+the same family, and Chaldean and Greek stories because the Chaldeans
+and the Greeks are known to have been in contact, will not compare
+Greek, Chaldean, Celtic, or Indian stories with those of the Maoris, the
+Eskimos, or the Hottentots, because these last belong to a different
+language-family, and are not known to have ever been in contact with Aryan races.</p>
+
+<p>The 'bull-roarer,' a toy familiar to most children, is one example
+selected by Mr. Lang. It is a long, thin, narrow piece of wood,
+sharpened at both ends; attached to a piece of string, and whirled
+rapidly and steadily in the air, it emits a sound which gradually
+increases to an unearthly kind of roar. The ancient Greeks employed at
+some of their sacred rites a precisely similar toy, described by
+historians as 'a little piece of wood, to which a string was fastened,
+and in the mysteries it is whirled round to make a roaring noise.' The
+performers in the 'mysteries' at which this implement<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> was used daubed
+themselves all over with clay. Demosthenes describes the mother of
+&AElig;schines as a dabbler in mysteries, and tells how &AElig;schines used to
+assist her by helping to bedaub the initiate with clay and bran. Various
+explanations have been offered of these practices, but let us see how
+they tally with any prevailing customs. First, the bull-roarer is to be
+found in almost every country in the world, and among the most primitive
+peoples. It is so simple an instrument that it is within the scope of
+the mechanical genius of the most degraded savages, and therefore it is
+quite unnecessary to suppose that the idea of it was ever transmitted
+from race to race. And as an instrument employed in religious rites or
+mysteries, it is found in New Mexico, in Australia, in New Zealand and
+in Africa, to this day. Its use in Australia is to warn the women to
+keep out of the way when the men are about to celebrate their tribal
+mysteries. It is death for women to witness these rites, and it is also
+forbidden for them to look upon the sacred turndun, or bull-roarer. In
+the same way, among the Greeks, it was forbidden for men to witness the
+rites of the women, and for women to witness those of the men. Among the
+Indians of Zuni, Mr. Cushing found the same implement used by the
+priests to summon the tribe to the sacrificial feasts. In South Africa,
+Mr. Tylor has proved that the bull-roarer is employed to call the men
+only to the celebration of sacred functions, and the instrument itself
+is described in Theal's Kaffir Folklore.</p>
+
+<p>Now, the same peoples who still employ the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> bull-roarer as a sacred
+instrument also bedaub their bodies with clay, for no apparent reason
+unless it may be to frighten their enemies or repel intruders. We thus
+find still prevailing in our own time among savage races practices which
+are perfectly analogous to practices which prevailed among the Greeks.
+The reasonable inference, therefore, is not that the bull-roaring and
+body-daubing were first used in the rites of a civilized race of Greeks,
+and thence transmitted to Africa, Australia and America, but that the
+employment of these things by the Greeks was a survival of the time when
+the Greeks were in the same savage condition as are the peoples among
+whom we find the same things now.</p>
+
+<p>The Greek story of Saturn is familiar to every schoolboy. Saturn, it
+will be remembered, wounds and drives away his father, Uranus, because
+of his unkindness to himself and his brothers. Afterwards Saturn marries
+his sister Rhea, and has several children&mdash;Demeter, Hera, Hades,
+Poseidon and Zeus&mdash;whom he swallowed as they were born, lest they might
+serve him as he served Uranus. But Rhea didn't like this, and at the
+time when Zeus was born she ran away to a distant place. Saturn
+followed, and, asking for the child, was given a stone, which he
+swallowed without looking at it. Zeus grew up in security, and in due
+time gave his father a dose which made him disgorge, first, the stone
+(which was placed at Delphi, where it became an object of public
+worship), and then the children, one after another, all living and
+hearty.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>The tale is told in various ways, but these are the main incidents. It
+is interpreted by the mythologists to typify, in its first part, the
+birth of the world and the elements; and the second part is held by some
+to typify the operations of time, by others the alternations of night
+and day&mdash;the stone swallowed by Saturn being the sun, which he
+afterwards disgorges at daybreak. By others Saturn is held to be the sun
+and ripener of the harvests; by others, again, the storm-god, who
+swallows the clouds, whose sickle is the rainbow, and whose blood is the
+lightning; by others still Saturn is regarded as the sky, which swallows
+and reproduces the stars, and whose sickle is the crescent moon. There
+is a great deal of diversity of opinion, it will be observed, about this
+myth of Saturn, or Cronus, but it is curious to note how all the leading
+incidents of this myth may be traced in various parts of the world.<small><a name="f4.1" id="f4.1" href="#f4">[4]</a></small>
+Among the Maoris, the story of T&ucirc;tenganaha&ucirc; is told, and this is a story
+of the severing of heaven and earth, very similar to the Greek story. In
+India and in China, legends tell of the former union of heaven and
+earth, and of their violent separation by their own children. As regards
+the swallowing performances of Saturn, they find analogues in tales
+among the Australians, among the Red Indians, among the natives of
+British Guiana, and among the Kaffirs.</p>
+
+<p>The conclusion, then, is that the first part of the Saturn myth is
+evidently the survival of an old nature-myth which is common to races
+who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> never had any communication with the Greeks. The second part is
+unintelligible, except as just such a legend as might be evolved by
+persons in the same savage intellectual condition as, say, the Bushmen,
+who account for celestial phenomena by saying that a big star has
+swallowed his daughter and spat her out again.</p>
+
+<p>Any myth which accounts for the processes of nature or the aspects of
+natural phenomena may, says Mr. Lang, conceivably have been invented
+separately, therefore it is not surprising to find the star-stories of
+savages closely resembling those of civilized races. The story of the
+lost sister of the Pleiades, according to the Greek myth, finds a
+parallel in a tradition among the Australians. Of star-lore generally,
+it may be said that it is much the same even among the Bushmen of
+Africa, as it was among the Greeks and Egyptians, and as it is among the
+Australians and Eskimos.</p>
+
+<p>Another interesting inquiry is to trace the legend current among the
+Greeks, and known to us as that of Jason and the Golden Fleece, in the
+Storyology of the Africans, the Norse, the Malagasies, the Russians, the
+Italians, the Samoans, the Finns, the Samoyedes and the Eskimo. Some of
+the resemblances are so exceedingly close and curious as to severely
+shake our belief in the dawn-sun-spring-lightning interpretations of the
+mythologists. They drive us to the conclusion that the Jason myth is not
+a story capable of explanation as a nature-myth, or as a result of 'a
+disease of language'; for as is pertinently remarked, 'So many languages
+could not take the same malady in the same way;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> nor can we imagine any
+stories of natural phenomena that would inevitably suggest this tale to
+so many diverse races.' The rational theory is that the Jason story,
+like its analogues among strange races, had its origin in a time of
+savage conditions, when animals were believed to talk, when human
+sacrifices and cannibalism were practised, and when efforts to escape
+being eaten were natural.</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h3>
+
+<h4>THE MAGIC WAND.</h4>
+
+
+<p class='dropcap'><span class="caps">It</span> is sufficiently remarkable that the rod, besides being an emblem of
+authority, is also an instrument of the supernatural. An indispensable
+instrument, one may say; for was ever a magician depicted in book, in
+picture, or in the mind's eye, without a wand? Does even the most
+amateurish of prestidigitateurs attempt to emulate the performances of
+the once famous Wizard of the North, without the aid of the magic staff?
+The magician, necromancer, soothsayer, or conjurer, is as useless
+without his wand as a Newcastle pitman is without his 'daug.'</p>
+
+<p>At first thought it might be assumed that the association of the rod or
+wand with necromancy is merely an indication of power or authority, in
+the same way as the sceptre is associated with kingship. But there is
+something more in it. Magic has been well called 'the shadow of
+religion,' and the early religious idea found expression in symbols.
+These symbols, as we know, have in many cases retained a certain
+significance long after the ideas they were meant to convey<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> have been
+lost, or abandoned, or modified. If we bear these things in mind, it is
+not difficult to discover a religious origin for the symbolic wand of
+necromancy.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Moncure Conway, in his book on Demonology and Devil-lore, mentions a
+thing which seems peculiarly apposite to our subject. In the old town of
+Hanover there is a certain schoolhouse, in which, above the teacher's
+chair, there was originally a representation of a dove perched upon a
+rod&mdash;the rod in this case being meant to typify a branch. Below the dove
+and rod there was this inscription: 'This shall lead you unto all
+Truth.' But the dove has long since disappeared, and there remains now
+but the rod and the inscription. It is natural that the children of the
+school should apply the admonition to the rod, ignorant that the rod was
+but the supporter of a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Thus has the pious
+design of inculcating a Divine lesson left only an emblem of mysterious
+terror. In some way, too, has the magic wand lost its religious
+significance and become but a dread implement of the occult.</p>
+
+<p>Yet we might trace the origin of the magician's wand to the very same
+root as that of the iron rod of the Hanover schoolhouse. We may find it
+in the olive-branch brought by the dove into the ark&mdash;a message of
+Divine love and mercy&mdash;and therefore a connecting-link between human
+needs and desires and superhuman power. To construe a mere symbol into a
+realized embodiment of the virtue symbolized were surely as easy in this
+case as in that of the Eucharist.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>But if this suggestion of the origin of the magician's wand be thought
+too hypothetical, there will be less objection to our finding it in
+Aaron's rod. Moses was commanded to take a rod from the chiefs of each
+of the twelve tribes, and to write upon each rod the name. The rods were
+then to be placed in the Tabernacle, and the owner of the one which
+blossomed was designated as the chosen one. The rod of the house of Levi
+bore the name of Aaron, and this was the only one of the twelve which
+blossomed. Here once more was the rod used to connect human needs with
+Divine will; but now a special virtue is made to appear in the rod
+itself. This virtue appeared again, when Pharaoh called all the
+sorcerers and magicians of Egypt to test their enchantments with
+Aaron's. All these magicians bore wands, or rods, and when they threw
+them on the ground the rods turned into serpents. Aaron's rod also
+turned into a serpent, and swallowed all the others. Now, here we find
+two things established. First, that even in these early days necromancy
+was a profession, and the rod a necessary implement of the craft; and,
+second, that the rod was esteemed not merely an emblem of authority, or
+a mere ornament of office, but as a thing of superhuman power in itself
+although the power could only be evoked by the specially gifted.</p>
+
+<p>We find the beginning of the idea in the story of Moses' rod which
+turned into a serpent when he cast it on the ground at the Divine
+command. This was what led up to the trial of skill with the Egyptian
+magicians, and seems to have been the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> first suggestion in early history
+of the miraculous virtues of the rod. Then we must remember that it was
+by the stretching forth of the rod of the prophet that all the waters of
+Egypt were made to turn into blood, and that the plagues of frogs and
+lice were wrought, and that the hail was called down from heaven which
+destroyed the crops and flocks of the Egyptians. In fact, all the
+miracles performed in the land of Egypt were made to appear more or less
+as the result of the application of the magic rod, just as to this day
+the clever conjurer appears to produce his wonderful effects with his
+wand.</p>
+
+<p>It was by the stretching forth of the rod of Moses that the Red Sea
+divided, and that the water sprang from the rock. The staff of Elisha
+and the spear of Joshua may also be cited in this connection, and other
+examples in Holy Writ may occur to the reader. They are mentioned here
+in no spirit of irreverence, but merely as evidence that the magic
+virtue of the rod was a fixed belief in the minds of the early writers.</p>
+
+<p>Belief in the vitalizing power of the rod may be found embalmed in many
+a curious medi&aelig;val legend. The budding rod, borrowed from the tradition
+of Aaron's, is, for instance, very frequent. Thus in the story of St.
+Christophoros, as preserved in Von B&uuml;low's Christian Legends of Germany,
+we read of the godly man carrying the Child-Christ on his back through a
+raging torrent, and afterwards lying down on the banks of the stream,
+exhausted, to sleep. The staff which he stuck in the ground ere he lay
+down, budded and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> blossomed before he awoke, and in the morning he found
+a great umbrageous tree bearing fruit, and giving shelter to hundreds of
+gorgeous birds. There are many such legends in the traditions of all the
+Christian nations, and the collection and comparison of them would be an
+interesting and instructive task, but one too large for our present
+purpose.</p>
+
+<p>It is related by Holinshed, in connection with many wonderful visions
+which were seen in Scotland about <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 697, that once when the Bishop
+was conducting the service in the church of Camelon, with the
+crozier-staff in his hand, 'it was kindled so with fire that by no means
+it could be quenched till it was burnt even to ashes.' This was supposed
+to have been the handiwork of the devil, who has on other occasions used
+the staff or wand to emphasize his intentions or mark his spite. Thus,
+of the famous Dr. Fian it is narrated in the 'Newes from Scotland,
+declaring the damnable Life of Doctor Fian, a notable Sorcerer, who was
+burned at Edenborough in Januarie last 1591; which Doctor was Register
+to the Devill, that sundrie times Preached at North-Baricke Kirke to a
+number of notorious Witches,' etc.&mdash;that he made the following, among
+his other confessions: 'That the devill had appeared unto him in the
+night before, appareled all in blacke, with a white wand in his hande,
+and that the devill demanded of him if he would continue his faithfull
+service according to his first oath and promise made to that effect,
+whome (as hee then said) he utterly renounced to his face, and said unto
+him in this manner: "Avoide, avoide, Satan,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> for I have listened too
+much unto thee, and by the same thou hast undone me, in respect whereof
+I utterly forsake thee." To whom the devill answered, "That once, ere
+thou die, thou shalt be mine," and with that (as he sayed) the devill
+brake the white wand, and immediately vanished from sight.' After which,
+the chronicle goes on to tell how the redoubtable doctor actually
+escaped from prison, and began to resume his Satanic practices.</p>
+
+<p>This brings us to the most frequent use of the rod in superstitions&mdash;for
+the purposes of divination. There is a suggestion of the practice by
+Nebuchadnezzar, when he 'stood at the parting of the way, at the head of
+two ways, to use divinations, he made his arrows bright,' etc. He then
+threw up a bundle of arrows to see which way they would alight, and
+because they fell on the right hand he marched towards Jerusalem.
+Divination by the wand is also suggested in the shooting of an arrow
+from a window by Elisha, and by the strokes upon the ground with an
+arrow by which Joash foretold the number of his victories.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Thomas Browne speaks of a common 'practice among us to determine
+doubtful matters by the opening of a book and letting fall of a staff.'
+The 'staff' business is not quite so familiar in present days, but the
+opening of a book for prophetic guidance is, perhaps, more common than most people suppose.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Thomas Browne also speaks of a 'strange kind of exploration and
+peculiar way of Rhabdomancy' used in mineral discoveries. That is,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>
+'with a fork of hazel, commonly called Moses his rod, which, freely held
+forth, will stir and play if any mine be under it. And though many there
+are,' says the learned doctor, 'who have attempted to make it good, yet
+until better information, we are of opinion, with Agricola, that in
+itself it is a fruitless exploration, strongly scenting of pagan
+derivation and the <i>virgula divina</i> proverbially magnified of old. The
+ground whereof were the magical rods in poets&mdash;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.'</p>
+
+<p>One may look in vain, perhaps, for modern instances of the divining-rod
+under the name of 'Moses his rod,' as old Sir Thomas found it.</p>
+
+<p>It is curious, however, that Sir Thomas Browne, who was so fond of
+delving among ancient writers, makes no reference to a striking passage
+in Herodotus. That historian, speaking of the Scythians, says, 'They
+have amongst them a great number who practise the art of divination. For
+this purpose they use a number of willow-twigs in this manner: they
+bring large bundles of these together, and having untied them, dispose
+them one by one on the ground, each bundle at a distance from the rest.
+This done, they pretend<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> to foretell the future, during which they take
+up the bundles separately and tie them again together.'</p>
+
+<p>From this it may be seen that while the divining-rod was a familiar
+instrument 450 years before Christ, it was also then disbelieved in by
+some. Curious to think that what the old historian of Halicarnassus was
+wise enough to ridicule four centuries and a half before the birth of
+Christ, there are yet people, nineteen centuries after His advent, simple enough to accept!</p>
+
+<p>Herodotus goes on to tell that this mode of divination was hereditary
+among the Scythians, so how many centuries earlier it may have been
+practised one can hardly guess. He says that the 'enaries, or effeminate
+men, affirm that the art of divination was taught them by the goddess
+Venus,' a statement which will carry some significance to those who are
+familiar with the theories so boldly advocated by the author of Bible Folklore.</p>
+
+<p>Now, the attempt to divine by means of rods, arrows, staffs or twigs is
+evidently a good deal older than Herodotus, and it is to be found among
+almost every race of people on the face of the earth. Let us say
+'almost,' because Mr. Andrew Lang instances this as one form of
+superstition which is not prevalent among savage races; or rather, to
+use his exact words, 'is singular in its comparative lack of copious
+savage analogues.' The qualification seems to be necessary, because
+there are certainly some, if not 'copious,' instances among savage
+peoples of the use of the divining-rod in one form or other. And Mr.
+Lang is hardly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> accurate in speaking of the 'resurrection' of this
+superstition in our own country. It has, in fact, never died, and there
+is scarcely a part of the country where a 'diviner' has not tried
+his&mdash;or her, for it is often a woman&mdash;skill with the 'twig' from time to
+time. These attempts have seldom been known beyond the immediate
+locality and the limited circle of those interested in them, and it is
+only of late years, since folklore became more of a scientific and
+general study, that the incidents have been seized upon and recorded by
+the curious. From the time of Moses until now the 'rod' has been almost
+continuously used by innumerable peoples in the effort to obtain supplies of water.</p>
+
+<p>In ancient times it was used, as we have seen, for a variety of other
+purposes; but its surviving use in our generation is to indicate the
+locality of hidden springs or of mineral deposits. There are cases on
+record, however, so recently as the last century, when the rod was used
+in the detection of criminals, and a modified application of it to a
+variety of indefinite purposes may even be traced to the planchette,
+which, at this very day, is seriously believed in by many persons who are ranked as 'intelligent.'</p>
+
+<p>Now, of the use of the divining-rod in England, Mr. Thiselton-Dyer thus
+wrote some years ago: 'The <i>virgula divinatoria</i>, or divining-rod, is a
+forked branch in the form of a Y, cut off a hazel-stick, by means of
+which people have pretended to discover mines, springs, etc.,
+underground. It is much employed in our mining districts for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>
+discovery of hidden treasure. In Cornwall, for instance, the miners
+place much confidence in its indications, and even educated, intelligent
+men oftentimes rely on its supposed virtues. Pryce, in his Mineralogia
+Cornubiensis, tells us that many mines have been discovered by the rod,
+and quotes several; but after a long account of the method of cutting,
+tying and using it, rejects it, because 'Cornwall is so plentifully
+stored with tin and copper lodes, that some accident every week
+discovers to us a fresh vein,' and because 'a grain of metal attracts
+the rod as strongly as a pound, for which reason it has been found to
+dip equally to a poor as to a rich lode.'</p>
+
+<p>But in Lancashire and Cumberland also, Mr. Dyer goes on to say, 'the
+power of the divining-rod is much believed in, and also in other parts
+of England.' The method of using it is thus described. 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. Mr. Dyer's explanation of the result is simple: 'The position
+of the hands in holding the rod is a constrained one&mdash;it is not easy to
+describe it; but the result is that the hands, from weariness speedily
+induced in the muscles, grasp the end of the twig yet more rigidly, and
+thus is produced the mysterious bending. The phenomena of the
+divining-rod and table-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>turning are of precisely the same character, and
+both are referable to an involuntary muscular action resulting from
+fixedness of idea. These experiments with a divining-rod are always made
+in a district known to be metalliferous, and the chances are, therefore,
+greatly in favour of its bending over or near a mineral lode.'</p>
+
+<p>The theory of 'involuntary muscular action' is a favourite explanation,
+and the subject is one well worthy of the investigation of all students
+of psychology. But how does this theory square with the story of
+Linn&aelig;us, told by a writer in <i>The Gentleman's Magazine</i> in 1752? 'When
+Linn&aelig;us was upon his voyage to Scania, hearing his secretary highly
+extol the virtues of his divining-rod, he was willing to convince him of
+its insufficiency, and for that purpose concealed a purse of 100 ducats
+under a ranunculus which grew up by itself in a meadow, and bid the
+secretary find it if he could. The wand discovered nothing, and
+Linn&aelig;us's mark was soon trampled down by the company who were present,
+so that when Linn&aelig;us went to finish the experiment by fetching the gold
+himself, he was utterly at a loss where to find it. The man with the
+wand assisted him, and told him that it could not lie in the way they
+were going, but quite the contrary; so pursued the direction of the
+wand, and actually dug out the gold. Linn&aelig;us adds, that such another
+experiment would be sufficient to make a proselyte of him.'</p>
+
+<p>The explanation of this case by the incredulous would, of course, be
+that the owner of the wand<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> had made a private mark of his own, and thus
+knew better than Linn&aelig;us where the gold lay.</p>
+
+<p>The divining-rod, however, is not used only in districts which are known
+to abound in metalliferous deposits, when minerals are being searched
+for, but has frequently been used by prospectors in new countries. Thus
+we recall that Captains Burton and Cameron in their book about the Gold
+Coast, tell how the rod was used by the early British explorers on the
+Gambia River. One Richard Jobson, in 1620, landed and searched various
+parts of the country, armed with mercury, nitric acid, some large
+crucibles, and a divining-rod. He washed the sand and examined the rocks
+beyond the Falls of Barraconda, with small success for a long time. At
+last, however, he found what he declared to be 'the mouth of the mine
+itself, and found gold in such abundance as surprised him with joy and
+admiration.' But what part the divining-rod played in the discovery is
+not related, and, for the rest, 'the mine' has disappeared as
+mysteriously as it was discovered. No one else has seen it, and all the
+gold that now comes from the Gambia River is a small quantity of dust
+washed down from the mountain-ridges of the interior. It is curious,
+however, to find civilized Europeans carrying the divining-rod to one of
+the districts where, according to Mr. Andrew Lang, it has no analogue
+among the primitive savages.</p>
+
+<p>I have mentioned, on the authority of Mr. Thiselton-Dyer, some of the
+districts of England in which the divining-rod is still more or less
+used. But something of its more extended use may be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> learned from Mr.
+Hilderic Friend's Flowers and Flower-Lore. That writer informs us of a
+curious custom of the hop-pickers of Kent and Sussex for ascertaining
+where they shall stand to pick. One of them cuts as many slips of hazel
+as there are bins in the garden, and on these he cuts notches from one
+upwards. Each picker then draws a twig, and his standing is decided by
+the number upon it. This is certainly an interesting instance of the
+divination by twigs reduced to practical ends. The same writer regards
+the familiar 'old-wife' fortune-telling by tea-leaves as merely another
+variation of this old superstition. It does seem to have some analogy to
+several of the practices to which we have briefly referred, and one
+finds another analogy in the Chinese custom of divining by straws.</p>
+
+<p>The divining-rod of England is described by Mr. Friend much in the same
+way as by Mr. Dyer. But, according to Mr. Friend, hazel was not always,
+although it has for a long time been, the favourite wood for the
+purpose. Elder, at any rate, is strictly forbidden, as deemed incapable
+of exhibiting magical powers. In Wiltshire and elsewhere Mr. Friend
+knows of the magic rod having been used recently for detecting water. It
+must be cut at some particular time when the stars are favourable, and
+'in cutting it, one must face the east, so that the rod shall be one
+which catches the first rays of the morning sun, or, as some say, the
+eastern and western sun must shine through the fork of the rod,
+otherwise it will be good for nothing.'</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>The same superstition prevails in China with regard to rods cut from the
+magic peach-tree. In Prussia, it is said, hazel-rods are cut in spring,
+and when harvest comes they are placed in crosses over the grain to keep
+it good for years, while in Bohemia the rod is used to cure fevers. A
+twig of apple-tree is, in some parts, considered as good as a hazel-rod,
+but it must be cut by the seventh son of a seventh son. Brand records
+that he has known ash-twigs used, and superstitiously regarded, in some
+parts of England; but the hazel is more generally supposed to be popular
+with the fairies, or whoever may be the mysterious spirits who guide the
+diviner's art. Hence perhaps the name, common in some parts, of
+witch-hazel, although, of course, philologists will have it that the
+true derivation is wych. In Germany the witch-hazel is the
+<i>zauber-streuch</i>, or the magic-tree, and it is probable that both witch
+and wych are from the Anglo-Saxon <i>wic-en</i>, to bend. It is curious, at
+any rate, that while in olden times a witch was called <i>wicce</i>, the
+mountain-ash, which, as we have seen, has supposed occult virtues, was
+formerly called <i>wice</i>. Whether this root has any connection with
+another name by which the magic wand is known&mdash;viz., the
+wishing-rod&mdash;may be doubted, but there is clearly a close connection
+between the hazel-twig of superstitious England and the
+<i>Niebelungen-rod</i> of Germany, which gave to its possessor power over all the world.</p>
+
+<p>Of the employment of the divining-rod for the detection of criminals
+there are many cases on record, but the most famous in comparatively<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>
+recent times is that of Jacques Aymar of Lyons. The full details of the
+doings of this remarkable person are given by Mr. Baring-Gould in his
+Curious Myths of the Middle Ages; but the story is told more concisely
+by another writer: 'On July 5, 1692, a vintner and his wife were found
+dead in the cellar of their shop at Lyons. They had been killed by blows
+from a hedging-knife, and their money had been stolen. The culprits
+could not be discovered, and a neighbour took upon him to bring to Lyons
+a peasant out of Dauphin&eacute;, named Jacques Aymar, a man noted for his
+skill with the divining-rod. The Lieutenant-Criminel and the Procureur
+du Roi took Aymar into the cellar, furnishing him with a rod of the
+first wood that came to hand. According to the Procureur du Roi the rod
+did not move till Aymar reached the very spot where the crime had been
+committed. His pulse then beat, and the wand twisted rapidly. Guided by
+the wand, or by some internal sensation, Aymar now pursued the track of
+the assassins, entered the court of the Archbishop's palace, left the
+town by the bridge over the Rhone, and followed the right bank of the
+river. He reached a gardener's house, which he declared the men had
+entered, and some children confessed that three men, whom they
+described, had come into the house one Sunday morning. Aymar followed
+the track up the river, pointed out all the places where the men had
+landed, and, to make a long story short, stopped at last at the door of
+the prison of Beaucaire. He was admitted, looked at the prisoners, and
+picked out as the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> murderer a little hunchback, who had just been
+brought in for a small theft. The hunchback was taken to Lyons, and he
+was recognised on the way by the people at all the stages where he had
+stopped. At Lyons he was examined in the usual manner, and confessed
+that he had been an accomplice in the crime, and had guarded the door.
+Aymar pursued the other culprits to the coast, followed them by sea,
+landed where they had landed, and only desisted from his search when
+they crossed the frontier. As for the hunchback, he was broken on the
+wheel, being condemned on his own confession.'</p>
+
+<p>This is briefly the story of Jacques Aymar, which is authenticated by
+various eye-witnesses, and of which many explanations have been tendered
+from time to time. Mr. Baring-Gould commits himself to no definite
+expression of opinion, but says: 'I believe that the imagination is the
+principal motive force in those who use the divining-rod; but whether it
+is so solely I am unable to decide. The powers of Nature are so
+mysterious and inscrutable that we must be cautious in limiting them,
+under abnormal conditions, to the ordinary laws of experience.' As,
+however, Jacques Aymar failed ignominiously under all the subsequent
+trials to which he was subjected, the most reasonable explanation of his
+success, with regard to the Lyons murder, is that he was by nature a
+clever detective, and that he was favoured by circumstances after he had once caught a clue.</p>
+
+<p>To return to the employment of the divining-rod in England, we find
+numerous instances of its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> application in searching for water, and these
+instances happen to be among the best authenticated of any on record.
+Some years ago a writer in the <i>Times</i> boldly declared that he had
+himself seen the rod successfully used in seeking for water. He had even
+tried it himself, with the determination that the rod should not be
+allowed to twist, 'even if an ocean rolled under his feet.' But he
+confessed that it did twist in spite of him, and that at the place was found a concealed spring.</p>
+
+<p>Then it is recorded of Lady Milbanke, mother of Lord Byron's wife, that
+she had found a well by the violent twisting of the twig held in the
+orthodox way in her hand&mdash;turning so violently, indeed, as almost to
+break her fingers. Dr. Hutton was a witness of the affair, and has
+recorded his experience, which is quoted in a curious book called
+Jacob's Rod, published in London many years ago. This case, and others,
+were cited by a writer in the twenty-second volume of the <i>Quarterly
+Review</i>. De Quincey also asserted that he had frequently seen the
+divining-rod successfully used in the quest of water, and declared that,
+'whatever science or scepticism may say, most of the tea-kettles in the
+Vale of Wrington, North Somersetshire, are filled by Rabdomancy.' Mr.
+Baring-Gould also quotes the case of a friend of his own who was
+personally acquainted with a Scotch lady who could detect hidden springs
+with a twig, which was inactive in the hands of others who tried it on the same spots.</p>
+
+<p>Other instances might be cited, but enough has been said to show that
+the magic rod, from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> earliest periods, has been an instrument of
+supernatural attributes, and that even to this day in our own country it
+is still believed by some to have the special faculty of indicating the
+presence of minerals and water. With regard to minerals, there are no
+instances so well authenticated as those concerning the discovery of
+water. With regard to these last a considerable amount of haziness still
+exists, and, without venturing to pronounce them all fictions or
+productions of the imagination, it may be possible to find an
+explanation in a theory of hydroscopy. It is held that there are some
+few persons who are hydroscopes by nature&mdash;that is to say, are endowed
+with peculiar sensations which tell them the moment they are near water,
+whether it be evident or hidden, a concealed watercourse or a
+subterranean spring. If the existence of such a faculty, however
+exceptional, be clearly established, it will afford an explanation of
+certain successes with the divining-rod.</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h3>
+
+<h4>THE MAGIC MIRROR.</h4>
+
+<p class='dropcap'><span class="caps">There</span> is an old superstition, current, probably, in most parts of the
+country, that the breaking of a mirror will be followed by bad
+luck&mdash;usually a death in the family. This is, doubtless, the survival of
+a still older superstition&mdash;the belief in certain magic qualities of the
+mirror, which enabled it in certain circumstances to reflect the distant
+and to forecast the future. Nor was this superstition so childish as
+were some other popular delusions of old, for it had a certain
+philosophic basis. It is the peculiar property of the mirror to
+represent truth; to reproduce faithfully that which is; to show us
+ourselves as others see us. This is the idea expressed by Hamlet: 'To
+hold the mirror up to Nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her
+own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure.'</p>
+
+<p>The mirror has been, from time immemorial, a favourite form of charm for
+the exorcism of devils, and, indeed, to this day some of the African
+tribes believe that the best defence they have against<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> their extremely
+ugly devil is a mirror. If they keep one at hand, the devil must see
+himself in it before he can touch them, and be so terrified at his own
+ugliness that he will turn tail and flee.</p>
+
+<p>We may take this symbolically&mdash;that a man shrinks from his worst self
+when it is revealed to him; but the untutored mind is prone to mistake
+symbol for fact. In this way, while the ancient philosophers may have
+used the mirror as a symbol of the higher nature of man, so polished and
+clarified that it showed him his lower nature in all its deformity, the
+crowd came to regard the crystal as an actual instrument of divination.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the oldest romances in the world have to do with the magical
+operation of the mirror. In the Gesta Romanorum there is a story of a
+knight who went to Palestine, and who while there was shown by an
+Eastern magician in a mirror what was going on at home. In the Arabian
+Nights the story of Prince Ahmed has a variant, an ivory tube through
+which could be discovered the far-distant&mdash;a sort of anticipation of Sam
+Weller's 'double million magnifying gas microscope of hextra power.'</p>
+
+<p>In the story of Prince Zeyn Alasnam, the enchanted mirror was able to
+reflect character, and was called the Touchstone of Virtue. Here again
+we have Hamlet's idea of holding the mirror up to Nature. The young
+King, Zeyn Alasnam, had eight beautiful statues of priceless value, and
+he wanted a ninth to make up his set. The difficulty was to find one
+beautiful enough; but the Prince of Spirits promised to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> supply one as
+soon as Zeyn should bring him a maiden at least fifteen years old, and
+of perfect beauty; only the maiden must not be vain of her charms, and
+she must never have told an untruth. Zeyn employed his magic mirror, and
+for a long time without success, as it always became blurred when he
+looked into it in the presence of a girl. At last he found one whose
+image was faithfully and brilliantly reflected&mdash;whose modesty and
+truthfulness were attested by the mirror. He took her with reluctance to
+the Prince of Spirits, because he had fallen in love with her himself;
+but his faithfulness to the contract was duly rewarded. On returning
+home, he found that the ninth statue, placed on its pedestal by the
+Prince of Spirits according to promise, was no cold marble, but the
+peerless and virtuous maiden whom he had discovered by means of his mirror.</p>
+
+<p>Paracelsus, in one of his treatises on Magic, gives the following
+account of the uses to which 'the witches and evil spirits' sometimes put the mirror.</p>
+
+<p>'They take a mirror set in a wooden frame and put it into a tub of
+water, so that it will swim on the top with its face directed towards
+the sky. On the top of the mirror, and encircling the glass, they lay a
+cloth saturated with blood, and thus they expose it to the influence of
+the moon; and this evil influence is thrown towards the moon, and
+radiating again from the moon, it may bring evil to those who love to
+look at the moon. The rays of the moon, passing through the ring upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>
+the mirror, become poisoned, and poison the mirror; the mirror throws
+back the poisoned ether into the atmosphere, and the moon and the mirror
+poison each other, in the same manner as two malicious persons, by
+looking at each other, poison each other's souls with their eyes. If a
+mirror is strongly poisoned in this manner, the witch takes good care of
+it; and if she desires to injure someone, she takes a waxen image made
+in his name, she surrounds it with a cloth spotted with blood, and
+throws the reflex of the mirror through the opening in the middle upon
+the head of the figure, or upon some other part of its body, using at
+the same time her evil imagination and curses; and the man whom the
+image represents may then have his vitality dried up, and his blood
+poisoned by that evil influence, and he may become diseased and his body covered with boils.'</p>
+
+<p>This, of course, is not divination, but sorcery.</p>
+
+<p>Paracelsus gives very minute directions for the making of a magic
+mirror. The material should be the 'electrum magicum,' which is a
+compound of ten parts of pure gold, ten of silver, five of copper, two
+of tin, two of lead, one part of powdered iron, and five parts of
+mercury. When the planets Saturn and Mercury conjoin, the lead has to be
+melted and the mercury added. Then the metal must cool, while you wait
+for a conjunction of Jupiter with Saturn and Mercury; when that occurs,
+you melt the amalgam of lead and mercury, and add the tin, previously
+melted in a separate crucible, at the exact moment of conjunction. Again
+you wait for a conjunction<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> of either of the above-named planets with
+the Sun, when you add the gold; with the Moon, when you add the silver;
+with Venus, when you add the copper. Finally, when a conjunction of
+either of the planets occurs with Mars, you must complete your mixture
+with the powdered iron, and stir up the whole molten mass with a dry rod of witch-hazel.</p>
+
+<p>Thus far your metal; but the mirror is not made yet. It must be of about
+two inches diameter, and must be founded in moulds of fine sand at the
+moment when a conjunction of Jupiter and Venus occurs. The mirror must
+be smoothed with a grindstone and polished with tripoly and a piece of
+lime-wood; but all the operations must be conducted only when the
+planetary influences are favourable.</p>
+
+<p>By selecting the proper hours, three different mirrors may be prepared,
+and then, at a time of conjunction of two 'good' planets, while the Sun
+or Moon 'stands on the house of the lord of the hour of your birth,' the
+three mirrors should be placed in pure well-water and left for an hour.
+After this they may be wrapped in clean linen and kept ready for use.</p>
+
+<p>With a mirror made in this way from the 'electrum magicum,' Paracelsus says:</p>
+
+<p>'You may see the events of the past and the present, absent friends or
+enemies, and see what they are doing. You may see in it any object you
+may desire to see, and all the doings of men in daytime or at night. You
+may see in it anything that has been ever written down, said, or spoken<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>
+in the past, and also see the person who said it, and the causes that
+made him say what he did, and you may see in it anything, however secret
+it may have been kept.'</p>
+
+<p>Mirrors made of the 'electrum magicum' are warranted antipathetic to all
+evil influences, because there is hidden in the metal a 'heavenly power
+and influence of the seven planets.'</p>
+
+<p>The plastic and creative power of the mind is the power of imagination;
+but the power of imagination is, or should be, controlled by the will.
+It is not alone the medi&aelig;val dabblers in the occult who have adopted, or
+endeavoured to adopt, various means for suspending the will and making the imagination passive.</p>
+
+<p>The ancient Pythoness, as Dr. Franz Hartmann, the modern German exponent
+of the Science of Magic, pointed out, attempted to heighten her
+receptivity by the inhalation of noxious vapours; uncivilized peoples
+use poison, or the maddening whirl of the dance; others use opium,
+Indian hemp, or other narcotics&mdash;all for the same purpose, to suspend
+the will, render the mind a blank, and excite the brain so as to produce
+morbid fancies and illusions. The fortune-teller and the clairvoyant
+employ methods of their own for concentrating their attention, so as
+produce a condition of mental passivity. The Indian adept prides himself
+on being able to extract volition and suspend imagination by the mere exercise of will.</p>
+
+<p>A favourite device to bring about mental passivity has always been by
+staring at mirrors, or crystal, or sheets of water, or even pools of ink.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>'There are numerous prescriptions for the preparation of magic mirrors,'
+says Dr. Hartmann in his work on Magic, 'but the best magic mirror will
+be useless to him who is not able to see clairvoyantly, while the
+natural clairvoyant may call that faculty into action by concentrating
+his mind on any particular spot, a glass of water, ink, a crystal, or
+anything else. For it is not in the mirror where such things are seen,
+but in the mind; the mirror merely serves to assist in the entering of
+that mental state which is necessary to produce clairvoyant sight. The
+best of all mirrors is the soul of man, and it should be always kept
+pure, and be protected against dust, and dampness, and rust, so that it
+may not become tarnished, but remain perfectly clear, and able to
+reflect the light of the divine spirit in its original purity.'</p>
+
+<p>A German writer of the fifteenth century takes a less favourable view of
+what he calls pyromancy, although pyromancy is really divination by
+fire. He reports the practices of certain Masters of Magic, who made
+children look into a wretched mirror for the purpose of obtaining
+information in an unholy manner. 'Young boys are said to behold future
+things and all things, in a crystal. Base, desperate, and faint-hearted
+Christians practise it, to whom the shadow and the phantom of the devil
+are dearer than the truth of God. Some take a clear and beautifully
+polished crystal, or beryl, which they consecrate and keep clean, and
+treat with incense, myrrh, and the like. And when they propose to
+practise their art, they wait for a clear day, or select some clean
+chamber in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> which are many candles burning. The Masters then bathe, and
+take the pure child into the room with them, and clothe themselves in
+pure white garments, and sit down and speak in magic sentences, and then
+burn their magic offering, and make the boy look into the stone, and
+whisper in his ears secret words which have, as they think, some holy
+import, but which are verily words of the devil.'</p>
+
+<p>A sixteenth-century German tells of a man at Elbingen, in Prussia, who
+'predicted hidden truths' by means of a mirror, and sold the knowledge
+to his customers. Many crystal-seeing old hags are referred to as being
+upon terms of intimacy with Black Kaspar. Indeed, in German literature,
+both historical, philosophical, legendary, and romantic, we find endless
+references to the magic mirror and the divining crystal.</p>
+
+<p>Modern romancists still find dramatic use for the old superstitions.
+Quite recently a novel of the present day centred its interest upon an
+ancient mirror, which exchanged its reflection for the mind of him who
+gazed into it&mdash;a practical and startling realization of the idea that
+the glass reveals one's true self. Then, not to multiply incidents,
+Wilkie Collins, in The Moonstone, introduces what Mr. Rudyard Kipling in
+another story calls the 'ink-pool'; and readers of Dante Gabriel
+Rossetti will recall to mind the doings of the Spirits of the Beryl.</p>
+
+<p>In a large number of stories the magic mirror is not a looking-glass at
+all. But the beryl, the ink-pool, Dr. Dee's famous spherical speculum,
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> rock crystal, or even a glass of water, may all, according to the
+adepts, have the same properties as Vulcan's mirror, in which Penelope,
+the wife of Ulysses, beheld, according to Sir John Davies, a vision of
+all the wonder and grandeur of Queen Elizabeth's Court to be. Even a
+polished sword-blade has been asserted to have made an effective magic
+mirror, and it is recorded that Jacob Boehme penetrated into the
+innermost secrets of nature and the hearts of men by means of a tin cup.</p>
+
+<p>As to cups, the Septuagint gives one to understand that the cup placed
+by Joseph in the sack of Benjamin in Egypt was not an ordinary
+drinking-vessel, but a divining-cup. Now, the way of divining with a cup
+was to fill it with pure water, and to read the images which were then reflected.</p>
+
+<p>Some writers have supposed, from the mention of Urim and Thummim in
+Exodus, that divination by mirror was a recognised institution among the
+Jews. Urim signifies 'lights,' and Thummim 'reflections,' and the names
+were applied to the six bright and six dark precious stones on the
+breastplate of the high priest when he went to seek special revelations.</p>
+
+<p>Cambuscan's mirror was, according to Chaucer, of Oriental origin. It was
+given by the King of Tartary to the King of Araby, and it seemed to
+possess all the virtues of several kinds of magic mirrors. Thus it
+showed whether love was returned, whether an individual confronted with
+it were friend or foe, and what trouble was in store for those who
+consulted it. Merlin's mirror, also called Venus's looking-glass, had
+some of these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> properties, but was made in Wales, and was given by
+Merlin to King Ryence. It revealed what was being done by friend or foe
+at a distance, and it also enabled the fair Britomart to read the
+features, and also the name, of her future husband.</p>
+
+<p>The consultation of a pool, on certain special occasions, for the
+lineaments of 'the coming man,' has been a common enough practice with
+love-sick damsels in much more recent times.</p>
+
+<p>The wonderful looking-glass of Lao, described by Lien Chi Altangi in
+Goldsmith's Citizen of the World, reflected the mind as well as the
+body, and the Emperor Chusi used to make his ladies dress both their
+heads and their hearts before it every morning. Great, however, as are
+the Chinese in divination, and numerous as are their superstitions, we
+do not find, <i>pace</i> Oliver Goldsmith, that the mirror occupies any
+prominent place in their magic.</p>
+
+<p>One of the most famous dealers in catoptromancy (divination by mirror)
+in this country was Dr. John Dee, who flourished about the middle of the
+sixteenth century. He had a speculum called the Shew Stone, and
+sometimes the Holy Stone, with which he divined by the aid of a medium
+named Kelly. This Kelly was a notoriously bad character, so his example
+does not carry out the popular idea that the seer must be a stainless
+child, or some absolutely pure-minded being. Dr. Dee professed to have a
+number of regular spirit-visitors, whom he described with much
+circumstantial minuteness, and thus his mirror-magic seems to have
+possessed more of the character of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> spiritualistic manifestations than
+of the usual Oriental crystallomancy.</p>
+
+<p>The famous Cagliostro&mdash;Prince of Scoundrels, as Carlyle called him&mdash;used
+a bottle of pure water, into which he directed a child to gaze, with results which were not always satisfactory.</p>
+
+<p>The Orientalist, Lane, published some sixty years ago, or more, a
+circumstantial narrative of an experience he had with an Egyptian
+magician, along with Mr. Salt, a British Consul. Invocations were
+liberally used, in order to summon the two genii of the magician, and
+verses were recited from the Koran, in order that the eyes of the
+medium&mdash;a boy&mdash;should be opened in a supernatural manner. The magician
+selected one at random from a group of boys, and drew in the palm of the
+boy's right hand a magic square, inscribed with Arabic figures. He then
+poured ink into the centre, and told the boy to gaze fixedly, while he
+himself proceeded to drop more written invocations, on slips of paper, into a chafing-dish.</p>
+
+<p>For some time the boy saw nothing but the reflection of the magician,
+and then he began to describe various scenes. At last Lane asked that
+Lord Nelson should be called up, and the boy said that he saw a man in
+dark-blue clothes, with his left arm across his breast. It was explained
+that the boy saw things as in a mirror, and that Nelson's empty right
+sleeve worn across the breast naturally appeared in the glass as the
+left arm. Now, the boy may have heard of Nelson, but could scarcely have
+seen him, though the figure of so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> famous a man must have been familiar
+to the magician. Hypnotism has, therefore, been suggested as the
+explanation of what Lane witnessed, and which seemed so miraculous at the time.</p>
+
+<p>Many scholars, philosophers, and scientific students of medi&aelig;val times,
+who had no pretence to magic, had yet firm faith in the power of
+mirrors, constructed in a special manner and under auspicious planetary
+influences, to reveal both the distant-present and the future.</p>
+
+<p>One of the modern adepts was a French magician, who foretold by his
+mirror the death of a Prince, and the regency of the Duc d'Orleans.</p>
+
+<p>There are many published prescriptions for the making of a magic mirror,
+but that which has already been given from Paracelsus is a fair specimen
+of the ultra-scientific method. Among directions for the use of the crystal may be cited those of Barth:</p>
+
+<p>'When a crystal has been ground and polished, it is dedicated to some
+spirit or other; this is called its consecration. Before being used, it
+is charged&mdash;that is, an invocation is made to the spirit, wherein a
+vision is requested of the things that one wishes to experience.
+Ordinarily, a young person is chosen to look into the glass and behold
+the prayed-for vision. After a little time the crystal becomes enveloped
+in a cloud, and a tiny vision appears, which represents in miniature the
+persons, scenes, and things that are necessary to supply the required
+information. When the information has been obtained, the crystal is
+dis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>charged, and after receiving thanks for the services he has
+performed, the spirit is dismissed.'</p>
+
+<p>In modern crystal-gazing and mirror-reading, however, there is no invocation.</p>
+
+<p>An American spiritualist says that he once put a crystal into the hands
+of a lady who knew nothing about its reputed virtues, but who
+straightway began to describe a scene which she saw in it, and which
+turned out afterwards to be a simultaneous incident at Trebizond. The
+mediumistic influence of the spirit of a North American Indian may not
+commend the story to non-spiritualists.</p>
+
+<p>The experiences of the Countess Wurmbrand, as related in her curious
+book, Visionen im Wasserglass, are more matter-of-fact, perhaps, but
+were also assisted by a mysterious spirit, who enabled her to read
+pictures in the glass and to describe them to her husband. She was more
+successful in her time than more recent experimenters and psychologists
+of her own country have been since.</p>
+
+<p>The Society for Psychical Research have given much attention to the
+subject, and have reported some remarkable observations&mdash;especially
+those of Miss Goodrich, a lady who has made several scores of
+experiments of her own in crystal-reading, always taking notes
+immediately. She tried the back of a watch, a glass of water, a mirror,
+and other reflecting surfaces, before arriving at the conclusion that
+polished rock crystal affords the best speculum for divination.</p>
+
+<p>Having reached this point, the lady draped her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> selected crystal in
+black, set it where no surrounding objects could be reflected in it, and
+sought it when in search of light and leading. Sometimes her
+consultations were very practical. Thus, one finds among her notes:</p>
+
+<p>'I had carelessly destroyed a letter without preserving the address of
+my correspondent. I knew the county, and searching a map, recognised the
+name of the town, one unfamiliar to me, but which I was sure I should
+know when I saw it. But I had no clue to the name of the house or
+street, till at last it struck me to test the value of the crystal as a
+means of recalling forgotten knowledge. A very short inspection supplied
+me with "Hibbs House," in gray letters on a white ground, and having
+nothing better to suggest from any other source, I risked posting my
+letter to the address so strangely supplied. A day or two brought an
+answer headed "Hibbs House" in gray letters on a white ground.'</p>
+
+<p>Let us take an example of another of Miss Goodrich's crystal-readings,
+and let it be remembered that they are all reported as experiments of our own day:</p>
+
+<p>'One of my earliest experiences was of a picture, perplexing and wholly
+unexpected&mdash;a quaint oak chair, an old hand, a worn black coat-sleeve
+resting on the arm of the chair&mdash;slowly recognised as a recollection of
+a room in a country vicarage which I had not entered, and but seldom
+recalled, since I was a child of ten. But whence came this vision? What
+association has conjured up this picture? What have I done to-day? At
+length the clue is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> found. I have to-day been reading Dante, first
+enjoyed with the help of our dear old vicar many a year ago.'</p>
+
+<p>And again: 'I happened to want the date of Ptolemy Philadelphus, which I
+could not recall, though feeling sure that I knew it, and that I
+associated it with some event of importance. When looking in the crystal, some hours later, I found a picture of an old man, with long,
+white hair and beard, dressed like a Lyceum Shylock, and busy writing in
+a large book with tarnished massive clasps. I wondered much who he was,
+and what he could possibly be doing, and thought it a good opportunity
+of carrying out a suggestion which had been made to me of examining
+objects in the crystal with a magnifying-glass. The glass revealed to me
+that my old gentleman was writing in Greek, though the lines faded away
+as I looked, all but the characters he had last traced, the Latin
+numerals LXX. Then it flashed into my mind that he was one of the Jewish
+Elders at work on the Septuagint, and that this date, 277 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>, would
+serve equally well for Ptolemy Philadelphus. It may be worth while to
+add, though the fact was not in my conscious memory at the moment, that
+I had once learnt a chronology on a mnemonic system which substituted
+letters for figures, and the <i>memoria technica</i> for this date was, "Now Jewish Elders indite a Greek copy."'</p>
+
+<p>One may, perhaps, find a simple and easy explanation of Miss Goodrich's
+mirror-reading, in a theory of unconscious cerebration. The crystal
+simply assisted her memory, and recalled incidents<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> and scenes, just as
+a chance odour, a bar of music, a word, a look, a name, will often do
+for most of us. Clearly there is nothing necessarily either magic or
+spiritualistic in this particular example of the magic mirror.</p>
+
+<p>There are, however, some other experiments recorded which seem to be
+only explainable on a theory of telepathy; but Mr. Max Dessoir,
+commenting on the evidence of Miss Goodrich in an American Review,
+attributes the whole phenomena merely to 'revived memory.'</p>
+
+<p>This is all very well as to past events, but what shall we say to a case
+such as the following, among Miss Goodrich's experiments?</p>
+
+<p>'In January last I saw in the crystal the figure of a man crouching at a
+small window, and looking into the room from the outside. I could not
+see his features, which appeared to be muffled, but the crystal was
+particularly dark that evening, and the picture being an unpleasant one,
+I did not persevere. I concluded the vision to be a result of a
+discussion in my presence of the many stories of burglary with which the
+newspapers had lately abounded, and reflected with a passing
+satisfaction that the only windows in the house divided into four panes,
+as were those of the crystal picture, were in the front attic, and
+almost inaccessible. Three days later a fire broke out in that very
+room, which had to be entered from outside through the window, the face
+of the fireman being covered with a wet cloth as a protection from the
+smoke, which rendered access through the door impossible.'</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>Was this coincidence, or prevision, or what Mr. Dessoir calls the
+'falsification of memory'? The thing was either a miracle, which none of
+us is prepared to accept, or the after-confusion of a vague foreboding
+with an actual occurrence in the mind of the observer. Mr. Dessoir
+suggested another explanation of crystal pictures in the doctrine of the
+double consciousness of the human soul; but that opens up another subject.</p>
+
+<p>While we have seen that mirror and crystal-reading is one of the most
+ancient of occult practices, we have also seen that it is practised in
+our own country even at this day. Moreover, it is said that there is in
+England a wholesale manufacture of magic mirrors as a regular
+industry&mdash;the site of which, however, the present writer is unable to specify.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h3>
+
+<h4>THE MAGIC MOON.</h4>
+
+<p class='dropcap'><span class="caps">Certainly</span> since, and probably long before, Job 'beheld the moon walking
+in brightness,' all the peoples of the earth have surrounded that
+luminary with legends, with traditions, with myths, and with
+superstitions of various kinds. In our time, and in our own country, the
+sentiment with which the orb of night is regarded is a soft and pleasing one, for</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'That orb&egrave;d maiden, with white fire laden,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Whom mortals call the moon,'</span></div>
+
+<p>is supposed to look with approval upon happy lovers, and with sympathy
+upon those who are encountering the proverbial rough places in the
+course of true love. Why the moon should be partial to lovers one might
+easily explain on very prosaic grounds&mdash;perhaps not unlike the reasoning
+of the Irishman who called the sun a coward because he goes away as soon
+as it begins to grow dark, whereas the blessed moon stays with us most
+of the night!</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>Except Lucian and M. Jules Verne, one does not readily recall anyone who
+professes to have been actually up to the moon. Lucian had by far the
+most eventful experience, for he met Endymion, who entertained him
+royally, and did all the honours of the planet to which he had been
+wafted from earth in his sleep. The people of Moonland, Lucian assures
+us, live upon flying frogs, only they do not eat them; they cook the
+frogs on a fire and swallow the smoke. For drink, he says, they pound
+air in a mortar, and thus obtain a liquid very like dew. They have
+vines, only the grapes yield not wine, but water, being, in fact,
+hailstones, such as descend upon the earth when the wind shakes the
+vines in the moon. Then the Moonfolk have a singular habit of taking out
+their eyes when they do not wish to see things&mdash;a habit which has its
+disadvantages, for sometimes they mislay their eyes and have to borrow a
+pair from their neighbours. The rich, however, provide against such
+accidents by always keeping a good stock of eyes on hand.</p>
+
+<p>Lucian also discovered the reason of the red clouds which we on earth
+often see at sunset. They are dyed by the immense quantity of blood
+which is shed in the battles between the Moonfolk and the Sunfolk, who
+are at constant feud.</p>
+
+<p>The reason why the gentler sex are so fond of the moon is satirically
+said to be because there is a man in it! But who and what is he? An old
+writer, John Lilly, says: 'There liveth none under the sunne that knows
+what to make of the man in the moone.' And yet many have tried.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>One old ballad, for instance, says:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'The man in the moon drinks claret,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But he is a dull Jack-a-Dandy.</span><br />
+Would he know a sheep's head from a carrot,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He should learn to drink cyder and brandy'</span></div>
+
+<p>&mdash;which may be interesting, but is certainly inconsequential. It is
+curious, too, that while the moon is feminine in English, French, Latin
+and Greek, it is masculine in German and cognate tongues. Now, if there
+is a man in the moon, and if it be the case, as is asserted by
+antiquarians, that the 'man in the moon' is one of the most ancient as
+well as one of the most popular superstitions of the world, the
+masculine is surely the right gender after all. Those who look to
+Sanscrit for the solution of all mythological, as well as philological,
+problems will confirm this, for in Sanscrit the moon is masculine. Dr.
+Jamieson, of Scottish Dictionary fame, gets out of the difficulty by
+saying that the moon was regarded as masculine in relation to the earth,
+whose husband he was; but feminine in relation to the sun, whose wife
+she was!</p>
+
+<p>With the Greeks the moon was a female, Diana, who caught up her lover
+Endymion; and Endymion was thus, probably, the first 'man in the moon.'
+The Jews, again, have a tradition that Jacob is in the moon; and there
+is the nursery story that the person in the moon is a man who was
+condemned for gathering sticks on Sunday. This myth comes to us from
+Germany&mdash;at all events, Mr. R. A. Proctor traced it there with much
+circumstantiality. Mr. Baring-Gould, however,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> finds in some parts of
+Germany a tradition that both a man and a woman are in the moon&mdash;the man
+because he strewed brambles and thorns on the church path to hinder
+people from attending Sunday mass, and the woman because she made butter
+on Sunday. This man carries two bundles of thorns, and the woman her
+butter-tub, for ever. In Swabia they say there is a mannikin in the
+moon, who stole wood; and in Frisia they say it is a man, who stole
+cabbages. The Scandinavian legend is that the moon and sun are brother
+and sister&mdash;the moon in this case being the male. The story goes that
+M&acirc;ni, the moon, took up two children from earth, named Bil and Hjuki, as
+they were carrying a pitcher of water from the well Brygir, and in this
+myth Mr. Baring-Gould discovers the origin of the nursery rhyme of Jack
+and Jill. 'These children,' he says, 'are the moon-spots, and the fall
+of Jack, and the subsequent fall of Jill, simply represent the vanishing
+of one moon-spot after another as the moon wanes.'</p>
+
+<p>In Britain there are references in the ancient monkish writings to a man
+in the moon; and in the Record Office there is an impression of a seal
+of the fourteenth century bearing the device of a man carrying a bundle
+of thorns in the moon. The legend attached is, 'Te Waltere docebo cur
+spinas phebo gero' ('I will teach thee, Walter, why I carry thorns to
+the moon'), which Mr. Hudson Taylor, who describes the seal, thinks to
+be an enigmatical way of saying that honesty is the best policy&mdash;the
+thorns having evidently been stolen.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>Chaucer has more than one reference to the man in the moon, and so have
+most of the older poets. Shakespeare not only refers frequently to 'a'
+man, but in the Midsummer Night's Dream Peter Quince distinctly
+stipulates that the man who is to play 'the moon' shall carry 'a bush of thorns.'</p>
+
+<p>The man in the moon, according to Dante, is Cain, carrying a bundle of
+thorns, and yet in that planet he found located only those comparatively
+mild sinners who had partly neglected their vows. A French legend, on
+the other hand, identifies 'the man' with Judas Iscariot. <i>Per contra</i>,
+in India the Buddhist legend places a hare in the moon, carried there by
+Indra for kindly service rendered to him on earth.</p>
+
+<p>May not this hare of the Indian mythology be the moon-dog of some of our
+own legends? Peter Quince, we know, recommended that the moon should
+have a dog as well as a bundle of sticks, and the association of the
+quadruped in the story is very common. The North American Indians
+believe that the moon is inhabited by a man and a dog. The Maoris
+believe in the man, but not in the dog, which is not surprising when we
+remember the limited fauna of the antipodes. The Maori legend runs
+something like this. A man called Rona went out one night to fetch water
+from a well, but, falling, sprained his ankle so as to be unable to
+return home. All at once the moon, which had risen, began to approach
+him. In terror he clung to a tree, which gave way, and both tree and
+Rona fell on the moon, where they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> remain even unto this day. Here we
+have clearly a variation of the 'bundle of sticks' legend, but there is
+an absence of apparent cause and effect in the Maori legend which is unsatisfactory.</p>
+
+<p>More precise is the Bushman legend, quoted by Dr. Bleek. According to
+this, the moon is a man who incurs the wrath of the sun, and is
+consequently pierced by the knife (the rays) of the latter, until there
+is only a little piece of him left. Then he cries for mercy for his
+children's sake, and is allowed to grow again until once more he offends
+his sunship; the whole process being repeated monthly.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Rink relates a curious tradition of the Eskimo, not quite quotable
+here, the gist of which is that a man who desired to make his sister his
+wife was transformed into the moon, while the woman became the sun.
+Something like the same legend has been traced as far south as Panama.
+Another notable thing about Eskimo traditions is that the moon is
+associated with fertility in woman. This superstition is both very
+ancient and very widespread, and, indeed, seems to have been the root
+both of the moon-worship of the Oriental nations and of the mysterious
+rites of the Egyptians referred to by Herodotus. Luna is identified by
+some mythologists with Soma of the Indian mythology, <i>i.e.</i>, the emblem of reproduction.</p>
+
+<p>In China, according to Dr. Dennys, the man in the moon is called Yue-lao,
+and he is believed to hold in his hands the power of predestining
+marriages. He is supposed to tie together the future husband<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> and wife
+with an invisible silken cord, which never parts while life lasts. Miss
+Gordon-Cumming, in her interesting account of Wanderings in China,
+relates that, in the neighbourhood of Foo-Chow, she witnessed a great
+festival being held in honour of the full moon, which was mainly
+attended by women. There was a Temple-play, or sing-song, going on all
+day and most of the night, and each woman carried a stool so that she
+might sit out the whole performance. This recalls what Mr. Riley states
+in The Book of Days, as related by John Andrey in the seventeenth
+century: 'In Scotland, especially among the Highlanders, the women make
+a courtesy to the new moon, and our English women in this country have a
+touch of this, some of them sitting astride on a gate or stile the first
+evening the new moon appears, and saying, "A fine moon! God bless her!"
+The like I observed in Herefordshire.'</p>
+
+<p>As illustrative of this superstition may be instanced a curious practice
+in this country, in olden times, of divination by the moon. It is quoted
+by Mr. Thiselton-Dyer from an old chap-book: 'When you go to bed (at the
+period of harvest moon) place under your pillow a Prayer-Book open at
+the part of the matrimonial service, which says, "With this ring I thee
+wed"; place on it a key, a ring, a flower, and a sprig of willow, a
+small heart-cake, a crust, and the following cards: a ten of clubs, nine
+of hearts, ace of spades, and ace of diamonds. Wrap all these in a thin
+handkerchief, and, on getting into bed, cover your hands, and say:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>
+"Luna, every woman's friend,<br />
+To me thy goodness condescend:<br />
+Let me this night in visions see<br />
+Emblems of my destiny."</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>It is certainly hard to imagine pleasant dreams as the result of such a
+very uncomfortably-stuffed pillow.</p>
+
+<p>In this same connection may be named other items of folklore related by
+Mr. Dyer. For instance, in Devonshire it is believed that if on seeing
+the first new moon of the year you take off one stocking and run across
+a field, you will find between two of your toes a hair which will be the
+colour of the lover you are to have. In Berkshire the proceeding is more
+simple, for you merely look at the new moon, and say:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'New moon, new moon, I hail thee!<br />
+By all the virtue in thy body,<br />
+Grant this night that I may see<br />
+He who my true love shall be!'</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>The result is guaranteed to be as satisfactory as it is in Ireland,
+where the people are said to point to the new moon with a knife, and say:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'New moon, true morrow, be true now to me,<br />
+That I to-morrow my true love may see!'</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>In Yorkshire, again, the practice was to catch the reflection of the new
+moon in a looking-glass, the number of reflections signifying the number
+of years which will elapse before marriage. All these superstitions are
+suggestive of that which Tylor calls 'one of the most instructive
+astrological doctrines'&mdash;namely, that of the 'sympathy of growing and
+declining nature with the waxing and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> waning moon.' Tylor says that a
+classical precept was to set eggs under the hen at new moon, and that a
+Lithuanian precept was to wean boys on a waxing and girls on a waning
+moon&mdash;in order to make the boys strong and the girls delicate. On the
+same grounds, he says, Orkney-men object to marry except with a growing
+moon, and Mr. Dyer says that in Cornwall, when a child is born in the
+interval between an old and a new moon, it is believed that he will never live to manhood.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Turner relates several traditions of the moon current in Samoa.
+There is one of a visit paid to the planet by two young men&mdash;Punifanga,
+who went up by a tree, and Tafaliu, who went up on a column of smoke.
+There is another of a woman, Sina, who was busy one evening cutting
+mulberry-bark for cloth with her child beside her. It was a time of
+famine, and the rising moon reminded her of a great bread-fruit&mdash;just as
+in our country it has reminded some people of a green cheese. Looking
+up, she said: 'Why cannot you come down and let my child have a bit of
+you?' The moon was so indignant at being taken for an article of food,
+that she came down forthwith and took up woman, child and wood. There
+they are to this day, for in the full moon the Samoans still see the
+features of Sina, the face of the child, and the board and mallet.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Andrew Lang finds in an Australian legend of the moon something
+oddly like Grimm's tale of the Wolf and the Kids, which, again, he
+likens to the old Greek myth of Cronos. The Australian legend is that
+birds were the original gods, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> that the eagle especially was a great
+creative power. The moon was a mischievous being, who walked about the
+earth doing all the evil he could. One day he swallowed the eagle. The
+eagle's wives coming up, the moon asked where he could find a well. They
+pointed out one, and while he was drinking, they struck him with a stone
+tomahawk, which made him disgorge the eagle. This legend is otherwise
+suggestive from the circumstances that among the Greeks the eagle was
+the special bird of Zeus, and it was the eagle which carried off Ganymede.</p>
+
+<p>There is another Australian fable that the moon was a man, and the sun a
+woman of doubtful reputation who appears at dawn in a coat of red
+kangaroo-skin belonging to one of her lovers. In Mexico, also, the moon
+is a man, across whose face an angry immortal once threw a rabbit; hence
+the marks on the surface of the planet. These same marks are accounted
+for in the Eskimo legend already mentioned as the impressions of the
+woman's sooty fingers on the face of her pursuer. By some mythologists
+the moon is thought to be Medea, but it is more common to interpret
+Medea as the daughter of the sun, <i>i.e.</i>, the dawn.</p>
+
+<p>It is certainly not a little curious to find the moon-lore, as the
+star-lore, having so many points of resemblance among such
+widely-separated and different peoples as the Greeks, the Egyptians, the
+Australians, the Eskimos, the Bushmen of South Africa, the North
+American Indians, and the New Zealand Maoris. The comparative
+mythologists would argue from this resemblance a common<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> origin of the
+myth, and a distribution or communication from one race to the other.
+The folk-lore mythologists would infer nothing of the sort. They say
+there is nothing remarkable in all savage races imputing human motives
+and sex to the heavenly bodies, for, in fact, to this day there are
+savages, as in the South Pacific, who suppose even stones to be male and
+female, and to propagate their species. On this method of interpretation
+the hypothesis is not that the Australians, Indians, etc., received
+their myths from, say, the Greeks, either by community of stock or by
+contact and borrowing, but because the ancestors of the Greeks passed
+through the same intellectual condition as the primitive races we now
+know. And thus it is that in listening to the beautiful legends of the
+Greeks, we are but, as Bacon says, hearing the harsh ideas of earlier
+peoples 'blown softly through the flutes of the Grecians.'</p>
+
+<p>Now, beside the personality of the moon, and the peculiar influence he
+or she is supposed to exercise on mortals, there has survived an old
+superstition that the moon has direct influence on the weather. Apropos
+of this association, there is a pretty little Hindoo legend which is
+current in Southern India, and which has been translated by Miss Frere,
+daughter of Sir Bartle Frere. This is the story as told her by her Lingaet ayah:</p>
+
+<p>'One day the Sun, the Moon, and the Wind went out to dine with their
+uncle and aunt, the Thunder and <ins class="correction" title="original reads 'Lihgtning'">Lightning</ins>. Their mother (one of the most
+distant stars you see far up in the sky)<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> waited alone for her
+children's return. Now, both the Sun and the Wind were greedy and
+selfish. They enjoyed the great feast that had been prepared for them,
+without a thought of saving any of it to take home to their mother; but
+the gentle Moon did not forget her. Of every dainty dish that was
+brought round she placed a small portion under one of her beautiful long
+fingernails, that the Star might also have a share in the treat. On
+their return, their mother, who had kept watch for them all night long
+with her bright little eye, said: "Well, children, what have you brought
+home for me?" Then the Sun (who was eldest) said: "I have brought
+nothing home for you. I went out to enjoy myself with my friends, not to
+fetch a dinner for my mother!" And the Wind said: "Neither have I
+brought anything home for you, mother. You could hardly expect me to
+bring a collection of good things for you, when I merely went out for my
+own pleasure." But the Moon said: "Mother, fetch a plate; see what I
+have brought you;" and shaking her hands, she showered down such a
+choice dinner as never was seen before. Then the Star turned to the Sun,
+and spoke thus: "Because you went out to amuse yourself with your
+friends, and feasted and enjoyed yourself without any thought of your
+mother at home, you shall be cursed. Henceforth your rays shall ever be
+hot and scorching, and shall burn all that they touch. All men shall
+hate you, and cover their heads when you appear"; and this is why the
+sun is so hot to this day. Then she turned to the Wind, and said: "You<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>
+also, who forgot your mother in the midst of your selfish pleasures,
+hear your doom. You shall always blow in the hot, dry weather, and shall
+parch and shrivel all living things, and men shall detest and avoid you
+from this very time"; and this is why the wind in the hot weather is
+still so disagreeable. But to the Moon she said: "Daughter, because you
+remembered your mother, and kept for her a share in your own enjoyment,
+from henceforth you shall be ever cool, and calm, and bright. No noxious
+glare shall accompany your pure rays, and men shall always call you
+blessed"; and that is why the moon's light is so soft, and cool, and
+beautiful even to this day.'</p>
+
+<p>It is remarkable, nevertheless, that among Western peoples, at any rate,
+the moon has usually been associated with the uncanny. It is an old
+belief, for instance, that the moon is the abode of bad spirits; and in
+the old story of the Vampire it is notable that the creature, as a last
+request, begged that he might be buried where no sunlight, but only
+moonlight, might fall on his grave. Witches were supposed to be able to
+control the moon, as witness the remark of Prospero in The Tempest:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'His mother was a witch, and one so strong,<br />
+That could control the moon.'</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>The Rev. Timothy Harley, who has collected much moon-lore, suggests that
+if the broom on which witches rode to the moon be a type of the wind,
+'we may guess how the fancy grew up that the airy creation could control
+those atmo<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>spheric vapours on which the light and humidity of the night
+were supposed to depend.'</p>
+
+<p>But the 'glamour' of the moon is not a mere poetic invention or a
+lover's fancy. Mr. Moncure Conway reminds us that <i>gl&aacute;m</i>, in its
+nominative form <i>gl&aacute;mir</i>, is a poetical name for the moon, to be found
+in the Prose Edda. It is given in the Glossary as one of the old names
+for the moon. Mr. Conway also says that there is a curious old Sanscrit
+word, <i>glau</i> or <i>gl&aacute;v</i>, which is explained in all the old lexicons as
+meaning the moon. Hence 'the ghost or goblin Glam (of the old legend of
+Grettir) seems evidently to have arisen from a personification of the
+delusive and treacherous effects of moonlight on the benighted traveller.'</p>
+
+<p>Similar delusive effects are found referred to in old Hindoo writings,
+as, for instance, in the following passages from Bh&aacute;sa, a poet of the seventh century:</p>
+
+<p>'The cat laps the moonbeams in the bowl of water, thinking them to be
+milk; the elephant thinks that the moonbeams threaded through the
+intervals of the trees are the fibres of the lotus-stalk; the woman
+snatches at the moonbeams as they lie on the bed, taking them for her
+muslin garment. Oh, how the moon, intoxicated with radiance, bewilders
+all the world!'</p>
+
+<p>Again:</p>
+
+<p>'The bewildered herdsmen place the pails under the cows, thinking that
+the milk is flowing; the maidens also put the blue lotus-blossom in
+their ears, thinking that it is the white; the mountaineer's wife
+snatches up the jujube fruit, avaricious for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> pearls. Whose mind is not
+led astray by the thickly-clustering moonbeams?'</p>
+
+<p>Such was the 'glamour' of Glam (the moon) in ancient eyes, and still it
+works on lovers' hearts. The fascination has been felt and expressed by
+nearly all the poets, and by none better, perhaps, than by Sir Philip Sidney:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'With what sad steps, O moon, thou climb'st the skies!<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">How silently, and with how wan a face!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">What, may it be, that even in heavenly place</span><br />
+That busy archer his sharp arrow tries?<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Sure if that long with love-acquainted eyes</span><br />
+Can judge of love, thou feel'st a lover's case.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">I read it in thy looks&mdash;thy languish'd grace</span><br />
+To me, that feel the like, thy state descries.'</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>The number of human beings who have, articulately or inarticulately,
+cried with Endymion, 'What is there in thee, Moon, that thou should'st
+move my heart so potently?' are not to be measured in ordinary figures.</p>
+
+<p>To return, however, to the bad side of Luna's character. We read that in
+Assyria deadly influences were ascribed to the moon. In Vedic mythology
+there is a story, which Mr. Moncure Conway tells in Demonology and
+Devil-lore, of a quarrel between Brahma and Vishnu as to which was the
+first born. Siva interferes, and says he is the first born, but will
+recognise as his superior whoever is able to see the crown of his head
+or the soles of his feet. Vishnu thereupon transforms himself into a
+boar, pierces underground, and thus sees the feet of Siva, who salutes
+him on his return as the firstborn of the gods. Now, De Gubernatis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>
+regards this fable as 'making the boar emblem of the hidden moon'; and
+Mr. Conway thinks there is no doubt that the boar at an early period
+became emblematic of the wild forces of Nature. 'From being hunted by
+King Odin on earth, it passed to be his favourite food in Valhalla, and
+a prominent figure in his spectral hunt.' But it is with the moon, not
+with Odin, that we are at present concerned, and so note two curious
+items mentioned by Conway. In Sicilian legend, he says, 'Zafarana, by
+throwing three hog's bristles on embers, renews her husband's youth';
+and in Esthonian legend, a prince, by eating pork, acquires the faculty
+of understanding the language of birds. All this opens up a very
+suggestive field of inquiry. Thus, Plutarch says that the reason why the
+Jews would not eat swine's flesh was because Adonis was slain by a boar,
+and Bacchus and Adonis, he says, were the same divinities. Now, if we
+turn to Herodotus, we find that wonderful narrator saying: 'The only
+deities to whom the Egyptians offer swine are Bacchus and Luna; to these
+they sacrifice swine when the moon is full, after which they eat the
+flesh,' which at other times they disdained. The meaning of these
+sacrifices is understood by those interested, and I do not propose to go
+further into the matter. All I wish to do is to point out the curious
+involvements, among so many nations, of the moon and the boar.</p>
+
+<p>May we not even trace a connection with the superstition current in
+Suffolk, according to 'C. W. J.,' in The Book of Days? 'C. W. J.' says
+that in his part of the world it is considered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> unlucky to kill a pig
+when the moon is on the wane; and if it is done, the pork will waste in
+boiling. 'I have known,' he says, 'the shrinking of bacon in the pot
+attributed to the fact of the pig having been killed in the moon's
+decrease; and I have also known the death of poor piggy delayed or
+hastened so as to happen during its increase.' Truly the old superstitions die hard!</p>
+
+<p>The moon's supposed influence on the weather is a matter of general
+knowledge. The writer last quoted mentions it as a very prevalent belief
+that the general condition of the atmosphere throughout the world,
+during any lunation, depends on whether the moon changed before or after
+midnight. Another superstition is, that if the new moon happens on a
+Saturday the weather will be bad during the month. On the other hand, in
+Suffolk the old moon in the arms of the new one is accounted a sign of
+fine weather; contrary to the belief in Scotland, where, it may be
+remembered, in the ballad of Sir Patrick Spens, it is taken as a presage of storm and disaster.</p>
+
+<p>Shakespeare has many allusions to the moon's influence on the weather,
+as: 'The moon, the governess of floods, pale in her anger, washes the
+air'; 'The moon, one thinks, looks with a watery eye; and when she
+weeps, weeps every little flower'; 'Upon the corner of the moon there
+hangs a vaporous drop profound'; and so forth. Then we have the old
+proverb: 'So many days old the moon is on Michaelmas Day, so many floods
+after.' Other beliefs are mentioned by Mr. Harley, such as, that if
+Christmas comes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> during a waning moon, we shall have a good year, and
+the converse; that new moon on Monday is a certain sign of good weather;
+that a misty moon indicates heavy rain; that the horns of the moon
+turned upward predict a good, and turned downward a bad, season; that a
+large star near the moon is a certain prognostication of storm.</p>
+
+<p>In fact, the superstitions in this connection are legion, and are not
+confined to any country. They are as common in China, where the moon is
+still worshipped, as they are in England, where, in some places, old men
+still touch their hats and maidens still bob a courtesy in sight of the
+new moon. Thus the relics of moon-worship are about us still, as well as
+a strong popular belief that the moon is an active physical agent. That
+the actual influence of the moon on the tides lies at the basis of the
+belief in its influence on the weather is probable; and, at any rate, it
+is curious that the Persians held that the moon was the cause of an
+abundant supply of water and rain; while in a Japanese fairy-tale the
+
+moon is made to rule over the blue waste of the sea with its
+multitudinous salt waters. The horticultural superstitions about sowing
+and planting according to the age of the moon is, no doubt, a product of
+the fusion of the meteorological superstition and that of the old-world
+belief in Luna being the goddess of reproduction.</p>
+
+<p>Any who have still doubts on the meteorological question cannot do
+better than refer to a letter of Professor Nichol's&mdash;once Professor of
+Astronomy in the University of Glasgow&mdash;which is quoted in The Book of
+Days. He asserts positively, as the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> result of scientific observation,
+that no relation whatever exists between the moon and the weather.</p>
+
+<p>But does any exist between the moon and the brain? 'Whom the gods would
+destroy, they first make mad'; and the moon was supposed to be the
+instrument&mdash;nay, still is, as the very word 'lunacy' implies. The old
+astrologers used to say that she governed the brain, stomach, bowels,
+and left eye of the male, and the right eye of the female. Some such
+influences were evidently believed in by the Jews, as witness Psalm
+cxxi.: 'The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.' It
+may be remarked that Dr. Forbes Winslow is not very decided in
+dismissing the theory of the influence of the moon on the insane. He
+says it is purely speculative, but he does not controvert it. The
+subject is, however, too large to enter upon here. Whether or not it be
+true that 'when the moon's in the full then wit's on the wane,' it
+certainly is not true, as appears to be believed in Sussex, that the new
+May Moon has power to cure scrofulous complaints.</p>
+
+<p>Before leaving the subject, it is well to mention a remarkable
+coincidence to which Mr. Harley draws attention. In China, where
+moon-worship largely prevails, during the festival of Yue-Ping, which is
+held during the eighth month annually, incense is burned in the temples,
+cakes are made like the moon, and at full moon the people spread out
+oblations and make prostrations to the planet. These cakes are
+moon-cakes, and veritable offerings to the Queen of Heaven, who
+represents the female principle in Chinese theology. 'If we turn<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> now to
+Jeremiah vii. 18, and read there, "The women knead dough to make cakes
+to the Queen of Heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings unto other
+gods," and remember that, according to Rashi, these cakes of the Hebrews
+had the image of the god or goddess stamped upon them, we are in view of
+a fact of much interest.' The interest becomes greater when we learn
+that in parts of Lancashire there exists a precisely similar custom of
+making cakes in honour of the Queen of Heaven.</p>
+
+<p>From these facts, the discovery of two buns, each marked with a cross,
+in Herculaneum, and other evidences, we are driven to the conclusion
+that the 'hot-cross buns' of Christian England are in reality but a
+relic of moon-worship!</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h3>
+
+<h4>THE DEVIL'S CANDLE.</h4>
+
+<p class='dropcap'><span class="caps">So</span> much legendary lore and so many strange fables have had their origin
+in the mandrake, or the 'Devil's Candle,' as the Arabians call it, that
+it is worth while to endeavour to trace if any, and what, analogy there
+be between it and the mandragoras of the Greeks and the Soma of the Indian mythology.</p>
+
+<p>The mandrake is so called from the German <i>Mandragen</i>, 'resembling
+man'&mdash;at least, so says Mr. Thiselton-Dyer; but this derivation is not
+quite satisfactory. The botanical name is <i>Mandragora officinalis</i>, and
+sometimes the May-apple, or <i>Podophyllum peltatum</i>, is also called
+mandrake; but the actual plant of fact and fancy belongs to the <i>Solanum</i>, or potato family.</p>
+
+<p>Although one may doubt if the English name be really derived from the
+German <i>Mandragen</i>, it is certain that the Germans have long regarded
+the plant as something uncanny. Other names which they have for it are
+<i>Zauberwurzel</i>, or Sorcerer's Root, and <i>Hexenm&auml;nnchen</i>, or Witch's
+Mannikin, while they made little dolls or idols from it, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> they
+regarded with superstitious veneration, and called <i>Erdmann</i>, or Earth-man.</p>
+
+<p>Yet in other places, according to one authority, the mandrake was
+popularly supposed to be 'perpetually watched over by Satan; and if it
+be pulled up at certain holy times and with certain invocations, the
+evil spirit will appear to do the bidding of the practitioner.' A
+superstition once common in the South of England was that the mandrake
+had a human heart at its root, and, according to Timbs, it was generally
+believed that the person who pulled it would instantaneously fall dead;
+that the root shrieked or groaned whenever separated from the earth; and
+that whoever heard the shriek would either die shortly afterwards or become afflicted with madness.</p>
+
+<p>To this last superstition there is direct reference made by Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'And shrieks like mandrakes torn out of the earth,<br />
+That living mortals hearing them run mad.'</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>Frequent allusions to this superstition are to be found in the old
+poets, although it is held by some that the effects claimed for
+decoctions of the mandrake really refer to those of the nightshade. This
+confusion has certainly arisen at times, but the most general idea
+concerning the mandrake was that it was a stimulant rather than a
+narcotic. It is true that Shakespeare regarded mandragora as an opiate,
+for he makes Cleopatra to exclaim:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'Give me to drink mandragora,<br />
+That I might sleep out this great gap of time<br />
+My Antony is away.'</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>And, again, when in Othello he makes Iago say:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'Nor poppy, nor mandragora,<br />
+Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world<br />
+Can ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep<br />
+Which thou owedst yesterday.'</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>But, on the other hand, we find Apuleius&mdash;himself, by the way, not
+unsuspected of magical arts&mdash;writing that when the root of the mandrake
+is steeped in wine it produces vehement intoxication. The same idea is
+reflected in Mrs. Browning's Dead Pan:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'In what revels are ye sunken<br />
+In old Ethiopia?<br />
+Have the Pygmies made you drunken,<br />
+Bathing in mandragora,<br />
+Your divine pale lips that shiver<br />
+Like the lotus in the river?'</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>And there can be little doubt that the mysterious 'Lhasis,' referred to
+by Sir William Davenant<small><a name="f5.1" id="f5.1" href="#f5">[5]</a></small>&mdash;a word whose etymology is so obscure&mdash;is
+nothing else than the mandrake or mandragora; if so, then we see that
+the plant was valued for its exciting and stimulating effects rather than as an opiate.</p>
+
+<p>Many commentators and most dictionaries dispose of Reuben's mandrakes as
+something altogether different from the plant now known by the name; but
+there is really no warrant for such a conclusion. The <i>Mandragora
+officinalis</i> is quite common in Celicia, Syria, and elsewhere in the
+East, and is easily identifiable with the root of Baaras, which Josephus
+describes in the Wars of the Jews. This root, he says, is in colour like
+to that of flame, and towards the evening it sends out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> a
+certain ray like lightning. It is not easily to be pulled, it will not
+yield quietly, and it is certain death to anyone who dares pull it,
+unless he hangs it with the head downwards. As to the uses of the root,
+Josephus continues: 'After all his pains in getting it, it is only
+valuable on account of one virtue it hath: that if it only be brought to
+sick persons, it quickly drives away those called Demons, which are no
+other than the spirits of the wicked, which enter into men that are
+alive and kill them, unless they can obtain some help against them'; and
+the root was esteemed a useful stimulant, although in Baaras, at any
+rate, it seems to have lost its reputation as a love-philtre. It is
+noteworthy that Josephus also tells how Solomon had great skill in
+enchantments, and cast out devils by means of this root&mdash;an
+accomplishment he is said to have learned from some of the numerous
+foreign ladies with whom he surrounded himself.</p>
+
+<p>Now, it is interesting to turn from the old Jewish historian to the old
+English herbalist, Gerarde, who in 1597 wrote in his Herball pointing
+out how, by 'the corruption of time and the errour of some,' mandragora
+has been mistaken for what he calls Circaea, or Enchanter's Nightshade.
+But of the mandrake, or mandragoras, Gerarde says: 'There hath been many
+ridiculous tales brought up of this plant, whether of old wives, or some
+runagate surgeons, or physickemongers, I know not; but sure some one or
+more that sought to make themselves famous or skillful above others were
+the first brochers of the errour'&mdash;that the root resembles a man. 'They
+add further,' he says,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> 'that it is never, or very seldome, to be found
+growing naturally, but under a gallowes, where the matter that hath
+fallen from the dead body hath given it the shape of a man, and the
+matter of a woman the substance of a female plant, with many other such
+doltish dreames. The fable further affirms that he who would take up a
+plant thereof ... he should surely die in short space after.'</p>
+
+<p>This is clearly Josephus's 'root of Baaras' over again. Gerarde further
+holds it to be the identical mandragoras of the Greeks, and called
+Circaea because it was used by Circe for love-potions and enchantments.
+If this be so, then what was the 'moly' given to Odysseus by Hermes
+wherewith to counteract the charms of Circe? Was it a totally different
+plant, or was it merely the same applied on the hom&oelig;opathic
+principle? Mr. Andrew Lang thinks they cannot be the same, because the
+'moly' is described by Homer as having a black root and a white flower,
+while the mandragoras is described by Pliny as having a yellow flower
+and white, fleshy roots. But we know that Homer is somewhat confusing in
+the matter of colours, and it is possible that various shades of the
+purplish flower of the true mandrake might appear to one observer as
+white, and to another as yellow. Upon the whole, the probability is that
+the two names meant one and the same plant, for the characteristics are
+too peculiar to be alike possessed by different species. If the moly
+were not mandragoras there is nothing else known to modern botany that
+it could be, unless it were rue,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> with which some scholars have sought
+to identify it, but not very successfully.</p>
+
+<p>The learned author of Pseudosia Epidemica, or Vulgar Errors, at any
+rate, was clearly of opinion that moly and mandragoras were one and the
+same. He quotes also from Pliny that the ancient way of pulling the root
+was to get on the windward side of the plant, and with a sword to
+describe three circles about it, whilst the operator kept his face
+turned to the west. The dangers attending the plucking of mandrakes are
+shrewdly disposed of by Sir Thomas Browne with the remark that it is
+'derogatory unto the Providence of God ... to impose so destructive a
+quality on any plant ... whose parts are usefull unto many.' The same
+author mentions the superstition that the mandrake grows under gallows,
+fructified by the decaying bodies of criminals, that it grows both male
+and female, and that it shrieks upon eradication. This last idea he
+derides as 'false below confute, arising perhaps from a small and
+stridulous noise which, being firmly rooted, it maketh upon divulsion of
+parts.' 'A slender foundation,' he remarks, 'for such a vast conception;
+for such a noise we sometimes observe in other plants&mdash;in parsnips,
+liquorish, eringium, flags, and others.'</p>
+
+<p>The belief that the root of the mandrake resembles the human figure is
+characterized by the writer last quoted, as a 'conceit not to be made
+out by ordinary inspection, or any other eyes than such as regarding the
+clouds behold them in shapes conformable to pre-apprehensions.' It is
+traceable to the bifurcation of the root; a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> formation, however, which
+is frequently found 'in carrots, parsnips, briony, and many others.'
+There is no other importance, therefore, to be attached to 'the epithet
+of Pythagoras, who calls it anthropomorphon, and that of Columella, who
+terms it semihomo;' nor to Albertus, 'when he affirmed that mandrakes
+represent mankind with the distinction of either sex.' The roots, which
+were commonly sold in various parts of Europe 'unto ignorant people,
+handsomely made out the shape of man or woman. But these are not
+productions of nature but contrivances of art, as divers have noted....
+This is vain and fabulous, which ignorant people and simple women
+believe; for the roots which are carried about by impostors are made of
+the roots of canes, briony, and other plants.' And the method of
+manufacture is then explained by the erudite doctor. It is evident from
+what has been cited that the prevalence of the superstition, and the
+existence of the German <i>erdmann</i>, were matters of common knowledge in
+the latter half of the seventeenth century.</p>
+
+<p>But the superstition can be traced still later, for as recently as 1810
+some of these root-images were to be seen on sale in certain parts of
+France, and were purchased as love-charms. It is said that even now at
+this very day bits of the <i>Mandragoras officinalis</i> are worn by the
+young men and maidens of Greece to bring them fortune in their love-affairs.</p>
+
+<p>In some parts of England&mdash;viz., in Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and
+Somersetshire&mdash;the briony is called mandrake, and a small portion of the
+root<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> is frequently given to horses among their food to make them sleek
+and improve their condition, and it is still also sold 'for medicinal
+and other purposes.' Yet in other places it is called 'Devil's Food,'
+because Satan is supposed to be perpetually watching over it and to
+jealously guard its magical properties. It is partly on this account,
+and partly because of its supposed effect in stimulating the passions,
+that the Arabs sometimes call the mandrake Tuphacel-sheitan, or Devil's
+Apple, although it is otherwise known as the Stone Apple. In many parts
+of Europe the mandrake is believed to possess, in common with some other
+plants, the power of opening locks and unshoeing horses.</p>
+
+<p>The belief that the mandrake had some peculiar association with the
+devil has made it a favourite plant with sorcerers and workers of
+enchantment in all ages. Lord Bacon refers to it as a favourite in his
+time, 'whereof witches and impostors make an ugly image, giving it the
+form of a face at the top of the root,' and leaving the natural threads
+of the root 'to make a broad beard down to the foot.' Mr. Moncure
+Conway, however, says that the superstition rightly belonging to the
+mandrake was often transferred to other roots&mdash;probably in ignorance as
+to the identity of the real plant.</p>
+
+<p>'Thus,' he says, 'the author of Secrets du Petit Albert says that a
+peasant had a bryonia root of human shape, which he received from a
+gipsy. He buried it at a lucky conjunction of the moon with Venus' (the
+reader will not fail to note the reference to the Goddess of Love) 'in
+spring, and on a Monday, in a grave, and then sprinkled it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> with milk in
+which three field-mice had been drowned. In a month it became more
+humanlike than ever. Then he placed it in an oven with vervain, wrapped
+it afterwards in a dead man's shroud, and so long as he kept it he never
+failed in luck at games or work.'</p>
+
+<p>Then we learn from the same author that a German horse-dealer, of
+Augsburg, once lost a horse, and being poor, wandered in despair to an
+inn. There some men gave him a mandrake, and on his return home he found
+a bag of ducats on the table. His wife, however, did not like the
+business, and persuaded the man to return to give back the root to those
+from whom he got it. But he could not find the men again, and soon after
+the house was burned down, and both horse-dealer and wife perished.</p>
+
+<p>The only suggestion from this story is that the mandrake was supposed to
+bring 'devil's luck,' although, if so, it is difficult to understand why
+the <i>erdmanns</i> were so carefully preserved from generation to
+generation. One German writer, Rist, says that he has seen one more than
+a century old, which had been kept in a coffin, on which was a cloth
+bearing a picture of a thief on the gallows and a mandrake growing underneath.</p>
+
+<p>Coles, who wrote The Art of Simpling, in 1656, says the witches use the
+mandrake-roots, 'according to some, or, as I rather suppose, the roots
+of briony, which simple people take for the true mandrake, and make
+thereof an ugly image, by which they represent the person on whom they
+intend to exercise their witchcraft.' But their professions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> must at
+times have been even larger, for it is on record that a witch was
+executed near Orleans, in France, about 1605, who was charged with
+having kept a living mandrake-fiend, having the form of a female ape!</p>
+
+<p>So much for the mandrake, of which, however, a good deal more might be
+said. But what has been said serves to establish that it was identical
+with the mandragora, and with the mandragoras of the Greeks; that it was
+probably also the briony; that superstitions have attached to it in all
+countries and from time immemorial, which ascribed to it occult virtues;
+that the powers it exercised varied a good deal according to locality
+and time, but that two main conceptions have almost universally
+prevailed, viz., that it was a stimulant, and a potent instrument in affairs of the heart.</p>
+
+<p>What, then, is the Soma, or Homa, of the Hindu mythology&mdash;the ambrosia
+of the Indian gods? It has been the subject of much discussion and some
+difference among comparative mythologists. Soma was the chief deity
+among the ancient Hindus&mdash;the author of life, the giver of health, the
+protector of the weak, and the guide to immortality. Once he took upon
+himself the form of man, but was slain by men and braised in a mortar.
+The similarity with the Christian legend is remarkable, and the method
+of death should be borne in mind. After his death, Soma rose in flame to
+heaven, 'to be the benefactor of the world and the mediator between God and man.'</p>
+
+<p>One of the articles of faith with the Hindus,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> therefore, is that they
+must hold communion with Soma, and they are taught thus to pray to him:
+'O Soma! thou art the strength of our heroes and the death of our
+enemies, invincible in war! Fulfil our vows in battle, fight for us!
+None can resist thee; give us superiority! O Soma immortal! May we drink
+to thee and be immortal like thee!' Mr. Baring-Gould says that the whole
+legend of Soma is but the allegorical history of the plant <i>Sarcostemma
+viminalis</i>, which is associated with passionate love 'because of the
+intoxicating liquor which is derived from its juice. It is regarded as a
+godsend. The way in which it is prepared is by crushing it in a mortar;
+the juice is then thrown on the sacrificial flame and so rises to
+heaven.' The same writer tells us that a similar worship prevailed among
+the Iranians, who called the juice Homa, but they did not ferment it,
+and although they ascribed to it divine attributes, they did not make
+Homa a supreme deity. But both with them and with the Hindus, 'the
+partaking of the juice was regarded as a sacramental act, by virtue of
+which the receiver was embued with a portion of the divine nature.'</p>
+
+<p>Another writer, the author of Bible Folklore, says that the 'old Soma
+was the same as the Persian Homa, a brilliant god, who gives sons to
+heroes, and husbands to maidens. The juice of the plant, pounded in an
+iron mortar, is greenish in colour, and is strained through a cloth and
+mixed with the sap of a pomegranate branch; the yellow juice is then
+strained through a vessel with nine holes. Among the Parsees it is
+drunk,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> not as by the Brahmins in large quantities by sixteen priests,
+but in small quantities by the two chief priests, and is thus not intoxicating.'</p>
+
+<p>The symbol is confused with the deity, and 'Soma is at once the
+life-giving spring of the juice of immortality, and the juice itself'&mdash;a
+confusion not without analogy in some of the superstitions narrated of
+the mandrake. But of old Soma was drunk as mead was drunk by the
+Scandinavians, before and after battle. It gave power and good fortune
+as well as light and happiness, and when elevated into a god was
+supposed to be the origin of all creation.</p>
+
+<p>Now, of the <i>Sarcostemma</i> it is to be noted that it belongs to the
+family of <i>Asclepiadace&aelig;</i>, which have all something more or less
+'fleshy' looking about some parts of them, which, like the <i>Apocyne&aelig;</i>,
+were in the old world credited with medicinal properties, and which are
+generally acrid, stimulating, and astringent. There are many poisonous
+members of the family, such as the dog's-bane and wolf's-bane of our own
+country, favourite plants with the enchanters, while the cowplant of Ceylon is of the same species.</p>
+
+<p>In Garrett's Dictionary of India it is stated that the Soma of the Vedas
+is no longer known in India, and the same statement is repeated by many
+writers. It is certainly not indubitable that the <i>Sarcostemma
+viminalis</i> was the plant of wondrous virtues that was deified. On the
+other hand, we find that these ascribed virtues closely resemble those
+attributed to the mandrake, and it is known that the Aryan people
+received many of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> their ideas and superstitions from the old Jewish tribes.</p>
+
+<p>We have seen, further, that belief in the peculiar power of the mandrake
+in certain directions was a settled belief at a very early period of the
+Jewish history, and we thus arrive at the very probable suggestion that
+the original Soma was neither more nor less than the mandrake of Reuben,
+the 'Baaras root' of Josephus, the mandragoras of the Greeks, the moly
+of Homer, the mandragora of Shakespeare, the mandragen of Germany, and
+the mandrake, again, of England.</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h3>
+
+<h4>THE SEA AND ITS LEGENDS.</h4>
+
+<p class='dropcap'><span class="caps">One</span> of the oldest superstitions connected with the sea is undoubtedly
+that which associated peril with the malefic influence of some
+individual on shipboard. We find it in the case of the seamen of Joppa,
+who, when overtaken by a 'mighty tempest' on the voyage to Tarshish,
+said to each other, 'Come and let us cast lots, that we may know for
+whose cause this evil is cast upon us.' The lot, as we know, fell upon
+Jonah, and after some vain wrestling with the inevitable, the men at
+last 'took up Jonah and cast him forth into the sea, and the sea ceased
+from her raging.'</p>
+
+<p>Without offering here any comment on, or explanation of, the Scriptural
+narrative, let us compare it with the following remarkable story, which
+that indefatigable delver after old-world wonders, Charles Kirkpatrick
+Sharpe, reproduced.</p>
+
+<p>Somewhere about midsummer of the year 1480, a ship, sailing out of the
+Forth for a port in Holland, was assailed by a furious tempest, which
+increased to such a remarkable degree for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> mild season of the year,
+that the sailors were overcome with fear, and gave themselves up for
+lost. At length an old woman, who was a passenger by the vessel, came on
+deck and entreated them to throw her overboard as the only means of
+preserving their own lives, saying that she had long been haunted by an
+'incubus' in the shape of a man, from whose grasp she could not free
+herself. Fortunately for all parties there was another passenger on
+board&mdash;a priest&mdash;who was called to the rescue. After a long admonition,
+and many sighs and prayers, 'there issued forth of the pumpe of the
+ship,' says Hollinshed, 'a foul and evil-favoured blacke cloud, with a
+mightie terrible noise, flame, smoke, and stinke, which presentlie fell
+into the sea, and suddenlie, thereupon, the tempest ceassed, and the
+ship passing in great quiet the residue of her journie, arrived in
+safetie at the place whither she was bound.'</p>
+
+<p>There is doubtless some association between this class of superstition
+and the old Talmudic legend, according to which the devils were
+specially angered when, at the creation, man received dominion over the
+things of the sea. This was a realm of unrest and tempest, which the
+devils claimed as belonging to themselves. But, says the legend,
+although denied control of the life that is in the sea, the devils were
+permitted a large degree of power over its waters, while over the winds their rule was supreme.</p>
+
+<p>There is scarcely a current legend or superstition which cannot be
+traced to very remote sources. Thus, in the Chald&aelig;o-Babylonian
+cos<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>mogony there was a Triad which ruled the three zones of the
+universe: the heaven, by Anu; the surface of the earth and the
+atmosphere, by Bel; and the under-world, by Nonah. Now, Nonah is held to
+be both the same as the Assyrian Hea, or Saviour, and as the Noah of the
+Bible. So when Tiamat, the dragon, or leviathan, opens 'the fountains of
+the great deep,' and Anu, 'the windows of heaven,' it is Hea, or Noah, who saves the life of man.</p>
+
+<p>This legend is supposed by M. Fran&ccedil;ois Lenormant to explain an allusion
+in one of the most ancient Accadian manuscripts in the British Museum to
+'the serpent of seven heads, that beats the sea.' This Hydra was the
+type of the destructive water-demon who figures in the legends of all countries.</p>
+
+<p>In the same way, to the Syrian fish deities, Dagon and Artergatis, must
+we look for the origin of our Undines and fish-maidens, and mermaidens.</p>
+
+<p>The 'Nixy' of Germany has by some been supposed traceable to 'Old Nick';
+but this is not probable, since St. Nicholas has been the patron-saint
+of sailors for many centuries. It was during the time of the Crusades
+that a vessel on the way to the Holy Land was in great peril, and St.
+Nicholas assuaged a tempest by his prayers. Since then he has been
+supposed to be the protector of mariners, even as Neptune was in ancient
+times; and in most Roman Catholic countries you will find in seaport
+towns churches dedicated to St. Nicholas, to which sailors resort to
+return thanks for preservation at sea, and to make votive offerings.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>The German Nixy was, no doubt, a later form of the old Norse water-god
+Nikke. You meet with him again, in another form, in Neckan, the
+soulless, of whom Matthew Arnold sings:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'In summer on the headlands<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The Baltic sea along</span><br />
+Sits Neckan with his harp of gold,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And sings his plaintive song.'</span></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>The 'Nixa' along the Baltic coast was once, however, much feared by the
+fishermen. It was the same spirit which appears as the Kelpie in
+Scotland&mdash;a water-demon which caused sudden floods to carry away the
+unwary, and then devoured them.</p>
+
+<p>There was a river-goddess in Germany, whose temple stood at Magdeburg,
+of whom a legend exists that she also once visited earth and went to
+market in a Christian costume, where she was detected by a continual
+dripping of water from the corner of her apron. Generally speaking,
+however, the Nixies may be described as the descendants of the Naiads of
+ancient times, and as somewhat resembling the Russian Rusalkas, of which
+the peasantry live in much dread.</p>
+
+<p>A Russian peasant, it is said, is so afraid of the water-spirits that he
+will not bathe without a cross round his neck, nor ford a stream on
+horseback without signing a cross on the water with a scythe or knife.
+In some parts these water-spirits are supposed to be the transformed
+souls of Pharaoh and his host, when they were drowned, and the number is
+always being increased by the souls of those who drown themselves.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>It is said that 'in Bohemia' fishermen have been known to refuse aid to
+drowning persons lest 'Vodyany' would be offended and prevent the fish from entering the nets.</p>
+
+<p>This 'Vodyany,' however, seems rather a variant of the old Hydra, who
+reappears in the diabolical names so frequently given to boiling springs
+and dangerous torrents. The 'Devil's Tea-kettles' and 'Devil's
+Punch-bowls' of England and America have the same association as the
+weird legends connected with the Strudel and Wirbel whirlpools of the
+Danube, and with the rapids of the Rhine, and other rivers. Curiously
+enough, we find the same idea in The Arabian Nights, when 'The sea
+became troubled before them, and there arose from it a black pillar
+ascending towards the sky, and approaching the meadow, and behold it was a Jinn of gigantic stature.'</p>
+
+<p>This demon was a waterspout, and waterspouts in China are attributed to
+the battles of dragons. 'The Chinese,' says Mr. Moncure Conway, 'have
+canonised of recent times a special protectress against the storm-demons
+of the coast, in obedience to the wishes of the sailors.'</p>
+
+<p>The swan-maidens, who figure in so many legends, are mere varieties of
+the mer-maiden, and, according to the Icelandic superstition, they and
+all fairies were children of Eve, whom she hid away on one occasion when
+the Lord came to visit her, because they were not washed and
+presentable! They were, therefore, condemned to be invisible for ever.</p>
+
+<p>A Scotch story, quoted by Mr. Moncure Conway,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> rather bears against this
+theory. One day, it seems, as a fisherman sat reading his Bible, a
+beautiful nymph, lightly clad in green, came to him out of the sea, and
+asked if the book contained any promise of mercy for her. He replied
+that it contained an offer of salvation to 'all the children of Adam,'
+whereupon she fled away with a loud shriek, and disappeared in the sea.
+But the beautiful stories of water-nymphs, of Undines and Loreleis, and
+mer-women, are too numerous to be even mentioned, and too beautiful, in
+many cases, to make one care to analyze.</p>
+
+<p>There is a tradition in Holland that when, in 1440, the dikes were
+broken down by a violent tempest, the sea overflowed the meadows. Some
+women of the town of Edam, going one day in a boat to milk their cows,
+discovered a mermaid in shallow water floundering about with her tail in
+the mud. They took her into the boat, brought her to Edam, dressed her
+in women's clothes, and taught her to spin, and to eat as they did. They
+even taught her something of religion, or, at any rate, to bow
+reverently when she passed a crucifix; but they could not teach her to
+speak. What was the ultimate fate of this remarkable creature is not disclosed.</p>
+
+<p>Everybody, of course, is familiar with the old sea-legend of the <i>Flying
+Dutchman</i>, whether in stories of phantom ships, or in the opera of
+Wagner. The spirit of Vanderdecken, which is still supposed to roam the
+waters, is merely the modern version of our old friend, Nikke, the
+Norwegian water-demon. This is a deathless<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> legend, and used to be as
+devoutedly believed in as the existence of Mother Carey, sitting away up
+in the north, despatching her 'chickens' in all directions to work
+destruction for poor Jack. But Mother Carey really turns out on inquiry
+to be a most estimable being, as we shall presently see.</p>
+
+<p>'Sailors,' says Brand, in his Popular Antiquities, 'usually the boldest
+Men alive, are yet frequently the very abject slaves of superstitious
+Fear. They have various puerile Apprehensions concerning Whistling on
+Shipboard, carrying a Corpse, etc., all which are Vestiges of the old
+Woman in human Nature, and can only be erased by the united Efforts of Philosophy and Religion.'</p>
+
+<p>It is to be regretted, however, that the good Brand did not devote as
+much attention to the superstitions of sailors as he did to those of some other folks.</p>
+
+<p>As is the case with almost all folk-lore, little variety is to be found
+in the sea superstitions of different nations. The ideas of the
+supernatural on shipboard are pretty much the same, whether the flag
+flown be the Union Jack, the German Eagle, the French Tricolor, the
+American Stars and Stripes, or even the Chinese Dragon. These
+superstitions are numerous, and are tenaciously preserved, but yet it
+would not be fair to say that seamen are, as a class, more superstitious
+than landsmen of their own rank. The great mystery of the sea; the
+uncertainty of life upon its bosom; the isolation and frequent
+loneliness; the wonder of the storms, and calms, and lights&mdash;everything
+connected with a sailor's occupation is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> calculated to impress him with
+the significance of signs and omens.</p>
+
+<p>That mariners do not like to have a corpse on board is not remarkable,
+for many people ashore get rather 'creepy' if they have to sleep in a
+house where lies a dead body. Moreover, the old idea of bad luck which
+led to the throwing overboard of Jonah, is in this case transferred from
+the living to the dead. The objection to whistling is also explainable
+by the time-honoured practice of 'whistling for a wind,' for an
+injudicious whistler might easily bring down a blow from the wrong quarter.</p>
+
+<p>There are some animals and birds which have a peculiar significance at
+sea. The cat, for instance, is generally disliked, and many sailors will
+not have one on board at any price. If there is one which becomes
+unusually frisky, they will say the cat has got a gale of wind in her
+tail. On one part of the Yorkshire coast, it is said, sailors' wives
+were in the habit of keeping black cats to insure the safety of their
+husbands at sea, until black cats became so scarce and dear that few
+could afford to buy one. Although Jack does not like a cat in the ship,
+he will not throw one overboard, for that would bring on a storm.</p>
+
+<p>Miss L. A. Smith, in her book about the Music of the Waters, states that
+a dead hare on a ship is considered a sign of an approaching hurricane;
+and Cornish fishermen declare that a white hare seen about the quays at
+night indicates that there will be rough weather.</p>
+
+<p>The pig is an object of aversion to Japanese<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> seamen, and also to Filey
+fishermen, who will not go to sea if they meet one in the early morning.
+But, indeed, the pig seems to be generally disliked by all
+seafarers&mdash;except in the form of salt pork and bacon.</p>
+
+<p>Rats, however, are not objected to; indeed, it would be useless to
+object, for they overrun all ships. And rats are supposed to leave a
+vessel only when it is going to sink. A Welsh skipper, however, once
+cleared his ship of them without the risk of a watery grave, by drawing
+her up to a cheese-laden ship in harbour. He quietly moored alongside,
+and, having left the hatches open all night, cast off with a chuckle in
+the morning, leaving a liberal legacy to his neighbour.</p>
+
+<p>The stormy petrel is supposed to herald bad weather, and the great auk
+to tell that land is very near. This is true enough as regards the auk,
+which never ventures beyond soundings; but one doubts the truth of the
+popular belief that when the sea-gulls hover near the shore, a storm is at hand. The Scotch rhyme runs:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'Seagull, seagull, sit on the sand;<br />
+It's never good weather when you're on the land!'</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>Mr. Thiselton-Dyer quotes from Sinclair's Statistical Account of
+Scotland, in confirmation of this belief, that in the county of Forfar,
+'when they appear in the fields, a storm from the southeast generally
+follows; and when the storm begins to abate, they fly back to the
+shore.' This does not accord with the present writer's experience of the
+west coast of Scotland, where the sea-gulls frequent the lochs and
+hillsides far inland all the summer.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> Naturally there are storms
+sometimes after their appearance, but just as often fine weather
+continues. As well say that the flocks of these beautiful birds that
+follow in the wake of a tourist steamer, to pick up unconsidered
+trifles, presage sea-sickness to the passengers!</p>
+
+<p>One has heard that in Cornwall sailors will not walk at night along
+portions of the shore where there have been many wrecks, because they
+believe that the souls of the drowned haunt such localities, and that
+the 'calling of the dead' is frequently audible. Some even say that they
+have heard the voices of dead sailors hailing them by name. One can
+readily excuse a timorousness in Jack in such circumstances. Many
+persons besides sailors shrink from localities which have been the
+scenes of murder or sudden death.</p>
+
+<p>Friday is the sailor's pet aversion, as an unlucky day on which to sail
+or begin work. But this is not surprising, when we remember that Friday
+has everywhere more superstition and folk-lore attached to it than any
+other day in the week, originating, perhaps, as Mr. Thiselton-Dyer
+suggests, from the fact that it was the day on which Christ was
+crucified. Lord Byron had the superstitious aversion to Friday; and even
+among the Brahmins no business must be commenced on this day. In
+Lancashire a man will not 'go a-courting on Friday'; and Brand says: 'A
+respectable merchant of the city of London informed me that no person
+will begin any business, that is, open his shop for the first time, on a
+Friday.' The 'respectable merchant' might<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> be hard to find nowadays, but
+still one does not need to go to sailors to find a prejudice against Friday.</p>
+
+<p>Other things which are accounted unlucky by superstitious seamen are: to
+sneeze on the left side at the moment of embarking; to count the men on
+board; to ask fishermen, before they start, where they are bound for; to
+point with the finger to a ship when at sea; to lose a mop or
+water-bucket; to cut the hair or nails at sea, except during a storm.</p>
+
+<p>These are a few of the sea superstitions as preserved in rhyme:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'The evening gray, and the morning red,<br />
+Put on your hat or you'll wet your head.'</div>
+
+<p>(Meaning that it will rain.)</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'When the wind shifts against the sun,<br />
+Trust it not, for it will run.'</div>
+
+<p>(That is, soon change again.)</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'When the sun sets in the clear,<br />
+An easterly wind you need not fear.<br />
+<br />
+'The evening red and morning gray<br />
+Are sure signs of a fine day.'</div>
+
+<p>(A distich not peculiar to followers of the sea.)</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'But the evening gray and morning red<br />
+Makes the sailor shake his head.'</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>This refers to the barometer:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'First rise, after low,<br />
+Indicates a stronger blow.'</div>
+
+<p>And this:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'Long foretold, long last;<br />
+Short notice, soon past.'</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>These, however, are hardly superstitions, but maxims based on
+experience. Of the same character are the following:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 8em;">'In squalls</span><br />
+When the rain's before the wind<br />
+Halyards, sheets, and braces mind.'</div>
+
+<p>Also,</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'When the wind's before the rain<br />
+Soon you may make sail again.'</div>
+
+<p>And</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'When the glass falls low,<br />
+Prepare for a blow;<br />
+When it rises high,<br />
+Let all your kites fly.<br />
+<br />
+'A rainbow in the morning,<br />
+Sailors take warning;<br />
+A rainbow at night<br />
+Is the sailor's delight.'</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>The Manx fishermen have some curious sayings about herrings. Thus the
+common expression, 'As dead as a herring,' is due to them. They say
+also, 'Every herring must hang by its own gills'; and their favourite
+toast is, 'Life to man and death to fish.' They count one hundred and
+twenty-four fish to the hundred, thus: they first sort out lots of one
+hundred and twenty, then add three to each lot, which is called 'warp,'
+and then a single herring, which is called 'tally.' Before shooting the
+nets at sea, every man goes down on his knees at a sign from the skipper
+of the boat, and, with his head uncovered, prays for a blessing on the
+fishing. This, at least, used to be the general practice, but in how
+prevailing at the present day is doubtful.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>The sound of the death-bell is often supposed to be heard at sea before
+a wreck, and this idea may be either associated with the bell-buoy which
+marks many sunken, dangerous rocks, or with the religious ceremonies of
+the old days.</p>
+
+<p>At Malta it is, or was, usual to ring the church bells for an hour
+during a storm 'that the wind may cease and the sea be calmed,' and the
+same custom prevails both in Sicily and Sardinia.</p>
+
+<p>A Cornish legend of the bells of a church, which were sent by ship that
+was lost in sight of the town, owing to the blasphemy of the captain,
+says that the bells are supposed to be in the bay, and they announce by
+strange sounds the approach of a storm.</p>
+
+<p>There is a suggestion of Sir Ralph the Rover in this legend; but,
+indeed, the superstitions of those connected with the sea are so
+interwoven, that it is not easy to disentangle them, and they are
+numerous enough to need a book to themselves. No doubt our mariners
+derived many of them from the old Spanish navigators who once swayed the
+main, for the Spaniards are one of the most superstitious peoples in the world.</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h3>
+
+<h4>MOTHER CAREY AND HER CHICKENS.</h4>
+
+<p class='dropcap'><span class="caps">Who</span> was Mother Carey the appearance of whose 'chickens' is supposed by
+the mariner to foretell a coming storm? This question is often asked,
+but seldom answered, and so a little light on the subject is desirable.</p>
+
+<p>Charles Kingsley gives a very vivid picture of her. In his charming book
+about The Water-Babies, he tells how little Tom, in search of his old
+master, Grimes, is instructed to find his way to Peacepool and Mother
+Carey's Haven, where the good whales go when they die. On his way he
+meets a flock of petrels, who invite him to go with them, saying: 'We
+are Mother Carey's own chickens, and she sends us out over all the seas
+to show the good birds the way home.' So he comes to Peacepool at last,
+which is miles and miles across; and there the air is clear and
+transparent, and the water calm and lovely; and there the good whales
+rest in happy sleep upon the slumbering sea.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>In the midst of Peacepool was one large peaked iceberg. 'When Tom came
+near it, it took the form of the grandest old lady he had ever seen&mdash;a
+white marble lady, sitting on a white marble throne. And from the foot
+of the throne there swam away, out and in, and into the sea, millions of
+new-born creatures, of more shapes and colours than man ever dreamed.
+And they were Mother Carey's chickens, whom she makes out of the sea-water all the day long.'</p>
+
+<p>Now, this beautiful fancy of Kingsley's&mdash;and how beautiful it is can
+only be realized by a reading of the whole story&mdash;is based upon fact, as all beautiful fancies must be.</p>
+
+<p>The fundamental idea of Kingsley's picture is that of a fruitful and
+beneficent mother. And Mother Carey is just the Mater Cara of the
+medieval sailors. Our Mother Carey's chickens are the 'Birds of the Holy
+Virgin,' of the South of Europe, the 'Oiseaux de N&ocirc;tre Dame' of the French seamen.</p>
+
+<p>One reason for associating the petrel with the Holy Mother may possibly
+have been found in its supposed sleeplessness. The bird was believed
+never to rest, to hatch its eggs under its wings, and to be incessantly
+flying to and fro on the face of the waters on messages of warning to
+mariners. Even to this day sailors believe that the albatross, the
+aristocratic relative of the petrel, sleeps on the wing; and the power
+of the albatross, for good and evil, readers of the Ancient Mariner will
+remember. We say for good and evil, because opinion fluctuated. Thus:</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'At length did cross an albatross,<br />
+Through the fog it came;<br />
+As if it had been a Christian soul,<br />
+We hailed it in God's name.'</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>When the mariner with his crossbow did shoot the albatross, the crew said:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'I had done a hellish thing,<br />
+And it would work them woe;<br />
+For all averred I had killed the bird<br />
+That made the breeze to blow.<br />
+"Ah, wretch!" said they, "the bird to slay,<br />
+That made the breeze to blow!"'</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>And once more, when the weather cleared, they changed:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'Then all averred I had killed the bird<br />
+That brought the fog and mist;<br />
+"'Twas right," said they, "such birds to slay,<br />
+That bring the fog and mist!"'</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>Coleridge got his idea from Wordsworth, who got it from a passage in
+Shelvocke's voyages, where a long spell of bad weather was attributed to
+an albatross following the ship.</p>
+
+<p>The poet who sang,</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'Oh, stormy, stormy peterel!<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thou art a bird of woe,</span><br />
+Yet would I thou could'st tell me half<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of the misery thou dost know!'</span></div>
+
+<p>has, however, misunderstood the feeling with which that little harbinger
+is regarded. So have many other persons. The petrel is not a bird of
+woe, but a bird of warning.</p>
+
+<p>The Virgin Mary&mdash;Mater Cara&mdash;was the special protectress of the early
+Christian seamen, just as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> Amphitrite had been the tutelary genius of
+his Greek, and Venus of his Roman, progenitors, and just as Isis, the
+moon goddess, had been the patroness of the Egyptian navigators. The
+Catholic mariner still believes that the Virgin has especial power over the winds and the sea.</p>
+
+<p>At Marseilles is the shrine of the N&ocirc;tre Dame de la Garde, greatly
+venerated by all the Proven&ccedil;al sailors; at Caen is the shrine of N&ocirc;tre
+Dame de Deliverance; at Havre, that of N&ocirc;tre Dame des Neiges. Brand
+tells, in his book of Antiquities, that on Good Friday Catholic mariners
+'cock-bill' their yards in mourning and hang and scourge an effigy of
+Judas Iscariot. The practice still continues, and as recently as 1881 a
+London newspaper contained an account of the ceremony performed on board
+several Portuguese vessels in the London Docks. The proceedings always closed with a Hymn to the Virgin Mary.</p>
+
+<p>In Rome, at the Church of Santa Maria della Navicella, there is a small
+marble ship which was offered by Pope Leo the Tenth in execution of a
+vow after his escape from shipwreck. The first thing done by Magellan
+and his crew after their safe return to Seville was to perform penance
+barefooted, clad only in their shirts, and bearing lighted tapers in
+their hands, at the shrine of Our Lady of Victory. And it is related of
+Columbus, that on safe arrival after a storm at the Azores, 'The Admiral
+and all the crew, bearing in remembrance the vow which they had made the
+Thursday before, to go barefooted, and in their shirts, to some church
+of Our Lady at the first land, were of opinion that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> they ought to
+discharge this vow. They accordingly landed, and proceeded, according to
+their vow, barefooted, and in their shirts, toward the hermitage.'</p>
+
+<p>Countless instances might be cited, but these will suffice to show the
+estimation in which Mater Cara was held by Catholic seamen.</p>
+
+<p>How it came to be supposed that the smaller <i>Procellari&aelig;</i> are only
+visible before a storm is not very apparent. In point of fact, there is
+no more reason for associating the petrel specially with storms than
+there is for the belief expressed in the old Scotch couplet quoted in the last chapter:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'Seagull, seagull, sit in the sand;<br />
+It's never good weather when you're on the land!'</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>As a matter of fact, seagulls do fly far inland in fine weather, and
+especially during ploughing-time. And also, as a matter of fact, the
+petrel lives at sea both in fine weather and foul, because he is
+uncomfortable on land. It is only the breeding season that he spends on
+shore; while the seagull is just as much at home on the land as on the
+sea.</p>
+
+<p>The scientific name of the petrel tribe is <i>Procellari&aelig;</i>, from the Latin
+<i>procella</i>&mdash;a storm. It is a large family, all the members of which are
+distinguished by a peculiar tube-like arrangement of the nostrils. Their
+feet, also, are peculiar in being without any back toe, so that they can
+only with great difficulty rise on the wing from dry land.</p>
+
+<p>Mother Carey's chickens are among the smaller species of this family,
+and they have both a shorter bill and a longer leg than their relatives.
+But all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> the <i>Procellari&aelig;</i> are noted for ranging further from land than
+any other of the sea-birds. Thus they are often visible from ship-board
+when no other animal life can be sighted; and thus it was, doubtless,
+that their appearance suggested safe harbour, and consequent thanks to Mater Cara, to the devout seaman.</p>
+
+<p>Why the petrels are associated with storms is thus not easily explained,
+seeing that they are abroad in all weathers; but a feasible suggestion
+was advanced by Pennant. It is that they gather from the water
+sea-animals which are most abundant before or after a storm, when the
+sea is in a state of unusual commotion. All birds are highly sensitive
+to atmospheric changes, and all sea-birds seem to develop extra activity in threatening and 'dirty' weather.</p>
+
+<p>There is another interesting thing about Mother Carey's chicken, and
+that is, that he is also called petrel, from the Italian 'Petrello,' or
+Little Peter. This is because he is supposed to be able, like the
+apostle, to walk on the water, and as in fact he does after a fashion, with the aid of his wings.</p>
+
+<p>Now, St. Peter, both as a fisherman and for his sea-walking, was always
+a favourite saint with sailors, and was often invoked during storms. He
+was the patron saint of Cortez, as he was also of the Thames watermen.
+There is an old legend that St. Peter went on board a fisherman's boat
+somewhere about the Nore, and that it carried him, without sails or
+oars, to the very spot which he selected as the site for Westminster Abbey.</p>
+
+<p>In the Russian ports of the Baltic there is firm<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> belief in a species of
+water-spirits called Rusalkas, who raise storms and cause much damage to
+the shipping. The great anniversary of these storm-spirits is St.
+Peter's Day. The John Dory is St. Peter's fish, and it is said that the
+spots on each side of its mouth are the marks of the apostle's thumb and
+forefinger. It was called 'janitore,' or doorkeeper, because in its
+mouth was found the penny with which the temple-tax was paid. Now, St.
+Peter also was the doorkeeper of heaven, and from janitore to John Dory was an easy transition.</p>
+
+<p>With fishermen, as was natural, St. Peter was held in high honour; and
+in Cornwall and Yorkshire, until recently, it was customary to light
+bonfires, and to hold other ceremonies, on St. Peter's Day, to signalize
+the opening of the fishing season, and to bespeak luck. An old writer
+says of these customs at Guisboro', in Yorkshire, that:</p>
+
+<p>'The fishermen, on St. Peter's daye, invited their friends and kinfolk
+to a festivall kept after their fashion, with a free hearte, and no show
+of niggardnesse. That day their boats are dressed curiously for the
+showe, their masts are painted, and certain rytes observed amongst them
+with sprinkling their bows with good liquor, which custome or
+superstition, sucked from their ancestors, even continueth down unto this present tyme.'</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps at 'this present tyme' the ceremonies are not so elaborate; but
+survivals of the 'custome or superstition' are to be found yet in our fishing villages.</p>
+
+<p>It is probable that the observers of St. Peter's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> Day do not know the
+origin of their curious customs. It is certain that sailors, as a class,
+do not now know why their favourite little bird is called petrel. We
+have tried to remove the stigma which in modern times has come to rest
+upon Mother Carey's chickens. Let us no longer do them wrong by
+supposing that they are always the harbingers of woe. They have a busy
+and a useful life, and it is one, as we have seen, with tender, even sacred, associations.</p>
+
+<p>It may be recalled as an interesting, although not an agreeable item,
+that in the days of the French Revolution there was a notorious brood of
+Mother Carey's chickens in Paris. They were the female
+rag-tag-and-bobtail of the city, whose appearance in the streets was
+understood to forebode a fresh political tumult. What an insult to our
+feathered friends to bestow their honoured name on such human fiends!</p>
+
+<p>The real Mother Carey is she who appeared to Tom and Ella in Peacepool,
+after they had learned a few things about themselves and the world. They
+heard her voice calling to them, and they looked, crying:</p>
+
+<p>'"Oh, who are you, after all? You are our dear Mrs. Do-as-you-would-be-done-by."</p>
+
+<p>'"No, you are good Mrs. Be-done-by-as-you-did; but you are grown quite beautiful now!"</p>
+
+<p>'"To you," said the Fairy; "but look again."</p>
+
+<p>'"You are Mother Carey," said Tom, in a very low, solemn voice, for he
+had found out something which made him very happy, and yet frightened
+him more than all that he had ever seen.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>'"But you are grown quite young again."</p>
+
+<p>'"To you," said the Fairy; "but look again."</p>
+
+<p>'"You are the Irishwoman who met me the day I went to Harthover!"</p>
+
+<p>'And when they looked again she was neither of them, and yet all of them at once.</p>
+
+<p>'"My name is written in my eyes, if you have eyes to see it there."</p>
+
+<p>'And they looked into her great, deep soft eyes, and they changed again and again into every hue, as the light changes in a diamond.</p>
+
+<p>'"Now read my name," said she at last, and her eyes flashed for one
+moment, clear, white, blazing light; but the children could not read her
+name, for they were dazzled, and hid their faces in their hands.</p>
+
+<p>'They were only water-babies, and just beginning to learn the meaning of love.'</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h3>
+
+<h4>DAVY JONES'S LOCKER.</h4>
+
+<p class='dropcap'><span class="caps">This</span> expression of what may be called nautical slang has now become
+almost classic. At all events, everybody knows it; and most people may
+be presumed to know that to 'go to Davy Jones's Locker' is equivalent to
+'losing the number of your mess,' or, as the Californian miners say,
+'passing in your checks.' Being especially a sea-phrase, it means, of
+course, to be drowned. But how did the phrase originate? And who was
+Davy Jones? These questions must have frequently occurred to many, and
+it is worth while seeking an answer to them. There is an explanation for
+everything, if one only knows how to look for it.</p>
+
+<p>This saying about Davy Jones is a very old one&mdash;so old, that it cannot
+possibly have any reference to the famous Paul Jones. In fact, one hears
+very often of 'Davy's Locker' without any reference to 'Jones' at all.
+Then 'Davy,' again, is a vulgar slang expression for affidavit, but it
+is also used in thief-parlance by way of an oath. 'So help me Davy!' is
+the slang equivalent for the concluding<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> sentence of the oath
+administered in the police-courts with which these gentry are familiar.
+It has thus been inferred that 'Davy' is a slang expression of somewhat
+blasphemous import; but this is by no means certain.</p>
+
+<p>It is much more likely to be associated with, or to have the same origin
+as, the 'Duffy' of the West Indian negroes. Among them Duffy means a
+ghost; and in the vocabulary of the gutter it may easily have been taken
+as the equivalent of soul. The transition from Duffy to Davy is by no means difficult.</p>
+
+<p>But how, then, did the vagabond users of 'flash' language get hold of
+this word? It is probable enough that it was brought home by the sailors
+from the West Indies, and picked up at the docks by the waifs and strays
+of our vast vagrant population. On the other hand, it is just as likely
+that the West Indian negroes picked up 'Duffy' from our own sailors; and
+that, in fact, Duffy is just the nigger contraction of Davy Jones. There
+is certainly a very close connection, both in sound and meaning, between
+the two expressions.</p>
+
+<p>We must go further back and further away, however, to get to the root of
+this matter. And, if we inquire diligently, we shall find our Davy in
+the Deva of the Indian mythology. The original Sanskrit meaning of Deva
+was 'The Shining One,' but in the operation of what has been called 'the
+degradation of Deities' in the Oriental religions, it became synonymous
+with our devil. In fact, we owe the word 'devil' to this same Sanskrit
+root; and it is noteworthy that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> while Deva meant the Good Spirit to the
+Brahmans, it meant the Evil Spirit to the Parsees. In this root we may
+also find the explanation of the gipsy word for God, which, curiously enough, is Devel.</p>
+
+<p>While it is easy to trace the transition from Deva to the sailor's Davy,
+one may note another curious thing. The name of the fabulous Welshman,
+Taffy, the thief, is a corruption of Dyved, which, as signifying an evil
+spirit, is the Cymric form of Deva. This would almost suggest that the
+addition of the apparent surname, Jones, was a Welsh performance. But
+this is only an amusing conjecture, not without a certain aptness.</p>
+
+<p>For the origin of Jones we must look to Jonah, who in nautical history
+is regarded as the embodiment of malevolence at sea. The prophet Jonah
+is not the only one who has been committed to the deep to appease the
+storm-fiends, whose anger his presence was supposed to have aroused. It
+is easy to account for this from the Bible narrative. 'The mariners were
+afraid, and cried every man unto his God. And they said, every one to
+his fellow, "Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose
+cause this evil is upon us." So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon
+Jonah. So they took up Jonah and cast him forth into the sea, and the sea ceased from her raging.'</p>
+
+<p>The superstition of sailors is proverbial, and to this day they believe
+in good or ill luck being brought to a vessel by persons and things. In
+olden times there were many sacrifices to this Jonah superstition; and
+even in comparatively<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> recent times, Holcroft, the actor, on a voyage to
+Scotland, narrowly escaped a watery grave, because the men took him for
+'the Jonas.' And to this day 'He's a Jonah' is an expression often
+enough heard on ship-board applied to some unwelcome passenger.</p>
+
+<p>Here, then, we have the Sanskrit origin of Davy, and the Biblical origin
+of Jones, both words embodying much the same idea to the mind of the primitive seamen.</p>
+
+<p>But what of the 'locker'?</p>
+
+<p>This, of course, is a familiar piece of ship-furniture which it was not
+difficult to transfer to the mythical demon of the deep. Lieutenant
+Bassett thought that the locker might be the whale's belly in which
+Jonah found refuge; but this is hardly in harmony with the meaning of
+the phrase. In the sense in which it is thus used, locker does not mean
+a temporary resting-place or submarine harbour of refuge, but a place of
+final deposit. It is possible, indeed, to find the origin of the word
+locker as here applied in Loki, the personification of evil in the
+Scandinavian mythology. Loki, like Deva, was not always an evil spirit,
+but he became eventually identified with Satan. He became a flame-demon,
+a sort of incarnate spirit of fire.</p>
+
+<p>There is good reason for believing in this theory of the Scandinavian
+origin of the word 'locker' as used in the connection we are
+considering. It is to be remembered that, in olden times, death by
+drowning was even more dreaded than now, because drowned bodies were
+supposed to be de<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>barred from the Resurrection. Going far back, we find
+that the sea was the abode of Typh&oelig;us, who, besides being a
+hurricane-raising, was also a fire-breathing, demon, and was feared as
+the quencher of the sun, who sank at night into his bosom. The legend of
+St. Brandan and his burning islands preserved the idea that Hades was
+very near to the bottom of the ocean. Thus, then, we may readily
+perceive the conception of Loki having his receptacle for drowned
+mariners in the bed of the sea. A belief prevailed long into the Middle
+Ages that the sea-bottom was the abode of many demons, who lay in wait
+for passengers, to drag them down to the infernal depths.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, then, Davy Jones's Locker became, by a mixture of theogonies, 'the
+ocean, the deep sea-bottom, the place to which the body was committed,
+and to which the souls of the wicked fled.'</p>
+
+<p>This meaning is now somewhat modified. Sailors do not, as Smollett says
+they did in his day, regard Davy Jones as the fiend who presides over
+all the evil spirits of the deep, and who is seen in various shapes,
+warning the devoted wretches of death and woe. In fact, it is not Davy
+Jones they think of at all now, but his Locker; for to go to Davy's
+Locker is to be lost at sea and to find a watery grave.</p>
+
+<p>There is, however, a curious survival of the personal element still to
+be traced in some of the sailors' chanties. Take, for instance, that
+remarkable one about 'Burying the Dead Horse,' which still puzzles the
+passengers on board the packets sailing to the Antipodes. Without going
+into<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> the question of the song and its attendant ceremonies just now,
+the following lines may be quoted as bearing on our subject:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'You poor old horse, what brought you here,<br />
+After carrying turf for many a year?<br />
+From Bantry Bay to Ballyack,<br />
+When you fell down and broke your back?<br />
+You died from blows and sore abuse,<br />
+And were salted down for the sailors' use.<br />
+The sailors they the meat despise;<br />
+They turned you over and &mdash;&mdash; your eyes;<br />
+They ate the meat and picked the bones,<br />
+And gave the rest to Davy Jones.'</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>All the offal of a ship is thrown over to Davy Jones&mdash;doubtless because
+there is nothing else to be done with it.</p>
+
+<p>The favourite demon, if one may use the expression, of British sailors
+is now Old Nick, and one may trace his origin even more easily than that
+of Davy Jones. We can follow him through Saxon, German, Danish and
+Norwegian transitions to one of the names of Odin&mdash;Hnickar&mdash;for even
+All-father Odin shared the fate of his Oriental predecessors, and became
+demonized. Others, again, have carried the name Hnickar back still
+further to the Egyptian Nika, the serpent of the lower world, 'the
+Typhonic enemy of the Sun in his night-journey.'</p>
+
+<p>It is to the same root that we owe the Necken of the Baltic, and the
+Nixies&mdash;the water-fays&mdash;of the German legends. It is to the Norwegian
+N&ouml;kke, also, that we owe the Wild Huntsman of the Sea, on which the
+story of the <i>Flying Dutchman</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> and a host of other legends of demon
+vessels and demon mariners are founded.</p>
+
+<p>There is, however, some confusion in the nautical mythology between the
+original Old Nick and the popular Saint Nicholas. This saint became the
+Christian successor of Neptune, as the protector of seamen. 'This
+saintly Poseidon,' says Mr. Conway, 'the patron of fishermen, in time
+became associated with the demon whom the British sailor feared if he
+feared nothing else. He was also of old the patron of pirates; and
+robbers were called "St. Nicholas' clerks."'</p>
+
+<p>It is certainly one of the curiosities of plutology that the patron
+saint of children who is still honoured at Christmas as Santa Claus
+should be the same as the dreaded Old Nick of the seafarers.</p>
+
+<p>These investigations are extremely interesting, and may lead us far; but
+our present purpose is merely to find an explanation of a popular phrase.</p>
+
+<p>It is more difficult to explain a number of other marine personalities,
+who are as lively to-day on shipboard as they were generations ago.
+There is, for instance, old Mister Storm-Along, of whom the chanty-man sings:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'When Stormy died, I dug his grave&mdash;<br />
+I dug his grave with a silver spade;<br />
+I hove him up with an iron crane,<br />
+And lowered him down with a golden chain.'</div>
+
+<p>Who was he? And who was the famous Captain Cottington, of whom it is
+related, in stentorian tones and with tireless repetition, that:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'Captain Cottington, he went to sea,<br />
+Captain Cottington, he went to sea-e-e-e,<br />
+Captain Cottington, he went to sea,<br />
+Captain Cottington, he went to sea-e!'</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>Who, also, was 'Uncle Peleg,' of whom a somewhat similarly exhaustive
+history is chanted? And, still more, who was the mysterious Reuben
+Ranzo, with whose name every fo'cs'le of every outward-bound British or
+American ship is constantly resounding?</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'Pity Reuben Ranzo&mdash;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ranzo, boys, a Ranzo!</span><br />
+Oh, pity Reuben Ranzo&mdash;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ranzo, boys, a Ranzo!'</span></div>
+
+<p>He had a remarkable career, this Reuben, according to the song. He was a
+tailor by trade; went to school on the Monday, learnt to read on
+Tuesday, and by Friday he had thrashed the master. Then he went to sea,
+and, after some ignominious experiences, married the captain's daughter,
+and became himself the captain of a whaler. But who was he? And how does
+he come to exercise such a fascination over all mariners, even unto this
+day?</p>
+
+<p>This is one of the mysteries of the ocean. The sea is covered with
+mystery, and with phantom shapes. Every ship that sails is peopled with
+a crew of dim shadows of the past that none can explain.</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h3>
+
+<h4>SOME FLOWERS OF FANCY.</h4>
+
+<p class='dropcap'><span class="caps">That</span> the lily should symbolize purity seems appropriate enough, but why
+should parsley in olden times have been associated with death? It is
+recorded that a few bundles of parsley once threw a whole Greek army
+into panic, because in Greece the tombs of the dead were strewn with the
+herb. With them 'to be in need of parsley' was equivalent to being
+beyond hope.</p>
+
+<p>The name itself offers little explanation of this superstition, for it
+is derived from the Latin <i>petroselinum</i>, which, again, was taken from
+the Greek name signifying the 'plant of the rocks.' According to the
+myth, however, it sprang from the blood of Archemorus, or Orpheltes, the
+son of Lycurgus, King of Nem&aelig;a. Archemorus was killed by a serpent while
+his foster-mother was showing the soldiers of Adrastus where they might
+find a fountain. On the place where he died there sprang up the parsley,
+which the Greeks, in grief for his loss, wove into chaplets for the
+victors at the Nem&aelig;an games. At these games it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> was always customary to
+deliver a funeral oration in memory of Archemorus, while the
+participators were dressed in mourning. Hence the association of parsley
+with death among the Greeks, and the long-prevailing Western belief that
+the plant is 'unlucky,' is only another instance of the marvellous
+longevity of superstitions.</p>
+
+<p>It is said by Mr. Thiselton-Dyer that in Devonshire to transplant
+parsley is accounted a serious offence against the tutelary spirit of
+the herb, and is certain to be punished within the year by some great
+misfortune. In South Hampshire the country people will never give
+parsley away, for fear of trouble; and in Suffolk it is believed that if
+it be sown on any other day than Good Friday it will not grow double.
+The <i>Folklore Record</i>, some years ago, gave the case of a gentleman near
+Southampton whose gardener refused to sow some parsley-seed when
+ordered, because 'it would be a bad day's work' for him to do so; the
+most he would do was to bring a plant or two, and throw them down for
+the master to pick up if he chose. To give them, however, the man regarded as fatal.</p>
+
+<p>But even to move parsley is regarded in some places to be unlucky, and
+we have heard of a parish clerk in Devonshire who was bedridden, and who
+was popularly supposed to owe his trouble to having moved some
+parsley-beds. There is a similar superstition in Germany, and many
+readers have probably often come across an old saying, that 'Parsley
+fried will bring a man to his saddle and a woman to her grave.' The
+allusion to the saddle is obscure; but it is obvious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> that all the
+superstitious dread of parsley is a survival of the old Greek fable
+immortalized in the Nem&aelig;an games.</p>
+
+<p>That the rose should be associated with death may appear strange to
+some, yet so it was. The Greeks certainly used the rose in their funeral
+rites and for the decoration of their tombs. The Romans used it for
+similar purposes, and often bequeathed legacies for the express purpose
+of keeping their tombs adorned with the flower. Whether it was by them
+that the practice was introduced into England is not capable of direct
+proof, but it is worthy of note that at Ockley, a place where the Romans
+were often located in large numbers, it was a custom of comparatively
+recent experience for girls to plant roses upon the graves of their dead
+lovers. Hence, no doubt, its origin in Gay's riddle:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'What flower is that which royal honour craves,<br />
+Adjoins the Virgin, and 'tis strewn on graves?'</div>
+
+<p>The answer is 'Rosemary,' which, although sometimes understood to mean
+the Rose of the Virgin Mary, is neither a rose, nor is it in any special way associated with the Virgin.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, the rose is associated by most Catholics with the
+Mother of the Saviour, and in Italy especially, during the celebrations
+of May, the rose is abundantly used. By some it has been thought that
+the early association of the rose with death led to the expression
+'under the rose,' applied to anything to be done in secret or silence.
+Others, again, have ascribed the origin of that expression to the
+perfect beauty of the flower,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> which, as language is unable to portray
+it, may be a symbol of silence. Sir Thomas Browne, however, says the
+origin was either in the old custom of wearing chaplets of roses during
+the 'Symposiack meetings,' or else because the rose was the flower of
+Venus, 'which Cupid consecrated unto Harpocrates, the god of silence.'
+There is a basis of probability in both theories, and all know that the
+rose was peculiarly the property of the Goddess of Love. Indeed,
+according to the old fable, the flower was originally white until dyed
+by the blood which flowed from the foot of Venus, pierced by a thorn as
+she ran to the aid of her loved Adonis. Hence Spenser says:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'White as the native rose, before the change<br />
+Which Venus's blood did in her leaves impress.'</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>According to others, however, it was the blood of Adonis which dyed the
+flower. Thus Bion, in his Lament: 'A tear the Paphian sheds for each
+blood-drop of Adonis, and tears and blood on the earth are turned to
+flowers. The blood brings forth the rose, and the tears the wind-flower.
+Woe, woe, for Adonis! he hath perished, the lovely Adonis!' This
+tradition is preserved in the German name, <i>Adonis-blume</i>, which,
+however, is usually applied to the anemone.</p>
+
+<p>The rose being the emblem of love, and love having a natural abhorrence
+of publicity, it is not difficult to conceive the connection with
+silence. It is said that the Romans used to place a decoration of roses
+in the centre of their dining-rooms, as a hint to the guests that all
+that was said at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> banqueting-table was in the nature of 'privileged
+communications,' and in old Germany a similar custom long prevailed. In
+the sixteenth century a rose was placed over confessionals, and the
+inference is that the hint was then well understood.</p>
+
+<p>There was also an obvious meaning in the adoption by the Jacobites of
+this flower as the emblem of the Pretender, to whose service they were
+secretly sworn. It was the white rose that was especially affected by
+the Stuarts, and the Pretender's birthday, the 10th of June, was for
+long known as 'White Rose Day,' much as 'Primrose Day' is now definitely
+associated with the late Lord Beaconsfield. The story of the Wars of the
+Roses is, of course, known to everybody, and how, in consequence of
+these feuds, the rose became the emblem of England, as the thistle is of
+Scotland, and the shamrock of Ireland.</p>
+
+<p>In the East there is even more of poetic significance attached to the
+rose than with us. It is related of Sadi, the Persian poet, that, when a
+slave, he earned his freedom by the adroit use of the flower. One day he
+presented a rose to his master, with the remark, made with all humility,
+'Do good to thy servant whilst thou hast the power, for the season of
+power is often as transient as the duration of this flower.' This was in
+allusion to the Eastern fancy, which makes the white rose the emblem of
+life&mdash;transient and uncertain. In Persia they have a festival called
+'The Feast of the Roses,' which lasts during the blooming of the
+flowers. One of their great works is called The Garden of Roses, and in
+all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> their poems and tales they closely associate the rose with the
+bulbul or nightingale. The belief is that the bird derives his melody
+from the beauteous flower, and they say, 'You may place a handful of
+fragrant herbs and flowers before the nightingale, but he wants nothing
+more than the odour of his beloved rose.'</p>
+
+<p>Thomas Moore seizes, with happy effect, on this legend in Lalla Rookh,
+which poem, indeed, is redolent of roses. But poetry generally is as
+full of the rose as the rose is of poetry, and it would take a volume to
+deal adequately with all the fancies and superstitious associations of
+the queen of flowers. Before quitting the subject, however, we should
+not overlook the Oriental traditions of how the rose received its
+various colours. It is said that when Mohammed was journeying to heaven,
+the sweat which fell from his forehead produced white roses, and that
+which fell from Al Borak produced yellow roses. But an older tradition
+is given by Sir John Mandeville. It is that of Zillah, the beauteous
+maiden of Bethlehem, who, being falsely accused, was condemned to be
+burned alive. At the stake the flames passed over her and shrivelled up
+her accuser, while, on the spot where she stood, sprang up a garden of
+roses&mdash;red where the fire had touched, and white where it had passed.
+'And theise werein the first roseres that ever ony man saughe.'</p>
+
+<p>Reference has been made to the lily as the emblem of purity, but,
+curiously enough, this innocent-looking flower has its baleful superstitions as well.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>In Devonshire it is accounted unlucky to plant a bed of
+lilies-of-the-valley, and to do so is to ensure misfortune, if not
+death, within a year. Yet this flower has always been closely associated
+with the Virgin Mary, and according to one legend, it sprang from some
+of the milk which fell to the ground as she was nourishing the infant
+Jesus. The Greeks, however, had a similar legend, ascribing the origin
+of the flower to a drop of Juno's milk. The Greeks have always made a
+favourite of the lily, and even to this day use it largely in making up
+bridal wreaths, while the sacred significance which Christians have
+found in the flower may be traceable to our Lord's use of it in imagery.</p>
+
+<p>In this connection the legend of the budding lily of St. Joseph may be
+recalled, and also the fact that the medi&aelig;val painters generally
+depicted the Madonna with a lily in her hand. There is a tradition that
+the lily was the principal ornament in the crown of Solomon, and that it
+typified love, charity, purity, and innocence&mdash;a combination of virtues
+hardly to be found in the character of the wise King himself.</p>
+
+<p>Nor must we forget that the sacred flower of the East&mdash;the lotus&mdash;is a
+lily, and that even to name it seems to carry ineffable consolation to
+the Buddhist. Thus, the universal prayer of the Buddhists&mdash;that prayer
+which is printed on slips and fastened on cylinders which are
+incessantly revolving in Thibet&mdash;'Om mani padme hum!' means simply, 'Oh,
+the jewel in (or of) the lotus!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> Amen!' So Sir Edwin Arnold, in The
+Light of Asia:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'Ah, Lover! Brother! Guide! Lamp of the Law!<br />
+I take my refuge in Thy name and Thee!<br />
+I take my refuge in Thy Law of Good!<br />
+I take my refuge in Thy Order! Om!<br />
+The dew is on the lotus. Rise, Great Sun,<br />
+And lift my leaf, and mix me with the wave.<br />
+"Om mani padme hum," the sunrise comes.<br />
+The dewdrop slips into the shining sea!'</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>The lily, or lotus, was held sacred also in ancient Egypt, and the
+capitals of many of the buildings bear the form of an open lotus-flower.
+And naturally, in a land of Buddhism like China, the lotus occupies
+there an important place, both in art, in poetry, and in popular fancy.
+It is recorded that the old Jews regarded the lily, or lotus (<i>Lilium
+candidum</i>), as a protection against enchantment, and it is said that
+Judith wore a wreath of lilies when she went to visit Holofernes, by way of counteractant charm.</p>
+
+<p>The lotus which is the sacred lily of the East must not be confounded
+with the mysterious plant mentioned by Ulysses, and of which Tennyson
+has sung&mdash;the plant of oblivion and sensuousness. That there is an
+element of enchantment about the lily we have seen is still believed in
+our own country, but the association of misfortune with it is not
+universal. On the contrary, in some parts the leaf of the lily is
+supposed to have curative virtues in cases of cuts and wounds, and
+Gerarde, the old herbalist, even says that 'the flowers of
+lily-of-the-valley, being close stopped up in a glass, put into an
+ant-hill, and taken away<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> again a month after, ye shall find a liquor in
+the glass, which being outwardly applied, helpeth the gout.' One hears,
+perhaps, of no modern experiments having been made with this remedy. But
+if not to cure gout, the flower has, it appears, been used to pay rents,
+for Grimm says that some lands in Hesse were held upon the condition of
+presenting a bunch of lily-of-the-valley every year. This, of course,
+would not be the whole burden, and the custom had, no doubt, a religious origin and significance.</p>
+
+<p>The flower is often associated with the sword of justice, and both the
+Dominicans and the Cistercians held it in high honour. It is worth
+noting, too, that some traditions make the lily the favourite flower of
+St. Cecilia, although the popular legend makes the angel bring her a bouquet of roses every night from Paradise.</p>
+
+<p>But how did the lily become the badge of France? One tradition is that
+it was adopted by the French kings because it was the emblem of purity,
+and closely associated with both Christ and Solomon. One old legend has
+it that after one of the great battles of the Crusaders, the French
+banners were found covered with lilies. According to others, the Fleur
+de lys is merely a corruption of Fleur de Luce, or Fleur de Louis, and
+was not a lily at all, but the purple iris, which Louis the Seventh
+adopted for his emblem on his departure to the Holy Land. On the other
+hand, there is a legend that a shield of azure bearing the device of
+three golden lilies was presented by an angel to Clothilde, the wife of
+Clovis, and it is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> claimed that the lily has been the true national
+emblem of France ever since the time of that Sovereign. Whatever the
+origin, however, of Fleur de lys, it certainly means lily now, and the
+Lily of France is a symbol as definite as the Rose of England, as the
+Shamrock of Ireland, or as the Thistle of Scotland.</p>
+
+<p>It is curious how much superstition and romance have clustered round the
+humble clover-leaf. Not one of us, perhaps, but has in childhood spent
+hours in looking for the four-leaved clover that was to bring untold
+luck. What trouble to find it! What joy when found! And what little
+profit beyond the joy of the search! As the old couplet has it, somewhat inconsequently:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'With a four-leav'd clover, double-topp'd ash, and green-topp'd seave,<br />
+You may go before the queen's daughter without asking leave.'</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>The advantage here suggested is not very obvious, but the Devonshire
+people had a more defined idea of the virtue of the double clover, and they state it thus:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'An even-leaved ash,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And a four-leaved clover;</span><br />
+You'll see your true lover<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Before the day's over.'</span></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>But in Cambridgeshire it seems that the two-leaved clover is the object
+of desire, for there the saying goes:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'A clover, a clover of two,<br />
+Put it on your right shoe;<br />
+The first young man you meet,<br />
+In field, or lane, or street,<br />
+You shall have him,<br />
+Or one of his name.'</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>This, while presenting a considerable amount of uncertainty in the
+result has, at least, the merit of presaging something.</p>
+
+<p>In other parts, however, and in more ancient days, the carrying of the
+four-bladed clover was believed to bring luck in play and in business,
+safety on a journey, and the power of detecting evil spirits. In Germany
+the clover was held almost sacred whenever it had two or four blades.
+Now, as to luck, a curious thing is stated by the author of the Plant
+Lore of Shakespeare. He says that clover is a corruption of <i>clava</i>, a
+club, and that to this day we preserve the emblem of luck on our
+playing-cards in painting the suit of clubs. Somehow the etymology does
+not seem very satisfying; but at any rate we all know what 'living in
+clover' means.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, perhaps, everyone does not know that in rural districts the clover
+is looked upon as a capital barometer, the leaves becoming rough to the
+feel when a storm is impending. A writer, quoted by Mr. Thiselton-Dyer,
+says that when tempestuous weather is coming the clover will 'start and
+rise up as if it were afraid of an assault.'</p>
+
+<p>It is probable that the association of good luck with the four-bladed
+clover arose from its fancied resemblance to the cross. Support is given
+to this hypothesis by the traditional origin of the shamrock as the
+badge of Ireland. In the account given of St. Patrick in The Book of
+Days, it is stated that once when the Saint wanted to illustrate the
+doctrine of the Trinity to his pagan hearers, he plucked a piece of the
+common white clover. Now, it seems<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> that the trefoil is called
+<i>shamrakh</i> in Arabic, and was held sacred in Persia. And it is
+remarkable that Pliny says the trefoil is an antidote against the bites
+of snakes and scorpions. It is not by any means certain that the common
+clover was the original shamrock of Ireland; and even to this day many
+claim the title for the wood-sorrel. Still, for fifty years, at any
+rate, the popular belief has been that the trefoil-clover is the plant
+which was plucked by St. Patrick, who drove out the snakes from Ireland,
+who is still her patron-saint, and whose badge is worn to this day.</p>
+
+<p>But how did the name come from Arabia, and what is the connection
+between Pliny's theory and the legend, of St. Patrick's victory over the
+vermin? These remain among the unsolved mysteries of folk-lore.</p>
+
+<p>With the emblem of Scotland&mdash;the thistle&mdash;not so many classical
+associations and active superstitions are to be found, but yet it is not
+devoid of folk-lore. Of course opinions differ as to what was or is the
+true Scotch thistle, but of the several varieties of thistles many
+beliefs are entertained. One variety&mdash;the Carline&mdash;is esteemed in some
+parts as a barometer, as it closes up when rain is approaching. In
+Tartary there is a variety which grows to such a size that it is planted
+for shelter on the windward side of the huts on the Steppes. This
+thistle is called the 'Wind Witch,' because, after the heat of the
+summer is past, the dried portions take the form of a ball, with which
+the spirits are supposed to make merry in the autumnal gales.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>The origin of the name thistle is probably Scandinavian, and associated
+with Thor. The plant was, at any rate, sacred to the Scandinavian god,
+and was believed by the old Vikings to receive the colour of the
+lightning into its blossom, which thereupon became endowed with high
+curative and protective virtues. There was a species of thistle on
+Dartmoor which used to be called Thormantle, and was used in that
+district as a febrifuge. Some writers have said that in Poland some
+infantile disorders are supposed to be the work of mischievous spirits using thistle-seed.</p>
+
+<p>The Lady's Thistle, which some believe to be the true Scotch thistle, is
+one of the many plants associated with the Virgin. The tradition,
+according to Brand, is that the white spots on the leaves are due to the
+falling of some drops of the Holy Mother's milk, a legend we have seen
+to be attached also to the lily. Then the great Emperor Charlemagne's
+name is blended with that of the Carline Thistle, the story being that
+during the prevalence of an epidemic among his troops he prayed to God
+for help. An angel appeared, and indicated, by firing an arrow, a plant
+which would allay the disease. This was the <i>Carlina acaulis</i>, which, of
+course, cured all the sick soldiers, and possibly may have some of the
+febrifuge virtues which the Dartmoor people fancied existed in another
+kind of thistle. Nettle-soup is still a familiar housewife's remedy for some childish ailments.</p>
+
+<p>In some parts of Germany there is a superstition that sores upon horses'
+backs may be cured by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> gathering four red thistle-blossoms before
+daybreak, and placing them in the form of a square upon the ground with
+a stone in the middle. It is not easy to trace the probable origin of
+this belief, but many of the old herbalists mention the thistle as
+efficacious in cases of vertigo, headache, jaundice, and 'infirmities of
+the gall.' Says one, 'It is an herb of Mars, and under the sign Aries.'
+Therefore, 'it strengthens the attractive faculty in man and clarifies
+the blood, because the one is ruled by Mars. The continual drinking the
+decoction of it helps red faces, tetters, and ringworms, because Mars
+causeth them. It helps the plague, sores, boils, itches, the bitings of
+mad dogs and venomous beasts, all which infirmities are under Mars.'
+This same writer agrees with Dioscorides that the root of a thistle
+carried about 'doth expel melancholy and removes all diseases connected
+therewith.' In other words, the thistle was held to possess all the
+virtues now claimed for podophyllum, blue-pill, and dandelion&mdash;a universal antibilious agent!</p>
+
+<p>But how did the thistle become the emblem of Scotland? Well, there are
+as many traditions on the subject as there are opinions as to which
+variety of the plant is the true Scottish thistle. It would be tedious
+here to refer to all, so let us just note that although the <i>Carduus
+Marianus</i>, or the Blessed or Lady's Thistle&mdash;the origin of whose name we
+have given&mdash;is very commonly accepted, so competent an authority on
+Scottish lore as the author of Nether Lochaber rejects both that and all
+other varieties in favour of the <i>Cnicus acaulis</i>, or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> the stemless
+thistle. In doing this, he founds his belief upon the following
+tradition: Once, during the invasion of Scotland by the Norsemen, the
+invaders were stealing a march in the dark upon the Scots, when one of
+the barefooted scouts placed his foot upon a thistle, which caused him
+to cry out so loudly that the Scots were aroused, and, flying to their
+horses, drove back the Danes with great slaughter. Now, this could not
+happen, says Dr. Stewart, with any of the tall thistles, but only with
+the stemless thistle, which has sharp, fine spikes, and grows close on the ground.</p>
+
+<p>This, at least, is as reasonable an explanation as any of the great
+national badge of Scotland. It but remains to add that the first mention
+of the thistle as a national emblem occurs in an inventory of the jewels
+and other effects of James the Third, about 1467, and its first mention
+in poetry is in a poem by Dunbar, written about 1503, to commemorate the
+marriage of James the Fourth with Margaret Tudor, and called The
+Thrissell and the Rois. The Order of the Thistle dates from James the
+Seventh of Scotland and Second of England, about 1687.</p>
+
+<p>And now, as we began with the wreath of parsley, which symbolized death,
+let us end with the crown of orange-blossoms, which, among us, now
+symbolizes the twofold life of the married state. Among the Greeks, the
+brides used to wear garlands of myrtle and roses, because both of these
+plants were associated with the Goddess of Love. In China the orange
+has, from time immemorial, been an emblem of good luck, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> is freely
+used to present to friends and guests. But although the orange is said
+to have been first brought by the Portuguese from China in 1547,
+nevertheless this fruit is supposed to have been the golden apple of
+Juno, which grew in the Garden of Hesperides. As the golden apple was
+presented to the Queen of Heaven upon her marriage with Jupiter, we may
+find here a definite explanation of the meaning attached to the fruit.</p>
+
+<p>But, besides this, it seems that orange-blossom was used centuries ago
+by Saracen brides in their personal decorations on the great day of
+their lives. It was meant to typify fruitfulness, and it is to be noted
+that the orange-tree bears both fruit and blossom at the same time, and
+is remarkable for its productiveness. It is possible, then, that the
+idea of orange-blossom for bridal decoration was brought from the East
+by the Crusaders; but it is uncertain at what date the custom began to
+be followed in England. However introduced, and whether retained as a
+symbol or merely for the exquisite beauty of the flower, it will
+continue to hold its place in the affections of the maiden-bride, to
+whom it seems to sing:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'Honour, riches, marriage-blessing,<br />
+Long continuance and increasing,<br />
+Hourly joys be still upon you,<br />
+Juno sings her blessings on you.'</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h3>
+
+<h4>ROSEMARY FOR REMEMBRANCE.</h4>
+
+<p class='dropcap'><span class="caps">'Doth</span> not Rosemary and Romeo both begin with a letter?' asks Juliet's
+nurse. Yes, but what did she mean by the query, and by the further
+remark that 'Juliet hath the prettiest sententions of it, of you and
+rosemary, that it would do you good to hear it'? For answer we must make
+some search into the beliefs and customs of the past.</p>
+
+<p>Rosemary is the 'Ros-marinus' of the old herbalists, but it is not a
+native of Britain, and there is no exact record of when it was
+introduced here from the South of Europe. Mention of 'Ros-marinus'
+occurs in an Anglo-Saxon vocabulary of the eleventh century, where it is
+translated Feld-madder and Sun-dew. There is some doubt whether this has
+reference to the actual plant now known to us as rosemary, but in no
+case was it the Rose of Mary, as some have supposed. It is not a rose,
+and the 'Mary' is from 'marinus,' or 'maris.' The old English spelling
+was Rosmarin, or Rosmarine; in these forms one finds the word used by
+Gower, and Shenstone, and other old poets.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>In the South of Europe the rosemary has long had magic properties
+ascribed to it. The Spanish ladies used to wear it as an antidote
+against the evil eye, and the Portuguese called it the Elfin plant, and
+dedicated it to the fairies. The idea of the antidote may have been due
+to a confusion of the name with that of the Virgin; but as a matter of
+fact the 'Ros-marinus' is frequently mentioned by old Latin writers,
+including Horace and Ovid. The name came from the fondness of the plant
+for the sea-shore, where it often gets sprinkled with the 'ros,' or dew
+of the sea, that is to say, sea-spray. Another cause of confusion,
+perhaps, was that the leaves of the plant somewhat resemble those of the
+juniper, which in medi&aelig;val times was one of the plants held sacred to
+the Virgin Mary. In the island of Crete, it is said, a bride dressed for
+the wedding still calls last of all for a sprig of rosemary to bring her luck.</p>
+
+<p>And thus we come to find rosemary in close association with both
+marriage and death, just as the hyacinth was, and perhaps still is,
+among the Greeks. It is interesting to trace the connection by which the
+same plant came to have two such different uses.</p>
+
+<p>One of the earliest mentions of rosemary in English literature is in a
+poem of the fourteenth century called 'The Gloriouse Rosemaryne,' which begins thus:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'This herbe is callit rosemaryn,<br />
+Of vertu that is gode and fyne;<br />
+But all the vertues tell I ne can,<br />
+Nor, I trowe, no erthely man.'</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>Nevertheless, the poet proceeds to record at great length many
+astounding virtues, including the restoration of youth to the aged by bathing in rosemary water.</p>
+
+<p>The 'cheerful rosemarie' and 'refreshing rosemarine' of Spenser was once
+a great favourite in England, although now it is hardly allowed garden
+space. Sir Thomas More said: 'I let it run all over my garden walls, not
+only because my bees love it, but because 'tis the herb sacred to
+remembrance, and therefore to friendship: whence a sprig of it hath a
+dumb language that maketh it the chosen emblem at our funeral wakes and in our burial grounds.'</p>
+
+<p>The popularity of the plant was doubtless due to the long-enduring scent
+and verdure of the leaves. It is one of the most lasting of evergreens,
+and the pleasant aromatic odour lingers very long after the leaves have been gathered.</p>
+
+<p>Fragrance and endurance, then, are the characteristics of a plant which
+came to be commonly accepted as an emblem of constancy, and also of
+loving remembrance. Thus it is that Herrick sings of it:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'Grow for two ends, it matters not at all,<br />
+Be't for my bridal or my burial.'</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>Thus it is that we find Friar Laurence over Juliet's body, saying:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'Dry up your tears, and stick your rosemary<br />
+On this fair corse,'</div>
+
+<p>which is certainly not what the nurse meant when she told Romeo of the
+'prettiest sententions.'</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>High medicinal properties were ascribed to the rosemary, so much so that
+old Parkinson writes: 'Rosemary is almost as great use as bayes, both
+for outward and inward remedies, and as well for civill as physicall
+purposes; inwardly for the head and heart, outwardly for the sinews and
+joynts; for civill uses, as all do know, at weddings, funerals, etc., to
+bestow among friends; and the physicall are so many that you might as
+well be tyred in the reading as I in the writing, if I should set down all that might be said of it.'</p>
+
+<p>One of the 'physicall' uses was in stirring up the tankard of ale or
+sack, and at weddings a sprig was usually dipped in the loving-cup to give it fragrance as well as luck.</p>
+
+<p>The virtues of the plant are celebrated in a curious wedding sermon quoted by Hone:</p>
+
+<p>'The rosemary is for married men, the which by name, nature, and
+continued use, man challengeth as properly belonging to himself. It
+overtoppeth all the flowers in the garden boasting man's rule; it
+helpeth the brain, strengtheneth the memory, and is very medicinal for
+the head. Another property is, it affects the heart. Let this
+ros-marinus, this flower of man, ensign of your wisdom, love, and
+loyalty, be carried not only in your hands but in your heads and hearts.'</p>
+
+<p>One does not easily reconcile this laudation with the popular
+superstition that wherever the rosemary flourished there should the
+woman be the ruling power. And to this superstition, be it noted, has
+been ascribed the disfavour into which the plant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> has fallen among
+gardeners since Shakespeare's time.</p>
+
+<p>The medical properties may have been over-rated by old Parkinson, but
+some are recognised even to this day. Thus rosemary is used as an
+infusion to cure headaches, and is believed to be an extensive
+ingredient in hair-restorers. It is also one of the ingredients in the
+manufacture of Eau-de-Cologne, and has many other uses in the form of
+oil of rosemary. It is said that bees which feed on rosemary blossoms
+produce a very delicately-flavoured honey. Perfumers are greatly
+indebted to it. According to De Gubernatis, the flowers of the plant are
+proof against rheumatism, nervous indisposition, general debility,
+weakness of sight, melancholy, weak circulation, and cramp. Almost as
+comprehensive a cure as some of our modern universal specifics!</p>
+
+<p>The medicinal properties of rosemary have been held by some to account
+for its funeral uses. At all events, an ingenious writer of the
+seventeenth century held that the custom of carrying a sprig at a
+funeral had its rise from a notion of an 'alexipharmick' or preservative
+virtue in the herb which would protect the wearer from 'pestilential
+distempers,' and be a powerful defence 'against the morbid effluvias of
+the corpse.' For the same reason, this writer asserts, it was customary
+to burn rosemary in the chambers of the sick, just like frankincense,
+'whose odour is not much different from rosemary, which gave the Greeks
+occasion to call it Libanotis, from Libanos (frankincense).'</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>The hyssop of the Bible is believed by some to be rosemary, and it is
+said that in the East it was customary to hang up a bunch in the house
+as a protection against evil spirits, and to use it in various
+ceremonies against enchantment. Perhaps there was some connection
+between this custom and that of the Greeks referred to by Aristotle, who
+regarded indigestion as the effect of witchcraft, and who used rue as an
+antidote. The dispelling of the charm was just the natural physical action of the herb.</p>
+
+<p>In Devonshire, however, there was a more mystic use for rosemary in
+dispelling the charms of witches. A bunch of it had to be taken in the
+hand and dropped bit by bit on live coals, while the two first verses of
+the sixty-eighth psalm were recited, followed by the Lord's Prayer.
+Bay-leaves were sometimes used in the same manner; but if the afflicted
+one were suffering physically, he had also to take certain prescribed
+medicines. Rosemary worn about the body was believed to strengthen the
+memory and to add to the success of the wearer in anything he might undertake.</p>
+
+<p>It is as an emblem of remembrance that rosemary is most frequently used by the old poets. Thus Ophelia:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'There is rosemary for you, that's for remembrance;<br />
+I pray you, love, remember.'</div>
+
+<p>And in The Winter's Tale:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'For you there's rosemary and rue; these keep<br />
+Seeming and savour all the winter long;<br />
+Grace and remembrance be with you both.'</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>And thus Drayton:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'He from his lass him lavender hath sent,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Showing her love, and doth requital crave;</span><br />
+Him rosemary his sweetheart, whose intent<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Is that he her should in remembrance have.'</span></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>Quotations might be easily multiplied, but the reader will find in
+Brand's Popular Antiquities numerous references to the plant by writers
+of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.</p>
+
+<p>As an emblem of rejoicing, rosemary was also often used. Hone quotes a
+contemporary account of the joyful entry of Queen Elizabeth into London
+in 1558, wherein occurs this passage: 'How many nosegays did her Grace
+receive at poor women's hands? How often times stayed she her chariot
+when she saw any simple body offer to speak to her Grace? A branch of
+rosemary given to her Grace, with a supplication by a poor woman about
+Fleet Bridge, was seen in her chariot till her Grace came to
+Westminster.' The object of the particular floral offering in this case
+is not very obvious, unless as an emblematic tribute to the maiden queen.</p>
+
+<p>Rosemary used to be carried in the hand at weddings, as well as strewed
+on the ground and dipped in the cup. Thus Stow narrates of a wedding in
+1560, that 'fine flowers and rosemary were strewed for them coming
+home'; and Brand cites numerous instances from old plays. In one, 'the
+parties enter with rosemary, as if from a wedding'; and in Beaumont and
+Fletcher's Scornful Lady, the question is asked about a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> wedding, 'Were
+the rosemary branches dipped?' This dipping, moreover, was in scented
+water as well as in the loving-cup, and hence the allusion in Dekker's
+Wonderful Year to a bride who had died on her wedding-night:</p>
+
+<p>'Here is a strange alteration; for the rosemary that was washed in sweet
+water to set out the bridal is now wet in tears to furnish her burial.'</p>
+
+<p>It is on record that Anne of Cleves wore rosemary at her wedding with
+Henry the Eighth; and in an account of some marriage festivities at
+Kenilworth, attended by Queen Elizabeth, there is frequent mention of
+the plant. An idea of how it was sometimes used is given in a
+description of a sixteenth century wedding quoted by the Rev. Hilderic
+Friend: 'The bride being attired in a gown of sheep's russet and a
+kirtle of fine worsted, attired with abillement of gold' (milliner's
+French even then!); 'and her hair, yellow as gold, hanging down behind
+her, which was curiously combed and plaited' she was led to church
+between two sweet boys, with bride-laces and rosemary tied about her
+silken sleeves. There was a fair bride-cup of silver-gilt carried before
+her, wherein was a goodly branch of rosemary gilded very fair, and hung
+about with silken ribands of all colours.'</p>
+
+<p>Coles says that the garden rosemary was called <i>Rosmarinus coronarium</i>,
+because the women made crowns and garlands of it. Ben Jonson says that
+it was customary for the bridesmaids to present the bridegroom next
+morning with a bunch of rosemary. And Brand says that as late as 1698<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>
+the custom still prevailed in England of decking the bridal bed with sprigs of rosemary.</p>
+
+<p>In Jonson's Tale of a Tub, one of the characters assembled to await the
+intended bridegroom says: 'Look an' the wenches ha' not found un out,
+and do present un with a van of rosemary and bays, enough to vill a
+bow-pott or trim the head of my best vore-horse; we shall all ha'
+bride-laces and points, I see.' And again, a country swain assures his
+sweetheart at their wedding: 'We'll have rosemary and bayes to vill a
+bow-pott, and with the same I'll trim the vorehead of my best
+vore-horse'&mdash;so that it would seem the decorative use was not confined to the bride, the guests, and the banquet.</p>
+
+<p>As a love-charm the reputation of rosemary seems to have come from the South. There is an old Spanish proverb which runs:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'Who passeth by the rosemarie,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And careth not to take a spray,</span><br />
+For woman's love no care has he,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nor shall he, though he live for aye.'</span></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>Mr. Thiselton-Dyer says that rosemary is used in some parts of the
+country, as nut-charms are on Halloween, to foretell a lover; only, St.
+Agnes' Eve is the occasion on which to invoke with a sprig of rosemary,
+or thyme, with this formula:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'St. Agnes, that's to lovers kind,<br />
+Come, ease the troubles of my mind.'</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>For love-potions, decoctions of rosemary were much employed.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>As to funereal uses, those who are familiar with Hogarth's drawings will
+remember one of a funeral party with sprigs of rosemary in their hands.
+Misson, a French traveller (<i>temp.</i> William the Third), thus describes
+English funeral ceremonies: 'When they are ready to set out, they nail
+up the coffin, and a servant presents the company with sprigs of
+rosemary. Everyone takes a sprig and carries it in his hand till the
+body is put into the grave, at which time they all throw their sprigs in after it.' Hence Gay:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'To show their love, the neighbours far and near,<br />
+Follow'd with wistful looks the damsel's bier;<br />
+Sprigg'd rosemary the lads and lasses bore,<br />
+While dismally the parson walk'd before.<br />
+Upon her grave the rosemary they threw.'</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>Whether the fact that the rosemary buds in January has anything to do
+with its funereal uses admits of conjecture, as Sir Thomas Browne would
+say; but that fact was certainly present to the writer of the following
+verses, which were worthily rescued by Hone from a 'fugitive copy,'
+although the writer's name has been lost:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'Sweet-scented flower! who art wont to bloom<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">On January's front severe,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And o'er the wintry desert drear</span><br />
+To waft thy waste perfume!<br />
+Come, thou shalt form my nosegay now,<br />
+And I will bind thee round my brow;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And, as I twine the mournful wreath,</span><br />
+I'll weave a melancholy song,<br />
+And sweet the strain shall be, and long&mdash;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The melody of death.</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span><br />
+'Come, funeral flower! who lov'st to dwell<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">With the pale corse in lonely tomb,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And throw across the desert gloom</span><br />
+A sweet decaying smell.<br />
+Come, pressing lips, and lie with me<br />
+Beneath the lonely alder-tree,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And we will sleep a pleasant sleep,</span><br />
+And not a care shall dare intrude<br />
+To break the marble solitude,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">So peaceful and so deep.</span><br />
+<br />
+'And hark! the wind-god, as he flies,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Moans hollow in the forest trees,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And, sailing on the gusty breeze,</span><br />
+Mysterious music dies.<br />
+Sweet flower! the requiem wild is mine.<br />
+It warns me to the lonely shrine&mdash;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The cold turf-altar of the dead.</span><br />
+My grave shall be in yon lone spot,<br />
+Where, as I lie by all forgot,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">A dying fragrance thou wilt o'er my ashes shed.'</span></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>In South Wales, in Cheshire, and in Bucks, the custom still obtains,
+according to Mr. Hilderic Friend, for each mourner to carry a sprig of
+rosemary to the grave, into which it is thrown. For weddings, rosemary
+was dipped in scented water, but for funerals in plain water. Hence the
+reference in an old play, quoted by Hone:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">'If there be</span><br />
+Any so kind as to accompany<br />
+My body to the earth, let them not want<br />
+For entertainment. Prythee, see they have<br />
+A sprig of rosemary, dipp'd in common water,<br />
+To smell at as they walk along the streets.'</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>In Dekker's Wonderful Year there is a description of a charnel-house
+pavement strewed with withered rosemary, hyacinth, cypress, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> yew.
+During the Plague rosemary was in such demand for funerals that, says
+Dekker, what 'had wont to be sold for twelvepence an armfull went now at
+six shillings a handfull.' Certainly a remarkable rise. What the price
+was in 1531 we know not; but in an account of the funeral expenses of a
+Lord Mayor of London, who died in that year, appears an item, 'For
+yerbes at the bewyral &pound;0 1 0'&mdash;which presumably refers to rosemary.</p>
+
+<p>'Cypresse garlands,' wrote Coles, 'are of great account at funeralls
+among the gentiler sort; but Rosemary and Bayes are used by the commons
+both at funeralls and weddings. They are all plants which fade not a
+good while after they are gathered and used, as I conceive, to intimate
+unto us that the remembrance of the present solemnity might not die
+presently, but be kept in minde for many yeares.'</p>
+
+<p>We have now seen something of the many significations of rosemary, and
+find an explanation of why the same plant was used for both weddings and
+funerals, in the fact that it emblemised remembrance by its evergreen
+and fragrant qualities. One may have doubts about the truth of the story
+of the man of whom it is recorded that he wanted to be married again on
+the day of his wife's funeral because the rosemary which had been used
+at her burial would come in usefully and economically for the wedding
+ceremony. But if the story is too good to be true, there is suggestion
+enough in the circumstance referred to by Shakespeare, that</p>
+
+<div class="poem">'Our bridal flowers serve for a buried corpse.'</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h3>
+
+<h4>HERB OF GRACE.</h4>
+
+<p class='dropcap'><span class="caps">Why</span> did Ophelia say: 'There's rue for you, and here's some for me; we
+may call it herb grace o' Sundays, for you must wear your rue with a
+difference'? For the same reason that Perdita says, in The Winter's
+Tale, when welcoming the guests of her reputed father and the shepherd:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 7em;">'Reverend sirs,</span><br />
+For you there's rosemary and rue; these keep<br />
+Seeming and savour all the winter long;<br />
+Grace and remembrance be to you both,<br />
+And welcome to our shearing.'</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>Remembrance, as we have already seen in the last chapter, was symbolized
+by the rosemary, and by both Ophelia and Perdita the rue is taken as the
+symbol of grace. How this came to be is what we have now to consider;
+but perhaps Mr. Ellacombe, author of Plant-Lore of Shakespeare, is
+stretching rather far in suggesting that the rue was implied by Antony,
+when he used the word 'grace' in addressing the weeping<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> followers
+(Antony and Cleopatra, Act IV., Scene 2) thus:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">'Grace grow where these drops fall.'</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>What Ophelia said was: 'There's rosemary, that's for remembrance. Pray,
+love, remember. And there is pansies, that's for thought. There's fennel
+for you, and columbines. There's rue for you, and here's some for me. We
+may call it herb-grace o' Sundays. Oh! you may wear your rue with a difference.'</p>
+
+<p>There was a method in her madness, and she was distributing her flowers
+according to the characters and moods of the recipients. Fennel, for
+instance, emblemised flattery, and columbine ingratitude. Rue emblemised
+either remorse or repentance&mdash;either sorrow or grace&mdash;so 'you may wear your rue with a difference.'</p>
+
+<p>So we find the gardener in Richard II. saying, after the departure of the anxious Queen:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'Here she did fall a tear; here in this place<br />
+I'll set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace;<br />
+Rue, even for ruth, here shortly shall be seen,<br />
+In the remembrance of a weeping Queen.'</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>The herb was believed to be endowed with high moral and medicinal
+properties, yet was supposed to prosper better in one's garden if stolen
+from that of a neighbour. But originally it was associated with sorrow
+and pity. The word rue is doubtless of the same root as 'ruth,' and to
+rue is to be sorry for, to have remorse. Ruth is the English equivalent
+of the Latin <i>ruta</i>, and in early English appeared as 'rude.' As regret
+is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> always more or less a mark of repentance, it was the most natural
+thing in the world for the herb of ruth, or sorrow, to become the herb
+of repentance; and as repentance is a sign of grace, so rue became known
+as 'herb of grace.' This, in brief, is the connection, but it is worth
+noting in passing that rue is only once mentioned in the Bible, and then
+only along with a number of other bitter herbs, and without any special significance.</p>
+
+<p>There is this association between rue and rosemary, that both are
+natives of some of the more barren coasts of the Mediterranean, and that
+both were very early admitted to the English herb-garden. The old
+herbalists make frequent mention of rue, and even in Anglo-Saxon times
+it seems to have been extensively used in medicine. Three
+peculiarities&mdash;a strong, aromatic smell, a bitter taste, and a
+blistering quality in the leaves&mdash;were quite sufficient to establish it in the pharmacop&oelig;ia of the herb doctors.</p>
+
+<p>The curative qualities of what Spenser calls the 'ranke-smelling rue'
+were reputedly of a very varied sort. Most readers will remember the reference in Paradise Lost:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'Michael from Adam's eyes the film removed,<br />
+Which the false fruit which promised clearer sight<br />
+Had bred; then purged with euphraie and rue<br />
+The visual nerve, for he had much to see.'</div>
+
+<p>And perhaps its most popular use was as an eyewash. The old writers have
+recorded some hidden virtues known only to the animal world, such as
+that weasels prepared themselves for a rat-fight by a diet of rue. Old
+Parkinson, the herbalist, says<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> that 'without doubt it is a most
+wholesome herb, although bitter and strong.' He speaks of a 'bead-rowl'
+of the virtues of rue, but warns people of the 'too frequent or over-much use thereof.'</p>
+
+<p>As both a stimulant and a narcotic the plant has even now recognised
+virtues, and is not without its uses in modern medicine. The Italians
+are said to eat the leaves in salad, but hardly of that species&mdash;<i>Ruta
+montana</i>&mdash;which botanists say it is dangerous to handle without gloves.
+Our garden species is <i>Ruta graveolens</i> and is used by the French
+perfumers in the manufacture of 'Thieves Vinegar,' or 'Marseilles
+Vinegar,' once accounted an effective protection against fevers and all infectious diseases.</p>
+
+<p>A curious instance of the value of the herb in this respect occurred in
+1760. In the summer of that year a rumour arose, and rapidly spread in
+London, that the plague had broken out in St. Thomas's Hospital.
+Immediately there was what would nowadays be called a 'boom' in rue, the
+price of which rose forty per cent. in a single day in Covent Garden. To
+allay the popular alarm a manifesto was issued, signed by the
+physicians, surgeons, and apothecaries of the hospital, certifying that
+there were no other than the 'usual' diseases among the patients in the wards.</p>
+
+<p>Another explanation of the origin of the name 'herb of grace' has been
+given than that referred to above. Warburton, among others, thinks that
+the name was adopted because the old Romanists used the plant on Sundays
+in their 'exorcisms.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> However this may be, rue, or the herb of grace,
+has been in this country long accounted an antidote of witchcraft. But
+then, so it was in the days of Aristotle, before it became 'herb of
+grace,' and when it was hung round the neck as an amulet. The fact is,
+however, that rue became an antidote of witchcraft because it had become a noted implement in enchantment.</p>
+
+<p>Through its numerous reputed properties, rue early found its way into the magic cauldron.</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'Then sprinkles she the juice of rue,<br />
+With nine drops of the midnight dew,<br />
+From lunary distilling,'</div>
+
+<p>as Drayton has it. In this incantation, again, we have the association
+with moonwort; and the connection is further illustrated in an old
+oracle ascribed to Hecate: 'From a root of wild rue fashion and polish a
+statue; adorn it with household lizards; grind myrrh, gum, and
+frankincense with the same reptiles, and let the mixture stand in the
+air during the waning of a moon; then address your words.'</p>
+
+<p>With regard to the association with moonwort, it is interesting to
+recall that this is one of the plants supposed to be employed by birds
+for opening nests and removing impediments. Thus in an anecdote gravely
+related to Aubrey, we find this virtue mentioned: 'Sir Bennet Hoskins
+told me that his keeper at his parke at Morehampton, in Herefordshire,
+did for experiment's sake drive an iron naile thwart the hole of a
+woodpecker's nest, there being a tradition that the dam will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> bring some
+leafe to open it. He layed at the bottom of the tree a cleane sheet, and
+before many houres passed, the naile came out, and he found a leafe
+lying by it on the sheete. They say the Moonwort will doe such things.'</p>
+
+<p>On the same subject Coles, the botanist, writes: 'It is said, yea, and
+believed, that Moonwort will open the locks wherewith dwelling-houses
+are made fast, if it be put into the keyhole.' And Culpeper, the
+herbalist, writes thus: 'Moonwort is a herb which, they say, will open
+locks and unshoe such horses as tread upon it. This some laugh to scorn,
+and these no small fools neither; but country people that I know call it
+Unshoe-the-horse. Besides, I have heard commanders say that on White
+Down in Devonshire, near Tiverton, there were found thirty horseshoes
+pulled off from the feet of the Earl of Essex's horses, being there
+drawn up in a body, many of them being newly shod, and no reason known,
+which caused much admiration.' As well it might! This power of the
+moonwort is said to be still believed in in Normandy, and a similar
+virtue was also ascribed to the vervain and the mandrake, both associated with rue.</p>
+
+<p>This curious property of moonwort it is which is referred to in Divine Weekes thus:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'Horses that, feeding on the grassy hills,<br />
+Tread upon moonwort with their hollow heels,<br />
+Though lately shod, at night go barefoot home,<br />
+Their maister musing where their shoes become.<br />
+Oh, moonwort! tell me where thou hid'st the smith,<br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>Hammer and pinchers, thou unshodd'st them with?<br />
+Alas! what lock or iron engine is't<br />
+That can the subtle secret strength resist?<br />
+Still the best farrier cannot set a shoe<br />
+So sure but thou, so shortly, canst undo.'</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>The old alchemists, however, had a more profitable use for moonwort than
+the unshoeing of horses; they employed it for converting quicksilver
+into pure silver, at a time when that metal was neither 'degraded' nor 'depreciated.'</p>
+
+<p>There is an old and pleasant belief, of which John Ruskin makes
+effective use in driving home one of his morals, that flowers always
+bloom best in the gardens of those who love them. One could easily find
+a rationalistic explanation of this sentiment, of course, but it is akin
+to a superstition entertained in some parts that wherever the moonwort
+flourishes the owner of the garden is honest.</p>
+
+<p>The ingredients thrown into the mystic cauldron by European sorcerers
+were in close imitation of those of the ancient alchemists. Moncure
+Conway has pointed out that among the ingredients used by English and
+Scotch witches were plants gathered, as in Egypt, at certain seasons or
+phases of the moon. Chief among such plants were rue and vervain. The
+Druids called vervain the 'Holy herb,' and gathered it when the dog-star
+rose, placing a sacrifice of honey in the earth from which they removed it.</p>
+
+<p>In old Greece and Rome vervain was sacred to the god of war, and in
+Scandinavia it was also sacred to Thor. It was, moreover, carried by
+ambassadors of peace, and was supposed to preserve from lightning any
+house decorated with it. In<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> later times it was believed that a
+decoction of vervain and rue, mixed, had such a remarkable effect on
+gun-metal that anyone using a gun over which the liquid had been poured
+would shoot 'as straight as a die.' This may be news to our modern musketry instructors.</p>
+
+<p>Had this belief, one may wonder, anything to do with the special effect
+on the eye always supposed to be possessed by rue? Its virtue as an
+eye-salve, at any rate, may explain how it came to be regarded as
+capable of bestowing the 'second sight.' To this day, in the Tyrol it is
+still believed to confer fine vision. If hallucinations were, as Moncure
+Conway assumes, the basis of belief in second sight, then we can
+understand the reputed virtues of rue in its narcotic qualities. We have
+seen how it came to be called 'herb of grace,' yet some think it got
+this name through being used in witchcraft by exorcists to try the devil.</p>
+
+<p>Speculating on why herbs and roots should have been esteemed magical,
+Mr. Andrew Lang concludes that it is enough to remember that herbs
+really have medicinal properties, and that untutored people invariably
+confound medicine with magic. Thus it was easy to suppose that a plant
+possessed virtue not only when swallowed, but when carried in the hand.
+The same writer examines the theory that rue was the Homeric moly, which
+in a former chapter we identified with the mandrake. But Lang rejects
+that theory, and says that rue was called 'herb of grace' and was used
+for sprinkling holy water because in pre-Christian times it had been
+supposed to have effect against the powers of evil.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> The early
+Christians were thus just endeavouring to combine the old charm of rue with the new potency of holy water.</p>
+
+<p>'Euphrasy and rue,' says Lang, 'were employed to purge and purify mortal
+eyes. Pliny is very learned about the magical virtues of rue. Just as
+the stolen potato is sovran for rheumatism, so "rue stolen thriveth the
+best." The Samoans think that their most valued vegetables were stolen
+from heaven by a Samoan visitor. It is remarkable that rue, according to
+Pliny, is killed by the touch of a woman, in the same way as, according
+to Josephus, the mandrake is tamed. These passages prove that the
+classical peoples had the same extraordinary superstitions about women
+as the Bushmen and Red Indians. Indeed, Pliny describes a magical manner
+of defending the crops from blight by aid of women, which is actually
+practised in America by the red-man.'</p>
+
+<p>Although rue was found in the witches' cauldron, it is also to be found
+as a popular specific against the blight of witchcraft. Concerning this,
+however, Moncure Conway says that 'the only region on the Continent
+where any superstition concerning rue is found resembling the form it
+assumed in England as affecting the eye is in the Tyrol, where it is one
+of five plants&mdash;the others being broom-straw, agrimony, maidenhair, and
+ground-ivy&mdash;which are bound together, and believed, if carried about, to
+enable the bearer to see witches, or if laid over the door, to keep any
+witch who shall seek to enter fastened on the threshold.'</p>
+
+<p>In Scandinavia and North Germany, St. John's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> wort was used in much the
+same way for the same purpose.</p>
+
+<p>As to the vervain, which we have seen to be associated with rue, this is
+a plant the use of which against witchcraft was more widely distributed,
+just as its medical virtues were also more extensively known. The
+vervain, indeed, was a sacred plant among the Greeks, as well as among
+the Druids, who gathered it with solemn religious ceremonies, as they
+did the sacred mistletoe. Vervain was most esteemed, however, as a love
+potion, but the connection between its virtues in this respect, and its
+power over witches and spirits of evil, opens up a branch of inquiry
+away from our present purpose.</p>
+
+<p>We speak of vervain in connection with rue, because it was the 'holy
+herb,' just as rue was the 'herb of grace.' Not only was the vervain
+sacred among the early Druids, but it acquired an early sanctity among
+Christians. Thus the legend runs:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'All hail, thou holy herb, vervain,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Growing on the ground;</span><br />
+On the Mount of Calvary<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">There wast thou found!</span><br />
+Thou helpest many a grief,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And staunchest many a wound;</span><br />
+In the name of sweet Jesu,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I lift thee from the ground.'</span></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>Mr. Thiselton-Dyer says that a wreath of vervain is now presented to
+newly-married brides in Germany, but whether this is a survival of the
+sanctity of the plant, or of its ancient reputation as a love-philtre and charm, is not very clear.</p>
+
+<p>It is to be feared that vervain has sadly fallen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> out of favour in this
+country, although not many years ago a pamphlet was written to recommend
+the wearing of vervain tied by white satin ribbon round the neck, as
+preservative against evil influences and infection.</p>
+
+<p>'On the Continent'&mdash;rather a wide term&mdash;Mr. Hilderic Friend says, 'the
+three essential plants for composing a magic wreath are rue,
+crane's-bill, and willow.' The crane's-bill is the Herb Robert, or Robin
+Hood, and the willow has always been connected with lovers. Such a
+wreath, then, is made by lovers when they wish to see their 'fate.'
+Love-sick maidens will employ such a wreath to find out how long they
+have yet to remain single. They walk backwards towards some selected
+tree, and as they walk throw the wreath over their heads until it
+fastens on one of the branches. Failure to 'catch on' requires another
+backward walk, and so on&mdash;each failure to buckle the tree counting as a
+year of spinsterhood. It seems rather an awkward way of getting at the
+future, but if not more blind than other processes of love divination,
+would at least require the guarantee of the absence of tight-lacing
+among the maidens practising it.</p>
+
+<p>Aristotle mentions the use made by the Greeks of rue as a charm against
+evil spirits, and he accounts for it, somewhat singularly, by the habit
+of the Greeks in not sitting down to table with strangers. The
+explanation is, that when they ate with strangers they were apt to
+become excited and nervous, and so to eat too rapidly, with the result
+of flatulence and indigestion. These effects<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> were equivalent to
+bewitchment, as, indeed, disorders of the digestive organs are
+frequently regarded by many Eastern peoples even to this day. As rue was
+found to be an effectual antidote to these distressing symptoms, it
+became a charm against enchantment.</p>
+
+<p>Among many old-wife recipes for the cure of warts is the use of rue. Most people know the old folk-jingle:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'Ashen tree, ashen tree,<br />
+Pray bury these warts of me,'</div>
+
+<p>which has to be accompanied by the thrust of a pin into the bark of the
+tree. The idea was doubtless to extract the sap, for the application of
+thistle-juice and the juice of the ranunculus are said to prove
+efficacious in removing warts. In Devonshire they use the juice of an
+apple, but in some parts of the country rue is preferred. Other
+wart-curing plants are the spurge, the poppy, the celandine, the marigold, the briony, and the crowfoot.</p>
+
+<p>As old Michael Drayton remarked:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'In medicine, simples had the power<br />
+That none need then the planetary hour<br />
+To helpe their workinge, they so juiceful were.'</div>
+
+<p>There is a substratum of truth in this, although it requires a wide
+stretch of imagination, as well as a profundity of faith, to believe
+that consumption can be cured by passing the body of the patient three
+times through a wreath of woodbine cut during the increase of the March
+moon. Yet to this day some French peasants believe that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> curative
+properties of vervain are most pronounced when the plant is gathered,
+with proper invocations, at a certain phase of the moon.</p>
+
+<p>The notion that animals are acquainted with the medical properties of
+plants is an old one, probably older than either Pliny or Aristotle. Our
+own Gerarde, the herbalist, tells that the name celandine was given to
+that flower (which Wordsworth loved) from a word meaning swallow,
+because it is used by swallows to 'restore sight to their young ones when their eyes be put out.'</p>
+
+<p>Then Coles, the old botanist, also writes: 'It is known to such as have
+skill of Nature what wonderful care she hath of the smallest creatures,
+giving to them a knowledge of medicine to help themselves, if haply
+diseases are among them. The swallow cureth her dim eyes with Celandine:
+the wesell knoweth well the virtue of Herb Grace: the dove the verven:
+the dogge dischargeth his mawe with a kind of grass: and too long it
+were to reckon up all the medicines which the beasts are known to use by Nature's direction only.'</p>
+
+<p>A Warwickshire proverb runs to this effect:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'Plant your sage and rue together,<br />
+The sage will grow in any weather,'</div>
+
+<p>the meaning of which is not very clear&mdash;but obscurity is a common
+complaint of rhymed proverbs. Another rhyme, however, in which rue
+appears, has a more practical note:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'What savour is better, if physicke be true,<br />
+For places infected, than wormwood and rue?'</div>
+
+<p>Rue, indeed, seems to have been in special request<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> as a disinfectant
+long before carbolic acid was invented, or Condy heard of, yet, perhaps,
+containing the germ of the idea materialised in 'Sanitas.' For
+disinfecting purposes wormwood and rue were used sometimes together, and sometimes separately.</p>
+
+<p>The connection between plants and heraldic badges is often close, and
+although we do not find rue frequent in heraldry, one curious instance
+of it is interesting. In 809 an Order was created whereof the collar was
+made of a design in thistles and rue&mdash;the thistle because 'being full of
+prickles is not to be touched without hurting the skin,' rue because it 'is good against serpents and poison.'</p>
+
+<p>Here we have a suggestion of the lizards of the old oracle quoted above.</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h3>
+
+<h4>THE ROMANCE OF A VEGETABLE.</h4>
+
+<p class='dropcap'><span class="caps">There</span> used to be a popular acrostic the foundation of which is the
+subject of much speculation. It turned upon two lines of Scott's famous poem, and ran thus:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'"Charge, Chester, charge!<br />
+On, Stanley, on!"<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Were the last words of Marmion.</span><br />
+Were I in gallant Stanley's place,<br />
+When Marmion urged him to the chase,<br />
+A word you then would all espy,<br />
+That brings a tear to every eye.'</div>
+
+<p>The answer is 'Onion,' and the speculation which results is: Why does a raw onion make the eyes water?</p>
+
+<p>The Greeks, being aware of this characteristic, called the onion
+<i>kromuon</i>; and when they ate it raw, they prudently closed their eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Shakespeare's players in the Taming of the Shrew knew all about it:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'If the boy have not a woman's gift,<br />
+To rain a shower of commanded tears,<br />
+An onion will do well for such a shift,<br />
+Which in a napkin, being close conveyed,<br />
+Shall in despite enforce a watery eye.'</div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span>So did Lafeu:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">'Mine eyes smell onions, I shall weep anon.'</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>So also did Domitius Enobarbus, who comforted Antony, on reporting the
+death of Fulvia, by saying, 'Indeed, the tears live in an onion that
+should water this sorrow,' and who called himself 'onion-eyed' when the
+Roman addressed his followers before the battle.</p>
+
+<p>The fact, then, has been known for centuries, but the explanation only
+since chemistry came to be applied to matters of common life. The onion
+belongs to the genus <i>Allium</i>, all the species of which possess a
+peculiar, pungent, acrid juice, with a powerful odour. The garlic has a
+stronger smell than the onion, but the onion has more of the volatile
+oil which all the members of the genus possess.</p>
+
+<p>The constituents which make the genus valuable as food are: albumen,
+sugar, mucilage, phosphate of lime, and certain salts. All the members
+of the onion tribe yield a heavy volatile oil when distilled with
+water&mdash;an oil so pungent and concentrated that an ounce of it will
+represent the essence of forty pounds of garlic. This oil is a compound
+of sulphur, carbon, and hydrogen, and is called sulphide of allyl,
+because of its origin in the allium tribe. It is the more volatile,
+sulphurous fumes of this oil which ascend as an onion is cut that cause
+the eyes to water, just as sulphur fumes do anywhere. It is the less
+volatile portion of the oil which gives such permanence and adhesiveness
+to the onion odour as to render a knife that has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> been used to cut one
+offensive for a long time afterwards, in spite of washing.</p>
+
+<p>In the Arabian Nights the purveyor for the Sultan of Casgar tells a
+story of a man who lost his thumbs and great-toes through eating garlic.
+This was a youth who had married a beauteous bride, but was unfortunate
+enough on his marriage-day to eat of a dish strongly flavoured with
+garlic. The lady was so annoyed that she ordered the bridegroom to be
+bound, and his thumbs and toes cut off, as punishment for presuming to
+come to her without first purifying his fingers. Ever afterwards the
+unfortunate husband always washed his hands one hundred and twenty times
+with alkali, after dining off a garlic ragout, for, of course, he did
+not use a fork. But had he known Menander the Greek's receipt, he might
+have saved his digits. This was to roast beetroot on hot embers for the removal of the odour of garlic.</p>
+
+<p>It might be more generally known that if either walnuts, or raw parsley,
+be eaten along with onions, the smell of the latter will be destroyed, and digestion of them assisted.</p>
+
+<p>There is, one must admit, a certain association of vulgarity with the
+onion. It is a valuable food, and an indispensable accessory to the
+culinary artist; but as used by many people it is not suggestive of
+refinement. And yet the bulb has not only an honourable character&mdash;it has a sort of sacred history.</p>
+
+<p>Both Pliny and Juvenal, among old writers, and many Egyptologists of our
+own time and country, have recorded that the ancient Egyptians
+worshipped<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> the onion. It is true that Wilkinson, who wrote on the
+Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, doubts the evidence of
+this; but he adds that the onion was admitted as a common offering on
+every altar, and that the priests were forbidden to eat it. In Ellis's
+History of Madagascar it is noted that the Malagasy of our time regard
+the onion as unclean, and forbidden by the idols. The symbolization of
+the universe in the concentric folds of the onion may be taken as an
+explanation of the high reverence in which it was assuredly held by some ancient races.</p>
+
+<p>Whether or not the onion was sacred in Egypt, the garlic, as Herodotus
+tells us, was the daily food of the Egyptian labourer. And the Jews,
+when they left Egypt, looked back with fondness to these delicacies. 'We
+remember the fish which we did eat freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, and
+the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic,' so they told
+Moses. The onion is still a common food in Egypt, and sometimes almost
+the only one of the poorer classes. Moreover, the onions of Egypt are
+much sweeter than, and superior in quality to, those of Europe. It is
+also noteworthy that the onion grows coarser and more bitter as it is traced northward.</p>
+
+<p>Herodotus says that sixteen hundred talents were expended on garlic,
+onions, and radishes for the workmen during the building of the
+Pyramids; and it is recorded that an onion taken from the sarcophagus of
+an Egyptian mummy two thousand years old was planted and made to grow.
+We<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> have also the authority of Pliny for what he calls the foolish
+superstition of the Egyptians in swearing by garlic and onions, calling these vegetables to witness when taking an oath.</p>
+
+<p>Botanists seem now agreed that the original habitat of the onion was the
+mountainous region of Central Asia; and, according to the <i>Gardener's
+Chronicle</i>, it is still found in a wild state in the Himalayas.</p>
+
+<p>The Mohammedans do not seem to have reverenced the <i>Allium</i> tribe. On
+the contrary, they have a tradition that when Satan stepped out of the
+Garden of Eden after the fall of man, garlic sprang up where he planted
+his left foot, and onion where he planted his right foot. This is the
+reason alleged why Mohammed could never bear the smell of either, and even fainted when he saw them.</p>
+
+<p>Among the Greeks both onions and garlic were held in high regard, both
+as articles of food and as medicaments. Theophrastus wrote a book on
+onions, as did also Palladius. Then Homer tells that the onion was an
+important part of the banquet that Hecamede spread before Nestor and Machaon:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'Before them first a table fair she spread,<br />
+Well polished, and with feet of solid bronze;<br />
+On this a brazen canister she placed,<br />
+And Onions as a relish to the wine,<br />
+And pale, clear honey, and pure barley meal.'</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>Among the Romans the onion seems to have been the common food of the
+people, although Horace could not understand how they digested<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> it. Its
+use for promoting artificial tears was also well understood by them, for
+Columella speaks of <i>Lacrymosa c&aelig;pe</i>, and Pliny of <i>C&aelig;pis odor
+lacrymosus</i>. Ovid, again, says that both onions and sulphur were given
+to criminals to purify them from their crimes, upon the old theory of
+purgation by fumigation. The Romans thought not only that the onion gave
+strength to the human frame, but that it would also improve the
+pugnacious quality of their gamecocks. Horace, however, thought that
+garlic was a fit poison for anybody who committed parricide. The Emperor
+Nero, on the other hand, thought that eating leeks improved the human
+voice, and as he was ambitious of being a fine singer, he used to have a
+leek diet on several days in each month.</p>
+
+<p>The onion tribe must have been held in reverence elsewhere than in
+Egypt, for, according to Mr. Thiselton-Dyer, in Poland the flower-stalk
+of the leek is placed in the hands of Christ in pictures and statues.</p>
+
+<p>On Halloween, in some parts of the country, girls attempt a method of
+divination by means of a 'Saint Thomas onion.' They peel it, wrap it up
+in a clean handkerchief, and, placing it under their heads, repeat the following rhyme:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'Good St. Thomas, do me right,<br />
+And see my true love come to-night,<br />
+That I may see him in the face,<br />
+And him in my kind arms embrace.'</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>On the other hand, to dream of an onion is supposed in some parts to foretell sickness.</p>
+
+<p>Or else:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'To dream of eating onions means<br />
+Much strife in the domestic scenes,<br />
+Secrets found out, or else betrayed,<br />
+And many falsehoods made and said.'</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>It is also a portent of the weather:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'Onion's skin very thin,<br />
+Mild winter's coming in;<br />
+Onion's skin thick and tough,<br />
+Coming winter cold and rough.'</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>It was the practice in some places to hang up or burn an onion as a
+safeguard against witchcraft, and the theory of this was that the devil
+respected it because it was an ancient object of worship. This seems a
+survival of the Egyptian story; but Mr. Hilderic Friend says that the
+Arabs, Chinese, and many other peoples, to this day employ onions,
+leeks, or garlic for preventing witchcraft, and that he himself has
+frequently seen them tied up with a branch of sago-palm over the doors of Eastern houses for this purpose.</p>
+
+<p>The old custom of throwing an onion after a bride is doubtless well
+known. It had the same origin as the old Scotch custom of throwing a
+besom after a cow on its way to market, to avert the evil-eye, and insure luck.</p>
+
+<p>The idea of bad dreams being associated with the onion seems due to the
+old herbalists. At all events, Coghan wrote in 1596: 'Being eaten raw,
+they engender all humourous and contemptible putrefactions in the
+stomacke, and cause fearful dreams, and, if they be much used, they
+snarre the memory and trouble the understanding.'</p>
+
+<p>Old Gerarde had no opinion of the medical<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> properties of the tribe. Of
+both leeks and garlic he wrote most disparagingly, as 'yielding to the
+body no nourishment at all,' but 'ingendereth naughty and sharpe bloud.'</p>
+
+<p>Some of the other old herbalists treat it more kindly, and some ascribe
+almost every virtue to garlic and onion. Garlic came to be known as
+'Poor Man's Treacle,' and in some old works is thus often described. But
+the word treacle here has no reference to molasses, and is probably
+derived from the Greek <i>theriakos</i>, meaning venomous, for garlic was
+regarded as an antidote against poison, and as a remedy for the plague.</p>
+
+<p>Pliny long ago wrote of garlic as a remedy for many of the mental and
+physical ailments of the country people. It was used by the Romans to
+drive away snakes; and the Romans seem to have adopted this idea from
+the ancient Greeks. It was recommended by one old English writer as a
+capital thing with which to frighten away birds from fruit-trees; and
+has been recently recommended, in solution, as the best preservative of
+picture-frames from the defilement of flies. Bacon gravely tells of a
+man who lived for several days on the smell of onions and garlic alone;
+and there was an old belief that the garlic could extract all the power from a loadstone.</p>
+
+<p>The belief that the eating of onions will acclimatize a traveller seems
+not uncommon in Eastern countries. Thus, in Burnes' Travels into Bokhara
+it is recorded that at Peshawur 'Moollah Nujieb suggested that we should
+eat onions in all the countries we visited, as it is a popular belief
+that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> a foreigner becomes acclimated from the use of that vegetable.'</p>
+
+<p>And in Morier's Travels in Persia it is said: 'Those who seek for
+sulphur, which is found at the highest accessible point of the mountain
+of Damarvend, go through a course of training previous to the
+undertaking, and fortify themselves by eating much of garlic and onions.'</p>
+
+<p>The general explanation given of how the leek became the emblem of
+Wales, and is worn on St. David's Day, is this: In 640 King Cadwallader
+gained a complete victory over the Saxons, owing to the special
+interposition of St. David, who ordered the Britons always to wear leeks
+in their caps, so that they might easily recognise each other. As the
+Saxons had no such recognisable headmark, they attacked each other as
+foes, and aided in their own defeat.</p>
+
+<p>There is a more poetic story. It is
+that St. David lived in the valley of Ewias, in Monmouthshire, spending his time in contemplation:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 10em;">'And did so truly fast</span><br />
+As he did only drink what crystal Hodney yields,<br />
+And fed upon the leeks he gathered in the fields,<br />
+In memory of whom, in each revolving year,<br />
+The Welshmen, on his day, that sacred herb do wear.'</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>St. David, however, died in 544, and therefore it is probable that the
+leek was a common and favourite vegetable in Wales during his
+lifetime&mdash;that is to say, more than thirteen hundred years ago. A still
+more prosaic explanation of the Welsh emblem is sometimes offered. It is
+that it originated in a custom of the Welsh<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> farmers when helping each
+other in a neighbourly way to take their leeks and other vegetable
+provender with them. Now, as the word leek is from the Anglo-Saxon
+<i>leac</i>, which originally meant any vegetable, it is probable enough that
+the Saxons sneeringly applied the word to the Welsh on account of their
+vegetarian proclivities. We cannot, of course, be sure that the leek was
+worn as a badge in Cadwallader's time, but we have at any rate
+Shakespeare's authority for concluding that it was worn by the Welsh
+soldiers at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356.</p>
+
+<p>The phrase 'to eat the leek'&mdash;meaning to retract and 'knuckle-under'&mdash;is
+supposed to have originated in that famous scene in Shakespeare's Henry
+the Fifth, where Fluellan the Welshman compels Pistol to swallow the
+vegetable at which he had been expressing such abhorrence. But there is
+earlier evidence that the leek was regarded as something ignominious in England. Thus in Chaucer:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'The beste song that ever was made<br />
+Is not worth a leke's blade,<br />
+But men will tend ther tille.'</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>Without dwelling on the culinary uses of the onion tribe, which have
+been exhaustively described by others, a few applications, not generally known, may be briefly noted.</p>
+
+<p>In olden times there was a famous ointment called Devil's Mustard, which
+was supposed to cure cancer, remove tumours, and so forth. It was a
+compound of garlic and olive-oil, and had a smell which was enough to
+frighten away any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> disease&mdash;or else to create one. Then the fair dames
+of old had a favourite cosmetic for the hands and face, and one also
+which was used as an antiseptic, which was largely composed of garlic.
+Leek ointment, again, made of pounded leeks and hog's lard, was used as a liniment for burns and scalds.</p>
+
+<p>It is said that in India, where dyspepsia is common, garlic is found to
+be a great palliative. It is in many countries regarded as a sure
+antidote against contagion; and persons have been known to put a small
+piece in the mouth before approaching the bed of a fever-stricken
+patient. Whether it has any real virtue of the kind one may doubt, but
+let us hope that it has more than is ascribed to some so-called
+disinfectants&mdash;the power to kill one bad smell with another.</p>
+
+<p>In The Family Dictionary, popular in our grandfathers' time, appears the
+following certain remedy for the plague: 'Take away the core of an
+onion, fill the cavity with treacle dissolved or mixed with lemon-juice,
+stop up the hole with the slice you have cut off, roast the whole on hot
+ashes so long till well incorporated and mixed together, then squeeze
+out the juice of the roasted onion, and give it to a person seized with
+the plague. Let him presently lie down in his bed and be well covered up
+that he may perspire. This is a remedy that has not its equal for the
+plague, provided the patient perspires presently.'</p>
+
+<p>And if it did promote perspiration, one can well believe that it might be curative.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>Not only has garlic been esteemed as an antidote to the bite of snakes,
+but it has also been regarded as a cure for hydrophobia, while onions
+have been claimed as a cure for small-pox, and leeks as an antidote for
+poisonous fungi. Old Celsus, from whom Paracelsus took his name,
+regarded several of the onion tribe as valuable in cases of ague, and
+Pliny had the same belief. In our own time the onion is held to be an
+excellent anti-scorbutic, and is thought to be more useful on ship-board
+than lime-juice in preventing scurvy.</p>
+
+<p>In fact, in all skin diseases, and in many inflammatory disorders,
+preparations of the onion have a real value. The juice is also useful in
+stopping bleeding, although one may hesitate to believe, as was
+popularly supposed, that a drop of it will cure earache, and that
+persistent application will remove deafness.</p>
+
+<p>There still exists, however, a belief that onion-juice is the best
+hair-restorer in the market, in spite of its disagreeable smell.</p>
+
+<p>It would take too long to mention all the virtues that have been
+claimed, with more or less reason, for all the members of the <i>Allium</i>
+genus, but it is a curious fact that the onion, which relieves dyspepsia
+and aids the digestion of some, is a certain cause of indigestion in
+others. Is it not said that Napoleon, who was a martyr to indigestion,
+lost the Battle of Leipsic through having partaken of a too hurried meal
+of beefsteak and onions? It is a savoury dish, but has worked woe to
+many. One does not wonder that the old writers declared that onions
+brought bad dreams<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span>&mdash;if they were eaten raw, or badly cooked, at late
+supper.</p>
+
+<p>It is open to grave doubt whether the author of The Family Dictionary
+was right in saying that 'they that will eat onions daily will enjoy
+better health than otherwise.' What is one man's meat is another man's
+poison; and certainly there is no article in common use which produces
+such opposite effects upon the human system as the onion. It has often
+been found beneficial to individuals in feverish attacks, and yet the
+malingerers in our garrison hospitals know well how to promote febrile
+symptoms by a hearty consumption of garlic.</p>
+
+<p>A fitting conclusion to this chapter will be the summary of Sir John
+Sinclair, the author of a Code of Health and Longevity:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'Onyons in physick winneth no consent,<br />
+To cholerick folke they are no nutriment;<br />
+By Galen's rule, such as phlegmatic are<br />
+A stomacke good within them do prepare.<br />
+Weak appetites they comfort, and the face<br />
+With cheerful colour evermore they grace,<br />
+And when the head is naked left of hair,<br />
+Onyons, being sod or stamp'd, again repair.'</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h3>
+
+<h4>THE STORY OF A TUBER.</h4>
+
+<p class='dropcap'><span class="caps">The</span> planting of a tuber by Clusius, in 1588, in the Botanical Gardens at
+Vienna, is often referred to as the introduction of the potato into
+Europe. As a matter of fact, however, this was not the first planting,
+for the Spaniards brought the real potato&mdash;<i>Solanum tuberosum</i>&mdash;home to
+Spain about 1580. From Spain it extended to Italy, and became at once a
+common article of food there. From Spain it also extended to Belgium,
+and was cultivated there; and it was from a Belgian that Clusius got the
+roots which he planted at Vienna in 1588.</p>
+
+<p>Then, again, it has been said that Christopher Columbus was the first
+European who ever tasted a potato, and that was in 1492, when he reached
+Cuba. From Cuba he brought samples back with him to Genoa. This would
+make our history one hundred years older, only it so happens that the
+<i>Solanum tuberosum</i> is not a native of these parts, and could not have
+been at Cuba when Columbus was there. What he tasted and brought home
+was the <i>Convolvulus batatas</i>, or sweet potato, a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> very different
+article, although it gave its name, 'batatas,' to our tuber in the modified form of 'potato.'</p>
+
+<p>The real potato is a native of Chili, and it has been proved to the
+satisfaction of naturalists that it did not exist in North America
+before the arrival of Europeans. How, then, could Sir John Hawkins bring
+it from Santa-F&eacute; in 1565, or Sir Walter Raleigh from Virginia in 1584?
+Well, in the first place, it was the sweet potato that Sir John brought;
+and in the second place, before Sir Walter went to Virginia, the
+Spaniards had brought there the real potato on returning from some of
+their South American expeditions. In 1580 they sent it home, and there
+is evidence that by 1580 the <i>Solanum tuberosum</i> had been planted in
+North America. By the time Raleigh brought it to England, however, it was already a familiar root in Italy.</p>
+
+<p>But did he bring it? There are some who say that it was Sir Francis
+Drake who brought the roots and presented them to Sir Walter Raleigh,
+who planted them on his estate near Cork in the year 1594. M'Culloch,
+however, says that 1610 was the year of the introduction into Ireland,
+and other writers say that Raleigh knew so little of the virtues of the
+plant he was naturalizing that he caused the apples, not the tubers, to
+be cooked and served upon his own table. Buckle, however, says that the
+common, or Virginian, potato was introduced by Raleigh in 1586, and
+Lyte, who wrote in that year, does not mention the plant; but Gerarde,
+who published the first edition of his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> Herbal in 1597, gave a portrait
+of himself with a potato in his hand.</p>
+
+<p>Here, then, we have some negative certainties and some positive
+uncertainties. Columbus did not take the real potato to Genoa in 1492;
+Hawkins did not bring it to England in 1565. The Spaniards did take it
+to Spain in or about 1580; but whether Raleigh was the first to bring it
+to Britain, and in what year, remains open to doubt.</p>
+
+<p>During the whole of the seventeenth century the potato was quite a
+rarity in this country, and up to 1684 was cultivated only in the
+gardens of the gentry. In Scotland it does not seem to have been grown
+at all, even in gardens, before 1728. Phillips, in the History of
+Cultivated Vegetables, says that in 1619 the price in England was one
+shilling a pound. He further says that great prejudices existed against
+it, that it was alleged to be poisonous, and that in Burgundy the cultivation of it was prohibited.</p>
+
+<p>These early prejudices against the potato are explainable on the
+supposition that the people did not know how to cook it, and possibly
+ate it raw, in which state it is certainly unwholesome, if not actually
+poisonous. Then, again, it belongs to a family of ill-repute, the
+<i>Solanac&aelig;</i>, of which the deadly nightshade and the mandrake are members,
+as well as more honoured specimens like the tomato, tobacco, datura, and
+cayenne-pepper plants. The mandrake, of course, was the subject of
+ancient dislike, and perhaps it was natural for our superstitious
+progenitors to regard with suspicion any relative of that lugubrious root.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>Even the tempting appearance of the tomato did not suffice to win favour
+for it when first introduced into Europe, until somebody discovered
+that, although undoubtedly sent by the infidels to poison the
+Christians, the Bon Dieu had interfered, and transformed it into an agreeable and wholesome fruit.</p>
+
+<p>One meets with two references to the potato in Shakespeare, and these
+are said to be the earliest notices of it in English literature. Thus in
+Troilus and Cressida: 'The devil luxury, with his fat rump, and potato
+finger, tickles these together!' In the Merry Wives, Falstaff says: 'Let
+the sky rain potatoes; let it thunder to the time of Green Sleeves; hail kissing-comfits, and snow Eringoes.'</p>
+
+<p>There are several references in the early dramatists, which the curious
+reader may find collected in a note in Steevens's Shakespeare, but which
+hardly serve our purpose. There is one reference, however, by Waller, which is interesting:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+'With candy'd plantains and the juicy pine,<br />
+On choicest melons and sweet grapes they dine,<br />
+And with potatoes fat their wanton kine,'</div>
+
+<p>because it seems to be the case that, prior to 1588, the Italian
+peasants used the potato as food for their pigs as well as for themselves.</p>
+
+<p>We are constrained, however, to conclude that Shakespeare and the old
+dramatists referred to the sweet potato, sometimes called the Spanish
+potato. 'Eringoes,' mentioned by Falstaff, were candied roots. Eringo is
+curiously suggestive of 'Gringo,' which was the name of contempt applied
+by the Spaniards to all foreigners, but especially English<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span>men. The word
+would seem to have been imported by the gentlemen-adventurers from the
+Spanish Main, in the time of Good Queen Bess. If we take 'candied roots'
+in association with 'kissing-comfits,' we are compelled to conclude that
+Falstaff's potato was the 'batatas,' the sweet, fleshy roots of which
+were described by Columbus to be 'not unlike chestnuts in taste.'</p>
+
+<p>Certain it is that the potato was not regarded in this country as an
+object of national importance until 1662, when the Royal Society advised
+that it should be planted. In the history of the Society there is the
+record of a recommendation of a committee, dated 1662, urging all the
+Fellows who possessed land to plant potatoes, and persuade their friends
+to do the same, 'in order to alleviate the distress that would accompany a scarcity of food.'</p>
+
+<p>In Scotland, the first mention of the potato occurs in the household
+book of the Duchess of Buccleuch and Monmouth. From Chambers's
+Traditions of Edinburgh we learn that the price in 1701 was half-a-crown
+a peck. Robertson, of Irvine discovered what he thought the earliest
+evidence of potatoes in Scotland in the household book of the Eglinton
+family. The date of this entry, however, was 1733, and Robert Chambers
+showed that the date in the Buccleuch book was thirty-two years earlier.</p>
+
+<p>Further information is given by the Duke of Argyle in Scotland As It
+Was, And As It Is. There we learn that, until long past the middle of
+the eighteenth century, little or nothing was known of the potato in
+Scotland, although in after years<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> it brought about the most prodigious
+effects on the population. The Celts of Ireland first began to use it as
+an adjunct, and then as a main article of food. From them it passed over
+to the Celts of the Hebrides, and was introduced into South Uist by
+Macdonald of Clanranald in 1743. The Highlanders, always suspicious of
+novelties, resisted the use of it for some years; and the neighbouring
+island of Bernera was not reached until 1752. It was soon found,
+however, that the tuber would grow luxuriantly almost anywhere&mdash;even on
+sand, and shingle, and in bogs. It was quickly planted in those patches
+of ditched-off land known in the Highlands as 'lazy beds'&mdash;a not
+inappropriate term, which in Ireland is applied to patches of potatoes not sown in drills.</p>
+
+<p>In Ireland and in the Highlands it quickly came to be the main food of
+the people during the greater portion of the year; but in the Lowlands
+of Scotland, and the rural districts of England, it was only used as a
+food accessory, though it soon became an important article of commerce.
+It has often happened that the potato crops have realized higher prices than any other product of the farm.</p>
+
+<p>It has been sometimes stated that the man who planted the first field of
+potatoes in Scotland died within the last forty years. This is an error.
+The first field planted in the Lowlands was at Liberton Muir, about the
+year 1738, by a farmer named Mutter, who died in 1808. An attempt had
+been made some years earlier by a farm-labourer, named Prentice, near Kilsyth, but not as a farming operation.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span>In any case we do not get farther back than about 1730 for
+potato-planting in Scotland, whereas in England, by 1684 the
+recommendations of the Royal Society had been largely adopted,
+especially in Lancashire, where the first serious beginning seems to
+have been made. On the other hand, the cultivation has not extended so
+rapidly in England as in either Ireland or Scotland.</p>
+
+<p>The annual crop of Ireland is estimated as, on the average, equal to
+about one thousand three hundred and twenty pounds per inhabitant; that
+of Scotland, about three hundred and ninety pounds; and that of England,
+about one hundred and twenty pounds. Germany is the next largest
+producer to Ireland, and also the next largest consumer&mdash;the crops being
+equal to about one thousand and sixty pounds per head. Holland and
+Belgium each produce about five hundred and eighty pounds, and France
+about five hundred and fifty pounds, of potatoes per inhabitant per annum.</p>
+
+<p>It is curious that, although Spain and Italy were the first cultivators
+and users in Europe, the product of each of these countries is now only about fifty-five pounds per head.</p>
+
+<p>The annual value of the entire potato crop of Europe may be stated at
+about one hundred and sixty million pounds; and that of the United
+Kingdom at about one-tenth of this total. That of North America is about
+twenty million pounds more; and it is a curious instance of the vagaries
+of time that the <i>Solarium tuberosum</i> is now known in America as the
+'Irish potato,' to distinguish it from the batatas, or sweet potato.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>All this immense development of cultivation does not complete the
+topographical record of our tuber. It has been introduced into India,
+and is now successfully cultivated both in Bengal and in the Madras
+Presidency. It has found a home in the Dutch East Indies and in China;
+and its tastes and habits are affectionately studied in Australia. But
+as in the tropics it has to be grown at an altitude of three thousand
+feet, or more, above sea-level, it can never become so common in hot countries as in Europe.</p>
+
+<p>It is not only as a food-plant that the potato has secured the respect
+and affection of mankind. Starch is made from it both for the laundry
+and for the manufacture of farina, dextrin, etc. The dried pulp from
+which the starch has been extracted is used for making boxes. From the
+stem and leaves an extract is made of a narcotic, used to allay pain in
+coughs and other ailments. In a raw state the potato is used as a
+cooling application for burns and sores. A spirit is distilled from the
+tuber, which in Norway is called 'brandy,' and in other places is used
+for mixing with malt and vine liquors. Many of the farinaceous
+preparations now so popular in the nursery and sick-room are made
+largely of potato-starch; and in some places cakes and puddings are made from potato-flour.</p>
+
+<p>To the potato are also ascribed properties of another kind. The folklore
+of the plant is meagre, considering its wide distribution, but there are
+a number of curious superstitions connected with it. In some parts there
+is a belief that it thrives best if planted on Maundy Thursday; in
+others, that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> if planted under certain stars it will become watery. In
+Devonshire the people believe that the potato is a certain cure for the
+toothache&mdash;not taken internally, but carried about in the pocket. It is
+by several writers mentioned as a reputed cure for rheumatism in the
+same way; only it is prescribed that, in order to be an effective cure
+in such cases, the potato should be stolen. Mr. Andrew Lang mentions an
+instance of faith in the practice of this cure, which he came across in
+a London drawing-room. He regards this belief as a survival of the old
+superstitions about mandrake, and as analogous to the habit of African
+tribes who wear roots round the neck as protection against wild animals.</p>
+
+<p>The value of the potato as food has been much discussed; but it seems to
+rank next to the plantain, and a long way behind either rice or wheat.
+The author of the Chemistry of Common Life has pointed to the remarkable
+physiological likeness of tribes of people who live chiefly on rice,
+plantain, and potato. The Hindu, the negro, and the Irishman are all
+remarkable for being round-bellied, and this peculiarity is ascribed to
+the necessity of consuming a large bulk of food in order to obtain the requisite nourishment.</p>
+
+<p>It is not, of course, the root of the plant which we consume. The tubers
+known to the table are the swollen portions of the underground branches,
+and the so-called 'eyes' are really leaf-buds. It is by cuttings from
+these tubers, however, that the plant is mostly propagated. About
+three-fourths of the weight of the potato is water, and this may
+explain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> the injurious effect which excessive rainfall has on the crops.
+The disease which attacks the plant, and has been the cause of Irish
+famines, past and prospective, is a species of fungus, which first
+attacks and discolours the straws, and then spreads downwards to the
+tubers, increasing the quantity of water in them, reducing the quantity
+of starch, and converting the albumen into casein.</p>
+
+<p>When this disease once appears it is apt to spread over wide areas where
+the same climatic influences prevail, and when the disease appears in
+any strength the crops are rapidly rendered unfit for human food. The
+trouble of the Irish peasantry of the West is that they have no
+alternative crop to fall back on when the potato fails. Their plots are
+too small for cereals, and they cannot be persuaded to cultivate
+cabbages and other vegetables along with their tubers. It is thus that,
+when the day of tribulation comes, the potato appears to be really a
+curse rather than a blessing to agricultural Ireland.</p>
+
+<p>There have been frequent projects for reverting to original types&mdash;that
+is to say, for obtaining a fresh supply of the indigenous plant from
+South America, and breeding a new stock, as it were. It is a possible
+mode of extirpating the disease which may be resorted to.</p>
+
+<p>The Irish famine of 1847 was due to the failure of the potato crops in
+1846, preceded by two or three years of bad crops. This failure was due
+to disease, and the eating of the diseased tuber brought on a
+pestilence, so that altogether the deaths by starvation and epidemics in
+that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> disastrous period amounted to nearly a million and a quarter
+persons. To deal with the distress various sums were voted by Parliament
+to the total amount of over ten millions sterling. This was supplemented
+by private philanthropy in this country, and by generous aid from the
+United States and some European countries. What was the actual money
+cost to the world at large of the failure of the Irish potato crop in
+1846 can never be accurately known; but the amount was so enormous as to
+create a serious economic problem in connection with the homely tuber.</p>
+
+<p>There have been several partial failures since in Ireland, although
+nothing so extensive as that of 1846, and in 1872 the disease was very
+bad in England. In that year, indeed, the importation of foreign
+potatoes rose to the enormous value of one million six hundred and
+fifty-four thousand pounds to supply our own deficient crops. In 1876,
+again, there was great excitement and alarm about the 'Colorado beetle,'
+an importation from America, which was destined, it was said, to destroy
+all our potato-fields. But the beetle proved comparatively harmless, and
+seems now to have disappeared from these shores.</p>
+
+<p>The Englishman and Scotchman cannot do without his potato as an adjunct;
+but the error of the Irishman is in making it the mainstay of his life.
+The words of Malthus in this connection put the matter in a nutshell,
+much as he has been abused for his theory of the effects of the potato
+on population. 'When the common people of a country,' he says, 'live
+principally upon the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> dearest grain, as they do in England on wheat,
+they have great resources in a scarcity, and barley, oats, rice, cheap
+soups, and potatoes, all present themselves as less expensive, yet, at
+the same time, wholesome means of nourishment; but when their habitual
+food is the lowest in this scale, they appear to be absolutely without
+resource, except in the bark of trees&mdash;like the poor Swedes&mdash;and a great
+portion of them must necessarily be starved.'</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h3>
+
+<h4>THE CENTRE OF THE WORLD.</h4>
+
+<p class='dropcap'><span class="caps">Where</span> is it? 'At Charing Cross, of course,' says the self-assured
+Londoner; and in one sense he may not be far wrong. 'At Boston,' says
+the cultured inhabitant of the 'hub' of the universe. 'Wherever I am,'
+says the autocrat who essays to sway the destinies of nations. Well, we
+all know the story of the Head of the Table, and even if we did not know
+it, instinct would tell us where to look. But the centre of the world,
+in an actual, physical, racial, and mundanely comprehensive sense&mdash;where
+is it?</p>
+
+<p>One does not find it so easy to answer the question as did good old
+Herodotus, who scouted as absurd the idea of the earth being circular.
+'For my own part,' says the Father of History&mdash;and of lies, according to
+some people&mdash;'I cannot but think it exceedingly ridiculous to hear some
+men talk of the circumference of the Earth, pretending without the
+smallest reason or probability that the ocean encompasses the Earth,
+that the Earth is round as if mechanically formed so, and that Asia is equal to Europe.'</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span>Herodotus found no difficulty in describing the figure and size of the
+portions of the earth whose existence he recognised, but then he said,
+'from India eastward the whole Earth is one vast desert, unknown and
+unexplored.' And for long after Herodotus, the Mediterranean was
+regarded as the central sea of the world, and in the time of Herodotus,
+Rhodes was accounted the centre of that centre.</p>
+
+<p>It is very interesting, however, to trace how many centres the world has
+had in its time&mdash;or rather within the range of written history. The old
+Egyptians placed it at Thebes, the Assyrians at Babylon, the Hindus at
+Mount Meru, the Jews at Jerusalem, and the Greeks at Olympus, until they
+moved it to Rhodes. There exists an old map in which the world is
+represented as a human figure, and the heart of that figure is Egypt.
+And there exists, or did exist, an old fountain in Sicily on which was
+this inscription: 'I am in the centre of the garden; this garden is the
+centre of Sicily, and Sicily is the Centre of the whole Earth.'</p>
+
+<p>It is a grand thing to be positive in assertion when you are sure of
+your ground, and the builder of this fountain seems to have been sure of
+his. But then other people can be positive too, and in that vast desert
+eastward of India, imagined by Herodotus, there is the country of China,
+which calls itself the Middle Kingdom, and the Emperor of which, in a
+letter to the King of England in this very nineteenth century, announced
+that China is endowed by Heaven as the 'flourishing and central Empire' of the world.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span>And yet, once upon a time, according to some old Japanese writings,
+Japan was known as the Middle Kingdom; and the Persians claimed the same
+position for Persia; and according to Professor Sayce, the old Chaldeans
+said that the centre of the earth was in the heart of the impenetrable forest of Eridu.</p>
+
+<p>This forest, by the way, was also called the 'holy house of the Gods,'
+but it does not seem to have had anything to do with the Terrestrial
+Paradise, the exact location of which Mr. Baring-Gould has laboriously
+tried to identify through the legends of the nations. It is a curious
+fact that a ninth-century map, in the Strasburg Library, places the
+Terrestrial Paradise&mdash;the Garden of Eden&mdash;in that part of Asia we now
+know as the Chinese Empire, and it is also so marked in a map in the British Museum.</p>
+
+<p>In a letter supposed to have emanated from the mysterious if not
+mythical Prester John, it is written: 'The river Indus which issues out
+of Paradise flows among the plains through a certain province, and it
+expands, embracing the whole province with its various windings. There
+are found emeralds, sapphires, carbuncles, topazes, chrysolites, onyx,
+beryl, sardius, and many other precious stones. There, too, grows the plant called Asbestos.'</p>
+
+<p>And all this was reported to be just three days' journey from the garden
+from which Adam was expelled, but as the geographical position of the
+province was not specified the information was a trifle vague. Prester
+John, however, described a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> wonderful fountain, the virtues of which
+correspond with those of a well in Ceylon described by Sir John
+Mandeville, and this is why some people say that the Garden of Eden was in the Island of Spices.</p>
+
+<p>There is a twelfth-century map of the world at Cambridge, which shows
+Paradise on an island opposite the mouth of the Ganges. And in the story
+of St. Brandan, the saint reaches an island somewhere 'due east from
+Ireland,' which was Paradise, and on which he met with a man who told
+him that a stream&mdash;which no living being might cross&mdash;flowing through
+the island, divided the world in twain. Another centre!</p>
+
+<p>In an Icelandic story of the fourteenth century are related the
+marvellous adventures of one Eirek of Drontheim, who, determined to find
+out the Deathless Land, made his way to Constantinople. There he
+received a lesson in geography from the Emperor. The world, he was told,
+was precisely one hundred and eighty thousand stages, or about one
+million English miles, round, and is not propped up on posts, but is
+supported by the will of God. The distance between the earth and heaven,
+he was told, is one hundred thousand and forty-five miles, and round
+about the earth is a big sea called the ocean.</p>
+
+<p>'But what is to the south of the earth?' asked the inquisitive Eirek.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh,' replied the Emperor, 'the end of the earth is there, and it is called India.'</p>
+
+<p>'And where shall I find the Deathless Land?' he inquired; and he was
+told that slightly to the east of India lies Paradise.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span>Thereupon Eirek and a companion started across Syria, took ship and
+arrived at India, through which they journeyed on horseback till they
+came to a strait which separated them from a beautiful land. Eirek
+crossed over and found himself in Paradise, and, strange to say, an
+excellent cold luncheon waiting for him. It took him seven years to get
+home again, and, as he died soon after his return, the map of the route was lost.</p>
+
+<p>Still, Eirek's Paradise may not improbably have been Ceylon.</p>
+
+<p>The latest location of the Garden of Eden is by a recent traveller in
+Somaliland, in the north-east shoulder of Africa and south of the Gulf
+of Aden. This is in the neighbourhood of the country of Prester John,
+but in its present aspects can by no means be regarded as a Terrestrial Paradise.</p>
+
+<p>Sir John Mandeville's description of the Terrestrial Paradise which he
+discovered gives it as the highest place on the earth&mdash;so high that the
+waters of the Flood could not reach it. And in the very centre of the
+highest point is a well, he said, that casts out the four streams,
+Ganges, Nile, Tigris, and Euphrates&mdash;all sacred streams. Now, in the
+Encyclop&aelig;dia of India it is stated that 'The Hindus at Bikanir Rajputana
+taught that the mountain Meru is in the centre surrounded by concentric
+circles of land and sea. Some Hindus regard Mount Meru as the North
+Pole. The astronomical views of the Puranas make the heavenly bodies
+turn round it.' So here again we have a mountain as the terrestrial centre.</p>
+
+<p>In the Avesta there is reference to a lofty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> mountain at the centre of
+the world from which all the mountains of the earth have grown, and at
+the summit of which is the fountain of waters, whereby grow two
+trees&mdash;the Heavenly Soma, and another tree which yields all the seeds
+that germinate on earth. From this fountain, according to the Buddhist
+tradition, flow four streams to the four points of the compass, each of
+them making a complete circuit in its descent.</p>
+
+<p>This central mountain is the Navel of Waters where originated all
+matter, and where sits Yama under the Soma tree&mdash;just as in the Norse
+legend the Norns, or Fates, sit by the great central earth-tree, Yggdrasil.</p>
+
+<p>According to the Greek tradition, Jupiter, in order to settle the true
+centre of the earth, sent out two eagles, one from east and one from
+west. They met on the spot on which was erected the Temple of Delphi,
+and a stone in the centre of that temple was called the Navel of the
+World. A golden eagle was placed on each side of this stone. The design
+is preserved in many examples of Greek sculpture, and the stone itself
+is mentioned in several of the Greek plays.</p>
+
+<p>With reference to this, Mr. Lethaby, in his Architecture, Mysticism, and
+Myth, observes: 'We may see embodied in this myth of the centre-stone
+the result of the general direction of thought; as each people were
+certainly "the people" first born and best beloved of the gods, so their
+country occupied the centre of the world. It would be related how the
+oldest and most sacred city, or rather temple, was erected exactly on
+the navel. A story like this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> told of a temple would lead to the marking
+in the centre of its area the true middle point by a circular stone, a
+stone which would become most sacred and ceremonial in its import.'</p>
+
+<p>And Dr. Schliemann thus writes of a central circle he unearthed in the
+palace at Tirynthus: 'In the exact centre of the hall, and therefore
+within the square enclosed by the four pillars, there is found in the
+floor a circle of about 3&middot;30 m. diameter. There can be little doubt that
+this circle indicates the position of the hearth in the centre of the
+megaron. The hearth was in all antiquity the centre of the house, about
+which the family assembled, at which food was prepared, and where the
+guest received the place of honour. Hence it is frequently indicated by
+poets and philosophers as the navel or centre of the house. In the
+oldest time it was not only symbolically but actually the centre of the
+house, and especially of the megaron. It was only in later days, in the
+palaces of the great Romans, that it was removed from the chief rooms
+and established in a small by-room.'</p>
+
+<p>All which may be true enough, and yet the placing of the hearthstone in
+the centre of the house may have had less reference to the earth-centre
+idea, than to the fact that in the circular huts of primitive man it was
+necessary to have a hole at the apex of the roof. Still, it is
+interesting to note that, as in the Imperial palace at Constantinople,
+so on the floor of St. Peter's at Rome, and elsewhere, is a flat
+circular slab of porphyry, associated with all ceremonials.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span>Is there any connection between the old central hearthstone and the
+Dillestein&mdash;Lid of Hell&mdash;one meets with in Grimm?</p>
+
+<p>We have seen that the centre of the world is placed in Europe, in Asia,
+and in Africa, but who would expect to find it in America many centuries
+ago? Yet the traditions of Peru have it that Cuzco was founded by the
+gods, and that its name signifies 'navel'; and traditions of Mexico
+describe Yucatan as 'the centre and foundation' of both heaven and
+earth. We must, however, go back to the East as the most likely quarter
+in which to find it, and as the quarter to which the eyes of man have been most consistently turned.</p>
+
+<p>To successive centuries of both Jews and Christians Jerusalem has been
+the centre of the world, and the Temple the centre of Jerusalem. The
+Talmud gives directions to those who are in foreign countries to pray
+with their faces towards the sacred land; to those in Palestine to pray
+with their faces towards Jerusalem; to those in Jerusalem to pray with
+their faces towards the Mount; to those in the Temple to pray with their
+faces towards the Holy of Holies. Now, this was not merely because this
+sacred spot was a ceremonial centre, but also because it was regarded as
+the geographical centre of the earth. According to the Rabbis the Temple
+was built on the great central rock of the world.</p>
+
+<p>It is written in the Talmud: 'The world is like the eyeball of man: the
+white is the ocean that surrounds the wall, the black is the world
+itself, and the pupil is Jerusalem, and the image of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> pupil is the
+Temple.' And again: 'The land of Israel is situated in the centre of the
+world, and Jerusalem in the centre of the land of Israel, and the Temple
+in the centre of Jerusalem, and the Holy of Holies in the centre of the
+Temple, and the foundation-stone on which the world was grounded is
+situated in front of the ark.' And once more: 'When the ark was removed
+a stone was there from the days of the first Prophets. It was called
+Foundation. It was three digits above the earth.'</p>
+
+<p>This claim is direct enough, and at Jerusalem to this day in the Dome of
+the Rock, supposed to occupy the site of Solomon's Temple, is a bare
+stone which, as Sir Charles Warren was assured, rests on the top of a
+palm-tree, from the roots of which issue all the rivers of the world.
+The Mohammedans have accepted this same stone as the foundation-stone of
+the world, and they call it the Kibleh of Moses. It is said that Mahomet
+once intended making this the sacred centre of Islam, instead of Mecca,
+but changed his mind, and predicted that at the Last Day the black
+stone&mdash;the Kaabah&mdash;will leave Mecca and become the bride of the
+Foundation-stone at Jerusalem. So that there can be no possible doubt of the centre of sacred influences.</p>
+
+<p>Concerning the stone at Jerusalem, Professor Palmer says: 'This Sakhrah
+is the centre of the world, and on the day of resurrection&mdash;it is
+supposed&mdash;the Angel Israfil will stand upon it to blow the last trumpet.
+It is also eighteen miles nearer heaven than any other place in the
+world,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> and beneath it is the source of every drop of sweet water that
+flows on the face of the earth. It is supposed to be suspended
+miraculously between heaven and earth. The effect upon the spectators,
+however, was so startling, that it was found necessary to place a building round it and conceal the marvel.'</p>
+
+<p>According to Hittite and Semitic traditions mentioned by Professor Sayce
+and Professor Robertson Smith, there was a chasm in this central spot
+through which the waters of the Deluge escaped.</p>
+
+<p>Right down to and through the Middle Ages Jerusalem was regarded by all
+Christians as the centre of the world; sometimes as the navel of the
+earth; and sometimes as the middlemost point of heaven and earth. The
+Hereford map of the thirteenth century, examined by Mr. Lethaby, shows
+the world as a plane circle surrounded by ocean, round whose borders are
+the eaters of men, and the one-eyed, and the half-men, and those whose
+heads do grow beneath their shoulders. 'Within this border we find
+everything the heart could desire; the sea is very red, the pillars of
+Hercules are pillars indeed; there is the Terrestrial Paradise enclosed
+by a battlemented wall, and unicorns, manticoras, salamanders, and other
+beasts of fascinating habits are clearly shown in the lands where they
+live. The centre of all is Jerusalem, a circular walled court, within
+which again is a smaller circle, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.'</p>
+
+<p>Even when the earth was recognised as a sphere,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> the idea of Jerusalem
+being the centre was not given up. Dante held to it, and veracious Sir
+John Mandeville endeavoured thus to explain away the difficulty: 'In
+going from Scotland or from England towards Jerusalem, men go always
+upwards, for our land is in the low part of the earth towards the west;
+and the land of Prester John is in the low part of the world towards the
+east; and they have the day when we have the night, and on the contrary
+they have the night when we have the day; for the earth and sea are of a
+round form, and as men go upward towards one point they go downward to
+another. Also you have heard me say that Jerusalem is in the middle of
+the world; and that may be proved and shown there by a spear which is
+fixed in the earth at the hour of midday, when it is equinoctial, which
+gives no shadow on any side.' Ingenious, if not convincing!</p>
+
+<p>The Greek Church still regard Jerusalem as the middle of the world, and
+Mr. Curzon tells that in their portion of the Holy Sepulchre they have a
+magnificently decorated interior, in the centre of which is a globe of
+black marble on a pedestal, under which, they say, the head of Adam was
+found, and which they declare to be the exact centre of the globe.</p>
+
+<p>The Mohammedans generally, however, regard the Kaabah at Mecca as&mdash;for
+the present, at any rate&mdash;the true centre. This stone is supposed to
+have been lowered directly from heaven, and all mosques are built to
+look towards it. Even in the modern schools of Cairo, according to Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>
+Loftie, the children are taught that Mecca is the centre of the earth.</p>
+
+<p>The Samaritans, however, look upon Gerizim as the holy mountain and
+centre of the religious and geographical world. And the Babylonians
+regarded the great Temple of Bel, according to Professor Sayce, as the
+house of the Foundation Stone of Heaven and Earth.</p>
+
+<p>Gaya, again, is the Mecca of the Buddhists, where Buddha sat under the
+tree when he received enlightenment. This tree is the Bodhi tree
+described by Buddhist writers as surrounded by an enclosure rather of an
+oblong than of a square shape, but with four gates opening to the four
+cardinal points. In the middle of the enclosure is the diamond throne
+which a voice told Buddha he would find under a Pipal tree, which
+diamond throne is believed to be of the same age as the earth. 'It is
+the middle of the great Chiliocosm; it goes down to the limits of the
+golden wheel and upwards it is flush with the ground. It is composed of
+diamonds; in circuit it is a hundred paces or so. It is the place where
+the Buddhas attain the sacred path of Buddhahood. When the great earth
+is shaken this spot alone is unmoved. When the true law decays and dies
+it will be no longer visible.'</p>
+
+<p>According to Sir Monier Williams, a stone marked with nine concentric
+circles is shown at Gaya as the diamond throne, and the Chiliocosm is
+not the centre of the world alone but of the Universe.</p>
+
+<p>But in China, also a land of Buddhists, we find<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> another centre, and in
+India there is an iron pillar at Delhi, dating from the fourth century,
+supposed by the Brahmans to mark the centre from their point of view.
+And in Southern India the Tamils have the Temple of Mandura, in the
+innermost sanctuary of which a rock comes through the floor, the roots
+of which are said to be in the centre of the earth.</p>
+
+<p>The Indian Buddhists, of course, denied that China could be the Middle
+Kingdom, as the place where Buddha lived must necessarily be the centre.
+Nevertheless, the centre is now found by Chinese Buddhists in the Temple
+of Heaven at Pekin, where is one circular stone in the centre of circles
+of marble terraces, on which the Emperor kneels surrounded by
+circles&mdash;including that of the horizon&mdash;and believes himself to be in
+the Centre of the Universe and inferior only to Heaven.</p>
+
+<p>But in the sixth century a certain Chinese traveller, called Sung-Yun,
+went to India for Buddhist studies, and he made his way by the Pamirs,
+the watershed of the great Asiatic rivers Indus and Oxus. And of this
+country he wrote:</p>
+
+<p>'After entering the Tsung Ling mountains, step by step, we crept upwards
+for four days, and reached the highest point of the range. From this
+point as a centre, looking downwards, it seemed just as though we were
+poised in mid-air. Men say that this is the middle point of heaven and
+earth.'</p>
+
+<p>This was written more than thirteen hundred years ago, and men to-day still call this part of Asia the Roof of the World.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="INDEX" id="INDEX"></a>INDEX.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span></p>
+<h4>INDEX.</h4>
+
+<p>
+<strong>A</strong><br />
+<br />
+Aaron's rod, <a href="#Page_25">25</a><br />
+<br />
+&AElig;schines, <a href="#Page_18">18</a><br />
+<br />
+Agricola, <a href="#Page_29">29</a><br />
+<br />
+Albertus, <a href="#Page_84">84</a><br />
+<br />
+Animal instinct of cure by plants, <a href="#Page_161">161</a><br />
+<br />
+Anthropomorphon, <a href="#Page_84">84</a><br />
+<br />
+Architecture, Mysticism and Myth, <a href="#Page_193">193</a><br />
+<br />
+Ahmed, Prince, <a href="#Page_42">42</a><br />
+<br />
+Aristotle, <a href="#Page_153">153</a><br />
+<br />
+Arthurian legends, <a href="#Page_23">23</a><br />
+<br />
+Asterodia, <a href="#Page_2">2</a><br />
+<br />
+Australian legends, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<strong>B</strong><br />
+<br />
+Baaras, root of, <a href="#Page_80">80</a><br />
+<br />
+Bacchus, <a href="#Page_73">73</a><br />
+<br />
+Bacon, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a><br />
+<br />
+Baring-Gould's Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, <a href="#Page_37">37-39</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a><br />
+<br />
+Barth, <a href="#Page_52">52</a><br />
+<br />
+Benjamin's sack, <a href="#Page_49">49</a><br />
+<br />
+Beryl, the, <a href="#Page_48">48</a><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the spirits of the, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Bh&aacute;sa, <a href="#Page_71">71</a><br />
+<br />
+Bion's Lament, <a href="#Page_124">124</a><br />
+<br />
+Black Kaspar, <a href="#Page_48">48</a><br />
+<br />
+Bodhi Tree, <a href="#Page_199">199</a><br />
+<br />
+Book of Days, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a><br />
+<br />
+Brand's Popular Antiquities, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a><br />
+<br />
+Breton legends, <a href="#Page_8">8</a><br />
+<br />
+British Guiana legends, <a href="#Page_8">8-20</a><br />
+<br />
+Britomart, <a href="#Page_50">50</a><br />
+<br />
+Browne, Sir Thomas, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a><br />
+<br />
+Browning's, Mrs., Dead Pan, <a href="#Page_80">80</a><br />
+<br />
+Buddha's foot, <a href="#Page_11">11</a><br />
+<br />
+'Bull-roarer,' the, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a><br />
+<br />
+Bushman legend, <a href="#Page_63">63</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<strong>C</strong><br />
+<br />
+Cagliostro, <a href="#Page_51">51</a><br />
+<br />
+Cain in the Moon, <a href="#Page_62">62</a><br />
+<br />
+Cambuscan's mirror, <a href="#Page_49">49</a><br />
+<br />
+Camelon, <a href="#Page_27">27</a><br />
+<br />
+Capnomancy, <a href="#Page_13">13</a><br />
+<br />
+Cat and the Well, <a href="#Page_6">6</a><br />
+<br />
+<ins class="correction" title="original reads 'Catroptromancy'">Catoptromancy</ins>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a><br />
+<br />
+Celestial Paradise, <a href="#Page_189">189</a><br />
+<br />
+Chald&aelig;o-Babylonian legends, <a href="#Page_92">92</a><br />
+<br />
+Chaucer, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a><br />
+<br />
+Chinese legends, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span><br />
+Cingalese legends, <a href="#Page_11">11</a><br />
+<br />
+Circaea, or Enchanter's Nightshade, <a href="#Page_81">81</a><br />
+<br />
+Circe, <a href="#Page_82">82</a><br />
+<br />
+Cleopatra, <a href="#Page_79">79</a><br />
+<br />
+Clover leaf, the, <a href="#Page_130">130</a><br />
+<br />
+Coles' Art of Simpling, <a href="#Page_86">86</a><br />
+<br />
+Columbus, <a href="#Page_107">107</a><br />
+<br />
+Columella, <a href="#Page_84">84</a><br />
+<br />
+Conway's Demonology, etc., <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a><br />
+<br />
+Cornish legends, <a href="#Page_66">66-103</a><br />
+<br />
+Cox and Jones's Tales of Teutonic Lands, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a><br />
+<br />
+Cronus, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a><br />
+<br />
+Crusade legends, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a><br />
+<br />
+Crusades, the, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a><br />
+<br />
+Cupid, <a href="#Page_124">124</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<strong>D</strong><br />
+<br />
+Danae, <a href="#Page_5">5</a><br />
+<br />
+Dante, <a href="#Page_62">62</a><br />
+<br />
+Davy Jones, <a href="#Page_114">114</a><br />
+<br />
+Dawn Myths, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a><br />
+<br />
+Dee's, Dr., Spherical Speculum, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a><br />
+<br />
+De Gubernatis, <a href="#Page_72">72</a><br />
+<br />
+Dekker's Wonderful Year, <a href="#Page_147">147</a><br />
+<br />
+Delphi, <a href="#Page_19">19</a><br />
+<br />
+Demeter, <a href="#Page_19">19</a><br />
+<br />
+Demosthenes, <a href="#Page_18">18</a><br />
+<br />
+Dessoir, Max, <a href="#Page_56">56</a><br />
+<br />
+Devil's Kettles, <a href="#Page_95">95</a><br />
+<br />
+Devil's Punch-bowls, <a href="#Page_95">95</a><br />
+<br />
+Devonian legends, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a><br />
+<br />
+Dioscorides, <a href="#Page_134">134</a><br />
+<br />
+Divination by smoke, <a href="#Page_15">15</a><br />
+<br />
+Divining-rod, the, <a href="#Page_30">30-32</a><br />
+<br />
+Dove and the ark, <a href="#Page_24">24</a><br />
+<br />
+'Duffy,' <a href="#Page_114">114</a><br />
+<br />
+Dutch legend, <a href="#Page_96">96</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<strong>E</strong><br />
+<br />
+Earth-man, <a href="#Page_79">79</a><br />
+<br />
+Eden, the Garden of, <a href="#Page_190">190</a><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Eastern idea of, <a href="#Page_191">191</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Icelandic idea of, <a href="#Page_191">191</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mandeville's, Sir J., <a href="#Page_192">192</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Somaliland, <a href="#Page_192">192</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Prester John's, <a href="#Page_190">190</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Ellacombe's Plant-Lore of Shakespeare, <a href="#Page_149">149</a><br />
+<br />
+Endymion, <a href="#Page_72">72</a><br />
+<br />
+Esquimo legend, <a href="#Page_67">67</a><br />
+<br />
+Esthonian legend, <a href="#Page_73">73</a><br />
+<br />
+Eucharist, the, <a href="#Page_24">24</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<strong>F</strong><br />
+<br />
+Fairy-lore, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a><br />
+<br />
+'Fairy-ring,' the, <a href="#Page_12">12</a><br />
+<br />
+Feast of Demeter, <a href="#Page_16">16</a><br />
+<br />
+Fian, Dr., <a href="#Page_27">27</a><br />
+<br />
+Fleur de lys, the, <a href="#Page_130">130</a><br />
+<br />
+Flying Dutchman, the, <a href="#Page_96">96</a><br />
+<br />
+Folk-lore methods, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bible, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Friend's Flowers and Flower-Lore, <a href="#Page_147">147</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<strong>G</strong><br />
+<br />
+Ganymede, <a href="#Page_67">67</a><br />
+<br />
+Gargantua, legend of, <a href="#Page_8">8</a><br />
+<br />
+Garlic (or 'Poor Man's Treacle'), Pliny on, <a href="#Page_170">170</a><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bacon on, <a href="#Page_170">170</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Eastern belief in, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a></span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span><br />
+Garrett's Dictionary of India, <a href="#Page_89">89</a><br />
+<br />
+Gaya and Buddha, <a href="#Page_199">199</a><br />
+<br />
+Gerarde's Herball (1597), <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a><br />
+<br />
+Gerizim, <a href="#Page_199">199</a><br />
+<br />
+German legends, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a><br />
+<br />
+Gesta Romanorum, <a href="#Page_42">42</a><br />
+<br />
+Glam (the moon), <a href="#Page_72">72</a><br />
+<br />
+Goldsmith's Citizen of the World, <a href="#Page_50">50</a><br />
+<br />
+'Good folks,' <a href="#Page_12">12</a><br />
+<br />
+Goodrich's, Miss, experiments in crystal-reading, <a href="#Page_53">53-55</a><br />
+<br />
+Gordon-Cumming's, Miss, Wanderings in China, <a href="#Page_64">64</a><br />
+<br />
+Greek legends, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a><br />
+<br />
+Grimm, Fairy Tales, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<strong>H</strong><br />
+<br />
+Hades, <a href="#Page_19">19</a><br />
+<br />
+Hamlet, <a href="#Page_41">41</a><br />
+<br />
+Harpocrates, <a href="#Page_124">124</a><br />
+<br />
+Hartmann, Dr. Franz, <a href="#Page_46">46</a><br />
+<br />
+Hephaistos, <a href="#Page_2">2</a><br />
+<br />
+Hera, <a href="#Page_19">19</a><br />
+<br />
+Hermes, <a href="#Page_82">82</a><br />
+<br />
+Herodotus, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a><br />
+<br />
+Hesiod, <a href="#Page_9">9</a><br />
+<br />
+Highland superstitions, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a><br />
+<br />
+Hindu legends, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a><br />
+<br />
+Holcroft, the actor, <a href="#Page_116">116</a><br />
+<br />
+Holinshed, <a href="#Page_27">27</a><br />
+<br />
+Holy Spirit, symbol of the, <a href="#Page_24">24</a><br />
+<br />
+Homa, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a><br />
+<br />
+'Hot-cross buns,' <a href="#Page_77">77</a><br />
+<br />
+Hussin, <a href="#Page_6">6</a><br />
+<br />
+Hutton's Jacob's Rod, <a href="#Page_39">39</a><br />
+<br />
+Hydra, the, <a href="#Page_93">93</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<strong>I</strong><br />
+<br />
+Icelandic legend, <a href="#Page_95">95</a><br />
+<br />
+'Ink-pool,' the, <a href="#Page_48">48</a><br />
+<br />
+Israfil, <a href="#Page_196">196</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<strong>J</strong><br />
+<br />
+Jack and Jill, <a href="#Page_61">61</a><br />
+<br />
+Jacques Aymar of Lyons, story of, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a><br />
+<br />
+Jacob Boehme's tin cup, <a href="#Page_49">49</a><br />
+<br />
+Jamieson, Dr., and the Moon, <a href="#Page_60">60</a><br />
+<br />
+Jason and the Golden Fleece, <a href="#Page_21">21</a><br />
+<br />
+Jewish legends, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a><br />
+<br />
+Jobson, Richard (divining-rod), <a href="#Page_34">34</a><br />
+<br />
+Jonah, <a href="#Page_115">115</a><br />
+<br />
+Jonson's Tale of a Tub, <a href="#Page_145">145</a><br />
+<br />
+Josephus, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a><br />
+<br />
+Judas Iscariot, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<strong>K</strong><br />
+<br />
+Kaabah-stone, <a href="#Page_198">198</a><br />
+<br />
+Kaffir legend, <a href="#Page_20">20</a><br />
+<br />
+Kingsley's Water-Babies, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<strong>L</strong><br />
+<br />
+Lane's Magician, <a href="#Page_51">51</a><br />
+<br />
+Lang's Custom and Myth, etc., <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a><br />
+<br />
+Lao's looking-glass, <a href="#Page_50">50</a><br />
+<br />
+Leek, the, in Welsh tradition, <a href="#Page_171">171</a><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span><br />
+Legends:<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Australian, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Breton, <a href="#Page_8">8</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bushman, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ceylon, <a href="#Page_11">11</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Chald&aelig;o-Babylonian, <a href="#Page_92">92</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Chinese, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cornish, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Devonian, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dutch, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Eskimo, <a href="#Page_67">67</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Esthonian, <a href="#Page_73">73</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">German, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Greek, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Highland, <a href="#Page_12">12</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hindu, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Icelandic, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Jewish, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Kaffir, <a href="#Page_20">20</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lenormant, Fran&ccedil;ois, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lid of Hell, <a href="#Page_195">195</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Malay, <a href="#Page_8">8</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Maori, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">North American, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of British Guiana, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of St. Cecilia, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of St. David, <a href="#Page_171">171</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of St. Patrick, <a href="#Page_131">131</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of St. Peter, <a href="#Page_109">109</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of the Crusaders, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Persian, <a href="#Page_125">125</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Roman, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Russian, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Scandinavian, <a href="#Page_61">61</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sicilian, <a href="#Page_73">73</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Syrian, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Talmudic, <a href="#Page_92">92</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Zulu, <a href="#Page_8">8</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Lethaby on Architecture and Myths, <a href="#Page_193">193</a><br />
+<br />
+Levi, house of, <a href="#Page_25">25</a><br />
+<br />
+Lhasis, <a href="#Page_80">80</a><br />
+<br />
+Lien Chi Altangi, <a href="#Page_50">50</a><br />
+<br />
+Lilly, John, <a href="#Page_59">59</a><br />
+<br />
+Linn&aelig;us, story of, <a href="#Page_33">33</a><br />
+<br />
+Lotus legends, <a href="#Page_128">128</a><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Buddhist, <a href="#Page_127">127</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Egyptian, <a href="#Page_128">128</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Lucian, <a href="#Page_59">59</a><br />
+<br />
+Luna, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<strong>M</strong><br />
+<br />
+Magic, <a href="#Page_23">23</a><br />
+<br />
+Magellan, <a href="#Page_107">107</a><br />
+<br />
+Malay legends, <a href="#Page_8">8</a><br />
+<br />
+Mandrake, the, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">anthropomorphon, <a href="#Page_84">84</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">or Devil's Apple, <a href="#Page_85">85</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">or Stone Apple, <a href="#Page_85">85</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Mandura, <a href="#Page_200">200</a><br />
+<br />
+Maori legends, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a><br />
+<br />
+Mecca, <a href="#Page_198">198</a><br />
+<br />
+Medea, <a href="#Page_67">67</a><br />
+<br />
+Merlin's mirror, <a href="#Page_49">49</a><br />
+<br />
+Michael Scott, <a href="#Page_11">11</a><br />
+<br />
+Middle Kingdom, the, according to Herodotus, <a href="#Page_189">189</a><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Eastern idea of, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Jewish tradition of, <a href="#Page_196">196</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Jupiter's, <a href="#Page_193">193</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mecca, the, <a href="#Page_199">199</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mexican tradition of, <a href="#Page_195">195</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Prester John, <a href="#Page_198">198</a></span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span><br />
+Midsummer Night's Dream, <a href="#Page_62">62</a><br />
+<br />
+Milbanke, Lady, <a href="#Page_39">39</a><br />
+<br />
+Mister Storm-Along, <a href="#Page_119">119</a><br />
+<br />
+Mohammed, legend of, <a href="#Page_126">126</a><br />
+<br />
+Moonfolk, Lucian's, <a href="#Page_59">59</a><br />
+<br />
+Moon-lore, Australian, <a href="#Page_67">67</a><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bushman, <a href="#Page_67">67</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Egyptian, <a href="#Page_67">67</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">English, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Eskimo, <a href="#Page_67">67</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Greek, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Maori, <a href="#Page_67">67</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">North American Indian, <a href="#Page_67">67</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">South African, <a href="#Page_67">67</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Moon, the, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a><br />
+<br />
+Moon-worship, <a href="#Page_76">76</a><br />
+<br />
+Moonwort, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Conway, Moncure, <a href="#Page_155">155</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Culpeper, <a href="#Page_154">154</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Divine Weekes, <a href="#Page_154">154</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in legend, <a href="#Page_153">153</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Moses' rod, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a><br />
+<br />
+Mother Carey's chickens, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a><br />
+<br />
+M&uuml;ller, Max, <a href="#Page_9">9</a><br />
+<br />
+Mythology, Chinese, <a href="#Page_63">63</a><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Eskimo, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">German, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Greek, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hindu, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Scandinavian, <a href="#Page_116">116</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Vedic, <a href="#Page_72">72</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<strong>N</strong><br />
+<br />
+Nautical superstitions, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a><br />
+<br />
+Navel of the World, <a href="#Page_193">193</a><br />
+<br />
+Nebuchadnezzar, <a href="#Page_28">28</a><br />
+<br />
+Neptune, <a href="#Page_93">93</a><br />
+<br />
+Nether Lochaber, <a href="#Page_12">12</a><br />
+<br />
+Nikke, <a href="#Page_96">96</a><br />
+<br />
+North American legends, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<strong>O</strong><br />
+<br />
+Odin, <a href="#Page_73">73</a><br />
+<br />
+Odysseus, <a href="#Page_82">82</a><br />
+<br />
+Old Nick, <a href="#Page_93">93</a><br />
+<br />
+Onion among the Romans, <a href="#Page_167">167</a><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">as food, <a href="#Page_164">164</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Homer on, <a href="#Page_167">167</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in The Arabian Nights, <a href="#Page_165">165</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Juvenal on, <a href="#Page_165">165</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Malagasy use of, <a href="#Page_166">166</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mohammedan legends of, <a href="#Page_167">167</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">myths, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Napoleon and, <a href="#Page_174">174</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of the Greeks, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of Herodotus, <a href="#Page_166">166</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pliny on, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Shakespeare on, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sinclair, Sir J., on, <a href="#Page_175">175</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Ophelia, <a href="#Page_148">148</a><br />
+<br />
+Othello, <a href="#Page_80">80</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<strong>P</strong><br />
+<br />
+Paracelsus's magic mirror, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a><br />
+<br />
+Paradise, the Garden of, <a href="#Page_190">190</a><br />
+<br />
+Parkinson the Herbalist, <a href="#Page_151">151</a><br />
+<br />
+Penelope, <a href="#Page_49">49</a><br />
+<br />
+Persian legend, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br />
+<br />
+Peter the Hermit, <a href="#Page_13">13</a><br />
+<br />
+Pharaoh, <a href="#Page_25">25</a><br />
+<br />
+Pleiades, the, <a href="#Page_21">21</a><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span><br />
+Pliny, <a href="#Page_132">132</a><br />
+<br />
+Plutarch, <a href="#Page_73">73</a><br />
+<br />
+Pope Leo X., <a href="#Page_107">107</a><br />
+<br />
+Poseidon, <a href="#Page_19">19</a><br />
+<br />
+Potato, the, as food, <a href="#Page_184">184</a><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Buckle on, <a href="#Page_177">177</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Christopher Columbus and, <a href="#Page_176">176</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">folklore of, <a href="#Page_183">183</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gerarde on, <a href="#Page_177">177</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Scotland and Ireland, <a href="#Page_181">181</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Shakespeare, <a href="#Page_179">179</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">introduction into Europe, <a href="#Page_176">176</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sir Francis Drake and, <a href="#Page_177">177</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Prince Zeyn Alasnam, story of, <a href="#Page_42">42</a><br />
+<br />
+Proctor, R. A., <a href="#Page_60">60</a><br />
+<br />
+Prose Edda, <a href="#Page_71">71</a><br />
+<br />
+Prospero, <a href="#Page_70">70</a><br />
+<br />
+Pryce's Mineralogia Cornubiensis, <a href="#Page_32">32</a><br />
+<br />
+Pseudosia Epidemica, <a href="#Page_83">83</a><br />
+<br />
+Pyromancy, <a href="#Page_47">47</a><br />
+<br />
+Pythagoras, <a href="#Page_84">84</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<strong>R</strong><br />
+<br />
+Rashi, <a href="#Page_77">77</a><br />
+<br />
+Red Riding Hood, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a><br />
+<br />
+Rhabdomancy, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a><br />
+<br />
+Rhea, <a href="#Page_19">19</a><br />
+<br />
+Riley's Book of Days, <a href="#Page_64">64</a><br />
+<br />
+Rink, Dr., <a href="#Page_63">63</a><br />
+<br />
+Rod, Moses', <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of the house of Levi, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the, <a href="#Page_23">23</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the divining, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Roman legend, <a href="#Page_124">124</a><br />
+<br />
+Romeo and Juliet, <a href="#Page_79">79</a><br />
+<br />
+Rona in the Moon, <a href="#Page_62">62</a><br />
+<br />
+Roof of the World, the, <a href="#Page_100">100</a><br />
+<br />
+Rosemary, <a href="#Page_123">123</a><br />
+<br />
+Roses, Feast of the, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br />
+<br />
+Rue as a disinfectant, <a href="#Page_162">162</a><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">as salad, <a href="#Page_152">152</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">derivation of, <a href="#Page_150">150</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Aristotle, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Drayton, <a href="#Page_153">153</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Ellacombe's Plant-Lore of Shakespeare, <a href="#Page_149">149</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in French perfumery, <a href="#Page_152">152</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Milton, <a href="#Page_151">151</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Parkinson, <a href="#Page_151">151</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Pliny, <a href="#Page_157">157</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Shakespeare, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Spenser, <a href="#Page_151">151</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Warburton's works, <a href="#Page_152">152</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Ruskin's Queen of the Air, <a href="#Page_4">4</a><br />
+<br />
+Russian legend, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a><br />
+<br />
+Ruth, <a href="#Page_150">150</a><br />
+<br />
+Ryence, King, <a href="#Page_50">50</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<strong>S</strong><br />
+<br />
+St. Brandan, <a href="#Page_117">117</a><br />
+<br />
+St. Cecilia, legend of, <a href="#Page_129">129</a><br />
+<br />
+St. Christophoros, story of, <a href="#Page_26">26</a><br />
+<br />
+St. David, legends of, <a href="#Page_171">171</a><br />
+<br />
+St. David's Day, origin of, <a href="#Page_171">171</a><br />
+<br />
+St. Joseph, legend of, <a href="#Page_127">127</a><br />
+<br />
+St. Nicholas, <a href="#Page_93">93</a><br />
+<br />
+St. Patrick, <a href="#Page_131">131</a><br />
+<br />
+St. Peter, legend of, <a href="#Page_109">109</a><br />
+<br />
+St. Peter's Day, <a href="#Page_110">110</a><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span><br />
+St. Ursula, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_3">3</a><br />
+<br />
+Satan, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a><br />
+<br />
+Saturn, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a><br />
+<br />
+Scandinavian legend, <a href="#Page_61">61</a><br />
+<br />
+Schliemann, Dr., <a href="#Page_194">194</a><br />
+<br />
+Sea chanties, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a><br />
+<br />
+Septuagint, the, <a href="#Page_49">49</a><br />
+<br />
+Shakespeare, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a><br />
+<br />
+Sharpe, Charles Kirkpatrick, <a href="#Page_92">92</a><br />
+<br />
+Shelvocke's voyages, <a href="#Page_106">106</a><br />
+<br />
+Shew Stone, <a href="#Page_50">50</a><br />
+<br />
+Sicilian legend, <a href="#Page_73">73</a><br />
+<br />
+Sidney, Sir Philip, <a href="#Page_72">72</a><br />
+<br />
+Solomon's Temple, <a href="#Page_196">196</a><br />
+<br />
+Soma, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a><br />
+<br />
+Song of Sixpence, <a href="#Page_5">5</a><br />
+<br />
+Sorcerer's Root, <a href="#Page_78">78</a><br />
+<br />
+Spring Myths, <a href="#Page_10">10</a><br />
+<br />
+Stormy petrel, <a href="#Page_99">99</a><br />
+<br />
+Sung-Yun and the Pamirs, <a href="#Page_200">200</a><br />
+<br />
+Superstitions:<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Accadian, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Aztec, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bushmen, <a href="#Page_21">21</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Chinese, <a href="#Page_75">75</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Greek, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Highland, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Jewish, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nautical, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Peruvian, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Red Indian, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, 20</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sicilian, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Syrian legend, <a href="#Page_92">92</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<strong>T</strong><br />
+<br />
+Talmudic legend, <a href="#Page_92">92</a><br />
+<br />
+Tannh&auml;user, <a href="#Page_3">3</a><br />
+<br />
+Tylor's Primitive Culture, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a><br />
+<br />
+Tempest, the, <a href="#Page_70">70</a><br />
+<br />
+Theal's Kaffir Folklore, <a href="#Page_18">18</a><br />
+<br />
+Thiselton-Dyer, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a><br />
+<br />
+Thistle, the, <a href="#Page_132">132</a><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stewart, Dr., on, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of Dioscorides, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Timbs, <a href="#Page_79">79</a><br />
+<br />
+True Thomas of Ercildoune, <a href="#Page_3">3</a><br />
+<br />
+T&ucirc;tenganaha&ucirc;, story of, <a href="#Page_20">20</a><br />
+<br />
+Tweed, the, <a href="#Page_10">10</a><br />
+<br />
+Tylor, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a><br />
+<br />
+Typh&oelig;us, <a href="#Page_117">117</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<strong>U</strong><br />
+<br />
+Ulysses, <a href="#Page_42">42</a><br />
+<br />
+Urim and Thummim, <a href="#Page_49">49</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<strong>V</strong><br />
+<br />
+Vampire, the, <a href="#Page_70">70</a><br />
+<br />
+Vedic Agni, <a href="#Page_2">2</a><br />
+<br />
+Venus, <a href="#Page_30">30</a><br />
+<br />
+Venus's looking-glass, <a href="#Page_49">49</a><br />
+<br />
+Verne, Jules, <a href="#Page_59">59</a><br />
+<br />
+Vervain of the Druids, <a href="#Page_158">158</a><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Friend on the, <a href="#Page_159">159</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of the Greeks, <a href="#Page_158">158</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thiselton-Dyer on, <a href="#Page_158">158</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Virgin Mary, <a href="#Page_106">106</a><br />
+<br />
+Von B&uuml;low's Christian Legends of Germany, <a href="#Page_26">26</a><br />
+<br />
+Vulcan's mirror, <a href="#Page_49">49</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<strong>W</strong><br />
+<br />
+Warburton, <a href="#Page_152">152</a><br />
+<br />
+Warts, the cure of, <a href="#Page_160">160</a><br />
+<br />
+'White Rose Day,' <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span><br />
+Winslow, Forbes, <a href="#Page_76">76</a><br />
+<br />
+Winter's Tale, The, <a href="#Page_149">149</a><br />
+<br />
+Winter Myths, <a href="#Page_10">10</a><br />
+<br />
+Witches' broom, the, <a href="#Page_70">70</a><br />
+<br />
+Witches' Mannikin, <a href="#Page_78">78</a><br />
+<br />
+Wolf and Seven Little Kids, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a><br />
+<br />
+Wurmbrand's Visionen im Wasserglass, <a href="#Page_53">53</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<strong>Y</strong><br />
+<br />
+Yama, <a href="#Page_193">193</a><br />
+<br />
+Yggdrasil, <a href="#Page_193">193</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<strong>Z</strong><br />
+<br />
+Zafarana, <a href="#Page_73">73</a><br />
+<br />
+Zeus, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a><br />
+<br />
+Zillah, legend of, <a href="#Page_126">126</a><br />
+<br />
+Zulu legend, <a href="#Page_8">8</a><br />
+</p>
+
+
+
+<h4><i>Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster Row, London.</i></h4>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="u">Footnotes:</span></p>
+
+<p><a name="f1" id="f1" href="#f1.1">[1]</a> Farrer: Primitive Manners.</p>
+
+<p><a name="f2" id="f2" href="#f2.1">[2]</a> Lang: Custom and Myth.</p>
+
+<p><a name="f3" id="f3" href="#f3.1">[3]</a> Lang.</p>
+
+<p><a name="f4" id="f4" href="#f4.1">[4]</a> See Custom and Myth.</p>
+
+<p><a name="f5" id="f5" href="#f5.1">[5]</a> In 'The Cruel Brother: A Tragedy.'</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<p><span class="u">Transcriber's note:</span></p>
+
+<p>Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation have been retained from the original.</p>
+
+<p>Additional spacing after some of the quotes is intentional to indicate
+both the end of a quotation and the beginning of a new paragraph as presented in the original text.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STORYOLOGY***</p>
+<p>******* This file should be named 29921-h.txt or 29921-h.zip *******</p>
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+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/9/9/2/29921">http://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/9/2/29921</a></p>
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+
+<pre>
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Storyology, by Benjamin Taylor
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Storyology
+       Essays in Folk-Lore, Sea-Lore, and Plant-Lore
+
+
+Author: Benjamin Taylor
+
+
+
+Release Date: September 6, 2009  [eBook #29921]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STORYOLOGY***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Stephanie Eason, and the
+Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+(http://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+STORYOLOGY:
+
+Essays in Folk-Lore, Sea-Lore, and Plant-Lore
+
+by
+
+BENJAMIN TAYLOR.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+London:
+Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster Row, E.C.
+1900.
+
+
+
+
+  To
+  HER MEMORY
+  IN
+  WHOSE DEAR COMPANIONSHIP
+  THESE PAPERS
+  WERE WRITTEN
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The principal object of this Foreword is to inform the expert
+Folkloreist and the case-hardened Mythologist (comparative or otherwise)
+that the following pages are intended for those who, being neither
+expert nor case-hardened, come under that gracious and catholic
+term--general reader. The writer addresses not the scholiast, but the
+ordinary person who likes to read about what he has not time to study.
+
+Some portion of what is here printed has appeared in a once popular
+magazine now defunct. The author hastens to add, for the relief of the
+irreverent, that the journal long survived the ordeal of the
+publication. Nevertheless this book appears on its merits, or otherwise,
+and seeks no support from past attainment. Neither does it make any
+pretension to originality of matter or method, though it may, perhaps,
+contain one or two new ideas.
+
+It is unnecessary to add that the publication is made only at the
+tearful entreaty of multitudinous friends. That, of course, is well
+understood among myth-hunters.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+       CHAPTER                            PAGE
+
+        PREFACE                            vii
+
+     I. STORYOLOGY                           1
+
+    II. THE MAGIC WAND                      23
+
+   III. THE MAGIC MIRROR                    41
+
+    IV. THE MAGIC MOON                      58
+
+     V. THE DEVIL'S CANDLE                  78
+
+    VI. THE SEA AND ITS LEGENDS             91
+
+   VII. MOTHER CAREY AND HER CHICKENS      104
+
+  VIII. DAVY JONES'S LOCKER                113
+
+    IX. SOME FLOWERS OF FANCY              121
+
+     X. ROSEMARY FOR REMEMBRANCE           137
+
+    XI. HERB OF GRACE                      149
+
+   XII. THE ROMANCE OF A VEGETABLE         163
+
+  XIII. THE STORY OF A TUBER               176
+
+   XIV. THE CENTRE OF THE WORLD            188
+
+        INDEX                              201
+
+
+
+
+STORYOLOGY.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+STORYOLOGY.
+
+
+I.
+
+What is a myth?
+
+According to Webster, it is 'a fabulous or imaginary statement or
+narrative conveying an important truth, generally of a moral or
+religious nature: an allegory, religious or historical, of spontaneous
+growth and popular origin, generally involving some supernatural or
+superhuman claim or power; a tale of some extraordinary personage or
+country that has been gradually formed by, or has grown out of, the
+admiration and veneration of successive generations.' Here is a choice
+of three definitions, but not one of them is by itself satisfying. Let
+us rather say that a myth is a tradition in narrative form, more or less
+current in more or less differing garb among different races, to which
+religious or superhuman significations may be ascribable. We say 'may
+be' ascribable because, although the science of comparative mythology
+always seeks for such significations, it is probable that the modern
+interpretations are often as different from the original meaning as
+certain abstruse 'readings' of Shakespeare are from the poet's own
+thoughts.
+
+In their introduction to Tales of the Teutonic Lands, Cox and Jones
+declare that the whole series of Arthurian legends are pure myths. These
+tales, they say, can be 'traced back to their earliest forms in phrases
+which spoke not of men and women, but of the Dawn which drives her white
+herds to their pastures'--the white clouds being the guardians of the
+cattle of the Sun--'of the Sun which slays the dew whom he loves, of the
+fiery dragon which steals the cattle of the lord of light, or the Moon
+which wanders with her myriad children through the heaven.' It is
+claimed that 'a strict etymological connection has been established'
+with regard to a large number of these and similar stories, 'but the
+link which binds the myth of the Hellenic Hephaistos with that of the
+Vedic Agni justifies the inference that both these myths reappear in
+those of Regin and of Wayland, or, in other words, that the story of the
+Dame of the Fine Green Kirtle is the story of Medeia, and that the tale
+of Helen is the legend of the loves of Conall Gulban. Elsewhere one
+reads that in the myth of Endymion, the Sun who has sunk to his
+dreamless sleep, the Moon appears as Asterodia journeying with her fifty
+daughters through the sky. 'In the Christian myth she becomes St. Ursula
+with her eleven thousand virgins--this Ursula again appearing in the
+myth of Tannhaeuser, as the occupant of the Horselberg, and as the fairy
+queen in the tale of True Thomas of Ercildoune.' By the same method of
+comparative mythology, the whole series of the Arthurian stories are
+placed 'in that large family of heroic legends which have their origin
+in mythical phrases describing the phenomena of the outward world, and
+more especially those of the day and of the year.'
+
+This seems hard, for it compels us to believe that our remote ancestors
+were very much more intelligent, and imaginative, and poetical, and
+religious than anything else which they have sent down to us would have
+suggested. It is true that Cox and Jones do not deny that the names
+which figure in many of these legends, as in those of Greece, may have
+been the names of real personages, but yet the narrative, they say, must
+not be taken as historical. This may be true, but in what sense can we
+regard it as more probable that the story-makers invented allegories,
+and clothed them with the names of contemporary or preceding heroes,
+than that they invented tales of wonder to fit these heroes? Is it
+easier to believe, for instance, that Arthur came after the myths, and
+was tacked on to them, than that the myths, or stories, came after
+Arthur, and were tacked on to him? Is there anything in the story of St.
+Ursula and her virgins which could not have had natural 'spontaneous
+growth' in an age of deep devotional faith in miracles, that we must be
+compelled to regard it as purely a mediaevalized version of the Greek
+myth of the sun and moon?
+
+I am not writing for experts and scholars, and therefore do not use the
+scientific terms and allusions familiar to students of these matters. I
+am merely writing for ordinary persons, who are often puzzled and pained
+by the extraordinary meanings which specialists contrive to twist out of
+simple and familiar things. It is not too much to say that the
+professional mythologists are among the most troublesome meddlers who
+disturb the repose of '_the average reader_.' Even Mr. Ruskin suffers in
+this connection. In The Queen of the Air he has given us one of his most
+delightful books, but there are probably few, outside the circle of
+philologists and comparative mythologists, who have not thought in
+reading the lovely interpretations of the myths of Athena, that there
+was more of Ruskin than of the Ancient Greek in the meaning evolved.
+Somehow, it seems easier to think that these things were conceived by a
+Professor of Art in the nineteenth century, than that they were the
+deliberate convictions of a primitive people ever so many centuries
+before Christ--a people, too, known to be steeped in sensualities, and
+addicted to very barbarous practices.
+
+Are there, then, reasons for supposing that comparative mythologists are
+not always right--that, in fact, their science is but a doubtful science
+after all? Mr. Andrew Lang boldly says that there are. In Custom and
+Myth his object is to show the connection between savage customs--or
+rather the customs of savage and uncivilized races--and ancient myths.
+But before this branch of Storyology is reached, we must consider the
+question of the relation between our familiar nursery-tales, the
+folk-lore of our own and other countries, and the old romances, with
+these same myths. There is something more than monotony in the theory
+which 'resolves most of our old romances into a series of remarks about
+the weather.' The author of Primitive Culture (Mr. Tylor) rebels against
+this theory. There is no legend, no allegory, no nursery-rhyme, he says,
+safe from it, and, as an amusing illustration, he supposes the Song of
+Sixpence to be thus interpreted by the mythologists. Obviously, the
+four-and-twenty blackbirds are four-and-twenty hours, and the pie to
+hold them is the underlying earth covered with the over-arching sky. How
+true a touch of nature is it, 'when the pie is opened,' that is, when
+day breaks, 'the birds begin to sing!' The King is the Sun, and his
+'counting out his money' is pouring out the sunshine, the golden shower
+of Danae; the Queen is the Moon, and her transparent honey the
+moonlight. The maid is the rosy-fingered Dawn, who rises before the Sun,
+her master, and hangs out the clothes (the clouds) across the sky; the
+particular blackbird who so tragically ends the tale, by 'nipping off
+her nose,' is the hour of sunrise. The time-honoured rhyme really wants,
+as Mr. Tylor remarks, only one thing to prove it a sun-myth, and that
+one thing is some other proof than a mere argument from analogy.
+
+The same proof is wanting for those who would argue that the story of
+Red Riding Hood is only another dawn-myth. Mr. Hussin holds this view,
+but is not the story of the Cat and the Well capable of the same kind of
+reading? Pussy is the earth; Tommy, who shoves her into the well, is the
+evening or twilight; the well is Night; Johnny Stout is the Dawn who
+pulls the earth out of darkness again. There is no limit to this kind of
+application of so elastic a theory. But the very ease with which such
+explanations can be attached to any nursery-rhyme or folk-tale should
+warn us against their probability. As Mr. Tylor says: 'Rash inferences
+which, on the strength of mere resemblances, derive episodes of myth
+from episodes of nature, must be regarded with utter distrust, for the
+student who has no more stringent criterion than this for his myths of
+sun, and sky, and dawn, will find them wherever it pleases him to seek
+them.'
+
+The mention of the story of Red Riding Hood suggests a familiar
+folk-tale, upon which that of Red Riding Hood may or may not have been
+founded, but which certainly forms the basis of a good many similar
+tales, and has been the subject of a good deal of wise exposition by the
+mythologists. In the story of the Wolf and the Seven Little Kids, as
+told by Grimm, there is a goat who goes out one day, leaving her seven
+little ones safely locked in the house, after warning them to beware of
+the wolf, whom she describes. The wolf comes begging for entrance,
+pretending to be their mother, but they distrust first his voice and
+then his black paws. He gets his paws whitened and comes back, showing
+them against the window as proof that he is indeed their mother.
+Therefore they open the door, and he swallows six of them, one after the
+other, without going through the ceremony of mastication. After this he
+goes back to the wood and falls asleep under a tree, where the
+disconsolate mother finds him. With the assistance of the seventh and
+youngest kid, who had escaped by hiding herself in the clock-case, the
+wolf is cut open, and the six kids jump out all alive and kicking.
+Stones are then placed in the wolf's stomach, and it is sewed up. When
+the wolf wakens he cannot account for the jumbling and tumbling in his
+stomach, so he goes to the well to get a drink. But the weight of the
+stones makes him top-heavy; he falls in and is drowned.
+
+Now, there is nothing more remarkable in this story than there is in
+scores of our nursery or household tales, in which not only animals but
+also inanimate objects are gifted with speech, and in which the love of
+the marvellous rises superior to natural laws.
+
+According to Cox, we must understand the myth of the Wolf and Kids thus:
+'The wolf is here the night, or the darkness, which tries to swallow up
+the seven days of the week, and actually swallows six. The seventh--the
+youngest--escapes by hiding herself in the clock-case; in other words,
+the week is not quite run out, and before it comes to an end, the mother
+of the goats unrips the wolf's stomach and places stones in it in place
+of the little goats, who come trooping out, as the days of the week
+begin again to run their course.'
+
+Very plausible this, from a comparative mythologist's point of view,
+and not easy to dispute--until we find that a similar tale is current
+all over the world where clock-cases are even yet unknown. We are told
+that the negroes of Georgia have such a legend; that the natives of
+Australia have one; that the Zulus have it; that the Indians of North
+America and of British Guiana, and the Malays, all have versions of it.
+In Brittany it is traceable in the legend of Gargantua; in Germany there
+are several variations; and in Greece it finds its counterpart in the
+legend of Saturn or Cronus. The Kaffirs tell the same story of a
+cannibal, but the way the negroes have it is like this: 'Old Mrs. Sow
+had five little pigs, whom she warned against the machinations of Brer
+Wolf. Old Mrs. Sow died, and each little pig built a house for himself.
+The youngest pig built the strongest house. Brer Wolf, by a series of
+stratagems, entrapped and devoured the four elder pigs. The youngest pig
+was the wisest, and would not let Brer Wolf come in by the door. He had
+to enter by way of the chimney, fell into a great fire the youngest pig
+had lighted, and was burned to death.' Here we have no clock-case, and
+no resurrection of the victims, but otherwise the _motif_ of the story
+is the same. Certainly the negroes did not receive this tale from the
+white races, and it seems equally certain that they had no notion of
+typifying the dawn or the night, or anything else, but only the popular
+notion among nearly all primitive peoples that the youngest is usually
+the most specially gifted and blessed.
+
+This is Mr. Lang's view: 'In the tale of the Wolf and the Seven Kids,
+the essence is found in the tricks whereby the wolf deceives his
+victims; in the victory of the goat; in the disgorging of the kids
+alive; and the punishment of the wolf (as of Cronus in Hesiod) by the
+stone which he is obliged to admit into his system. In these events
+there is nothing allegorical or mystical, no reference to sunrise or
+storms. The crude ideas and incidents are of world-wide range, and suit
+the fancy of the most backward nation.' The only thing in Grimm's tale
+which differs materially from those of 'world-wide range' is the
+clock-case--clearly a modern addition, but an item which forms an
+essential factor in Cox's definition of the 'myth.'
+
+So much by way of illustration; but dozens of tales might be produced,
+all pointing the same way. This is to the belief that, although stories
+have unquestionably been transmitted from race to race throughout the
+ages, and so have become widely distributed over the world, all the
+current nursery, or household, or folk, stories have not necessarily
+been so transmitted from some one creative race of myth-makers. We have
+just seen how an evidently modern interpolation (a clock-case) has come
+to be regarded as an essential part of a myth, and it is surely easier
+to believe that the other features are relics of some ancient customs of
+which we have no record, than that they bear the ingenious references to
+natural phenomena which the mythologists suppose.
+
+Max Mueller holds that all the stories of princesses, imprisoned or
+enchanted, and delivered by young lovers, 'can be traced back to
+mythological tradition about the Spring being released from the bonds
+of Winter.' But he requires, first, to have the names of the personages
+of the story, because he traces the connection more by their etymology
+than by the incidents of the narrative--of which more anon. With regard
+to purely nursery or household tales, the question seems to resolve
+itself pretty much into this: Are they the remains of an older and
+higher mythology, or are they the foundations upon which the priests and
+medicine-men and minstrels of later ages built their myths? Are they, in
+short, surviving relics, or were they germs? The favourite scientific
+theory adopts the former view; I incline to the latter. There are many
+of the familiar folk-tales which it is impossible to explain, and there
+are many, doubtless, which are in some sort fragments of the old
+mythologies filtered to us through Greece. But, on the whole, it is more
+reasonable to conclude that the simple stories of the marvellous or
+irrational have their origin in 'the qualities of the uncivilized
+imagination.'
+
+Thus, with regard to the current superstitions of our peasantry and of
+the Highlanders, it is much more rational to consider them, as Dr.
+Robert Chambers did, as 'springing from a disposition of the human mind
+to account for actual appearances by some imagined history which the
+appearances suggest,' than as relics of the old-world mythologies. The
+untutored mind disregards the natural, even in these days of applied
+science. There is an old weir across the Tweed which the common people,
+forgetting the mill, that had disappeared, pointed out as the work of
+one of the imps of Michael Scott, the wizard. Wherever there are
+three-topped hills there is sure to be a legend of the work of this same
+Michael, or some other wizard. In the same way, deep, clear lakes exist
+in various parts of the country, concerning which traditions survive of
+cities lying at the bottom, submerged for their wickedness, or by the
+machinations of some evil spirit. Old buildings exist in many parts in
+such unfavourable situations that popular tradition can only account for
+the singularity by the operation of some unfriendly spirit transporting
+them from their original locality. Large solitary rocks off the coast,
+or on hilltops, have been deposited where they are by witches. Water
+springing from a rock by the roadside has always been the result of the
+stroke of some magician or saint. Large depressions on hillsides are
+generally the footprints of giants, like the mark left by Buddha's foot
+as he ascended to heaven, still to be seen on a hill in Ceylon. The
+circular green marks in the fields are the rings drawn by the fairies
+for their midnight dances, and a scaur or cliff bearing the marks of
+volcanic action or of lightning is invariably associated with some tale
+of diabolic fury. Almost every reader can add instances of natural
+appearances or effects idealized by the workings of the imagination of
+uncivilized or uncultivated minds.
+
+
+II.
+
+One of the most common forms of these idealized phenomena is that known
+as the 'Fairy-ring,' about which Nether Lochaber has said, in the
+Highlands of Scotland, 'We can perfectly understand how in the good old
+times, ere yet the schoolmaster was abroad, or science had become a
+popular plaything, people--and doubtless very honest, decent people,
+too--attributed those inexplicable emerald circles to supernatural
+agency; if, indeed, anything connected with the "good folks" or "men of
+peace" could properly be called supernatural in times when a belief in
+fairies and every sort of fairy freak and frolic was deemed the most
+correct and natural thing in the world. Did not these circles, it was
+argued, appear in the course of a single night? In the sequestered
+woodland glade, nor herd nor milkmaid could see anything odd or unusual
+as the sun went down, and lo! next morning, as they drove their flocks
+afield, there was the mysterious circle, round as the halo about the
+wintry moon.... And if we know better nowadays than to believe these
+green circles to be fairy-rings, we also know better than to give the
+slightest credence to certain authors of our own day who have gravely
+asserted that they are caused by electricity.... Fairy-rings ... are in
+truth caused by a mushroom (_Agaricus pratensis_), the sporule dust or
+seed of which, having fallen on a spot suitable for its growth,
+instantly germinates, and, constantly propagating itself by sending out
+a network of innumerable filaments and threads, forms the rich green
+rings so common everywhere.'
+
+Hardly more excusable than the electricity theorists, thinks this
+writer, are those learned authors who tell us that the West received the
+first hint of the existence of fairies from the East at the time of the
+Crusades, and that almost all our fairy lore is traceable to the same
+source, 'the fact being that Celt and Saxon, Scandinavian and Goth, Lapp
+and Finn, had their "duergar," their "elfen" without number, such as
+dun-elfen, berg-elfen, munt-elfen, feld-elfen, sae-elfen and
+waeter-elfen--elves or spirits of downs, hills and mountains, of the
+fields, of the woods, of the sea, and of the rivers, streams and
+solitary pools--fairies, in short, and a complete fairy mythology, long
+centuries before Peter the Hermit was born, or Frank and Moslem dreamt
+of making the Holy Sepulchre a _casus belli_.'
+
+There is something very suggestive in these remarks, and one thought
+suggested is particularly in the direction of our inquiry, and that is,
+may not the theory of the Aryan mythological origin of our folk-tales be
+as imaginary and as groundless as the theory of the Oriental origin of
+fairies? At the same time, let us admit that the superstitious belief in
+capnomancy--_i.e._, divination by smoke--still said to be prevalent in
+some parts of the Highlands, is probably the relic of the old sacrifices
+by fire to the gods. In so far the superstition has a mythological
+significance, but then, are we not driven back to the consideration
+whether these gods were not actual personages in the minds of the old
+Celtic worshippers, and not symbols of natural phenomena?
+
+So much, however, for popular superstitions; and, as regards folk-tales,
+we must, in speculating as to their origin,[1] 'look not into the
+clouds, but upon the earth; not in the various aspects of nature, but in
+the daily occurrences and surroundings.' The process of diffusion must
+always remain uncertain. 'Much may be due to the identity everywhere of
+early fancy, something to transmission,' but 'household tales occupy a
+middle place between the stories of savages and the myths of early
+civilization.'[2] And as nursery-rhymes are but the simplified form of
+household or folk-tales, let us consider with Mr. Lang the relation
+between savage customs and ancient myths.
+
+The foundation of the method of comparative mythology is the belief that
+'myths are the result of a disease of language, as the pearl is the
+result of a disease of the oyster.' The method of inquiry is to examine
+the names which occur in the stories, and having found or invented a
+meaning for these names, to argue back from them to a meaning in the
+myths. But then almost each scholar has his peculiar fancy in etymology,
+and while one finds a Sanskrit root, another finds a Greek, a third a
+Semitic, and so on. Even when they agree upon the derivation of the
+proper names, the scholars seldom agree upon the interpretation of them,
+and thus the whole system is full of perplexity and confusion to all who
+approach its study with unbiassed minds. There is a further division
+among the mythologists, for there are some who have a partiality for
+sun-myths, others for cloud-myths, sky-myths and fire-myths, and each
+seeks to work out an interpretation of an old-world story to suit his
+own taste in myths. How can they be all right? And in whom can we have
+confidence when we find so much disagreement, first, on the derivation
+of names, and second, on their meaning after the derivation is
+discovered? And then, how do we know that words had the same meaning to
+the ancients as they have to us? Was the sky, for instance, to the
+original story-makers 'an airy, infinite, radiant vault,' as it is to
+us, or was it a material roof, or even a person? And, further, how is it
+that we find the same myth, with slight alterations, in various parts of
+the world, but with totally different names?
+
+In opposition to the method of reading myths by the philological
+analysis of names, there is the method of reading them by folk-lore,
+_i.e._, by a comparison of the folk-tales and customs of primitive
+peoples. The student of folk-lore has to collect and compare the similar
+relics of old races, the surviving superstitions and traditions, and the
+ideas which still live. He is thus led to compare the usages, myths, and
+ideas of savages with those which remain among the European
+peasantry--classes which have least altered by education, and have shown
+the smallest change in progress. It is thus that we find even in our own
+country and in our own day such things as the beliefs in fairies and
+divination by smoke, which are as old as time. Similarly, the
+harvest-custom which is still practised by the children in parts of
+rural England and Scotland--the dressing up of the last gleaning in
+human shape, and conducting it home in musical procession--is parallel
+with a custom in ancient Peru, and with the Feast of Demeter of the
+Sicilians. But that does not necessarily prove any original connection
+between Peruvians, Scotch and Sicilians, any more than the fact that the
+negroes of Barbadoes make clay figures of their enemies and mutilate
+them, as the Greeks and Accadians of old used to do, proves any
+connection between the negroes and the Greeks and Accadians. If we find
+the Australians spreading dust round the body of a dead man in order to
+receive the impression of the footprints of any ghostly visitor, the
+same custom has been observed among the Jews, among the Aztecs, among
+the French, and even among the Scotch. Where we find, therefore, an
+apparently irrational and anomalous custom in any country, we must look
+for a country where a similar custom prevails, and where it is no longer
+irrational and anomalous, but in harmony with the manners and ideas of
+the people among whom it prevails. When we read of Greeks dancing about
+in their 'mysteries' with live serpents, it seems unintelligible, but
+when we read of Red Indians doing the same thing with live rattlesnakes,
+we can understand the meaning because we can see implied a test of
+physical courage. May not a similar motive have originated the Greek
+practices?
+
+The method of folk-lore, then, is 'to compare the seemingly meaningless
+customs or manners of civilized races with the similar customs and
+manners which exist among the uncivilized, and still retain their
+meaning. It is not necessary for comparison of this sort that the
+uncivilized and the civilized race should be of the same stock, nor need
+we prove that they were ever in contact.'[3] Similar conditions of mind
+produce similar practices, apart from identity of race, or borrowing of
+ideas and manners. In pursuing this method we have to compare the
+customs and tales of the most widely separated races, whereas the
+comparative mythologists, who hold it correct to compare Greek, Slavonic,
+Celtic and Indian stories because they occur in languages of the same
+family, and Chaldean and Greek stories because the Chaldeans and the
+Greeks are known to have been in contact, will not compare Greek,
+Chaldean, Celtic, or Indian stories with those of the Maoris, the
+Eskimos, or the Hottentots, because these last belong to a different
+language-family, and are not known to have ever been in contact with
+Aryan races.
+
+The 'bull-roarer,' a toy familiar to most children, is one example
+selected by Mr. Lang. It is a long, thin, narrow piece of wood,
+sharpened at both ends; attached to a piece of string, and whirled
+rapidly and steadily in the air, it emits a sound which gradually
+increases to an unearthly kind of roar. The ancient Greeks employed at
+some of their sacred rites a precisely similar toy, described by
+historians as 'a little piece of wood, to which a string was fastened,
+and in the mysteries it is whirled round to make a roaring noise.' The
+performers in the 'mysteries' at which this implement was used daubed
+themselves all over with clay. Demosthenes describes the mother of
+Aeschines as a dabbler in mysteries, and tells how Aeschines used to
+assist her by helping to bedaub the initiate with clay and bran. Various
+explanations have been offered of these practices, but let us see how
+they tally with any prevailing customs. First, the bull-roarer is to be
+found in almost every country in the world, and among the most primitive
+peoples. It is so simple an instrument that it is within the scope of
+the mechanical genius of the most degraded savages, and therefore it is
+quite unnecessary to suppose that the idea of it was ever transmitted
+from race to race. And as an instrument employed in religious rites or
+mysteries, it is found in New Mexico, in Australia, in New Zealand and
+in Africa, to this day. Its use in Australia is to warn the women to
+keep out of the way when the men are about to celebrate their tribal
+mysteries. It is death for women to witness these rites, and it is also
+forbidden for them to look upon the sacred turndun, or bull-roarer. In
+the same way, among the Greeks, it was forbidden for men to witness the
+rites of the women, and for women to witness those of the men. Among the
+Indians of Zuni, Mr. Cushing found the same implement used by the
+priests to summon the tribe to the sacrificial feasts. In South Africa,
+Mr. Tylor has proved that the bull-roarer is employed to call the men
+only to the celebration of sacred functions, and the instrument itself
+is described in Theal's Kaffir Folklore.
+
+Now, the same peoples who still employ the bull-roarer as a sacred
+instrument also bedaub their bodies with clay, for no apparent reason
+unless it may be to frighten their enemies or repel intruders. We thus
+find still prevailing in our own time among savage races practices which
+are perfectly analogous to practices which prevailed among the Greeks.
+The reasonable inference, therefore, is not that the bull-roaring and
+body-daubing were first used in the rites of a civilized race of Greeks,
+and thence transmitted to Africa, Australia and America, but that the
+employment of these things by the Greeks was a survival of the time when
+the Greeks were in the same savage condition as are the peoples among
+whom we find the same things now.
+
+The Greek story of Saturn is familiar to every schoolboy. Saturn, it
+will be remembered, wounds and drives away his father, Uranus, because
+of his unkindness to himself and his brothers. Afterwards Saturn marries
+his sister Rhea, and has several children--Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon
+and Zeus--whom he swallowed as they were born, lest they might serve him
+as he served Uranus. But Rhea didn't like this, and at the time when
+Zeus was born she ran away to a distant place. Saturn followed, and,
+asking for the child, was given a stone, which he swallowed without
+looking at it. Zeus grew up in security, and in due time gave his father
+a dose which made him disgorge, first, the stone (which was placed at
+Delphi, where it became an object of public worship), and then the
+children, one after another, all living and hearty.
+
+The tale is told in various ways, but these are the main incidents. It
+is interpreted by the mythologists to typify, in its first part, the
+birth of the world and the elements; and the second part is held by some
+to typify the operations of time, by others the alternations of night
+and day--the stone swallowed by Saturn being the sun, which he
+afterwards disgorges at daybreak. By others Saturn is held to be the sun
+and ripener of the harvests; by others, again, the storm-god, who
+swallows the clouds, whose sickle is the rainbow, and whose blood is the
+lightning; by others still Saturn is regarded as the sky, which swallows
+and reproduces the stars, and whose sickle is the crescent moon. There
+is a great deal of diversity of opinion, it will be observed, about this
+myth of Saturn, or Cronus, but it is curious to note how all the leading
+incidents of this myth may be traced in various parts of the world.[4]
+Among the Maoris, the story of Tutenganahau is told, and this is a story
+of the severing of heaven and earth, very similar to the Greek story. In
+India and in China, legends tell of the former union of heaven and
+earth, and of their violent separation by their own children. As regards
+the swallowing performances of Saturn, they find analogues in tales
+among the Australians, among the Red Indians, among the natives of
+British Guiana, and among the Kaffirs.
+
+The conclusion, then, is that the first part of the Saturn myth is
+evidently the survival of an old nature-myth which is common to races
+who never had any communication with the Greeks. The second part is
+unintelligible, except as just such a legend as might be evolved by
+persons in the same savage intellectual condition as, say, the Bushmen,
+who account for celestial phenomena by saying that a big star has
+swallowed his daughter and spat her out again.
+
+Any myth which accounts for the processes of nature or the aspects of
+natural phenomena may, says Mr. Lang, conceivably have been invented
+separately, therefore it is not surprising to find the star-stories of
+savages closely resembling those of civilized races. The story of the
+lost sister of the Pleiades, according to the Greek myth, finds a
+parallel in a tradition among the Australians. Of star-lore generally,
+it may be said that it is much the same even among the Bushmen of
+Africa, as it was among the Greeks and Egyptians, and as it is among the
+Australians and Eskimos.
+
+Another interesting inquiry is to trace the legend current among the
+Greeks, and known to us as that of Jason and the Golden Fleece, in the
+Storyology of the Africans, the Norse, the Malagasies, the Russians, the
+Italians, the Samoans, the Finns, the Samoyedes and the Eskimo. Some of
+the resemblances are so exceedingly close and curious as to severely
+shake our belief in the dawn-sun-spring-lightning interpretations of the
+mythologists. They drive us to the conclusion that the Jason myth is not
+a story capable of explanation as a nature-myth, or as a result of 'a
+disease of language'; for as is pertinently remarked, 'So many languages
+could not take the same malady in the same way; nor can we imagine any
+stories of natural phenomena that would inevitably suggest this tale to
+so many diverse races.' The rational theory is that the Jason story,
+like its analogues among strange races, had its origin in a time of
+savage conditions, when animals were believed to talk, when human
+sacrifices and cannibalism were practised, and when efforts to escape
+being eaten were natural.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE MAGIC WAND.
+
+
+It is sufficiently remarkable that the rod, besides being an emblem of
+authority, is also an instrument of the supernatural. An indispensable
+instrument, one may say; for was ever a magician depicted in book, in
+picture, or in the mind's eye, without a wand? Does even the most
+amateurish of prestidigitateurs attempt to emulate the performances of
+the once famous Wizard of the North, without the aid of the magic staff?
+The magician, necromancer, soothsayer, or conjurer, is as useless
+without his wand as a Newcastle pitman is without his 'daug.'
+
+At first thought it might be assumed that the association of the rod or
+wand with necromancy is merely an indication of power or authority, in
+the same way as the sceptre is associated with kingship. But there is
+something more in it. Magic has been well called 'the shadow of
+religion,' and the early religious idea found expression in symbols.
+These symbols, as we know, have in many cases retained a certain
+significance long after the ideas they were meant to convey have been
+lost, or abandoned, or modified. If we bear these things in mind, it is
+not difficult to discover a religious origin for the symbolic wand of
+necromancy.
+
+Mr. Moncure Conway, in his book on Demonology and Devil-lore, mentions a
+thing which seems peculiarly apposite to our subject. In the old town of
+Hanover there is a certain schoolhouse, in which, above the teacher's
+chair, there was originally a representation of a dove perched upon a
+rod--the rod in this case being meant to typify a branch. Below the dove
+and rod there was this inscription: 'This shall lead you unto all
+Truth.' But the dove has long since disappeared, and there remains now
+but the rod and the inscription. It is natural that the children of the
+school should apply the admonition to the rod, ignorant that the rod was
+but the supporter of a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Thus has the pious
+design of inculcating a Divine lesson left only an emblem of mysterious
+terror. In some way, too, has the magic wand lost its religious
+significance and become but a dread implement of the occult.
+
+Yet we might trace the origin of the magician's wand to the very same
+root as that of the iron rod of the Hanover schoolhouse. We may find it
+in the olive-branch brought by the dove into the ark--a message of
+Divine love and mercy--and therefore a connecting-link between human
+needs and desires and superhuman power. To construe a mere symbol into a
+realized embodiment of the virtue symbolized were surely as easy in this
+case as in that of the Eucharist.
+
+But if this suggestion of the origin of the magician's wand be thought
+too hypothetical, there will be less objection to our finding it in
+Aaron's rod. Moses was commanded to take a rod from the chiefs of each
+of the twelve tribes, and to write upon each rod the name. The rods were
+then to be placed in the Tabernacle, and the owner of the one which
+blossomed was designated as the chosen one. The rod of the house of Levi
+bore the name of Aaron, and this was the only one of the twelve which
+blossomed. Here once more was the rod used to connect human needs with
+Divine will; but now a special virtue is made to appear in the rod
+itself. This virtue appeared again, when Pharaoh called all the
+sorcerers and magicians of Egypt to test their enchantments with
+Aaron's. All these magicians bore wands, or rods, and when they threw
+them on the ground the rods turned into serpents. Aaron's rod also
+turned into a serpent, and swallowed all the others. Now, here we find
+two things established. First, that even in these early days necromancy
+was a profession, and the rod a necessary implement of the craft; and,
+second, that the rod was esteemed not merely an emblem of authority, or
+a mere ornament of office, but as a thing of superhuman power in itself
+although the power could only be evoked by the specially gifted.
+
+We find the beginning of the idea in the story of Moses' rod which
+turned into a serpent when he cast it on the ground at the Divine
+command. This was what led up to the trial of skill with the Egyptian
+magicians, and seems to have been the first suggestion in early history
+of the miraculous virtues of the rod. Then we must remember that it was
+by the stretching forth of the rod of the prophet that all the waters of
+Egypt were made to turn into blood, and that the plagues of frogs and
+lice were wrought, and that the hail was called down from heaven which
+destroyed the crops and flocks of the Egyptians. In fact, all the
+miracles performed in the land of Egypt were made to appear more or less
+as the result of the application of the magic rod, just as to this day
+the clever conjurer appears to produce his wonderful effects with his
+wand.
+
+It was by the stretching forth of the rod of Moses that the Red Sea
+divided, and that the water sprang from the rock. The staff of Elisha
+and the spear of Joshua may also be cited in this connection, and other
+examples in Holy Writ may occur to the reader. They are mentioned here
+in no spirit of irreverence, but merely as evidence that the magic
+virtue of the rod was a fixed belief in the minds of the early writers.
+
+Belief in the vitalizing power of the rod may be found embalmed in many
+a curious mediaeval legend. The budding rod, borrowed from the tradition
+of Aaron's, is, for instance, very frequent. Thus in the story of St.
+Christophoros, as preserved in Von Buelow's Christian Legends of Germany,
+we read of the godly man carrying the Child-Christ on his back through a
+raging torrent, and afterwards lying down on the banks of the stream,
+exhausted, to sleep. The staff which he stuck in the ground ere he lay
+down, budded and blossomed before he awoke, and in the morning he found
+a great umbrageous tree bearing fruit, and giving shelter to hundreds of
+gorgeous birds. There are many such legends in the traditions of all the
+Christian nations, and the collection and comparison of them would be an
+interesting and instructive task, but one too large for our present
+purpose.
+
+It is related by Holinshed, in connection with many wonderful visions
+which were seen in Scotland about A.D. 697, that once when the Bishop
+was conducting the service in the church of Camelon, with the
+crozier-staff in his hand, 'it was kindled so with fire that by no means
+it could be quenched till it was burnt even to ashes.' This was supposed
+to have been the handiwork of the devil, who has on other occasions used
+the staff or wand to emphasize his intentions or mark his spite. Thus,
+of the famous Dr. Fian it is narrated in the 'Newes from Scotland,
+declaring the damnable Life of Doctor Fian, a notable Sorcerer, who was
+burned at Edenborough in Januarie last 1591; which Doctor was Register
+to the Devill, that sundrie times Preached at North-Baricke Kirke to a
+number of notorious Witches,' etc.--that he made the following, among
+his other confessions: 'That the devill had appeared unto him in the
+night before, appareled all in blacke, with a white wand in his hande,
+and that the devill demanded of him if he would continue his faithfull
+service according to his first oath and promise made to that effect,
+whome (as hee then said) he utterly renounced to his face, and said unto
+him in this manner: "Avoide, avoide, Satan, for I have listened too
+much unto thee, and by the same thou hast undone me, in respect whereof
+I utterly forsake thee." To whom the devill answered, "That once, ere
+thou die, thou shalt be mine," and with that (as he sayed) the devill
+brake the white wand, and immediately vanished from sight.' After which,
+the chronicle goes on to tell how the redoubtable doctor actually
+escaped from prison, and began to resume his Satanic practices.
+
+This brings us to the most frequent use of the rod in superstitions--for
+the purposes of divination. There is a suggestion of the practice by
+Nebuchadnezzar, when he 'stood at the parting of the way, at the head of
+two ways, to use divinations, he made his arrows bright,' etc. He then
+threw up a bundle of arrows to see which way they would alight, and
+because they fell on the right hand he marched towards Jerusalem.
+Divination by the wand is also suggested in the shooting of an arrow
+from a window by Elisha, and by the strokes upon the ground with an
+arrow by which Joash foretold the number of his victories.
+
+Sir Thomas Browne speaks of a common 'practice among us to determine
+doubtful matters by the opening of a book and letting fall of a staff.'
+The 'staff' business is not quite so familiar in present days, but the
+opening of a book for prophetic guidance is, perhaps, more common than
+most people suppose.
+
+Sir Thomas Browne also speaks of a 'strange kind of exploration and
+peculiar way of Rhabdomancy' used in mineral discoveries. That is,
+'with a fork of hazel, commonly called Moses his rod, which, freely held
+forth, will stir and play if any mine be under it. And though many there
+are,' says the learned doctor, 'who have attempted to make it good, yet
+until better information, we are of opinion, with Agricola, that in
+itself it is a fruitless exploration, strongly scenting of pagan
+derivation and the _virgula divina_ proverbially magnified of old. 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.'
+
+One may look in vain, perhaps, for modern instances of the divining-rod
+under the name of 'Moses his rod,' as old Sir Thomas found it.
+
+It is curious, however, that Sir Thomas Browne, who was so fond of
+delving among ancient writers, makes no reference to a striking passage
+in Herodotus. That historian, speaking of the Scythians, says, 'They
+have amongst them a great number who practise the art of divination. For
+this purpose they use a number of willow-twigs in this manner: they
+bring large bundles of these together, and having untied them, dispose
+them one by one on the ground, each bundle at a distance from the rest.
+This done, they pretend to foretell the future, during which they take
+up the bundles separately and tie them again together.'
+
+From this it may be seen that while the divining-rod was a familiar
+instrument 450 years before Christ, it was also then disbelieved in by
+some. Curious to think that what the old historian of Halicarnassus was
+wise enough to ridicule four centuries and a half before the birth of
+Christ, there are yet people, nineteen centuries after His advent,
+simple enough to accept!
+
+Herodotus goes on to tell that this mode of divination was hereditary
+among the Scythians, so how many centuries earlier it may have been
+practised one can hardly guess. He says that the 'enaries, or effeminate
+men, affirm that the art of divination was taught them by the goddess
+Venus,' a statement which will carry some significance to those who are
+familiar with the theories so boldly advocated by the author of Bible
+Folklore.
+
+Now, the attempt to divine by means of rods, arrows, staffs or twigs is
+evidently a good deal older than Herodotus, and it is to be found among
+almost every race of people on the face of the earth. Let us say
+'almost,' because Mr. Andrew Lang instances this as one form of
+superstition which is not prevalent among savage races; or rather, to
+use his exact words, 'is singular in its comparative lack of copious
+savage analogues.' The qualification seems to be necessary, because
+there are certainly some, if not 'copious,' instances among savage
+peoples of the use of the divining-rod in one form or other. And Mr.
+Lang is hardly accurate in speaking of the 'resurrection' of this
+superstition in our own country. It has, in fact, never died, and there
+is scarcely a part of the country where a 'diviner' has not tried
+his--or her, for it is often a woman--skill with the 'twig' from time to
+time. These attempts have seldom been known beyond the immediate
+locality and the limited circle of those interested in them, and it is
+only of late years, since folklore became more of a scientific and
+general study, that the incidents have been seized upon and recorded by
+the curious. From the time of Moses until now the 'rod' has been almost
+continuously used by innumerable peoples in the effort to obtain
+supplies of water.
+
+In ancient times it was used, as we have seen, for a variety of other
+purposes; but its surviving use in our generation is to indicate the
+locality of hidden springs or of mineral deposits. There are cases on
+record, however, so recently as the last century, when the rod was used
+in the detection of criminals, and a modified application of it to a
+variety of indefinite purposes may even be traced to the planchette,
+which, at this very day, is seriously believed in by many persons who
+are ranked as 'intelligent.'
+
+Now, of the use of the divining-rod in England, Mr. Thiselton-Dyer thus
+wrote some years ago: 'The _virgula divinatoria_, or divining-rod, is a
+forked branch in the form of a Y, cut off a hazel-stick, by means of
+which people have pretended to discover mines, springs, etc.,
+underground. It is much employed in our mining districts for the
+discovery of hidden treasure. In Cornwall, for instance, the miners
+place much confidence in its indications, and even educated, intelligent
+men oftentimes rely on its supposed virtues. Pryce, in his Mineralogia
+Cornubiensis, tells us that many mines have been discovered by the rod,
+and quotes several; but after a long account of the method of cutting,
+tying and using it, rejects it, because 'Cornwall is so plentifully
+stored with tin and copper lodes, that some accident every week
+discovers to us a fresh vein,' and because 'a grain of metal attracts
+the rod as strongly as a pound, for which reason it has been found to
+dip equally to a poor as to a rich lode.'
+
+But in Lancashire and Cumberland also, Mr. Dyer goes on to say, 'the
+power of the divining-rod is much believed in, and also in other parts
+of England.' The method of using it is thus described. 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. Mr. Dyer's explanation of the result is simple: 'The position
+of the hands in holding the rod is a constrained one--it is not easy to
+describe it; but the result is that the hands, from weariness speedily
+induced in the muscles, grasp the end of the twig yet more rigidly, and
+thus is produced the mysterious bending. The phenomena of the
+divining-rod and table-turning are of precisely the same character, and
+both are referable to an involuntary muscular action resulting from
+fixedness of idea. These experiments with a divining-rod are always made
+in a district known to be metalliferous, and the chances are, therefore,
+greatly in favour of its bending over or near a mineral lode.'
+
+The theory of 'involuntary muscular action' is a favourite explanation,
+and the subject is one well worthy of the investigation of all students
+of psychology. But how does this theory square with the story of
+Linnaeus, told by a writer in _The Gentleman's Magazine_ in 1752? 'When
+Linnaeus was upon his voyage to Scania, hearing his secretary highly
+extol the virtues of his divining-rod, he was willing to convince him of
+its insufficiency, and for that purpose concealed a purse of 100 ducats
+under a ranunculus which grew up by itself in a meadow, and bid the
+secretary find it if he could. The wand discovered nothing, and
+Linnaeus's mark was soon trampled down by the company who were present,
+so that when Linnaeus went to finish the experiment by fetching the gold
+himself, he was utterly at a loss where to find it. The man with the
+wand assisted him, and told him that it could not lie in the way they
+were going, but quite the contrary; so pursued the direction of the
+wand, and actually dug out the gold. Linnaeus adds, that such another
+experiment would be sufficient to make a proselyte of him.'
+
+The explanation of this case by the incredulous would, of course, be
+that the owner of the wand had made a private mark of his own, and thus
+knew better than Linnaeus where the gold lay.
+
+The divining-rod, however, is not used only in districts which are known
+to abound in metalliferous deposits, when minerals are being searched
+for, but has frequently been used by prospectors in new countries. Thus
+we recall that Captains Burton and Cameron in their book about the Gold
+Coast, tell how the rod was used by the early British explorers on the
+Gambia River. One Richard Jobson, in 1620, landed and searched various
+parts of the country, armed with mercury, nitric acid, some large
+crucibles, and a divining-rod. He washed the sand and examined the rocks
+beyond the Falls of Barraconda, with small success for a long time. At
+last, however, he found what he declared to be 'the mouth of the mine
+itself, and found gold in such abundance as surprised him with joy and
+admiration.' But what part the divining-rod played in the discovery is
+not related, and, for the rest, 'the mine' has disappeared as
+mysteriously as it was discovered. No one else has seen it, and all the
+gold that now comes from the Gambia River is a small quantity of dust
+washed down from the mountain-ridges of the interior. It is curious,
+however, to find civilized Europeans carrying the divining-rod to one of
+the districts where, according to Mr. Andrew Lang, it has no analogue
+among the primitive savages.
+
+I have mentioned, on the authority of Mr. Thiselton-Dyer, some of the
+districts of England in which the divining-rod is still more or less
+used. But something of its more extended use may be learned from Mr.
+Hilderic Friend's Flowers and Flower-Lore. That writer informs us of a
+curious custom of the hop-pickers of Kent and Sussex for ascertaining
+where they shall stand to pick. One of them cuts as many slips of hazel
+as there are bins in the garden, and on these he cuts notches from one
+upwards. Each picker then draws a twig, and his standing is decided by
+the number upon it. This is certainly an interesting instance of the
+divination by twigs reduced to practical ends. The same writer regards
+the familiar 'old-wife' fortune-telling by tea-leaves as merely another
+variation of this old superstition. It does seem to have some analogy to
+several of the practices to which we have briefly referred, and one
+finds another analogy in the Chinese custom of divining by straws.
+
+The divining-rod of England is described by Mr. Friend much in the same
+way as by Mr. Dyer. But, according to Mr. Friend, hazel was not always,
+although it has for a long time been, the favourite wood for the
+purpose. Elder, at any rate, is strictly forbidden, as deemed incapable
+of exhibiting magical powers. In Wiltshire and elsewhere Mr. Friend
+knows of the magic rod having been used recently for detecting water. It
+must be cut at some particular time when the stars are favourable, and
+'in cutting it, one must face the east, so that the rod shall be one
+which catches the first rays of the morning sun, or, as some say, the
+eastern and western sun must shine through the fork of the rod,
+otherwise it will be good for nothing.'
+
+The same superstition prevails in China with regard to rods cut from the
+magic peach-tree. In Prussia, it is said, hazel-rods are cut in spring,
+and when harvest comes they are placed in crosses over the grain to keep
+it good for years, while in Bohemia the rod is used to cure fevers. A
+twig of apple-tree is, in some parts, considered as good as a hazel-rod,
+but it must be cut by the seventh son of a seventh son. Brand records
+that he has known ash-twigs used, and superstitiously regarded, in some
+parts of England; but the hazel is more generally supposed to be popular
+with the fairies, or whoever may be the mysterious spirits who guide the
+diviner's art. Hence perhaps the name, common in some parts, of
+witch-hazel, although, of course, philologists will have it that the
+true derivation is wych. In Germany the witch-hazel is the
+_zauber-streuch_, or the magic-tree, and it is probable that both witch
+and wych are from the Anglo-Saxon _wic-en_, to bend. It is curious, at
+any rate, that while in olden times a witch was called _wicce_, the
+mountain-ash, which, as we have seen, has supposed occult virtues, was
+formerly called _wice_. Whether this root has any connection with
+another name by which the magic wand is known--viz., the
+wishing-rod--may be doubted, but there is clearly a close connection
+between the hazel-twig of superstitious England and the
+_Niebelungen-rod_ of Germany, which gave to its possessor power over all
+the world.
+
+Of the employment of the divining-rod for the detection of criminals
+there are many cases on record, but the most famous in comparatively
+recent times is that of Jacques Aymar of Lyons. The full details of the
+doings of this remarkable person are given by Mr. Baring-Gould in his
+Curious Myths of the Middle Ages; but the story is told more concisely
+by another writer: 'On July 5, 1692, a vintner and his wife were found
+dead in the cellar of their shop at Lyons. They had been killed by blows
+from a hedging-knife, and their money had been stolen. The culprits
+could not be discovered, and a neighbour took upon him to bring to Lyons
+a peasant out of Dauphine, named Jacques Aymar, a man noted for his
+skill with the divining-rod. The Lieutenant-Criminel and the Procureur
+du Roi took Aymar into the cellar, furnishing him with a rod of the
+first wood that came to hand. According to the Procureur du Roi the rod
+did not move till Aymar reached the very spot where the crime had been
+committed. His pulse then beat, and the wand twisted rapidly. Guided by
+the wand, or by some internal sensation, Aymar now pursued the track of
+the assassins, entered the court of the Archbishop's palace, left the
+town by the bridge over the Rhone, and followed the right bank of the
+river. He reached a gardener's house, which he declared the men had
+entered, and some children confessed that three men, whom they
+described, had come into the house one Sunday morning. Aymar followed
+the track up the river, pointed out all the places where the men had
+landed, and, to make a long story short, stopped at last at the door of
+the prison of Beaucaire. He was admitted, looked at the prisoners, and
+picked out as the murderer a little hunchback, who had just been
+brought in for a small theft. The hunchback was taken to Lyons, and he
+was recognised on the way by the people at all the stages where he had
+stopped. At Lyons he was examined in the usual manner, and confessed
+that he had been an accomplice in the crime, and had guarded the door.
+Aymar pursued the other culprits to the coast, followed them by sea,
+landed where they had landed, and only desisted from his search when
+they crossed the frontier. As for the hunchback, he was broken on the
+wheel, being condemned on his own confession.'
+
+This is briefly the story of Jacques Aymar, which is authenticated by
+various eye-witnesses, and of which many explanations have been tendered
+from time to time. Mr. Baring-Gould commits himself to no definite
+expression of opinion, but says: 'I believe that the imagination is the
+principal motive force in those who use the divining-rod; but whether it
+is so solely I am unable to decide. The powers of Nature are so
+mysterious and inscrutable that we must be cautious in limiting them,
+under abnormal conditions, to the ordinary laws of experience.' As,
+however, Jacques Aymar failed ignominiously under all the subsequent
+trials to which he was subjected, the most reasonable explanation of his
+success, with regard to the Lyons murder, is that he was by nature a
+clever detective, and that he was favoured by circumstances after he had
+once caught a clue.
+
+To return to the employment of the divining-rod in England, we find
+numerous instances of its application in searching for water, and these
+instances happen to be among the best authenticated of any on record.
+Some years ago a writer in the _Times_ boldly declared that he had
+himself seen the rod successfully used in seeking for water. He had even
+tried it himself, with the determination that the rod should not be
+allowed to twist, 'even if an ocean rolled under his feet.' But he
+confessed that it did twist in spite of him, and that at the place was
+found a concealed spring.
+
+Then it is recorded of Lady Milbanke, mother of Lord Byron's wife, that
+she had found a well by the violent twisting of the twig held in the
+orthodox way in her hand--turning so violently, indeed, as almost to
+break her fingers. Dr. Hutton was a witness of the affair, and has
+recorded his experience, which is quoted in a curious book called
+Jacob's Rod, published in London many years ago. This case, and others,
+were cited by a writer in the twenty-second volume of the _Quarterly
+Review_. De Quincey also asserted that he had frequently seen the
+divining-rod successfully used in the quest of water, and declared that,
+'whatever science or scepticism may say, most of the tea-kettles in the
+Vale of Wrington, North Somersetshire, are filled by Rabdomancy.' Mr.
+Baring-Gould also quotes the case of a friend of his own who was
+personally acquainted with a Scotch lady who could detect hidden springs
+with a twig, which was inactive in the hands of others who tried it on
+the same spots.
+
+Other instances might be cited, but enough has been said to show that
+the magic rod, from the earliest periods, has been an instrument of
+supernatural attributes, and that even to this day in our own country it
+is still believed by some to have the special faculty of indicating the
+presence of minerals and water. With regard to minerals, there are no
+instances so well authenticated as those concerning the discovery of
+water. With regard to these last a considerable amount of haziness still
+exists, and, without venturing to pronounce them all fictions or
+productions of the imagination, it may be possible to find an
+explanation in a theory of hydroscopy. It is held that there are some
+few persons who are hydroscopes by nature--that is to say, are endowed
+with peculiar sensations which tell them the moment they are near water,
+whether it be evident or hidden, a concealed watercourse or a
+subterranean spring. If the existence of such a faculty, however
+exceptional, be clearly established, it will afford an explanation of
+certain successes with the divining-rod.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE MAGIC MIRROR.
+
+
+There is an old superstition, current, probably, in most parts of the
+country, that the breaking of a mirror will be followed by bad
+luck--usually a death in the family. This is, doubtless, the survival of
+a still older superstition--the belief in certain magic qualities of the
+mirror, which enabled it in certain circumstances to reflect the distant
+and to forecast the future. Nor was this superstition so childish as
+were some other popular delusions of old, for it had a certain
+philosophic basis. It is the peculiar property of the mirror to
+represent truth; to reproduce faithfully that which is; to show us
+ourselves as others see us. This is the idea expressed by Hamlet: 'To
+hold the mirror up to Nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her
+own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure.'
+
+The mirror has been, from time immemorial, a favourite form of charm for
+the exorcism of devils, and, indeed, to this day some of the African
+tribes believe that the best defence they have against their extremely
+ugly devil is a mirror. If they keep one at hand, the devil must see
+himself in it before he can touch them, and be so terrified at his own
+ugliness that he will turn tail and flee.
+
+We may take this symbolically--that a man shrinks from his worst self
+when it is revealed to him; but the untutored mind is prone to mistake
+symbol for fact. In this way, while the ancient philosophers may have
+used the mirror as a symbol of the higher nature of man, so polished and
+clarified that it showed him his lower nature in all its deformity, the
+crowd came to regard the crystal as an actual instrument of divination.
+
+Some of the oldest romances in the world have to do with the magical
+operation of the mirror. In the Gesta Romanorum there is a story of a
+knight who went to Palestine, and who while there was shown by an
+Eastern magician in a mirror what was going on at home. In the Arabian
+Nights the story of Prince Ahmed has a variant, an ivory tube through
+which could be discovered the far-distant--a sort of anticipation of Sam
+Weller's 'double million magnifying gas microscope of hextra power.'
+
+In the story of Prince Zeyn Alasnam, the enchanted mirror was able to
+reflect character, and was called the Touchstone of Virtue. Here again
+we have Hamlet's idea of holding the mirror up to Nature. The young
+King, Zeyn Alasnam, had eight beautiful statues of priceless value, and
+he wanted a ninth to make up his set. The difficulty was to find one
+beautiful enough; but the Prince of Spirits promised to supply one as
+soon as Zeyn should bring him a maiden at least fifteen years old, and
+of perfect beauty; only the maiden must not be vain of her charms, and
+she must never have told an untruth. Zeyn employed his magic mirror, and
+for a long time without success, as it always became blurred when he
+looked into it in the presence of a girl. At last he found one whose
+image was faithfully and brilliantly reflected--whose modesty and
+truthfulness were attested by the mirror. He took her with reluctance to
+the Prince of Spirits, because he had fallen in love with her himself;
+but his faithfulness to the contract was duly rewarded. On returning
+home, he found that the ninth statue, placed on its pedestal by the
+Prince of Spirits according to promise, was no cold marble, but the
+peerless and virtuous maiden whom he had discovered by means of his
+mirror.
+
+Paracelsus, in one of his treatises on Magic, gives the following
+account of the uses to which 'the witches and evil spirits' sometimes
+put the mirror.
+
+'They take a mirror set in a wooden frame and put it into a tub of
+water, so that it will swim on the top with its face directed towards
+the sky. On the top of the mirror, and encircling the glass, they lay a
+cloth saturated with blood, and thus they expose it to the influence of
+the moon; and this evil influence is thrown towards the moon, and
+radiating again from the moon, it may bring evil to those who love to
+look at the moon. The rays of the moon, passing through the ring upon
+the mirror, become poisoned, and poison the mirror; the mirror throws
+back the poisoned ether into the atmosphere, and the moon and the mirror
+poison each other, in the same manner as two malicious persons, by
+looking at each other, poison each other's souls with their eyes. If a
+mirror is strongly poisoned in this manner, the witch takes good care of
+it; and if she desires to injure someone, she takes a waxen image made
+in his name, she surrounds it with a cloth spotted with blood, and
+throws the reflex of the mirror through the opening in the middle upon
+the head of the figure, or upon some other part of its body, using at
+the same time her evil imagination and curses; and the man whom the
+image represents may then have his vitality dried up, and his blood
+poisoned by that evil influence, and he may become diseased and his body
+covered with boils.'
+
+This, of course, is not divination, but sorcery.
+
+Paracelsus gives very minute directions for the making of a magic
+mirror. The material should be the 'electrum magicum,' which is a
+compound of ten parts of pure gold, ten of silver, five of copper, two
+of tin, two of lead, one part of powdered iron, and five parts of
+mercury. When the planets Saturn and Mercury conjoin, the lead has to be
+melted and the mercury added. Then the metal must cool, while you wait
+for a conjunction of Jupiter with Saturn and Mercury; when that occurs,
+you melt the amalgam of lead and mercury, and add the tin, previously
+melted in a separate crucible, at the exact moment of conjunction. Again
+you wait for a conjunction of either of the above-named planets with
+the Sun, when you add the gold; with the Moon, when you add the silver;
+with Venus, when you add the copper. Finally, when a conjunction of
+either of the planets occurs with Mars, you must complete your mixture
+with the powdered iron, and stir up the whole molten mass with a dry rod
+of witch-hazel.
+
+Thus far your metal; but the mirror is not made yet. It must be of about
+two inches diameter, and must be founded in moulds of fine sand at the
+moment when a conjunction of Jupiter and Venus occurs. The mirror must
+be smoothed with a grindstone and polished with tripoly and a piece of
+lime-wood; but all the operations must be conducted only when the
+planetary influences are favourable.
+
+By selecting the proper hours, three different mirrors may be prepared,
+and then, at a time of conjunction of two 'good' planets, while the Sun
+or Moon 'stands on the house of the lord of the hour of your birth,' the
+three mirrors should be placed in pure well-water and left for an hour.
+After this they may be wrapped in clean linen and kept ready for use.
+
+With a mirror made in this way from the 'electrum magicum,' Paracelsus
+says:
+
+'You may see the events of the past and the present, absent friends or
+enemies, and see what they are doing. You may see in it any object you
+may desire to see, and all the doings of men in daytime or at night. You
+may see in it anything that has been ever written down, said, or spoken
+in the past, and also see the person who said it, and the causes that
+made him say what he did, and you may see in it anything, however secret
+it may have been kept.'
+
+Mirrors made of the 'electrum magicum' are warranted antipathetic to all
+evil influences, because there is hidden in the metal a 'heavenly power
+and influence of the seven planets.'
+
+The plastic and creative power of the mind is the power of imagination;
+but the power of imagination is, or should be, controlled by the will.
+It is not alone the mediaeval dabblers in the occult who have adopted, or
+endeavoured to adopt, various means for suspending the will and making
+the imagination passive.
+
+The ancient Pythoness, as Dr. Franz Hartmann, the modern German exponent
+of the Science of Magic, pointed out, attempted to heighten her
+receptivity by the inhalation of noxious vapours; uncivilized peoples
+use poison, or the maddening whirl of the dance; others use opium, Indian
+hemp, or other narcotics--all for the same purpose, to suspend the will,
+render the mind a blank, and excite the brain so as to produce morbid
+fancies and illusions. The fortune-teller and the clairvoyant employ
+methods of their own for concentrating their attention, so as produce a
+condition of mental passivity. The Indian adept prides himself on being
+able to extract volition and suspend imagination by the mere exercise of
+will.
+
+A favourite device to bring about mental passivity has always been by
+staring at mirrors, or crystal, or sheets of water, or even pools of ink.
+
+'There are numerous prescriptions for the preparation of magic mirrors,'
+says Dr. Hartmann in his work on Magic, 'but the best magic mirror will
+be useless to him who is not able to see clairvoyantly, while the
+natural clairvoyant may call that faculty into action by concentrating
+his mind on any particular spot, a glass of water, ink, a crystal, or
+anything else. For it is not in the mirror where such things are seen,
+but in the mind; the mirror merely serves to assist in the entering of
+that mental state which is necessary to produce clairvoyant sight. The
+best of all mirrors is the soul of man, and it should be always kept
+pure, and be protected against dust, and dampness, and rust, so that it
+may not become tarnished, but remain perfectly clear, and able to
+reflect the light of the divine spirit in its original purity.'
+
+A German writer of the fifteenth century takes a less favourable view of
+what he calls pyromancy, although pyromancy is really divination by
+fire. He reports the practices of certain Masters of Magic, who made
+children look into a wretched mirror for the purpose of obtaining
+information in an unholy manner. 'Young boys are said to behold future
+things and all things, in a crystal. Base, desperate, and faint-hearted
+Christians practise it, to whom the shadow and the phantom of the devil
+are dearer than the truth of God. Some take a clear and beautifully
+polished crystal, or beryl, which they consecrate and keep clean, and
+treat with incense, myrrh, and the like. And when they propose to
+practise their art, they wait for a clear day, or select some clean
+chamber in which are many candles burning. The Masters then bathe, and
+take the pure child into the room with them, and clothe themselves in
+pure white garments, and sit down and speak in magic sentences, and then
+burn their magic offering, and make the boy look into the stone, and
+whisper in his ears secret words which have, as they think, some holy
+import, but which are verily words of the devil.'
+
+A sixteenth-century German tells of a man at Elbingen, in Prussia, who
+'predicted hidden truths' by means of a mirror, and sold the knowledge
+to his customers. Many crystal-seeing old hags are referred to as being
+upon terms of intimacy with Black Kaspar. Indeed, in German literature,
+both historical, philosophical, legendary, and romantic, we find endless
+references to the magic mirror and the divining crystal.
+
+Modern romancists still find dramatic use for the old superstitions.
+Quite recently a novel of the present day centred its interest upon an
+ancient mirror, which exchanged its reflection for the mind of him who
+gazed into it--a practical and startling realization of the idea that
+the glass reveals one's true self. Then, not to multiply incidents,
+Wilkie Collins, in The Moonstone, introduces what Mr. Rudyard Kipling in
+another story calls the 'ink-pool'; and readers of Dante Gabriel
+Rossetti will recall to mind the doings of the Spirits of the Beryl.
+
+In a large number of stories the magic mirror is not a looking-glass at
+all. But the beryl, the ink-pool, Dr. Dee's famous spherical speculum,
+the rock crystal, or even a glass of water, may all, according to the
+adepts, have the same properties as Vulcan's mirror, in which Penelope,
+the wife of Ulysses, beheld, according to Sir John Davies, a vision of
+all the wonder and grandeur of Queen Elizabeth's Court to be. Even a
+polished sword-blade has been asserted to have made an effective magic
+mirror, and it is recorded that Jacob Boehme penetrated into the
+innermost secrets of nature and the hearts of men by means of a tin cup.
+
+As to cups, the Septuagint gives one to understand that the cup placed
+by Joseph in the sack of Benjamin in Egypt was not an ordinary
+drinking-vessel, but a divining-cup. Now, the way of divining with a cup
+was to fill it with pure water, and to read the images which were then
+reflected.
+
+Some writers have supposed, from the mention of Urim and Thummim in
+Exodus, that divination by mirror was a recognised institution among the
+Jews. Urim signifies 'lights,' and Thummim 'reflections,' and the names
+were applied to the six bright and six dark precious stones on the
+breastplate of the high priest when he went to seek special revelations.
+
+Cambuscan's mirror was, according to Chaucer, of Oriental origin. It was
+given by the King of Tartary to the King of Araby, and it seemed to
+possess all the virtues of several kinds of magic mirrors. Thus it
+showed whether love was returned, whether an individual confronted with
+it were friend or foe, and what trouble was in store for those who
+consulted it. Merlin's mirror, also called Venus's looking-glass, had
+some of these properties, but was made in Wales, and was given by
+Merlin to King Ryence. It revealed what was being done by friend or foe
+at a distance, and it also enabled the fair Britomart to read the
+features, and also the name, of her future husband.
+
+The consultation of a pool, on certain special occasions, for the
+lineaments of 'the coming man,' has been a common enough practice with
+love-sick damsels in much more recent times.
+
+The wonderful looking-glass of Lao, described by Lien Chi Altangi in
+Goldsmith's Citizen of the World, reflected the mind as well as the
+body, and the Emperor Chusi used to make his ladies dress both their
+heads and their hearts before it every morning. Great, however, as are
+the Chinese in divination, and numerous as are their superstitions, we
+do not find, _pace_ Oliver Goldsmith, that the mirror occupies any
+prominent place in their magic.
+
+One of the most famous dealers in catoptromancy (divination by mirror)
+in this country was Dr. John Dee, who flourished about the middle of the
+sixteenth century. He had a speculum called the Shew Stone, and
+sometimes the Holy Stone, with which he divined by the aid of a medium
+named Kelly. This Kelly was a notoriously bad character, so his example
+does not carry out the popular idea that the seer must be a stainless
+child, or some absolutely pure-minded being. Dr. Dee professed to have a
+number of regular spirit-visitors, whom he described with much
+circumstantial minuteness, and thus his mirror-magic seems to have
+possessed more of the character of spiritualistic manifestations than
+of the usual Oriental crystallomancy.
+
+The famous Cagliostro--Prince of Scoundrels, as Carlyle called him--used
+a bottle of pure water, into which he directed a child to gaze, with
+results which were not always satisfactory.
+
+The Orientalist, Lane, published some sixty years ago, or more, a
+circumstantial narrative of an experience he had with an Egyptian
+magician, along with Mr. Salt, a British Consul. Invocations were
+liberally used, in order to summon the two genii of the magician, and
+verses were recited from the Koran, in order that the eyes of the
+medium--a boy--should be opened in a supernatural manner. The magician
+selected one at random from a group of boys, and drew in the palm of the
+boy's right hand a magic square, inscribed with Arabic figures. He then
+poured ink into the centre, and told the boy to gaze fixedly, while he
+himself proceeded to drop more written invocations, on slips of paper,
+into a chafing-dish.
+
+For some time the boy saw nothing but the reflection of the magician,
+and then he began to describe various scenes. At last Lane asked that
+Lord Nelson should be called up, and the boy said that he saw a man in
+dark-blue clothes, with his left arm across his breast. It was explained
+that the boy saw things as in a mirror, and that Nelson's empty right
+sleeve worn across the breast naturally appeared in the glass as the
+left arm. Now, the boy may have heard of Nelson, but could scarcely have
+seen him, though the figure of so famous a man must have been familiar
+to the magician. Hypnotism has, therefore, been suggested as the
+explanation of what Lane witnessed, and which seemed so miraculous at
+the time.
+
+Many scholars, philosophers, and scientific students of mediaeval times,
+who had no pretence to magic, had yet firm faith in the power of
+mirrors, constructed in a special manner and under auspicious planetary
+influences, to reveal both the distant-present and the future.
+
+One of the modern adepts was a French magician, who foretold by his
+mirror the death of a Prince, and the regency of the Duc d'Orleans.
+
+There are many published prescriptions for the making of a magic mirror,
+but that which has already been given from Paracelsus is a fair specimen
+of the ultra-scientific method. Among directions for the use of the
+crystal may be cited those of Barth:
+
+'When a crystal has been ground and polished, it is dedicated to some
+spirit or other; this is called its consecration. Before being used, it
+is charged--that is, an invocation is made to the spirit, wherein a
+vision is requested of the things that one wishes to experience.
+Ordinarily, a young person is chosen to look into the glass and behold
+the prayed-for vision. After a little time the crystal becomes enveloped
+in a cloud, and a tiny vision appears, which represents in miniature the
+persons, scenes, and things that are necessary to supply the required
+information. When the information has been obtained, the crystal is
+discharged, and after receiving thanks for the services he has
+performed, the spirit is dismissed.'
+
+In modern crystal-gazing and mirror-reading, however, there is no
+invocation.
+
+An American spiritualist says that he once put a crystal into the hands
+of a lady who knew nothing about its reputed virtues, but who
+straightway began to describe a scene which she saw in it, and which
+turned out afterwards to be a simultaneous incident at Trebizond. The
+mediumistic influence of the spirit of a North American Indian may not
+commend the story to non-spiritualists.
+
+The experiences of the Countess Wurmbrand, as related in her curious
+book, Visionen im Wasserglass, are more matter-of-fact, perhaps, but
+were also assisted by a mysterious spirit, who enabled her to read
+pictures in the glass and to describe them to her husband. She was more
+successful in her time than more recent experimenters and psychologists
+of her own country have been since.
+
+The Society for Psychical Research have given much attention to the
+subject, and have reported some remarkable observations--especially
+those of Miss Goodrich, a lady who has made several scores of
+experiments of her own in crystal-reading, always taking notes
+immediately. She tried the back of a watch, a glass of water, a mirror,
+and other reflecting surfaces, before arriving at the conclusion that
+polished rock crystal affords the best speculum for divination.
+
+Having reached this point, the lady draped her selected crystal in
+black, set it where no surrounding objects could be reflected in it, and
+sought it when in search of light and leading. Sometimes her
+consultations were very practical. Thus, one finds among her notes:
+
+'I had carelessly destroyed a letter without preserving the address of
+my correspondent. I knew the county, and searching a map, recognised the
+name of the town, one unfamiliar to me, but which I was sure I should
+know when I saw it. But I had no clue to the name of the house or
+street, till at last it struck me to test the value of the crystal as a
+means of recalling forgotten knowledge. A very short inspection supplied
+me with "Hibbs House," in gray letters on a white ground, and having
+nothing better to suggest from any other source, I risked posting my
+letter to the address so strangely supplied. A day or two brought an
+answer headed "Hibbs House" in gray letters on a white ground.'
+
+Let us take an example of another of Miss Goodrich's crystal-readings,
+and let it be remembered that they are all reported as experiments of
+our own day:
+
+'One of my earliest experiences was of a picture, perplexing and wholly
+unexpected--a quaint oak chair, an old hand, a worn black coat-sleeve
+resting on the arm of the chair--slowly recognised as a recollection of
+a room in a country vicarage which I had not entered, and but seldom
+recalled, since I was a child of ten. But whence came this vision? What
+association has conjured up this picture? What have I done to-day? At
+length the clue is found. I have to-day been reading Dante, first
+enjoyed with the help of our dear old vicar many a year ago.'
+
+And again: 'I happened to want the date of Ptolemy Philadelphus, which I
+could not recall, though feeling sure that I knew it, and that I
+associated it with some event of importance. When looking in the
+crystal, some hours later, I found a picture of an old man, with long,
+white hair and beard, dressed like a Lyceum Shylock, and busy writing in
+a large book with tarnished massive clasps. I wondered much who he was,
+and what he could possibly be doing, and thought it a good opportunity
+of carrying out a suggestion which had been made to me of examining
+objects in the crystal with a magnifying-glass. The glass revealed to me
+that my old gentleman was writing in Greek, though the lines faded away
+as I looked, all but the characters he had last traced, the Latin
+numerals LXX. Then it flashed into my mind that he was one of the Jewish
+Elders at work on the Septuagint, and that this date, 277 B.C., would
+serve equally well for Ptolemy Philadelphus. It may be worth while to
+add, though the fact was not in my conscious memory at the moment, that
+I had once learnt a chronology on a mnemonic system which substituted
+letters for figures, and the _memoria technica_ for this date was, "Now
+Jewish Elders indite a Greek copy."'
+
+One may, perhaps, find a simple and easy explanation of Miss Goodrich's
+mirror-reading, in a theory of unconscious cerebration. The crystal
+simply assisted her memory, and recalled incidents and scenes, just as
+a chance odour, a bar of music, a word, a look, a name, will often do
+for most of us. Clearly there is nothing necessarily either magic or
+spiritualistic in this particular example of the magic mirror.
+
+There are, however, some other experiments recorded which seem to be
+only explainable on a theory of telepathy; but Mr. Max Dessoir,
+commenting on the evidence of Miss Goodrich in an American Review,
+attributes the whole phenomena merely to 'revived memory.'
+
+This is all very well as to past events, but what shall we say to a case
+such as the following, among Miss Goodrich's experiments?
+
+'In January last I saw in the crystal the figure of a man crouching at a
+small window, and looking into the room from the outside. I could not
+see his features, which appeared to be muffled, but the crystal was
+particularly dark that evening, and the picture being an unpleasant one,
+I did not persevere. I concluded the vision to be a result of a
+discussion in my presence of the many stories of burglary with which the
+newspapers had lately abounded, and reflected with a passing
+satisfaction that the only windows in the house divided into four panes,
+as were those of the crystal picture, were in the front attic, and
+almost inaccessible. Three days later a fire broke out in that very
+room, which had to be entered from outside through the window, the face
+of the fireman being covered with a wet cloth as a protection from the
+smoke, which rendered access through the door impossible.'
+
+Was this coincidence, or prevision, or what Mr. Dessoir calls the
+'falsification of memory'? The thing was either a miracle, which none of
+us is prepared to accept, or the after-confusion of a vague foreboding
+with an actual occurrence in the mind of the observer. Mr. Dessoir
+suggested another explanation of crystal pictures in the doctrine of the
+double consciousness of the human soul; but that opens up another
+subject.
+
+While we have seen that mirror and crystal-reading is one of the most
+ancient of occult practices, we have also seen that it is practised in
+our own country even at this day. Moreover, it is said that there is in
+England a wholesale manufacture of magic mirrors as a regular
+industry--the site of which, however, the present writer is unable to
+specify.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE MAGIC MOON.
+
+
+Certainly since, and probably long before, Job 'beheld the moon walking
+in brightness,' all the peoples of the earth have surrounded that
+luminary with legends, with traditions, with myths, and with
+superstitions of various kinds. In our time, and in our own country, the
+sentiment with which the orb of night is regarded is a soft and pleasing
+one, for
+
+  'That orbed maiden, with white fire laden,
+    Whom mortals call the moon,'
+
+is supposed to look with approval upon happy lovers, and with sympathy
+upon those who are encountering the proverbial rough places in the
+course of true love. Why the moon should be partial to lovers one might
+easily explain on very prosaic grounds--perhaps not unlike the reasoning
+of the Irishman who called the sun a coward because he goes away as soon
+as it begins to grow dark, whereas the blessed moon stays with us most
+of the night!
+
+Except Lucian and M. Jules Verne, one does not readily recall anyone who
+professes to have been actually up to the moon. Lucian had by far the
+most eventful experience, for he met Endymion, who entertained him
+royally, and did all the honours of the planet to which he had been
+wafted from earth in his sleep. The people of Moonland, Lucian assures
+us, live upon flying frogs, only they do not eat them; they cook the
+frogs on a fire and swallow the smoke. For drink, he says, they pound
+air in a mortar, and thus obtain a liquid very like dew. They have
+vines, only the grapes yield not wine, but water, being, in fact,
+hailstones, such as descend upon the earth when the wind shakes the
+vines in the moon. Then the Moonfolk have a singular habit of taking out
+their eyes when they do not wish to see things--a habit which has its
+disadvantages, for sometimes they mislay their eyes and have to borrow a
+pair from their neighbours. The rich, however, provide against such
+accidents by always keeping a good stock of eyes on hand.
+
+Lucian also discovered the reason of the red clouds which we on earth
+often see at sunset. They are dyed by the immense quantity of blood
+which is shed in the battles between the Moonfolk and the Sunfolk, who
+are at constant feud.
+
+The reason why the gentler sex are so fond of the moon is satirically
+said to be because there is a man in it! But who and what is he? An old
+writer, John Lilly, says: 'There liveth none under the sunne that knows
+what to make of the man in the moone.' And yet many have tried.
+
+One old ballad, for instance, says:
+
+  'The man in the moon drinks claret,
+    But he is a dull Jack-a-Dandy.
+  Would he know a sheep's head from a carrot,
+    He should learn to drink cyder and brandy'
+
+--which may be interesting, but is certainly inconsequential. It is
+curious, too, that while the moon is feminine in English, French, Latin
+and Greek, it is masculine in German and cognate tongues. Now, if there
+is a man in the moon, and if it be the case, as is asserted by
+antiquarians, that the 'man in the moon' is one of the most ancient as
+well as one of the most popular superstitions of the world, the
+masculine is surely the right gender after all. Those who look to
+Sanscrit for the solution of all mythological, as well as philological,
+problems will confirm this, for in Sanscrit the moon is masculine. Dr.
+Jamieson, of Scottish Dictionary fame, gets out of the difficulty by
+saying that the moon was regarded as masculine in relation to the earth,
+whose husband he was; but feminine in relation to the sun, whose wife
+she was!
+
+With the Greeks the moon was a female, Diana, who caught up her lover
+Endymion; and Endymion was thus, probably, the first 'man in the moon.'
+The Jews, again, have a tradition that Jacob is in the moon; and there
+is the nursery story that the person in the moon is a man who was
+condemned for gathering sticks on Sunday. This myth comes to us from
+Germany--at all events, Mr. R. A. Proctor traced it there with much
+circumstantiality. Mr. Baring-Gould, however, finds in some parts of
+Germany a tradition that both a man and a woman are in the moon--the man
+because he strewed brambles and thorns on the church path to hinder
+people from attending Sunday mass, and the woman because she made butter
+on Sunday. This man carries two bundles of thorns, and the woman her
+butter-tub, for ever. In Swabia they say there is a mannikin in the
+moon, who stole wood; and in Frisia they say it is a man, who stole
+cabbages. The Scandinavian legend is that the moon and sun are brother
+and sister--the moon in this case being the male. The story goes that
+Mani, the moon, took up two children from earth, named Bil and Hjuki, as
+they were carrying a pitcher of water from the well Brygir, and in this
+myth Mr. Baring-Gould discovers the origin of the nursery rhyme of Jack
+and Jill. 'These children,' he says, 'are the moon-spots, and the fall
+of Jack, and the subsequent fall of Jill, simply represent the vanishing
+of one moon-spot after another as the moon wanes.'
+
+In Britain there are references in the ancient monkish writings to a man
+in the moon; and in the Record Office there is an impression of a seal
+of the fourteenth century bearing the device of a man carrying a bundle
+of thorns in the moon. The legend attached is, 'Te Waltere docebo cur
+spinas phebo gero' ('I will teach thee, Walter, why I carry thorns to
+the moon'), which Mr. Hudson Taylor, who describes the seal, thinks to
+be an enigmatical way of saying that honesty is the best policy--the
+thorns having evidently been stolen.
+
+Chaucer has more than one reference to the man in the moon, and so have
+most of the older poets. Shakespeare not only refers frequently to 'a'
+man, but in the Midsummer Night's Dream Peter Quince distinctly
+stipulates that the man who is to play 'the moon' shall carry 'a bush of
+thorns.'
+
+The man in the moon, according to Dante, is Cain, carrying a bundle of
+thorns, and yet in that planet he found located only those comparatively
+mild sinners who had partly neglected their vows. A French legend, on
+the other hand, identifies 'the man' with Judas Iscariot. _Per contra_,
+in India the Buddhist legend places a hare in the moon, carried there by
+Indra for kindly service rendered to him on earth.
+
+May not this hare of the Indian mythology be the moon-dog of some of our
+own legends? Peter Quince, we know, recommended that the moon should
+have a dog as well as a bundle of sticks, and the association of the
+quadruped in the story is very common. The North American Indians
+believe that the moon is inhabited by a man and a dog. The Maoris
+believe in the man, but not in the dog, which is not surprising when we
+remember the limited fauna of the antipodes. The Maori legend runs
+something like this. A man called Rona went out one night to fetch water
+from a well, but, falling, sprained his ankle so as to be unable to
+return home. All at once the moon, which had risen, began to approach
+him. In terror he clung to a tree, which gave way, and both tree and
+Rona fell on the moon, where they remain even unto this day. Here we
+have clearly a variation of the 'bundle of sticks' legend, but there is
+an absence of apparent cause and effect in the Maori legend which is
+unsatisfactory.
+
+More precise is the Bushman legend, quoted by Dr. Bleek. According to
+this, the moon is a man who incurs the wrath of the sun, and is
+consequently pierced by the knife (the rays) of the latter, until there
+is only a little piece of him left. Then he cries for mercy for his
+children's sake, and is allowed to grow again until once more he offends
+his sunship; the whole process being repeated monthly.
+
+Dr. Rink relates a curious tradition of the Eskimo, not quite quotable
+here, the gist of which is that a man who desired to make his sister his
+wife was transformed into the moon, while the woman became the sun.
+Something like the same legend has been traced as far south as Panama.
+Another notable thing about Eskimo traditions is that the moon is
+associated with fertility in woman. This superstition is both very
+ancient and very widespread, and, indeed, seems to have been the root
+both of the moon-worship of the Oriental nations and of the mysterious
+rites of the Egyptians referred to by Herodotus. Luna is identified by
+some mythologists with Soma of the Indian mythology, _i.e._, the emblem
+of reproduction.
+
+In China, according to Dr. Dennys, the man in the moon is called
+Yue-lao, and he is believed to hold in his hands the power of
+predestining marriages. He is supposed to tie together the future
+husband and wife with an invisible silken cord, which never parts while
+life lasts. Miss Gordon-Cumming, in her interesting account of
+Wanderings in China, relates that, in the neighbourhood of Foo-Chow, she
+witnessed a great festival being held in honour of the full moon, which
+was mainly attended by women. There was a Temple-play, or sing-song,
+going on all day and most of the night, and each woman carried a stool
+so that she might sit out the whole performance. This recalls what Mr.
+Riley states in The Book of Days, as related by John Andrey in the
+seventeenth century: 'In Scotland, especially among the Highlanders, the
+women make a courtesy to the new moon, and our English women in this
+country have a touch of this, some of them sitting astride on a gate or
+stile the first evening the new moon appears, and saying, "A fine moon!
+God bless her!" The like I observed in Herefordshire.'
+
+As illustrative of this superstition may be instanced a curious practice
+in this country, in olden times, of divination by the moon. It is quoted
+by Mr. Thiselton-Dyer from an old chap-book: 'When you go to bed (at the
+period of harvest moon) place under your pillow a Prayer-Book open at
+the part of the matrimonial service, which says, "With this ring I thee
+wed"; place on it a key, a ring, a flower, and a sprig of willow, a
+small heart-cake, a crust, and the following cards: a ten of clubs, nine
+of hearts, ace of spades, and ace of diamonds. Wrap all these in a thin
+handkerchief, and, on getting into bed, cover your hands, and say:
+
+  "Luna, every woman's friend,
+  To me thy goodness condescend:
+  Let me this night in visions see
+  Emblems of my destiny."
+
+
+It is certainly hard to imagine pleasant dreams as the result of such a
+very uncomfortably-stuffed pillow.
+
+In this same connection may be named other items of folklore related by
+Mr. Dyer. For instance, in Devonshire it is believed that if on seeing
+the first new moon of the year you take off one stocking and run across
+a field, you will find between two of your toes a hair which will be the
+colour of the lover you are to have. In Berkshire the proceeding is more
+simple, for you merely look at the new moon, and say:
+
+  'New moon, new moon, I hail thee!
+  By all the virtue in thy body,
+  Grant this night that I may see
+  He who my true love shall be!'
+
+
+The result is guaranteed to be as satisfactory as it is in Ireland,
+where the people are said to point to the new moon with a knife, and
+say:
+
+  'New moon, true morrow, be true now to me,
+  That I to-morrow my true love may see!'
+
+
+In Yorkshire, again, the practice was to catch the reflection of the new
+moon in a looking-glass, the number of reflections signifying the number
+of years which will elapse before marriage. All these superstitions are
+suggestive of that which Tylor calls 'one of the most instructive
+astrological doctrines'--namely, that of the 'sympathy of growing and
+declining nature with the waxing and waning moon.' Tylor says that a
+classical precept was to set eggs under the hen at new moon, and that a
+Lithuanian precept was to wean boys on a waxing and girls on a waning
+moon--in order to make the boys strong and the girls delicate. On the
+same grounds, he says, Orkney-men object to marry except with a growing
+moon, and Mr. Dyer says that in Cornwall, when a child is born in the
+interval between an old and a new moon, it is believed that he will
+never live to manhood.
+
+Dr. Turner relates several traditions of the moon current in Samoa.
+There is one of a visit paid to the planet by two young men--Punifanga,
+who went up by a tree, and Tafaliu, who went up on a column of smoke.
+There is another of a woman, Sina, who was busy one evening cutting
+mulberry-bark for cloth with her child beside her. It was a time of
+famine, and the rising moon reminded her of a great bread-fruit--just as
+in our country it has reminded some people of a green cheese. Looking
+up, she said: 'Why cannot you come down and let my child have a bit of
+you?' The moon was so indignant at being taken for an article of food,
+that she came down forthwith and took up woman, child and wood. There
+they are to this day, for in the full moon the Samoans still see the
+features of Sina, the face of the child, and the board and mallet.
+
+Mr. Andrew Lang finds in an Australian legend of the moon something
+oddly like Grimm's tale of the Wolf and the Kids, which, again, he
+likens to the old Greek myth of Cronos. The Australian legend is that
+birds were the original gods, and that the eagle especially was a great
+creative power. The moon was a mischievous being, who walked about the
+earth doing all the evil he could. One day he swallowed the eagle. The
+eagle's wives coming up, the moon asked where he could find a well. They
+pointed out one, and while he was drinking, they struck him with a stone
+tomahawk, which made him disgorge the eagle. This legend is otherwise
+suggestive from the circumstances that among the Greeks the eagle was
+the special bird of Zeus, and it was the eagle which carried off
+Ganymede.
+
+There is another Australian fable that the moon was a man, and the sun a
+woman of doubtful reputation who appears at dawn in a coat of red
+kangaroo-skin belonging to one of her lovers. In Mexico, also, the moon
+is a man, across whose face an angry immortal once threw a rabbit; hence
+the marks on the surface of the planet. These same marks are accounted
+for in the Eskimo legend already mentioned as the impressions of the
+woman's sooty fingers on the face of her pursuer. By some mythologists
+the moon is thought to be Medea, but it is more common to interpret
+Medea as the daughter of the sun, _i.e._, the dawn.
+
+It is certainly not a little curious to find the moon-lore, as the
+star-lore, having so many points of resemblance among such
+widely-separated and different peoples as the Greeks, the Egyptians, the
+Australians, the Eskimos, the Bushmen of South Africa, the North
+American Indians, and the New Zealand Maoris. The comparative
+mythologists would argue from this resemblance a common origin of the
+myth, and a distribution or communication from one race to the other.
+The folk-lore mythologists would infer nothing of the sort. They say
+there is nothing remarkable in all savage races imputing human motives
+and sex to the heavenly bodies, for, in fact, to this day there are
+savages, as in the South Pacific, who suppose even stones to be male and
+female, and to propagate their species. On this method of interpretation
+the hypothesis is not that the Australians, Indians, etc., received
+their myths from, say, the Greeks, either by community of stock or by
+contact and borrowing, but because the ancestors of the Greeks passed
+through the same intellectual condition as the primitive races we now
+know. And thus it is that in listening to the beautiful legends of the
+Greeks, we are but, as Bacon says, hearing the harsh ideas of earlier
+peoples 'blown softly through the flutes of the Grecians.'
+
+Now, beside the personality of the moon, and the peculiar influence he
+or she is supposed to exercise on mortals, there has survived an old
+superstition that the moon has direct influence on the weather. Apropos
+of this association, there is a pretty little Hindoo legend which is
+current in Southern India, and which has been translated by Miss Frere,
+daughter of Sir Bartle Frere. This is the story as told her by her
+Lingaet ayah:
+
+'One day the Sun, the Moon, and the Wind went out to dine with their
+uncle and aunt, the Thunder and Lightning. Their mother (one of the most
+distant stars you see far up in the sky) waited alone for her
+children's return. Now, both the Sun and the Wind were greedy and
+selfish. They enjoyed the great feast that had been prepared for them,
+without a thought of saving any of it to take home to their mother; but
+the gentle Moon did not forget her. Of every dainty dish that was
+brought round she placed a small portion under one of her beautiful long
+fingernails, that the Star might also have a share in the treat. On
+their return, their mother, who had kept watch for them all night long
+with her bright little eye, said: "Well, children, what have you brought
+home for me?" Then the Sun (who was eldest) said: "I have brought
+nothing home for you. I went out to enjoy myself with my friends, not to
+fetch a dinner for my mother!" And the Wind said: "Neither have I
+brought anything home for you, mother. You could hardly expect me to
+bring a collection of good things for you, when I merely went out for my
+own pleasure." But the Moon said: "Mother, fetch a plate; see what I
+have brought you;" and shaking her hands, she showered down such a
+choice dinner as never was seen before. Then the Star turned to the Sun,
+and spoke thus: "Because you went out to amuse yourself with your
+friends, and feasted and enjoyed yourself without any thought of your
+mother at home, you shall be cursed. Henceforth your rays shall ever be
+hot and scorching, and shall burn all that they touch. All men shall
+hate you, and cover their heads when you appear"; and this is why the
+sun is so hot to this day. Then she turned to the Wind, and said: "You
+also, who forgot your mother in the midst of your selfish pleasures,
+hear your doom. You shall always blow in the hot, dry weather, and shall
+parch and shrivel all living things, and men shall detest and avoid you
+from this very time"; and this is why the wind in the hot weather is
+still so disagreeable. But to the Moon she said: "Daughter, because you
+remembered your mother, and kept for her a share in your own enjoyment,
+from henceforth you shall be ever cool, and calm, and bright. No noxious
+glare shall accompany your pure rays, and men shall always call you
+blessed"; and that is why the moon's light is so soft, and cool, and
+beautiful even to this day.'
+
+It is remarkable, nevertheless, that among Western peoples, at any rate,
+the moon has usually been associated with the uncanny. It is an old
+belief, for instance, that the moon is the abode of bad spirits; and in
+the old story of the Vampire it is notable that the creature, as a last
+request, begged that he might be buried where no sunlight, but only
+moonlight, might fall on his grave. Witches were supposed to be able to
+control the moon, as witness the remark of Prospero in The Tempest:
+
+  'His mother was a witch, and one so strong,
+  That could control the moon.'
+
+
+The Rev. Timothy Harley, who has collected much moon-lore, suggests that
+if the broom on which witches rode to the moon be a type of the wind,
+'we may guess how the fancy grew up that the airy creation could control
+those atmospheric vapours on which the light and humidity of the night
+were supposed to depend.'
+
+But the 'glamour' of the moon is not a mere poetic invention or a
+lover's fancy. Mr. Moncure Conway reminds us that _glam_, in its
+nominative form _glamir_, is a poetical name for the moon, to be found
+in the Prose Edda. It is given in the Glossary as one of the old names
+for the moon. Mr. Conway also says that there is a curious old Sanscrit
+word, _glau_ or _glav_, which is explained in all the old lexicons as
+meaning the moon. Hence 'the ghost or goblin Glam (of the old legend of
+Grettir) seems evidently to have arisen from a personification of the
+delusive and treacherous effects of moonlight on the benighted
+traveller.'
+
+Similar delusive effects are found referred to in old Hindoo writings,
+as, for instance, in the following passages from Bhasa, a poet of the
+seventh century:
+
+'The cat laps the moonbeams in the bowl of water, thinking them to be
+milk; the elephant thinks that the moonbeams threaded through the
+intervals of the trees are the fibres of the lotus-stalk; the woman
+snatches at the moonbeams as they lie on the bed, taking them for her
+muslin garment. Oh, how the moon, intoxicated with radiance, bewilders
+all the world!'
+
+Again:
+
+'The bewildered herdsmen place the pails under the cows, thinking that
+the milk is flowing; the maidens also put the blue lotus-blossom in
+their ears, thinking that it is the white; the mountaineer's wife
+snatches up the jujube fruit, avaricious for pearls. Whose mind is not
+led astray by the thickly-clustering moonbeams?'
+
+Such was the 'glamour' of Glam (the moon) in ancient eyes, and still it
+works on lovers' hearts. The fascination has been felt and expressed by
+nearly all the poets, and by none better, perhaps, than by Sir Philip
+Sidney:
+
+  'With what sad steps, O moon, thou climb'st the skies!
+      How silently, and with how wan a face!
+      What, may it be, that even in heavenly place
+  That busy archer his sharp arrow tries?
+      Sure if that long with love-acquainted eyes
+  Can judge of love, thou feel'st a lover's case.
+      I read it in thy looks--thy languish'd grace
+  To me, that feel the like, thy state descries.'
+
+
+The number of human beings who have, articulately or inarticulately,
+cried with Endymion, 'What is there in thee, Moon, that thou should'st
+move my heart so potently?' are not to be measured in ordinary figures.
+
+To return, however, to the bad side of Luna's character. We read that in
+Assyria deadly influences were ascribed to the moon. In Vedic mythology
+there is a story, which Mr. Moncure Conway tells in Demonology and
+Devil-lore, of a quarrel between Brahma and Vishnu as to which was the
+first born. Siva interferes, and says he is the first born, but will
+recognise as his superior whoever is able to see the crown of his head
+or the soles of his feet. Vishnu thereupon transforms himself into a
+boar, pierces underground, and thus sees the feet of Siva, who salutes
+him on his return as the firstborn of the gods. Now, De Gubernatis
+regards this fable as 'making the boar emblem of the hidden moon'; and
+Mr. Conway thinks there is no doubt that the boar at an early period
+became emblematic of the wild forces of Nature. 'From being hunted by
+King Odin on earth, it passed to be his favourite food in Valhalla, and
+a prominent figure in his spectral hunt.' But it is with the moon, not
+with Odin, that we are at present concerned, and so note two curious
+items mentioned by Conway. In Sicilian legend, he says, 'Zafarana, by
+throwing three hog's bristles on embers, renews her husband's youth';
+and in Esthonian legend, a prince, by eating pork, acquires the faculty
+of understanding the language of birds. All this opens up a very
+suggestive field of inquiry. Thus, Plutarch says that the reason why the
+Jews would not eat swine's flesh was because Adonis was slain by a boar,
+and Bacchus and Adonis, he says, were the same divinities. Now, if we
+turn to Herodotus, we find that wonderful narrator saying: 'The only
+deities to whom the Egyptians offer swine are Bacchus and Luna; to these
+they sacrifice swine when the moon is full, after which they eat the
+flesh,' which at other times they disdained. The meaning of these
+sacrifices is understood by those interested, and I do not propose to go
+further into the matter. All I wish to do is to point out the curious
+involvements, among so many nations, of the moon and the boar.
+
+May we not even trace a connection with the superstition current in
+Suffolk, according to 'C. W. J.,' in The Book of Days? 'C. W. J.' says
+that in his part of the world it is considered unlucky to kill a pig
+when the moon is on the wane; and if it is done, the pork will waste in
+boiling. 'I have known,' he says, 'the shrinking of bacon in the pot
+attributed to the fact of the pig having been killed in the moon's
+decrease; and I have also known the death of poor piggy delayed or
+hastened so as to happen during its increase.' Truly the old
+superstitions die hard!
+
+The moon's supposed influence on the weather is a matter of general
+knowledge. The writer last quoted mentions it as a very prevalent belief
+that the general condition of the atmosphere throughout the world,
+during any lunation, depends on whether the moon changed before or after
+midnight. Another superstition is, that if the new moon happens on a
+Saturday the weather will be bad during the month. On the other hand, in
+Suffolk the old moon in the arms of the new one is accounted a sign of
+fine weather; contrary to the belief in Scotland, where, it may be
+remembered, in the ballad of Sir Patrick Spens, it is taken as a presage
+of storm and disaster.
+
+Shakespeare has many allusions to the moon's influence on the weather,
+as: 'The moon, the governess of floods, pale in her anger, washes the
+air'; 'The moon, one thinks, looks with a watery eye; and when she
+weeps, weeps every little flower'; 'Upon the corner of the moon there
+hangs a vaporous drop profound'; and so forth. Then we have the old
+proverb: 'So many days old the moon is on Michaelmas Day, so many floods
+after.' Other beliefs are mentioned by Mr. Harley, such as, that if
+Christmas comes during a waning moon, we shall have a good year, and
+the converse; that new moon on Monday is a certain sign of good weather;
+that a misty moon indicates heavy rain; that the horns of the moon
+turned upward predict a good, and turned downward a bad, season; that a
+large star near the moon is a certain prognostication of storm.
+
+In fact, the superstitions in this connection are legion, and are not
+confined to any country. They are as common in China, where the moon is
+still worshipped, as they are in England, where, in some places, old men
+still touch their hats and maidens still bob a courtesy in sight of the
+new moon. Thus the relics of moon-worship are about us still, as well as
+a strong popular belief that the moon is an active physical agent. That
+the actual influence of the moon on the tides lies at the basis of the
+belief in its influence on the weather is probable; and, at any rate, it
+is curious that the Persians held that the moon was the cause of an
+abundant supply of water and rain; while in a Japanese fairy-tale the
+moon is made to rule over the blue waste of the sea with its
+multitudinous salt waters. The horticultural superstitions about sowing
+and planting according to the age of the moon is, no doubt, a product of
+the fusion of the meteorological superstition and that of the old-world
+belief in Luna being the goddess of reproduction.
+
+Any who have still doubts on the meteorological question cannot do
+better than refer to a letter of Professor Nichol's--once Professor of
+Astronomy in the University of Glasgow--which is quoted in The Book of
+Days. He asserts positively, as the result of scientific observation,
+that no relation whatever exists between the moon and the weather.
+
+But does any exist between the moon and the brain? 'Whom the gods would
+destroy, they first make mad'; and the moon was supposed to be the
+instrument--nay, still is, as the very word 'lunacy' implies. The old
+astrologers used to say that she governed the brain, stomach, bowels,
+and left eye of the male, and the right eye of the female. Some such
+influences were evidently believed in by the Jews, as witness Psalm
+cxxi.: 'The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.' It
+may be remarked that Dr. Forbes Winslow is not very decided in
+dismissing the theory of the influence of the moon on the insane. He
+says it is purely speculative, but he does not controvert it. The
+subject is, however, too large to enter upon here. Whether or not it be
+true that 'when the moon's in the full then wit's on the wane,' it
+certainly is not true, as appears to be believed in Sussex, that the new
+May Moon has power to cure scrofulous complaints.
+
+Before leaving the subject, it is well to mention a remarkable
+coincidence to which Mr. Harley draws attention. In China, where
+moon-worship largely prevails, during the festival of Yue-Ping, which is
+held during the eighth month annually, incense is burned in the temples,
+cakes are made like the moon, and at full moon the people spread out
+oblations and make prostrations to the planet. These cakes are
+moon-cakes, and veritable offerings to the Queen of Heaven, who
+represents the female principle in Chinese theology. 'If we turn now to
+Jeremiah vii. 18, and read there, "The women knead dough to make cakes
+to the Queen of Heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings unto other
+gods," and remember that, according to Rashi, these cakes of the Hebrews
+had the image of the god or goddess stamped upon them, we are in view of
+a fact of much interest.' The interest becomes greater when we learn
+that in parts of Lancashire there exists a precisely similar custom of
+making cakes in honour of the Queen of Heaven.
+
+From these facts, the discovery of two buns, each marked with a cross,
+in Herculaneum, and other evidences, we are driven to the conclusion
+that the 'hot-cross buns' of Christian England are in reality but a
+relic of moon-worship!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE DEVIL'S CANDLE.
+
+
+So much legendary lore and so many strange fables have had their origin
+in the mandrake, or the 'Devil's Candle,' as the Arabians call it, that
+it is worth while to endeavour to trace if any, and what, analogy there
+be between it and the mandragoras of the Greeks and the Soma of the
+Indian mythology.
+
+The mandrake is so called from the German _Mandragen_, 'resembling
+man'--at least, so says Mr. Thiselton-Dyer; but this derivation is not
+quite satisfactory. The botanical name is _Mandragora officinalis_, and
+sometimes the May-apple, or _Podophyllum peltatum_, is also called
+mandrake; but the actual plant of fact and fancy belongs to the
+_Solanum_, or potato family.
+
+Although one may doubt if the English name be really derived from the
+German _Mandragen_, it is certain that the Germans have long regarded
+the plant as something uncanny. Other names which they have for it are
+_Zauberwurzel_, or Sorcerer's Root, and _Hexenmaennchen_, or Witch's
+Mannikin, while they made little dolls or idols from it, which they
+regarded with superstitious veneration, and called _Erdmann_, or
+Earth-man.
+
+Yet in other places, according to one authority, the mandrake was
+popularly supposed to be 'perpetually watched over by Satan; and if it
+be pulled up at certain holy times and with certain invocations, the
+evil spirit will appear to do the bidding of the practitioner.' A
+superstition once common in the South of England was that the mandrake
+had a human heart at its root, and, according to Timbs, it was generally
+believed that the person who pulled it would instantaneously fall dead;
+that the root shrieked or groaned whenever separated from the earth; and
+that whoever heard the shriek would either die shortly afterwards or
+become afflicted with madness.
+
+To this last superstition there is direct reference made by Shakespeare
+in Romeo and Juliet:
+
+  'And shrieks like mandrakes torn out of the earth,
+  That living mortals hearing them run mad.'
+
+
+Frequent allusions to this superstition are to be found in the old
+poets, although it is held by some that the effects claimed for
+decoctions of the mandrake really refer to those of the nightshade. This
+confusion has certainly arisen at times, but the most general idea
+concerning the mandrake was that it was a stimulant rather than a
+narcotic. It is true that Shakespeare regarded mandragora as an opiate,
+for he makes Cleopatra to exclaim:
+
+  'Give me to drink mandragora,
+  That I might sleep out this great gap of time
+  My Antony is away.'
+
+
+And, again, when in Othello he makes Iago say:
+
+  'Nor poppy, nor mandragora,
+  Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world
+  Can ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep
+  Which thou owedst yesterday.'
+
+
+But, on the other hand, we find Apuleius--himself, by the way, not
+unsuspected of magical arts--writing that when the root of the mandrake
+is steeped in wine it produces vehement intoxication. The same idea is
+reflected in Mrs. Browning's Dead Pan:
+
+  'In what revels are ye sunken
+  In old Ethiopia?
+  Have the Pygmies made you drunken,
+  Bathing in mandragora,
+  Your divine pale lips that shiver
+  Like the lotus in the river?'
+
+
+And there can be little doubt that the mysterious 'Lhasis,' referred to
+by Sir William Davenant[5]--a word whose etymology is so obscure--is
+nothing else than the mandrake or mandragora; if so, then we see that
+the plant was valued for its exciting and stimulating effects rather
+than as an opiate.
+
+Many commentators and most dictionaries dispose of Reuben's mandrakes as
+something altogether different from the plant now known by the name; but
+there is really no warrant for such a conclusion. The _Mandragora
+officinalis_ is quite common in Celicia, Syria, and elsewhere in the
+East, and is easily identifiable with the root of Baaras, which Josephus
+describes in the Wars of the Jews. This root, he says, is in colour like
+to that of flame, and towards the evening it sends out a certain ray
+like lightning. It is not easily to be pulled, it will not yield
+quietly, and it is certain death to anyone who dares pull it, unless he
+hangs it with the head downwards. As to the uses of the root, Josephus
+continues: 'After all his pains in getting it, it is only valuable on
+account of one virtue it hath: that if it only be brought to sick
+persons, it quickly drives away those called Demons, which are no other
+than the spirits of the wicked, which enter into men that are alive and
+kill them, unless they can obtain some help against them'; and the root
+was esteemed a useful stimulant, although in Baaras, at any rate, it
+seems to have lost its reputation as a love-philtre. It is noteworthy
+that Josephus also tells how Solomon had great skill in enchantments,
+and cast out devils by means of this root--an accomplishment he is said
+to have learned from some of the numerous foreign ladies with whom he
+surrounded himself.
+
+Now, it is interesting to turn from the old Jewish historian to the old
+English herbalist, Gerarde, who in 1597 wrote in his Herball pointing
+out how, by 'the corruption of time and the errour of some,' mandragora
+has been mistaken for what he calls Circaea, or Enchanter's Nightshade.
+But of the mandrake, or mandragoras, Gerarde says: 'There hath been many
+ridiculous tales brought up of this plant, whether of old wives, or some
+runagate surgeons, or physickemongers, I know not; but sure some one or
+more that sought to make themselves famous or skillful above others were
+the first brochers of the errour'--that the root resembles a man. 'They
+add further,' he says, 'that it is never, or very seldome, to be found
+growing naturally, but under a gallowes, where the matter that hath
+fallen from the dead body hath given it the shape of a man, and the
+matter of a woman the substance of a female plant, with many other such
+doltish dreames. The fable further affirms that he who would take up a
+plant thereof ... he should surely die in short space after.'
+
+This is clearly Josephus's 'root of Baaras' over again. Gerarde further
+holds it to be the identical mandragoras of the Greeks, and called
+Circaea because it was used by Circe for love-potions and enchantments.
+If this be so, then what was the 'moly' given to Odysseus by Hermes
+wherewith to counteract the charms of Circe? Was it a totally different
+plant, or was it merely the same applied on the homoeopathic principle?
+Mr. Andrew Lang thinks they cannot be the same, because the 'moly' is
+described by Homer as having a black root and a white flower, while the
+mandragoras is described by Pliny as having a yellow flower and white,
+fleshy roots. But we know that Homer is somewhat confusing in the matter
+of colours, and it is possible that various shades of the purplish
+flower of the true mandrake might appear to one observer as white, and
+to another as yellow. Upon the whole, the probability is that the two
+names meant one and the same plant, for the characteristics are too
+peculiar to be alike possessed by different species. If the moly were
+not mandragoras there is nothing else known to modern botany that it
+could be, unless it were rue, with which some scholars have sought to
+identify it, but not very successfully.
+
+The learned author of Pseudosia Epidemica, or Vulgar Errors, at any
+rate, was clearly of opinion that moly and mandragoras were one and the
+same. He quotes also from Pliny that the ancient way of pulling the root
+was to get on the windward side of the plant, and with a sword to
+describe three circles about it, whilst the operator kept his face
+turned to the west. The dangers attending the plucking of mandrakes are
+shrewdly disposed of by Sir Thomas Browne with the remark that it is
+'derogatory unto the Providence of God ... to impose so destructive a
+quality on any plant ... whose parts are usefull unto many.' The same
+author mentions the superstition that the mandrake grows under gallows,
+fructified by the decaying bodies of criminals, that it grows both male
+and female, and that it shrieks upon eradication. This last idea he
+derides as 'false below confute, arising perhaps from a small and
+stridulous noise which, being firmly rooted, it maketh upon divulsion of
+parts.' 'A slender foundation,' he remarks, 'for such a vast conception;
+for such a noise we sometimes observe in other plants--in parsnips,
+liquorish, eringium, flags, and others.'
+
+The belief that the root of the mandrake resembles the human figure is
+characterized by the writer last quoted, as a 'conceit not to be made
+out by ordinary inspection, or any other eyes than such as regarding the
+clouds behold them in shapes conformable to pre-apprehensions.' It is
+traceable to the bifurcation of the root; a formation, however, which
+is frequently found 'in carrots, parsnips, briony, and many others.'
+There is no other importance, therefore, to be attached to 'the epithet
+of Pythagoras, who calls it anthropomorphon, and that of Columella, who
+terms it semihomo;' nor to Albertus, 'when he affirmed that mandrakes
+represent mankind with the distinction of either sex.' The roots, which
+were commonly sold in various parts of Europe 'unto ignorant people,
+handsomely made out the shape of man or woman. But these are not
+productions of nature but contrivances of art, as divers have noted....
+This is vain and fabulous, which ignorant people and simple women
+believe; for the roots which are carried about by impostors are made of
+the roots of canes, briony, and other plants.' And the method of
+manufacture is then explained by the erudite doctor. It is evident from
+what has been cited that the prevalence of the superstition, and the
+existence of the German _erdmann_, were matters of common knowledge in
+the latter half of the seventeenth century.
+
+But the superstition can be traced still later, for as recently as 1810
+some of these root-images were to be seen on sale in certain parts of
+France, and were purchased as love-charms. It is said that even now at
+this very day bits of the _Mandragoras officinalis_ are worn by the
+young men and maidens of Greece to bring them fortune in their
+love-affairs.
+
+In some parts of England--viz., in Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and
+Somersetshire--the briony is called mandrake, and a small portion of the
+root is frequently given to horses among their food to make them sleek
+and improve their condition, and it is still also sold 'for medicinal
+and other purposes.' Yet in other places it is called 'Devil's Food,'
+because Satan is supposed to be perpetually watching over it and to
+jealously guard its magical properties. It is partly on this account,
+and partly because of its supposed effect in stimulating the passions,
+that the Arabs sometimes call the mandrake Tuphacel-sheitan, or Devil's
+Apple, although it is otherwise known as the Stone Apple. In many parts
+of Europe the mandrake is believed to possess, in common with some other
+plants, the power of opening locks and unshoeing horses.
+
+The belief that the mandrake had some peculiar association with the
+devil has made it a favourite plant with sorcerers and workers of
+enchantment in all ages. Lord Bacon refers to it as a favourite in his
+time, 'whereof witches and impostors make an ugly image, giving it the
+form of a face at the top of the root,' and leaving the natural threads
+of the root 'to make a broad beard down to the foot.' Mr. Moncure
+Conway, however, says that the superstition rightly belonging to the
+mandrake was often transferred to other roots--probably in ignorance as
+to the identity of the real plant.
+
+'Thus,' he says, 'the author of Secrets du Petit Albert says that a
+peasant had a bryonia root of human shape, which he received from a
+gipsy. He buried it at a lucky conjunction of the moon with Venus' (the
+reader will not fail to note the reference to the Goddess of Love) 'in
+spring, and on a Monday, in a grave, and then sprinkled it with milk in
+which three field-mice had been drowned. In a month it became more
+humanlike than ever. Then he placed it in an oven with vervain, wrapped
+it afterwards in a dead man's shroud, and so long as he kept it he never
+failed in luck at games or work.'
+
+Then we learn from the same author that a German horse-dealer, of
+Augsburg, once lost a horse, and being poor, wandered in despair to an
+inn. There some men gave him a mandrake, and on his return home he found
+a bag of ducats on the table. His wife, however, did not like the
+business, and persuaded the man to return to give back the root to those
+from whom he got it. But he could not find the men again, and soon after
+the house was burned down, and both horse-dealer and wife perished.
+
+The only suggestion from this story is that the mandrake was supposed to
+bring 'devil's luck,' although, if so, it is difficult to understand why
+the _erdmanns_ were so carefully preserved from generation to
+generation. One German writer, Rist, says that he has seen one more than
+a century old, which had been kept in a coffin, on which was a cloth
+bearing a picture of a thief on the gallows and a mandrake growing
+underneath.
+
+Coles, who wrote The Art of Simpling, in 1656, says the witches use the
+mandrake-roots, 'according to some, or, as I rather suppose, the roots
+of briony, which simple people take for the true mandrake, and make
+thereof an ugly image, by which they represent the person on whom they
+intend to exercise their witchcraft.' But their professions must at
+times have been even larger, for it is on record that a witch was
+executed near Orleans, in France, about 1605, who was charged with
+having kept a living mandrake-fiend, having the form of a female ape!
+
+So much for the mandrake, of which, however, a good deal more might be
+said. But what has been said serves to establish that it was identical
+with the mandragora, and with the mandragoras of the Greeks; that it was
+probably also the briony; that superstitions have attached to it in all
+countries and from time immemorial, which ascribed to it occult virtues;
+that the powers it exercised varied a good deal according to locality
+and time, but that two main conceptions have almost universally
+prevailed, viz., that it was a stimulant, and a potent instrument in
+affairs of the heart.
+
+What, then, is the Soma, or Homa, of the Hindu mythology--the ambrosia
+of the Indian gods? It has been the subject of much discussion and some
+difference among comparative mythologists. Soma was the chief deity
+among the ancient Hindus--the author of life, the giver of health, the
+protector of the weak, and the guide to immortality. Once he took upon
+himself the form of man, but was slain by men and braised in a mortar.
+The similarity with the Christian legend is remarkable, and the method
+of death should be borne in mind. After his death, Soma rose in flame to
+heaven, 'to be the benefactor of the world and the mediator between God
+and man.'
+
+One of the articles of faith with the Hindus, therefore, is that they
+must hold communion with Soma, and they are taught thus to pray to him:
+'O Soma! thou art the strength of our heroes and the death of our
+enemies, invincible in war! Fulfil our vows in battle, fight for us!
+None can resist thee; give us superiority! O Soma immortal! May we drink
+to thee and be immortal like thee!' Mr. Baring-Gould says that the whole
+legend of Soma is but the allegorical history of the plant _Sarcostemma
+viminalis_, which is associated with passionate love 'because of the
+intoxicating liquor which is derived from its juice. It is regarded as a
+godsend. The way in which it is prepared is by crushing it in a mortar;
+the juice is then thrown on the sacrificial flame and so rises to
+heaven.' The same writer tells us that a similar worship prevailed among
+the Iranians, who called the juice Homa, but they did not ferment it,
+and although they ascribed to it divine attributes, they did not make
+Homa a supreme deity. But both with them and with the Hindus, 'the
+partaking of the juice was regarded as a sacramental act, by virtue of
+which the receiver was embued with a portion of the divine nature.'
+
+Another writer, the author of Bible Folklore, says that the 'old Soma
+was the same as the Persian Homa, a brilliant god, who gives sons to
+heroes, and husbands to maidens. The juice of the plant, pounded in an
+iron mortar, is greenish in colour, and is strained through a cloth and
+mixed with the sap of a pomegranate branch; the yellow juice is then
+strained through a vessel with nine holes. Among the Parsees it is
+drunk, not as by the Brahmins in large quantities by sixteen priests,
+but in small quantities by the two chief priests, and is thus not
+intoxicating.'
+
+The symbol is confused with the deity, and 'Soma is at once the
+life-giving spring of the juice of immortality, and the juice itself'--a
+confusion not without analogy in some of the superstitions narrated of
+the mandrake. But of old Soma was drunk as mead was drunk by the
+Scandinavians, before and after battle. It gave power and good fortune
+as well as light and happiness, and when elevated into a god was
+supposed to be the origin of all creation.
+
+Now, of the _Sarcostemma_ it is to be noted that it belongs to the
+family of _Asclepiadaceae_, which have all something more or less
+'fleshy' looking about some parts of them, which, like the _Apocyneae_,
+were in the old world credited with medicinal properties, and which are
+generally acrid, stimulating, and astringent. There are many poisonous
+members of the family, such as the dog's-bane and wolf's-bane of our own
+country, favourite plants with the enchanters, while the cowplant of
+Ceylon is of the same species.
+
+In Garrett's Dictionary of India it is stated that the Soma of the Vedas
+is no longer known in India, and the same statement is repeated by many
+writers. It is certainly not indubitable that the _Sarcostemma
+viminalis_ was the plant of wondrous virtues that was deified. On the
+other hand, we find that these ascribed virtues closely resemble those
+attributed to the mandrake, and it is known that the Aryan people
+received many of their ideas and superstitions from the old Jewish
+tribes.
+
+We have seen, further, that belief in the peculiar power of the mandrake
+in certain directions was a settled belief at a very early period of the
+Jewish history, and we thus arrive at the very probable suggestion that
+the original Soma was neither more nor less than the mandrake of Reuben,
+the 'Baaras root' of Josephus, the mandragoras of the Greeks, the moly
+of Homer, the mandragora of Shakespeare, the mandragen of Germany, and
+the mandrake, again, of England.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE SEA AND ITS LEGENDS.
+
+
+One of the oldest superstitions connected with the sea is undoubtedly
+that which associated peril with the malefic influence of some
+individual on shipboard. We find it in the case of the seamen of Joppa,
+who, when overtaken by a 'mighty tempest' on the voyage to Tarshish,
+said to each other, 'Come and let us cast lots, that we may know for
+whose cause this evil is cast upon us.' The lot, as we know, fell upon
+Jonah, and after some vain wrestling with the inevitable, the men at
+last 'took up Jonah and cast him forth into the sea, and the sea ceased
+from her raging.'
+
+Without offering here any comment on, or explanation of, the Scriptural
+narrative, let us compare it with the following remarkable story, which
+that indefatigable delver after old-world wonders, Charles Kirkpatrick
+Sharpe, reproduced.
+
+Somewhere about midsummer of the year 1480, a ship, sailing out of the
+Forth for a port in Holland, was assailed by a furious tempest, which
+increased to such a remarkable degree for the mild season of the year,
+that the sailors were overcome with fear, and gave themselves up for
+lost. At length an old woman, who was a passenger by the vessel, came on
+deck and entreated them to throw her overboard as the only means of
+preserving their own lives, saying that she had long been haunted by an
+'incubus' in the shape of a man, from whose grasp she could not free
+herself. Fortunately for all parties there was another passenger on
+board--a priest--who was called to the rescue. After a long admonition,
+and many sighs and prayers, 'there issued forth of the pumpe of the
+ship,' says Hollinshed, 'a foul and evil-favoured blacke cloud, with a
+mightie terrible noise, flame, smoke, and stinke, which presentlie fell
+into the sea, and suddenlie, thereupon, the tempest ceassed, and the
+ship passing in great quiet the residue of her journie, arrived in
+safetie at the place whither she was bound.'
+
+There is doubtless some association between this class of superstition
+and the old Talmudic legend, according to which the devils were
+specially angered when, at the creation, man received dominion over the
+things of the sea. This was a realm of unrest and tempest, which the
+devils claimed as belonging to themselves. But, says the legend,
+although denied control of the life that is in the sea, the devils were
+permitted a large degree of power over its waters, while over the winds
+their rule was supreme.
+
+There is scarcely a current legend or superstition which cannot be
+traced to very remote sources. Thus, in the Chaldaeo-Babylonian
+cosmogony there was a Triad which ruled the three zones of the
+universe: the heaven, by Anu; the surface of the earth and the
+atmosphere, by Bel; and the under-world, by Nonah. Now, Nonah is held to
+be both the same as the Assyrian Hea, or Saviour, and as the Noah of the
+Bible. So when Tiamat, the dragon, or leviathan, opens 'the fountains of
+the great deep,' and Anu, 'the windows of heaven,' it is Hea, or Noah,
+who saves the life of man.
+
+This legend is supposed by M. Francois Lenormant to explain an allusion
+in one of the most ancient Accadian manuscripts in the British Museum to
+'the serpent of seven heads, that beats the sea.' This Hydra was the
+type of the destructive water-demon who figures in the legends of all
+countries.
+
+In the same way, to the Syrian fish deities, Dagon and Artergatis, must
+we look for the origin of our Undines and fish-maidens, and mermaidens.
+
+The 'Nixy' of Germany has by some been supposed traceable to 'Old Nick';
+but this is not probable, since St. Nicholas has been the patron-saint
+of sailors for many centuries. It was during the time of the Crusades
+that a vessel on the way to the Holy Land was in great peril, and St.
+Nicholas assuaged a tempest by his prayers. Since then he has been
+supposed to be the protector of mariners, even as Neptune was in ancient
+times; and in most Roman Catholic countries you will find in seaport
+towns churches dedicated to St. Nicholas, to which sailors resort to
+return thanks for preservation at sea, and to make votive offerings.
+
+The German Nixy was, no doubt, a later form of the old Norse water-god
+Nikke. You meet with him again, in another form, in Neckan, the
+soulless, of whom Matthew Arnold sings:
+
+  'In summer on the headlands
+    The Baltic sea along
+  Sits Neckan with his harp of gold,
+    And sings his plaintive song.'
+
+
+The 'Nixa' along the Baltic coast was once, however, much feared by the
+fishermen. It was the same spirit which appears as the Kelpie in
+Scotland--a water-demon which caused sudden floods to carry away the
+unwary, and then devoured them.
+
+There was a river-goddess in Germany, whose temple stood at Magdeburg,
+of whom a legend exists that she also once visited earth and went to
+market in a Christian costume, where she was detected by a continual
+dripping of water from the corner of her apron. Generally speaking,
+however, the Nixies may be described as the descendants of the Naiads of
+ancient times, and as somewhat resembling the Russian Rusalkas, of which
+the peasantry live in much dread.
+
+A Russian peasant, it is said, is so afraid of the water-spirits that he
+will not bathe without a cross round his neck, nor ford a stream on
+horseback without signing a cross on the water with a scythe or knife.
+In some parts these water-spirits are supposed to be the transformed
+souls of Pharaoh and his host, when they were drowned, and the number is
+always being increased by the souls of those who drown themselves.
+
+It is said that 'in Bohemia' fishermen have been known to refuse aid to
+drowning persons lest 'Vodyany' would be offended and prevent the fish
+from entering the nets.
+
+This 'Vodyany,' however, seems rather a variant of the old Hydra, who
+reappears in the diabolical names so frequently given to boiling springs
+and dangerous torrents. The 'Devil's Tea-kettles' and 'Devil's
+Punch-bowls' of England and America have the same association as the
+weird legends connected with the Strudel and Wirbel whirlpools of the
+Danube, and with the rapids of the Rhine, and other rivers. Curiously
+enough, we find the same idea in The Arabian Nights, when 'The sea
+became troubled before them, and there arose from it a black pillar
+ascending towards the sky, and approaching the meadow, and behold it was
+a Jinn of gigantic stature.'
+
+This demon was a waterspout, and waterspouts in China are attributed to
+the battles of dragons. 'The Chinese,' says Mr. Moncure Conway, 'have
+canonised of recent times a special protectress against the storm-demons
+of the coast, in obedience to the wishes of the sailors.'
+
+The swan-maidens, who figure in so many legends, are mere varieties of
+the mer-maiden, and, according to the Icelandic superstition, they and
+all fairies were children of Eve, whom she hid away on one occasion when
+the Lord came to visit her, because they were not washed and
+presentable! They were, therefore, condemned to be invisible for ever.
+
+A Scotch story, quoted by Mr. Moncure Conway, rather bears against this
+theory. One day, it seems, as a fisherman sat reading his Bible, a
+beautiful nymph, lightly clad in green, came to him out of the sea, and
+asked if the book contained any promise of mercy for her. He replied
+that it contained an offer of salvation to 'all the children of Adam,'
+whereupon she fled away with a loud shriek, and disappeared in the sea.
+But the beautiful stories of water-nymphs, of Undines and Loreleis, and
+mer-women, are too numerous to be even mentioned, and too beautiful, in
+many cases, to make one care to analyze.
+
+There is a tradition in Holland that when, in 1440, the dikes were
+broken down by a violent tempest, the sea overflowed the meadows. Some
+women of the town of Edam, going one day in a boat to milk their cows,
+discovered a mermaid in shallow water floundering about with her tail in
+the mud. They took her into the boat, brought her to Edam, dressed her
+in women's clothes, and taught her to spin, and to eat as they did. They
+even taught her something of religion, or, at any rate, to bow
+reverently when she passed a crucifix; but they could not teach her to
+speak. What was the ultimate fate of this remarkable creature is not
+disclosed.
+
+Everybody, of course, is familiar with the old sea-legend of the _Flying
+Dutchman_, whether in stories of phantom ships, or in the opera of
+Wagner. The spirit of Vanderdecken, which is still supposed to roam the
+waters, is merely the modern version of our old friend, Nikke, the
+Norwegian water-demon. This is a deathless legend, and used to be as
+devoutedly believed in as the existence of Mother Carey, sitting away up
+in the north, despatching her 'chickens' in all directions to work
+destruction for poor Jack. But Mother Carey really turns out on inquiry
+to be a most estimable being, as we shall presently see.
+
+'Sailors,' says Brand, in his Popular Antiquities, 'usually the boldest
+Men alive, are yet frequently the very abject slaves of superstitious
+Fear. They have various puerile Apprehensions concerning Whistling on
+Shipboard, carrying a Corpse, etc., all which are Vestiges of the old
+Woman in human Nature, and can only be erased by the united Efforts of
+Philosophy and Religion.'
+
+It is to be regretted, however, that the good Brand did not devote as
+much attention to the superstitions of sailors as he did to those of
+some other folks.
+
+As is the case with almost all folk-lore, little variety is to be found
+in the sea superstitions of different nations. The ideas of the
+supernatural on shipboard are pretty much the same, whether the flag
+flown be the Union Jack, the German Eagle, the French Tricolor, the
+American Stars and Stripes, or even the Chinese Dragon. These
+superstitions are numerous, and are tenaciously preserved, but yet it
+would not be fair to say that seamen are, as a class, more superstitious
+than landsmen of their own rank. The great mystery of the sea; the
+uncertainty of life upon its bosom; the isolation and frequent
+loneliness; the wonder of the storms, and calms, and lights--everything
+connected with a sailor's occupation is calculated to impress him with
+the significance of signs and omens.
+
+That mariners do not like to have a corpse on board is not remarkable,
+for many people ashore get rather 'creepy' if they have to sleep in a
+house where lies a dead body. Moreover, the old idea of bad luck which
+led to the throwing overboard of Jonah, is in this case transferred from
+the living to the dead. The objection to whistling is also explainable
+by the time-honoured practice of 'whistling for a wind,' for an
+injudicious whistler might easily bring down a blow from the wrong
+quarter.
+
+There are some animals and birds which have a peculiar significance at
+sea. The cat, for instance, is generally disliked, and many sailors will
+not have one on board at any price. If there is one which becomes
+unusually frisky, they will say the cat has got a gale of wind in her
+tail. On one part of the Yorkshire coast, it is said, sailors' wives
+were in the habit of keeping black cats to insure the safety of their
+husbands at sea, until black cats became so scarce and dear that few
+could afford to buy one. Although Jack does not like a cat in the ship,
+he will not throw one overboard, for that would bring on a storm.
+
+Miss L. A. Smith, in her book about the Music of the Waters, states that
+a dead hare on a ship is considered a sign of an approaching hurricane;
+and Cornish fishermen declare that a white hare seen about the quays at
+night indicates that there will be rough weather.
+
+The pig is an object of aversion to Japanese seamen, and also to Filey
+fishermen, who will not go to sea if they meet one in the early morning.
+But, indeed, the pig seems to be generally disliked by all
+seafarers--except in the form of salt pork and bacon.
+
+Rats, however, are not objected to; indeed, it would be useless to
+object, for they overrun all ships. And rats are supposed to leave a
+vessel only when it is going to sink. A Welsh skipper, however, once
+cleared his ship of them without the risk of a watery grave, by drawing
+her up to a cheese-laden ship in harbour. He quietly moored alongside,
+and, having left the hatches open all night, cast off with a chuckle in
+the morning, leaving a liberal legacy to his neighbour.
+
+The stormy petrel is supposed to herald bad weather, and the great auk
+to tell that land is very near. This is true enough as regards the auk,
+which never ventures beyond soundings; but one doubts the truth of the
+popular belief that when the sea-gulls hover near the shore, a storm is
+at hand. The Scotch rhyme runs:
+
+  'Seagull, seagull, sit on the sand;
+  It's never good weather when you're on the land!'
+
+
+Mr. Thiselton-Dyer quotes from Sinclair's Statistical Account of
+Scotland, in confirmation of this belief, that in the county of Forfar,
+'when they appear in the fields, a storm from the southeast generally
+follows; and when the storm begins to abate, they fly back to the
+shore.' This does not accord with the present writer's experience of the
+west coast of Scotland, where the sea-gulls frequent the lochs and
+hillsides far inland all the summer. Naturally there are storms
+sometimes after their appearance, but just as often fine weather
+continues. As well say that the flocks of these beautiful birds that
+follow in the wake of a tourist steamer, to pick up unconsidered
+trifles, presage sea-sickness to the passengers!
+
+One has heard that in Cornwall sailors will not walk at night along
+portions of the shore where there have been many wrecks, because they
+believe that the souls of the drowned haunt such localities, and that
+the 'calling of the dead' is frequently audible. Some even say that they
+have heard the voices of dead sailors hailing them by name. One can
+readily excuse a timorousness in Jack in such circumstances. Many
+persons besides sailors shrink from localities which have been the
+scenes of murder or sudden death.
+
+Friday is the sailor's pet aversion, as an unlucky day on which to sail
+or begin work. But this is not surprising, when we remember that Friday
+has everywhere more superstition and folk-lore attached to it than any
+other day in the week, originating, perhaps, as Mr. Thiselton-Dyer
+suggests, from the fact that it was the day on which Christ was
+crucified. Lord Byron had the superstitious aversion to Friday; and even
+among the Brahmins no business must be commenced on this day. In
+Lancashire a man will not 'go a-courting on Friday'; and Brand says: 'A
+respectable merchant of the city of London informed me that no person
+will begin any business, that is, open his shop for the first time, on a
+Friday.' The 'respectable merchant' might be hard to find nowadays, but
+still one does not need to go to sailors to find a prejudice against
+Friday.
+
+Other things which are accounted unlucky by superstitious seamen are: to
+sneeze on the left side at the moment of embarking; to count the men on
+board; to ask fishermen, before they start, where they are bound for; to
+point with the finger to a ship when at sea; to lose a mop or
+water-bucket; to cut the hair or nails at sea, except during a storm.
+
+These are a few of the sea superstitions as preserved in rhyme:
+
+  'The evening gray, and the morning red,
+  Put on your hat or you'll wet your head.'
+
+(Meaning that it will rain.)
+
+  'When the wind shifts against the sun,
+  Trust it not, for it will run.'
+
+(That is, soon change again.)
+
+  'When the sun sets in the clear,
+  An easterly wind you need not fear.
+
+  'The evening red and morning gray
+  Are sure signs of a fine day.'
+
+(A distich not peculiar to followers of the sea.)
+
+  'But the evening gray and morning red
+  Makes the sailor shake his head.'
+
+
+This refers to the barometer:
+
+  'First rise, after low,
+  Indicates a stronger blow.'
+
+And this:
+
+  'Long foretold, long last;
+  Short notice, soon past.'
+
+These, however, are hardly superstitions, but maxims based on
+experience. Of the same character are the following:
+
+                  'In squalls
+  When the rain's before the wind
+  Halyards, sheets, and braces mind.'
+
+Also,
+
+  'When the wind's before the rain
+  Soon you may make sail again.'
+
+And
+
+  'When the glass falls low,
+  Prepare for a blow;
+  When it rises high,
+  Let all your kites fly.
+
+  'A rainbow in the morning,
+  Sailors take warning;
+  A rainbow at night
+  Is the sailor's delight.'
+
+
+The Manx fishermen have some curious sayings about herrings. Thus the
+common expression, 'As dead as a herring,' is due to them. They say
+also, 'Every herring must hang by its own gills'; and their favourite
+toast is, 'Life to man and death to fish.' They count one hundred and
+twenty-four fish to the hundred, thus: they first sort out lots of one
+hundred and twenty, then add three to each lot, which is called 'warp,'
+and then a single herring, which is called 'tally.' Before shooting the
+nets at sea, every man goes down on his knees at a sign from the skipper
+of the boat, and, with his head uncovered, prays for a blessing on the
+fishing. This, at least, used to be the general practice, but in how
+prevailing at the present day is doubtful.
+
+The sound of the death-bell is often supposed to be heard at sea before
+a wreck, and this idea may be either associated with the bell-buoy which
+marks many sunken, dangerous rocks, or with the religious ceremonies of
+the old days.
+
+At Malta it is, or was, usual to ring the church bells for an hour
+during a storm 'that the wind may cease and the sea be calmed,' and the
+same custom prevails both in Sicily and Sardinia.
+
+A Cornish legend of the bells of a church, which were sent by ship that
+was lost in sight of the town, owing to the blasphemy of the captain,
+says that the bells are supposed to be in the bay, and they announce by
+strange sounds the approach of a storm.
+
+There is a suggestion of Sir Ralph the Rover in this legend; but,
+indeed, the superstitions of those connected with the sea are so
+interwoven, that it is not easy to disentangle them, and they are
+numerous enough to need a book to themselves. No doubt our mariners
+derived many of them from the old Spanish navigators who once swayed the
+main, for the Spaniards are one of the most superstitious peoples in the
+world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+MOTHER CAREY AND HER CHICKENS.
+
+
+Who was Mother Carey the appearance of whose 'chickens' is supposed by
+the mariner to foretell a coming storm? This question is often asked,
+but seldom answered, and so a little light on the subject is desirable.
+
+Charles Kingsley gives a very vivid picture of her. In his charming book
+about The Water-Babies, he tells how little Tom, in search of his old
+master, Grimes, is instructed to find his way to Peacepool and Mother
+Carey's Haven, where the good whales go when they die. On his way he
+meets a flock of petrels, who invite him to go with them, saying: 'We
+are Mother Carey's own chickens, and she sends us out over all the seas
+to show the good birds the way home.' So he comes to Peacepool at last,
+which is miles and miles across; and there the air is clear and
+transparent, and the water calm and lovely; and there the good whales
+rest in happy sleep upon the slumbering sea.
+
+In the midst of Peacepool was one large peaked iceberg. 'When Tom came
+near it, it took the form of the grandest old lady he had ever seen--a
+white marble lady, sitting on a white marble throne. And from the foot
+of the throne there swam away, out and in, and into the sea, millions of
+new-born creatures, of more shapes and colours than man ever dreamed.
+And they were Mother Carey's chickens, whom she makes out of the
+sea-water all the day long.'
+
+Now, this beautiful fancy of Kingsley's--and how beautiful it is can
+only be realized by a reading of the whole story--is based upon fact, as
+all beautiful fancies must be.
+
+The fundamental idea of Kingsley's picture is that of a fruitful and
+beneficent mother. And Mother Carey is just the Mater Cara of the
+medieval sailors. Our Mother Carey's chickens are the 'Birds of the Holy
+Virgin,' of the South of Europe, the 'Oiseaux de Notre Dame' of the
+French seamen.
+
+One reason for associating the petrel with the Holy Mother may possibly
+have been found in its supposed sleeplessness. The bird was believed
+never to rest, to hatch its eggs under its wings, and to be incessantly
+flying to and fro on the face of the waters on messages of warning to
+mariners. Even to this day sailors believe that the albatross, the
+aristocratic relative of the petrel, sleeps on the wing; and the power
+of the albatross, for good and evil, readers of the Ancient Mariner will
+remember. We say for good and evil, because opinion fluctuated. Thus:
+
+  'At length did cross an albatross,
+  Through the fog it came;
+  As if it had been a Christian soul,
+  We hailed it in God's name.'
+
+
+When the mariner with his crossbow did shoot the albatross, the crew
+said:
+
+  'I had done a hellish thing,
+  And it would work them woe;
+  For all averred I had killed the bird
+  That made the breeze to blow.
+  "Ah, wretch!" said they, "the bird to slay,
+  That made the breeze to blow!"'
+
+
+And once more, when the weather cleared, they changed:
+
+  'Then all averred I had killed the bird
+  That brought the fog and mist;
+  "'Twas right," said they, "such birds to slay,
+  That bring the fog and mist!"'
+
+
+Coleridge got his idea from Wordsworth, who got it from a passage in
+Shelvocke's voyages, where a long spell of bad weather was attributed to
+an albatross following the ship.
+
+The poet who sang,
+
+  'Oh, stormy, stormy peterel!
+    Thou art a bird of woe,
+  Yet would I thou could'st tell me half
+    Of the misery thou dost know!'
+
+has, however, misunderstood the feeling with which that little harbinger
+is regarded. So have many other persons. The petrel is not a bird of
+woe, but a bird of warning.
+
+The Virgin Mary--Mater Cara--was the special protectress of the early
+Christian seamen, just as Amphitrite had been the tutelary genius of
+his Greek, and Venus of his Roman, progenitors, and just as Isis, the
+moon goddess, had been the patroness of the Egyptian navigators. The
+Catholic mariner still believes that the Virgin has especial power over
+the winds and the sea.
+
+At Marseilles is the shrine of the Notre Dame de la Garde, greatly
+venerated by all the Provencal sailors; at Caen is the shrine of Notre
+Dame de Deliverance; at Havre, that of Notre Dame des Neiges. Brand
+tells, in his book of Antiquities, that on Good Friday Catholic mariners
+'cock-bill' their yards in mourning and hang and scourge an effigy of
+Judas Iscariot. The practice still continues, and as recently as 1881 a
+London newspaper contained an account of the ceremony performed on board
+several Portuguese vessels in the London Docks. The proceedings always
+closed with a Hymn to the Virgin Mary.
+
+In Rome, at the Church of Santa Maria della Navicella, there is a small
+marble ship which was offered by Pope Leo the Tenth in execution of a
+vow after his escape from shipwreck. The first thing done by Magellan
+and his crew after their safe return to Seville was to perform penance
+barefooted, clad only in their shirts, and bearing lighted tapers in
+their hands, at the shrine of Our Lady of Victory. And it is related of
+Columbus, that on safe arrival after a storm at the Azores, 'The Admiral
+and all the crew, bearing in remembrance the vow which they had made the
+Thursday before, to go barefooted, and in their shirts, to some church
+of Our Lady at the first land, were of opinion that they ought to
+discharge this vow. They accordingly landed, and proceeded, according to
+their vow, barefooted, and in their shirts, toward the hermitage.'
+
+Countless instances might be cited, but these will suffice to show the
+estimation in which Mater Cara was held by Catholic seamen.
+
+How it came to be supposed that the smaller _Procellariae_ are only
+visible before a storm is not very apparent. In point of fact, there is
+no more reason for associating the petrel specially with storms than
+there is for the belief expressed in the old Scotch couplet quoted in
+the last chapter:
+
+  'Seagull, seagull, sit in the sand;
+  It's never good weather when you're on the land!'
+
+
+As a matter of fact, seagulls do fly far inland in fine weather, and
+especially during ploughing-time. And also, as a matter of fact, the
+petrel lives at sea both in fine weather and foul, because he is
+uncomfortable on land. It is only the breeding season that he spends on
+shore; while the seagull is just as much at home on the land as on the
+sea.
+
+The scientific name of the petrel tribe is _Procellariae_, from the Latin
+_procella_--a storm. It is a large family, all the members of which are
+distinguished by a peculiar tube-like arrangement of the nostrils. Their
+feet, also, are peculiar in being without any back toe, so that they can
+only with great difficulty rise on the wing from dry land.
+
+Mother Carey's chickens are among the smaller species of this family,
+and they have both a shorter bill and a longer leg than their relatives.
+But all the _Procellariae_ are noted for ranging further from land than
+any other of the sea-birds. Thus they are often visible from ship-board
+when no other animal life can be sighted; and thus it was, doubtless,
+that their appearance suggested safe harbour, and consequent thanks to
+Mater Cara, to the devout seaman.
+
+Why the petrels are associated with storms is thus not easily explained,
+seeing that they are abroad in all weathers; but a feasible suggestion
+was advanced by Pennant. It is that they gather from the water
+sea-animals which are most abundant before or after a storm, when the
+sea is in a state of unusual commotion. All birds are highly sensitive
+to atmospheric changes, and all sea-birds seem to develop extra activity
+in threatening and 'dirty' weather.
+
+There is another interesting thing about Mother Carey's chicken, and
+that is, that he is also called petrel, from the Italian 'Petrello,' or
+Little Peter. This is because he is supposed to be able, like the
+apostle, to walk on the water, and as in fact he does after a fashion,
+with the aid of his wings.
+
+Now, St. Peter, both as a fisherman and for his sea-walking, was always
+a favourite saint with sailors, and was often invoked during storms. He
+was the patron saint of Cortez, as he was also of the Thames watermen.
+There is an old legend that St. Peter went on board a fisherman's boat
+somewhere about the Nore, and that it carried him, without sails or
+oars, to the very spot which he selected as the site for Westminster
+Abbey.
+
+In the Russian ports of the Baltic there is firm belief in a species of
+water-spirits called Rusalkas, who raise storms and cause much damage to
+the shipping. The great anniversary of these storm-spirits is St.
+Peter's Day. The John Dory is St. Peter's fish, and it is said that the
+spots on each side of its mouth are the marks of the apostle's thumb and
+forefinger. It was called 'janitore,' or doorkeeper, because in its
+mouth was found the penny with which the temple-tax was paid. Now, St.
+Peter also was the doorkeeper of heaven, and from janitore to John Dory
+was an easy transition.
+
+With fishermen, as was natural, St. Peter was held in high honour; and
+in Cornwall and Yorkshire, until recently, it was customary to light
+bonfires, and to hold other ceremonies, on St. Peter's Day, to signalize
+the opening of the fishing season, and to bespeak luck. An old writer
+says of these customs at Guisboro', in Yorkshire, that:
+
+'The fishermen, on St. Peter's daye, invited their friends and kinfolk
+to a festivall kept after their fashion, with a free hearte, and no show
+of niggardnesse. That day their boats are dressed curiously for the
+showe, their masts are painted, and certain rytes observed amongst them
+with sprinkling their bows with good liquor, which custome or
+superstition, sucked from their ancestors, even continueth down unto
+this present tyme.'
+
+Perhaps at 'this present tyme' the ceremonies are not so elaborate; but
+survivals of the 'custome or superstition' are to be found yet in our
+fishing villages.
+
+It is probable that the observers of St. Peter's Day do not know the
+origin of their curious customs. It is certain that sailors, as a class,
+do not now know why their favourite little bird is called petrel. We
+have tried to remove the stigma which in modern times has come to rest
+upon Mother Carey's chickens. Let us no longer do them wrong by
+supposing that they are always the harbingers of woe. They have a busy
+and a useful life, and it is one, as we have seen, with tender, even
+sacred, associations.
+
+It may be recalled as an interesting, although not an agreeable item,
+that in the days of the French Revolution there was a notorious brood of
+Mother Carey's chickens in Paris. They were the female rag-tag-and-bobtail
+of the city, whose appearance in the streets was understood to forebode
+a fresh political tumult. What an insult to our feathered friends to
+bestow their honoured name on such human fiends!
+
+The real Mother Carey is she who appeared to Tom and Ella in Peacepool,
+after they had learned a few things about themselves and the world. They
+heard her voice calling to them, and they looked, crying:
+
+'"Oh, who are you, after all? You are our dear Mrs.
+Do-as-you-would-be-done-by."
+
+'"No, you are good Mrs. Be-done-by-as-you-did; but you are grown quite
+beautiful now!"
+
+'"To you," said the Fairy; "but look again."
+
+'"You are Mother Carey," said Tom, in a very low, solemn voice, for he
+had found out something which made him very happy, and yet frightened
+him more than all that he had ever seen.
+
+'"But you are grown quite young again."
+
+'"To you," said the Fairy; "but look again."
+
+'"You are the Irishwoman who met me the day I went to Harthover!"
+
+'And when they looked again she was neither of them, and yet all of them
+at once.
+
+'"My name is written in my eyes, if you have eyes to see it there."
+
+'And they looked into her great, deep soft eyes, and they changed again
+and again into every hue, as the light changes in a diamond.
+
+'"Now read my name," said she at last, and her eyes flashed for one
+moment, clear, white, blazing light; but the children could not read her
+name, for they were dazzled, and hid their faces in their hands.
+
+'They were only water-babies, and just beginning to learn the meaning of
+love.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+DAVY JONES'S LOCKER.
+
+
+This expression of what may be called nautical slang has now become
+almost classic. At all events, everybody knows it; and most people may
+be presumed to know that to 'go to Davy Jones's Locker' is equivalent to
+'losing the number of your mess,' or, as the Californian miners say,
+'passing in your checks.' Being especially a sea-phrase, it means, of
+course, to be drowned. But how did the phrase originate? And who was
+Davy Jones? These questions must have frequently occurred to many, and
+it is worth while seeking an answer to them. There is an explanation for
+everything, if one only knows how to look for it.
+
+This saying about Davy Jones is a very old one--so old, that it cannot
+possibly have any reference to the famous Paul Jones. In fact, one hears
+very often of 'Davy's Locker' without any reference to 'Jones' at all.
+Then 'Davy,' again, is a vulgar slang expression for affidavit, but it
+is also used in thief-parlance by way of an oath. 'So help me Davy!' is
+the slang equivalent for the concluding sentence of the oath
+administered in the police-courts with which these gentry are familiar.
+It has thus been inferred that 'Davy' is a slang expression of somewhat
+blasphemous import; but this is by no means certain.
+
+It is much more likely to be associated with, or to have the same origin
+as, the 'Duffy' of the West Indian negroes. Among them Duffy means a
+ghost; and in the vocabulary of the gutter it may easily have been taken
+as the equivalent of soul. The transition from Duffy to Davy is by no
+means difficult.
+
+But how, then, did the vagabond users of 'flash' language get hold of
+this word? It is probable enough that it was brought home by the sailors
+from the West Indies, and picked up at the docks by the waifs and strays
+of our vast vagrant population. On the other hand, it is just as likely
+that the West Indian negroes picked up 'Duffy' from our own sailors; and
+that, in fact, Duffy is just the nigger contraction of Davy Jones. There
+is certainly a very close connection, both in sound and meaning, between
+the two expressions.
+
+We must go further back and further away, however, to get to the root of
+this matter. And, if we inquire diligently, we shall find our Davy in
+the Deva of the Indian mythology. The original Sanskrit meaning of Deva
+was 'The Shining One,' but in the operation of what has been called 'the
+degradation of Deities' in the Oriental religions, it became synonymous
+with our devil. In fact, we owe the word 'devil' to this same Sanskrit
+root; and it is noteworthy that while Deva meant the Good Spirit to the
+Brahmans, it meant the Evil Spirit to the Parsees. In this root we may
+also find the explanation of the gipsy word for God, which, curiously
+enough, is Devel.
+
+While it is easy to trace the transition from Deva to the sailor's Davy,
+one may note another curious thing. The name of the fabulous Welshman,
+Taffy, the thief, is a corruption of Dyved, which, as signifying an evil
+spirit, is the Cymric form of Deva. This would almost suggest that the
+addition of the apparent surname, Jones, was a Welsh performance. But
+this is only an amusing conjecture, not without a certain aptness.
+
+For the origin of Jones we must look to Jonah, who in nautical history
+is regarded as the embodiment of malevolence at sea. The prophet Jonah
+is not the only one who has been committed to the deep to appease the
+storm-fiends, whose anger his presence was supposed to have aroused. It
+is easy to account for this from the Bible narrative. 'The mariners were
+afraid, and cried every man unto his God. And they said, every one to
+his fellow, "Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose
+cause this evil is upon us." So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon
+Jonah. So they took up Jonah and cast him forth into the sea, and the
+sea ceased from her raging.'
+
+The superstition of sailors is proverbial, and to this day they believe
+in good or ill luck being brought to a vessel by persons and things. In
+olden times there were many sacrifices to this Jonah superstition; and
+even in comparatively recent times, Holcroft, the actor, on a voyage to
+Scotland, narrowly escaped a watery grave, because the men took him for
+'the Jonas.' And to this day 'He's a Jonah' is an expression often
+enough heard on ship-board applied to some unwelcome passenger.
+
+Here, then, we have the Sanskrit origin of Davy, and the Biblical origin
+of Jones, both words embodying much the same idea to the mind of the
+primitive seamen.
+
+But what of the 'locker'?
+
+This, of course, is a familiar piece of ship-furniture which it was not
+difficult to transfer to the mythical demon of the deep. Lieutenant
+Bassett thought that the locker might be the whale's belly in which
+Jonah found refuge; but this is hardly in harmony with the meaning of
+the phrase. In the sense in which it is thus used, locker does not mean
+a temporary resting-place or submarine harbour of refuge, but a place of
+final deposit. It is possible, indeed, to find the origin of the word
+locker as here applied in Loki, the personification of evil in the
+Scandinavian mythology. Loki, like Deva, was not always an evil spirit,
+but he became eventually identified with Satan. He became a flame-demon,
+a sort of incarnate spirit of fire.
+
+There is good reason for believing in this theory of the Scandinavian
+origin of the word 'locker' as used in the connection we are
+considering. It is to be remembered that, in olden times, death by
+drowning was even more dreaded than now, because drowned bodies were
+supposed to be debarred from the Resurrection. Going far back, we find
+that the sea was the abode of Typhoeus, who, besides being a
+hurricane-raising, was also a fire-breathing, demon, and was feared as
+the quencher of the sun, who sank at night into his bosom. The legend of
+St. Brandan and his burning islands preserved the idea that Hades was
+very near to the bottom of the ocean. Thus, then, we may readily
+perceive the conception of Loki having his receptacle for drowned
+mariners in the bed of the sea. A belief prevailed long into the Middle
+Ages that the sea-bottom was the abode of many demons, who lay in wait
+for passengers, to drag them down to the infernal depths.
+
+Thus, then, Davy Jones's Locker became, by a mixture of theogonies, 'the
+ocean, the deep sea-bottom, the place to which the body was committed,
+and to which the souls of the wicked fled.'
+
+This meaning is now somewhat modified. Sailors do not, as Smollett says
+they did in his day, regard Davy Jones as the fiend who presides over
+all the evil spirits of the deep, and who is seen in various shapes,
+warning the devoted wretches of death and woe. In fact, it is not Davy
+Jones they think of at all now, but his Locker; for to go to Davy's
+Locker is to be lost at sea and to find a watery grave.
+
+There is, however, a curious survival of the personal element still to
+be traced in some of the sailors' chanties. Take, for instance, that
+remarkable one about 'Burying the Dead Horse,' which still puzzles the
+passengers on board the packets sailing to the Antipodes. Without going
+into the question of the song and its attendant ceremonies just now,
+the following lines may be quoted as bearing on our subject:
+
+  'You poor old horse, what brought you here,
+  After carrying turf for many a year?
+  From Bantry Bay to Ballyack,
+  When you fell down and broke your back?
+  You died from blows and sore abuse,
+  And were salted down for the sailors' use.
+  The sailors they the meat despise;
+  They turned you over and ---- your eyes;
+  They ate the meat and picked the bones,
+  And gave the rest to Davy Jones.'
+
+
+All the offal of a ship is thrown over to Davy Jones--doubtless because
+there is nothing else to be done with it.
+
+The favourite demon, if one may use the expression, of British sailors
+is now Old Nick, and one may trace his origin even more easily than that
+of Davy Jones. We can follow him through Saxon, German, Danish and
+Norwegian transitions to one of the names of Odin--Hnickar--for even
+All-father Odin shared the fate of his Oriental predecessors, and became
+demonized. Others, again, have carried the name Hnickar back still
+further to the Egyptian Nika, the serpent of the lower world, 'the
+Typhonic enemy of the Sun in his night-journey.'
+
+It is to the same root that we owe the Necken of the Baltic, and the
+Nixies--the water-fays--of the German legends. It is to the Norwegian
+Noekke, also, that we owe the Wild Huntsman of the Sea, on which the
+story of the _Flying Dutchman_ and a host of other legends of demon
+vessels and demon mariners are founded.
+
+There is, however, some confusion in the nautical mythology between the
+original Old Nick and the popular Saint Nicholas. This saint became the
+Christian successor of Neptune, as the protector of seamen. 'This
+saintly Poseidon,' says Mr. Conway, 'the patron of fishermen, in time
+became associated with the demon whom the British sailor feared if he
+feared nothing else. He was also of old the patron of pirates; and
+robbers were called "St. Nicholas' clerks."'
+
+It is certainly one of the curiosities of plutology that the patron
+saint of children who is still honoured at Christmas as Santa Claus
+should be the same as the dreaded Old Nick of the seafarers.
+
+These investigations are extremely interesting, and may lead us far; but
+our present purpose is merely to find an explanation of a popular
+phrase.
+
+It is more difficult to explain a number of other marine personalities,
+who are as lively to-day on shipboard as they were generations ago.
+There is, for instance, old Mister Storm-Along, of whom the chanty-man
+sings:
+
+  'When Stormy died, I dug his grave--
+  I dug his grave with a silver spade;
+  I hove him up with an iron crane,
+  And lowered him down with a golden chain.'
+
+Who was he? And who was the famous Captain Cottington, of whom it is
+related, in stentorian tones and with tireless repetition, that:
+
+  'Captain Cottington, he went to sea,
+  Captain Cottington, he went to sea-e-e-e,
+  Captain Cottington, he went to sea,
+  Captain Cottington, he went to sea-e!'
+
+
+Who, also, was 'Uncle Peleg,' of whom a somewhat similarly exhaustive
+history is chanted? And, still more, who was the mysterious Reuben
+Ranzo, with whose name every fo'cs'le of every outward-bound British or
+American ship is constantly resounding?
+
+  'Pity Reuben Ranzo--
+    Ranzo, boys, a Ranzo!
+  Oh, pity Reuben Ranzo--
+    Ranzo, boys, a Ranzo!'
+
+He had a remarkable career, this Reuben, according to the song. He was a
+tailor by trade; went to school on the Monday, learnt to read on
+Tuesday, and by Friday he had thrashed the master. Then he went to sea,
+and, after some ignominious experiences, married the captain's daughter,
+and became himself the captain of a whaler. But who was he? And how does
+he come to exercise such a fascination over all mariners, even unto this
+day?
+
+This is one of the mysteries of the ocean. The sea is covered with
+mystery, and with phantom shapes. Every ship that sails is peopled with
+a crew of dim shadows of the past that none can explain.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+SOME FLOWERS OF FANCY.
+
+
+That the lily should symbolize purity seems appropriate enough, but why
+should parsley in olden times have been associated with death? It is
+recorded that a few bundles of parsley once threw a whole Greek army
+into panic, because in Greece the tombs of the dead were strewn with the
+herb. With them 'to be in need of parsley' was equivalent to being
+beyond hope.
+
+The name itself offers little explanation of this superstition, for it
+is derived from the Latin _petroselinum_, which, again, was taken from
+the Greek name signifying the 'plant of the rocks.' According to the
+myth, however, it sprang from the blood of Archemorus, or Orpheltes, the
+son of Lycurgus, King of Nemaea. Archemorus was killed by a serpent while
+his foster-mother was showing the soldiers of Adrastus where they might
+find a fountain. On the place where he died there sprang up the parsley,
+which the Greeks, in grief for his loss, wove into chaplets for the
+victors at the Nemaean games. At these games it was always customary to
+deliver a funeral oration in memory of Archemorus, while the
+participators were dressed in mourning. Hence the association of parsley
+with death among the Greeks, and the long-prevailing Western belief that
+the plant is 'unlucky,' is only another instance of the marvellous
+longevity of superstitions.
+
+It is said by Mr. Thiselton-Dyer that in Devonshire to transplant
+parsley is accounted a serious offence against the tutelary spirit of
+the herb, and is certain to be punished within the year by some great
+misfortune. In South Hampshire the country people will never give
+parsley away, for fear of trouble; and in Suffolk it is believed that if
+it be sown on any other day than Good Friday it will not grow double.
+The _Folklore Record_, some years ago, gave the case of a gentleman near
+Southampton whose gardener refused to sow some parsley-seed when
+ordered, because 'it would be a bad day's work' for him to do so; the
+most he would do was to bring a plant or two, and throw them down for
+the master to pick up if he chose. To give them, however, the man
+regarded as fatal.
+
+But even to move parsley is regarded in some places to be unlucky, and
+we have heard of a parish clerk in Devonshire who was bedridden, and who
+was popularly supposed to owe his trouble to having moved some
+parsley-beds. There is a similar superstition in Germany, and many
+readers have probably often come across an old saying, that 'Parsley
+fried will bring a man to his saddle and a woman to her grave.' The
+allusion to the saddle is obscure; but it is obvious that all the
+superstitious dread of parsley is a survival of the old Greek fable
+immortalized in the Nemaean games.
+
+That the rose should be associated with death may appear strange to
+some, yet so it was. The Greeks certainly used the rose in their funeral
+rites and for the decoration of their tombs. The Romans used it for
+similar purposes, and often bequeathed legacies for the express purpose
+of keeping their tombs adorned with the flower. Whether it was by them
+that the practice was introduced into England is not capable of direct
+proof, but it is worthy of note that at Ockley, a place where the Romans
+were often located in large numbers, it was a custom of comparatively
+recent experience for girls to plant roses upon the graves of their dead
+lovers. Hence, no doubt, its origin in Gay's riddle:
+
+  'What flower is that which royal honour craves,
+  Adjoins the Virgin, and 'tis strewn on graves?'
+
+The answer is 'Rosemary,' which, although sometimes understood to mean
+the Rose of the Virgin Mary, is neither a rose, nor is it in any special
+way associated with the Virgin.
+
+On the other hand, the rose is associated by most Catholics with the
+Mother of the Saviour, and in Italy especially, during the celebrations
+of May, the rose is abundantly used. By some it has been thought that
+the early association of the rose with death led to the expression
+'under the rose,' applied to anything to be done in secret or silence.
+Others, again, have ascribed the origin of that expression to the
+perfect beauty of the flower, which, as language is unable to portray
+it, may be a symbol of silence. Sir Thomas Browne, however, says the
+origin was either in the old custom of wearing chaplets of roses during
+the 'Symposiack meetings,' or else because the rose was the flower of
+Venus, 'which Cupid consecrated unto Harpocrates, the god of silence.'
+There is a basis of probability in both theories, and all know that the
+rose was peculiarly the property of the Goddess of Love. Indeed,
+according to the old fable, the flower was originally white until dyed
+by the blood which flowed from the foot of Venus, pierced by a thorn as
+she ran to the aid of her loved Adonis. Hence Spenser says:
+
+  'White as the native rose, before the change
+  Which Venus's blood did in her leaves impress.'
+
+
+According to others, however, it was the blood of Adonis which dyed the
+flower. Thus Bion, in his Lament: 'A tear the Paphian sheds for each
+blood-drop of Adonis, and tears and blood on the earth are turned to
+flowers. The blood brings forth the rose, and the tears the wind-flower.
+Woe, woe, for Adonis! he hath perished, the lovely Adonis!' This
+tradition is preserved in the German name, _Adonis-blume_, which,
+however, is usually applied to the anemone.
+
+The rose being the emblem of love, and love having a natural abhorrence
+of publicity, it is not difficult to conceive the connection with
+silence. It is said that the Romans used to place a decoration of roses
+in the centre of their dining-rooms, as a hint to the guests that all
+that was said at the banqueting-table was in the nature of 'privileged
+communications,' and in old Germany a similar custom long prevailed. In
+the sixteenth century a rose was placed over confessionals, and the
+inference is that the hint was then well understood.
+
+There was also an obvious meaning in the adoption by the Jacobites of
+this flower as the emblem of the Pretender, to whose service they were
+secretly sworn. It was the white rose that was especially affected by
+the Stuarts, and the Pretender's birthday, the 10th of June, was for
+long known as 'White Rose Day,' much as 'Primrose Day' is now definitely
+associated with the late Lord Beaconsfield. The story of the Wars of the
+Roses is, of course, known to everybody, and how, in consequence of
+these feuds, the rose became the emblem of England, as the thistle is of
+Scotland, and the shamrock of Ireland.
+
+In the East there is even more of poetic significance attached to the
+rose than with us. It is related of Sadi, the Persian poet, that, when a
+slave, he earned his freedom by the adroit use of the flower. One day he
+presented a rose to his master, with the remark, made with all humility,
+'Do good to thy servant whilst thou hast the power, for the season of
+power is often as transient as the duration of this flower.' This was in
+allusion to the Eastern fancy, which makes the white rose the emblem of
+life--transient and uncertain. In Persia they have a festival called
+'The Feast of the Roses,' which lasts during the blooming of the
+flowers. One of their great works is called The Garden of Roses, and in
+all their poems and tales they closely associate the rose with the
+bulbul or nightingale. The belief is that the bird derives his melody
+from the beauteous flower, and they say, 'You may place a handful of
+fragrant herbs and flowers before the nightingale, but he wants nothing
+more than the odour of his beloved rose.'
+
+Thomas Moore seizes, with happy effect, on this legend in Lalla Rookh,
+which poem, indeed, is redolent of roses. But poetry generally is as
+full of the rose as the rose is of poetry, and it would take a volume to
+deal adequately with all the fancies and superstitious associations of
+the queen of flowers. Before quitting the subject, however, we should
+not overlook the Oriental traditions of how the rose received its
+various colours. It is said that when Mohammed was journeying to heaven,
+the sweat which fell from his forehead produced white roses, and that
+which fell from Al Borak produced yellow roses. But an older tradition
+is given by Sir John Mandeville. It is that of Zillah, the beauteous
+maiden of Bethlehem, who, being falsely accused, was condemned to be
+burned alive. At the stake the flames passed over her and shrivelled up
+her accuser, while, on the spot where she stood, sprang up a garden of
+roses--red where the fire had touched, and white where it had passed.
+'And theise werein the first roseres that ever ony man saughe.'
+
+Reference has been made to the lily as the emblem of purity, but,
+curiously enough, this innocent-looking flower has its baleful
+superstitions as well.
+
+In Devonshire it is accounted unlucky to plant a bed of
+lilies-of-the-valley, and to do so is to ensure misfortune, if not
+death, within a year. Yet this flower has always been closely associated
+with the Virgin Mary, and according to one legend, it sprang from some
+of the milk which fell to the ground as she was nourishing the infant
+Jesus. The Greeks, however, had a similar legend, ascribing the origin
+of the flower to a drop of Juno's milk. The Greeks have always made a
+favourite of the lily, and even to this day use it largely in making up
+bridal wreaths, while the sacred significance which Christians have
+found in the flower may be traceable to our Lord's use of it in imagery.
+
+In this connection the legend of the budding lily of St. Joseph may be
+recalled, and also the fact that the mediaeval painters generally
+depicted the Madonna with a lily in her hand. There is a tradition that
+the lily was the principal ornament in the crown of Solomon, and that it
+typified love, charity, purity, and innocence--a combination of virtues
+hardly to be found in the character of the wise King himself.
+
+Nor must we forget that the sacred flower of the East--the lotus--is a
+lily, and that even to name it seems to carry ineffable consolation to
+the Buddhist. Thus, the universal prayer of the Buddhists--that prayer
+which is printed on slips and fastened on cylinders which are
+incessantly revolving in Thibet--'Om mani padme hum!' means simply, 'Oh,
+the jewel in (or of) the lotus! Amen!' So Sir Edwin Arnold, in The
+Light of Asia:
+
+  'Ah, Lover! Brother! Guide! Lamp of the Law!
+  I take my refuge in Thy name and Thee!
+  I take my refuge in Thy Law of Good!
+  I take my refuge in Thy Order! Om!
+  The dew is on the lotus. Rise, Great Sun,
+  And lift my leaf, and mix me with the wave.
+  "Om mani padme hum," the sunrise comes.
+  The dewdrop slips into the shining sea!'
+
+
+The lily, or lotus, was held sacred also in ancient Egypt, and the
+capitals of many of the buildings bear the form of an open lotus-flower.
+And naturally, in a land of Buddhism like China, the lotus occupies
+there an important place, both in art, in poetry, and in popular fancy.
+It is recorded that the old Jews regarded the lily, or lotus (_Lilium
+candidum_), as a protection against enchantment, and it is said that
+Judith wore a wreath of lilies when she went to visit Holofernes, by way
+of counteractant charm.
+
+The lotus which is the sacred lily of the East must not be confounded
+with the mysterious plant mentioned by Ulysses, and of which Tennyson
+has sung--the plant of oblivion and sensuousness. That there is an
+element of enchantment about the lily we have seen is still believed in
+our own country, but the association of misfortune with it is not
+universal. On the contrary, in some parts the leaf of the lily is
+supposed to have curative virtues in cases of cuts and wounds, and
+Gerarde, the old herbalist, even says that 'the flowers of
+lily-of-the-valley, being close stopped up in a glass, put into an
+ant-hill, and taken away again a month after, ye shall find a liquor in
+the glass, which being outwardly applied, helpeth the gout.' One hears,
+perhaps, of no modern experiments having been made with this remedy. But
+if not to cure gout, the flower has, it appears, been used to pay rents,
+for Grimm says that some lands in Hesse were held upon the condition of
+presenting a bunch of lily-of-the-valley every year. This, of course,
+would not be the whole burden, and the custom had, no doubt, a religious
+origin and significance.
+
+The flower is often associated with the sword of justice, and both the
+Dominicans and the Cistercians held it in high honour. It is worth
+noting, too, that some traditions make the lily the favourite flower of
+St. Cecilia, although the popular legend makes the angel bring her a
+bouquet of roses every night from Paradise.
+
+But how did the lily become the badge of France? One tradition is that
+it was adopted by the French kings because it was the emblem of purity,
+and closely associated with both Christ and Solomon. One old legend has
+it that after one of the great battles of the Crusaders, the French
+banners were found covered with lilies. According to others, the Fleur
+de lys is merely a corruption of Fleur de Luce, or Fleur de Louis, and
+was not a lily at all, but the purple iris, which Louis the Seventh
+adopted for his emblem on his departure to the Holy Land. On the other
+hand, there is a legend that a shield of azure bearing the device of
+three golden lilies was presented by an angel to Clothilde, the wife of
+Clovis, and it is claimed that the lily has been the true national
+emblem of France ever since the time of that Sovereign. Whatever the
+origin, however, of Fleur de lys, it certainly means lily now, and the
+Lily of France is a symbol as definite as the Rose of England, as the
+Shamrock of Ireland, or as the Thistle of Scotland.
+
+It is curious how much superstition and romance have clustered round the
+humble clover-leaf. Not one of us, perhaps, but has in childhood spent
+hours in looking for the four-leaved clover that was to bring untold
+luck. What trouble to find it! What joy when found! And what little
+profit beyond the joy of the search! As the old couplet has it, somewhat
+inconsequently:
+
+  'With a four-leav'd clover, double-topp'd ash, and green-topp'd seave,
+  You may go before the queen's daughter without asking leave.'
+
+
+The advantage here suggested is not very obvious, but the Devonshire
+people had a more defined idea of the virtue of the double clover, and
+they state it thus:
+
+  'An even-leaved ash,
+    And a four-leaved clover;
+  You'll see your true lover
+    Before the day's over.'
+
+
+But in Cambridgeshire it seems that the two-leaved clover is the object
+of desire, for there the saying goes:
+
+  'A clover, a clover of two,
+  Put it on your right shoe;
+  The first young man you meet,
+  In field, or lane, or street,
+  You shall have him,
+  Or one of his name.'
+
+This, while presenting a considerable amount of uncertainty in the
+result has, at least, the merit of presaging something.
+
+In other parts, however, and in more ancient days, the carrying of the
+four-bladed clover was believed to bring luck in play and in business,
+safety on a journey, and the power of detecting evil spirits. In Germany
+the clover was held almost sacred whenever it had two or four blades.
+Now, as to luck, a curious thing is stated by the author of the Plant
+Lore of Shakespeare. He says that clover is a corruption of _clava_, a
+club, and that to this day we preserve the emblem of luck on our
+playing-cards in painting the suit of clubs. Somehow the etymology does
+not seem very satisfying; but at any rate we all know what 'living in
+clover' means.
+
+Yet, perhaps, everyone does not know that in rural districts the clover
+is looked upon as a capital barometer, the leaves becoming rough to the
+feel when a storm is impending. A writer, quoted by Mr. Thiselton-Dyer,
+says that when tempestuous weather is coming the clover will 'start and
+rise up as if it were afraid of an assault.'
+
+It is probable that the association of good luck with the four-bladed
+clover arose from its fancied resemblance to the cross. Support is given
+to this hypothesis by the traditional origin of the shamrock as the
+badge of Ireland. In the account given of St. Patrick in The Book of
+Days, it is stated that once when the Saint wanted to illustrate the
+doctrine of the Trinity to his pagan hearers, he plucked a piece of the
+common white clover. Now, it seems that the trefoil is called
+_shamrakh_ in Arabic, and was held sacred in Persia. And it is
+remarkable that Pliny says the trefoil is an antidote against the bites
+of snakes and scorpions. It is not by any means certain that the common
+clover was the original shamrock of Ireland; and even to this day many
+claim the title for the wood-sorrel. Still, for fifty years, at any
+rate, the popular belief has been that the trefoil-clover is the plant
+which was plucked by St. Patrick, who drove out the snakes from Ireland,
+who is still her patron-saint, and whose badge is worn to this day.
+
+But how did the name come from Arabia, and what is the connection
+between Pliny's theory and the legend, of St. Patrick's victory over the
+vermin? These remain among the unsolved mysteries of folk-lore.
+
+With the emblem of Scotland--the thistle--not so many classical
+associations and active superstitions are to be found, but yet it is not
+devoid of folk-lore. Of course opinions differ as to what was or is the
+true Scotch thistle, but of the several varieties of thistles many
+beliefs are entertained. One variety--the Carline--is esteemed in some
+parts as a barometer, as it closes up when rain is approaching. In
+Tartary there is a variety which grows to such a size that it is planted
+for shelter on the windward side of the huts on the Steppes. This
+thistle is called the 'Wind Witch,' because, after the heat of the
+summer is past, the dried portions take the form of a ball, with which
+the spirits are supposed to make merry in the autumnal gales.
+
+The origin of the name thistle is probably Scandinavian, and associated
+with Thor. The plant was, at any rate, sacred to the Scandinavian god,
+and was believed by the old Vikings to receive the colour of the
+lightning into its blossom, which thereupon became endowed with high
+curative and protective virtues. There was a species of thistle on
+Dartmoor which used to be called Thormantle, and was used in that
+district as a febrifuge. Some writers have said that in Poland some
+infantile disorders are supposed to be the work of mischievous spirits
+using thistle-seed.
+
+The Lady's Thistle, which some believe to be the true Scotch thistle, is
+one of the many plants associated with the Virgin. The tradition,
+according to Brand, is that the white spots on the leaves are due to the
+falling of some drops of the Holy Mother's milk, a legend we have seen
+to be attached also to the lily. Then the great Emperor Charlemagne's
+name is blended with that of the Carline Thistle, the story being that
+during the prevalence of an epidemic among his troops he prayed to God
+for help. An angel appeared, and indicated, by firing an arrow, a plant
+which would allay the disease. This was the _Carlina acaulis_, which, of
+course, cured all the sick soldiers, and possibly may have some of the
+febrifuge virtues which the Dartmoor people fancied existed in another
+kind of thistle. Nettle-soup is still a familiar housewife's remedy for
+some childish ailments.
+
+In some parts of Germany there is a superstition that sores upon horses'
+backs may be cured by gathering four red thistle-blossoms before
+daybreak, and placing them in the form of a square upon the ground with
+a stone in the middle. It is not easy to trace the probable origin of
+this belief, but many of the old herbalists mention the thistle as
+efficacious in cases of vertigo, headache, jaundice, and 'infirmities of
+the gall.' Says one, 'It is an herb of Mars, and under the sign Aries.'
+Therefore, 'it strengthens the attractive faculty in man and clarifies
+the blood, because the one is ruled by Mars. The continual drinking the
+decoction of it helps red faces, tetters, and ringworms, because Mars
+causeth them. It helps the plague, sores, boils, itches, the bitings of
+mad dogs and venomous beasts, all which infirmities are under Mars.'
+This same writer agrees with Dioscorides that the root of a thistle
+carried about 'doth expel melancholy and removes all diseases connected
+therewith.' In other words, the thistle was held to possess all the
+virtues now claimed for podophyllum, blue-pill, and dandelion--a
+universal antibilious agent!
+
+But how did the thistle become the emblem of Scotland? Well, there are
+as many traditions on the subject as there are opinions as to which
+variety of the plant is the true Scottish thistle. It would be tedious
+here to refer to all, so let us just note that although the _Carduus
+Marianus_, or the Blessed or Lady's Thistle--the origin of whose name we
+have given--is very commonly accepted, so competent an authority on
+Scottish lore as the author of Nether Lochaber rejects both that and all
+other varieties in favour of the _Cnicus acaulis_, or the stemless
+thistle. In doing this, he founds his belief upon the following
+tradition: Once, during the invasion of Scotland by the Norsemen, the
+invaders were stealing a march in the dark upon the Scots, when one of
+the barefooted scouts placed his foot upon a thistle, which caused him
+to cry out so loudly that the Scots were aroused, and, flying to their
+horses, drove back the Danes with great slaughter. Now, this could not
+happen, says Dr. Stewart, with any of the tall thistles, but only with
+the stemless thistle, which has sharp, fine spikes, and grows close on
+the ground.
+
+This, at least, is as reasonable an explanation as any of the great
+national badge of Scotland. It but remains to add that the first mention
+of the thistle as a national emblem occurs in an inventory of the jewels
+and other effects of James the Third, about 1467, and its first mention
+in poetry is in a poem by Dunbar, written about 1503, to commemorate the
+marriage of James the Fourth with Margaret Tudor, and called The
+Thrissell and the Rois. The Order of the Thistle dates from James the
+Seventh of Scotland and Second of England, about 1687.
+
+And now, as we began with the wreath of parsley, which symbolized death,
+let us end with the crown of orange-blossoms, which, among us, now
+symbolizes the twofold life of the married state. Among the Greeks, the
+brides used to wear garlands of myrtle and roses, because both of these
+plants were associated with the Goddess of Love. In China the orange
+has, from time immemorial, been an emblem of good luck, and is freely
+used to present to friends and guests. But although the orange is said
+to have been first brought by the Portuguese from China in 1547,
+nevertheless this fruit is supposed to have been the golden apple of
+Juno, which grew in the Garden of Hesperides. As the golden apple was
+presented to the Queen of Heaven upon her marriage with Jupiter, we may
+find here a definite explanation of the meaning attached to the fruit.
+
+But, besides this, it seems that orange-blossom was used centuries ago
+by Saracen brides in their personal decorations on the great day of
+their lives. It was meant to typify fruitfulness, and it is to be noted
+that the orange-tree bears both fruit and blossom at the same time, and
+is remarkable for its productiveness. It is possible, then, that the
+idea of orange-blossom for bridal decoration was brought from the East
+by the Crusaders; but it is uncertain at what date the custom began to
+be followed in England. However introduced, and whether retained as a
+symbol or merely for the exquisite beauty of the flower, it will
+continue to hold its place in the affections of the maiden-bride, to
+whom it seems to sing:
+
+  'Honour, riches, marriage-blessing,
+  Long continuance and increasing,
+  Hourly joys be still upon you,
+  Juno sings her blessings on you.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+ROSEMARY FOR REMEMBRANCE.
+
+
+'Doth not Rosemary and Romeo both begin with a letter?' asks Juliet's
+nurse. Yes, but what did she mean by the query, and by the further
+remark that 'Juliet hath the prettiest sententions of it, of you and
+rosemary, that it would do you good to hear it'? For answer we must make
+some search into the beliefs and customs of the past.
+
+Rosemary is the 'Ros-marinus' of the old herbalists, but it is not a
+native of Britain, and there is no exact record of when it was
+introduced here from the South of Europe. Mention of 'Ros-marinus'
+occurs in an Anglo-Saxon vocabulary of the eleventh century, where it is
+translated Feld-madder and Sun-dew. There is some doubt whether this has
+reference to the actual plant now known to us as rosemary, but in no
+case was it the Rose of Mary, as some have supposed. It is not a rose,
+and the 'Mary' is from 'marinus,' or 'maris.' The old English spelling
+was Rosmarin, or Rosmarine; in these forms one finds the word used by
+Gower, and Shenstone, and other old poets.
+
+In the South of Europe the rosemary has long had magic properties
+ascribed to it. The Spanish ladies used to wear it as an antidote
+against the evil eye, and the Portuguese called it the Elfin plant, and
+dedicated it to the fairies. The idea of the antidote may have been due
+to a confusion of the name with that of the Virgin; but as a matter of
+fact the 'Ros-marinus' is frequently mentioned by old Latin writers,
+including Horace and Ovid. The name came from the fondness of the plant
+for the sea-shore, where it often gets sprinkled with the 'ros,' or dew
+of the sea, that is to say, sea-spray. Another cause of confusion,
+perhaps, was that the leaves of the plant somewhat resemble those of the
+juniper, which in mediaeval times was one of the plants held sacred to
+the Virgin Mary. In the island of Crete, it is said, a bride dressed for
+the wedding still calls last of all for a sprig of rosemary to bring her
+luck.
+
+And thus we come to find rosemary in close association with both
+marriage and death, just as the hyacinth was, and perhaps still is,
+among the Greeks. It is interesting to trace the connection by which the
+same plant came to have two such different uses.
+
+One of the earliest mentions of rosemary in English literature is in a
+poem of the fourteenth century called 'The Gloriouse Rosemaryne,' which
+begins thus:
+
+  'This herbe is callit rosemaryn,
+  Of vertu that is gode and fyne;
+  But all the vertues tell I ne can,
+  Nor, I trowe, no erthely man.'
+
+
+Nevertheless, the poet proceeds to record at great length many
+astounding virtues, including the restoration of youth to the aged by
+bathing in rosemary water.
+
+The 'cheerful rosemarie' and 'refreshing rosemarine' of Spenser was once
+a great favourite in England, although now it is hardly allowed garden
+space. Sir Thomas More said: 'I let it run all over my garden walls, not
+only because my bees love it, but because 'tis the herb sacred to
+remembrance, and therefore to friendship: whence a sprig of it hath a
+dumb language that maketh it the chosen emblem at our funeral wakes and
+in our burial grounds.'
+
+The popularity of the plant was doubtless due to the long-enduring scent
+and verdure of the leaves. It is one of the most lasting of evergreens,
+and the pleasant aromatic odour lingers very long after the leaves have
+been gathered.
+
+Fragrance and endurance, then, are the characteristics of a plant which
+came to be commonly accepted as an emblem of constancy, and also of
+loving remembrance. Thus it is that Herrick sings of it:
+
+  'Grow for two ends, it matters not at all,
+  Be't for my bridal or my burial.'
+
+
+Thus it is that we find Friar Laurence over Juliet's body, saying:
+
+  'Dry up your tears, and stick your rosemary
+  On this fair corse,'
+
+which is certainly not what the nurse meant when she told Romeo of the
+'prettiest sententions.'
+
+High medicinal properties were ascribed to the rosemary, so much so that
+old Parkinson writes: 'Rosemary is almost as great use as bayes, both
+for outward and inward remedies, and as well for civill as physicall
+purposes; inwardly for the head and heart, outwardly for the sinews and
+joynts; for civill uses, as all do know, at weddings, funerals, etc., to
+bestow among friends; and the physicall are so many that you might as
+well be tyred in the reading as I in the writing, if I should set down
+all that might be said of it.'
+
+One of the 'physicall' uses was in stirring up the tankard of ale or
+sack, and at weddings a sprig was usually dipped in the loving-cup to
+give it fragrance as well as luck.
+
+The virtues of the plant are celebrated in a curious wedding sermon
+quoted by Hone:
+
+'The rosemary is for married men, the which by name, nature, and
+continued use, man challengeth as properly belonging to himself. It
+overtoppeth all the flowers in the garden boasting man's rule; it
+helpeth the brain, strengtheneth the memory, and is very medicinal for
+the head. Another property is, it affects the heart. Let this
+ros-marinus, this flower of man, ensign of your wisdom, love, and
+loyalty, be carried not only in your hands but in your heads and
+hearts.'
+
+One does not easily reconcile this laudation with the popular
+superstition that wherever the rosemary flourished there should the
+woman be the ruling power. And to this superstition, be it noted, has
+been ascribed the disfavour into which the plant has fallen among
+gardeners since Shakespeare's time.
+
+The medical properties may have been over-rated by old Parkinson, but
+some are recognised even to this day. Thus rosemary is used as an
+infusion to cure headaches, and is believed to be an extensive
+ingredient in hair-restorers. It is also one of the ingredients in the
+manufacture of Eau-de-Cologne, and has many other uses in the form of
+oil of rosemary. It is said that bees which feed on rosemary blossoms
+produce a very delicately-flavoured honey. Perfumers are greatly
+indebted to it. According to De Gubernatis, the flowers of the plant are
+proof against rheumatism, nervous indisposition, general debility,
+weakness of sight, melancholy, weak circulation, and cramp. Almost as
+comprehensive a cure as some of our modern universal specifics!
+
+The medicinal properties of rosemary have been held by some to account
+for its funeral uses. At all events, an ingenious writer of the
+seventeenth century held that the custom of carrying a sprig at a
+funeral had its rise from a notion of an 'alexipharmick' or preservative
+virtue in the herb which would protect the wearer from 'pestilential
+distempers,' and be a powerful defence 'against the morbid effluvias of
+the corpse.' For the same reason, this writer asserts, it was customary
+to burn rosemary in the chambers of the sick, just like frankincense,
+'whose odour is not much different from rosemary, which gave the Greeks
+occasion to call it Libanotis, from Libanos (frankincense).'
+
+The hyssop of the Bible is believed by some to be rosemary, and it is
+said that in the East it was customary to hang up a bunch in the house
+as a protection against evil spirits, and to use it in various
+ceremonies against enchantment. Perhaps there was some connection
+between this custom and that of the Greeks referred to by Aristotle, who
+regarded indigestion as the effect of witchcraft, and who used rue as an
+antidote. The dispelling of the charm was just the natural physical
+action of the herb.
+
+In Devonshire, however, there was a more mystic use for rosemary in
+dispelling the charms of witches. A bunch of it had to be taken in the
+hand and dropped bit by bit on live coals, while the two first verses of
+the sixty-eighth psalm were recited, followed by the Lord's Prayer.
+Bay-leaves were sometimes used in the same manner; but if the afflicted
+one were suffering physically, he had also to take certain prescribed
+medicines. Rosemary worn about the body was believed to strengthen the
+memory and to add to the success of the wearer in anything he might
+undertake.
+
+It is as an emblem of remembrance that rosemary is most frequently used
+by the old poets. Thus Ophelia:
+
+  'There is rosemary for you, that's for remembrance;
+  I pray you, love, remember.'
+
+And in The Winter's Tale:
+
+  'For you there's rosemary and rue; these keep
+  Seeming and savour all the winter long;
+  Grace and remembrance be with you both.'
+
+And thus Drayton:
+
+  'He from his lass him lavender hath sent,
+    Showing her love, and doth requital crave;
+  Him rosemary his sweetheart, whose intent
+    Is that he her should in remembrance have.'
+
+
+Quotations might be easily multiplied, but the reader will find in
+Brand's Popular Antiquities numerous references to the plant by writers
+of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
+
+As an emblem of rejoicing, rosemary was also often used. Hone quotes a
+contemporary account of the joyful entry of Queen Elizabeth into London
+in 1558, wherein occurs this passage: 'How many nosegays did her Grace
+receive at poor women's hands? How often times stayed she her chariot
+when she saw any simple body offer to speak to her Grace? A branch of
+rosemary given to her Grace, with a supplication by a poor woman about
+Fleet Bridge, was seen in her chariot till her Grace came to
+Westminster.' The object of the particular floral offering in this case
+is not very obvious, unless as an emblematic tribute to the maiden
+queen.
+
+Rosemary used to be carried in the hand at weddings, as well as strewed
+on the ground and dipped in the cup. Thus Stow narrates of a wedding in
+1560, that 'fine flowers and rosemary were strewed for them coming
+home'; and Brand cites numerous instances from old plays. In one, 'the
+parties enter with rosemary, as if from a wedding'; and in Beaumont and
+Fletcher's Scornful Lady, the question is asked about a wedding, 'Were
+the rosemary branches dipped?' This dipping, moreover, was in scented
+water as well as in the loving-cup, and hence the allusion in Dekker's
+Wonderful Year to a bride who had died on her wedding-night:
+
+'Here is a strange alteration; for the rosemary that was washed in sweet
+water to set out the bridal is now wet in tears to furnish her burial.'
+
+It is on record that Anne of Cleves wore rosemary at her wedding with
+Henry the Eighth; and in an account of some marriage festivities at
+Kenilworth, attended by Queen Elizabeth, there is frequent mention of
+the plant. An idea of how it was sometimes used is given in a
+description of a sixteenth century wedding quoted by the Rev. Hilderic
+Friend: 'The bride being attired in a gown of sheep's russet and a
+kirtle of fine worsted, attired with abillement of gold' (milliner's
+French even then!); 'and her hair, yellow as gold, hanging down behind
+her, which was curiously combed and plaited' she was led to church
+between two sweet boys, with bride-laces and rosemary tied about her
+silken sleeves. There was a fair bride-cup of silver-gilt carried before
+her, wherein was a goodly branch of rosemary gilded very fair, and hung
+about with silken ribands of all colours.'
+
+Coles says that the garden rosemary was called _Rosmarinus coronarium_,
+because the women made crowns and garlands of it. Ben Jonson says that
+it was customary for the bridesmaids to present the bridegroom next
+morning with a bunch of rosemary. And Brand says that as late as 1698
+the custom still prevailed in England of decking the bridal bed with
+sprigs of rosemary.
+
+In Jonson's Tale of a Tub, one of the characters assembled to await the
+intended bridegroom says: 'Look an' the wenches ha' not found un out,
+and do present un with a van of rosemary and bays, enough to vill a
+bow-pott or trim the head of my best vore-horse; we shall all ha'
+bride-laces and points, I see.' And again, a country swain assures his
+sweetheart at their wedding: 'We'll have rosemary and bayes to vill a
+bow-pott, and with the same I'll trim the vorehead of my best
+vore-horse'--so that it would seem the decorative use was not confined
+to the bride, the guests, and the banquet.
+
+As a love-charm the reputation of rosemary seems to have come from the
+South. There is an old Spanish proverb which runs:
+
+  'Who passeth by the rosemarie,
+    And careth not to take a spray,
+  For woman's love no care has he,
+    Nor shall he, though he live for aye.'
+
+
+Mr. Thiselton-Dyer says that rosemary is used in some parts of the
+country, as nut-charms are on Halloween, to foretell a lover; only, St.
+Agnes' Eve is the occasion on which to invoke with a sprig of rosemary,
+or thyme, with this formula:
+
+  'St. Agnes, that's to lovers kind,
+  Come, ease the troubles of my mind.'
+
+
+For love-potions, decoctions of rosemary were much employed.
+
+As to funereal uses, those who are familiar with Hogarth's drawings will
+remember one of a funeral party with sprigs of rosemary in their hands.
+Misson, a French traveller (_temp._ William the Third), thus describes
+English funeral ceremonies: 'When they are ready to set out, they nail
+up the coffin, and a servant presents the company with sprigs of
+rosemary. Everyone takes a sprig and carries it in his hand till the
+body is put into the grave, at which time they all throw their sprigs in
+after it.' Hence Gay:
+
+  'To show their love, the neighbours far and near,
+  Follow'd with wistful looks the damsel's bier;
+  Sprigg'd rosemary the lads and lasses bore,
+  While dismally the parson walk'd before.
+  Upon her grave the rosemary they threw.'
+
+
+Whether the fact that the rosemary buds in January has anything to do
+with its funereal uses admits of conjecture, as Sir Thomas Browne would
+say; but that fact was certainly present to the writer of the following
+verses, which were worthily rescued by Hone from a 'fugitive copy,'
+although the writer's name has been lost:
+
+  'Sweet-scented flower! who art wont to bloom
+      On January's front severe,
+      And o'er the wintry desert drear
+  To waft thy waste perfume!
+  Come, thou shalt form my nosegay now,
+  And I will bind thee round my brow;
+      And, as I twine the mournful wreath,
+  I'll weave a melancholy song,
+  And sweet the strain shall be, and long--
+      The melody of death.
+
+  'Come, funeral flower! who lov'st to dwell
+      With the pale corse in lonely tomb,
+      And throw across the desert gloom
+  A sweet decaying smell.
+  Come, pressing lips, and lie with me
+  Beneath the lonely alder-tree,
+      And we will sleep a pleasant sleep,
+  And not a care shall dare intrude
+  To break the marble solitude,
+      So peaceful and so deep.
+
+  'And hark! the wind-god, as he flies,
+      Moans hollow in the forest trees,
+      And, sailing on the gusty breeze,
+  Mysterious music dies.
+  Sweet flower! the requiem wild is mine.
+  It warns me to the lonely shrine--
+      The cold turf-altar of the dead.
+  My grave shall be in yon lone spot,
+  Where, as I lie by all forgot,
+      A dying fragrance thou wilt o'er my ashes shed.'
+
+
+In South Wales, in Cheshire, and in Bucks, the custom still obtains,
+according to Mr. Hilderic Friend, for each mourner to carry a sprig of
+rosemary to the grave, into which it is thrown. For weddings, rosemary
+was dipped in scented water, but for funerals in plain water. Hence the
+reference in an old play, quoted by Hone:
+
+              'If there be
+  Any so kind as to accompany
+  My body to the earth, let them not want
+  For entertainment. Prythee, see they have
+  A sprig of rosemary, dipp'd in common water,
+  To smell at as they walk along the streets.'
+
+
+In Dekker's Wonderful Year there is a description of a charnel-house
+pavement strewed with withered rosemary, hyacinth, cypress, and yew.
+During the Plague rosemary was in such demand for funerals that, says
+Dekker, what 'had wont to be sold for twelvepence an armfull went now at
+six shillings a handfull.' Certainly a remarkable rise. What the price
+was in 1531 we know not; but in an account of the funeral expenses of a
+Lord Mayor of London, who died in that year, appears an item, 'For
+yerbes at the bewyral L0 1 0'--which presumably refers to rosemary.
+
+'Cypresse garlands,' wrote Coles, 'are of great account at funeralls
+among the gentiler sort; but Rosemary and Bayes are used by the commons
+both at funeralls and weddings. They are all plants which fade not a
+good while after they are gathered and used, as I conceive, to intimate
+unto us that the remembrance of the present solemnity might not die
+presently, but be kept in minde for many yeares.'
+
+We have now seen something of the many significations of rosemary, and
+find an explanation of why the same plant was used for both weddings and
+funerals, in the fact that it emblemised remembrance by its evergreen
+and fragrant qualities. One may have doubts about the truth of the story
+of the man of whom it is recorded that he wanted to be married again on
+the day of his wife's funeral because the rosemary which had been used
+at her burial would come in usefully and economically for the wedding
+ceremony. But if the story is too good to be true, there is suggestion
+enough in the circumstance referred to by Shakespeare, that
+
+  'Our bridal flowers serve for a buried corpse.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+HERB OF GRACE.
+
+
+Why did Ophelia say: 'There's rue for you, and here's some for me; we
+may call it herb grace o' Sundays, for you must wear your rue with a
+difference'? For the same reason that Perdita says, in The Winter's
+Tale, when welcoming the guests of her reputed father and the shepherd:
+
+                    'Reverend sirs,
+  For you there's rosemary and rue; these keep
+  Seeming and savour all the winter long;
+  Grace and remembrance be to you both,
+  And welcome to our shearing.'
+
+
+Remembrance, as we have already seen in the last chapter, was symbolized
+by the rosemary, and by both Ophelia and Perdita the rue is taken as the
+symbol of grace. How this came to be is what we have now to consider;
+but perhaps Mr. Ellacombe, author of Plant-Lore of Shakespeare, is
+stretching rather far in suggesting that the rue was implied by Antony,
+when he used the word 'grace' in addressing the weeping followers
+(Antony and Cleopatra, Act IV., Scene 2) thus:
+
+  'Grace grow where these drops fall.'
+
+
+What Ophelia said was: 'There's rosemary, that's for remembrance. Pray,
+love, remember. And there is pansies, that's for thought. There's fennel
+for you, and columbines. There's rue for you, and here's some for me. We
+may call it herb-grace o' Sundays. Oh! you may wear your rue with a
+difference.'
+
+There was a method in her madness, and she was distributing her flowers
+according to the characters and moods of the recipients. Fennel, for
+instance, emblemised flattery, and columbine ingratitude. Rue emblemised
+either remorse or repentance--either sorrow or grace--so 'you may wear
+your rue with a difference.'
+
+So we find the gardener in Richard II. saying, after the departure of
+the anxious Queen:
+
+  'Here she did fall a tear; here in this place
+  I'll set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace;
+  Rue, even for ruth, here shortly shall be seen,
+  In the remembrance of a weeping Queen.'
+
+
+The herb was believed to be endowed with high moral and medicinal
+properties, yet was supposed to prosper better in one's garden if stolen
+from that of a neighbour. But originally it was associated with sorrow
+and pity. The word rue is doubtless of the same root as 'ruth,' and to
+rue is to be sorry for, to have remorse. Ruth is the English equivalent
+of the Latin _ruta_, and in early English appeared as 'rude.' As regret
+is always more or less a mark of repentance, it was the most natural
+thing in the world for the herb of ruth, or sorrow, to become the herb
+of repentance; and as repentance is a sign of grace, so rue became known
+as 'herb of grace.' This, in brief, is the connection, but it is worth
+noting in passing that rue is only once mentioned in the Bible, and then
+only along with a number of other bitter herbs, and without any special
+significance.
+
+There is this association between rue and rosemary, that both are
+natives of some of the more barren coasts of the Mediterranean, and that
+both were very early admitted to the English herb-garden. The old
+herbalists make frequent mention of rue, and even in Anglo-Saxon times
+it seems to have been extensively used in medicine. Three
+peculiarities--a strong, aromatic smell, a bitter taste, and a
+blistering quality in the leaves--were quite sufficient to establish it
+in the pharmacopoeia of the herb doctors.
+
+The curative qualities of what Spenser calls the 'ranke-smelling rue'
+were reputedly of a very varied sort. Most readers will remember the
+reference in Paradise Lost:
+
+  'Michael from Adam's eyes the film removed,
+  Which the false fruit which promised clearer sight
+  Had bred; then purged with euphraie and rue
+  The visual nerve, for he had much to see.'
+
+And perhaps its most popular use was as an eyewash. The old writers have
+recorded some hidden virtues known only to the animal world, such as
+that weasels prepared themselves for a rat-fight by a diet of rue. Old
+Parkinson, the herbalist, says that 'without doubt it is a most
+wholesome herb, although bitter and strong.' He speaks of a 'bead-rowl'
+of the virtues of rue, but warns people of the 'too frequent or
+over-much use thereof.'
+
+As both a stimulant and a narcotic the plant has even now recognised
+virtues, and is not without its uses in modern medicine. The Italians
+are said to eat the leaves in salad, but hardly of that species--_Ruta
+montana_--which botanists say it is dangerous to handle without gloves.
+Our garden species is _Ruta graveolens_ and is used by the French
+perfumers in the manufacture of 'Thieves Vinegar,' or 'Marseilles
+Vinegar,' once accounted an effective protection against fevers and all
+infectious diseases.
+
+A curious instance of the value of the herb in this respect occurred in
+1760. In the summer of that year a rumour arose, and rapidly spread in
+London, that the plague had broken out in St. Thomas's Hospital.
+Immediately there was what would nowadays be called a 'boom' in rue, the
+price of which rose forty per cent. in a single day in Covent Garden. To
+allay the popular alarm a manifesto was issued, signed by the
+physicians, surgeons, and apothecaries of the hospital, certifying that
+there were no other than the 'usual' diseases among the patients in the
+wards.
+
+Another explanation of the origin of the name 'herb of grace' has been
+given than that referred to above. Warburton, among others, thinks that
+the name was adopted because the old Romanists used the plant on Sundays
+in their 'exorcisms.' However this may be, rue, or the herb of grace,
+has been in this country long accounted an antidote of witchcraft. But
+then, so it was in the days of Aristotle, before it became 'herb of
+grace,' and when it was hung round the neck as an amulet. The fact is,
+however, that rue became an antidote of witchcraft because it had become
+a noted implement in enchantment.
+
+Through its numerous reputed properties, rue early found its way into
+the magic cauldron.
+
+  'Then sprinkles she the juice of rue,
+  With nine drops of the midnight dew,
+  From lunary distilling,'
+
+as Drayton has it. In this incantation, again, we have the association
+with moonwort; and the connection is further illustrated in an old
+oracle ascribed to Hecate: 'From a root of wild rue fashion and polish a
+statue; adorn it with household lizards; grind myrrh, gum, and
+frankincense with the same reptiles, and let the mixture stand in the
+air during the waning of a moon; then address your words.'
+
+With regard to the association with moonwort, it is interesting to
+recall that this is one of the plants supposed to be employed by birds
+for opening nests and removing impediments. Thus in an anecdote gravely
+related to Aubrey, we find this virtue mentioned: 'Sir Bennet Hoskins
+told me that his keeper at his parke at Morehampton, in Herefordshire,
+did for experiment's sake drive an iron naile thwart the hole of a
+woodpecker's nest, there being a tradition that the dam will bring some
+leafe to open it. He layed at the bottom of the tree a cleane sheet, and
+before many houres passed, the naile came out, and he found a leafe
+lying by it on the sheete. They say the Moonwort will doe such things.'
+
+On the same subject Coles, the botanist, writes: 'It is said, yea, and
+believed, that Moonwort will open the locks wherewith dwelling-houses
+are made fast, if it be put into the keyhole.' And Culpeper, the
+herbalist, writes thus: 'Moonwort is a herb which, they say, will open
+locks and unshoe such horses as tread upon it. This some laugh to scorn,
+and these no small fools neither; but country people that I know call it
+Unshoe-the-horse. Besides, I have heard commanders say that on White
+Down in Devonshire, near Tiverton, there were found thirty horseshoes
+pulled off from the feet of the Earl of Essex's horses, being there
+drawn up in a body, many of them being newly shod, and no reason known,
+which caused much admiration.' As well it might! This power of the
+moonwort is said to be still believed in in Normandy, and a similar
+virtue was also ascribed to the vervain and the mandrake, both
+associated with rue.
+
+This curious property of moonwort it is which is referred to in Divine
+Weekes thus:
+
+  'Horses that, feeding on the grassy hills,
+  Tread upon moonwort with their hollow heels,
+  Though lately shod, at night go barefoot home,
+  Their maister musing where their shoes become.
+  Oh, moonwort! tell me where thou hid'st the smith,
+  Hammer and pinchers, thou unshodd'st them with?
+  Alas! what lock or iron engine is't
+  That can the subtle secret strength resist?
+  Still the best farrier cannot set a shoe
+  So sure but thou, so shortly, canst undo.'
+
+
+The old alchemists, however, had a more profitable use for moonwort than
+the unshoeing of horses; they employed it for converting quicksilver
+into pure silver, at a time when that metal was neither 'degraded' nor
+'depreciated.'
+
+There is an old and pleasant belief, of which John Ruskin makes
+effective use in driving home one of his morals, that flowers always
+bloom best in the gardens of those who love them. One could easily find
+a rationalistic explanation of this sentiment, of course, but it is akin
+to a superstition entertained in some parts that wherever the moonwort
+flourishes the owner of the garden is honest.
+
+The ingredients thrown into the mystic cauldron by European sorcerers
+were in close imitation of those of the ancient alchemists. Moncure
+Conway has pointed out that among the ingredients used by English and
+Scotch witches were plants gathered, as in Egypt, at certain seasons or
+phases of the moon. Chief among such plants were rue and vervain. The
+Druids called vervain the 'Holy herb,' and gathered it when the dog-star
+rose, placing a sacrifice of honey in the earth from which they removed
+it.
+
+In old Greece and Rome vervain was sacred to the god of war, and in
+Scandinavia it was also sacred to Thor. It was, moreover, carried by
+ambassadors of peace, and was supposed to preserve from lightning any
+house decorated with it. In later times it was believed that a
+decoction of vervain and rue, mixed, had such a remarkable effect on
+gun-metal that anyone using a gun over which the liquid had been poured
+would shoot 'as straight as a die.' This may be news to our modern
+musketry instructors.
+
+Had this belief, one may wonder, anything to do with the special effect
+on the eye always supposed to be possessed by rue? Its virtue as an
+eye-salve, at any rate, may explain how it came to be regarded as
+capable of bestowing the 'second sight.' To this day, in the Tyrol it is
+still believed to confer fine vision. If hallucinations were, as Moncure
+Conway assumes, the basis of belief in second sight, then we can
+understand the reputed virtues of rue in its narcotic qualities. We have
+seen how it came to be called 'herb of grace,' yet some think it got
+this name through being used in witchcraft by exorcists to try the
+devil.
+
+Speculating on why herbs and roots should have been esteemed magical,
+Mr. Andrew Lang concludes that it is enough to remember that herbs
+really have medicinal properties, and that untutored people invariably
+confound medicine with magic. Thus it was easy to suppose that a plant
+possessed virtue not only when swallowed, but when carried in the hand.
+The same writer examines the theory that rue was the Homeric moly, which
+in a former chapter we identified with the mandrake. But Lang rejects
+that theory, and says that rue was called 'herb of grace' and was used
+for sprinkling holy water because in pre-Christian times it had been
+supposed to have effect against the powers of evil. The early
+Christians were thus just endeavouring to combine the old charm of rue
+with the new potency of holy water.
+
+'Euphrasy and rue,' says Lang, 'were employed to purge and purify mortal
+eyes. Pliny is very learned about the magical virtues of rue. Just as
+the stolen potato is sovran for rheumatism, so "rue stolen thriveth the
+best." The Samoans think that their most valued vegetables were stolen
+from heaven by a Samoan visitor. It is remarkable that rue, according to
+Pliny, is killed by the touch of a woman, in the same way as, according
+to Josephus, the mandrake is tamed. These passages prove that the
+classical peoples had the same extraordinary superstitions about women
+as the Bushmen and Red Indians. Indeed, Pliny describes a magical manner
+of defending the crops from blight by aid of women, which is actually
+practised in America by the red-man.'
+
+Although rue was found in the witches' cauldron, it is also to be found
+as a popular specific against the blight of witchcraft. Concerning this,
+however, Moncure Conway says that 'the only region on the Continent
+where any superstition concerning rue is found resembling the form it
+assumed in England as affecting the eye is in the Tyrol, where it is one
+of five plants--the others being broom-straw, agrimony, maidenhair, and
+ground-ivy--which are bound together, and believed, if carried about, to
+enable the bearer to see witches, or if laid over the door, to keep any
+witch who shall seek to enter fastened on the threshold.'
+
+In Scandinavia and North Germany, St. John's wort was used in much the
+same way for the same purpose.
+
+As to the vervain, which we have seen to be associated with rue, this is
+a plant the use of which against witchcraft was more widely distributed,
+just as its medical virtues were also more extensively known. The
+vervain, indeed, was a sacred plant among the Greeks, as well as among
+the Druids, who gathered it with solemn religious ceremonies, as they
+did the sacred mistletoe. Vervain was most esteemed, however, as a love
+potion, but the connection between its virtues in this respect, and its
+power over witches and spirits of evil, opens up a branch of inquiry
+away from our present purpose.
+
+We speak of vervain in connection with rue, because it was the 'holy
+herb,' just as rue was the 'herb of grace.' Not only was the vervain
+sacred among the early Druids, but it acquired an early sanctity among
+Christians. Thus the legend runs:
+
+  'All hail, thou holy herb, vervain,
+    Growing on the ground;
+  On the Mount of Calvary
+    There wast thou found!
+  Thou helpest many a grief,
+    And staunchest many a wound;
+  In the name of sweet Jesu,
+    I lift thee from the ground.'
+
+
+Mr. Thiselton-Dyer says that a wreath of vervain is now presented to
+newly-married brides in Germany, but whether this is a survival of the
+sanctity of the plant, or of its ancient reputation as a love-philtre
+and charm, is not very clear.
+
+It is to be feared that vervain has sadly fallen out of favour in this
+country, although not many years ago a pamphlet was written to recommend
+the wearing of vervain tied by white satin ribbon round the neck, as
+preservative against evil influences and infection.
+
+'On the Continent'--rather a wide term--Mr. Hilderic Friend says, 'the
+three essential plants for composing a magic wreath are rue,
+crane's-bill, and willow.' The crane's-bill is the Herb Robert, or Robin
+Hood, and the willow has always been connected with lovers. Such a
+wreath, then, is made by lovers when they wish to see their 'fate.'
+Love-sick maidens will employ such a wreath to find out how long they
+have yet to remain single. They walk backwards towards some selected
+tree, and as they walk throw the wreath over their heads until it
+fastens on one of the branches. Failure to 'catch on' requires another
+backward walk, and so on--each failure to buckle the tree counting as a
+year of spinsterhood. It seems rather an awkward way of getting at the
+future, but if not more blind than other processes of love divination,
+would at least require the guarantee of the absence of tight-lacing
+among the maidens practising it.
+
+Aristotle mentions the use made by the Greeks of rue as a charm against
+evil spirits, and he accounts for it, somewhat singularly, by the habit
+of the Greeks in not sitting down to table with strangers. The
+explanation is, that when they ate with strangers they were apt to
+become excited and nervous, and so to eat too rapidly, with the result
+of flatulence and indigestion. These effects were equivalent to
+bewitchment, as, indeed, disorders of the digestive organs are
+frequently regarded by many Eastern peoples even to this day. As rue was
+found to be an effectual antidote to these distressing symptoms, it
+became a charm against enchantment.
+
+Among many old-wife recipes for the cure of warts is the use of rue.
+Most people know the old folk-jingle:
+
+  'Ashen tree, ashen tree,
+  Pray bury these warts of me,'
+
+which has to be accompanied by the thrust of a pin into the bark of the
+tree. The idea was doubtless to extract the sap, for the application of
+thistle-juice and the juice of the ranunculus are said to prove
+efficacious in removing warts. In Devonshire they use the juice of an
+apple, but in some parts of the country rue is preferred. Other
+wart-curing plants are the spurge, the poppy, the celandine, the
+marigold, the briony, and the crowfoot.
+
+As old Michael Drayton remarked:
+
+  'In medicine, simples had the power
+  That none need then the planetary hour
+  To helpe their workinge, they so juiceful were.'
+
+There is a substratum of truth in this, although it requires a wide
+stretch of imagination, as well as a profundity of faith, to believe
+that consumption can be cured by passing the body of the patient three
+times through a wreath of woodbine cut during the increase of the March
+moon. Yet to this day some French peasants believe that the curative
+properties of vervain are most pronounced when the plant is gathered,
+with proper invocations, at a certain phase of the moon.
+
+The notion that animals are acquainted with the medical properties of
+plants is an old one, probably older than either Pliny or Aristotle. Our
+own Gerarde, the herbalist, tells that the name celandine was given to
+that flower (which Wordsworth loved) from a word meaning swallow,
+because it is used by swallows to 'restore sight to their young ones
+when their eyes be put out.'
+
+Then Coles, the old botanist, also writes: 'It is known to such as have
+skill of Nature what wonderful care she hath of the smallest creatures,
+giving to them a knowledge of medicine to help themselves, if haply
+diseases are among them. The swallow cureth her dim eyes with Celandine:
+the wesell knoweth well the virtue of Herb Grace: the dove the verven:
+the dogge dischargeth his mawe with a kind of grass: and too long it
+were to reckon up all the medicines which the beasts are known to use by
+Nature's direction only.'
+
+A Warwickshire proverb runs to this effect:
+
+  'Plant your sage and rue together,
+  The sage will grow in any weather,'
+
+the meaning of which is not very clear--but obscurity is a common
+complaint of rhymed proverbs. Another rhyme, however, in which rue
+appears, has a more practical note:
+
+  'What savour is better, if physicke be true,
+  For places infected, than wormwood and rue?'
+
+Rue, indeed, seems to have been in special request as a disinfectant
+long before carbolic acid was invented, or Condy heard of, yet, perhaps,
+containing the germ of the idea materialised in 'Sanitas.' For
+disinfecting purposes wormwood and rue were used sometimes together, and
+sometimes separately.
+
+The connection between plants and heraldic badges is often close, and
+although we do not find rue frequent in heraldry, one curious instance
+of it is interesting. In 809 an Order was created whereof the collar was
+made of a design in thistles and rue--the thistle because 'being full of
+prickles is not to be touched without hurting the skin,' rue because it
+'is good against serpents and poison.'
+
+Here we have a suggestion of the lizards of the old oracle quoted
+above.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE ROMANCE OF A VEGETABLE.
+
+
+There used to be a popular acrostic the foundation of which is the
+subject of much speculation. It turned upon two lines of Scott's famous
+poem, and ran thus:
+
+  '"Charge, Chester, charge!
+  On, Stanley, on!"
+    Were the last words of Marmion.
+  Were I in gallant Stanley's place,
+  When Marmion urged him to the chase,
+  A word you then would all espy,
+  That brings a tear to every eye.'
+
+The answer is 'Onion,' and the speculation which results is: Why does a
+raw onion make the eyes water?
+
+The Greeks, being aware of this characteristic, called the onion
+_kromuon_; and when they ate it raw, they prudently closed their eyes.
+
+Shakespeare's players in the Taming of the Shrew knew all about it:
+
+  'If the boy have not a woman's gift,
+  To rain a shower of commanded tears,
+  An onion will do well for such a shift,
+  Which in a napkin, being close conveyed,
+  Shall in despite enforce a watery eye.'
+
+
+So did Lafeu:
+
+  'Mine eyes smell onions, I shall weep anon.'
+
+
+So also did Domitius Enobarbus, who comforted Antony, on reporting the
+death of Fulvia, by saying, 'Indeed, the tears live in an onion that
+should water this sorrow,' and who called himself 'onion-eyed' when the
+Roman addressed his followers before the battle.
+
+The fact, then, has been known for centuries, but the explanation only
+since chemistry came to be applied to matters of common life. The onion
+belongs to the genus _Allium_, all the species of which possess a
+peculiar, pungent, acrid juice, with a powerful odour. The garlic has a
+stronger smell than the onion, but the onion has more of the volatile
+oil which all the members of the genus possess.
+
+The constituents which make the genus valuable as food are: albumen,
+sugar, mucilage, phosphate of lime, and certain salts. All the members
+of the onion tribe yield a heavy volatile oil when distilled with
+water--an oil so pungent and concentrated that an ounce of it will
+represent the essence of forty pounds of garlic. This oil is a compound
+of sulphur, carbon, and hydrogen, and is called sulphide of allyl,
+because of its origin in the allium tribe. It is the more volatile,
+sulphurous fumes of this oil which ascend as an onion is cut that cause
+the eyes to water, just as sulphur fumes do anywhere. It is the less
+volatile portion of the oil which gives such permanence and adhesiveness
+to the onion odour as to render a knife that has been used to cut one
+offensive for a long time afterwards, in spite of washing.
+
+In the Arabian Nights the purveyor for the Sultan of Casgar tells a
+story of a man who lost his thumbs and great-toes through eating garlic.
+This was a youth who had married a beauteous bride, but was unfortunate
+enough on his marriage-day to eat of a dish strongly flavoured with
+garlic. The lady was so annoyed that she ordered the bridegroom to be
+bound, and his thumbs and toes cut off, as punishment for presuming to
+come to her without first purifying his fingers. Ever afterwards the
+unfortunate husband always washed his hands one hundred and twenty times
+with alkali, after dining off a garlic ragout, for, of course, he did
+not use a fork. But had he known Menander the Greek's receipt, he might
+have saved his digits. This was to roast beetroot on hot embers for the
+removal of the odour of garlic.
+
+It might be more generally known that if either walnuts, or raw parsley,
+be eaten along with onions, the smell of the latter will be destroyed,
+and digestion of them assisted.
+
+There is, one must admit, a certain association of vulgarity with the
+onion. It is a valuable food, and an indispensable accessory to the
+culinary artist; but as used by many people it is not suggestive of
+refinement. And yet the bulb has not only an honourable character--it
+has a sort of sacred history.
+
+Both Pliny and Juvenal, among old writers, and many Egyptologists of our
+own time and country, have recorded that the ancient Egyptians
+worshipped the onion. It is true that Wilkinson, who wrote on the
+Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, doubts the evidence of
+this; but he adds that the onion was admitted as a common offering on
+every altar, and that the priests were forbidden to eat it. In Ellis's
+History of Madagascar it is noted that the Malagasy of our time regard
+the onion as unclean, and forbidden by the idols. The symbolization of
+the universe in the concentric folds of the onion may be taken as an
+explanation of the high reverence in which it was assuredly held by some
+ancient races.
+
+Whether or not the onion was sacred in Egypt, the garlic, as Herodotus
+tells us, was the daily food of the Egyptian labourer. And the Jews,
+when they left Egypt, looked back with fondness to these delicacies. 'We
+remember the fish which we did eat freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, and
+the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic,' so they told
+Moses. The onion is still a common food in Egypt, and sometimes almost
+the only one of the poorer classes. Moreover, the onions of Egypt are
+much sweeter than, and superior in quality to, those of Europe. It is
+also noteworthy that the onion grows coarser and more bitter as it is
+traced northward.
+
+Herodotus says that sixteen hundred talents were expended on garlic,
+onions, and radishes for the workmen during the building of the
+Pyramids; and it is recorded that an onion taken from the sarcophagus of
+an Egyptian mummy two thousand years old was planted and made to grow.
+We have also the authority of Pliny for what he calls the foolish
+superstition of the Egyptians in swearing by garlic and onions, calling
+these vegetables to witness when taking an oath.
+
+Botanists seem now agreed that the original habitat of the onion was the
+mountainous region of Central Asia; and, according to the _Gardener's
+Chronicle_, it is still found in a wild state in the Himalayas.
+
+The Mohammedans do not seem to have reverenced the _Allium_ tribe. On
+the contrary, they have a tradition that when Satan stepped out of the
+Garden of Eden after the fall of man, garlic sprang up where he planted
+his left foot, and onion where he planted his right foot. This is the
+reason alleged why Mohammed could never bear the smell of either, and
+even fainted when he saw them.
+
+Among the Greeks both onions and garlic were held in high regard, both
+as articles of food and as medicaments. Theophrastus wrote a book on
+onions, as did also Palladius. Then Homer tells that the onion was an
+important part of the banquet that Hecamede spread before Nestor and
+Machaon:
+
+  'Before them first a table fair she spread,
+  Well polished, and with feet of solid bronze;
+  On this a brazen canister she placed,
+  And Onions as a relish to the wine,
+  And pale, clear honey, and pure barley meal.'
+
+
+Among the Romans the onion seems to have been the common food of the
+people, although Horace could not understand how they digested it. Its
+use for promoting artificial tears was also well understood by them, for
+Columella speaks of _Lacrymosa caepe_, and Pliny of _Caepis odor
+lacrymosus_. Ovid, again, says that both onions and sulphur were given
+to criminals to purify them from their crimes, upon the old theory of
+purgation by fumigation. The Romans thought not only that the onion gave
+strength to the human frame, but that it would also improve the
+pugnacious quality of their gamecocks. Horace, however, thought that
+garlic was a fit poison for anybody who committed parricide. The Emperor
+Nero, on the other hand, thought that eating leeks improved the human
+voice, and as he was ambitious of being a fine singer, he used to have a
+leek diet on several days in each month.
+
+The onion tribe must have been held in reverence elsewhere than in
+Egypt, for, according to Mr. Thiselton-Dyer, in Poland the flower-stalk
+of the leek is placed in the hands of Christ in pictures and statues.
+
+On Halloween, in some parts of the country, girls attempt a method of
+divination by means of a 'Saint Thomas onion.' They peel it, wrap it up
+in a clean handkerchief, and, placing it under their heads, repeat the
+following rhyme:
+
+  'Good St. Thomas, do me right,
+  And see my true love come to-night,
+  That I may see him in the face,
+  And him in my kind arms embrace.'
+
+
+On the other hand, to dream of an onion is supposed in some parts to
+foretell sickness.
+
+Or else:
+
+  'To dream of eating onions means
+  Much strife in the domestic scenes,
+  Secrets found out, or else betrayed,
+  And many falsehoods made and said.'
+
+
+It is also a portent of the weather:
+
+
+  'Onion's skin very thin,
+  Mild winter's coming in;
+  Onion's skin thick and tough,
+  Coming winter cold and rough.'
+
+
+It was the practice in some places to hang up or burn an onion as a
+safeguard against witchcraft, and the theory of this was that the devil
+respected it because it was an ancient object of worship. This seems a
+survival of the Egyptian story; but Mr. Hilderic Friend says that the
+Arabs, Chinese, and many other peoples, to this day employ onions,
+leeks, or garlic for preventing witchcraft, and that he himself has
+frequently seen them tied up with a branch of sago-palm over the doors
+of Eastern houses for this purpose.
+
+The old custom of throwing an onion after a bride is doubtless well
+known. It had the same origin as the old Scotch custom of throwing a
+besom after a cow on its way to market, to avert the evil-eye, and
+insure luck.
+
+The idea of bad dreams being associated with the onion seems due to the
+old herbalists. At all events, Coghan wrote in 1596: 'Being eaten raw,
+they engender all humourous and contemptible putrefactions in the
+stomacke, and cause fearful dreams, and, if they be much used, they
+snarre the memory and trouble the understanding.'
+
+Old Gerarde had no opinion of the medical properties of the tribe. Of
+both leeks and garlic he wrote most disparagingly, as 'yielding to the
+body no nourishment at all,' but 'ingendereth naughty and sharpe bloud.'
+
+Some of the other old herbalists treat it more kindly, and some ascribe
+almost every virtue to garlic and onion. Garlic came to be known as
+'Poor Man's Treacle,' and in some old works is thus often described. But
+the word treacle here has no reference to molasses, and is probably
+derived from the Greek _theriakos_, meaning venomous, for garlic was
+regarded as an antidote against poison, and as a remedy for the plague.
+
+Pliny long ago wrote of garlic as a remedy for many of the mental and
+physical ailments of the country people. It was used by the Romans to
+drive away snakes; and the Romans seem to have adopted this idea from
+the ancient Greeks. It was recommended by one old English writer as a
+capital thing with which to frighten away birds from fruit-trees; and
+has been recently recommended, in solution, as the best preservative of
+picture-frames from the defilement of flies. Bacon gravely tells of a
+man who lived for several days on the smell of onions and garlic alone;
+and there was an old belief that the garlic could extract all the power
+from a loadstone.
+
+The belief that the eating of onions will acclimatize a traveller seems
+not uncommon in Eastern countries. Thus, in Burnes' Travels into Bokhara
+it is recorded that at Peshawur 'Moollah Nujieb suggested that we should
+eat onions in all the countries we visited, as it is a popular belief
+that a foreigner becomes acclimated from the use of that vegetable.'
+
+And in Morier's Travels in Persia it is said: 'Those who seek for
+sulphur, which is found at the highest accessible point of the mountain
+of Damarvend, go through a course of training previous to the
+undertaking, and fortify themselves by eating much of garlic and
+onions.'
+
+The general explanation given of how the leek became the emblem of
+Wales, and is worn on St. David's Day, is this: In 640 King Cadwallader
+gained a complete victory over the Saxons, owing to the special
+interposition of St. David, who ordered the Britons always to wear leeks
+in their caps, so that they might easily recognise each other. As the
+Saxons had no such recognisable headmark, they attacked each other as
+foes, and aided in their own defeat.
+
+There is a more poetic story. It is that St. David lived in the valley
+of Ewias, in Monmouthshire, spending his time in contemplation:
+
+                           'And did so truly fast
+  As he did only drink what crystal Hodney yields,
+  And fed upon the leeks he gathered in the fields,
+  In memory of whom, in each revolving year,
+  The Welshmen, on his day, that sacred herb do wear.'
+
+
+St. David, however, died in 544, and therefore it is probable that the
+leek was a common and favourite vegetable in Wales during his
+lifetime--that is to say, more than thirteen hundred years ago. A still
+more prosaic explanation of the Welsh emblem is sometimes offered. It is
+that it originated in a custom of the Welsh farmers when helping each
+other in a neighbourly way to take their leeks and other vegetable
+provender with them. Now, as the word leek is from the Anglo-Saxon
+_leac_, which originally meant any vegetable, it is probable enough that
+the Saxons sneeringly applied the word to the Welsh on account of their
+vegetarian proclivities. We cannot, of course, be sure that the leek was
+worn as a badge in Cadwallader's time, but we have at any rate
+Shakespeare's authority for concluding that it was worn by the Welsh
+soldiers at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356.
+
+The phrase 'to eat the leek'--meaning to retract and 'knuckle-under'--is
+supposed to have originated in that famous scene in Shakespeare's Henry
+the Fifth, where Fluellan the Welshman compels Pistol to swallow the
+vegetable at which he had been expressing such abhorrence. But there is
+earlier evidence that the leek was regarded as something ignominious in
+England. Thus in Chaucer:
+
+  'The beste song that ever was made
+  Is not worth a leke's blade,
+  But men will tend ther tille.'
+
+
+Without dwelling on the culinary uses of the onion tribe, which have
+been exhaustively described by others, a few applications, not generally
+known, may be briefly noted.
+
+In olden times there was a famous ointment called Devil's Mustard, which
+was supposed to cure cancer, remove tumours, and so forth. It was a
+compound of garlic and olive-oil, and had a smell which was enough to
+frighten away any disease--or else to create one. Then the fair dames
+of old had a favourite cosmetic for the hands and face, and one also
+which was used as an antiseptic, which was largely composed of garlic.
+Leek ointment, again, made of pounded leeks and hog's lard, was used as
+a liniment for burns and scalds.
+
+It is said that in India, where dyspepsia is common, garlic is found to
+be a great palliative. It is in many countries regarded as a sure
+antidote against contagion; and persons have been known to put a small
+piece in the mouth before approaching the bed of a fever-stricken
+patient. Whether it has any real virtue of the kind one may doubt, but
+let us hope that it has more than is ascribed to some so-called
+disinfectants--the power to kill one bad smell with another.
+
+In The Family Dictionary, popular in our grandfathers' time, appears the
+following certain remedy for the plague: 'Take away the core of an
+onion, fill the cavity with treacle dissolved or mixed with lemon-juice,
+stop up the hole with the slice you have cut off, roast the whole on hot
+ashes so long till well incorporated and mixed together, then squeeze
+out the juice of the roasted onion, and give it to a person seized with
+the plague. Let him presently lie down in his bed and be well covered up
+that he may perspire. This is a remedy that has not its equal for the
+plague, provided the patient perspires presently.'
+
+And if it did promote perspiration, one can well believe that it might
+be curative.
+
+Not only has garlic been esteemed as an antidote to the bite of snakes,
+but it has also been regarded as a cure for hydrophobia, while onions
+have been claimed as a cure for small-pox, and leeks as an antidote for
+poisonous fungi. Old Celsus, from whom Paracelsus took his name,
+regarded several of the onion tribe as valuable in cases of ague, and
+Pliny had the same belief. In our own time the onion is held to be an
+excellent anti-scorbutic, and is thought to be more useful on ship-board
+than lime-juice in preventing scurvy.
+
+In fact, in all skin diseases, and in many inflammatory disorders,
+preparations of the onion have a real value. The juice is also useful in
+stopping bleeding, although one may hesitate to believe, as was
+popularly supposed, that a drop of it will cure earache, and that
+persistent application will remove deafness.
+
+There still exists, however, a belief that onion-juice is the best
+hair-restorer in the market, in spite of its disagreeable smell.
+
+It would take too long to mention all the virtues that have been
+claimed, with more or less reason, for all the members of the _Allium_
+genus, but it is a curious fact that the onion, which relieves dyspepsia
+and aids the digestion of some, is a certain cause of indigestion in
+others. Is it not said that Napoleon, who was a martyr to indigestion,
+lost the Battle of Leipsic through having partaken of a too hurried meal
+of beefsteak and onions? It is a savoury dish, but has worked woe to
+many. One does not wonder that the old writers declared that onions
+brought bad dreams--if they were eaten raw, or badly cooked, at late
+supper.
+
+It is open to grave doubt whether the author of The Family Dictionary
+was right in saying that 'they that will eat onions daily will enjoy
+better health than otherwise.' What is one man's meat is another man's
+poison; and certainly there is no article in common use which produces
+such opposite effects upon the human system as the onion. It has often
+been found beneficial to individuals in feverish attacks, and yet the
+malingerers in our garrison hospitals know well how to promote febrile
+symptoms by a hearty consumption of garlic.
+
+A fitting conclusion to this chapter will be the summary of Sir John
+Sinclair, the author of a Code of Health and Longevity:
+
+  'Onyons in physick winneth no consent,
+  To cholerick folke they are no nutriment;
+  By Galen's rule, such as phlegmatic are
+  A stomacke good within them do prepare.
+  Weak appetites they comfort, and the face
+  With cheerful colour evermore they grace,
+  And when the head is naked left of hair,
+  Onyons, being sod or stamp'd, again repair.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE STORY OF A TUBER.
+
+
+The planting of a tuber by Clusius, in 1588, in the Botanical Gardens at
+Vienna, is often referred to as the introduction of the potato into
+Europe. As a matter of fact, however, this was not the first planting,
+for the Spaniards brought the real potato--_Solanum tuberosum_--home to
+Spain about 1580. From Spain it extended to Italy, and became at once a
+common article of food there. From Spain it also extended to Belgium,
+and was cultivated there; and it was from a Belgian that Clusius got the
+roots which he planted at Vienna in 1588.
+
+Then, again, it has been said that Christopher Columbus was the first
+European who ever tasted a potato, and that was in 1492, when he reached
+Cuba. From Cuba he brought samples back with him to Genoa. This would
+make our history one hundred years older, only it so happens that the
+_Solanum tuberosum_ is not a native of these parts, and could not have
+been at Cuba when Columbus was there. What he tasted and brought home
+was the _Convolvulus batatas_, or sweet potato, a very different
+article, although it gave its name, 'batatas,' to our tuber in the
+modified form of 'potato.'
+
+The real potato is a native of Chili, and it has been proved to the
+satisfaction of naturalists that it did not exist in North America
+before the arrival of Europeans. How, then, could Sir John Hawkins bring
+it from Santa-Fe in 1565, or Sir Walter Raleigh from Virginia in 1584?
+Well, in the first place, it was the sweet potato that Sir John brought;
+and in the second place, before Sir Walter went to Virginia, the
+Spaniards had brought there the real potato on returning from some of
+their South American expeditions. In 1580 they sent it home, and there
+is evidence that by 1580 the _Solanum tuberosum_ had been planted in
+North America. By the time Raleigh brought it to England, however, it
+was already a familiar root in Italy.
+
+But did he bring it? There are some who say that it was Sir Francis
+Drake who brought the roots and presented them to Sir Walter Raleigh,
+who planted them on his estate near Cork in the year 1594. M'Culloch,
+however, says that 1610 was the year of the introduction into Ireland,
+and other writers say that Raleigh knew so little of the virtues of the
+plant he was naturalizing that he caused the apples, not the tubers, to
+be cooked and served upon his own table. Buckle, however, says that the
+common, or Virginian, potato was introduced by Raleigh in 1586, and
+Lyte, who wrote in that year, does not mention the plant; but Gerarde,
+who published the first edition of his Herbal in 1597, gave a portrait
+of himself with a potato in his hand.
+
+Here, then, we have some negative certainties and some positive
+uncertainties. Columbus did not take the real potato to Genoa in 1492;
+Hawkins did not bring it to England in 1565. The Spaniards did take it
+to Spain in or about 1580; but whether Raleigh was the first to bring it
+to Britain, and in what year, remains open to doubt.
+
+During the whole of the seventeenth century the potato was quite a
+rarity in this country, and up to 1684 was cultivated only in the
+gardens of the gentry. In Scotland it does not seem to have been grown
+at all, even in gardens, before 1728. Phillips, in the History of
+Cultivated Vegetables, says that in 1619 the price in England was one
+shilling a pound. He further says that great prejudices existed against
+it, that it was alleged to be poisonous, and that in Burgundy the
+cultivation of it was prohibited.
+
+These early prejudices against the potato are explainable on the
+supposition that the people did not know how to cook it, and possibly
+ate it raw, in which state it is certainly unwholesome, if not actually
+poisonous. Then, again, it belongs to a family of ill-repute, the
+_Solanacae_, of which the deadly nightshade and the mandrake are members,
+as well as more honoured specimens like the tomato, tobacco, datura, and
+cayenne-pepper plants. The mandrake, of course, was the subject of
+ancient dislike, and perhaps it was natural for our superstitious
+progenitors to regard with suspicion any relative of that lugubrious
+root.
+
+Even the tempting appearance of the tomato did not suffice to win favour
+for it when first introduced into Europe, until somebody discovered
+that, although undoubtedly sent by the infidels to poison the
+Christians, the Bon Dieu had interfered, and transformed it into an
+agreeable and wholesome fruit.
+
+One meets with two references to the potato in Shakespeare, and these
+are said to be the earliest notices of it in English literature. Thus in
+Troilus and Cressida: 'The devil luxury, with his fat rump, and potato
+finger, tickles these together!' In the Merry Wives, Falstaff says: 'Let
+the sky rain potatoes; let it thunder to the time of Green Sleeves; hail
+kissing-comfits, and snow Eringoes.'
+
+There are several references in the early dramatists, which the curious
+reader may find collected in a note in Steevens's Shakespeare, but which
+hardly serve our purpose. There is one reference, however, by Waller,
+which is interesting:
+
+  'With candy'd plantains and the juicy pine,
+  On choicest melons and sweet grapes they dine,
+  And with potatoes fat their wanton kine,'
+
+because it seems to be the case that, prior to 1588, the Italian
+peasants used the potato as food for their pigs as well as for
+themselves.
+
+We are constrained, however, to conclude that Shakespeare and the old
+dramatists referred to the sweet potato, sometimes called the Spanish
+potato. 'Eringoes,' mentioned by Falstaff, were candied roots. Eringo is
+curiously suggestive of 'Gringo,' which was the name of contempt applied
+by the Spaniards to all foreigners, but especially Englishmen. The word
+would seem to have been imported by the gentlemen-adventurers from the
+Spanish Main, in the time of Good Queen Bess. If we take 'candied roots'
+in association with 'kissing-comfits,' we are compelled to conclude that
+Falstaff's potato was the 'batatas,' the sweet, fleshy roots of which
+were described by Columbus to be 'not unlike chestnuts in taste.'
+
+Certain it is that the potato was not regarded in this country as an
+object of national importance until 1662, when the Royal Society advised
+that it should be planted. In the history of the Society there is the
+record of a recommendation of a committee, dated 1662, urging all the
+Fellows who possessed land to plant potatoes, and persuade their friends
+to do the same, 'in order to alleviate the distress that would accompany
+a scarcity of food.'
+
+In Scotland, the first mention of the potato occurs in the household
+book of the Duchess of Buccleuch and Monmouth. From Chambers's
+Traditions of Edinburgh we learn that the price in 1701 was half-a-crown
+a peck. Robertson, of Irvine discovered what he thought the earliest
+evidence of potatoes in Scotland in the household book of the Eglinton
+family. The date of this entry, however, was 1733, and Robert Chambers
+showed that the date in the Buccleuch book was thirty-two years earlier.
+
+Further information is given by the Duke of Argyle in Scotland As It
+Was, And As It Is. There we learn that, until long past the middle of
+the eighteenth century, little or nothing was known of the potato in
+Scotland, although in after years it brought about the most prodigious
+effects on the population. The Celts of Ireland first began to use it as
+an adjunct, and then as a main article of food. From them it passed over
+to the Celts of the Hebrides, and was introduced into South Uist by
+Macdonald of Clanranald in 1743. The Highlanders, always suspicious of
+novelties, resisted the use of it for some years; and the neighbouring
+island of Bernera was not reached until 1752. It was soon found,
+however, that the tuber would grow luxuriantly almost anywhere--even on
+sand, and shingle, and in bogs. It was quickly planted in those patches
+of ditched-off land known in the Highlands as 'lazy beds'--a not
+inappropriate term, which in Ireland is applied to patches of potatoes
+not sown in drills.
+
+In Ireland and in the Highlands it quickly came to be the main food of
+the people during the greater portion of the year; but in the Lowlands
+of Scotland, and the rural districts of England, it was only used as a
+food accessory, though it soon became an important article of commerce.
+It has often happened that the potato crops have realized higher prices
+than any other product of the farm.
+
+It has been sometimes stated that the man who planted the first field of
+potatoes in Scotland died within the last forty years. This is an error.
+The first field planted in the Lowlands was at Liberton Muir, about the
+year 1738, by a farmer named Mutter, who died in 1808. An attempt had
+been made some years earlier by a farm-labourer, named Prentice, near
+Kilsyth, but not as a farming operation.
+
+In any case we do not get farther back than about 1730 for
+potato-planting in Scotland, whereas in England, by 1684 the
+recommendations of the Royal Society had been largely adopted,
+especially in Lancashire, where the first serious beginning seems to
+have been made. On the other hand, the cultivation has not extended so
+rapidly in England as in either Ireland or Scotland.
+
+The annual crop of Ireland is estimated as, on the average, equal to
+about one thousand three hundred and twenty pounds per inhabitant; that
+of Scotland, about three hundred and ninety pounds; and that of England,
+about one hundred and twenty pounds. Germany is the next largest
+producer to Ireland, and also the next largest consumer--the crops being
+equal to about one thousand and sixty pounds per head. Holland and
+Belgium each produce about five hundred and eighty pounds, and France
+about five hundred and fifty pounds, of potatoes per inhabitant per
+annum.
+
+It is curious that, although Spain and Italy were the first cultivators
+and users in Europe, the product of each of these countries is now only
+about fifty-five pounds per head.
+
+The annual value of the entire potato crop of Europe may be stated at
+about one hundred and sixty million pounds; and that of the United
+Kingdom at about one-tenth of this total. That of North America is about
+twenty million pounds more; and it is a curious instance of the vagaries
+of time that the _Solarium tuberosum_ is now known in America as the
+'Irish potato,' to distinguish it from the batatas, or sweet potato.
+
+All this immense development of cultivation does not complete the
+topographical record of our tuber. It has been introduced into India,
+and is now successfully cultivated both in Bengal and in the Madras
+Presidency. It has found a home in the Dutch East Indies and in China;
+and its tastes and habits are affectionately studied in Australia. But
+as in the tropics it has to be grown at an altitude of three thousand
+feet, or more, above sea-level, it can never become so common in hot
+countries as in Europe.
+
+It is not only as a food-plant that the potato has secured the respect
+and affection of mankind. Starch is made from it both for the laundry
+and for the manufacture of farina, dextrin, etc. The dried pulp from
+which the starch has been extracted is used for making boxes. From the
+stem and leaves an extract is made of a narcotic, used to allay pain in
+coughs and other ailments. In a raw state the potato is used as a
+cooling application for burns and sores. A spirit is distilled from the
+tuber, which in Norway is called 'brandy,' and in other places is used
+for mixing with malt and vine liquors. Many of the farinaceous
+preparations now so popular in the nursery and sick-room are made
+largely of potato-starch; and in some places cakes and puddings are made
+from potato-flour.
+
+To the potato are also ascribed properties of another kind. The folklore
+of the plant is meagre, considering its wide distribution, but there are
+a number of curious superstitions connected with it. In some parts there
+is a belief that it thrives best if planted on Maundy Thursday; in
+others, that if planted under certain stars it will become watery. In
+Devonshire the people believe that the potato is a certain cure for the
+toothache--not taken internally, but carried about in the pocket. It is
+by several writers mentioned as a reputed cure for rheumatism in the
+same way; only it is prescribed that, in order to be an effective cure
+in such cases, the potato should be stolen. Mr. Andrew Lang mentions an
+instance of faith in the practice of this cure, which he came across in
+a London drawing-room. He regards this belief as a survival of the old
+superstitions about mandrake, and as analogous to the habit of African
+tribes who wear roots round the neck as protection against wild animals.
+
+The value of the potato as food has been much discussed; but it seems to
+rank next to the plantain, and a long way behind either rice or wheat.
+The author of the Chemistry of Common Life has pointed to the remarkable
+physiological likeness of tribes of people who live chiefly on rice,
+plantain, and potato. The Hindu, the negro, and the Irishman are all
+remarkable for being round-bellied, and this peculiarity is ascribed to
+the necessity of consuming a large bulk of food in order to obtain the
+requisite nourishment.
+
+It is not, of course, the root of the plant which we consume. The tubers
+known to the table are the swollen portions of the underground branches,
+and the so-called 'eyes' are really leaf-buds. It is by cuttings from
+these tubers, however, that the plant is mostly propagated. About
+three-fourths of the weight of the potato is water, and this may
+explain the injurious effect which excessive rainfall has on the crops.
+The disease which attacks the plant, and has been the cause of Irish
+famines, past and prospective, is a species of fungus, which first
+attacks and discolours the straws, and then spreads downwards to the
+tubers, increasing the quantity of water in them, reducing the quantity
+of starch, and converting the albumen into casein.
+
+When this disease once appears it is apt to spread over wide areas where
+the same climatic influences prevail, and when the disease appears in
+any strength the crops are rapidly rendered unfit for human food. The
+trouble of the Irish peasantry of the West is that they have no
+alternative crop to fall back on when the potato fails. Their plots are
+too small for cereals, and they cannot be persuaded to cultivate
+cabbages and other vegetables along with their tubers. It is thus that,
+when the day of tribulation comes, the potato appears to be really a
+curse rather than a blessing to agricultural Ireland.
+
+There have been frequent projects for reverting to original types--that
+is to say, for obtaining a fresh supply of the indigenous plant from
+South America, and breeding a new stock, as it were. It is a possible
+mode of extirpating the disease which may be resorted to.
+
+The Irish famine of 1847 was due to the failure of the potato crops in
+1846, preceded by two or three years of bad crops. This failure was due
+to disease, and the eating of the diseased tuber brought on a
+pestilence, so that altogether the deaths by starvation and epidemics in
+that disastrous period amounted to nearly a million and a quarter
+persons. To deal with the distress various sums were voted by Parliament
+to the total amount of over ten millions sterling. This was supplemented
+by private philanthropy in this country, and by generous aid from the
+United States and some European countries. What was the actual money
+cost to the world at large of the failure of the Irish potato crop in
+1846 can never be accurately known; but the amount was so enormous as to
+create a serious economic problem in connection with the homely tuber.
+
+There have been several partial failures since in Ireland, although
+nothing so extensive as that of 1846, and in 1872 the disease was very
+bad in England. In that year, indeed, the importation of foreign
+potatoes rose to the enormous value of one million six hundred and
+fifty-four thousand pounds to supply our own deficient crops. In 1876,
+again, there was great excitement and alarm about the 'Colorado beetle,'
+an importation from America, which was destined, it was said, to destroy
+all our potato-fields. But the beetle proved comparatively harmless, and
+seems now to have disappeared from these shores.
+
+The Englishman and Scotchman cannot do without his potato as an adjunct;
+but the error of the Irishman is in making it the mainstay of his life.
+The words of Malthus in this connection put the matter in a nutshell,
+much as he has been abused for his theory of the effects of the potato
+on population. 'When the common people of a country,' he says, 'live
+principally upon the dearest grain, as they do in England on wheat,
+they have great resources in a scarcity, and barley, oats, rice, cheap
+soups, and potatoes, all present themselves as less expensive, yet, at
+the same time, wholesome means of nourishment; but when their habitual
+food is the lowest in this scale, they appear to be absolutely without
+resource, except in the bark of trees--like the poor Swedes--and a great
+portion of them must necessarily be starved.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE CENTRE OF THE WORLD.
+
+
+Where is it? 'At Charing Cross, of course,' says the self-assured
+Londoner; and in one sense he may not be far wrong. 'At Boston,' says
+the cultured inhabitant of the 'hub' of the universe. 'Wherever I am,'
+says the autocrat who essays to sway the destinies of nations. Well, we
+all know the story of the Head of the Table, and even if we did not know
+it, instinct would tell us where to look. But the centre of the world,
+in an actual, physical, racial, and mundanely comprehensive sense--where
+is it?
+
+One does not find it so easy to answer the question as did good old
+Herodotus, who scouted as absurd the idea of the earth being circular.
+'For my own part,' says the Father of History--and of lies, according to
+some people--'I cannot but think it exceedingly ridiculous to hear some
+men talk of the circumference of the Earth, pretending without the
+smallest reason or probability that the ocean encompasses the Earth,
+that the Earth is round as if mechanically formed so, and that Asia is
+equal to Europe.'
+
+Herodotus found no difficulty in describing the figure and size of the
+portions of the earth whose existence he recognised, but then he said,
+'from India eastward the whole Earth is one vast desert, unknown and
+unexplored.' And for long after Herodotus, the Mediterranean was
+regarded as the central sea of the world, and in the time of Herodotus,
+Rhodes was accounted the centre of that centre.
+
+It is very interesting, however, to trace how many centres the world has
+had in its time--or rather within the range of written history. The old
+Egyptians placed it at Thebes, the Assyrians at Babylon, the Hindus at
+Mount Meru, the Jews at Jerusalem, and the Greeks at Olympus, until they
+moved it to Rhodes. There exists an old map in which the world is
+represented as a human figure, and the heart of that figure is Egypt.
+And there exists, or did exist, an old fountain in Sicily on which was
+this inscription: 'I am in the centre of the garden; this garden is the
+centre of Sicily, and Sicily is the Centre of the whole Earth.'
+
+It is a grand thing to be positive in assertion when you are sure of
+your ground, and the builder of this fountain seems to have been sure of
+his. But then other people can be positive too, and in that vast desert
+eastward of India, imagined by Herodotus, there is the country of China,
+which calls itself the Middle Kingdom, and the Emperor of which, in a
+letter to the King of England in this very nineteenth century, announced
+that China is endowed by Heaven as the 'flourishing and central Empire'
+of the world.
+
+And yet, once upon a time, according to some old Japanese writings,
+Japan was known as the Middle Kingdom; and the Persians claimed the same
+position for Persia; and according to Professor Sayce, the old Chaldeans
+said that the centre of the earth was in the heart of the impenetrable
+forest of Eridu.
+
+This forest, by the way, was also called the 'holy house of the Gods,'
+but it does not seem to have had anything to do with the Terrestrial
+Paradise, the exact location of which Mr. Baring-Gould has laboriously
+tried to identify through the legends of the nations. It is a curious
+fact that a ninth-century map, in the Strasburg Library, places the
+Terrestrial Paradise--the Garden of Eden--in that part of Asia we now
+know as the Chinese Empire, and it is also so marked in a map in the
+British Museum.
+
+In a letter supposed to have emanated from the mysterious if not
+mythical Prester John, it is written: 'The river Indus which issues out
+of Paradise flows among the plains through a certain province, and it
+expands, embracing the whole province with its various windings. There
+are found emeralds, sapphires, carbuncles, topazes, chrysolites, onyx,
+beryl, sardius, and many other precious stones. There, too, grows the
+plant called Asbestos.'
+
+And all this was reported to be just three days' journey from the garden
+from which Adam was expelled, but as the geographical position of the
+province was not specified the information was a trifle vague. Prester
+John, however, described a wonderful fountain, the virtues of which
+correspond with those of a well in Ceylon described by Sir John
+Mandeville, and this is why some people say that the Garden of Eden was
+in the Island of Spices.
+
+There is a twelfth-century map of the world at Cambridge, which shows
+Paradise on an island opposite the mouth of the Ganges. And in the story
+of St. Brandan, the saint reaches an island somewhere 'due east from
+Ireland,' which was Paradise, and on which he met with a man who told
+him that a stream--which no living being might cross--flowing through
+the island, divided the world in twain. Another centre!
+
+In an Icelandic story of the fourteenth century are related the
+marvellous adventures of one Eirek of Drontheim, who, determined to find
+out the Deathless Land, made his way to Constantinople. There he
+received a lesson in geography from the Emperor. The world, he was told,
+was precisely one hundred and eighty thousand stages, or about one
+million English miles, round, and is not propped up on posts, but is
+supported by the will of God. The distance between the earth and heaven,
+he was told, is one hundred thousand and forty-five miles, and round
+about the earth is a big sea called the ocean.
+
+'But what is to the south of the earth?' asked the inquisitive Eirek.
+
+'Oh,' replied the Emperor, 'the end of the earth is there, and it is
+called India.'
+
+'And where shall I find the Deathless Land?' he inquired; and he was
+told that slightly to the east of India lies Paradise.
+
+Thereupon Eirek and a companion started across Syria, took ship and
+arrived at India, through which they journeyed on horseback till they
+came to a strait which separated them from a beautiful land. Eirek
+crossed over and found himself in Paradise, and, strange to say, an
+excellent cold luncheon waiting for him. It took him seven years to get
+home again, and, as he died soon after his return, the map of the route
+was lost.
+
+Still, Eirek's Paradise may not improbably have been Ceylon.
+
+The latest location of the Garden of Eden is by a recent traveller in
+Somaliland, in the north-east shoulder of Africa and south of the Gulf
+of Aden. This is in the neighbourhood of the country of Prester John,
+but in its present aspects can by no means be regarded as a Terrestrial
+Paradise.
+
+Sir John Mandeville's description of the Terrestrial Paradise which he
+discovered gives it as the highest place on the earth--so high that the
+waters of the Flood could not reach it. And in the very centre of the
+highest point is a well, he said, that casts out the four streams,
+Ganges, Nile, Tigris, and Euphrates--all sacred streams. Now, in the
+Encyclopaedia of India it is stated that 'The Hindus at Bikanir Rajputana
+taught that the mountain Meru is in the centre surrounded by concentric
+circles of land and sea. Some Hindus regard Mount Meru as the North
+Pole. The astronomical views of the Puranas make the heavenly bodies
+turn round it.' So here again we have a mountain as the terrestrial
+centre.
+
+In the Avesta there is reference to a lofty mountain at the centre of
+the world from which all the mountains of the earth have grown, and at
+the summit of which is the fountain of waters, whereby grow two
+trees--the Heavenly Soma, and another tree which yields all the seeds
+that germinate on earth. From this fountain, according to the Buddhist
+tradition, flow four streams to the four points of the compass, each of
+them making a complete circuit in its descent.
+
+This central mountain is the Navel of Waters where originated all
+matter, and where sits Yama under the Soma tree--just as in the Norse
+legend the Norns, or Fates, sit by the great central earth-tree,
+Yggdrasil.
+
+According to the Greek tradition, Jupiter, in order to settle the true
+centre of the earth, sent out two eagles, one from east and one from
+west. They met on the spot on which was erected the Temple of Delphi,
+and a stone in the centre of that temple was called the Navel of the
+World. A golden eagle was placed on each side of this stone. The design
+is preserved in many examples of Greek sculpture, and the stone itself
+is mentioned in several of the Greek plays.
+
+With reference to this, Mr. Lethaby, in his Architecture, Mysticism, and
+Myth, observes: 'We may see embodied in this myth of the centre-stone
+the result of the general direction of thought; as each people were
+certainly "the people" first born and best beloved of the gods, so their
+country occupied the centre of the world. It would be related how the
+oldest and most sacred city, or rather temple, was erected exactly on
+the navel. A story like this told of a temple would lead to the marking
+in the centre of its area the true middle point by a circular stone, a
+stone which would become most sacred and ceremonial in its import.'
+
+And Dr. Schliemann thus writes of a central circle he unearthed in the
+palace at Tirynthus: 'In the exact centre of the hall, and therefore
+within the square enclosed by the four pillars, there is found in the
+floor a circle of about 3.30 m. diameter. There can be little doubt that
+this circle indicates the position of the hearth in the centre of the
+megaron. The hearth was in all antiquity the centre of the house, about
+which the family assembled, at which food was prepared, and where the
+guest received the place of honour. Hence it is frequently indicated by
+poets and philosophers as the navel or centre of the house. In the
+oldest time it was not only symbolically but actually the centre of the
+house, and especially of the megaron. It was only in later days, in the
+palaces of the great Romans, that it was removed from the chief rooms
+and established in a small by-room.'
+
+All which may be true enough, and yet the placing of the hearthstone in
+the centre of the house may have had less reference to the earth-centre
+idea, than to the fact that in the circular huts of primitive man it was
+necessary to have a hole at the apex of the roof. Still, it is
+interesting to note that, as in the Imperial palace at Constantinople,
+so on the floor of St. Peter's at Rome, and elsewhere, is a flat
+circular slab of porphyry, associated with all ceremonials.
+
+Is there any connection between the old central hearthstone and the
+Dillestein--Lid of Hell--one meets with in Grimm?
+
+We have seen that the centre of the world is placed in Europe, in Asia,
+and in Africa, but who would expect to find it in America many centuries
+ago? Yet the traditions of Peru have it that Cuzco was founded by the
+gods, and that its name signifies 'navel'; and traditions of Mexico
+describe Yucatan as 'the centre and foundation' of both heaven and
+earth. We must, however, go back to the East as the most likely quarter
+in which to find it, and as the quarter to which the eyes of man have
+been most consistently turned.
+
+To successive centuries of both Jews and Christians Jerusalem has been
+the centre of the world, and the Temple the centre of Jerusalem. The
+Talmud gives directions to those who are in foreign countries to pray
+with their faces towards the sacred land; to those in Palestine to pray
+with their faces towards Jerusalem; to those in Jerusalem to pray with
+their faces towards the Mount; to those in the Temple to pray with their
+faces towards the Holy of Holies. Now, this was not merely because this
+sacred spot was a ceremonial centre, but also because it was regarded as
+the geographical centre of the earth. According to the Rabbis the Temple
+was built on the great central rock of the world.
+
+It is written in the Talmud: 'The world is like the eyeball of man: the
+white is the ocean that surrounds the wall, the black is the world
+itself, and the pupil is Jerusalem, and the image of the pupil is the
+Temple.' And again: 'The land of Israel is situated in the centre of the
+world, and Jerusalem in the centre of the land of Israel, and the Temple
+in the centre of Jerusalem, and the Holy of Holies in the centre of the
+Temple, and the foundation-stone on which the world was grounded is
+situated in front of the ark.' And once more: 'When the ark was removed
+a stone was there from the days of the first Prophets. It was called
+Foundation. It was three digits above the earth.'
+
+This claim is direct enough, and at Jerusalem to this day in the Dome of
+the Rock, supposed to occupy the site of Solomon's Temple, is a bare
+stone which, as Sir Charles Warren was assured, rests on the top of a
+palm-tree, from the roots of which issue all the rivers of the world.
+The Mohammedans have accepted this same stone as the foundation-stone of
+the world, and they call it the Kibleh of Moses. It is said that Mahomet
+once intended making this the sacred centre of Islam, instead of Mecca,
+but changed his mind, and predicted that at the Last Day the black
+stone--the Kaabah--will leave Mecca and become the bride of the
+Foundation-stone at Jerusalem. So that there can be no possible doubt of
+the centre of sacred influences.
+
+Concerning the stone at Jerusalem, Professor Palmer says: 'This Sakhrah
+is the centre of the world, and on the day of resurrection--it is
+supposed--the Angel Israfil will stand upon it to blow the last trumpet.
+It is also eighteen miles nearer heaven than any other place in the
+world, and beneath it is the source of every drop of sweet water that
+flows on the face of the earth. It is supposed to be suspended
+miraculously between heaven and earth. The effect upon the spectators,
+however, was so startling, that it was found necessary to place a
+building round it and conceal the marvel.'
+
+According to Hittite and Semitic traditions mentioned by Professor Sayce
+and Professor Robertson Smith, there was a chasm in this central spot
+through which the waters of the Deluge escaped.
+
+Right down to and through the Middle Ages Jerusalem was regarded by all
+Christians as the centre of the world; sometimes as the navel of the
+earth; and sometimes as the middlemost point of heaven and earth. The
+Hereford map of the thirteenth century, examined by Mr. Lethaby, shows
+the world as a plane circle surrounded by ocean, round whose borders are
+the eaters of men, and the one-eyed, and the half-men, and those whose
+heads do grow beneath their shoulders. 'Within this border we find
+everything the heart could desire; the sea is very red, the pillars of
+Hercules are pillars indeed; there is the Terrestrial Paradise enclosed
+by a battlemented wall, and unicorns, manticoras, salamanders, and other
+beasts of fascinating habits are clearly shown in the lands where they
+live. The centre of all is Jerusalem, a circular walled court, within
+which again is a smaller circle, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.'
+
+Even when the earth was recognised as a sphere, the idea of Jerusalem
+being the centre was not given up. Dante held to it, and veracious Sir
+John Mandeville endeavoured thus to explain away the difficulty: 'In
+going from Scotland or from England towards Jerusalem, men go always
+upwards, for our land is in the low part of the earth towards the west;
+and the land of Prester John is in the low part of the world towards the
+east; and they have the day when we have the night, and on the contrary
+they have the night when we have the day; for the earth and sea are of a
+round form, and as men go upward towards one point they go downward to
+another. Also you have heard me say that Jerusalem is in the middle of
+the world; and that may be proved and shown there by a spear which is
+fixed in the earth at the hour of midday, when it is equinoctial, which
+gives no shadow on any side.' Ingenious, if not convincing!
+
+The Greek Church still regard Jerusalem as the middle of the world, and
+Mr. Curzon tells that in their portion of the Holy Sepulchre they have a
+magnificently decorated interior, in the centre of which is a globe of
+black marble on a pedestal, under which, they say, the head of Adam was
+found, and which they declare to be the exact centre of the globe.
+
+The Mohammedans generally, however, regard the Kaabah at Mecca as--for
+the present, at any rate--the true centre. This stone is supposed to
+have been lowered directly from heaven, and all mosques are built to
+look towards it. Even in the modern schools of Cairo, according to Mr.
+Loftie, the children are taught that Mecca is the centre of the earth.
+
+The Samaritans, however, look upon Gerizim as the holy mountain and
+centre of the religious and geographical world. And the Babylonians
+regarded the great Temple of Bel, according to Professor Sayce, as the
+house of the Foundation Stone of Heaven and Earth.
+
+Gaya, again, is the Mecca of the Buddhists, where Buddha sat under the
+tree when he received enlightenment. This tree is the Bodhi tree
+described by Buddhist writers as surrounded by an enclosure rather of an
+oblong than of a square shape, but with four gates opening to the four
+cardinal points. In the middle of the enclosure is the diamond throne
+which a voice told Buddha he would find under a Pipal tree, which
+diamond throne is believed to be of the same age as the earth. 'It is
+the middle of the great Chiliocosm; it goes down to the limits of the
+golden wheel and upwards it is flush with the ground. It is composed of
+diamonds; in circuit it is a hundred paces or so. It is the place where
+the Buddhas attain the sacred path of Buddhahood. When the great earth
+is shaken this spot alone is unmoved. When the true law decays and dies
+it will be no longer visible.'
+
+According to Sir Monier Williams, a stone marked with nine concentric
+circles is shown at Gaya as the diamond throne, and the Chiliocosm is
+not the centre of the world alone but of the Universe.
+
+But in China, also a land of Buddhists, we find another centre, and in
+India there is an iron pillar at Delhi, dating from the fourth century,
+supposed by the Brahmans to mark the centre from their point of view.
+And in Southern India the Tamils have the Temple of Mandura, in the
+innermost sanctuary of which a rock comes through the floor, the roots
+of which are said to be in the centre of the earth.
+
+The Indian Buddhists, of course, denied that China could be the Middle
+Kingdom, as the place where Buddha lived must necessarily be the centre.
+Nevertheless, the centre is now found by Chinese Buddhists in the Temple
+of Heaven at Pekin, where is one circular stone in the centre of circles
+of marble terraces, on which the Emperor kneels surrounded by
+circles--including that of the horizon--and believes himself to be in
+the Centre of the Universe and inferior only to Heaven.
+
+But in the sixth century a certain Chinese traveller, called Sung-Yun,
+went to India for Buddhist studies, and he made his way by the Pamirs,
+the watershed of the great Asiatic rivers Indus and Oxus. And of this
+country he wrote:
+
+'After entering the Tsung Ling mountains, step by step, we crept upwards
+for four days, and reached the highest point of the range. From this
+point as a centre, looking downwards, it seemed just as though we were
+poised in mid-air. Men say that this is the middle point of heaven and
+earth.'
+
+This was written more than thirteen hundred years ago, and men to-day
+still call this part of Asia the Roof of the World.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+  A
+
+  Aaron's rod, 25
+
+  Aeschines, 18
+
+  Agricola, 29
+
+  Albertus, 84
+
+  Animal instinct of cure by plants, 161
+
+  Anthropomorphon, 84
+
+  Architecture, Mysticism and Myth, 193
+
+  Ahmed, Prince, 42
+
+  Aristotle, 153
+
+  Arthurian legends, 23
+
+  Asterodia, 2
+
+  Australian legends, 8, 20, 21
+
+
+  B
+
+  Baaras, root of, 80
+
+  Bacchus, 73
+
+  Bacon, 68, 85
+
+  Baring-Gould's Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, 37-39, 60, 61, 88
+
+  Barth, 52
+
+  Benjamin's sack, 49
+
+  Beryl, the, 48
+    the spirits of the, 48
+
+  Bhasa, 71
+
+  Bion's Lament, 124
+
+  Black Kaspar, 48
+
+  Bodhi Tree, 199
+
+  Book of Days, 73, 75
+
+  Brand's Popular Antiquities, 97, 100, 107
+
+  Breton legends, 8
+
+  British Guiana legends, 8-20
+
+  Britomart, 50
+
+  Browne, Sir Thomas, 28, 29, 83
+
+  Browning's, Mrs., Dead Pan, 80
+
+  Buddha's foot, 11
+
+  'Bull-roarer,' the, 17, 18
+
+  Bushman legend, 63
+
+
+  C
+
+  Cagliostro, 51
+
+  Cain in the Moon, 62
+
+  Cambuscan's mirror, 49
+
+  Camelon, 27
+
+  Capnomancy, 13
+
+  Cat and the Well, 6
+
+  Catoptromancy, 50
+
+  Celestial Paradise, 189
+
+  Chaldaeo-Babylonian legends, 92
+
+  Chaucer, 49, 62
+
+  Chinese legends, 20, 95
+
+  Cingalese legends, 11
+
+  Circaea, or Enchanter's Nightshade, 81
+
+  Circe, 82
+
+  Cleopatra, 79
+
+  Clover leaf, the, 130
+
+  Coles' Art of Simpling, 86
+
+  Columbus, 107
+
+  Columella, 84
+
+  Conway's Demonology, etc., 24, 71, 72, 85, 95
+
+  Cornish legends, 66-103
+
+  Cox and Jones's Tales of Teutonic Lands, 2, 3, 7, 9
+
+  Cronus, 8, 9, 20
+
+  Crusade legends, 129, 136
+
+  Crusades, the, 13, 93
+
+  Cupid, 124
+
+
+  D
+
+  Danae, 5
+
+  Dante, 62
+
+  Davy Jones, 114
+
+  Dawn Myths, 2, 5, 6
+
+  Dee's, Dr., Spherical Speculum, 48, 50
+
+  De Gubernatis, 72
+
+  Dekker's Wonderful Year, 147
+
+  Delphi, 19
+
+  Demeter, 19
+
+  Demosthenes, 18
+
+  Dessoir, Max, 56
+
+  Devil's Kettles, 95
+
+  Devil's Punch-bowls, 95
+
+  Devonian legends, 65, 122, 127
+
+  Dioscorides, 134
+
+  Divination by smoke, 15
+
+  Divining-rod, the, 30-32
+
+  Dove and the ark, 24
+
+  'Duffy,' 114
+
+  Dutch legend, 96
+
+
+  E
+
+  Earth-man, 79
+
+  Eden, the Garden of, 190
+    Eastern idea of, 191
+    Icelandic idea of, 191
+    Mandeville's, Sir J., 192
+    Somaliland, 192
+    Prester John's, 190
+
+  Ellacombe's Plant-Lore of Shakespeare, 149
+
+  Endymion, 72
+
+  Esquimo legend, 67
+
+  Esthonian legend, 73
+
+  Eucharist, the, 24
+
+
+  F
+
+  Fairy-lore, 12, 13
+
+  'Fairy-ring,' the, 12
+
+  Feast of Demeter, 16
+
+  Fian, Dr., 27
+
+  Fleur de lys, the, 130
+
+  Flying Dutchman, the, 96
+
+  Folk-lore methods, 15, 16
+    Bible, 88
+
+  Friend's Flowers and Flower-Lore, 147
+
+
+  G
+
+  Ganymede, 67
+
+  Gargantua, legend of, 8
+
+  Garlic (or 'Poor Man's Treacle'), Pliny on, 170
+    Bacon on, 170
+    Eastern belief in, 170, 173
+
+  Garrett's Dictionary of India, 89
+
+  Gaya and Buddha, 199
+
+  Gerarde's Herball (1597), 81, 128
+
+  Gerizim, 199
+
+  German legends, 60, 93, 94
+
+  Gesta Romanorum, 42
+
+  Glam (the moon), 72
+
+  Goldsmith's Citizen of the World, 50
+
+  'Good folks,' 12
+
+  Goodrich's, Miss, experiments in crystal-reading, 53-55
+
+  Gordon-Cumming's, Miss, Wanderings in China, 64
+
+  Greek legends, 3, 4, 10, 19, 21, 60, 67, 82, 127
+
+  Grimm, Fairy Tales, 6, 66, 129
+
+
+  H
+
+  Hades, 19
+
+  Hamlet, 41
+
+  Harpocrates, 124
+
+  Hartmann, Dr. Franz, 46
+
+  Hephaistos, 2
+
+  Hera, 19
+
+  Hermes, 82
+
+  Herodotus, 29, 30, 63, 73
+
+  Hesiod, 9
+
+  Highland superstitions, 10, 12, 13
+
+  Hindu legends, 20, 68, 71
+
+  Holcroft, the actor, 116
+
+  Holinshed, 27
+
+  Holy Spirit, symbol of the, 24
+
+  Homa, 87, 88
+
+  'Hot-cross buns,' 77
+
+  Hussin, 6
+
+  Hutton's Jacob's Rod, 39
+
+  Hydra, the, 93
+
+
+  I
+
+  Icelandic legend, 95
+
+  'Ink-pool,' the, 48
+
+  Israfil, 196
+
+
+  J
+
+  Jack and Jill, 61
+
+  Jacques Aymar of Lyons, story of, 37, 38
+
+  Jacob Boehme's tin cup, 49
+
+  Jamieson, Dr., and the Moon, 60
+
+  Jason and the Golden Fleece, 21
+
+  Jewish legends, 60, 90
+
+  Jobson, Richard (divining-rod), 34
+
+  Jonah, 115
+
+  Jonson's Tale of a Tub, 145
+
+  Josephus, 65, 81
+
+  Judas Iscariot, 62, 107
+
+
+  K
+
+  Kaabah-stone, 198
+
+  Kaffir legend, 20
+
+  Kingsley's Water-Babies, 105, 111
+
+
+  L
+
+  Lane's Magician, 51
+
+  Lang's Custom and Myth, etc., 4, 8, 14, 17, 21, 30, 34, 66, 82
+
+  Lao's looking-glass, 50
+
+  Leek, the, in Welsh tradition, 171
+
+  Legends:
+    Australian, 8, 20, 21
+    Breton, 8
+    Bushman, 63
+    Ceylon, 11
+    Chaldaeo-Babylonian, 92
+    Chinese, 20, 95
+    Cornish, 66, 103
+    Devonian, 65, 122, 127
+    Dutch, 96
+    Eskimo, 67
+    Esthonian, 73
+    German, 60, 93, 94
+    Greek, 3, 4, 10, 19, 21, 50, 67, 82, 127
+    Highland, 12
+    Hindu, 20, 68, 71
+    Icelandic, 95
+    Jewish, 60, 90
+    Kaffir, 20
+    Lenormant, Francois, 93
+    Lid of Hell, 195
+    Malay, 8
+    Maori, 62, 63
+    North American, 8, 62
+    of British Guiana, 8, 20
+    of St. Cecilia, 129
+    of St. David, 171
+    of St. Patrick, 131
+    of St. Peter, 109
+    of the Crusaders, 129, 136
+    Persian, 125
+    Roman, 124
+    Russian, 94, 110
+    Scandinavian, 61
+    Sicilian, 73
+    Syrian, 93
+    Talmudic, 92
+    Zulu, 8
+
+  Lethaby on Architecture and Myths, 193
+
+  Levi, house of, 25
+
+  Lhasis, 80
+
+  Lien Chi Altangi, 50
+
+  Lilly, John, 59
+
+  Linnaeus, story of, 33
+
+  Lotus legends, 128
+    the Buddhist, 127
+    the Egyptian, 128
+
+  Lucian, 59
+
+  Luna, 63, 73
+
+
+  M
+
+  Magic, 23
+
+  Magellan, 107
+
+  Malay legends, 8
+
+  Mandrake, the, 78, 83
+    anthropomorphon, 84
+    or Devil's Apple, 85
+    or Stone Apple, 85
+
+  Mandura, 200
+
+  Maori legends, 62, 63
+
+  Mecca, 198
+
+  Medea, 67
+
+  Merlin's mirror, 49
+
+  Michael Scott, 11
+
+  Middle Kingdom, the, according to Herodotus, 189
+    Eastern idea of, 189, 197, 200
+    Jewish tradition of, 196
+    Jupiter's, 193
+    Mecca, the, 199
+    Mexican tradition of, 195
+    Prester John, 198
+
+  Midsummer Night's Dream, 62
+
+  Milbanke, Lady, 39
+
+  Mister Storm-Along, 119
+
+  Mohammed, legend of, 126
+
+  Moonfolk, Lucian's, 59
+
+  Moon-lore, Australian, 67
+    Bushman, 67
+    Egyptian, 67
+    English, 70, 74, 76
+    Eskimo, 67
+    Greek, 67, 87
+    Maori, 67
+    North American Indian, 67
+    South African, 67
+
+  Moon, the, 2, 58
+
+  Moon-worship, 76
+
+  Moonwort, 153, 154
+    Conway, Moncure, 155
+    Culpeper, 154
+    in Divine Weekes, 154
+    in legend, 153
+
+  Moses' rod, 25, 26, 29
+
+  Mother Carey's chickens, 97, 104, 109
+
+  Mueller, Max, 9
+
+  Mythology, Chinese, 63
+    Eskimo, 63
+    German, 133
+    Greek, 10, 78, 121
+    Hindu, 63, 87
+    Scandinavian, 116
+    Vedic, 72
+
+
+  N
+
+  Nautical superstitions, 98, 100
+
+  Navel of the World, 193
+
+  Nebuchadnezzar, 28
+
+  Neptune, 93
+
+  Nether Lochaber, 12
+
+  Nikke, 96
+
+  North American legends, 8, 62
+
+
+  O
+
+  Odin, 73
+
+  Odysseus, 82
+
+  Old Nick, 93
+
+  Onion among the Romans, 167
+    as food, 164
+    Homer on, 167
+    in The Arabian Nights, 165
+    Juvenal on, 165
+    Malagasy use of, 166
+    Mohammedan legends of, 167
+    myths, 168, 169
+    Napoleon and, 174
+    of the Greeks, 163, 165
+    of Herodotus, 166
+    Pliny on, 165, 167
+    Shakespeare on, 163
+    Sinclair, Sir J., on, 175
+
+  Ophelia, 148
+
+  Othello, 80
+
+
+  P
+
+  Paracelsus's magic mirror, 43, 44
+
+  Paradise, the Garden of, 190
+
+  Parkinson the Herbalist, 151
+
+  Penelope, 49
+
+  Persian legend, 125
+
+  Peter the Hermit, 13
+
+  Pharaoh, 25
+
+  Pleiades, the, 21
+
+  Pliny, 132
+
+  Plutarch, 73
+
+  Pope Leo X., 107
+
+  Poseidon, 19
+
+  Potato, the, as food, 184
+    Buckle on, 177
+    Christopher Columbus and, 176
+    folklore of, 183
+    Gerarde on, 177
+    in Scotland and Ireland, 181
+    in Shakespeare, 179
+    introduction into Europe, 176
+    Sir Francis Drake and, 177
+
+  Prince Zeyn Alasnam, story of, 42
+
+  Proctor, R. A., 60
+
+  Prose Edda, 71
+
+  Prospero, 70
+
+  Pryce's Mineralogia Cornubiensis, 32
+
+  Pseudosia Epidemica, 83
+
+  Pyromancy, 47
+
+  Pythagoras, 84
+
+
+  R
+
+  Rashi, 77
+
+  Red Riding Hood, 5, 6
+
+  Rhabdomancy, 28, 39
+
+  Rhea, 19
+
+  Riley's Book of Days, 64
+
+  Rink, Dr., 63
+
+  Rod, Moses', 25, 26
+    of the house of Levi, 25
+    the, 23
+    the divining, 30, 32
+
+  Roman legend, 124
+
+  Romeo and Juliet, 79
+
+  Rona in the Moon, 62
+
+  Roof of the World, the, 100
+
+  Rosemary, 123
+
+  Roses, Feast of the, 125
+
+  Rue as a disinfectant, 162
+    as salad, 152
+    derivation of, 150
+    in Aristotle, 153, 159
+    in Drayton, 153
+    in Ellacombe's Plant-Lore of Shakespeare, 149
+    in French perfumery, 152
+    in Milton, 151
+    in Parkinson, 151
+    in Pliny, 157
+    in Shakespeare, 149, 153
+    in Spenser, 151
+    in Warburton's works, 152
+
+  Ruskin's Queen of the Air, 4
+
+  Russian legend, 94, 110
+
+  Ruth, 150
+
+  Ryence, King, 50
+
+
+  S
+
+  St. Brandan, 117
+
+  St. Cecilia, legend of, 129
+
+  St. Christophoros, story of, 26
+
+  St. David, legends of, 171
+
+  St. David's Day, origin of, 171
+
+  St. Joseph, legend of, 127
+
+  St. Nicholas, 93
+
+  St. Patrick, 131
+
+  St. Peter, legend of, 109
+
+  St. Peter's Day, 110
+
+  St. Ursula, 2, 3
+
+  Satan, 79, 85
+
+  Saturn, 8, 19, 20
+
+  Scandinavian legend, 61
+
+  Schliemann, Dr., 194
+
+  Sea chanties, 119, 120
+
+  Septuagint, the, 49
+
+  Shakespeare, 2, 62, 79
+
+  Sharpe, Charles Kirkpatrick, 92
+
+  Shelvocke's voyages, 106
+
+  Shew Stone, 50
+
+  Sicilian legend, 73
+
+  Sidney, Sir Philip, 72
+
+  Solomon's Temple, 196
+
+  Soma, 63, 87, 89, 90, 193
+
+  Song of Sixpence, 5
+
+  Sorcerer's Root, 78
+
+  Spring Myths, 10
+
+  Stormy petrel, 99
+
+  Sung-Yun and the Pamirs, 200
+
+  Superstitions:
+    Accadian, 16
+    Aztec, 16
+    Bushmen, 21
+    Chinese, 75
+    Greek, 16
+    Highland, 10, 12
+    Jewish, 16, 76
+    Nautical, 98, 100, 117
+    Peruvian, 16
+    Red Indian, 16, 20
+    Sicilian, 16
+
+  Syrian legend, 92
+
+
+  T
+
+  Talmudic legend, 92
+
+  Tannhaeuser, 3
+
+  Tylor's Primitive Culture, 5, 65
+
+  Tempest, the, 70
+
+  Theal's Kaffir Folklore, 18
+
+  Thiselton-Dyer, 31, 34, 64, 78, 100, 131, 145
+
+  Thistle, the, 132
+    Stewart, Dr., on, 135
+    of Dioscorides, 134
+
+  Timbs, 79
+
+  True Thomas of Ercildoune, 3
+
+  Tutenganahau, story of, 20
+
+  Tweed, the, 10
+
+  Tylor, 6, 65
+
+  Typhoeus, 117
+
+
+  U
+
+  Ulysses, 42
+
+  Urim and Thummim, 49
+
+
+  V
+
+  Vampire, the, 70
+
+  Vedic Agni, 2
+
+  Venus, 30
+
+  Venus's looking-glass, 49
+
+  Verne, Jules, 59
+
+  Vervain of the Druids, 158
+    Friend on the, 159
+    of the Greeks, 158
+    Thiselton-Dyer on, 158
+
+  Virgin Mary, 106
+
+  Von Buelow's Christian Legends of Germany, 26
+
+  Vulcan's mirror, 49
+
+
+  W
+
+  Warburton, 152
+
+  Warts, the cure of, 160
+
+  'White Rose Day,' 125
+
+  Winslow, Forbes, 76
+
+  Winter's Tale, The, 149
+
+  Winter Myths, 10
+
+  Witches' broom, the, 70
+
+  Witches' Mannikin, 78
+
+  Wolf and Seven Little Kids, 6, 7, 9, 66
+
+  Wurmbrand's Visionen im Wasserglass, 53
+
+
+  Y
+
+  Yama, 193
+
+  Yggdrasil, 193
+
+
+  Z
+
+  Zafarana, 73
+
+  Zeus, 19, 67
+
+  Zillah, legend of, 126
+
+  Zulu legend, 8
+
+
+
+
+_Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster Row, London._
+
+
+
+
+Footnotes:
+
+[1] Farrer: Primitive Manners.
+
+[2] Lang: Custom and Myth.
+
+[3] Lang.
+
+[4] See Custom and Myth.
+
+[5] In 'The Cruel Brother: A Tragedy.'
+
+
+
+
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+Passages in italics are indicated by _underscore_.
+
+The misprint "Lihgtning" was corrected to "Lightning" (page 68).
+
+The misprint "Catroptromancy" was corrected to "Catoptromancy" (index).
+
+Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation have been retained from the original.
+
+Additional spacing after some of the quotes is intentional to indicate
+both the end of a quotation and the beginning of a new paragraph as
+presented in the original text.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STORYOLOGY***
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