“Thou knave, but for thee ere this time of dayMy lady’s fair pew had been strewed full gayWith Primroses, Cowslips, and Violets sweet,With Mints, and with Marygold and Marjoram meet,Which now lyeth uncleanly, and all along of thee.”Among the women of the Abruzzi there exists a curious superstition. If, whilst walking, they should chance to come across a plant of Mint, they will bruise a leaf between their fingers, in order to ensure that, on the day of their death, Jesus Christ will assist them.——In Holstein, at the funeral of peasants, Mint is carried by youths attending the ceremony.——Pliny was of opinion that “the smell of Mint doth stir up the minde and taste to a greedy desire of meat;” and other old writers state that Mint should be smelled, as being refreshing for the head and memory; probably on this account it was formerly a custom to strew it “in chambers and places of recreation, pleasure, and repose, and when feasts and banquets are to be made.” Gerarde says of this herb:—“It is poured into the eares with honied water. It is taken inwardly against scolopendres, beare-wormes, sea scorpions and serpents. It is applied with salt to the bitings of mad dogs.”MISTLETOE.—According to Scandinavian mythology, Baldr (the Apollo of the North) was rendered by his mother Frîgg proof against all injury by the four elements, fire, air, earth, and water: Loki, the evil spirit, however, being at enmity with him, fashioned an arrow out of Mistletoe (which proceeded from neither of the elements), and placed it in the hand of Hödr, the blind deity, who launched the fatal dart at Baldr, and struck him to the earth. The gods decided to restore Baldr to life, and as a reparation for his injury, the Mistletoe was dedicated to his mother Frîgg; whilst, to prevent its being again used adversely to her, the plant was placed under her sole control so long as it did not touch the earth, the empire of Loki. On this account it has always been customary to suspend Mistletoe from ceilings; and so, whenever persons of opposite sexes pass under it, they give one another the kiss of peace and love, in the full assurance that this plant is no longer an instrument of mischief.——Like the Indian Asvattha, and the Northern Rowan, the Mistletoe was supposed to be the embodiment of lightning: hence its Swiss name,Donnerbesen; and like them, again, it is very generally believed to spring from seed deposited by birds on trees. Some naturalists, indeed, say that the seeds will not vegetate until they have passed through the stomach of a bird, and so recommend that fowls should be caused to eat the seeds, which, after evacuation, should be sown. This old belief in the Mistletoe-seed being sown by birds is referred toby Lord Bacon in his ‘Natural History.’ His lordship says:—“They have an idle tradition that there is a bird called a Missel-bird that feedeth upon a seed which many times she cannot digest, and so expelleth it whole with her excrement, which, falling upon a bough of a tree that hath some rift, putteth forth the Misseltoe.”——In Druidic times, the Mistletoe was regarded as a divine gift of peculiar sanctity, only to be gathered with befitting ceremonies, on the sixth day, or at latest on the sixth night, of the sixth moon after the winter solstice, when their year commenced.——Pliny tells us that “the Druids hold nothing more sacred than the Mistletoe and the tree upon which it is produced, provided it be an Oak. They make choice of groves of Oak on their own account, nor do they perform any of their sacred rites without the leaves of these trees, so one may suppose that for this reason they are called by the Greek etymology Druids, and whatever Mistletoe grows upon the Oak they think is sent from heaven, and is a sign of God Himself as having chosen that tree. This, however, is rarely found, but, when discovered, is treated with great ceremony; they call it by a name which in their language signifies the curer of all ills, and, having duly prepared their feast and sacrifices under the tree, they bring to it two white bulls, whose horns are then for the first time tied; the priest, dressed in a white robe, ascends the tree, and, with a golden pruning-hook, cuts off the Mistletoe, which is received into a whitesagum, or sheet; then they sacrifice the victims, praying that God would bless His own gift to those on whom He has bestowed it.” As the Druids attributed to the Mistletoe marvellous curative properties, they placed it in water, and distributed this water to those who deserved it, to act as a charm against the spells of witches and sorcerers. If any portion of this plant came in contact with the earth, it was considered as ominous of some impending national disaster.——The practice of decorating dwellings with Mistletoe and Holly is undoubtedly of Druidic origin. Dr. Chandler states that, in the times of the Druids, the houses were decked with boughs in order that the spirits of the forest might seek shelter among them during the bleak winds and frosts of winter.——Among the Worcestershire farmers, there is a very ancient custom of taking a bough of Mistletoe, and presenting it to the cow that first calved after New Year’s Day, as this offering is presumed to avert ill-luck from the dairy.——In some provinces of France, they preserved for a long period the custom of gathering the Mistletoe of the Oak, which they regarded as a talisman. Many public documents attest that, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, large gatherings of the country-people took place at the fêtes held in commemoration of the ceremony of the sacred Mistletoe, and which was calledAuguilanneuf(Gui de l’an neuf).——In Holstein, the peasantry call the Mistletoe the “Spectre’s wand,” from the supposition that a branch borne in the hand will enable the holder not only to see ghosts, but to compel them to speak.——The magical properties of the Mistletoeare alluded to by Virgil in hisÆneid, as well as by Ovid and other ancient writers. Albertus Magnus states that the Mistletoe, which the Chaldæans calledLuperax, the GreeksEsifena, and the LatinsViscus Querci, like the herbMartagon(Moonwort), possessed the property of opening all locks. The Druids called it All-heal, and represented it as an antidote to all poisons, and a cure for all diseases. When there were no longer any Druids in England left to gather the holy plant with the customary sacred rites, it was gathered by the people themselves, with a lack of due solemnity, so that, according to Aubrey, this want of reverence met with miraculous punishment. He relates how some ill-advised folk cut the Mistletoe from an Oak, at Norwood, to sell to the London apothecaries: “And one fell lame shortly after; soon after each of the others lost an eye; and a rash fellow, who ventured to fell the Oak itself, broke his leg very shortly afterwards.” At this time, the powder of an Oak-Mistletoe was deemed an infallible cure for epilepsy; and Culpeper, the astrological herbalist, prescribed the leaves and berries of this precious plant, given in powder for forty days together, as a sure panacea for apoplexy, palsy, and falling sickness. Clusius affirmed that a sprig of the sacred plant worn round the neck was a talisman against witchcraft, always providing that the bough had not been allowed to touch earth after being gathered.——In the West of England, there is a tradition that the Cross was made of Mistletoe, which, until the time of the Crucifixion, had been a noble forest tree, but was thenceforth condemned to exist only as a mere parasite. Culpeper remarks that it was sometimes calledlignum sanctæ crucis—wood of the holy cross—from a belief in its curative virtues in cases of consumption, apoplexy, and palsy—“not only to be inwardly taken, but to be hung at their neck.”——In Sweden, Oak-Mistletoe is suspended in the house to protect it from fire and other injuries; a knife with an Oak-Mistletoe handle is supposed by the Swedes to ward off the falling sickness: for other complaints, a piece of this plant is hung round the patient’s neck, or made into a finger-ring.MOLY.—The Moly was a magical plant, beneficent in its nature, which Homer tells us, in the ‘Odyssey,’ was given by Mercury to Ulysses to enable him successfully to withstand and overcome the enchantments of the sorceress Circe, and obtain the restoration of his comrades whom the witch-goddess had by her enchantments transformed into swine. Ulysses, distressed at the fate of his companions, was visited by Mercury, who promised to give him a plant of extraordinary powers, which should baffle the spells of Circe;“Thus while he spoke, the sovereign plant he drewWhere on th’ all-bearing earth unmark’d it grew,And show’d its nature and its wondrous power:Black was the root, but milky white the flower;Moly the name, to mortals hard to find,But all is easy to th’ ethereal kind.”—Pope.The Moly is generally supposed to have been a species of Garlick (a plant credited with many magical qualities), and Gerarde, in his ‘Herbal,’ describes several plants under the head of “Moly, or Sorcerer’s Garlick,” one of which he particularises as Homer’s Moly (Moly Homericum). The identity of the plant has, however, long been a matter for speculation among botanists of all ages. Dodonæus, Anguillara, and Cæsalpinus consider it to beAllium magicum; Matthiolus and Clusius,Allium subhirsutum; Sprengel,Allium nigrum; and Sibthorp, a plant which he namesAllium Dioscoridis. Various treatises have appeared on the subject, in one of which the Moly is thought to be identified with the Lotus. Milton, in his ‘Comus,’ mentions a magical plant, designated Hæmony, which possessed similar properties to the Moly, and was potent in dispelling enchantments, ghostly apparations, mildew-blast, and unwholesome vapours.Money Flower.—SeeHonesty.MONK’S HOOD.—Aconitumhas two English names, Monk’s Hood and Wolf’s Bane. The former has been given it from the resemblance of the plant’s upper sepal to the cowl of a monk. The latter is of great antiquity, being the same as that of the Anglo-Saxon. By the ancients (who were unacquainted with mineral poisons) the Aconite was regarded as the most virulent of all poisons, and their mythologists declare it to be the invention of Hecate, who caused the plant to spring from the foam of the many-headed Cerberus, when Hercules dragged him from the gloomy regions of Pluto. The legend is thus told by Ovid:—“Medea, to dispatch a dang’rous heir,(She knew him) did a pois’nous draught prepare,Drawn from a drug, long while reserved in store,For desp’rate uses, from the Scythian shore,That from the Echydnæan monster’s jawsDerived its origin, and this the cause.Through a dark cave a craggy passage liesTo ours ascending from the nether skies,Through which, by strength of hand, Alcides drewChained Cerberus, who lagged and restive grew,With his bleared eyes our brighter day to view.Thrice he repeated his enormous yell,With which he scares the ghosts, and startles hell;At last outrageous (though compelled to yield),He sheds his foam in fury on the field;Which, with its own and rankness of the ground,Produced a weed by sorcerers renownedThe strongest constitution to confound—Called Aconite, because it can unlockAll bars, and force its passage through a rock.”With this venomous plant the ancients were wont to poison their arrow-heads when engaged in war and also when in pursuit of wild beasts. As a poison, it had a sinister reputation. Ovid was of opinion that theAconitumderived its name from growing onrocks almost barren; and he describes, in his ‘Iron Age,’ the step-dame occupied in preparing a deadly potion of this plant:—“Lurida terribiles miscent Aconita novercæ.”In Greece, the Wolf’s Bane is credited with many malignant influences, and the fevers so common in the neighbourhood of Corinth were attributed to it. Until the Turks were dispossessed, the Aga proceeded every year in solemn procession to denounce it and hand it over to destruction.——In North India, a species,Aconitum ferox, is used as a poison for arrows—the poison which is obtained from the roots being of remarkable virulence and activity when infused into the blood.MOON DAISY.—TheChrysanthemum Leucanthemum, a large Daisy-like flower, resembles the pictures of a full moon, and on this account has acquired the name of Moon Daisy. From its use in uterine diseases, this plant was dedicated by the ancients to Artemis, goddess of the Moon, Juno Lucina, and Eileithuia, a deity who had special charge over the functions of women—an office afterwards assigned by the Romish Church to St. Mary Magdalene and St. Margaret. Hence, in the Middle Ages, the Moon Daisy became known as Maudelyne or Maudlin-wort.——The plant is also called the Ox-eye and Midsummer Daisy; and in France, this flower, known as thePaquerette, is employed, like the Bluet, as a divining-flower, to discover the state of a lover’s affections.——The Midsummer Daisy is dedicated to St. John the Baptist.MOONWORT.—The FernBotrychium Lunariahas derived its name of Moonwort from the crescent shape of the segments of its frond. Perhaps it is this lunar form which has caused it to be so highly esteemed for its supposed magical properties. The old alchymists professed to be able, by means of the Moonwort, which they calledLunaria minor, or Lesser Lunary, to extract sterling silver from Mercury. By wizards and professors of necromancy no plant was held in greater repute, and its potency is attested by many old writers. Gerarde refers to the use made by the alchymists of this Fern in those mystic compounds over which they pored night and day, and he also states that it was a plant prized by witches, who called it Martagon. In Ben Jonson’s ‘Masque of Queens,’ a witch says to her companions:—“And I ha’ been plucking plants amongHemlock, Henbane, Adder’s-tongue;Nightshade, Moonwort, Libbard’s-bane,And twice by the dogs was like to be ta’en.”Coles, referring to the mystical character of the Moonwort, observes: “It is said, yea, and believed by many, that Moonwort will open the locks, fetters, and shoes from those horses’ feet that goe on the places where it groweth; and of this opinion was Master Culpeper, who, though he railed against superstition in others, yethad enough of it himselfe.” Du Bartas, in his ‘Divine Weekes,’ thus refers to this superstition—“Horses that, feeding on the grassie hills,Tread upon Moonwort with their hollow heels,Though lately shod, at night goe barefoot home,Their maister musing where their shooes become.O Moonwort! tell us where thou hidst the smith,Hammer and pincers, thou unshodd’st them with.Alas! what lock or iron engine is’tThat can thy subtill secret strength resist,Sith the best farrier cannot set a shoeSo sure, but thou (so shortly) canst undo?”Culpeper tell us that the Moonwort was a herb which, in his days, was popularly believed to open locks and unshoe horses that trod on it. “This,” he adds, “some laugh to scorn, and those 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 horse-shoes, pulled off from 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; and the herb described usually grows upon the heaths.”—In Virginia, theBotrychium Lunariais called the Rattle-snake Fern, because that reptile shelters itself beneath its fronds.MOSS.—TheSifjar haddr, or Hair Moss (Polytrichum commune), which supplies the Lapp with bedding, is dedicated to Sif, the wife of Thor. TheSupercilium Venerisis Freyja’s hair.—The good fairies called by the GermansMoosweibchenare represented as being entirely covered with Moss. They live in the hollows of forest trees, or on the soft Moss itself. These beneficent fairies of the forest spin soft Moss of various kinds, which they weave into beautiful fabrics, and, according to their custom, occasionally make handsome presents to their protégés.——There is a legend that Oswald, King of Northumbria, erected a certain cross, which, after his decease, acquired miraculous properties. One day, a man who was walking across the ice towards this venerated cross, suddenly fell and broke his arm; a friend who was accompanying him, in dire distress at the mishap, hurried to the cross, and plucked from it some Moss, which was growing on the surface. Then, hastening back to his friend, he placed the Moss in his breast, when the pain miraculously ceased, and the broken arm became set, and was soon restored to use.——TheBryumMoss, which grows all over the walls of Jerusalem, is supposed to be the plant referred to by Solomon as “the Hyssop that groweth out of the wall.”——According to tradition, headache is to be removed by means of snuff made from the Moss which grows on a human skull in a churchyard; and Gerarde says that this Moss is “a singular remedie against the falling evill and the chin-cough in children, if it be powdered, and then given in sweet wine for certain daies together.” Robert Turner tells us of thisMoss that it is “a principal ingredient in the Weapon Salve; but the receipt is, it should be taken from the skull of one who died a violent death.”——The dust from the spore cases of Club-Moss is highly inflammable, and is used in fireworks; it is theBlitz-mehl, or lightning-meal, of the Germans. (SeeClub-Moss.)MOSS ROSE.—The country of the Moss Rose or Moss Provins Rose (Rosa Muscosa) is unknown, but the origin of its mossy vest is thus given by a German writer:—“The angel of the flowers one dayBeneath a Rose-tree sleeping lay;That spirit to whose charge is givenTo bathe young buds in dews from heaven;Awaking from his light repose,The angel whispered to the Rose;‘O fondest object of my care,Still fairest found where all are fair,For the sweet shade thou’st given to meAsk what thou wilt, ’tis granted thee.’‘Then’ said the Rose, with deepened glow,‘On me another grace bestow:’The spirit paused in silent thoughtWhat grace was there that flower had not?’Twas but a moment: o’er the RoseA veil of Moss the angel throws,And robed in Nature’s simplest weed,Could then a flower that Rose exceed?”The Moss Rose is one of the flowers specially plucked at the fall of the dew on Midsummer Eve for the purposes of love divination. This rite of rustic maidens is fully described in the poem of ‘The Cottage Girl’:—“The Moss Rose that, at fall of dew,Ere eve its duskier curtain drew,Was freshly gathered from its stem,She values as the ruby gem;And, guarded from the piercing air,With all an anxious lover’s care,She bids it, for her shepherd’s sake,Await the New Year’s frolic wake:When, faded, in its altered hueShe reads—the rustic is untrue!But if its leaves the crimson paint,Her sick’ning hopes no longer faint;The Rose upon her bosom worn,She meets him at the peep of morn.”MOTHERWORT.—According to Parkinson, the Motherwort (Leonurus Cardiaca) was so called from its being “of wonderful helpe to women in the risings of the mother;” its name ofCardiacawas given because the herb was formerly noted for curing not only heartburn but the mental disorder known as heart-ache.——In Japan, the Motherwort is in great estimation. In bygone times it is related that to the north of the province of Nanyo-no-rekken, there was a village situated near a hill covered with Motherwort.At the foot of the hill, fed by the dew and rains that trickled down its sides, ran a stream of pure water, which formed the ordinary beverage of the villagers, who generally lived till they had attained an age varying from a hundred to a hundred and thirty years. Thus the people ascribe to the Motherwort the property of prolonging life. At the Court of the Cairi, the ecclesiastical potentate of Japan, it is a favourite amusement to drinkzakki, a kind of strong beer prepared from Motherwort-flowers. The Japanese have five grand festivals in the course of the year. The last, which takes place on the 9th of the 9th month, is called the Festival of Motherwort; and the month itself is namedKikousouki, or month of Motherwort-flowers. It was formerly the custom to gather these flowers as soon as they had opened, and to mix them with boiled rice, from which they prepared thezakkiused in celebrating the festival. In the houses of the common people, instead of this beverage, you find a branch of the flowers fastened with a string to a pitcher full of commonzakki, which implies that they wish one another a long life. The origin of this festival is as follows:—An emperor of China who succeeded to the throne at seven years of age, was disturbed by a prediction that he would die before he attained the age of fifteen. An immortal having brought to him, from Nanyo-no-rekken, a present of some Motherwort-flowers, he causedzakkito be made from them, which he drank every day, and lived upwards of seventy years. This immortal had been in his youth in the service of the Emperor, under the name of Zido. Being banished for some misdemeanour, he took up his residence in the valley before mentioned, drinking nothing but the water impregnated with these flowers, and lived to the age of three hundred years, whence he obtained the name ofSien-nin-foso.MOUSE-EAR.—The plant now known as Forget-me-not, was formerly called Mouse-Ear, from its small, soft, oval leaves. It is calledHerba Clavorum, because, according to tradition, it hinders the smith from hurting horses when he is shoeing them.MULBERRY.—According to tradition, the fruit of the Mulberry-tree was originally white, but became empurpled by human blood. Referring to the introduction of the Mulberry by the Greeks, Rapin writes:—“Hence Pyramus and Thisbe’s mingled bloodOn Mulberries their purple dye bestowed.In Babylon the tale was told to proveThe fatal error of forbidden love.”This tale of forbidden love is narrated at length by Ovid: Pyramus, a youth of Babylon, and his neighbour, Thisbe, became mutually enamoured, but were prohibited by their parents from marrying; they therefore agreed to meet at the tomb of Ninus, under a white Mulberry-tree. Thisbe reached the trysting-place first, but was compelled to seek safety in a cave, owing to the arrival of a lioness,who besmeared with blood a veil which the virgin dropped in her flight. Soon afterwards Pyramus reached the spot, and finding the bloody veil, concluded that Thisbe had been torn to pieces. Overcome with grief, he stabbed himself with his sword; and Thisbe, shortly returning, and beholding her lover in his death throes, threw herself upon the fatal weapon. With her last breath she prayed that her ashes should be mingled with her lover’s in one urn, and that the fruit of the white Mulberry-tree, under which the tragedy occurred, should bear witness of their constancy by ever after assuming the colour of their blood.“The prayer which dying Thisbe had preferredBoth gods and parents with compassion heard.The whiteness of the Mulberry soon fled,And ripening, saddened in a dusky red;While both their parents their lost children mourn,And mix their ashes in one golden urn.”—Eusden.Lord Bacon tells us that in Calabria Manna falls upon the leaves of Mulberry-trees during the night, from whence it is afterwards collected.——Pliny called the Mulberry the wisest of trees, because it is late in unfolding its leaves, and thus escapes the dangerous frosts of early spring. To this day, in Gloucestershire, the country folks have a saying that after the Mulberry-tree has shown its green leaves there will be no more frost.——At Gioiosa, in Sicily, on the day of St. Nicholas that saint is believed to bless the sea and the land, and the populace sever a branch from a Mulberry-tree and preserve it for one year as a branch of good augury.——In Germany, at Iserlohn, the mothers, to deter the children from eating the Mulberries, sing to them that the Devil requires them for the purpose of blacking his boots.——According to Gerarde, “Hegesander, inAthenæus, affirmeth that the Mulberry-tree in his time did not bring forth fruit in twenty yeares together, and that so great a plague of the gout then raigned, and raged so generally, as not onely men, but boies, wenches, eunuches, and women were troubled with that disease.”——A Mulberry-tree, planted by Milton in the garden of Christ’s College, Cambridge, has been reverentially preserved by successive college gardeners. The Mulberry planted by Shakspeare in Stratford-on-Avon was recklessly cut down in 1759; but ten years later, when the freedom of the town was presented to Garrick, the document was enclosed in a casket made from the wood of the tree. A cup was also wrought from it, and at the Shakspeare Jubilee, Garrick, holding this cup aloft, sang the following lines composed by himself:—“Behold this fair goblet, ’twas carved from the treeWhich, O my sweet Shakspeare, was planted by thee;As a relic I kiss it, and bow at the shrine;What comes from thy hand must be ever divine!All shall yield to the Mulberry-tree;Bend to the blest Mulberry;Matchless was he who planted thee;And thou, like him, immortal shall be.”To dream of Mulberries is of good import: they denote marriage, many children, and all sorts of prosperity: they are particularly favourable to sailors and farmers.——Among the hill tribes of Burmah, the Mulberry-tree is regarded as sacred, and receives a kind of worship.——A Chinese folk-lore tale records that in the Tse dynasty, one Chang Ching, going out at night, saw a woman in the south corner of his house. She beckoned him to come to her, and said: “This is your honour’s Mulberry-ground, and I am a shên (fairy); if you will make next year, in the middle of the first moon, some thick congee and present it to me, I will engage to make your Mulberry-trees a hundred times more productive.” Ching made the congee, and afterwards had a great crop of silkworms. Hence came the Chinese custom of making thickened congee on the fifteenth of the first month.MULLEIN.—The Mullein (Verbascum) was formerly employed by wizards and witches in their incantations. The plant is known as the Flannel-flower from its stem and large leaves being covered with wool, which is often plucked off for tinder. The Great Mullein (V. Thapsus) was called by the old RomansCandela regia, andCandelaria, because they used the stalks dipped in suet to burn at funerals, or as torches; the modern Romans call the plant Light of the Lord. In England, the White Mullein was termed Candle-week-flower; and the Great Mullein’s tall tapering spikes of yellow flowers suggested, at a period when candles were burnt in churches, the old names of Torches, Hedge-taper, High-taper, and Hig-taper, which became corrupted into Hag-taper, from a belief that witches employed the plant in working their spells.——The little Moth Mullein (V. Blattaria) derives its specific name fromblatta, a cockroach, it being particularly disliked by that troublesome insect. Gerarde explains its English prefix by stating that moths and butterflies, and all other small flies and bats, resort to the place where these herbs are laid or strewed.——Mullein is known by country people as Bullock’s Lungwort, a decoction of the leaves being considered very efficacious in cases of cough: probably we are indebted to the Romans for this specific, for they attributed extraordinary properties to the Mullein as a remedy for coughs. (See alsoHag-taper).MUGWORT.—The old Latin name for this species of Wormwood wasArtemisia, mater herbarum; and, according to Gerarde, the plant was so named after Artemisia, the wife of Mausolus, King of Caria, who adopted it for her own herb.“Thatwith the yellow crown, named from the queenWho built the Mausoleum.”—Smith’s ‘Amarynthus.’Other authorities say thatArtemisiais derived from Artemis, one of the names of Diana, and that the plant was named after that goddess, on account of its being used in bringing on precocious puberty. Among the ancients, the Mugwort had a reputation forefficacy in the relief of female disorders. It was also used for the purpose of incantations. Pliny says that the wayfarer having this herb tied about him feels no fatigue, and that he who hath it about him can be hurt by no poisonous medicines, nor by any wild beast, nor even by the sun itself. Apuleius adds that it drives away lurking devils and neutralises the effect of the evil eye of men. The plant was also considered a charm against the ague.—T—here is an old Scotch legend which tells how a mermaid of the Firth of Clyde, upon seeing the funeral of a young girl who had died of consumption, exclaimed—“If they wad drink Nettles in March,And eat Muggins [Mugwort] in May,Sae mony braw maidensWad not go to clay.”In Italy, there is still a superstitious custom extant of consulting Mugwort as to the probable ending of an illness. Some leaves of Mugwort are placed beneath the pillow of the patient without his knowledge. If he falls asleep quickly, his recovery is certain: if he is unable to sleep, it is a sign that he will die.——Mugwort is one of the plants associated with St. John the Baptist, and is, indeed, called the Herb of St. John in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany, and Holland. There is a curious superstition regarding it which is related by Lupton in his ‘Notable Things.’ He says:—“It is certainly commonly affirmed that, on Midsummer Eve, there is found under the root of Mugwort a coal which keeps safe from the plague, carbuncle, lightning, and the quartan ague, them that bear the same about them: and Mizaldus, the writer hereof, saith that it is to be found the same day under the root of Plantain, which I know for a truth, for I have found them the same day under the root of Plantain, which is especially and chiefly to be found at noon.” Paul Barbette, writing in 1675, says, these coals were old dead roots, and that it was a superstition that “old dead roots ought to be pulled up on the Eve of St. John the Baptist, about twelve at night.”——In some parts of England, girls pull a certain root which grows under Mugwort, and which, they believe, if pulled exactly at midnight, on the eve of St. John, and placed under the pillow, will cause dreams of the future husband.——De Gubernatis tells us that, in Sicily, on the eve of the Ascension, the women of Avola form crosses of Mugwort, and place them on the roofs of their houses, believing that, during the night, Jesus Christ, as He re-ascends to heaven, will bless them. They preserve these crosses of Mugwort for a year. Placed in stables, they are believed to possess the power of taming unmanageable animals.——The same author gives the following legends:—In the district of Starodubsk, Russia, on the day of the Exaltation of the Cross, a young girl was searching for Mushrooms in a forest, when she saw a number of serpents curled up. She endeavoured to retrace her steps, but fell into a deep pit, which was the abode of theserpents. The pit was dark, but at the bottom she found a luminous stone; the serpents were hungry; the queen of the golden-horned serpents guided them to the luminous stone, and the serpents licked it, and satisfied their hunger; the young girl did the same, and remained in the pit until Spring. On the arrival of Spring, the serpents interlaced themselves in such a manner as to form a ladder on which the young girl ascended to the mouth of the pit. But in taking her leave of the queen of the serpents, she received, as a parting gift, the power of understanding the language of plants, and of knowing their medicinal properties, on the condition that she should never name the Mugwort, orTchornobil(that which was black): if she pronounced that word, she would forget all that she had come to know. The damsel soon understood all that the plants talked about; but, one day, a man suddenly asked her, “What is the plant which grows in the fields by the side of the little footpaths?” Taken by surprise, the girl replied,Tchornobil; and, at the same moment, all her knowledge forsook her. From that time, it is said, the Mugwort obtained the additional name ofZabytko, or the Herb of Forgetfulness.——In Little Russia, Mugwort has obtained the name ofBech, which has a legendary etymology. The story goes, that the Devil had, one day, offended his brother, the Cossack Sabba, who took him and bound him, saying he should remain a prisoner until he did him some great service. Soon afterwards, a troop of Poles arrived in the neighbourhood, and began to make merry at a rustic feast, leaving their horses to graze. The Cossack Sabba wished to seize their horses, and promised the Devil his liberty if he would aid him to accomplish his object. The Devil despatched certain demons to the fields where the horses were feeding, who caused Mugwort to spring up. As the horses trotted away, the plant moaned “Bech,Bech”: and now, whenever a horse treads on the Mugwort, recollecting the horses of the Poles, the plant always moans, “Bech,Bech”; hence, the name which has been given to it in the Ukraine.——The Japanese manufactured a kind of tinder, called Moxa, from the dried leaves of Mugwort, and, according to Thunberg, twice in a year, men and women, young and old, rich and poor, were indiscriminately burnt with it, either to prevent disorders, or to cure rheumatism, &c.——Astrologers state that Mugwort is a herb of Venus.MUSHROOM.—On account of their apparently spontaneous generation, Porphyrius calls Mushrooms sons of the gods.——In Indo-European mythology, the Sun-hero is represented as sometimes hiding under a Mushroom. He also appears as King of the Peas, and in a Russian legend, in this capacity, gives battle to the Mushroom tribes.——In Wales, the poisonous Mushroom is calledBwyd Ellyllon, or the meat of the goblins.——In many parts of England it is believed that the changes of the mooninfluence the growth of Mushrooms, and in Essex there is an old saying that“When the moon is at the full,Mushrooms you may freely pull;But when the moon is on the wane,Wait ere you think to pluck again.”There is an old belief that Mushrooms which grow near iron, copper, or other metals, are poisonous; the same idea is found in the custom of putting a piece of metal in the water used for boiling Mushrooms, in order that it should attract and detach any poison from the Mushrooms, and thus render them innocuous.——Bacon characterises Mushrooms as “venereous meat,” but Gerarde remarks that “few of them are good to be eaten, and most of them do suffocate and strangle the eater. Therefore, I give my advice unto those that love such strange and new-fangled meates, to beware of licking honey among thornes, least the sweetnesse of the one do not countervaile the sharpnesse and pricking of the other.”——The Burman, if he comes across Mushrooms at the beginning of a journey, considers it as a most fortunate omen.——Dream oracles state that Mushrooms forbode fleeting happiness; and that to dream of gathering them indicates a lack of attachment on the part of lover or consort.MUSTARD.—Among the Jews, “Small as a grain of Mustard-seed” was a common comparison; and our Saviour referred to it as being “the least of all seeds; but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof” (Matthew xiii., 31, 32). The Mustard-tree here alluded to is not, however, the English Mustard (Sinapis nigra), but a tree called by the ArabsKhardal(Salvadora Persica), a tree with numerous branches, among which birds may take shelter, while the seed is exceedingly small. In the north-west of India, this plant is known asKharjal.——One of the Sanscrit names given to the Mustard-tree is the She-devil or Witch. By means of the seed the Hindus discover witches. During the night they light lamps and fill certain vessels with water, into which they gently drop Mustard-seed oil, pronouncing the while the name of every woman in the village. If, during this ceremony, as they pronounce the name of a woman, they notice the shadow of a female in the water, it is a sure sign that such woman is a witch.——In India, the Mustard-seed symbolises generation: thus, in the Hindu myth of the ‘Rose of Bakawali,’ the king of Ceylon destroys the temple in which the nymph Bakawali is incarcerated; having been condemned by Indra to remain there transformed into marble for the space of twelve years. A husbandman ploughs over the site of this temple, and sows a Mustard-seed. In course of time the Mustard ripens, is gathered, pressed, boiled, and the oil extracted. According to the custom of his class, the husbandman first tastes it, and then his wife: immediately she, whobefore had been childless, conceives, and nine months afterwards gives to the world a daughter (Bakawali), beauteous as a fairy.MYROBALAN.—The Myrobalan Plum-tree produces a fruit similar to a Cherry, but containing only a juice of so disagreeable a flavour that the very birds refuse to feed upon it: the fruit, however, is much employed in Indian medicines. According to Hindu tradition, the wife of Somaçarman struck twice with a wand a Myrobalan-tree, whereupon the tree rose from the earth with her, and carrying her away, at last placed her on a golden hill in a golden town.MYRRH.—Myrrh is an exudation from the treeBalsamodendron Myrrha; but the precious resin was held by the ancients to have been first produced by the tears of Myrrha, daughter of Cinyras, King of Cyprus, and mother of Adonis. Flying from the avenging sword of her father, for whom she had conceived an incestuous passion, the guilty Myrrha, after long and weary wanderings, reached the Arabian continent, and at length, in the Sabæan fields, overcome with fatigue and the misery of her situation, prayed with her dying breath to the gods to accept her penitence and to bestow upon her, as a punishment for her sin, a middle state “betwixt the realms above and those below.” “Some other form,” cries she, “to wretched Myrrha give, nor let her wholly die, nor wholly live.”“The prayers of penitents are never vain;At least she did her last request obtain.For while she spake the ground began to riseAnd gathered round her feet, her legs, and thighs;Her toes in roots descend, and, spreading wide,A firm foundation for the trunk provide:Her solid bones convert to solid wood,To pith her marrow, and to sap her blood:Her arms are boughs, her fingers change their kind,Her tender skin is hardened into rind.And now the rising tree her womb invests,Now, shooting upwards still, invades her breastsAnd shades her neck; when, weary with delay,She sunk her head within, and met it half the way.And though with outward shape she lost her sense,With bitter tears she wept her last offence;And still she weeps, nor sheds her tears in vain,For still the precious drops her name retain.”—Dryden.Myrrh is one of the ingredients of the sacred ointment or oil of the Jews, with which were anointed the Tabernacle, the Ark, the altars, and the sacred vessels (Exodus xxx.) It was also used to consecrate Aaron and his sons. The purification of women, as ordained by the Jewish law, lasted one year; the first six months being accomplished with oil of Myrrh, and the rest with other sweet odours. After our Lord’s death, Nicodemus brought a mixture of Myrrh and Aloes, about an hundred pounds weight, that his body might be embalmed.——Myrrh formed part of the celebratedKuphiof the Egyptians—a preparation used in fumigations andembalmings. At thefêteof Isis, which was celebrated with great magnificence, they sacrificed an ox filled with Myrrh and other aromatics. This ancient people delighted in displays of perfumes: in a religious procession which took place under one of the Ptolemies, marched one hundred and twenty children, carrying incense, Myrrh, and Saffron in golden basins, followed by a number of camels bearing precious aromatics.——At Heliopolis, the city of the sun, where the great luminary was worshipped under the name of Re, incense was burnt to him thrice a day,—resin at his rising, Myrrh when in the meridian, and the compound calledKuphiat his setting. In the temples of Isis similar rites were observed. According to Herodotus, powdered Myrrh formed one of the principal ingredients inserted in the bodies of mummies.——The Persian kings usually wore on their heads crowns composed of Myrrh and Labyzus.——In mediæval times, it was customary for the king to make an oblation on Twelfth Day. In pursuance of this custom, we read that so late as 1762 George III. made the usual offering at the Chapel Royal, of gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh—the gifts of the Magi, offered to the infant Saviour at Bethlehem; the gold typifying king; Frankincense, God; and Myrrh, man.MYRTLE.—The father, mother, and brothers of Myrene, a beautiful Grecian, were murdered by robbers, who despoiled their home, and carried Myrene away. She escaped, however, and on her return was made a priestess of Venus. On the occasion of a festival, she discovered one of the assassins of her family, who was seized, and disclosed the hiding-place of his confederates. Myrene’s lover promised that, if she would yield him her hand, he would bring the rest of the band to punishment. He was successful, and received his promised reward; but Venus, offended at being deprived of her favourite priestess, caused the bridegroom to expire suddenly, and changed the bride into the Myrtle, which she ordained, as a proof of her affection, should continue green and odoriferous throughout the year. The Myrtle became, therefore, an especial favourite with Venus. Reputed to possess the virtue not only of creating love, but of preserving it, it was, both by the Greeks and Romans, considered symbolic of love, and was appropriately consecrated to Venus, the goddess of love, around whose temples groves of Myrtle were planted. It was behind a Myrtle-bush in the island of Cythera, that Venus sought shelter when disturbed at her bath by a band of Satyrs; with Myrtle she caused Psyche to be chastised for daring to compare her charms with the heaven-born beauty of her mother-in-law; and with Myrtle the goddess selected to deck her lovely brows when Paris adjudged to her the golden Apple—the prize for supremacy of beauty: hence the shrub was deemed odious to Juno and Minerva. Because she presided over the Myrtle, Venus was worshipped under the name of Myrtea, and had a temple dedicated to her under that appellation at the foot of Mount Aventine. It is probable that the Myrtle was dedicated toVenus because of its fondness for the sea—from the foam of which the goddess sprang, and was wafted by the Zephyrs to the shore, where she was received by the Horæ, and crowned with Myrtle. Myrtle chaplets were worn by her attendants, the Graces, and by her votaries when sacrificing to her. During her festivals in April, married couples (her protégés) were decked with Myrtle wreaths. The Myrtle of which the nuptial crowns were composed was theMyrtus latifoliaof Pliny, called by CatoMyrtus conjugula.——The Myrtle was adopted by Minerva and Mars; the priests of the latter deity being sometimes crowned with it. The plant was also associated with Hymen, the son of Venus, and the Muse Erato, whose chaplet was composed of Roses and Myrtle. It sometimes symbolised unchaste love. In the festivals of Myrrha, the incestuous mother of Adonis, the married women crowned themselves with Myrtle. Virgil represents the victims of love in the infernal regions hiding themselves behind bunches of Myrtle. At the festival of the Bona Dea at Rome, where all other flowers and shrubs might be used, Myrtle was forbidden to be placed on the altar, because it encouraged sensual gratification.——The Greeks were extremely partial to the Myrtle. At their most sacred festival, the Eleusinian mysteries, the initiates, as well as the high priest, who officiated at the altar of Ceres, were crowned with Myrtle. The Athenian magistrates wore chaplets of the fragrant shrub in token of their authority; and bloodless victors entwined Myrtle with their Laurel wreaths. When Aristogiton and Harmodius set forth to free their country from the tyranny of the Pisistratidæ, their swords were wreathed with Myrtle.——With the Romans, the Myrtle was a highly-esteemed plant, and invariably expressive of triumph and joy. It also symbolised festivity, and, when steeped in wine, was supposed to impart to it invigorating qualities. On the 1st of April, Roman ladies, after bathing beneath the Myrtle-trees, crowned themselves with the leaves, and proceeded to the shrine of Venus to offer sacrifice. The Roman bridegroom decked himself with Myrtle on his bridal day; and the hero wore it as a badge of victory, and sometimes interweaved it with Laurel in honour of Venus and Mars. When the Romans fought to guard the captured Sabine women, they wore chaplets of Myrtle on their heads, and, according to Pliny, after the combatants had at length become reconciled, they laid down their weapons under a Myrtle, and purified themselves with its boughs. The tree was sacred to the Sabine Mars Quirinus; and two Myrtles stood before his temple, as two Laurels stood before the temple of the Roman Mars, symbolising the union of the Roman and Sabine peoples.——The Romans crowned themselves with Myrtle after a victory, but only when blood had not been shed.——Pliny relates that Romulus planted in Rome two Myrtles, one of which became the favourite of the patricians, the other of the people. When the nobles won, the people’s Myrtle drooped; when, on the other hand, the people were victorious,the patricians’ Myrtle withered. As a charm to ensure a successful journey, Roman pedestrians were accustomed to procure and wear a Myrtle wreath.——At Temnos, in Asia Minor, there is a statue in Myrtle-wood consecrated by Pelops to Venus, as a thank-offering for his marriage with Hippodamia. After the death of Hippolytus, Phædra, maddened with passionate grief, pricked innumerable small holes in the leaves of a Myrtle with a hair-pin. The geographer Pausanias states that this Myrtle was in his time to be seen near the tomb of Phædra at Trœzen.——The same writer relates that a Myrtle which had been the hiding place of a hare was selected by Diana to mark the site of a new city.——With the Jews, the Myrtle is a symbol of peace, and is often so referred to in the Old Testament, notably by Nehemiah and the prophets Zechariah and Isaiah. A variety, called the Broad-leaved Jew’s Myrtle, is held in especial veneration, and is frequently used in Hebrew religious ceremonies. Branches of this and other Evergreens are used in the erection of their tents at the Feast of Tabernacles. At Aleppo, these tabernacles are made by fastening to the corner of a wooden divan four slender posts as supports to a diaper-work of green Reeds on all sides, leaving only a space in front for the entrance, which on the outside is covered with fresh Myrtle. Jewish maidens were wont to be decked with a bridal wreath of Myrtle; but this wreath was never worn by a widow, or by divorced women. This custom is still retained in Germany, where the bride is adorned with a Myrtle wreath.——The Oriental nations are extremely partial to the Myrtle, and there is a tradition among the Arabs that, when Adam was expelled from Paradise, he brought the Myrtle with him, as being the choicest of fragrant flowers.——It is a popular belief in Somersetshire, that, in order to ensure its taking root, it is necessary when planting a sprig of Myrtle, to spread the skirt of your garment, and to look proud. In the same county, there is a saying that “the flowering Myrtle is the luckiest plant to have in your window, water it every morning, and be proud of it.”——In Greece, there is a superstitious notion that no one should pass near an odoriferous Myrtle without gathering a perfumed bunch; indifference to the attractions of Myrtle being considered a sign of impotence and death.——In the allegories of Azz Eddin, the Rose says that the Myrtle is the prince of odoriferous plants.——Rapin calls the Myrtle “of celestial race,” and in his poem has the following lines on it:—
“Thou knave, but for thee ere this time of dayMy lady’s fair pew had been strewed full gayWith Primroses, Cowslips, and Violets sweet,With Mints, and with Marygold and Marjoram meet,Which now lyeth uncleanly, and all along of thee.”
“Thou knave, but for thee ere this time of dayMy lady’s fair pew had been strewed full gayWith Primroses, Cowslips, and Violets sweet,With Mints, and with Marygold and Marjoram meet,Which now lyeth uncleanly, and all along of thee.”
“Thou knave, but for thee ere this time of day
My lady’s fair pew had been strewed full gay
With Primroses, Cowslips, and Violets sweet,
With Mints, and with Marygold and Marjoram meet,
Which now lyeth uncleanly, and all along of thee.”
Among the women of the Abruzzi there exists a curious superstition. If, whilst walking, they should chance to come across a plant of Mint, they will bruise a leaf between their fingers, in order to ensure that, on the day of their death, Jesus Christ will assist them.——In Holstein, at the funeral of peasants, Mint is carried by youths attending the ceremony.——Pliny was of opinion that “the smell of Mint doth stir up the minde and taste to a greedy desire of meat;” and other old writers state that Mint should be smelled, as being refreshing for the head and memory; probably on this account it was formerly a custom to strew it “in chambers and places of recreation, pleasure, and repose, and when feasts and banquets are to be made.” Gerarde says of this herb:—“It is poured into the eares with honied water. It is taken inwardly against scolopendres, beare-wormes, sea scorpions and serpents. It is applied with salt to the bitings of mad dogs.”
MISTLETOE.—According to Scandinavian mythology, Baldr (the Apollo of the North) was rendered by his mother Frîgg proof against all injury by the four elements, fire, air, earth, and water: Loki, the evil spirit, however, being at enmity with him, fashioned an arrow out of Mistletoe (which proceeded from neither of the elements), and placed it in the hand of Hödr, the blind deity, who launched the fatal dart at Baldr, and struck him to the earth. The gods decided to restore Baldr to life, and as a reparation for his injury, the Mistletoe was dedicated to his mother Frîgg; whilst, to prevent its being again used adversely to her, the plant was placed under her sole control so long as it did not touch the earth, the empire of Loki. On this account it has always been customary to suspend Mistletoe from ceilings; and so, whenever persons of opposite sexes pass under it, they give one another the kiss of peace and love, in the full assurance that this plant is no longer an instrument of mischief.——Like the Indian Asvattha, and the Northern Rowan, the Mistletoe was supposed to be the embodiment of lightning: hence its Swiss name,Donnerbesen; and like them, again, it is very generally believed to spring from seed deposited by birds on trees. Some naturalists, indeed, say that the seeds will not vegetate until they have passed through the stomach of a bird, and so recommend that fowls should be caused to eat the seeds, which, after evacuation, should be sown. This old belief in the Mistletoe-seed being sown by birds is referred toby Lord Bacon in his ‘Natural History.’ His lordship says:—“They have an idle tradition that there is a bird called a Missel-bird that feedeth upon a seed which many times she cannot digest, and so expelleth it whole with her excrement, which, falling upon a bough of a tree that hath some rift, putteth forth the Misseltoe.”——In Druidic times, the Mistletoe was regarded as a divine gift of peculiar sanctity, only to be gathered with befitting ceremonies, on the sixth day, or at latest on the sixth night, of the sixth moon after the winter solstice, when their year commenced.——Pliny tells us that “the Druids hold nothing more sacred than the Mistletoe and the tree upon which it is produced, provided it be an Oak. They make choice of groves of Oak on their own account, nor do they perform any of their sacred rites without the leaves of these trees, so one may suppose that for this reason they are called by the Greek etymology Druids, and whatever Mistletoe grows upon the Oak they think is sent from heaven, and is a sign of God Himself as having chosen that tree. This, however, is rarely found, but, when discovered, is treated with great ceremony; they call it by a name which in their language signifies the curer of all ills, and, having duly prepared their feast and sacrifices under the tree, they bring to it two white bulls, whose horns are then for the first time tied; the priest, dressed in a white robe, ascends the tree, and, with a golden pruning-hook, cuts off the Mistletoe, which is received into a whitesagum, or sheet; then they sacrifice the victims, praying that God would bless His own gift to those on whom He has bestowed it.” As the Druids attributed to the Mistletoe marvellous curative properties, they placed it in water, and distributed this water to those who deserved it, to act as a charm against the spells of witches and sorcerers. If any portion of this plant came in contact with the earth, it was considered as ominous of some impending national disaster.——The practice of decorating dwellings with Mistletoe and Holly is undoubtedly of Druidic origin. Dr. Chandler states that, in the times of the Druids, the houses were decked with boughs in order that the spirits of the forest might seek shelter among them during the bleak winds and frosts of winter.——Among the Worcestershire farmers, there is a very ancient custom of taking a bough of Mistletoe, and presenting it to the cow that first calved after New Year’s Day, as this offering is presumed to avert ill-luck from the dairy.——In some provinces of France, they preserved for a long period the custom of gathering the Mistletoe of the Oak, which they regarded as a talisman. Many public documents attest that, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, large gatherings of the country-people took place at the fêtes held in commemoration of the ceremony of the sacred Mistletoe, and which was calledAuguilanneuf(Gui de l’an neuf).——In Holstein, the peasantry call the Mistletoe the “Spectre’s wand,” from the supposition that a branch borne in the hand will enable the holder not only to see ghosts, but to compel them to speak.——The magical properties of the Mistletoeare alluded to by Virgil in hisÆneid, as well as by Ovid and other ancient writers. Albertus Magnus states that the Mistletoe, which the Chaldæans calledLuperax, the GreeksEsifena, and the LatinsViscus Querci, like the herbMartagon(Moonwort), possessed the property of opening all locks. The Druids called it All-heal, and represented it as an antidote to all poisons, and a cure for all diseases. When there were no longer any Druids in England left to gather the holy plant with the customary sacred rites, it was gathered by the people themselves, with a lack of due solemnity, so that, according to Aubrey, this want of reverence met with miraculous punishment. He relates how some ill-advised folk cut the Mistletoe from an Oak, at Norwood, to sell to the London apothecaries: “And one fell lame shortly after; soon after each of the others lost an eye; and a rash fellow, who ventured to fell the Oak itself, broke his leg very shortly afterwards.” At this time, the powder of an Oak-Mistletoe was deemed an infallible cure for epilepsy; and Culpeper, the astrological herbalist, prescribed the leaves and berries of this precious plant, given in powder for forty days together, as a sure panacea for apoplexy, palsy, and falling sickness. Clusius affirmed that a sprig of the sacred plant worn round the neck was a talisman against witchcraft, always providing that the bough had not been allowed to touch earth after being gathered.——In the West of England, there is a tradition that the Cross was made of Mistletoe, which, until the time of the Crucifixion, had been a noble forest tree, but was thenceforth condemned to exist only as a mere parasite. Culpeper remarks that it was sometimes calledlignum sanctæ crucis—wood of the holy cross—from a belief in its curative virtues in cases of consumption, apoplexy, and palsy—“not only to be inwardly taken, but to be hung at their neck.”——In Sweden, Oak-Mistletoe is suspended in the house to protect it from fire and other injuries; a knife with an Oak-Mistletoe handle is supposed by the Swedes to ward off the falling sickness: for other complaints, a piece of this plant is hung round the patient’s neck, or made into a finger-ring.
MOLY.—The Moly was a magical plant, beneficent in its nature, which Homer tells us, in the ‘Odyssey,’ was given by Mercury to Ulysses to enable him successfully to withstand and overcome the enchantments of the sorceress Circe, and obtain the restoration of his comrades whom the witch-goddess had by her enchantments transformed into swine. Ulysses, distressed at the fate of his companions, was visited by Mercury, who promised to give him a plant of extraordinary powers, which should baffle the spells of Circe;
“Thus while he spoke, the sovereign plant he drewWhere on th’ all-bearing earth unmark’d it grew,And show’d its nature and its wondrous power:Black was the root, but milky white the flower;Moly the name, to mortals hard to find,But all is easy to th’ ethereal kind.”—Pope.
“Thus while he spoke, the sovereign plant he drewWhere on th’ all-bearing earth unmark’d it grew,And show’d its nature and its wondrous power:Black was the root, but milky white the flower;Moly the name, to mortals hard to find,But all is easy to th’ ethereal kind.”—Pope.
“Thus while he spoke, the sovereign plant he drew
Where on th’ all-bearing earth unmark’d it grew,
And show’d its nature and its wondrous power:
Black was the root, but milky white the flower;
Moly the name, to mortals hard to find,
But all is easy to th’ ethereal kind.”—Pope.
The Moly is generally supposed to have been a species of Garlick (a plant credited with many magical qualities), and Gerarde, in his ‘Herbal,’ describes several plants under the head of “Moly, or Sorcerer’s Garlick,” one of which he particularises as Homer’s Moly (Moly Homericum). The identity of the plant has, however, long been a matter for speculation among botanists of all ages. Dodonæus, Anguillara, and Cæsalpinus consider it to beAllium magicum; Matthiolus and Clusius,Allium subhirsutum; Sprengel,Allium nigrum; and Sibthorp, a plant which he namesAllium Dioscoridis. Various treatises have appeared on the subject, in one of which the Moly is thought to be identified with the Lotus. Milton, in his ‘Comus,’ mentions a magical plant, designated Hæmony, which possessed similar properties to the Moly, and was potent in dispelling enchantments, ghostly apparations, mildew-blast, and unwholesome vapours.
Money Flower.—SeeHonesty.
MONK’S HOOD.—Aconitumhas two English names, Monk’s Hood and Wolf’s Bane. The former has been given it from the resemblance of the plant’s upper sepal to the cowl of a monk. The latter is of great antiquity, being the same as that of the Anglo-Saxon. By the ancients (who were unacquainted with mineral poisons) the Aconite was regarded as the most virulent of all poisons, and their mythologists declare it to be the invention of Hecate, who caused the plant to spring from the foam of the many-headed Cerberus, when Hercules dragged him from the gloomy regions of Pluto. The legend is thus told by Ovid:—
“Medea, to dispatch a dang’rous heir,(She knew him) did a pois’nous draught prepare,Drawn from a drug, long while reserved in store,For desp’rate uses, from the Scythian shore,That from the Echydnæan monster’s jawsDerived its origin, and this the cause.Through a dark cave a craggy passage liesTo ours ascending from the nether skies,Through which, by strength of hand, Alcides drewChained Cerberus, who lagged and restive grew,With his bleared eyes our brighter day to view.Thrice he repeated his enormous yell,With which he scares the ghosts, and startles hell;At last outrageous (though compelled to yield),He sheds his foam in fury on the field;Which, with its own and rankness of the ground,Produced a weed by sorcerers renownedThe strongest constitution to confound—Called Aconite, because it can unlockAll bars, and force its passage through a rock.”
“Medea, to dispatch a dang’rous heir,(She knew him) did a pois’nous draught prepare,Drawn from a drug, long while reserved in store,For desp’rate uses, from the Scythian shore,That from the Echydnæan monster’s jawsDerived its origin, and this the cause.Through a dark cave a craggy passage liesTo ours ascending from the nether skies,Through which, by strength of hand, Alcides drewChained Cerberus, who lagged and restive grew,With his bleared eyes our brighter day to view.Thrice he repeated his enormous yell,With which he scares the ghosts, and startles hell;At last outrageous (though compelled to yield),He sheds his foam in fury on the field;Which, with its own and rankness of the ground,Produced a weed by sorcerers renownedThe strongest constitution to confound—Called Aconite, because it can unlockAll bars, and force its passage through a rock.”
“Medea, to dispatch a dang’rous heir,
(She knew him) did a pois’nous draught prepare,
Drawn from a drug, long while reserved in store,
For desp’rate uses, from the Scythian shore,
That from the Echydnæan monster’s jaws
Derived its origin, and this the cause.
Through a dark cave a craggy passage lies
To ours ascending from the nether skies,
Through which, by strength of hand, Alcides drew
Chained Cerberus, who lagged and restive grew,
With his bleared eyes our brighter day to view.
Thrice he repeated his enormous yell,
With which he scares the ghosts, and startles hell;
At last outrageous (though compelled to yield),
He sheds his foam in fury on the field;
Which, with its own and rankness of the ground,
Produced a weed by sorcerers renowned
The strongest constitution to confound—
Called Aconite, because it can unlock
All bars, and force its passage through a rock.”
With this venomous plant the ancients were wont to poison their arrow-heads when engaged in war and also when in pursuit of wild beasts. As a poison, it had a sinister reputation. Ovid was of opinion that theAconitumderived its name from growing onrocks almost barren; and he describes, in his ‘Iron Age,’ the step-dame occupied in preparing a deadly potion of this plant:—
“Lurida terribiles miscent Aconita novercæ.”
“Lurida terribiles miscent Aconita novercæ.”
In Greece, the Wolf’s Bane is credited with many malignant influences, and the fevers so common in the neighbourhood of Corinth were attributed to it. Until the Turks were dispossessed, the Aga proceeded every year in solemn procession to denounce it and hand it over to destruction.——In North India, a species,Aconitum ferox, is used as a poison for arrows—the poison which is obtained from the roots being of remarkable virulence and activity when infused into the blood.
MOON DAISY.—TheChrysanthemum Leucanthemum, a large Daisy-like flower, resembles the pictures of a full moon, and on this account has acquired the name of Moon Daisy. From its use in uterine diseases, this plant was dedicated by the ancients to Artemis, goddess of the Moon, Juno Lucina, and Eileithuia, a deity who had special charge over the functions of women—an office afterwards assigned by the Romish Church to St. Mary Magdalene and St. Margaret. Hence, in the Middle Ages, the Moon Daisy became known as Maudelyne or Maudlin-wort.——The plant is also called the Ox-eye and Midsummer Daisy; and in France, this flower, known as thePaquerette, is employed, like the Bluet, as a divining-flower, to discover the state of a lover’s affections.——The Midsummer Daisy is dedicated to St. John the Baptist.
MOONWORT.—The FernBotrychium Lunariahas derived its name of Moonwort from the crescent shape of the segments of its frond. Perhaps it is this lunar form which has caused it to be so highly esteemed for its supposed magical properties. The old alchymists professed to be able, by means of the Moonwort, which they calledLunaria minor, or Lesser Lunary, to extract sterling silver from Mercury. By wizards and professors of necromancy no plant was held in greater repute, and its potency is attested by many old writers. Gerarde refers to the use made by the alchymists of this Fern in those mystic compounds over which they pored night and day, and he also states that it was a plant prized by witches, who called it Martagon. In Ben Jonson’s ‘Masque of Queens,’ a witch says to her companions:—
“And I ha’ been plucking plants amongHemlock, Henbane, Adder’s-tongue;Nightshade, Moonwort, Libbard’s-bane,And twice by the dogs was like to be ta’en.”
“And I ha’ been plucking plants amongHemlock, Henbane, Adder’s-tongue;Nightshade, Moonwort, Libbard’s-bane,And twice by the dogs was like to be ta’en.”
“And I ha’ been plucking plants among
Hemlock, Henbane, Adder’s-tongue;
Nightshade, Moonwort, Libbard’s-bane,
And twice by the dogs was like to be ta’en.”
Coles, referring to the mystical character of the Moonwort, observes: “It is said, yea, and believed by many, that Moonwort will open the locks, fetters, and shoes from those horses’ feet that goe on the places where it groweth; and of this opinion was Master Culpeper, who, though he railed against superstition in others, yethad enough of it himselfe.” Du Bartas, in his ‘Divine Weekes,’ thus refers to this superstition—
“Horses that, feeding on the grassie hills,Tread upon Moonwort with their hollow heels,Though lately shod, at night goe barefoot home,Their maister musing where their shooes become.O Moonwort! tell us where thou hidst the smith,Hammer and pincers, thou unshodd’st them with.Alas! what lock or iron engine is’tThat can thy subtill secret strength resist,Sith the best farrier cannot set a shoeSo sure, but thou (so shortly) canst undo?”
“Horses that, feeding on the grassie hills,Tread upon Moonwort with their hollow heels,Though lately shod, at night goe barefoot home,Their maister musing where their shooes become.O Moonwort! tell us where thou hidst the smith,Hammer and pincers, thou unshodd’st them with.Alas! what lock or iron engine is’tThat can thy subtill secret strength resist,Sith the best farrier cannot set a shoeSo sure, but thou (so shortly) canst undo?”
“Horses that, feeding on the grassie hills,
Tread upon Moonwort with their hollow heels,
Though lately shod, at night goe barefoot home,
Their maister musing where their shooes become.
O Moonwort! tell us where thou hidst the smith,
Hammer and pincers, thou unshodd’st them with.
Alas! what lock or iron engine is’t
That can thy subtill secret strength resist,
Sith the best farrier cannot set a shoe
So sure, but thou (so shortly) canst undo?”
Culpeper tell us that the Moonwort was a herb which, in his days, was popularly believed to open locks and unshoe horses that trod on it. “This,” he adds, “some laugh to scorn, and those 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 horse-shoes, pulled off from 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; and the herb described usually grows upon the heaths.”—In Virginia, theBotrychium Lunariais called the Rattle-snake Fern, because that reptile shelters itself beneath its fronds.
MOSS.—TheSifjar haddr, or Hair Moss (Polytrichum commune), which supplies the Lapp with bedding, is dedicated to Sif, the wife of Thor. TheSupercilium Venerisis Freyja’s hair.—The good fairies called by the GermansMoosweibchenare represented as being entirely covered with Moss. They live in the hollows of forest trees, or on the soft Moss itself. These beneficent fairies of the forest spin soft Moss of various kinds, which they weave into beautiful fabrics, and, according to their custom, occasionally make handsome presents to their protégés.——There is a legend that Oswald, King of Northumbria, erected a certain cross, which, after his decease, acquired miraculous properties. One day, a man who was walking across the ice towards this venerated cross, suddenly fell and broke his arm; a friend who was accompanying him, in dire distress at the mishap, hurried to the cross, and plucked from it some Moss, which was growing on the surface. Then, hastening back to his friend, he placed the Moss in his breast, when the pain miraculously ceased, and the broken arm became set, and was soon restored to use.——TheBryumMoss, which grows all over the walls of Jerusalem, is supposed to be the plant referred to by Solomon as “the Hyssop that groweth out of the wall.”——According to tradition, headache is to be removed by means of snuff made from the Moss which grows on a human skull in a churchyard; and Gerarde says that this Moss is “a singular remedie against the falling evill and the chin-cough in children, if it be powdered, and then given in sweet wine for certain daies together.” Robert Turner tells us of thisMoss that it is “a principal ingredient in the Weapon Salve; but the receipt is, it should be taken from the skull of one who died a violent death.”——The dust from the spore cases of Club-Moss is highly inflammable, and is used in fireworks; it is theBlitz-mehl, or lightning-meal, of the Germans. (SeeClub-Moss.)
MOSS ROSE.—The country of the Moss Rose or Moss Provins Rose (Rosa Muscosa) is unknown, but the origin of its mossy vest is thus given by a German writer:—
“The angel of the flowers one dayBeneath a Rose-tree sleeping lay;That spirit to whose charge is givenTo bathe young buds in dews from heaven;Awaking from his light repose,The angel whispered to the Rose;‘O fondest object of my care,Still fairest found where all are fair,For the sweet shade thou’st given to meAsk what thou wilt, ’tis granted thee.’‘Then’ said the Rose, with deepened glow,‘On me another grace bestow:’The spirit paused in silent thoughtWhat grace was there that flower had not?’Twas but a moment: o’er the RoseA veil of Moss the angel throws,And robed in Nature’s simplest weed,Could then a flower that Rose exceed?”
“The angel of the flowers one dayBeneath a Rose-tree sleeping lay;That spirit to whose charge is givenTo bathe young buds in dews from heaven;Awaking from his light repose,The angel whispered to the Rose;‘O fondest object of my care,Still fairest found where all are fair,For the sweet shade thou’st given to meAsk what thou wilt, ’tis granted thee.’‘Then’ said the Rose, with deepened glow,‘On me another grace bestow:’The spirit paused in silent thoughtWhat grace was there that flower had not?’Twas but a moment: o’er the RoseA veil of Moss the angel throws,And robed in Nature’s simplest weed,Could then a flower that Rose exceed?”
“The angel of the flowers one day
Beneath a Rose-tree sleeping lay;
That spirit to whose charge is given
To bathe young buds in dews from heaven;
Awaking from his light repose,
The angel whispered to the Rose;
‘O fondest object of my care,
Still fairest found where all are fair,
For the sweet shade thou’st given to me
Ask what thou wilt, ’tis granted thee.’
‘Then’ said the Rose, with deepened glow,
‘On me another grace bestow:’
The spirit paused in silent thought
What grace was there that flower had not?
’Twas but a moment: o’er the Rose
A veil of Moss the angel throws,
And robed in Nature’s simplest weed,
Could then a flower that Rose exceed?”
The Moss Rose is one of the flowers specially plucked at the fall of the dew on Midsummer Eve for the purposes of love divination. This rite of rustic maidens is fully described in the poem of ‘The Cottage Girl’:—
“The Moss Rose that, at fall of dew,Ere eve its duskier curtain drew,Was freshly gathered from its stem,She values as the ruby gem;And, guarded from the piercing air,With all an anxious lover’s care,She bids it, for her shepherd’s sake,Await the New Year’s frolic wake:When, faded, in its altered hueShe reads—the rustic is untrue!But if its leaves the crimson paint,Her sick’ning hopes no longer faint;The Rose upon her bosom worn,She meets him at the peep of morn.”
“The Moss Rose that, at fall of dew,Ere eve its duskier curtain drew,Was freshly gathered from its stem,She values as the ruby gem;And, guarded from the piercing air,With all an anxious lover’s care,She bids it, for her shepherd’s sake,Await the New Year’s frolic wake:When, faded, in its altered hueShe reads—the rustic is untrue!But if its leaves the crimson paint,Her sick’ning hopes no longer faint;The Rose upon her bosom worn,She meets him at the peep of morn.”
“The Moss Rose that, at fall of dew,
Ere eve its duskier curtain drew,
Was freshly gathered from its stem,
She values as the ruby gem;
And, guarded from the piercing air,
With all an anxious lover’s care,
She bids it, for her shepherd’s sake,
Await the New Year’s frolic wake:
When, faded, in its altered hue
She reads—the rustic is untrue!
But if its leaves the crimson paint,
Her sick’ning hopes no longer faint;
The Rose upon her bosom worn,
She meets him at the peep of morn.”
MOTHERWORT.—According to Parkinson, the Motherwort (Leonurus Cardiaca) was so called from its being “of wonderful helpe to women in the risings of the mother;” its name ofCardiacawas given because the herb was formerly noted for curing not only heartburn but the mental disorder known as heart-ache.——In Japan, the Motherwort is in great estimation. In bygone times it is related that to the north of the province of Nanyo-no-rekken, there was a village situated near a hill covered with Motherwort.At the foot of the hill, fed by the dew and rains that trickled down its sides, ran a stream of pure water, which formed the ordinary beverage of the villagers, who generally lived till they had attained an age varying from a hundred to a hundred and thirty years. Thus the people ascribe to the Motherwort the property of prolonging life. At the Court of the Cairi, the ecclesiastical potentate of Japan, it is a favourite amusement to drinkzakki, a kind of strong beer prepared from Motherwort-flowers. The Japanese have five grand festivals in the course of the year. The last, which takes place on the 9th of the 9th month, is called the Festival of Motherwort; and the month itself is namedKikousouki, or month of Motherwort-flowers. It was formerly the custom to gather these flowers as soon as they had opened, and to mix them with boiled rice, from which they prepared thezakkiused in celebrating the festival. In the houses of the common people, instead of this beverage, you find a branch of the flowers fastened with a string to a pitcher full of commonzakki, which implies that they wish one another a long life. The origin of this festival is as follows:—An emperor of China who succeeded to the throne at seven years of age, was disturbed by a prediction that he would die before he attained the age of fifteen. An immortal having brought to him, from Nanyo-no-rekken, a present of some Motherwort-flowers, he causedzakkito be made from them, which he drank every day, and lived upwards of seventy years. This immortal had been in his youth in the service of the Emperor, under the name of Zido. Being banished for some misdemeanour, he took up his residence in the valley before mentioned, drinking nothing but the water impregnated with these flowers, and lived to the age of three hundred years, whence he obtained the name ofSien-nin-foso.
MOUSE-EAR.—The plant now known as Forget-me-not, was formerly called Mouse-Ear, from its small, soft, oval leaves. It is calledHerba Clavorum, because, according to tradition, it hinders the smith from hurting horses when he is shoeing them.
MULBERRY.—According to tradition, the fruit of the Mulberry-tree was originally white, but became empurpled by human blood. Referring to the introduction of the Mulberry by the Greeks, Rapin writes:—
“Hence Pyramus and Thisbe’s mingled bloodOn Mulberries their purple dye bestowed.In Babylon the tale was told to proveThe fatal error of forbidden love.”
“Hence Pyramus and Thisbe’s mingled bloodOn Mulberries their purple dye bestowed.In Babylon the tale was told to proveThe fatal error of forbidden love.”
“Hence Pyramus and Thisbe’s mingled blood
On Mulberries their purple dye bestowed.
In Babylon the tale was told to prove
The fatal error of forbidden love.”
This tale of forbidden love is narrated at length by Ovid: Pyramus, a youth of Babylon, and his neighbour, Thisbe, became mutually enamoured, but were prohibited by their parents from marrying; they therefore agreed to meet at the tomb of Ninus, under a white Mulberry-tree. Thisbe reached the trysting-place first, but was compelled to seek safety in a cave, owing to the arrival of a lioness,who besmeared with blood a veil which the virgin dropped in her flight. Soon afterwards Pyramus reached the spot, and finding the bloody veil, concluded that Thisbe had been torn to pieces. Overcome with grief, he stabbed himself with his sword; and Thisbe, shortly returning, and beholding her lover in his death throes, threw herself upon the fatal weapon. With her last breath she prayed that her ashes should be mingled with her lover’s in one urn, and that the fruit of the white Mulberry-tree, under which the tragedy occurred, should bear witness of their constancy by ever after assuming the colour of their blood.
“The prayer which dying Thisbe had preferredBoth gods and parents with compassion heard.The whiteness of the Mulberry soon fled,And ripening, saddened in a dusky red;While both their parents their lost children mourn,And mix their ashes in one golden urn.”—Eusden.
“The prayer which dying Thisbe had preferredBoth gods and parents with compassion heard.The whiteness of the Mulberry soon fled,And ripening, saddened in a dusky red;While both their parents their lost children mourn,And mix their ashes in one golden urn.”—Eusden.
“The prayer which dying Thisbe had preferred
Both gods and parents with compassion heard.
The whiteness of the Mulberry soon fled,
And ripening, saddened in a dusky red;
While both their parents their lost children mourn,
And mix their ashes in one golden urn.”—Eusden.
Lord Bacon tells us that in Calabria Manna falls upon the leaves of Mulberry-trees during the night, from whence it is afterwards collected.——Pliny called the Mulberry the wisest of trees, because it is late in unfolding its leaves, and thus escapes the dangerous frosts of early spring. To this day, in Gloucestershire, the country folks have a saying that after the Mulberry-tree has shown its green leaves there will be no more frost.——At Gioiosa, in Sicily, on the day of St. Nicholas that saint is believed to bless the sea and the land, and the populace sever a branch from a Mulberry-tree and preserve it for one year as a branch of good augury.——In Germany, at Iserlohn, the mothers, to deter the children from eating the Mulberries, sing to them that the Devil requires them for the purpose of blacking his boots.——According to Gerarde, “Hegesander, inAthenæus, affirmeth that the Mulberry-tree in his time did not bring forth fruit in twenty yeares together, and that so great a plague of the gout then raigned, and raged so generally, as not onely men, but boies, wenches, eunuches, and women were troubled with that disease.”——A Mulberry-tree, planted by Milton in the garden of Christ’s College, Cambridge, has been reverentially preserved by successive college gardeners. The Mulberry planted by Shakspeare in Stratford-on-Avon was recklessly cut down in 1759; but ten years later, when the freedom of the town was presented to Garrick, the document was enclosed in a casket made from the wood of the tree. A cup was also wrought from it, and at the Shakspeare Jubilee, Garrick, holding this cup aloft, sang the following lines composed by himself:—
“Behold this fair goblet, ’twas carved from the treeWhich, O my sweet Shakspeare, was planted by thee;As a relic I kiss it, and bow at the shrine;What comes from thy hand must be ever divine!All shall yield to the Mulberry-tree;Bend to the blest Mulberry;Matchless was he who planted thee;And thou, like him, immortal shall be.”
“Behold this fair goblet, ’twas carved from the treeWhich, O my sweet Shakspeare, was planted by thee;As a relic I kiss it, and bow at the shrine;What comes from thy hand must be ever divine!All shall yield to the Mulberry-tree;Bend to the blest Mulberry;Matchless was he who planted thee;And thou, like him, immortal shall be.”
“Behold this fair goblet, ’twas carved from the tree
Which, O my sweet Shakspeare, was planted by thee;
As a relic I kiss it, and bow at the shrine;
What comes from thy hand must be ever divine!
All shall yield to the Mulberry-tree;
Bend to the blest Mulberry;
Matchless was he who planted thee;
And thou, like him, immortal shall be.”
To dream of Mulberries is of good import: they denote marriage, many children, and all sorts of prosperity: they are particularly favourable to sailors and farmers.——Among the hill tribes of Burmah, the Mulberry-tree is regarded as sacred, and receives a kind of worship.——A Chinese folk-lore tale records that in the Tse dynasty, one Chang Ching, going out at night, saw a woman in the south corner of his house. She beckoned him to come to her, and said: “This is your honour’s Mulberry-ground, and I am a shên (fairy); if you will make next year, in the middle of the first moon, some thick congee and present it to me, I will engage to make your Mulberry-trees a hundred times more productive.” Ching made the congee, and afterwards had a great crop of silkworms. Hence came the Chinese custom of making thickened congee on the fifteenth of the first month.
MULLEIN.—The Mullein (Verbascum) was formerly employed by wizards and witches in their incantations. The plant is known as the Flannel-flower from its stem and large leaves being covered with wool, which is often plucked off for tinder. The Great Mullein (V. Thapsus) was called by the old RomansCandela regia, andCandelaria, because they used the stalks dipped in suet to burn at funerals, or as torches; the modern Romans call the plant Light of the Lord. In England, the White Mullein was termed Candle-week-flower; and the Great Mullein’s tall tapering spikes of yellow flowers suggested, at a period when candles were burnt in churches, the old names of Torches, Hedge-taper, High-taper, and Hig-taper, which became corrupted into Hag-taper, from a belief that witches employed the plant in working their spells.——The little Moth Mullein (V. Blattaria) derives its specific name fromblatta, a cockroach, it being particularly disliked by that troublesome insect. Gerarde explains its English prefix by stating that moths and butterflies, and all other small flies and bats, resort to the place where these herbs are laid or strewed.——Mullein is known by country people as Bullock’s Lungwort, a decoction of the leaves being considered very efficacious in cases of cough: probably we are indebted to the Romans for this specific, for they attributed extraordinary properties to the Mullein as a remedy for coughs. (See alsoHag-taper).
MUGWORT.—The old Latin name for this species of Wormwood wasArtemisia, mater herbarum; and, according to Gerarde, the plant was so named after Artemisia, the wife of Mausolus, King of Caria, who adopted it for her own herb.
“Thatwith the yellow crown, named from the queenWho built the Mausoleum.”—Smith’s ‘Amarynthus.’
“Thatwith the yellow crown, named from the queenWho built the Mausoleum.”—Smith’s ‘Amarynthus.’
“Thatwith the yellow crown, named from the queen
Who built the Mausoleum.”—Smith’s ‘Amarynthus.’
Other authorities say thatArtemisiais derived from Artemis, one of the names of Diana, and that the plant was named after that goddess, on account of its being used in bringing on precocious puberty. Among the ancients, the Mugwort had a reputation forefficacy in the relief of female disorders. It was also used for the purpose of incantations. Pliny says that the wayfarer having this herb tied about him feels no fatigue, and that he who hath it about him can be hurt by no poisonous medicines, nor by any wild beast, nor even by the sun itself. Apuleius adds that it drives away lurking devils and neutralises the effect of the evil eye of men. The plant was also considered a charm against the ague.—T—here is an old Scotch legend which tells how a mermaid of the Firth of Clyde, upon seeing the funeral of a young girl who had died of consumption, exclaimed—
“If they wad drink Nettles in March,And eat Muggins [Mugwort] in May,Sae mony braw maidensWad not go to clay.”
“If they wad drink Nettles in March,And eat Muggins [Mugwort] in May,Sae mony braw maidensWad not go to clay.”
“If they wad drink Nettles in March,
And eat Muggins [Mugwort] in May,
Sae mony braw maidens
Wad not go to clay.”
In Italy, there is still a superstitious custom extant of consulting Mugwort as to the probable ending of an illness. Some leaves of Mugwort are placed beneath the pillow of the patient without his knowledge. If he falls asleep quickly, his recovery is certain: if he is unable to sleep, it is a sign that he will die.——Mugwort is one of the plants associated with St. John the Baptist, and is, indeed, called the Herb of St. John in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany, and Holland. There is a curious superstition regarding it which is related by Lupton in his ‘Notable Things.’ He says:—“It is certainly commonly affirmed that, on Midsummer Eve, there is found under the root of Mugwort a coal which keeps safe from the plague, carbuncle, lightning, and the quartan ague, them that bear the same about them: and Mizaldus, the writer hereof, saith that it is to be found the same day under the root of Plantain, which I know for a truth, for I have found them the same day under the root of Plantain, which is especially and chiefly to be found at noon.” Paul Barbette, writing in 1675, says, these coals were old dead roots, and that it was a superstition that “old dead roots ought to be pulled up on the Eve of St. John the Baptist, about twelve at night.”——In some parts of England, girls pull a certain root which grows under Mugwort, and which, they believe, if pulled exactly at midnight, on the eve of St. John, and placed under the pillow, will cause dreams of the future husband.——De Gubernatis tells us that, in Sicily, on the eve of the Ascension, the women of Avola form crosses of Mugwort, and place them on the roofs of their houses, believing that, during the night, Jesus Christ, as He re-ascends to heaven, will bless them. They preserve these crosses of Mugwort for a year. Placed in stables, they are believed to possess the power of taming unmanageable animals.——The same author gives the following legends:—In the district of Starodubsk, Russia, on the day of the Exaltation of the Cross, a young girl was searching for Mushrooms in a forest, when she saw a number of serpents curled up. She endeavoured to retrace her steps, but fell into a deep pit, which was the abode of theserpents. The pit was dark, but at the bottom she found a luminous stone; the serpents were hungry; the queen of the golden-horned serpents guided them to the luminous stone, and the serpents licked it, and satisfied their hunger; the young girl did the same, and remained in the pit until Spring. On the arrival of Spring, the serpents interlaced themselves in such a manner as to form a ladder on which the young girl ascended to the mouth of the pit. But in taking her leave of the queen of the serpents, she received, as a parting gift, the power of understanding the language of plants, and of knowing their medicinal properties, on the condition that she should never name the Mugwort, orTchornobil(that which was black): if she pronounced that word, she would forget all that she had come to know. The damsel soon understood all that the plants talked about; but, one day, a man suddenly asked her, “What is the plant which grows in the fields by the side of the little footpaths?” Taken by surprise, the girl replied,Tchornobil; and, at the same moment, all her knowledge forsook her. From that time, it is said, the Mugwort obtained the additional name ofZabytko, or the Herb of Forgetfulness.——In Little Russia, Mugwort has obtained the name ofBech, which has a legendary etymology. The story goes, that the Devil had, one day, offended his brother, the Cossack Sabba, who took him and bound him, saying he should remain a prisoner until he did him some great service. Soon afterwards, a troop of Poles arrived in the neighbourhood, and began to make merry at a rustic feast, leaving their horses to graze. The Cossack Sabba wished to seize their horses, and promised the Devil his liberty if he would aid him to accomplish his object. The Devil despatched certain demons to the fields where the horses were feeding, who caused Mugwort to spring up. As the horses trotted away, the plant moaned “Bech,Bech”: and now, whenever a horse treads on the Mugwort, recollecting the horses of the Poles, the plant always moans, “Bech,Bech”; hence, the name which has been given to it in the Ukraine.——The Japanese manufactured a kind of tinder, called Moxa, from the dried leaves of Mugwort, and, according to Thunberg, twice in a year, men and women, young and old, rich and poor, were indiscriminately burnt with it, either to prevent disorders, or to cure rheumatism, &c.——Astrologers state that Mugwort is a herb of Venus.
MUSHROOM.—On account of their apparently spontaneous generation, Porphyrius calls Mushrooms sons of the gods.——In Indo-European mythology, the Sun-hero is represented as sometimes hiding under a Mushroom. He also appears as King of the Peas, and in a Russian legend, in this capacity, gives battle to the Mushroom tribes.——In Wales, the poisonous Mushroom is calledBwyd Ellyllon, or the meat of the goblins.——In many parts of England it is believed that the changes of the mooninfluence the growth of Mushrooms, and in Essex there is an old saying that
“When the moon is at the full,Mushrooms you may freely pull;But when the moon is on the wane,Wait ere you think to pluck again.”
“When the moon is at the full,Mushrooms you may freely pull;But when the moon is on the wane,Wait ere you think to pluck again.”
“When the moon is at the full,
Mushrooms you may freely pull;
But when the moon is on the wane,
Wait ere you think to pluck again.”
There is an old belief that Mushrooms which grow near iron, copper, or other metals, are poisonous; the same idea is found in the custom of putting a piece of metal in the water used for boiling Mushrooms, in order that it should attract and detach any poison from the Mushrooms, and thus render them innocuous.——Bacon characterises Mushrooms as “venereous meat,” but Gerarde remarks that “few of them are good to be eaten, and most of them do suffocate and strangle the eater. Therefore, I give my advice unto those that love such strange and new-fangled meates, to beware of licking honey among thornes, least the sweetnesse of the one do not countervaile the sharpnesse and pricking of the other.”——The Burman, if he comes across Mushrooms at the beginning of a journey, considers it as a most fortunate omen.——Dream oracles state that Mushrooms forbode fleeting happiness; and that to dream of gathering them indicates a lack of attachment on the part of lover or consort.
MUSTARD.—Among the Jews, “Small as a grain of Mustard-seed” was a common comparison; and our Saviour referred to it as being “the least of all seeds; but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof” (Matthew xiii., 31, 32). The Mustard-tree here alluded to is not, however, the English Mustard (Sinapis nigra), but a tree called by the ArabsKhardal(Salvadora Persica), a tree with numerous branches, among which birds may take shelter, while the seed is exceedingly small. In the north-west of India, this plant is known asKharjal.——One of the Sanscrit names given to the Mustard-tree is the She-devil or Witch. By means of the seed the Hindus discover witches. During the night they light lamps and fill certain vessels with water, into which they gently drop Mustard-seed oil, pronouncing the while the name of every woman in the village. If, during this ceremony, as they pronounce the name of a woman, they notice the shadow of a female in the water, it is a sure sign that such woman is a witch.——In India, the Mustard-seed symbolises generation: thus, in the Hindu myth of the ‘Rose of Bakawali,’ the king of Ceylon destroys the temple in which the nymph Bakawali is incarcerated; having been condemned by Indra to remain there transformed into marble for the space of twelve years. A husbandman ploughs over the site of this temple, and sows a Mustard-seed. In course of time the Mustard ripens, is gathered, pressed, boiled, and the oil extracted. According to the custom of his class, the husbandman first tastes it, and then his wife: immediately she, whobefore had been childless, conceives, and nine months afterwards gives to the world a daughter (Bakawali), beauteous as a fairy.
MYROBALAN.—The Myrobalan Plum-tree produces a fruit similar to a Cherry, but containing only a juice of so disagreeable a flavour that the very birds refuse to feed upon it: the fruit, however, is much employed in Indian medicines. According to Hindu tradition, the wife of Somaçarman struck twice with a wand a Myrobalan-tree, whereupon the tree rose from the earth with her, and carrying her away, at last placed her on a golden hill in a golden town.
MYRRH.—Myrrh is an exudation from the treeBalsamodendron Myrrha; but the precious resin was held by the ancients to have been first produced by the tears of Myrrha, daughter of Cinyras, King of Cyprus, and mother of Adonis. Flying from the avenging sword of her father, for whom she had conceived an incestuous passion, the guilty Myrrha, after long and weary wanderings, reached the Arabian continent, and at length, in the Sabæan fields, overcome with fatigue and the misery of her situation, prayed with her dying breath to the gods to accept her penitence and to bestow upon her, as a punishment for her sin, a middle state “betwixt the realms above and those below.” “Some other form,” cries she, “to wretched Myrrha give, nor let her wholly die, nor wholly live.”
“The prayers of penitents are never vain;At least she did her last request obtain.For while she spake the ground began to riseAnd gathered round her feet, her legs, and thighs;Her toes in roots descend, and, spreading wide,A firm foundation for the trunk provide:Her solid bones convert to solid wood,To pith her marrow, and to sap her blood:Her arms are boughs, her fingers change their kind,Her tender skin is hardened into rind.And now the rising tree her womb invests,Now, shooting upwards still, invades her breastsAnd shades her neck; when, weary with delay,She sunk her head within, and met it half the way.And though with outward shape she lost her sense,With bitter tears she wept her last offence;And still she weeps, nor sheds her tears in vain,For still the precious drops her name retain.”—Dryden.
“The prayers of penitents are never vain;At least she did her last request obtain.For while she spake the ground began to riseAnd gathered round her feet, her legs, and thighs;Her toes in roots descend, and, spreading wide,A firm foundation for the trunk provide:Her solid bones convert to solid wood,To pith her marrow, and to sap her blood:Her arms are boughs, her fingers change their kind,Her tender skin is hardened into rind.And now the rising tree her womb invests,Now, shooting upwards still, invades her breastsAnd shades her neck; when, weary with delay,She sunk her head within, and met it half the way.And though with outward shape she lost her sense,With bitter tears she wept her last offence;And still she weeps, nor sheds her tears in vain,For still the precious drops her name retain.”—Dryden.
“The prayers of penitents are never vain;
At least she did her last request obtain.
For while she spake the ground began to rise
And gathered round her feet, her legs, and thighs;
Her toes in roots descend, and, spreading wide,
A firm foundation for the trunk provide:
Her solid bones convert to solid wood,
To pith her marrow, and to sap her blood:
Her arms are boughs, her fingers change their kind,
Her tender skin is hardened into rind.
And now the rising tree her womb invests,
Now, shooting upwards still, invades her breasts
And shades her neck; when, weary with delay,
She sunk her head within, and met it half the way.
And though with outward shape she lost her sense,
With bitter tears she wept her last offence;
And still she weeps, nor sheds her tears in vain,
For still the precious drops her name retain.”—Dryden.
Myrrh is one of the ingredients of the sacred ointment or oil of the Jews, with which were anointed the Tabernacle, the Ark, the altars, and the sacred vessels (Exodus xxx.) It was also used to consecrate Aaron and his sons. The purification of women, as ordained by the Jewish law, lasted one year; the first six months being accomplished with oil of Myrrh, and the rest with other sweet odours. After our Lord’s death, Nicodemus brought a mixture of Myrrh and Aloes, about an hundred pounds weight, that his body might be embalmed.——Myrrh formed part of the celebratedKuphiof the Egyptians—a preparation used in fumigations andembalmings. At thefêteof Isis, which was celebrated with great magnificence, they sacrificed an ox filled with Myrrh and other aromatics. This ancient people delighted in displays of perfumes: in a religious procession which took place under one of the Ptolemies, marched one hundred and twenty children, carrying incense, Myrrh, and Saffron in golden basins, followed by a number of camels bearing precious aromatics.——At Heliopolis, the city of the sun, where the great luminary was worshipped under the name of Re, incense was burnt to him thrice a day,—resin at his rising, Myrrh when in the meridian, and the compound calledKuphiat his setting. In the temples of Isis similar rites were observed. According to Herodotus, powdered Myrrh formed one of the principal ingredients inserted in the bodies of mummies.——The Persian kings usually wore on their heads crowns composed of Myrrh and Labyzus.——In mediæval times, it was customary for the king to make an oblation on Twelfth Day. In pursuance of this custom, we read that so late as 1762 George III. made the usual offering at the Chapel Royal, of gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh—the gifts of the Magi, offered to the infant Saviour at Bethlehem; the gold typifying king; Frankincense, God; and Myrrh, man.
MYRTLE.—The father, mother, and brothers of Myrene, a beautiful Grecian, were murdered by robbers, who despoiled their home, and carried Myrene away. She escaped, however, and on her return was made a priestess of Venus. On the occasion of a festival, she discovered one of the assassins of her family, who was seized, and disclosed the hiding-place of his confederates. Myrene’s lover promised that, if she would yield him her hand, he would bring the rest of the band to punishment. He was successful, and received his promised reward; but Venus, offended at being deprived of her favourite priestess, caused the bridegroom to expire suddenly, and changed the bride into the Myrtle, which she ordained, as a proof of her affection, should continue green and odoriferous throughout the year. The Myrtle became, therefore, an especial favourite with Venus. Reputed to possess the virtue not only of creating love, but of preserving it, it was, both by the Greeks and Romans, considered symbolic of love, and was appropriately consecrated to Venus, the goddess of love, around whose temples groves of Myrtle were planted. It was behind a Myrtle-bush in the island of Cythera, that Venus sought shelter when disturbed at her bath by a band of Satyrs; with Myrtle she caused Psyche to be chastised for daring to compare her charms with the heaven-born beauty of her mother-in-law; and with Myrtle the goddess selected to deck her lovely brows when Paris adjudged to her the golden Apple—the prize for supremacy of beauty: hence the shrub was deemed odious to Juno and Minerva. Because she presided over the Myrtle, Venus was worshipped under the name of Myrtea, and had a temple dedicated to her under that appellation at the foot of Mount Aventine. It is probable that the Myrtle was dedicated toVenus because of its fondness for the sea—from the foam of which the goddess sprang, and was wafted by the Zephyrs to the shore, where she was received by the Horæ, and crowned with Myrtle. Myrtle chaplets were worn by her attendants, the Graces, and by her votaries when sacrificing to her. During her festivals in April, married couples (her protégés) were decked with Myrtle wreaths. The Myrtle of which the nuptial crowns were composed was theMyrtus latifoliaof Pliny, called by CatoMyrtus conjugula.——The Myrtle was adopted by Minerva and Mars; the priests of the latter deity being sometimes crowned with it. The plant was also associated with Hymen, the son of Venus, and the Muse Erato, whose chaplet was composed of Roses and Myrtle. It sometimes symbolised unchaste love. In the festivals of Myrrha, the incestuous mother of Adonis, the married women crowned themselves with Myrtle. Virgil represents the victims of love in the infernal regions hiding themselves behind bunches of Myrtle. At the festival of the Bona Dea at Rome, where all other flowers and shrubs might be used, Myrtle was forbidden to be placed on the altar, because it encouraged sensual gratification.——The Greeks were extremely partial to the Myrtle. At their most sacred festival, the Eleusinian mysteries, the initiates, as well as the high priest, who officiated at the altar of Ceres, were crowned with Myrtle. The Athenian magistrates wore chaplets of the fragrant shrub in token of their authority; and bloodless victors entwined Myrtle with their Laurel wreaths. When Aristogiton and Harmodius set forth to free their country from the tyranny of the Pisistratidæ, their swords were wreathed with Myrtle.——With the Romans, the Myrtle was a highly-esteemed plant, and invariably expressive of triumph and joy. It also symbolised festivity, and, when steeped in wine, was supposed to impart to it invigorating qualities. On the 1st of April, Roman ladies, after bathing beneath the Myrtle-trees, crowned themselves with the leaves, and proceeded to the shrine of Venus to offer sacrifice. The Roman bridegroom decked himself with Myrtle on his bridal day; and the hero wore it as a badge of victory, and sometimes interweaved it with Laurel in honour of Venus and Mars. When the Romans fought to guard the captured Sabine women, they wore chaplets of Myrtle on their heads, and, according to Pliny, after the combatants had at length become reconciled, they laid down their weapons under a Myrtle, and purified themselves with its boughs. The tree was sacred to the Sabine Mars Quirinus; and two Myrtles stood before his temple, as two Laurels stood before the temple of the Roman Mars, symbolising the union of the Roman and Sabine peoples.——The Romans crowned themselves with Myrtle after a victory, but only when blood had not been shed.——Pliny relates that Romulus planted in Rome two Myrtles, one of which became the favourite of the patricians, the other of the people. When the nobles won, the people’s Myrtle drooped; when, on the other hand, the people were victorious,the patricians’ Myrtle withered. As a charm to ensure a successful journey, Roman pedestrians were accustomed to procure and wear a Myrtle wreath.——At Temnos, in Asia Minor, there is a statue in Myrtle-wood consecrated by Pelops to Venus, as a thank-offering for his marriage with Hippodamia. After the death of Hippolytus, Phædra, maddened with passionate grief, pricked innumerable small holes in the leaves of a Myrtle with a hair-pin. The geographer Pausanias states that this Myrtle was in his time to be seen near the tomb of Phædra at Trœzen.——The same writer relates that a Myrtle which had been the hiding place of a hare was selected by Diana to mark the site of a new city.——With the Jews, the Myrtle is a symbol of peace, and is often so referred to in the Old Testament, notably by Nehemiah and the prophets Zechariah and Isaiah. A variety, called the Broad-leaved Jew’s Myrtle, is held in especial veneration, and is frequently used in Hebrew religious ceremonies. Branches of this and other Evergreens are used in the erection of their tents at the Feast of Tabernacles. At Aleppo, these tabernacles are made by fastening to the corner of a wooden divan four slender posts as supports to a diaper-work of green Reeds on all sides, leaving only a space in front for the entrance, which on the outside is covered with fresh Myrtle. Jewish maidens were wont to be decked with a bridal wreath of Myrtle; but this wreath was never worn by a widow, or by divorced women. This custom is still retained in Germany, where the bride is adorned with a Myrtle wreath.——The Oriental nations are extremely partial to the Myrtle, and there is a tradition among the Arabs that, when Adam was expelled from Paradise, he brought the Myrtle with him, as being the choicest of fragrant flowers.——It is a popular belief in Somersetshire, that, in order to ensure its taking root, it is necessary when planting a sprig of Myrtle, to spread the skirt of your garment, and to look proud. In the same county, there is a saying that “the flowering Myrtle is the luckiest plant to have in your window, water it every morning, and be proud of it.”——In Greece, there is a superstitious notion that no one should pass near an odoriferous Myrtle without gathering a perfumed bunch; indifference to the attractions of Myrtle being considered a sign of impotence and death.——In the allegories of Azz Eddin, the Rose says that the Myrtle is the prince of odoriferous plants.——Rapin calls the Myrtle “of celestial race,” and in his poem has the following lines on it:—