39 6 A P P E N D I X. 



* give to after-times a proof of the belief of the 

 c age, and the fair tryal made of a mod diftaft- 



* ful remedy in the mod dreadful of complaints.' 



Glain This reminds me of another Welch word that is 



Naidr, 30. explanatory of the cuftoms of the antients, mewing 

 their intent in the ufe of the plant Vervaine in 

 their luftrations ; and why it was called by Diofco- 

 rides Hierobotane, or the facred plant, and e- 

 fleemed proper to be hung up in their rooms. 



The BritiJJo name Cas gan Cythrawl, or the 

 Devil's averfion, may be a modern appellation, 

 but is likewife called T Dderwen fendigaid, the 

 holy oak, which evidently refers to the Druids 

 groves. 



Pliny informs us, that the Gauls ufed it in their 

 incantations, as the Romans and Greeks did in 

 their luftrations. Terence, in his Andria, fhews us 

 the Verbena was placed on altars before the doors 

 of private houfes in Athens ; and from the fame 

 paffage in Pliny *, we find the Magi were guilty 

 of the mod extravagant fuperflition about this 

 herb. Strange it is that fuch a veneration fhould 

 arife for a plant endued with no perceptible quali- 

 ties •, and ftranger dill it fhould fpread from the 

 fartheft north to the boundaries of India. So ge- 

 neral a confent, however, proves the cuftom arofe 

 before the different nations had loft all communi- 

 cation with each other. 



* Lib. XXV. cap. 9. 



Her 



