19ii ENGLISH BOTANY. 



with a golden sickle. It is caught, as it falls, in a white cloth. Then they offer up 

 the victims as a sacrifice, praying that God would make his gift prosperous to those 

 to whom it had been presented. They believed it would give fruitfulness to all barren 

 animals, and would act as a remedy against all poisons." The animals were killed, 

 cut up, and cooked ; meantime prayers wei-e offered up, hymns were sung, and the 

 heaven-born ])lant, thus carefully saved from pollution by any touch of the earth, was 

 distributed in small sprigs amongst the people, as a sacred relic for the new year, 

 a charm to insure fecundity, a panacea against every disease, a remedy for poisons, and 

 a safe protection against witchcraft and the possession of the devil. Many a good- 

 wife travelled for days, perchance, on a pillion behind her husband, through bogs and 

 fords, and over wide tracts of uncultivated land and primeval forest, to attend this 

 festival, leading a sumpter-horse laden with their offerings to the priesthood and all 

 the good things they could muster for the festival, — venison and salmon, roasted 

 bustards and boars' hams, with cakes and other delicacies, not forgetting some well- 

 filled skins of metheglin or mead, — happy in being able, as a recompense for so much 

 toil, to procure from the hand of the Arch-Druid, for herself and her husband, so many 

 blessings in the coming year. The memoiy of the Druidical ceremonies is still kept 

 up in Normandy, as they give Mistletoe to each other on New Year's Day, by saying, 

 " Au gui I'an neuf," and in Picardy they add the word " plantez," to wish a plentiful 

 and prosperous new year to each other. 



The medical reputation of the Mistletoe does not seem to have disappeared 

 with the Druids ; for, although some of the ancients looked upon the Mistletoe as 

 poisonous, the old herbalist Gerarde, in 1636, gives his opinion as quite the reverse, 

 and says — "A few berries of the mistletoe, bruised and strained into oile and drunken, 

 hath presently and forthwith rid a grievous and sore stitch." He also quotes Galen, 

 who says — *' His acrimony overcometh his bitterness, for if it be used in outward appli- 

 cations, it draweth humoui's from the deepest and most secret parts of the body, 

 spreading and dispersing them abroad and digesting them." We are inclined to think 

 that the imagination of the patient had more to do with the efficacy of the mistletoe 

 plasters, as it has with many modern and still favourite remedies, than any virtue in 

 itself. The only practical use to which we now apply the berries of the Mistletoe is in 

 the manufacture of birdlime. 



In Prussia, in times of scarcity, the branches and leaves of the Mistletoe have been 

 used, powdered and mixed with rye flour, to make bread, which is by no means 

 unwholesome. In this county, before turnips were so abundantly grown, the plant 

 used regularly to be given to sheep in frosty or snowy weather. 



" If snowe do continue, sheepe hardly that fare 

 Crave mistle and ivie for them for to spare." — Tusser's Husbandry. 



There can be no question, however, that the chief virtue ascribed to Mistletoe from 

 the oak by the Druids was the "fructifying quality," as Taliesin has it, or of "giving 

 fertility to all animals " as described by Pliny ; and it was for this virtue, when worn 

 as an amulet, or when drunk in infusion, that the sprig of Mistletoe was so anxiously 

 sought from the hands of the Arch- Druid on the New Year's Day festival. It is 

 always necessary to remember this in endeavouring to trace down the domestic history 

 of the Mistletoe in succeeding ages. It explains fully the personal hold it had gained 

 in the esteem of the people,. and its continued private use in spite of all opposition. 

 Though books ceased to mention it, tradition would perpetuate its use, even to 

 our own day. This peculiar virtue may perhaps serve to explain some points with 



