©Pel— (KcrSaPy a"r^ (Ker6aPjyl/. l6i 



proud and superfluous flesh. They could preserve the eyesif^ht, 

 " helpe hlackc eies comniing by blowes," and take away redness 

 and yellowness. They could prevent the hair falling off, and 

 restore it to the bald })ate, and knew how to turn it yellow, red, or 

 black. They could cause hens to lay plentifully, and refresh a 

 weary horse. They could cure lunatics, relieve madness, and 

 purge melancholy; to say nothing of counteracting witchcraft an 

 the malignant influence of the mysterious Evil Eye. Thej'^ could 

 destroy warts, remove freckles, and beautify young wenches' faces. 

 In fine, the herbalist of old was one 



" Who knew the cause of everie maladie, 

 Were it of colde or hote, or moist or drie." 



A remarkable characfteristic of the herbarists (as they were 

 called of yore) was a habit of ascribing extraordinary and fabulous 

 properties to the herbs and plants whose merits they descanted 

 upon. Just as the Druids taught the people of their time to call 

 the sacred Mistletoe the "All-heal," and to look upon it as a 

 panacea for all bodily ailments, so did the herbalists, in the pages 

 of their ponderotis tomes, set forth the marvellous virtues of 

 Betony, Agrimony, Angelica, Garlic, Fennel, Sage, Rue, and 

 other favourite medicinal plants. Johannes de Mediolano, a 

 doctor, of the Academy of Salerno, once wrote of Rue, that it 

 diminishes the force of love in man, and, on the contrary, increases 

 the flame in women. When eaten raw, it both clears the sight 

 and the perceptions of the mind, and when cooked it destroys fleas. 

 The English herbalists called it Herb Grace and Serving-men's 

 Joy, because of the multiplicity of ailments that it was warranted 

 to cure ; Mithridates used the herb as a counterpoison to preserve 

 himself against infecftion ; and Gerarde records that Serpents are 

 driven away at the smell of Rue if it be burned, and that " when 

 the Weesell is to fight with the Serpent, shee armeth herselfe by 

 eating Rue against the might of the Serpent." The virtues of 

 Rue, however, are cast into the shade by those of Sage. Says 

 witty Alphonse Karr — " Rue is nothing in comparison with Sage. 

 Sage preserves the human race ; and the whole school of Salerno, 

 after a long enumeration of the virtues of Sage, seriously exclaims: 

 ' How can it happen that a man who has Sage in his garden yet 

 ends by dying?'" Perhaps this exclamation was the foundation of 

 the English proverb — 



"He that eats Sage in May 

 Shall live for aye. " 



Regarding the wondrous curative properties of Betony, Antonius 

 Musa, physician to the Emperor Augustus, wrote a volume setting 

 forth the excellencies of the herb, which he demonstrated would 

 cure no less than forty-seven different disorders ; and in England 

 an old advice to the sufferer is, " Sell your coat, and buy Betony." 

 Agrimony is another herb whose praises were loudly proclaimed by 



M 



