238 Dfant Idol's, Tsege^/, and Ts)tjric/'. 



in wine, it was believed to be efficacious against the bitings of 

 venomous beasts and mad dogs. A variety called Smith's or Car- 

 penter's Balm, or Bawm, was noted as a vulnerary, and Pliny 

 describes it of such magical virtue, that Gerarde remarks, " though 

 it be but tied to his sword that hath given the wound, it stancheth 

 the blood." On account of its being a favourite plant of the bees, 

 it was one of the herbs direcfted by the ancients to be placed in 

 the hive, to render it agreeable to the swarm : hence it was called 



Apiastnmi. The astrologers claimed the herb both for Jupiter^ 



and the Sun.—- — In connecflion with the Garden Balm, Aubrey 

 /^relates a legend of the Wandering Jew, the scene of which he 

 ( places in the Staffordshire moors. When on the weary way to 

 j Golgotha, Jesus Christ, fainting and sinking beneath the burden 

 of the cross, asked the Jew Ahasuerus for a cup of water to 

 cool his parched throat, he spurned the supplication, and bade 

 him speed on faster. "I go," said the Saviour, "but thou shalt 

 thirst and tarry till I come." And ever since that hour, by day 

 and night, through the long centuries, he has been doomed to 

 wander about the earth, ever craving for water, and ever expe(5ting 

 the Day of Judgment, which alone shall end his frightful pilgrimage. 

 One Whitsun evening, overcome with thirst, he knocked at the 

 door of a Staffordshire cottager, and craved of him a cup of small 

 beer. The cottager, who was wasted with a lingering consumption, 

 asked him in and gave him the desired refreshment. After finishing 

 the beer, Ahasuerus asked his host the nature of the disease he 

 was suffering from, and being told that the docflors had given him 

 up, said, " Friend, I will tell thee what thou shalt do; and by the 

 help and power of Almighty God above, thou shalt be well. To- 

 morrow, when thou risest up, go into thy garden, and gather there 

 three Balm-leaves, and put them into a cup of th}^ small beer. 

 Drink as often as you need, and when the cup is empty, fill it again, 

 and put in fresh Balm-leaves every fourth day, and thou shalt see, 

 through our Lord's great goodness and mercy, that before twelve 

 days shall be past, thy disease shall be cured and thy body altered." 

 So saying, and declining to eat, he departed and was never seen 

 again. But the cottager gathered his Balm-leaves, followed the 

 prescription of the Wandering Jew, and before twelve days were 

 passed was a new man. 



BALM OF GILEAD.— The mountains of Gilead, in the 

 east of the Holy Land, were covered with fragrant shrubs, the 

 most plentiful being the ^;?ri'm, which yielded the celebrated Balm 

 of Gilead, a precious gum which, at a very early period, the 

 Ishmaelites or Arabian carriers trafficked in. It was to a party of 

 these merchants that Joseph was sold by his brethren as they came 

 from Gilead, with their camels, bearing spicery, and Balm, and 

 Myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt (Gen. xxxvii., 25). There 

 were three produdlions from this tree, all highly esteemed by the 

 ancients, viz. : Xylobalsavmm , a decodlion of the new twigs ; the 



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