pPant "bore, "be^cf^^/, aa3. Is^ncf, 28 1 



ask for Chesnuts to appease their hunger. (See also Horse- 



CHIiSNUT.) 



CHOHOBBA. — The Mexicans regard with pecuhar san(5tity 

 and reverence a herb which grows in their country, and which they 

 call Chohobba. If they wish an abundant crop of Yucca or Maize, 

 if they wish to know whether a sick chief will recover or die, if 

 they desire to learn whether a war is likely to occur, or, in fact, if 

 they desire any important information, one of their chiefs enters 

 the building consecrated to their idols, where he prepares a liquid 

 obtained from the herb Chohobba, w^hich can be absorbed through 

 the nose: this fluid has an intoxicating effecf^, and he soon loses 

 all control over himself. After awhile, he partly recovers, and sits 

 himself on the ground, with head abased, and hands beneath his 

 knees, and so remains for some little time. Then he raises his 

 eyes, as if awaking from a long sleep, and gazes upwards at the 

 sky, at the same time muttering between his teeth some unintel- 

 ligible words. No one but his relatives approaches the chief, for 

 the people are not allowed to assist at the rite. When the relatives 

 perceive that the chief is beginning to regain consciousness, they 

 return thanks to the god for his recovery, and ask that he may 

 be permitted to tell them what he has seen whilst in his trance. 

 Then the half-dazed chief relates what the god has told him 

 regarding the particular matters he had wished to enquire about, 



CHOKE PEAR.— The fruit of the Wild Pear, Pyrus com- 

 munis, is so hard and austere as to choke : hence the tree has been 

 called the Choke Pear. It is supposed to have been a Pear of this 

 description that caused the death of Drusus, a son of the Emperor 

 Claudius. He caught in his mouth, and swallow^ed, a Pear thrown 

 into the air, but owing to its extreme hardness, it stuck in his 

 throat and choked him. 



Christmas Rose. — See Hellebore. 



CHRIST'S HERB.— The Black Hellebore is called Christ's 

 Herb or Christmas Herb {Chrishmtrz), says Gerarde, " because it 

 floureth about the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ." (See Hellebore.) 



CHRIST'S LADDER.— In the fourteenth century, the 

 Erythraa Ccntaurium was called Christ's Ladder [Christi scala), from 

 the name having been mistaken for Christ's Cup {Christi schale), in 

 allusion to the bitter draught offered to our Lord upon the Cross. 



CHRIST'S PALM. — The Ricinus communis is commonly 

 known as Palma Christi, or Christ's Palm. The same plant is also 

 reputed to have been Jonah's Gourd. 



CHRIST'S THORN.— Gerarde, in his Herbal, calls the 

 Paliuriis, Christ's Thorn or Ram of Libya ; and he writes: " Petrus 

 Bellonius, who travelled over the Holy Land, saith, that this 

 shrubby Thorne Paliurus, was the Thorne wherewith they crowned 

 our Saviour Christ, his reason for the proofe hereof is this. That 



