;70 pPant 1^5 ore, "begel^^/, aad. "bijnc/*. 



among ruins and in waste places, and being unsavoury and 



offensive to to the senses. 



" By the witches' tower, 

 Where Hellebore and Hemlock seem to weave 

 Round its dark vaults a melancholy bower 

 For spirits of the dead at night's enchanted hour." 



The Hebrew prophet Hosea says of this sinister plant: "Judgment 



springeth up as Hemlock in the furrows of the field." At the end 



of Summer the dead stalks of the Hemlock rattle in the wind, and 

 are called by country folk Kecksies, an old English word applied to 

 the dry hollow stalks of umbelliferous plants. Formerly the Hem- 

 lock was called Kex. Astrologers assign the plant to Saturn. 



HEMP. — Herodotus speaks of Hemp (Cannabis sativa) as a 



novelty in his time, lately introduced into Thrace from Scythia. 



A curious prophecy relating to English kings and queens, and the 

 prosperity of England, has been preserved by Lord Bacon, who heard 

 of it when Queen Elizabeth was " in the flower of her age": — 



" When Hempe is spun, 

 England's done." 



"Whereby it was generally conceived that, after the princes had 

 reigned, which had the principal letters of that word Hempe 

 (which were Henry, Edward, Mary, Philip, and Elizabeth), England 

 should come to utter confusion, which is verified in the change of 

 the name; for that the king's style is now no more of England, but 



of Britain." In some parts of the country, on Midsummer Eve, 



but in Derbyshire on St. Valentine's Eve, as the clock strikes 

 twelve, young women desirous of knowing their future husbands 

 go into a churchyard, and run round the church, scattering Hemp- 

 seed, and repeating the while, without stopping, these lines: — 



" I sow Hemp-seed : Hemp-seed I sow : 

 He that loves me the best 

 Come after me and mow." 



The sowing of Hemp-seed is performed by maidens, at midnight, 

 on Midsummer Eve in Cornwall, on St. Martin's night in Norfolk, 

 and on All Hallow Eve in Scotland; the incantation being com- 

 pleted by the recital of the following or similar lines: — 



"Hemp-seed I sow thee, 

 Hemp-seed grow thee : 

 And he who will my true-love be 

 Come after me and show thee." 



The figure of the girl's lover, it is then supposed, will appear and 

 rim after her. In the poem of ' The Cottage Girl,' the rite of 

 sowing Hemp-seed is thus described : — 



" To issue from beneath the thatch, 



With trembling hand she lifts the latch. 



And steps, as creaks the feeble door, 



With cautious feet the threshold o'er ; 



Lest, stumbling on the horseshoe dim, 



Dire spells unsinevv ev'ry limb. 



