372 pfant "bore, Tsegef^t)/, anil Isijt'icf. 



Chinese Liao chai chih ye (a.d. 6o — 70), it is recorded that two friends 

 wandering among the mountains cuUing simples, find at a fairy 

 bridge two lovely maidens guarding it; at their invitation, the two 

 friends cross this " azure bridge " and are regaled with Huma 

 (Hemp — the Chinese Hashish) ; forthwith they fall deeply in love 

 with their hostesses, and spend with them in the Jasper City what 

 appears to them a few blissful days : at length, becoming home- 

 sick, they return, to find that seven generations have passed, and 

 that they have become centenarians. To dream of Hemp be- 

 tokens ill-luck. Astrologers assign Hemp to the rule of Saturn. 



HENBANE. — There are two species of Henbane {Hyoscy- 

 amus), the black and the white : the black or common Henbane 

 grows on waste land by roadsides, and bears pale, woolly, clammy 

 leaves, with venomous-looking cream-coloured flowers, and has a 

 foetid smell. Pliny calls this black Henbane a plant of ill omen, 

 employed in funeral repasts, and scattered on tombs. The ancients 

 thought that sterility was the result of eating this sinister plant, 

 and that babes at the breast were seized with convulsions if the 



mother had partaken of it. Henbane was called Insana, and was 



believed to render anyone eating it stupid and drowsy : it was also 

 known as Alterculmn, because those that had partaken of it became 



light-headed and quarrelsome. According to Plutarch, the dead 



were crowned with chaplets of Henbane, and their tombs decorated 

 with the baneful plant, which, for some unknown reason, was also 

 employed to form the chaplets of victors at the Olympic games. 

 Hercules is sometimes represented with a crown of Henbane. 

 Priests were forbidden to eat Henbane, but the horses of Juno fed 

 on it; and to this day, on the Continent, Henbane is prescribed 



for certain equine disorders. Albertus Magnus calls Henbane the 



sixth herb of Jupiter, and recommends it especially for liver com- 

 plaints. In Sanscrit, Henbane is called Afamoda, or Goat's Joy. 



Both sheep and goats will eat the plant sparingly, but swine are 

 said really to like it, and in England it is well known as Hog's Bean. 



In Piedmont, there is a tradition that if a hare be sprinkled 



with Henbane juice, all the hares in the neighbourhood will run 

 away. They also have a saying, when a mad dog dies, that he has 



tasted Henbane. In Germany, there is a superstitious belief 



that Henbane will attracft rain. The English name of Henbane 



was given to the plant on account of the baneful effecfts of its seed 

 upon poultry, for, according to Matthiolus, birds that have eaten the 



seeds perish soon after, as do fishes also. Anodyne necklaces, 



made of pieces of this root, are sometimes worn by infants to 

 facilitate teething, and the leaves are smoked by country people to 

 allay toothache. Gerarde says, " The root boiled with vinegre, 

 and the same holden hot in the mouth, easeth the pain of the teeth. 

 The seed is used by mountebank tooth-drawers, which run about 

 the country, to cause worms to come forth of the teeth, by burning 

 it in a chafing-dish of coles, the party holding his mouth over the 



