pPant bore, "bcgc^/, ooel 'bijric/'. 531 



according? to the Gaelic legend, of ' The Pursuit of Diarmuid 

 and Grainne,' there grew in Ireland a celebrated Mountain 

 Ash, called the Quicken-tree of Dubhros, which bore some won- 

 derful berries. The legend informs us that, " There is in every 

 berry of them the exhilaration of wine, and the satisfying of old 

 mead, and whoever shall eat three berries of them, has he com- 

 pleted a hundred years, he will return to the age of thirty years." 

 These famed berries of the Quicken-tree of Dubhros were jealously 

 guarded by one Searbhan Lochlannach, " a giant, hideous and foul 

 to behold," who would allow no one to pluck them : he was, how- 

 ever, slain by Diarmuid O'Duibhne, and the berries placed at the 

 disposal of his wife Grainne, who had incited her husband to obtain 



them for her. At ModrufcU, on the north coast of Ireland, is or 



was a large Rowan, always on Christmas Eve stuck full of torches, 

 which no wind could possibly extinguish ; and one of the Orkneys 

 possessed a still more mysterious tree with which the fate of the 

 islands was bound up, since, if a leaf was carried away, they would 

 pass to some foreign lord. 



RUDRAKSHA. — De Gubernatis tells us, that Rudrdksha, 

 which means literally the Eye of Rudra (Siva), or the Tear of 

 Rudra, is a name given, in India, to the fruit of the Eleocarpus, of 

 which the natives manufacfture their Rosaries, which are specially 

 used in the worship of the god Siva. It is said that during the war 

 of the gods with the Asuras, or demons, Siva burnt three towns; 

 but he was grieved, and wept went he was told that he had also 

 burnt the inhabitants. From the tears he then shed, and which 

 fell to the earth, sprang the climbing plants whose fruits are to this 

 day called by the faithful, Rudrdkshas. 



RUE. — It has been conjecftured that the Moly, which, accord- 

 ing to Homer, Mercury gave to Ulysses as an antidote to the 

 enchantress Circe's beverage, was the root of the wild Rue. In 

 olden times. Rue {Ruta graveolens) was called Herb of Grace, from the 

 facfl that the word rue means also " repentance," which is needful to 

 obtain the grace of God. It was also known as the Serving-men's 

 Joy, but was specially held in high repute by women, who attributed 

 to it all sorts of miraculous qualities. R. Turner states that "it 

 preserves chastity, being eaten ; it quickeneth the sight, stirs up 

 the spirits, and sharpeneth the wit. . . . It is an excellent 

 antidote against poisons and infecftions ; the very smell thereof is 

 a preservation against the plague in the time of infection." Its 

 virtues as a disinfecftant are noted in the quaint rhyme of old 

 Tusser : — 



" What savour is better, if physicke be true. 



For places infected, than Wormwood and Rue ? " 



Dioscorides recommended the seed as a counterpoison against 

 deadly medicines, the bitings of serpents, scorpions, wasps, &c. : 

 and Gerarde adds, " It is reported that if a man bee anointed with 



2 M--2 



