Christi, and was reported to have been blessed by the Virgin Mary. 



So wholesome was the herb considered, that the school of 



Salerno summed up its surpassing merits in the line — 

 " Cur morietur homo cui Salvia crescit in horto ? " 

 " Mow can a man die who grows Sage in his garden ? " 

 Probably this saying gave rise to the piece of advice contained in 

 the old English proverb — 



" He that would live for aye 

 Must eat Sage in May." 



Parkinson remarks that " Sage is much used in the month of May, 

 fasting, with butter and Parsley, and is held of most to conduce 

 much to the health of man," and Turner says that " it restores 

 natural heat, and comforts the vital spirits, and helps the memory, 

 and quickens the senses ; it is very healthful to be eaten in May 

 with butter, and also to be drank in ale." The Greeks of Crete 

 (where Sage is grown abundantly) are very careful to gather the 



herb either on the first or second day of May, before sunrise. In 



Sussex, to charm away ague fits, the peasantry eat Sage-leaves 

 fasting for nine mornings consecutively. In Franche-Comte, the 



herb is believed to mitigate grief, moral as well as physical. In 



Piedmont, there exists a tradition that if Sage is placed in a glass 

 phial and buried beneath a dung-heap, a certain animal will grow^ 

 the blood of which, if tasted by dogs, will cause them to lose con- 

 sciousness. There exists, also, a belief among Piedmontese girls 

 that in every Sage-leaf is concealed a little toad ; and Robert 

 Turner, in his work on English plants (1687), states that " Rue is 

 good to be planted amongst Sage, to prevent the poison which 

 may be in it by toads frequenting amongst it, to relieve themselves 

 of their poison, as is supposed ; but Rue being amongst it, they 



will not come near it." There is an old superstition that, 



with the aid of Sage, young women may see their future husbands 

 by pracftising the following extraordinary spell: — On Midsummer 

 Eve, just after sunset, three, five, or seven young women are to 

 go into a garden, where there is no other person, and each is to 

 gather a sprig of Red Sage, and then, going into a room by them- 

 selves, set a stool in the middle of the room, and on it a clean 

 bason full of Rose-water, on which the sprigs of Sage are to be 

 put ; and tying a line across the room, on one side of the stool, each 

 maiden is to hang on it a clean smock, turned the wrong side out- 

 wards; then all are to sit down in a row, on the apposite side of 

 the stool, as far distant as the room will allow, in perfecft silence. 

 At a few minutes after twelve, each maid's future husband will 

 take her sprig of Sage out of the Rose-water and sprinkle her 

 smock with it. Sage is held to be a herb of Jupiter. 



SAINFOIN. — As at present applied, the name Sainfoin 

 appertains to Hedysarum Onobrychis, but the name was first given 

 to the Lucerne Medicago saliva. Sainfoin was, in earlier times, 



