pPant Isore, TscgeT^ti/, oriR Isijnc/', 543 



Driiidesses who inhabited tlie island of Sena (now Sain) at the 

 mouth of the River Loire, where there was a Druidic oracle. 

 These Sibyls devoted themselves chiefly to the service of the 

 Moon, and worshipped her under the name of Ked or Ceridwen, 

 the Northern name for the Egyptian Isis. They consecrated a 

 herb to her called Belimmcia, in the poisonous sap of which they 

 dipped their arrows to render them deadly. It was one of their 

 rites to procure a virgin, and to denude her as an emblem of the 

 moon in an unclouded sky. Then they sought for the mystic 

 Selago, or Golden Herb. She who pressed it with her foot slept, 

 and heard the language of animals. If she touched it with iron, 

 the sky grew dark and a misfortune fell upon the world. 



*' The herb of gold is cut : a cloud 

 Across the sky hath spread its shroud 

 To war." 



When they had found the precious herb, the virgin traced the circle 

 round it, and covering her hand in a white linen cloth which had 

 never before been used, rooted it out with the tip of her little 

 finger — a symbol of the crescent moon. Then they washed it in a 

 running spring, and having gathered green branches, plunged into 

 a river and splashed the virgin, who was thus supposed to resemble 

 the moon clouded with vapours. When they retired, the virgin 

 walked backwards, " that the moon might not return upon its path 

 in the plain of the heavens." 



Self-heal. — See Sanicle. 



SENSITIVE-PLANT.— The leaves of most species of the 

 genus Mimosa are more or less sensitive to the touch, but 

 M. pudica is the true Sensitive Plant, of which Browne writes : — 



" Looke at the Feeling-plant, which learned swaines 

 Relate to growe on the East Indian plaines, 

 Shrinkes up his dainty leaves if any sand 

 You throw thereon, or touch it with your hand." 



SERVICE-TREE.— The true Service-tree is thought by 

 some to have obtained its name from the Latin word cervisia, 

 because from ancient times its fruit has been used for making a 

 fermented liquor of the nature of beer. In France, the Service or 

 Sorb-tree is called Sorbicr or Cormier, and an excellent drink, some- 

 thing like Cider, is made from its berries. De Gubernatis tells 



us tliat among the Fins the Sorb is specially reverenced above all 

 trees. In the poem ' Kalevala ' allusion is made to a nymph 

 of the Sorb-tree [Sorhus tcrminalis), who is regarded as the pro- 

 tectress of cattle. The Finnish shepherd sticks his staff of Sorb- 

 wood in the middle of a field, and offers up his prayers for the 

 safety of his flock. A branch of the Sorb-tree is the symbol of the 

 lightning, which, according to the Vedic legend, first brought fire 

 to the earth, whilst imparting it to certain privileged trees — on 

 which it fell, not to destroy them, but to conceal itself. Among 



