106 BRAMBLES AND EAY LEAVES. 



veneration of a saint, and hangs the aloe over his door to signify his 

 religious purity, and to proclaim the great duty which he has per- 

 formed. It is also highly esteemed as a charm against any malign 

 genius, and no evil spirit will pass a thi"eshold where so holy a symbol 

 is suspended. The Jews at Cairo have a similar belief, and suspend 

 the aloe at their doors, to prevent the intrusion of these dreadful in- 

 fluences. The Mahometans, who plant their burial-places with lovely 

 shrubs and flowers, making even death look beautiful and the grave- 

 yard a place filled with promises of joy, plant the aloe at the extremity 

 of every grave, on a spot facing the epitaph ; and Burckhardt tells us 

 that they call it by the Arabic name saber, signifying patience. 



The Eastern poets usually make the aloe a symbol of bitterness, 

 doubtless in allusion to its association with death, and to the bitter 

 flavour of its juices. " As aloe is to the body, so is affliction to the 

 Boul, — bitter, very bitter." It is usually adopted as an emblem of 

 acute woe, of " Sorrow that locks up the struggling heart." 



The woful teris that their letin fal, 



As bitter werin, out of teris kinde, 



For paine, as is lique aloes, or gal. 



Chaucer. 



The wormwood is also a symbol of bitterness. In the modern Lan- 

 guage of Flowers it represents absence. Dr. Watts says, in his work 

 on Logic, " Bitter is an equivocal word ; there is bitter wormwood, 

 there are bitter words, there are bitter enemies, and a bitter cold 

 morning ; " and the absence of those we love is also bitter, and may 

 well be spoken by wormwood. The rosemary has a similar meaning, 

 and has become a symbol of remembrance, from the old custom of 

 using it at funerals, and perhaps from its supposed medical virtue of 

 improving the memory. Shakspere uses it as a symbol of remem- 

 brance : — 



There's rosemary for you — that's for remembrance : 

 I pray you, love, remember, 



said the sad Ophelia : so Perdita, in Winter's Tale : — 



[To Polixines and Camillo.] You're welcome, sir! , 



Give me those flowers there, Dorcas. — Reverend sirs, 

 For you there's rosemary, and rue; these keep 

 Seeming, and savour, all the winter long : 

 Grace and remembrance, be to you both, 

 And welcome to our shearing ! 



