226 BRAMBLES AND BAY LEAVES. 



or single life. These practices still prevail in many parts of the con- 

 tinent. In Lower Saxony, the young girls gather sprigs of St. John's- 

 wort, on the eve of St. John, and secretly suspend them on the walls 

 of their chambers, with certain mysterious ceremonies. The state of 

 the plant on the following morning, indicates their future fate. If 

 fresh and undrooping, it foretells a prosperous marriage ; if fading and 

 dying, the reverse. The plant is influenced by the condition in which 

 it is placed, and those who have damp walls are the more likely to 

 have prosperous marriages than those whose walls are as dry as they 

 should be. There is wisdom in this ; the sooner the former are mar- 

 ried and comfortably housed, the safer are they from attacks of rheu- 

 matism. There is a pretty German legend of this superstition, of 

 which we present a translation — 



" The young maid stole through the cottage door, 

 And blushed as she sought the plant of power. 

 'Thou silver glow-worm, oh lend me thy light! 

 I must gather the mystic St. John's-wort to-night ; 

 The wonderful herb whose leaf will decide 

 If the coming year shall make me a bride.' 



And the glow-worm came 



With its silvery flame, 



And sparkled and shone 



Through the night of St. John ; 

 And soon as the young maid her love-knot tied. 



With noiseless tread 



To her chamber she sped 

 Where the lovely moon her white beams shed. 

 ' Bloom here, bloom here, thou plant of power, 

 To deck the young maid in her bridal hour ! ' 

 But it drooped its head, that plant of power. 

 And died the mute death of the voiceless flower ; 

 And a withered wreath on the ground it lay. 

 More meet for a burial than a bridal day. 



And when a year was passed away, 

 All pale on her bier the young maid lay! 



And the glow-worm came 



With its silvery flame. 



And sparkled and shone 



Through the night of St. John, 

 As they closed the cold grave o'er the maid's cold clay." 



A very large class of superstitions have had their origin in the love of 

 analogy, which forms so prominent a characteristic of the human 



