OF THE PICKING AND DRYING OF HERBS 201 



It would be easy to fill a book with these extracts of the 

 prayers to be said when gathering herbs. For example, 

 in one old herbal one finds, " For the delirious. When day 

 and night divide, then sing thou in the Church, litanies, 

 the names of the hallows (Saints) and the Pater Noster. 

 With the song go thou near the herbs and go thrice about 

 them, and when thou takest them go again to the Church 

 with the same song and sing twelve masses over them and 

 over all the drinks which belong to the disease in honour 

 of the twelve Apostles." Then, again, in making use of 

 sorrel or dock, " Sing twelve times the Psalm miserere mei 

 Deus and Gloria in excelsis Deo and the Pater Noster . . . 

 when day and night divide then drink the dose and wrap 

 thyself up warm." In another herbal, " For much travelling 

 overland lest a man tire. Let him take mugwort in his hand 

 and put it in his shoe lest he should be weary. And when 

 he will pluck it before sunrise let him first say, ' Tollam 

 te artemisia ne lassus sim in via.' Sign it (with the sign of 

 the Cross) when thou pullest it up." When picking celan- 

 dine, " Sing over it nine Pater Nosters and at the ninth 

 at ' Deliver us from evil/ take it up." In the later herbals 

 one finds more general instructions : " Make mention of the 

 passion or grief and the name of the thynge for the which 

 thou doest gather it and the selfe herbe lay on wheat or 

 barley." Again a godly prayer, " Thine Hand vexeth, Thine 

 Hand vexeth." 



Although so little remains of the old charms there is more 

 evidence of pagan worship in the old belief of the influence 

 of the sun, moon, and other celestial bodies on the herbs. 

 Every herb was supposed to be under the influence of one 

 of these bodies, and they must be in a favourable position 

 when the herb was used. Herbs under the dominion of 

 the Sun must never be picked except with gold or a stag's 

 horn (emblems of the sun's rays). There are many her- 

 balists to-day (and many gardeners too for that matter) 

 who firmly believe in sowing all seeds when the moon is 

 waxing, but the rest is now regarded as mere superstition. 

 Perhaps in another century science will have discovered 



