Meetin' Seed and Sabbath Day Posies 343 



Parson Mather gives Tansy and Caraway as reme- 

 dies for the hiccough, but far better still spiders, 

 prepared in various odious ways ; I prefer Dill. 



Peter Parley said that " a sprig of Fennel was the 

 theological smelling-bottle of the tender sex, and not 

 unfrequently of the men, who from long sitting in 

 the sanctuary, after a week of labor in the field, found 

 themselves tempted to sleep, would sometimes bor- 

 row a sprig of Fennel, to exorcise the fiend that 

 threatened their spiritual welfare." 



Old-fashioned folk kept up a constant nibbling 

 in church, not only of these three seeds, but of bits 

 of Cinnamon or Lovage root, or, more commonly 

 still, the roots of Sweet Flag. Many children went 

 to brooksides and the banks of ponds to gather 

 these roots. This pleasure was denied to us, but 

 we had a Flag root purveyor, our milkman's 

 daughter. This milkman, who lived on a lonely 

 farm, used often to take with him on his daily 

 rounds his little daughter. She sat with him on 

 the front seat of his queer cart in summer and 

 his queerer pung in winter, an odd little figure, 

 with a face of gypsylike beauty which could scarcely 

 be seen in the depths of the Shaker sunbonnet 

 or pumpkin hood. If my mother chanced to see 

 her, she gave the child an orange, or a few figs, or 

 some little cakes, or almonds and raisins ; in return 

 the child would throw out to us violently roots of 

 Sweet Flag, Wild Ginger, Snakeroot, Sassafras, and 

 Apples or Pears, which she carried in a deep detached 

 pocket at her side. She never spoke, and the milk- 

 man confided to my mother that he "took her around 



