THE LILY OF THE VALLEY. 269 



another herb comparable to it for the purpose 

 aforesaid/' And to this he attributes the name of 

 Solomon's seal as " knitting together, soddering, or 

 sealing of broken bones, &c." But it is more gene- 

 rally referred, in our rustic districts, to a confused 

 pattern, which is formed by the arrangement of the 

 root- fibres, and is seen on cutting the root across, 

 and which imagination has tortured into a sem- 

 blance of Hebrew characters such as might have 

 been borne by King Solomon on his seal. The pro- 

 vincial name of David's harp appears to have arisen 

 from the exact similarity of the outline of the 

 bended stalk, with its pendant, bell-like, blossoms, 

 to the drawings of monkish times, in which King 

 David is represented as seated before an instrument 

 shaped like the half of a pointed arch, from which 

 are suspended metal bells, which he strikes with two 

 hammers. This representation is employed either 

 under the strange supposition that bells were in- 

 vented at an earlier date than the stringed instru- 

 ments which we know as harps ; or, more probably 

 because these holy monks considered an instrument, 

 so commonly heard as the harp in profane feasts 

 and other merry-makings, too sublunary for " the 

 sweet psalmist of Israel/' and out of reverence as- 

 signed to him the use of the bells which they 

 themselves held so holy, and employed to scare 

 away " thunder, lightning, and other heretics." It 

 is much to be regretted that in the present more 

 enlightened age children should be taught, and 

 more especially in the schools for the poorer classes, 

 that such was the case, and edified by pictures of 



