282 THE SWALLOW'S HERB. 



with bringing this herbe and putting it to them : but Aris- 

 totle, and Celsus from him, doe shew that the young ones 

 of partridges, doves, swallowes, &c., will recover their sight 

 (being hurt) of themselves in time, without anything ap- 

 plyed unto them, and therefore Celsus accounteth this 

 saying but a fable." 



It is curious to observe how universally this plant appears 

 to be associated with the swallow. Clididonium majus 

 is Calidonia maggiore of the Italians ; Yerva dc las 

 gelondrinJias of the Spaniards ; Chelidoine Felongue and 

 Esclairc of the French ; and Sdnvalbcnkraut of the 

 Germans ; while we, in English, call it Celandine, 

 Swallow' s-herb, and Swallow-wort. 



Besides the Swallow-herb there is the Swallow-stone, to 

 which wonderful properties have been likewise attributed 

 in connection with diseases of the eye. 



Dr. Lebour, in a communication to The Zoologist, for 

 1866, says (p. 523) : "I met last summer, in Brittany, with 

 a curious fact relating to the habits of the common house- 

 swallow. In Brittany there exists a wide-spread belief 

 among the peasantry that certain stones found in swallows' 

 nests are sovereign cures for certain diseases of the eye. 

 I think the same notion holds in many other parts of 

 France, and also in some of our English counties. These 

 stones are held in high estimation, and the happy possessor 

 usually lets them on hire at a sous or so a day. Now, I 

 had the good fortune to see some of these ' swallow- 



