SIMPLES AND SIMPLERS. 227 



ancients imputed supernatural virtues to its roots ; and 

 as no medical property could be discovered in them, they 

 were naturally supposed to be intended for a charm. Dr. 

 Darwin writes, that even in his time bits of the dried roots 

 of the peony were rubbed smooth and tied round the 

 necks of children, to hasten the growth of their teeth. 

 They were sold at the shops under the name of " ano- 

 dyne necklaces." An ancient physician highly commends 

 this necklace of the peony-root- for the cure of epilepsy. 



In the days of the Pythian oracles, when the priestess 

 who delivered them was made drunk with an infusion of 

 laurel-leaves before she prophesied, the sacred regard for 

 the laurel in the popular mind must have equalled the 

 reverence of the modern devotee for the shrine of the Vir- 

 gin. The use of this decoction in the temple of Apollo, 

 who was the god of music, poetry, and the arts, probably 

 gave the laurel-tree its reputation as a crown for men of 

 genius, and still later as a general crown of honor. The 

 laurel, which is a dangerous narcotic, was never much 

 employed as a medical remedy ; and when it ceased to be 

 used in the temples for purposes of divination, it was 

 adopted as an evergreen for the brows of poets and heroes. 

 But the age of romance has departed with the age of my- 

 thology, and the reverence that now attaches to these 

 ancient superstitions is but the lingering twilight of a 

 beauty that has passed away forever. 



