NOCTURNAL TERRORS 201 



buryed." If one feels growing unduly hirsute the 

 henbane again comes to the rescue, for "if you wyll 

 take the heair from any part of the body and 

 woulde have it to growe there no more, stampe 

 Antes egges with the iuyce of Henbane and Hum- 

 locke and annoynt the place therewith." 



In an Anglo-Saxon manuscript, preserved in the 

 British Museum, and some five hundred years 

 antecedent to Lupton, we find the prescription for 

 a salve against elves and goblins of the night, 

 nocturnal disturbers of our peace, visitors that we 

 might well desire to circumvent. To this end we 

 " take hop, wormwood, henbane, viper's bugloss, 

 garlic, hedgerife, fennel. Put these worts into a 

 vessel, set them under the altar, sing over them 

 nine masses, boil them in butter and sheep's 

 grease, add much holy salt to them, strain 

 through a cloth and throw the worts into running 

 water. If an evil tempting come to a man, or 

 an elf, or night goblin come, smear his forehead I 

 with this salve and put it on his eyes, and cense 

 him with incense, and sign him frequently with 

 the sign of the Cross." 



It may be objected that the henbane plays only 

 a very subordinate part in this prescription ; but 

 this need not trouble our readers, since, if they have 

 entered into the spirit of our herb-garden, their 



1 Presumably that of the man, though possibly that of the 

 goblin ! 



