28 THE OLD ENGLISH HERBALS 



when going on a journey, against being barked at by dogs, for 

 safety from robbers, and in one prescription even to restore a 

 woman stricken with speechlessness. The use of herbs as amulets 

 to cure diseases has almost died out in this country, but the use 

 of them as charms to ensure good luck survives to this day 

 notably in the case of white heather and four-leaved clover. 



There is occasionally the instruction to bind on the herb with 

 red wool. For instance, a prescription against headache in the 

 third book of the Leech Book enjoins binding waybroad, which 

 has been dug up without iron before sunrise, round the head 

 " with a red fillet." Binding on with red wool is a very ancient 

 and widespread custom. 1 Red was the colour sacred to Thor 

 and it was also the colour abhorred not only by witches in 

 particular but by all the powers of darkness and evil. An 

 ancient Assyrian eye charm prescribes binding " pure strands 

 of red wool which have been brought by the pure hand of ... 

 on the right hand," and down to quite recent tunes even in 

 these islands tying on with red wool was a common custom. 



Besides their use as amulets, we also find instructions for 

 hanging herbs up over doors, etc., for the benefit not only of 

 human beings but of cattle also. Of mugwort we read in the 

 Herbarium of Apuleius, " And if a root of this wort be hung 

 over the door of any house then may not any man damage the 

 house." 



" Of Croton oil plant. For hail and rough weather to turn 

 them away. If thou hast in thy possession this wort which is 

 named ' ricinus ' and which is not a native of England, if thou 

 hangest some seed of it in thine house or have it or its seed in 

 any place whatsoever, it turneth away the tempestuousness of 

 hail, and if thou hangest its seed on a ship, to that degree 



1 Sonny (Arch. f. ReL, 1906, p. 525), in his article " Rote Farbe im Toten- 

 kulte," considers the use of red to be in imitation of blood. The instruction 

 to bind on with red is found even in the Grete Herball of 1526. " Apium is 

 good for lunatyke Folke yf it be bounde to the pacyentes heed with a lynen 

 clothe dyed reed," etc. 



