108 THE OLD ENGLISH HERBALS 



or hurt by any venemous beast." Of shrubby trefoil we learn 

 that " if a man hold it in his hand he cannot be hurt with the 

 biting of any venemous beast." Of rue he says : " If a man be 

 anointed with the juice of rue, the poison of wolf's bane, mush- 

 rooms or todestooles, the biting of serpents, stinging of scorpions, 

 spiders, bees, hornets and wasps will not hurt him." In the 

 older herbals numerous herbs are mentioned as being of special 

 virtue when used as amulets to protect the wayfaring man from 

 weariness, but Gerard mentions only two mugwort and Agnus 

 castus. He quotes the authority of Pliny for the belief that 

 " the traveller or wayfaring man that hath mugwort tied about 

 him feeleth no wearisomeness at all and he who hath it about 

 him can be hurt by no poysonous medecines, nor by any wilde 

 beaste, neither yet by the Sun itself e." Of Agnus castus he 

 writes : " It is reported that if such as journey or travell do 

 carry with them a branch or rod of agnus castus in their hand, 

 it will keep them from weariness." The herbs most in repute 

 as amulets against misfortune generally were angelica (of 

 sovereign virtue against witchcraft and enchantments) and 

 figwort, which was " hanged about the necke " to keep the 

 wearer in health. At times one feels that Gerard rather doubted 

 the efficacy of these " physick charms," and he gives us a naive 

 description of his friends' efforts to cure him of an ague by their 

 means. 



" Having a most grievous ague," he writes, " and of long 

 continuance, notwithstanding Physick charmes, the little wormes 

 found in the heads of Teazle hanged about my necke, spiders 

 put in a walnut shell, and divers such foolish toies, that I was 

 constrained to take by fantasticke peoples procurement, not- 

 withstanding I say my helpe came from God himselfe, for these 

 medicines and all other such things did me no good at all." 



Under " gourd " Gerard gives a use of this herb which, though 

 popular, is not to be found in any other English herbal. " A 

 long gourd," he says, " or else a cucumber being laid in the 

 cradle or bed by the young infant while it is asleep and sicke of 



