54 Aster History 
called a g»dazrov, and is prized more and more with its age. If it 
has been handed down in the family from a grandfather fighting in — 
the mountains [like the grandfather of the ex-soldier speaking], a 
grandfather that was also saved by it, then it is valued most. It 
may be of various kinds, I think. It is honored for what it had 
done, rather than for what it is. Instead of guiaxtov, ‘ watcher 
over me,’ they also call it sometimes timeoy Evdov, ‘revered 
wood,’ from the great honor they pay to it.’—A/tica, June, 1901. 
OrHeR Superstitious Mopes or User 
Taken up without use of Iron and with Prescribed ormula,—By 
those who identified Aster and Argemon, its medicinal power to 
allay tumors and to heal diseases in swine was secured only if 
the plant be taken out of the ground without the use of iron, and 
with the words “This is the plant Argemon, which Minerva dis- 
covered, which she found a remedy for swine, for all such as should 
taste of it.”—Pliny, 
Ruel, quoting the knowledge of the ancients about Argemone, 
De natura, 428-9, cites the above, saying of the plant “an eadem 
eum argemone [Argemonia, Papaver and Adonis] nescio,” and 
adding, from what ancient author does not appear, that Minerva’s 
Argemon was taken in drink either in milk or in wine, and was, in 
either form, to be added to swill for swine to drink—ix colluviem 
. poturis.—Ruel. 
So of myrtle which is to be carried as an amulet against inguinal 
ulcers ; it must never touch iron, says Pliny. 
Using the left hand, in taking up the root from the ground, 
in plucking the flower or plant, or in holding the plant. 
The dry plant taken up and held in the left hand of the one 
suffering labor pains, and tied on upon the groin, drives away the 
pain.—D. 
Sypov O3 dvacoebey xi dpeatenn yeni cod ddyoovtoc, etc. —D. 
Inguinum medicinam; sinistra manu decerpi jubent—/Piny. 
Sinistra manu decerpi jubent.—Rue/: and again, 
Si arescat flos  sinistra manu dolentis decerpatur, adallig 
turque, sic dolores avertens malo liberabit.— Ruel, 
Pluck it with the left hand.—Dorstenius, 1540. Si sinistra 
dolentis manu decerpatur.—Dodoens, edn. 1616. The dried 
