OF HERBS AND MAGIC 177 



as they recover ; and Bay-trees are famous, but melan- 

 choly prophets. 



Captain — *Tis thought the king is dead ; "we will not stay, 

 The Bay-trees in our country are ail vritherd. 



Sichard II. ii. 4. 



From this, it is not a great step to acknowledge that 

 particular plants have power to produce certain dis- 

 positions in the mind of man. So, the possession of a 

 Rampion was likely to make a child quarrelsome : while, 

 on the contrary, eating the leaves of Periwinkle " will 

 cause love between a man and his wife." Laurel greatly 

 "composed the phansy," and did " faciUtate true 

 visions," and was also " efficacious to inspire a poetical 

 fury " (Evelyn). Having admitted the power of herbs 

 over mental and moral qualities, we easily arrive at the 

 recognition of their power in regard to the supernatural. 

 If, as Culpepper tells us, "a raging buU, be he ever so 

 mad, tied to a Fig-tree, will become tame and gentle ; " 

 or if, as Pliny says, any one, " by anointing himself with 

 Chicory and oUe w^ill become right amiable and win 

 grace and favour of all men, so that he shal the more 

 easily obtain whatsoever his heart stands unto," it is not 

 much wonder that St John's Wort would drive away 

 tempests and evil spirits, four-leaved Clover enable the 

 wearer to see witches, and Garlic avert the Evil Eye. 

 Thus many herbs are magical " in their own right," so 

 to speak, apart from those that are connected with 

 magic, from being favourites of the fairies, the witches, 

 and, in a few cases, the Evil One ! 



De Gubernatis quotes from a work on astrology 

 attributed to King Solomon, and translated from the 

 Hebrew (.?) by Iroe Grego (published in Rome, 1 750), 

 with indignant comments on the " pagan " methods of 

 the Church in dealing with sorceries. Directions how 

 to make an aspersoir pour exorcisme are given in it, which, 

 teaching, he says, simply add to the peasant's existing load 



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