OF HERBS AND MAGIC i8i 



" Peel no tree, 

 Relate no dream, 

 Bake no cumin in bread. 

 So will Heav'n help thee in thy need." 



On one occasion when a loaf baked with Cumin was 

 given as an offering to a forest-wife, she was heard 

 screaming — 



" They've baken for me Cumin bread 



That on this house brings great distress." 



The unhappy giver at once began to go downhill, and 

 was soon reduced to abject misery ! Elecampane is in 

 Denmark called Elf-Dock. Flax-flowers are a protection 

 against sorcery. " Flax ^ is supposed to be under the 

 protection of the goddess Hulda, but the plant's blue 

 blossom is more especially the flower of Bertha, whose 

 blue eyes shine in its calyx, and whose distaff is filled 

 by its fibres. ... It was the goddess Hulda who first 

 taught mortals the art of growing flax, of spinning, and 

 of weaving it. . . . Between Kroppbiihl and Unterlassen, 

 is a cave which is believed by the country people to 

 have been the entrance to Queen Hulda's mountain 

 palace. Twice a year she passed through the valley, 

 scattering blessings around her path — once in summer, 

 when the blue flowers of the Flax were brightening the 

 fields, and again during the mysterious "twelve nights" 

 immediately preceding our Feast of Epiphany, when, in 

 ancient days, gods and goddesses were believed to visit 

 the earth." The Bohemians have a belief that if seven- 

 vear-old children dance among flax, they will become 

 beautiful. From the little Fairy-Flax " prepared and 

 manufactured by the supernatural skill, the ' Good 

 People ' were wont in the olden time to procure their 

 requisite supplies of linen," writes Johnston. 



Wild Thyme is specially beloved by fairies and elves, 

 and Fox-gloves and Wood-sorrel are also favourites, — 

 1 Folkard. 



