OF HERBS AND BEASTS 189 



men of the reasoning, but there is romance about the 

 plant which is far more attractive. Besides being good 

 for horses, it is actually the witches' own horse ! There 

 is a high granite rock called the Castle Peak, south of 

 the Logan Rock in Cornwall, where, as tales run, witches 

 were specially fond of gathering, and thither they rode 

 on moonlight nights on a stem of Ragwort. In Ireland, 

 it is the fairies ride it, and there it is sometimes called 

 the Fairy's Horse. 



Reach up to the star that hangs the lowest, 



Tread down the drift of the apple blow, 



Ride your ragweed horse to the Isle of Wobles. 



Ragwort is specially beloved by the Leprehauns, or 

 Clauricanes, the little fairy cobblers, who are sometimes 

 seen singing or whistHng over their work on a tiny shoe. 

 They wear " deeshy-daushy " leather aprons, and usually 

 red nightcaps. 



Do you not catch the tiny clamour, 

 Busy click of an elfin hammer, 

 Voice of the Lepracaun singing shrill, 

 As he merrily plies his trade. 



W. B. Yeats. 



There is a very nice legend of the Field of 

 Boliauns, which turns on the belief that every Lepre- 

 haun has a hidden treasure buried under a ragwort. 

 And if anyone can catch the little man, and not for one 

 second take his eyes off him until the plant is reached, 

 the Leprehaun must show him exactly where to dig for 

 it. In the Isle of Man, they used to tell of another 

 steed, not the fairies' horse, but a fairy or enchanted horse, 

 ridden by mortals. If anyone on St John's Eve, they 

 said, trod on a plant of St John's Wort after sunset, the 

 horse would spring out of the earth, and carry him about 

 till sunrise, and there leave him wherever they chanced 

 at that moment to be. 



William Coles ^ speaks with great decision as to the 



' " Art of Simpling." 



