Thistles and Nettles 333 
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for your pains,’’ etc. They were written by Aaron 
Hill on a window in Scotland. Their thought is 
more tersely expressed in the old Devonshire say- 
ing: ‘‘He that handles a nettle tenderly is soonest 
stung,’’ meaning that politeness is wasted on some 
People. “par the spigticd, Seno of the vegetable 
nettle the dock-leaf is a remedy, whence the old 
adage, ‘‘ Nettle out, dock in, dock remove the net- 
tle sting.’’ In old-folk medicine nettle-tea was a 
remedy for nettle-rash, a kind of foreshadowing of 
the coming doctrine that ‘‘ similia similibus curan- 
tur. Carried about on the person, the nettle was 
supposed to drive away fear, and on this account 
it was frequently worn in time of danger. ‘‘In 
the Tyrol, during a thunder-storm,’’ says Thistle- 
ton Dyer, ‘‘the mountaineers throw nettles on the 
fire to protect themselves from lightning, and the 
same safeguard is practised in Italy.’’ Well might 
this be a potent weed, for it is own cousin to the 
famous and fatal upas tree of Eastern story. 
The thistle, companion of the nettle in vaga- 
bondage and in public execration (Fig. 94), is like- 
wise deserving of a better fate and of a higher 
place in popular estimation. For it has been re- 
nowned in legend and wonder-lore, and has more- 
over played no mean part in authentic history. 
