127 



moon. Latin: luna. French: lune. Deur lus and dealt lus 

 •(Stewart) — dkur, a tear, a drop of any fluid, and dealt, dew. Name 

 Also applied to the sundew. This plant was held in superstitious 

 reverence among Celtic and other nations. Horses were said to 

 lose their shoes where it grew. "On Sliabh Riabhach Mountain 

 no horse can keep its shoes; and to this day it is said that on 

 Lord Dunsany's Irish property there is a field where it is supposed 

 all live stock lose their nails if pastured there." "A Limerick 

 story refers to a man in Clonmel jail who could open all the locks 

 by means of this plant.'' Similar superstitions still linger in the 

 Highlands. 



There is an herb, some say whose virtue's such 

 It in the pasture, only with a touch, 

 Unshoes the new-shod steed. 



" On White Down, in Devonshire, near Tiverton, there was found 

 thirty horse-shoes pulled off from the feet of horses belonging to 

 the Earl of Essex, his horses there being drawn up into a body, 

 many of them being but newly shod, and no reason known, which 

 ■caused much admiration; and the herb described usually grows 

 upon heaths." — Culpepper. Lus na mees (Threl). Lus nam 

 mios. The month plant. Old Irish : mis. Welsh : mis. Anglo- 

 Saxon : mbnath. Hence month, from mbna, the moon. In olden 

 times nearly all the officinal plants were supposed to be governed 

 by the sun, moon, and planets. (The herbalist generally signed 

 himself " Student in Physick and Astrology.") For example, the 

 •corn flower was under the moon; ginger the sun; pepper, Mars; 

 pines, Venus, &c, hence "luan lus" and "lus natn mios," names of 

 this plant. The moonwort is found sparingly in the Highlands. 

 It is a small plant of the fern tribe, but very unlike the ordinary 

 fern, a few inches in height, with a frond of small fan-like leaves, 

 and a spike of dusty-coloured spores. Ferns frequently formed 

 components in charms. 



" Faigh naoi gasan rainich 



Air an gearradh, le tuaigh, 

 Is tri chnaimhean seann-duine 



Air an tarruing a uaigh," &c. — Macintyre. 



Get nine branches of ferns 



Cut with an axe, 

 And three old man's bones 



Pulled from the grave. 



