LASTRJEA PILIX-MAS. 161 
twelve pewter-plates must be taken. The wondrous seed, 
it is affirmed, will pass through eleven of the plates, and 
rest only upon the twelfth ! Such an idea may now be 
smiled at; but the philosophers of a past age believed 
something very similar, and even taught that demons 
watched to convey away the Fern-seed as it fell, ere any one 
could possess themselves of it. To ' walk invisible ' was 
said, and at one time believed, to result from possessing the 
Fern-seed." 
