22 I 
THE ST. /OHN’S V/ORT 
and maidens, carrying posies in their hands, and having 
their brows encircled with vervain and St. John’s wort, 
danced round the blazing fire, and threw the flowers into 
it, at the same time invoking the name of the saint, and 
praying that the coming year might be more full of good, 
and less fertile in sorrows, than the one just passing away. 
These superstitious practices were founded on a strange 
misapprehension of the words of Holy Writ, which told 
of St. John that he was a burning and shining light. In 
London, in addition to the bonfires on the eve of this 
saint, as well as on those of St. Peter and St. Paul, “ every 
man’s door was shaded with green birch, long fennel, St. 
John’s wort, orpin, white lilies, and the like, ornamented 
with garlands of beautiful flowers.” 
St. John’s day is on the 24th of June; and in the vil- 
lages of France and Germany it is usual on this day to 
gather a species of St. John’s wort, and hang it over the 
cottage doors, or place it in the windows, under the idea 
that its sanctity may deter malignant spirits from entering, 
and that the inmates of the house may thus propitiate the 
favour of their patron saint. 
In Lorraine no persuasions will induce the peasant to 
cut down his grass until the arrival of this day, however 
the sun may have previously prepared it for the scythe ; 
while it matters not that the season be retarded, no event 
is allowed to delay the commencement of haying at this 
period. , 
The custom of reverencing St. John’s day is not peculiar 
to the countries already mentioned. It is generally be- 
lieved throughout the Levant that the plague disappears 
from the country on the anniversary of this reverenced 
festival; and the annual disappointm^ent of their expecta- 
tion is not sufficient to convince the Greeks of its fallacy. 
In many parts of the Continent the day is celebrated in 
a manner similar to the eve of Allhallows in Scotland, 
with various rural pastimes, accompanied by a plentiful 
use of the St. John’s wort. 
The hypericum tribe are all yellow or orange-coloured 
blossoms; and they possess a viscid juice, which is valu- 
able in medicine, and is so similar in its qualities to the 
gamboge of commerce, that a foreign species has received 
the name of American gamboge. The perforated St. 
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