282 
THE SWALLOW S HERB. 
with bringing this herbe and putting it to them : but Aris¬ 
totle, and Celsus from him, doe shew that the young ones 
of partridges, doves, swallowes, See., will recover their sight 
(being hurt) of themselves in time, without anything ap- 
plyed unto them, and therefore Celsus accounteth this 
saying but a fable.” 
It is curious to observe how universally this plant appears 
to be associated with the swallow. Chelidonium mojus 
is Calidonia maggiore of the Italians ; Yerva de las 
gelondrinhas of the Spaniards ; Chelidoine Felongue and 
Esclaire of the French ; and Schwalbenkraut of the 
Germans; while we, in English, call it Celandine, 
Swallow's-herb, and S wallow-wort. 
Besides the Swallow-herb there is the Swallow-stone, to 
which wonderful properties have been likewise attributed 
in connection with diseases of the eye. 
Dr. Lebour, in a communication to The Zoologist, for 
1866, says (p. 523):—“I met last summer, in Brittany, with 
a curious fact relating to the habits of the common house- 
swallow. In Brittany there exists a wide-spread belief 
among the peasantry that certain stones found in swallows’ 
nests are sovereign cures for certain diseases of the eye. 
I think the same notion holds in many other parts of 
France, and also in some of our English counties. These 
stones are held in high estimation, and the happy possessor 
usually lets them on hire at a sous or so a day. Now, I 
had the good fortune to see some of these ‘swallow- 
