136 LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 
sent their heralds to offer peace or war to 
nations, one of them always carried a sprig of 
Vervain. The Druids, both in Gaul and Britain, 
regarded the Vervain with the same veneration 
as the mistletoe, and offered sacrifices to the 
earth before they cut this plant in spring, which 
was a ceremony of great pomp. 
The Druids held their power through the 
ignorance and superstition of the people, and, 
being acquainted with the qualities of plants 
and other objects of Nature, they ascribed their 
effects to the power of magic and divination, 
pretending to work miracles, to exhibit asto¬ 
nishing appearances, and to penetrate into the 
counsels of Heaven. Although so many ages 
have passed away since the time of the Druids, 
the belief in their pretended spells is not yet 
wholly abolished. Thus, in the northern pro¬ 
vinces of France, the shepherds still continue to 
gather the Vervain, with ceremonies and words 
known only to themselves, and to express its 
juices under certain phases of the moon. At 
once the doctors and conjurors of their village, 
they alternately cure the complaints of their 
masters or fill them with dread ; for the same 
