Part 4 (2/2)

Professor Gubernatis, referring to the symbolical nature of this tradition, remarks that, ”this herb may be the moon itself, which opens the hiding-place of the night, or the thunderbolt, which opens the hiding-places of the cloud.” According to the Swiss version of the story it is the hoopoe that brings the spring-wort, a bird also endowed with mystic virtues,[12] while in Iceland, Normandy, and ancient Greece it is an eagle, a swallow, or an ostrich. a.n.a.logous to the talismanic properties of the springwort are those of the famous luck or key-flower of German folk-lore, by the discovery of which the fortunate possessor effects an entrance into otherwise inaccessible fairy haunts, where unlimited treasures are offered for his acceptance. There then, again, the luck-flower is no doubt intended to denote the lightning, which reveals strange treasures, giving water to the parched and thirsty land, and, as Mr. Fiske remarks, ”making plain what is doing under cover of darkness.”[13] The lightning-flash, too, which now and then, as a lesson of warning, instantly strikes dead those who either rashly or presumptuously essay to enter its awe-inspiring portals, is exemplified in another version of the same legend. A shepherd, while leading his flock over the Ilsentein, pauses to rest, but immediately the mountain opens by reason of the springwort or luck-flower in the staff on which he leans. Within the cavern a white lady appears, who invites him to accept as much of her wealth as he choses. Thereupon he fills his pockets, and hastening to quit her mysterious domains, he heeds not her enigmatical warning, ”Forget not the best,” the result being that as he pa.s.ses through the door he is severed in twain amidst the cras.h.i.+ng of thunder. Stories of this kind, however, are the exception, legendary lore generally regarding the lightning as a benefactor rather than a destroyer. ”The lightning-flash,” to quote Mr. Baring-Gould's words, ”reaches the barren, dead, and thirsty land; forth gush the waters of heaven, and the parched vegetation bursts once more into the vigour of life restored after suspended animation.”

That this is the case we have ample proof in the myths relating to plants, in many of which the life-giving properties of the lightning are clearly depicted. Hence, also, the extraordinary healing properties which are ascribed to the various lightning plants. Ash rods, for instance, are still used in many parts of England for the cure of diseased sheep, cows, and horses, and in Cornwall, as a remedy for hernia, children are pa.s.sed through holes in ash trees. The mistletoe has the reputation of being an antidote for poisons and a specific against epilepsy. Culpepper speaks of it as a sure panacea for apoplexy, palsy, and falling sickness, a belief current in Sweden, where finger rings are made of its wood. An old-fas.h.i.+oned charm for the bite of an adder was to place a cross formed of hazel-wood on the wound, and the burning of a thorn-bush has long been considered a sure preventive of mildew in wheat. Without multiplying further ill.u.s.trations, there can be no doubt that the therapeutic virtues of these so-called lightning plants may be traced to, in very many cases, their mythical origin. It is not surprising too that plants of this stamp should have been extensively used as charms against the influences of occult powers, their symbolical nature investing them with a potency such as was possessed by no ordinary plant.

Footnotes:

1. See an article on ”Myths of the Fire Stealer,” _Sat.u.r.day Review_, June 2, 1883, p. 689; Tylor's ”Primitive Culture.”

2. ”Myths and Myth Makers,” p. 55.

3. See Keary's ”Outlines of Primitive Belief,” 1882, p. 98.

4. ”Indo-European Tradition and Folk-lore,” p. 159.

5. ”Mystic Trees and Shrubs,” _Fraser's Magazine_, Nov. 1870, p. 599.

6. ”Sacred Trees and Flowers,” _Quarterly Review_, July 1863, pp. 231, 232.

7. ”Myths and Myth Makers,” p. 55.

8. See ”Flower Lore,” pp. 38, 39.

9. Kelly's ”Indo-European Folk-lore,” p. 179.

10. ”Natural History and Antiquities of Surrey,” ii. 34.

11. Kelly's ”Indo-European Folk-lore,” p. 176; Grimm's ”Teutonic Mythology,” 1884, chap, x.x.xii.; Gubernatis' ”Zoological Mythology,”

ii. 266-7. See Albertus Magnus, ”De Mirab. Mundi,” 1601, p. 225.

12. Gubernatis' ”Zoological Mythology,” ii. 230.

13. ”Myths and Mythmakers,” p. 58. See Baring-Gould's ”Curious Myths of the Middle Ages,” 1877, pp. 386-416.

14. Folkard's ”Plant-lore Legends and Lyrics,” p. 460.

15. See Kelly's ”Indo-European Folk-lore,” pp. 47-8.

CHAPTER V.

PLANTS IN WITCHCRAFT.

The vast proportions which the great witchcraft movement a.s.sumed in bygone years explains the magic properties which we find ascribed to so many plants in most countries. In the nefarious trade carried on by the representatives of this cruel system of sorcery certain plants were largely employed for working marvels, hence the mystic character which they have ever since retained. It was necessary, however, that these should be plucked at certain phases of the moon or seasons of the year, or from some spot where the sun was supposed not to have shone on it.[1]

Hence Shakespeare makes one of his witches speak of ”root of hemlock digg'd i' the dark,” and of ”slips of yew sliver'd in the moon's eclipse,” a practice which was long kept up. The plants, too, which formed the witches' pharmacopoeia, were generally selected either from their legendary a.s.sociations or by reason of their poisonous and soporific qualities. Thus, two of those most frequently used as ingredients in the mystic cauldron were the vervain and the rue, these plants having been specially credited with supernatural virtues. The former probably derived its notoriety from the fact of its being sacred to Thor, an honour which marked it out, like other lightning plants, as peculiarly adapted for occult uses. It was, moreover, among the sacred plants of the Druids, and was only gathered by them, ”when the dog-star arose, from unsunned spots.” At the same time, it is noteworthy that many of the plants which were in repute with witches for working their marvels were reckoned as counter-charms, a fact which is not surprising, as materials used by wizards and others for magical purposes have generally been regarded as equally efficacious if employed against their charms and spells.[2] Although vervain, therefore, as the ”enchanters'

plant,” was gathered by witches to do mischief in their incantations, yet, as Aubrey says, it ”hinders witches from their will,” a circ.u.mstance to which Drayton further refers when he speaks of the vervain as ”'gainst witchcraft much avayling.” Rue, likewise, which entered so largely into magic rites, was once much in request as an antidote against such practices; and nowadays, when worn on the person in conjunction with agrimony, maiden-hair, broom-straw, and ground ivy, it is said in the Tyrol to confer fine vision, and to point out the presence of witches.

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