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 hidingplaces of the cloud." According to the Swiss version of the story it is the hoopoe that brings the springwort, a bird also endowed with mystic virtues,1 while in Iceland, Normandy, and ancient Greece it is an eagle, a swallow, or an ostrich. Analogous 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." 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 aweinspiring 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 1 Gubernatis' "Zoological Mythology," ii. 230. The 2 "Myths and Mythmakers," p. 58. See Baring-Gould's "Curious Myths of the Middle Ages," 1877, pp. 386-416. 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 passes through the door he is severed in twain amidst the crashing 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 passed 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-fashioned 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 con sidered a sure preventive of mildew in wheat. Without multiplying further illustrations, 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. Among some of the many plants supposed to possess preservative properties against the ill effects of lightning is the St. John's wort, which in the Netherlands is gathered before sunrise. As far back as the time of Pliny, holly was on this account planted near the dwellingplace, and at the present day the house-leek and stone cross may be seen on many a cottage roof. Culpepper refers to the old belief that lightning is powerless to hurt a man where a bay tree is, a property also claimed by the birch. In the Tyrol, during a thunderstorm,1 the mountaineers throw nettles on the fire to guard themselves from lightning, a practice, which also extends to Italy, while in Venetia an olive branch is kept on the chimney-piece. In the district of Lechrain, in Bavaria,2 where the Easter Saturday fire is lighted in the churchyard with flint and steel, "every household bring to it a walnut branch, which, after being partially burned, is carried home to be laid on the hearth fire during tempests as a protection against 1 Folkard's "Plant-lore Legends and Lyrics," p. 460. lightning." The beech tree was regarded as proof against lightning; and at the present day a person is said to be perfectly safe under an elder tree during a thunderstorm, as the lightning never strikes the tree of which the Cross was made. In Westphalia the English orpine or live-long is kept as a charm against lightning; and elsewhere we have already referred to the gathering of the everlasting flower (gnaphalium) on Ascension Day for the same purpose. These, however, are only a few of the many plants associated with lightning; but they are sufficiently numerous to show how universal this class of superstitions have been, and under what a variety of forms they have from a remote period existed. CHAPTER V. PLANTS IN WITCHCRAFT. THE vast proportions which the great witchcraft movement assumed 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 associations 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 1 See Moncure Conway's "Demonology and Devil Lore,” 1880, ii. 324. |