struggling at Rome with the disease, of which he afterwards died, an owl was seen and heard for many days upon the palace at Cleves, and in the broad day-light, who was scarcely to be driven away from the towers by any missiles. * The learned Pighius, however, who tells the story, has the grace to observe that he does not think such things are altogether to be believed, though he deems it right they should be recorded. The Ethiopians also, and the Egyptians who borrowed many rites from them, accounted the owl a fatal augury, and its image was used, like the bull's head among more modern races, as a messenger of death. So great was the respect paid by these people to their king, that upon his sending the image of this bird to any culprit, it was considered as a token that he should immediately kill himself, and to fail in doing so, or to seek in any way to escape from the fate prescribed, was considered disgraceful to the condemned no less than to his country, suicide in this case being deemed a virtue. A story is told of an Egyptian mother, who exceeding the virtue, or the cruelty, of the elder Brutus, actually strangled with her own girdle the son who was attempting to fly from this agreeable invitation.t *"Eodem ferè, quo Romæ cum morbo conflictabatur æger, tempore, bubo Clivis per plures dies in palatio visus ac auditus mediâ luce, qui vix jaculis abigi a turribus ac tectis tum potuit." Hercules Prodicius. Per Stephanum Pighium, p. 406. 12mo. Coloniæ, 1609. "Hoc igitur mortis signum illud esse crediderim, quod ab lictore ferebatur ad damnatum publico judicio, præsertim apud Ethiopas, a quibus Ægyptios aiunt multa rituum genera mutuatos; nam pios eos ante omnes extitisse, familiaritates eorum commerciaque cum diis, et invicem agitata convivia, de quibus et Homerus et alii scripserunt, facile indicant ita fuisse tunc hominibus persuasum. Eo verò signo viso reus sponte sibi mortem consciscebat, magno et sibi et patriæ dedecori futurus, nisi fecisset; adeo illi regem suum ut numen venerabantur, vulgòque adorabant. Atque ferunt quemdam per hoc morti Vulnerary Plants.-" Some empiric surgeons in Scotland take a journey to the Picts' wall every summer to gather vulnerary plants, which they say grow plentifully there, and are very effectual, being planted by the Romans for surgical uses.' Ghost-Seers. (Oral).-According to a popular superstition, people born between twelve and one see ghosts. Saint John's Wort and Vervain.-Among the peasantry of the Northern countries the devil is believed to hold these herbs in abhorrence, from its bearing the name and being a sacred attribute of Saint John the Baptist. Sir Walter Scott says, "I remember a popular rhyme supposed to be addressed to a young woman by the devil, who attempted to seduce her, in the shape of a handsome young man : "Gin you wish to be leman mine, Do off the Saint John's Wort and the Vervine." By his repugnance to these sacred plants his mistress discovered the cloven foot."t Being thus potent against the devil himself, it was of course irresistible when employed against his subordinate agents, the witches. Accordingly we read in Drayton, "The night-shade strows to work him ill, Therewith the vervain and her dill, That hindreth witches of their will." The Saint John's Wort was also called Hypericon,‡ from destinatum, cum de fuga cœpisset cogitare, priusquam a periculo se abstraheret, zona a matre strangulatum." Joannis Pierii Valeriani HIEROGLYPHICA, lib. xx. cap. xix. p. 203, D. folio, Lugduni. 1610. See also Diodorus Siculus (lib. iii.) who tells this same story of a mother strangling her son with her own girdle upon his attempting to fly after the messenger of death had been sent to him. * Burton's Admirable Curiosities, p. 38, 12mo. London. 1737. "Hypericum à Gr. ¿περiкòv quoniam existimantur folia habere plusquam viginti foramina."—" Perforata, quia si inspiciamus herbam two Greek words, ep and oσi,—that is, above twenty -because the leaf is supposed to have above twenty small perforations, which may be seen if it be held up to the light. Amongst the dabblers in magic it had the name of fuga demonum-demon expeller-from its imaginary power of keeping off the devils; but to be efficacious it should be gathered on Saint John's Eve. It is thus described in Pliny-" Hypericon, which some call Chamæpitys, others Corion. This herbe shooteth forth many branches, which be small and slender, of a cubit in length, and red withall; in leafe it resembleth rue; the smell is quicke, hot, and piercing; the seed, which it beareth within certain cods, is blacke, and the same ripeneth together with barley. The nature of the seed is astringent; it doth incrassat and thicken humours, and stoppeth a laske.”* The anti-demoniacal character of vervain is no doubt a relick of the pagan times, for amongst the Romans verbena, or vervine, signified the holy herb gathered from the sacred place of the Capitol, with which the priests and heralds were crowned when about to make treaties, or declare war. By a corruption of the word it came in time to be used for any sacred bough, such as the myrtle, the olive, or the laurel.† hanc inter lucem et oculos nostros mediam, ejus folia quasi perforata apparent." Vide Minshew, sub voce Saint John's Wort. * A laske is a diarrhea. Having given the above translation from quaint old Philemon Holland (vol. ii. p. 255, fol. London. 1601) it may be as well to place by its side the original—“ Eadem præstat hypericon, quam alii chamæpytin, alii corion appellant, oleraceo frutice, tenui, cubitali, rubente, folio rutæ, odore acri, semine in siliqua nigro maturescente cum hordeo.. Natura semini spissandi; alvum sistit, &c." C. Plinii Sec. Nat. Hist. lib. xxvi. cap. 53. + Servius in his comments on the twelfth book of Virgil, verse 120, (no date, page, or signature) says "propriè est herba sacra sumpta de loco sacro Capitolii, q coronabātur fæciales et pater patratus fœdera Fig-tree Candles.-" Many fig-trees are found under ground by the river Wever, which the people imagine buried there ever since Noah's flood. They cut pieces of such wooll (wood) small, and use them for candles, which give a good light." The author adds, "that such woollen (wooden) candles have long snuff, and yet, which is a wonder, in falling down do no harm, tho' they drop into tow, flax, or the like.*” Prognostics by Water.-"In the parish of North Taunton, near a house called Bath, is a pit, but in the winter a pool, not maintained by any spring, but by the fall of rain-water, and dry in summer, of which it is observed (saith Dr. Fuller) that before the death of any prince, or other accident of importance, it will, tho' in a hot and dry season, overflow its banks, and so continue 'till that which is prognosticated is fulfilled.”+ Numbers, Numbering.— The virtue, which Touchstone so zealously maintains to lurk in that little monosyllable, if, is much inferior to the qualities, which at one time were supposed to reside in numbers, and that not only by the vulgar, but by very sage folks, who indited hoge folios for the benefit of the unenlightened, and who were therefore admitted as of right into the guild of philosophers. One of the most popular superstitions connected with figures was a belief in the impossibility, or in the danger, of counting certain objects-druidical monuments for the most part, though sometimes any steps or columns were supposed to be under the like spell. Stonehenge had a superstitious belief of this kind attached to it. The facturi vel bella, inducturi; abusivè tamen etiam verbenas vocamus omnes frōdes sacratas, ut est laurus, oliva, vel myrtus." * Burton's Admirable Curiosities, p. 24. Ibid. p. 46. anonymous writer of An Account of Stonehenge and the Barrows round it,* observes, in the dignified tone of a grave antiquarian, "another instance of vulgar folly is the notion that all the wonder of the work consists in the difficulty of counting the stones, and with this task the infinite numbers of people, who visit this place, busy themselves. This seems to be the remains of superstition, not yet gone out of people's heads since Druid time." The last remark is a mere gratuitous supposition, flung out at hazard, and without a single proof offered in support of it. Any certain information on the subject would have been highly desirable. Another instance of this superstition may be found at Salkeld in Cumberland in the case of Long Meg and her daughters, a very goodly family, being no less than sixtyfive in number, according to the report of those, who in defiance of the general belief have had the temerity to count them. These ladies are huge masses of stone, most of which are yet standing upright, and crown an eminence on the river Eden, about half a mile north of Penrith, in the Parish of Addingham. They are rough and unhewn, and form nearly an exact circle of about three hundred and fifty paces in circumference, some being of grey, or blue, limestone, while others are flint, and the most of them granite. Of those that are standing, many measure from twelve to fifteen feet in girt, and ten feet in height, but others are of a much inferior size. The most remarkable of Meg's family is an upright column on the southern side of the circle. It seems to be naturally square, if such a thing be possible, without any help from art, and is formed of the red free *P. 4. 12mo. London. No Date. |