The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 11 of 12). Frazer James George
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СКАЧАТЬ rel="nofollow" href="#n191" type="note">191 On account of this valuable property mugwort is used by Chinese surgeons in cautery.192 The Ainos of Japan employ bunches of mugwort in exorcisms, “because it is thought that demons of disease dislike the smell and flavour of this herb.”193 It is an old German belief that he who carries mugwort in his shoes will not grow weary.194 In Mecklenburg, they say that if you will dig up a plant of mugwort at noon on Midsummer Day, you will find under the root a burning coal, which vanishes away as soon as the church bells have ceased to ring. If you find the coal and carry it off in silence, it will prove a remedy for all sorts of maladies.195 According to another German superstition, such a coal will turn to gold.196 English writers record the popular belief that a rare coal is to be found under the root of mugwort at a single hour of a single day in the year, namely, at noon or midnight on Midsummer Eve, and that this coal will protect him who carries it on his person from plague, carbuncle, lightning, fever, and ague.197 In Eastern Prussia, on St. John's Eve, people can foretell a marriage by means of mugwort; they bend two stalks of the growing plant outward, and then observe whether the stalks, after straightening themselves again, incline towards each other or not.198

      Orpine (Sedum telephium) used in divination at Midsummer.

A similar mode of divination has been practised both in England and in Germany with the orpine (Sedum telephium), a plant which grows on a gravelly or chalky soil about hedges, the borders of fields, and on bushy hills. It flowers in August, and the blossoms consist of dense clustered tufts of crimson or purple petals; sometimes, but rarely, the flowers are white.199 In England the plant is popularly known as Midsummer Men, because people used to plant slips of them in pairs on Midsummer Eve, one slip standing for a young man and the other for a young woman. If the plants, as they grew up, bent towards each other, the couple would marry; if either of them withered, he or she whom it represented would die.200 In Masuren, Westphalia, and Switzerland the method of forecasting the future by means of the orpine is precisely the same.201

      Vervain gathered for magical purposes at Midsummer. Magical virtue of four-leaved clover on Midsummer Eve.

      Another plant which popular superstition has often associated with the summer solstice is vervain.202 In some parts of Spain people gather vervain after sunset on Midsummer Eve, and wash their faces next morning in the water in which the plants have been allowed to steep overnight.203 In Belgium vervain is gathered on St. John's Day and worn as a safeguard against rupture.204 In Normandy the peasants cull vervain on the Day or the Eve of St. John, believing that, besides its medical properties, it possesses at this season the power of protecting the house from thunder and lightning, from sorcerers, demons, and thieves.205 Bohemian poachers wash their guns with a decoction of vervain and southernwood, which they have gathered naked before sunrise on Midsummer Day; guns which have been thus treated never miss the mark.206 In our own country vervain used to be sought for its magical virtues on Midsummer Eve.207 In the Tyrol they think that he who finds a four-leaved clover while the vesper-bell is ringing on Midsummer Eve can work magic from that time forth.208 People in Berry say that the four-leaved clover is endowed with all its marvellous virtues only when it has been plucked by a virgin on the night of Midsummer Eve.209 In Saintonge and Aunis the four-leaved clover, if it be found on the Eve of St. John, brings good luck at play;210 in Belgium it brings a girl a husband.211

      Camomile gathered for magical purposes at Midsummer.

      At Kirchvers, in Hesse, people run out to the fields at noon on Midsummer Day to gather camomile; for the flowers, plucked at the moment when the sun is at the highest point of his course, are supposed to possess the medicinal qualities of the plant in the highest degree. In heathen times the camomile flower, with its healing qualities, its yellow calix and white stamens, is said to have been sacred to the kindly and shining Balder and to have borne his name, being called Balders-brâ, that is, Balder's eyelashes.212 In Westphalia, also, the belief prevails that camomile is most potent as a drug when it has been gathered on Midsummer Day;213 in Masuren the plant must always be one of the nine different kinds of plants that are culled on Midsummer Eve to form wreaths, and tea brewed from the flower is a remedy for many sorts of maladies.214

      Mullein (Verbascum) gathered for magical purposes at Midsummer.

Thuringian peasants hold that if the root of the yellow mullein (Verbascum) has been dug up in silence with a ducat at midnight on Midsummer Eve, and is worn in a piece of linen next to the skin, it will preserve the wearer from epilepsy.215 In Prussia girls go out into the fields on Midsummer Day, gather mullein, and hang it up over their beds. The girl whose flower is the first to wither will be the first to die.216 Perhaps the bright yellow flowers of mullein, clustering round the stem like lighted candles, may partly account for the association of the plant with the summer solstice. In Germany great mullein (Verbascum thapsus) is called the King's Candle; in England it is popularly known as High Taper. The yellow, hoary mullein (Verbascum pulverulentum) “forms a golden pyramid a yard high, of many hundreds of flowers, and is one of the most magnificent of British herbaceous plants.”217 We may trace a relation between mullein and the sun in the Prussian custom of bending the flower, after sunset, towards the point where the sun will rise, and praying at the same time that a sick person or a sick beast may be restored to health.218

      Seeds of fir-cones, wild thyme, elder-flowers, and purple loosestrife gathered for magical purposes at Midsummer.

In Bohemia poachers fancy that they can render themselves invulnerable by swallowing the seed from a fir-cone which they have found growing upwards before sunrise on the morning of St. John's Day.219 Again, wild thyme gathered on Midsummer Day is used in Bohemia to fumigate the trees on Christmas Eve in order that they may grow well;220 in Voigtland a tea brewed from wild thyme which has been pulled at noon on Midsummer Day is given to women in childbed.221 The Germans of Western Bohemia brew a tea or wine from elder-flowers, but they say that the brew has no medicinal virtue unless the flowers have been gathered on Midsummer Eve. They do say, too, that whenever you see an elder-tree, you should take off your hat.222 In the Tyrol dwarf-elder serves to detect witchcraft in cattle, provided of course that the shrub has been pulled up or the branches broken on Midsummer Day.223 Russian peasants regard the plant known as purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) with respect and even fear. Wizards make much use of it. They dig the root up on St. John's morning, at break of day, without the use of iron tools; and they believe that by means of the root, as well as of the blossom, they can subdue evil spirits and make them serviceable, and also drive away witches and the demons that guard treasures.224

      Magical СКАЧАТЬ

<p>192</p>

J. J. M. de Groot, op. cit. vi. 946 sq.

<p>193</p>

Rev. John Batchelor, The Ainu and their Folk-lore (London, 1901), p. 318, compare pp. 315 sq., 329, 370, 372.

<p>194</p>

Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie und Sittenkunde, iv. (1859) p. 42; Montanus, Die deutschen Volksfeste, p. 141. The German name of mugwort (Beifuss) is said to be derived from this superstition.

<p>195</p>

K. Bartsch, Sagen, Märchen, und Gebräuche aus Mecklenburg (Vienna, 1879-1880), ii. 290, § 1445.

<p>196</p>

Montanus, Die deutschen Volksfeste, p. 141.

<p>197</p>

J. Brand, Popular Antiquities of Great Britain (London, 1882-1883), i. 334 sq., quoting Lupton, Thomas Hill, and Paul Barbette. A precisely similar belief is recorded with regard to wormwood (armoise) by the French writer J. B. Thiers, who adds that only small children and virgins could find the wonderful coal. See J. B. Thiers, Traité des Superstitions5 (Paris, 1741), i. 300. In Annam people think that wormwood puts demons to flight; hence they hang up bunches of its leaves in their houses at the New Year. See Paul Giran, Magie et Religion Annamites (Paris, 1912), p. 118, compare pp. 185, 256.

<p>198</p>

C. Lemke, Volksthümliches in Ostpreussen (Mohrungen, 1884-1887), i. 21. As to mugwort (German Beifuss, French armoise), see further A. de Gubernatis, Mythologie des Plantes, ii. 16 sqq.; J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie,4 iii. 356 sq.

<p>199</p>

James Sowerby, English Botany, vol. xix. (London, 1804) p. 1319.

<p>200</p>

John Aubrey, Remains of Gentilisme and Judaisme (London, 1881), pp. 25 sq.; J. Brand, Popular Antiquities of Great Britain (London, 1882-1883), i. 329 sqq.; Rev. Hilderic Friend, Flowers and Flower Lore, Third Edition (London, 1886), p. 136; D. H. Moutray Read, “Hampshire Folk-lore,” Folk-lore, xxii. (1911) p. 325. Compare J. Sowerby, English Botany, vol. xix. (London, 1804), p. 1319: “Like all succulent plants this is very tenacious of life, and will keep growing long after it has been torn from its native spot. The country people in Norfolk sometimes hang it up in their cottages, judging by its vigour of the health of some absent friend.” It seems that in England the course of love has sometimes been divined by means of sprigs of red sage placed in a basin of rose-water on Midsummer Eve (J. Brand, op. cit. i. 333).

<p>201</p>

M. Töppen, Aberglauben aus Masuren2 (Danzig, 1867), pp. 71 sq.; A. Kuhn, Sagen, Gebräuche und Märchen aus Westfalen (Leipsic, 1859), ii. 176, § 487; E. Hoffmann-Krayer, Feste und Bräuche des Schweizervolkes (Zurich, 1913), p. 163. In Switzerland the species employed for this purpose on Midsummer day is Sedum reflexum. The custom is reported from the Emmenthal. In Germany a root of orpine, dug up on St. John's morning and hung between the shoulders, is sometimes thought to be a cure for hemorrhoids (Montanus, Die deutschen Volksfeste, p. 145). Perhaps the “oblong, tapering, fleshy, white lumps” of the roots (J. Sowerby, English Botany, vol. xix. London, 1804, p. 1319) are thought to bear some likeness to the hemorrhoids, and to heal them on the principle that the remedy should resemble the disease.

<p>202</p>

See above, vol. i. pp. 162, 163, 165. In England vervain (Verbena officinalis) grows not uncommonly by road sides, in dry sunny pastures, and in waste places about villages. It flowers in July. The flowers are small and sessile, the corolla of a very pale lilac hue, its tube enclosing the four short curved stamens. The root of the plant, worn by a string round the neck, is an old superstitious medicine for scrofulous disorders. See James Sowerby, English Botany, vol. xi. (London, 1800) p. 767.

<p>203</p>

Dr. Otero Acevado, in Le Temps, September 1898. See above, vol. i. p. 208, note 1.

<p>204</p>

Le Baron de Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, Calendrier Belge (Brussels, 1861-1862), i. 422.

<p>205</p>

A. de Nore, Coutumes, Mythes et Traditions des Provinces de France, p. 262; Amélie Bosquet, La Normandie romanesque et merveilleuse, p. 294; J. Lecœur, Esquisses du Bocage Normand, i. 287, ii. 8. In Saintonge and Aunis the plant was gathered on Midsummer Eve for the purpose of evoking or exorcising spirits (J. L. M. Noguès, Les mœurs d'autrefois en Saintonge et en Aunis, p. 72).

<p>206</p>

J. V. Grohmann, Aberglauben und Gebräuche aus Böhmen und Mähren, p. 207, § 1437.

<p>207</p>

A. Kuhn, Sagen, Gebräuche und Märchen aus Westfalen (Leipsic, 1859), ii. 177, citing Chambers, Edinburgh Journal, 2nd July 1842.

<p>208</p>

I. V. Zingerle, Sitten, Bräuche und Meinungen des Tiroler Volkes2 (Innsbruck, 1871), p. 107, § 919.

<p>209</p>

Laisnel de la Salle, Croyances et Légendes du Centre de la France (Paris, 1875), i. 288.

<p>210</p>

J. L. M. Noguès, Les mœurs d'autrefois en Saintonge et en Aunis, pp. 71 sq.

<p>211</p>

Le Baron de Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, Calendrier Belge, i. 423.

<p>212</p>

W. Kolbe, Hessische Volks-Sitten und Gebräuche2 (Marburg, 1888), p. 72; Sophus Bugge, Studien über die Entstehung der nordischen Götter- und Heldensagen (Munich, 1889), pp. 35, 295 sq.; Fr. Kauffmann, Balder (Strasburg, 1902), pp. 45, 61. The flowers of common camomile (Anthemis nobilis) are white with a yellow disk, which in time becomes conical. The whole plant is intensely bitter, with a peculiar but agreeable smell. As a medicine it is useful for stomachic troubles. In England it does not generally grow wild. See James Sowerby, English Botany, vol. xiv. (London, 1802) p. 980.

<p>213</p>

A. Kuhn, Sagen, Gebräuche und Märchen aus Westfalen (Leipsic, 1859), ii. 177, § 488.

<p>214</p>

M. Töppen, Aberglauben aus Masuren2 (Danzig, 1867), p. 71.

<p>215</p>

A. Witzschel, Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Thüringen (Vienna, 1878), p. 289, § 139.

<p>216</p>

W. J. A. von Tettau und J. D. H. Temme, Volkssagen Ostpreussens, Litthauens und Westpreussens (Berlin, 1837), p. 283.

<p>217</p>

James Sowerby, English Botany, vol. vii. (London, 1798), p. 487. As to great mullein or high taper, see id., vol. viii. (London, 1799), p. 549.

<p>218</p>

Tettau und Temme, loc. cit. As to mullein at Midsummer, see also above, vol. i. pp. 190, 191.

<p>219</p>

J. V. Grohmann, Aberglauben und Gebräuche aus Böhmen und Mähren, p. 205, § 1426.

<p>220</p>

J. V. Grohmann, op. cit. p. 93, § 648.

<p>221</p>

J. A. E. Köhler, Volksbrauch, Aberglauben, Sagen und andre alte Ueberlieferungen im Voigtlande (Leipsic, 1867), p. 377.

<p>222</p>

Alois John, Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube im deutschen Westböhmen (Prague, 1905), p. 84.

<p>223</p>

J. N. Ritter von Alpenburg, Mythen und Sagen Tirols (Zurich, 1857), p. 397.

<p>224</p>

C. Russwurm, “Aberglaube aus Russland,” Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie und Sittenkunde, iv. (1859) pp. 153 sq. The purple loosestrife is one of our most showy English wild plants. In July and August it may be seen flowering on the banks of rivers, ponds, and ditches. The separate flowers are in axillary whorls, which together form a loose spike of a reddish variable purple. See James Sowerby, English Botany, vol. xv. (London, 1802) p. 1061.