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them to cast their old skin, and by its use they recover their sight
if it becomes dim. Gerarde says, that the seed “ drunke for certaine
daies together, fasting, preserveth the eyesight, whereof was
written this distichon following:—
Foe n icu lum , R o sa , Verbezta, C h e lid on ia , R u t a ,
E x h is f i t aqtia qiioe lu irm ia red d it acuta.
“ Of Fennell, Roses, Vervain, Rue, and Celandine,
Is made a water, good to cheere the sight of eine.”
The ancients believed that the use of Fennel gave strength to the
constitution, and made fat people grow lean. The roots of Fennel,
pounded with honey, were considered a remedy for the bites of
mad dogs. Fennel is one of the numerous plants dedicated
to St. John, and was formerly hung over doors and windows on
his vigil. Astrologers state it is a herb of Mercury under Virgo.
F E R N .—Among Celtic and Germanic nations the Fern was
formerly considered a sacred and auspicious plant. Its luck-bringing
power was not confined to one species, but belonged to the tribe in
general, dwelling, however, in the fullest perfeaion in the seed, the
possessor of which could wish what he would, and the Devil would
be obliged to bring it to him. In Swabia, they say that Fern-seed
brought by the Devil between eleven and twelve on Christmas
night enables a man to do as much work as twenty or thirty
ordinary men.
In mediæval days, when sorcery flourished, it was thought
the Fern-seed imparted to its owner the power of resisting magical
charms and incantations. The ancients believed that the Fern
had no seeds, but our ancestors thought it had seed which was
invisible. Hence, after the fantastic docitrine of signatures, they
concluded that those who possessed the secret of wearing this seed
about them would become invisible. Thus, we find that, in
Shakspeare’s ‘ Henry IV .,’ Gadshill says : “ We steal as in a
castle, cock-sure : we have the receipt of Fern-seed, we walk invisible.”
The people of Westphalia are wont to relate how one of their
countrymen chanced one Midsummer night to be looking for a foal
he had lost, and passing through a meadow just as the Fern-seed
was ripening, some of it fell into his shoes. In the morning he went
home, walked into the sitting-room, and sat down, but thought it
strange that neither his wife, nor indeed any of his family, took the
slightest notice of him. “ I have not found the foal,” said he.
Everybody in the room started and gazed around with scared looks,
for they had heard the man’s voice, but saw no one. Thinking that
he was joking, and had hid himself, his wife called him by his,
name. Thereupon he stood up, planted himself in the middle of
the floor, and said, “ Why do you call me ? Here I am right before
you.” Then they were more frightened than ever, for they had
beard him stand up and walk, and still they could not see him.
The man now became aware that he was invisible, and a thought
struck him that possibly he might have got Fern-seed in his
shoes, for he felt as if there was sand in them. So he took them off,
and shook out the Fern-seed, and as he did so he became visible
again to everybody.
A belief in the mystic power of Fern-seed to make the gatherer
walk invisible is still extant. The English tradition is, that the
Fern blooms and seeds only at twelve o’clock on Midsummer night
St. John’s E v e—^just at the precise moment at which the Saint
was born—
“ But on St. John’s mysterious night,
Sacred to many a wizard spell.
The hour when first to human sight
Contest, the mystic Fern-seed fell.”
In Dr. Jackson’s Works (1673) we read that he once questioned
one of his parishioners as to what he saw or heard when he
watched the falling of the Fern-seed, whereupon the man informed
him that this good seed is in the keeping of Oberon (or Elberich),
King of the Fairies, who would never harm anyone watching it.
He then said to the worthy docffor, “ Sir, you are a scholar, and I
am none. Tell me, what said the angel to our Lady ; or what conference
had our Lady with her cousin Elizabeth, concerning the
birth of St. John the Baptist ? ” Finding Do6tor Jackson unable
to answer him, he told him that “ the angel did foretell John B ap tist
should be born at that very instant in which the Fern-seed—at
other times invisible—did fall : intimating further that this saint of
God had some extraordinary vertue from the time or circumstance
of his birth.”
To catch the wonder-working seed, twelve pewter plates must
be taken to the spot where the Fern grows : the seed, it is affirmed,
will pass through eleven of the plates, and rest upon the twelfth.
This is one account : another says that Midsummer night is the
most propitious time to procure the mystic Fern-seed, but that the-
seeker must go bare-footed, and in his shirt, and be in a religious
- S t a t e of mind. , , , , 1 ,
In ancient days it was thought the demons watched to convey
away the Fern-seed as it fell ere anyone could possess themselves
of it. A writer on Brittany states that he remembers to have heard
recounted by one who had gathered Fern-seed, that whilst he was
prosecuting his search the spirits grazed his ears, whistling past
them like bullets, knocking off his hat, and hitting him with it all
over his body. At last, when he thought that he had gathered
enough of the mystic seed, he opened the case he had been putting
it into, and lo ! it was empty. The Devil had evidently had the
best of it. , . .
M. Marmier, in his Legendes des Plantes, writes:—“ It is on
Midsummer night that you should go and seek the Fein-seed: he
who is fortunate enough to find it will indeed be happy. He will
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