p f a n t b o r e , b e g e r ^ / , a n il biji*i<^.
down on a boulder of granite, and thoughtlessly began to break off
the beautiful fronds of Ferns which grew all around. Suddenly a
young man appeared before her, and addressing her by name,
enquired what brought her there. Jenny replied that she wished
to obtain a situation, and was on her road to the market town.
The young man said he was a widower, and in want of a young
woman to take care of his little son; and that as he liked Jenny’s
good looks, he would engage her there and then for a year and a
day, and pay her well; but that he should require her to swear his
oath, which consisted in kissing a Fern-leaf, and repeating the
formula:—
“ For a year and a day,
I promise to stay.”
Jenny was charmed and flattered; all sorts of visions rose before
her eyes, and, without hesitation, she took the oath and followed
the stranger eastward. In silence the pair walked on, until the girl
was quite weary; then they sat down on a bank, and the young
man taking a bunch of leaves passed them rapidly over Jenny’s
e y e s: her weariness departed as if by magic, and she found herself
in fairy-land, with her mysterious master. He led her to a splendid
mansion, and introduced her to his little boy, who was so beautiful
that he instantly won her love. The girl continued at her duties
in fairy-land for the allotted time; then, one morning, upon awaking,
she found herself sleeping in her own bed in her mother’s cottage;
and the old gossips of the village, upon hearing- her story, knew
that she had been carried by the Small People to some of their
countries under the hills.
F IG .—There are several mythological accounts of the origin
of the Fig. According to one, Lyceus, one of the Titans, pursued
by Jupiter, was metamorphosed into a Fig-tree by the goddess Rhea.
Another story attributes to her husband, Saturn, the origin of the
Fig-tree, and on this account the inhabitants of Cyrene deck the
statue of the god with crowns of Figs. A third myth relates that
the Fig-tree is the offspring of the loves of Oxylus, King of Elis,
with a Hamadryad. Bacchus, however, was generally considered
to have introduced the F ig to mortals: hence the tree was
sacred to him, and he is often represented as crowned with Fig-
leaves. On this account, also, it was customary to make an
offering of the first_ Figs to the jovial god. At the Canephoria
festivals at Athens, in honour of Bacchus, the female votaries wore
round their necks collars composed of dried F ig s ; and at the
Dionysian festivals, a basket of Figs formed a prominent feature in
the procession.^ At Rome, the F ig was carried next to the Vine
in the processions in honour of Bacchus, as the patron of plenty
and jo y ; and Bacchus was supposed to have derived his corpulence
and vigour, not from the Vine, but from the Fig. Under the name of
the Ficus ruminalis, the Romans jealously guarded the sacred wild
Fig-tree, upon the roots of which stranded the cradle containing
p f a n t b o r e , b e g e 'r^ /, a n il bLjric/*, 335
the infants Romulus and Remus, when the Tiber bore it to the foot
of the Palatine. Fig-trees are seldom affecited by lightning, but this
celebrated Ruminal Fig-tree of Rome was once struck during a
thunderstorm, and was ever afterwards held doubly sacred; the ancients
considering that lightning purified every objecit it touched.
The Romans bestowed upon Jupiter the surname of Ruminus, because
he presided over the nourishment of mankind, and they had a
goddess Rumina, who presided over the female breasts, and whose
oblations were of milk only. These words are both derived from
ruma, a te a t; and hence the tree under which Romulus and Remus
had been suckled by the she-wolf was the Rumina Ficus, a name
most appropriate, because the F ig was the symbol of generation
and fecimdity. The F ig was consecrated to Juno, as the goddess
presiding over marriages and at nuptial festivities. Figs were
always carried in a mystic vase. The statues of Priapus, god of
orchards, were often made of the wood_ of the Fig, and the tree
was also dedicated to Mercury. Notwithstanding this reverence
for the Ficus ruminalis, the Romans considered the Fig a tree
at once impure and ill-omened. This is shown by the acitions
of the Arvales (twelve priests of Rome, descended from the
nurse of Romulus), who made special expiations when the Fig-
tree—the impure tree—sprang up by chance on the roof of the
temple of the goddess Dia, where Vestals officiated. After they
had uprooted the desecrating tree, they destroyed the temple
as being defiled. Pausanias relates that, according to an
oracle, the Messenians were to be abandoned by heaven in their
struggles with the Spartans, so soon as a goat {tragos) should drink
the water of the Neda : the Messenians, therefore, drove out of
their country all the goats. But in Messenia grew the wild Fig,
which was also called tragos. One of these wild Figs haying sprung
up on the banks of the Neda, its branches soon dipped into the
flowing waters of the river beneath it. The oracle was fulfilled—
a tragos had drunk the water of the Neda : soon afterwards the
Messenians were defeated. The soothsayer Calchas, accorc -
ing to tradition, owed his death in a measure to the Fig-tree.
Challenged by the seer Mopsus, of whom he was jealous, to
a trial of their skill in divination, Calchas first asked his antagonist
how many Figs a neighbouring tree bore. “ Ten thousanc.
except one,” was the reply of his rival, “ and one single vessel can
contain them all.” The Figs were carefully gathered, and his
predidlions were literally true. It was then the turn of Mopsus
to try his adversary. Calchas failed to answer the question put to
nim, and Mopsus was adjudged victor. So mortified was Calchas
at the result of this trial, that he pined away and died.——
The ancient Egyptians held the Fig-leaf sacred to the goddess Isis,
The F ig is supposed to have been the first cultivated fruit
tasted by man : beneath the boughs of the Fig-tree Adam hid him--
self after having eaten the forbidden fruit; with its leaves he
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