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38 8 pfaat 15)01*©, l5)egeQt)/, anêl l5)iji*ic/.
first contracted into Fleur de Luce, and afterwards into Fleur de Lys,
or Fleur de Lis (Lily-flower—although it has no aifinity to the Lily),
and was incorporated in the arms of France, and formed one of
the embellishments of the crown. Pope Leo I I I . presented
Charlemagne with a blue banner, semée of golden Fleurs de Lys, and
the banner coming from the Pope was supposed by the ignorant
to have descended from heaven. Other traditions respecting
this blue banner relate that an angel gave it to Charlemagne, that
St. Denis gave it to the kings of France, and that an angel brought
it to Clovis after his baptism. The Fleur de Lys appertains to
the Bourbon race, and was made the ornament of the northern
radius of the compass in honour of Charles of Anjou, who was
King of Sicily at ' the time of this great discovery. When Edward
I I I . claimed the crown of France in 1340, he quartered the ancient
shield of France with the lion of England. After many changes of
position, the Fleur de Lys finally disappeared from the English
shield in the first year of the present century. (See also F l o w e r
DE L u c e ) .
Iron-He ad and Ha rd -He ad .— See Horse-Knot.
IV Y .—Kissos (Greek for Ivy) was the original name of the
infant Bacchus, who, abandoned by his mother Semele, was hidcien
under an Ivy-bush, which was subsequently named after him.
Another Hellenic tradition makes Kissos a son of Bacchus, who,
whilst dancing before his father, suddenly dropped down dead.
The goddess Gæa (the Earth), compassionating the unfortunate
youth, changed him into the Ivy, which afterwards received his
name Kissos. The god Bacchus is said to have worshipped the
Iv y under the name of Kissos ; the plant was sacred to him, and he
is represented crowned with the leaves of Iv y as well as with those
of the Vine. The god’s thyrsus was also crowned with Ivy. In
Greece and Rome, Black Iv y was used to decorate the thyrsus of
Bacchus in commemoration of his march through India. This Iv y
bears yellow berries, and is common in the Himalayas; it was,
therefore, appropriately selecfted as the shrub wherewith to crown
Alexander in his Indian expedition. According to Plutarch, the
priests of Jupiter were bound to shun the Vine (in order to preserve
themselves from intoxication), and to touch the Ivy, which
was believed to impart a sort of prophetic transport. Bacchus,
therefore, crowned with Ivy, became a god both victorious and
prophetic. At the Dionysian festivals, the worshippers were
crowned with Ivy, Vine-leaves, Fir, &c. Certain of the men
engaged in the procession wore chaplets of Iv y and Violets, and
the women—who, worked up into a kind of frenzy, executed
fantastic dances—often carried garlands and strings of Ivy-leaves.
Pliny says that Ivy-berries, taken before wine, prevent its
intoxicating efiecfls. Probably the Bacchanals’ chaplet and the
Jvy-bough formerly used as the sign of a tavern, both derived
pfant Tsoi*©, l5)©g©'r^/, ani. Isijri«^, 38 9
their origin from the belief that Iv y in some form counteracfled the
efieifts of wine. On this point. Coles sa y s : “ Box and Iv y last long
green, and therefore vintners make their garlands thereof; though,
perhaps. Iv y is the rather used because of the antipathy between
it and wine.” Kennett tells us that, in olden times, “ the booths
in fairs were commonly dressed with Ivy-leaves, as a token of
wine there sold, the Iv y being sacred to Bacchus; so was the
tavern bush, or frame of wood, drest round with Iv y forty years
since, though now left off for tuns or barrels hung in the middle of
it. This custom gave birth to the present pradtice of putting out
a green bush at the door of those private houses which sell drink
during the fair.” De Gubernatis says, that the Iv y to be seen
over the doors of Italian wine-shops has the same signification as the
Oak-bough—it is a precaution to render the wine innocuous. Cheruel
tell us that the French, in suspending Iv y at the door of their
cabarets, intend it as a symbol of love. Ivy, which clings and
embraces, has been adopted as the emblem of confiding love and
friendship. There is an old Cornish tradition which relates that
the beauteous Iseult, unable to endure the loss of her betrothed, the
valiant Tristan, died broken-hearted, and was buried in the same
church, but, by order of the king, their graves were placed far
asunder. But soon from the tomb of Tristan came forth a branch
of Ivy, and from the tomb of Iseult there issued another branch.
Both gradually grew upwards, until at last the lovers, represented
by the clinging Ivy, were again united beneath the vaultederoof of
the sanctuary. In Greece, the altar of Hymen was encircled
with Ivy, and a branch of it was presented to the newly-married
couple, as a symbol of the indissoluble knot. It formed the crown
of both Greek and Roman poets; and in modern times, female love,
constancy, and dependence have been expressed by it. Friendship
is sometimes symbolised by a fallen tree, firmly embraced by the
verdant arms of the Ivy, with the motto: “ Nothing can part us.”
In Northern mythology. Ivy, on account of its black colour,
was dedicated to Thor, the god of thunder, and offered to the elf
who was supposed to be his messenger. When, in Germany,
they drive the cattle for the first time to pasture, they deck them
with a branch of Iv y fashioned into a crown. They believe also
that he who carries on his head a crown of Iv y acquires the faculty
of recognising witches. In the Tyrol, a similar belief holds good,
only there. Rue, Broom, Maidenhair, and Agrimony must be bound
together with Ground-Ivy in a bundle, which is to be kept about the
person. In Ross-shire, it is a May-day custom for young girls
to pluck sprays of Iv y with the dew on them that have not been
touched by steel. Ivy has long been used in decorating churches
and houses at Christmas : thus old Tusser diredts:—“ Get Ivye
and Hull [Holly], woman, deck up thine house.” It seems in the
middle ages to have been regarded as a most favoured and auspicious
plant ; one old song couples the Iv y and Holly as plants well