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efficacv in the relief of female disorders. It was also used for the
purpose of incantations. Pliny says that / e wayfarer h ™ g this
L r b tied about him feels no fatigue, and that he who hath it about
him can be hurt by no poisonous medicines, nor by any wild beast,
n r e v L hy a e L n itself. Apuleius adds that it drives away
lurking devils and neutralises the effe^ of the e/d eye of men.
The plant was also considered a charm against the ague.
There is an old Scotch legend which tells how a mermaid of the
Firth of Clyde, upon seeing the funeral of a young girl who had
died of consumption, exclaimed—
“ If they wad drink Nettles in March,
And eat Muggins [Mugwort] in May,
Sae mony braw maidens
Wad not go to clay.”
In Italy, there is still a superstitious custom extant of consulting
Mugwort as to the probable ending of an illness. Some leaves of
Mulwort are placed beneath the pillow of the patient without his
knowledge. I f h e f a l l s asleep quickly, his re co v e ry s certain: if he
is unable to sleep, it is a sign that he will die. ^Mugwort is one of
the plants associated with St. John the Baptist and is, indeed, cMled
the Herb of St. John in Italy, Spam, Portugal, r t w d
land There is a curious superstition regarding it which is related
by Lupton in his ‘ Notable Things.’ He s a y s I t is certainly
commonly affirmed that, on Midsummer Eve, there is found under
the root of Mugwort a coal which keeps safe from the plague,
carbuncle, lightning, and the quartan ague them that bear the
same about them: and Mizaldus, the writer hereof, saith that it is
to be found the same day under the root of Plantain, which i
know for a truth, for I have ^ound th em t h f f e day
root of Plantain, which is especially and chiefly to be found at
noon.” Paul Barbette, writing in 1675, says, these coals w y e old
dead roots, and that it was a supemtition toato ‘ old dead r y t s
ought to be pulled up on the Eve of St. John the Baptist, about
twffive at night.” In some parts of E n g l a n d , gir y n i l a certain
root which grows under Mugwort, and which, they believe, if
pulled e x a a iy at midnight, on the eve of St. John, and placed
under the pillow, will cause dreams of the future husband.- •
De Gubernatis tells us that, in Sicily, on the eve of the Ascension,
the women of Avola form crosses of Mugwort, and place them on
the roofs of their houses, believing that, during the night, Jesus
Christ, as He re-ascends to heaven, will bless them. T y y y ® '
serve these crosses of Mugwort for a year. Placed m stables, t h y
are believed to possess the power of taming unmanagyble anmyl^
The same author gives the following legends : 1^^® chstridl
of Starodubsk, Russia, on the day of the E x a l t a t iy of the Cross,
a young girl was searching for Mushrooms in a forest, when she
saw a number of serpents curled up. She endeavoured to r e t ry e
her steps, but fell into a deep pit, which was the abode ot the
p f a n t b o ro , b e g c i^ / , alfel b y r ie / . 4 5 1
serpents The pit was dark, but at the bottom she found a luminous
stone; the serpents were hungry; the queen of the golden-horned
yrpents guided thern^ to the luminous stone, and the serpents licked
it, and y t is fito their hunger; the young girl did the same, and
remained _ in the pit until Spring. On the arrival of Spring, the
yrpents interlaced themselves in such a manner as to form a
ladder on which t y young girl ascended to the mouth of the pit.
But in taking y r leave of the queen of the serpents, she received,
as a parting gift, the power of understanding the language of plants,
and of knowing their medicinal properties, on the condition that
she should never name the Mugwort, or Tchornobil (that which was
black): if she pronounced that word, she would*forget all that she
h y come to know. The damsel soon understood all that the
talked about; but, one day, a man suddenly asked her.
W h y IS the pffint which grows in the fields by the side of the
little footpaths? Taken by surprise, the girl replied, Tchornobil;
and, at the same moment, all her knowledge forsook her. From
that time, it is said the Mugwort obtained the additional name
y Zabytko, or the H y b of Forgetfulness. In Little Russia,
Mugwort has obtained the name of Beck, which has a legendary
yymology. The story goes, that the Devil had, one day, offended
IS brother, the Cossack Sabba, who took him and bound him
saying he_ should remain a prisoner until he did him some
great service. Soon afterwards, a troop of Poles arrived in the
neighbourhood’ and began to make merry at a rustic feast, leaving
toeir h o r sy to graze. The Cossack Sabba wished to seize their
horses, and promised the Devil his liberty if he would aid him to
ycomphsh his o b j y . The Devil despatched certain demons to the
tields where the horses were feeding, who caused Mugwort to
spring up. As the horses trotted away, the plant moaned "Bech,
f c h : and now, whenever a horse treads on the Mugwort, recol-
leffiing the homes of the Poles, the plant always moans, "Bech,
Beck ; hence, the name which has been given to it in the Ukraine
r A ® toP^,^®se manufacifured a kind of tinder, called Moxa,
irom the dried leaves of Mugwort, and, according to Thunberg
twice pn a year, men and women, young and old, rich and poor
were indiscriminately burnt with it, either to prevent disorders, or
to y r e rheumatism, &c. Astrologers state that Mugwort is a
herb oi Venus.
M U SH RO O M .—On account of their apparently spontaneous
geyration, Porphyrins calls Mushrooms sons of the gods. In
Lido-European mythology, the Sun-hero is represented as some-
rtmes hiding under a Mushroom. _ He also appears as King of the
Peas, and m a Russian legend, in this capacity, gives battle to
the Mushroom tribes. In Wales, the poisonous Mushroom is
called Bwyd LUyllon, or the meat of the goblins. In many
parts of England it is believed that the changes of the moon
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