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Poplar leaves consecrated to the Manes. Like several other
funereal trees, the Poplar has become a symbol of generation.
Thus, in Bologna, at the birth of a girl, the parents, if able, will
plant one thousand Poplar-trees, which they religiously tend till
the maiden marries, when they are cut down, and the price given
as a marriage portion to the bride, Alphonse Karr says that a
similar custom exists in certain northern countries among the
better class of farmers. In Sicily, and especially at Monterosso,
near Modica, on Midsummer Eve, the people fell the highest
Poplar, and with shouts, drag it through the village. Numbers of
the villagers mount the trunk during its progress, beating a drum.
Around this great Poplar, symbolising the greatest solar ascension
and the decline which follows it, the crowd dance and sing an
appropriate refrain. Astrologers state that the Poplar is under
the dominion of Saturn.
P O P P Y .—The origin of the Poppy {Papaver) was attributed
by the ancient Greeks to Ceres, who, despairing of regaining her
daughter Proserpine, carried off by Pluto, created the flower, in
order that by partaking of it she might obtain sleep, and thus forget
her great grief. Browne thus speaks of this legend:—
“ Sleep-bringing Poppy, by the plowman late,
Not without cause to Ceres consecrate.
Fairest Proserpine was rapt away.
And she in plaints the night, in tears the day.
Had long time spent: when no high power could give her
Any redresse, the Poppy did relieve her:
For eating of the seeds, they sleep procured,
And so beguiled those griefs she long endured,”
The ancients considered the Papaver Rhea, or Corn-Rose, so necessary
for the prosperity of their Corn, that the seeds of this Poppy
were offered up in the sacred rites of Ceres, whose garland was
formed with Barley or bearded Wheat interwoven with Poppies.
The goddess is sometimes depidted holding Poppies in her hand.
The somniferous and quieting effects of the Poppy, which were
well known to the Greeks, probably led them to represent the
deities Hypnos (Sleep), Thanatos (Death),-and Nyx (Night), either
as crowned with Poppies, or holding Poppies in their hands.------
Rapin, speaking of the effects of the Poppy as a narcotic, s a y s:—
“ The powerful seeds, when pressed, afford a juice
In med’cine famous, and of sovereign use,
Whether in tedious nights it charm to rest,
Or bind the stubborn cough and ease the lab’ring breast.”
It was customary with the Romans, to offer Poppies to the dead,
especially to those whose names they were desirous of appeasing.
Virgil, in his ‘ Georgies,’ calls the flower the Lethean Poppy, and
directs it to be offered as a funeral rite to Orpheus. The Grecian
youths and maidens were wont to prove the sincerity of their
lovers by placing in the hollow of the palm of the left hand a
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petal or flower-leaf of the Poppy, which, on being struck with the
other hand, was broken with a sharp sound : this denoted true
attachment; but if the leaf failed to snap, unfaithfulness. From
Greece, this usage passed to Rome, and finally to modern Italy,
where, as-well as in Switzerland, it is still extant.
“ By a prophetic Poppy leaf I found
Your changed.affection, for it gave no sound,
Though in my hand struck hollow as it lay,
But quickly withered like your love away.’ ’— Theocritus.
A superstitious belief exists that the red Poppies which followed
the ploughing of the field of Waterloo after Wellington’s vidtory
sprang from the blood of the troops who fell during the battle.
According to a Bengali legend, the origin of Opium was as
follows :—There once lived on the banks of the holy river Ganga a
Rishi, or sage, in whose hut, made of Palm-leaves, there was a
mouse, which became a favourite with the seer, and was endowed by
him with the gift of speech. After awhile, the mouse, having been
frightened by a cat, at his earnest solicitation, was changed by the
Rishi into a c a t ; then, alarmed by dogs, into a d o g ; then into an
ape ; then into a boar; then into an elephant; and finally, being
still discontented with its lot, into a beautiful maiden, to whom the
holy sage gave the name of Postomani, or the Poppy-seed lady.
One day, whilst tending her plants, the king approached the Rishi’/
cottage, and was invited to rest and refresh himself by Postomani,
who offered him some delicious fruit. The King, however, struck
by the girl’s beauty, refused to eat until she had told him her
parentage. Postomani, to deceive the king, told him she was a
princess whom the Rishi had found in the woods and had brought
up. The upshot was that the king made love to the girl, and they
were married by the holy sage. She was treated as the favourite
queen, and was very happy ; but one day, whilst standing by a
well, she turned giddy, fell into the water, and died. The Rishi
then appeared before the king, and begged him not to give way to
consuming grief, assuring him that the late queen was not of royal
blood. Said he : “ She was born a mouse, and, according to her own
wish, I changed her successively into a cat, a dog, a boar, an elephant,
and a lovely girl. Let her body remain in the well; fill up the well
with earth. Out of her flesh and bones will grow a tree, which
shall be called after her Posto, that is, the Poppy-tree. From this
tree will be obtained a drug called Opium, which will be celebrated
through all ages, and which will be either swallowed or smoked as
a wondrous narcotic till the end of time. The Opium swallower
or smoker will have one quality of each of the animals to which
Postomani was transformed. He will be mischievous like a mouse,
fond of milk like a cat, quarrelsome like a dog, filthy like an ape,
savage like a boar, and high-tempered like a queen. According
to astrologers, the Poppy is a flower of the Moon.
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