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Baptist, every man’s door being shadowed with green Birch, long;
Fennel, St. John’s Wort, Orpine, white Lilies, and such like,,
garnished upon with garlands of beautiful flowers, had also lamps
of glass with oil burning in them all the night.” The peasantry
of the Isle of Man have a tradition that if you tread on the St.
John’s Wort after sunset, a fairy horse will rise from the earth,
and, after carrying you about all night, will leave you in the
morning wherever you may chance to be at sunrise. St. John’s
Wort was by old medical writers deemed of great utility in the
cure of hypochondriacal disorders, and B. Visontius commends the
herb to one troubled with heart-melancholy. For this purpose it
was to be gathered on a Friday, in the hour of Jupiter, when he
comes to his efledfual operation (that is, about the full moon in
July) ; “ so gathered, and borne or hung about the neck, it mightily
helps this aflecffion, and drives away all phantastical spirits.”
Another remarkable quality ascribed to the plant was its power of
curing all sorts of wounds : hence originated its old name of Tutsan,
a corruption of its French cognomen la Toute-saine, or All-heal. In
Sicily, they gather Hypericum perforatum, and immerse it in Olive-
oil, which is by this means transformed into an infallible balm for
wounds. A salve made from the flowers, and known as St. John’s
Wort salve, is still much used and valued in English villages : it is
a very old remedy, whose praises have been spoken by Dioscorides
and Pliny, Gerarde, Culpeper, and all the old English herbalists.
As these flowers, when rubbed between the fingers, yield a red
juice, it has, among fanciful medical men, obtained the name of
sanguis hominis (human blood).
S A L L O W .—The Sallow {Salix caprea) is the Selja of the
Norsemen, an ill-omened plant possessing many magical properties.
No child can be born in safety where a branch of this sinister tree
is suspended ; and no spirit can depart in peace from its earthly
frame, if it be near them. It is the badge of the Scottish Clan
Cumming.
S A L - T R E E .—The Sàia or Sal [Shorea robusta) is one of the
sacred trees of India. According to the Buddhists’ belief, it was
while holding in her hand a branch of the sacred Sàia, that the
mother of Buddha gave birth to the divine infant prince. It was
beneath the shelter of two twin Sal-trees, that Buddha passed his
last night cn earth, near Kucinagara, “ beneath a rain of flowers,
with which the Sàl-tree growing there covered his venerated body.”
Thus we read in Da Cunha’s ‘ Life of Buddha ’—“ He then retired
to Ku9Ìnagara, and entered a grove of Sàl-trees [Shorea robusta) ;
there, during the night, he received a gift of food from an artizan
named Chanda, and was seized with illness. At early dawn next
day, as he turned on to his right side with his head to the north,
the Sal-trees bending down to form a canopy over his body, he
ceased to breathe.” It was not the season for Sàl-trees to bloom»
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but the twin trees beneath which he lay were covered with blossoms
from crown to foot. Blossoms fell down on him, a shower of flowers
fell from heaven, and heavenly melodies sounded over head as the
Perfeiff One passed away. At the moment of his death, the earth
quaked, thunders rolled, and the wife of Brahma announced the
entry of Buddha into Paradise.
S A M I .—The Indians employ the wood of Sami [Mimosa
Suma) a species of Acacia for the producflion of fire in their sacrifices.
For this purpose they rub a stick of Asvattha (representing
the male element) against a stick of the Acacia Sami (regarded as
the female symbol), in accordance with the Indian legend which
relates how Pururavas, the Indian Prometheus, created fire by
rubbing two woods together. At Indian weddings, after the sacrifice
has been made, the husband and wife take in their hands some
Rice (symbol of abundance) and some leaves of Sami (symbol of
generation). Before building a house, it is customary to sprinkle
the site by dipping a branch of Sami into some holy water. In the
same way, the Indians sprinkle the spot when a grave is to be
made.
S A M P H IR E .—Samphire [Crithmum maritimum) grows on the
rocky cliffs of our Southern shores, the name being a corruption of
St. Pierre. The plant, from its love of sea-cliffs, was long ago
dedicated to the fisherman saint, whose name in Greek [petros)
signifies a rock. Samphire used formerly to be gathered from the
cliffs at Dover by men suspended from the summit by a rope :
hence Shakspeare’s lines in ‘ King Lear ’ :—
“ How fearful
And dizzy ’tis to cast one’s eyes so low !
The crows and choughs that wing the midway air
Show scarce so gross as beetles : half-way down
Hangs one that gathers Samphire—dreadful trade !
Methinks he seems no bigger than his head. ”
B y astrologers Samphire is placed under the infiuence of Jupiter.
S A M O L U S .—The Samolus was a plant held in high esteem
by the Druids. It grew in damp places, and was only to be
gathered by a person fasting—without looking behind him—and
with his left hand. It was laid in troughs and cisterns where cattle
drank, and when bruised was a cure for various distempers.
S A N D A L .—The Sandal-wood of India [Santalum album) is a
small tree celebrated by the poets on account of its beauty and the
perfume of its wood, which is used as incense in temples and also
for medicinal purposes. In Hindu temples, the Du, or god, is, before
the services, anointed with oil of Sandal-wood or with Sandal dust
and water, and adorned with fiowers ; he is also presented with Betel-
leaves. The Chinese Buddhists give the Sandal a place in the celebrated
groves of their Paradise, and they say that the chariot of the
Sun is made of gold and Sandal-wood. In an Indian religious fête
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