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Rhamnus Paliurus and Rhamnus Spina Christi), and the fliu ru s aculeatus,
or Christ Thorn. In the thirteenth century, t^ r e existed
among Christians a strong passion for relics, and when the Emperor
Baldwin II. came to beg aid from Loms IX . (St. Louis of France),
he secured his goodwill at once by offering him the holy Crown
of Thorns, which for several centuries had been preserved at Constantinople,
and had been pledged to the Venetians for a large sum
of money. Louis redeemed this precious and venerable relic, aided
Baldwin with men and money, and then triumphantly brought the
crown of Thorns to Paris, carrying it himself from Sens, barefoot
and bareheaded. Having also been so fortunate as to obtain a
small piece of the true Cross, he built in honour of these treasures
the exquisite chapel since called La Sainte Chapelle. In pidtures of
St. Louis, he is usually depicited with his special attribute, the
Crown of Thorns, which he reverently holds m orie hand.- -in
Brittany, there is a superstition current which will explain the
cause why the robin has always been a favourite and protege o
man. It is said that while our Saviour was bearing His Cross, one
of these little birds took from His Crown one of the Thorns steeped
in His blood, which dyed the robin’s breast ; and ever since the
redbreasts have been the friends of man. St. Catherine of
Siena is frequently represented with the Crown of Thorns, in reference
to the legend that, having been persecuted and vilified by
certain nuns, she laid her wrongs, weeping, at the feet of Christ.
He appeared to her, bearing in one hand a crown of gold and jewels,
in theother His Crown of Thorns, and bade her choose between theni.
She took from His hand the Crown of Thorns, and pressed it hasti y
on her own head, but with such force that the Thorns penetrated
to her brain, and she cried out with the agony. - In a jointing ot
Murillo, Santa Rosa de Lima is depicfled crowned with Thorns, in
allusion to the legend that when compelled by her mother to wear
a crown of Roses, she so adjusted it on her brow that it became a
veritable crown of Thorns. In representations of St. Francis ot
Assisi, the Crown of Thorns is sometimes introduced the saint
having been considered by his followers as a type of the Redeemer.
In many parts of England charms or incantations are employed
to prevent a Thorn from festering in the flesh. The following are
some of the magic verses recited :—
“ Happy man that Christ was born,
He was crowned with a Thorn,
He was pierced through the skin,
For to let the poison in.
But his five wounds, so they say,
Closed before He passed away.
In with healing, out with Thorn,
Happy man that Christ was born.”
“ Unto the Virgin Mary our Saviour was born,
And on His head He wore a crown of d'horn :
I f you believe this true and mind it well,
This hurt will never fester nor swell.”
“ Our Saviour was of a virgin bom.
His head was crowned with a crown of Thom ;
It never canker’d nor fester’d at all.
And I hope in Christ Jesus this never shall.”
“ Christ was of a virgin born.
And He was pricked by a Thom,
And it did never bell [throb] nor swell,
As I trust in Jesus this never will. ’
“ Christ was crown’d with Thorns,
The Thorns did bleed, but did not rot,
No more shall thy finger.
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.”
In Herefordshire, the burning of a Thorn-bush is supposed to atfl
as a charm against smut or mildew in Wheat. When the crop is
just springing out of the ground, the farmer’s servants rise before
daybreak, and cut a branch of some particular Thorn; they then
make a large fire in the field, in which they burn a portion of it,
and hang up the remaining portion in the homestead. Tradition
affirms that, at Hemer, in Westphalia, a man was engaged in
fencing his field on Good Friday, and had just poised a bunch of
Thorns on his fork, when he was at once transported to the Moon.
Some of the Hemer peasants declare that the Moon is not only
inhabited by this man with his Thorn-bush, but also by a woman
who was churning her butter one Sabbath during Divine Service.
Another legend relates how the Man in the Moon is none other
than Cain with a bundle of Briars. To dream you are surrounded
by Thorns, signifies that you will be rejoiced by some
pleasing intelligence in a very short time.
T H O R N A P P L E .— Gerarde, in h is ‘ Herbal,’ calls the Datura
Stramonium Thorny Apple of Peru : he speaks of it as a plant of
a drowsy and numbing quality, resembling in its effetfls the Mandrake,
and he tells us that it is thought to be the Hippomanes, which
Theocritus mentions as causing horses to go niad. The words of
the poet are thus translated by the old herbalist ;■
i i TH_ ippomanes ’mongst th’ Arcadian springs, by which/v’n all
The colts and agile mares in mountains mad do fall.”
The juice of Thorn-Apples Gerarde guarantees, when boiled with
hog’s grease and made into a salve, will cure inflammations,
burnings and scaldings, “ as well of fire, water, boiling lead, gunpowder,
as that which comes by lightning.” In India, the Datttra is
sometimes employed by robbers as a magical means of depriving
their vicflims of all power of resistance : their mode of operation
being to induce them to chew and swallow a portion of the plant,
because those who eat it lose their proper senses, become silly
and given to inordinate laughter, feel a strong desire to be generous
and open-handed, and finally will allow anyone to pillage them,
fl'he Indians apply to the Datura the epithets of the Drunkard, the
Madman, the Deceiver, and the Fool-maker. It is also called the tuft
of Siva (god of destrucflion). The Rajpoot mothers are said to be-
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