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smear their breasts with the juice of the leaves, in order to destroy
their new-born infant children. Acosta states that the Indian
dancing girls drug wine with the seeds of the Datum Stramonium.
He adds that whoever is so unfortunate as to partake of it is for
some time perfedtly unconscious. He often, however, speaks with
others, and gives answers as if he were in full possession of his
senses, although he has no control over his adlions, is perfedtly
ignorant of whom he is with, and loses all remembrance of what has
taken places when he awakes. The Stramonium, or Thorn-
Apple, is one of the plants commonly connecfled with witchcraft,
death, and horror. Harte, describing the plants growing about the
Palace of Death, says :—
“ Nor were the Nightshades wanting, nor the power
Of thorn’d Stramonium, nor the sickly flower
Of cloying Mandrakes, the deceitful root
Of the monk's fraudful cowl, and Plinian fruit” \_Am0mu7n P lin ii\
T H Y M E .— Among the Greeks, Thyme denoted the graceful
elegance of the Attic style, because it covered Mount Hymettus,
and gave to the honey made there the aromatic flavour of which
the ancients were so fond. “ To smell of Thyme” was, therefore, a
commendation bestowed on those writers who had mastered the
Attic style. With the Greeks, also. Thyme was an emblem of
activity; and as this virtue is eminently associated with true
courage, the ladies of chivalrous times embroidered on the scarfs
which they presented to their knights, the figure of a bee hovering
about a spray of Thyme, in order to inculcate the union of the
amiable with the active. In olden times, it was believed that
Thyme renewed the spirits of both man and beast; and the old
herbalists recommended it is a powerful aid in melancholic and
splenetic diseases. Fairies and elves were reputed to be specially
fond of Wild Thyme. Oberon exclaims with delight:—
“ I know a bank whereon the Wild Thyme blows,
Where Oxlips and the woody Violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with lush Woodbine.
With sweet Musk-Roses, and with Eglantine.”
The fairy king’s musical hounds would willingly forsake the richest
blossoms of the garden in order to hunt for the golden dew in the
flowery tufts of Thyme. Of witches is is said, that when they
“ Won’t do penance for their crime,
They bathed themselves in Oregane and Thyme.”
In the South of France, when a summons to attend a meeting of
the votaries of Marianne is sent, it is accompanied by tufts of
Wild Thyme, or Ferigoule, that being the symbol of advanced
Republicanism.
T O A D S T O O L .— The name of Toadstool was originally
applied to all descriptions of unwholesome Fungi, from the popular
plant Isoro, begef^/, ani. btjric/.
belief that toads sit on them. Thus Spenser, in his ‘ Shepherd’s
Calendar,’ s a y s :—
“ The griesly Todestool grown there mought I see,
And loathed paddocks lording on the same.”
Fungi are in some parts of the country called Paddock-stools from
the same notion that toads are fond of sitting on them ; and in the
Western counties they bear the name of Pixie-stools. In Sussex,
the Puff-ball {Lycoperdon) is called Puck’s-stool; and in other places
these fungi are known among country folks as Puckiists. These
names tend to identify Puck, the mischievous king of the fairies,
with the toad {pogge), which is popularly believed to be the impersonation
of the Devil himself: hence Toad-stools, Paddock-stools,
Puck’s-stools, Puckfists, and Pixie-stools have been superstitiously
thought to be the droppings of elves or of Satan, and in some dis-
t r ia s are known as Devil’s droppings.
TO B A C C O .—With the Aborigines of Southern America, the
Tobacco {Nicotiam) was regarded as a sacred plant, and Darwin
has described how, in the pampas of Patagonia, he saw the sacred
tree of Wallitchon. This tree grew on a hill in the midst of a vast
plain, and when the Indians perceived it afar off, they saluted it
with loud cries. The branches were covered with cords, from
which were suspended votive offerings, consisting of cigars, bread,
meat, pieces of cloth, &c. In a fissure of the tree they found spirits
and vegetable extraffis. When smoking, they blew the Tobacco
smoke towards the branches. All around lay the bleached bones
of horses that they had sacrificed to the sacred tree. -The
Indians believe that this worship ensures good luck to themselves
and their horses. In other parts of America, the Indians throw
Tobacco as an offering to the spirit supposed to inhabit the waterfalls
and whirlpools. M. Cochet, a French traveller, recounts
that the Indians of Upper Peru, entertain a religious reverence
for Tobacco. They consider it an infallible remedy for the sting
of serpents, and each year a festival-day is consecrated to the
plant. On that day they construct, in the most secluded portion
of the forest, a round hut, adorned with flowers and feathers. At
the foot of the central pillar which supports the hut is placed a
basket richly decorated, containing a roll of Tobacco. Into this
hut troop in one by one the Indians of the district, and before the
shrine of the sacred Tobacco perform their customary acts of
worship. In reference to the use of Tobacco by pagan priests
in the delivery of their oracles, Gerarde tells us that the “ priests
and enchanters of hot countries do take the fume thereof until they
be drunke, that after they have lien for dead three or foure houres,
they may tell the people what wonders, visions, or illusions they
have seen, and so give them a prophetical direction or foretelling
(if we may trust to the Divell) of the successe of their businesse.
In the Ukraine, Tobacco is looked upon as an ill-omened
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