Chapter 37

In digging up a herb, the Roman custom was, first to pour mead and honey round it, as if to propitiate the earth, then to cut round the root with a sword, looking toward the east (or west), and the moment it is pulled out to lift it on high without letting it touch the ground. 'Favis ante et melle terrae ad piamentum datis, circumscriptam ferro (verbenacam) effodi sinistra manu et sublime tolli,' Pliny 25, 9 [59]. 'et fossuri (iridem), tribus ante mensibus mulsa aqua circumfusa, hoc veluti placamento terrae blandiuntur, circumscripta mucrone gladii orbe triplici, et cum legerint eam protinus in coelum attollunt' 21, 7 [19]. 'nigrum elleborum melampodion vocant, quo et domos suffiunt purgantque, spargentes et pecora, cum precatione solemni; hoc et religiousius colligitur: primum enim gladio circumscribitur, dein qui succisurus est ortum spectat, et precatur ut liceat sibi concedentibus Diis facere; observatque aquilae volatus (fere enim secantibus interest), et si prope advolavit, moriturum illo anno qui succidat augurium est' 25, 5 [21]. 'cavent effossuri (mandragoram) contrarium ventum, et tribus circulis ante gladio circumscribunt, postea fodiunt ad occasum spectantes' 25, 13 [94]. In some cases, when the root had been dug out and made use of, it was put in again, that it might live on: 'hanc (senecionem) si ferro circumscriptam effodiat aliquis, tangatque ea dentem et alternis ter despuat, ac reponat in eundem locum ita ut vivat herba, aiunt dentem eum postea non doliturum' 25, 13 [106].

A great point was to guard against cold iron touching the root (hence gold or redhot iron was used in cutting), and against the herb pulled up, or the branch cut off, touching the ground: (3) 'radicem (pistolochiae) ante solis ortum erutam involvunt lana coloris quem nativum vocant. quidam auro effodiendam censent, cavendumque ne terram adtingat' 20, 4 [14]. '(viscum) collectum e robore sine ferro, si terram non attigit, comitialibus mederi (putant)' 24, 4 [6]. 'virgam e myrice defractam, ut neque terram neque ferrum attingeret' 24, 9 [41]. 'cavendum ne avulsa herba terram tangat' 25, 13. 'herba juxta quam canes urinam fundunt, evulsa ne ferro attingatur, luxatis celerrime medetur' 24, 19 [111].

In picking or pulling up, the operator used the left hand; in certain cases he had to do it unbelted and unshod, and to state for whom and for what purpose it was done: 'si quis unum ex his (ponis Punici mali), solutus vinculo omni cinctus et calceatus atque etiam anuli, decerpserit duobus digitis, pollice et quarto sinistrae manus, atque ita lustratis levi tactu oculis, mox in os additum devoraverit, ne dente contingat, affirmatur nullam oculorum imbecillitatem passurus eo anno' 23, 6 [59]. 'praecipitur ut sinistra man ad hos usus eruatur (iris rufa), colligentesque dicant cujus hominis utique causa eximant' 21, 20 [83]. 'parthenium ....... magi contra tertianas sinistra manu evelli eam jubent, dicique cujus causa vellatur, nec respicere' 21, 30 [104]. 'pseudanchusa ........ folium ejus sinistra decerpi jubent magi, et cujus causa sumatur dici' 22, 20 [24]. 'praecipitur ut qui colligit (thlaspi) dicat sumere se contra inguina et contra omnes collectiones et contra vulnera, unaque manu tollat' 27, 13 [113]. 'autumnalis urticae radicem alligatam in tertianis, ita ut aegri nuncupentur cum eruitur ea radix, dicaturque cui et quorum filio eximatur, liberare morbo tradiderunt' 22, 14 [16]. 'buglosso inarescente, si quis medullam e caule eximat, dicatque ad quem liberandum febre id faciat' 26, 11 [71]. So Columella 6, 5 of the radicula, quam pastores consiliginem vocant; ea in Marsis montibus plurima nascitur, omnique pecori maxime est salutaris: laeva manu effoditur ante solis ortum, sic enim lecta majorem vim creditur habere.

In our native, now so scant and faded, I can find but little to match full accounts like these. An important statement is that of Burcard on the bilisa (hyoscyamus, henbane), 'quam virginem nudam minimo digito dextrae manus eruere faciunt, et radicitus erutam cum ligamine aliquo ad minimum digitum dextri pedis ligare'; the object has been stated p. 593. The nudity of the person pulling it up answers to the above mentioned laying aside of belt and shoes, but the right hand and right foot are at variance with the Roman preferences for left limbs. The whole ceremony however seems to have been equally known in Gaul, where the Romans, as will appear by and by, found a herb-ritual ready organized. An AS. Herbal prescribes thus for sore eyes, wið eágena sâre: 'œr sunnan upgange oððe hwene œr heo fullîce gesîgan onginne (begin to sink), gâ tô þære ylcan wyrte Proserpinacam, and bewrît hî âbûtan mid ânum gyldenum hringe, and cweð (say) þæt þû hî tô eágena læcedôme niman wille (wilt take it for cure of eyes); æfter þrim dagon gâ æft þær-tô ær sunnangancg, and genim hî and hoh (take and hang it) onbûtan þæs mannes swyran (neck); heo framað wel.' For ælf-âdle: 'gang on Ðunresœfen, þonne sunne on setle sie, þær þû wite Elenan standan; sing þonne benedicite et pater noster, and sting þîn seax on þâ wyrte. læt stician eft tô þonne dæg, and niht furdum scâðe on þam ilcan ahte, gang ærest tô ciricean and þe gesena and Gode bebeod. gang þonne swîgende, and þeah þe hwæt-hwega egeslîces ongean cume, oððe man, ne cweð þû him ænig word tô, ær þû cume tô þære wyrte, þe þû on æfen ær gemearcodest; sing þonne benedicite and pater noster, âdelf þâ wyrt, lœt stician þœt seax þæron. gange eft swâ þû raðost mæge tô ciricean, and lege under weofod mid þam seaxe, læt licgean oððæt sunne uppe sie. âwæsc siððan, dô tô drence and bisceopwyrt and Cristes mæles ragu, âwyl þriwa on meolcum, geot þriwa hâlig wæter on; sing on pater noster and credan etc. and hine eác ymbwrît mid sweorde on iiii healfa on cruce, and drince þone drenc, siððan him bið sôna sæl.'' Here I think a Latin groundwork, with admixture of christian rites, is self-evident. Thiers in his Traité des superstitions says: 'Quelques uns pour se garantir de maléfices ou de charmes vont cueillir de grand matin, à jeun, sans avoir lavé leurs mains, sans avoir prie Dieu, sans parler à personne et sans saluer personne en leur chemin, une certaine plante, et la mettent ensuite sur la personne maléficiée ou ensorcelée. Ils portent sur eux une racine de chicorée, qu'ils ont touchée à genoux avec de l'or et de l'argent le jour de la nativité de saint Jean baptiste, un peu avant le soleil levé, et qu'ils ont ensuite arrachée de terre avec un ferrement et beaucoup de cérémonies, après l'avoir esxorcizée avec l'épée de Judas Machabée.' This again seems to be Celtic, and yet resembles the Roman practices, warlike Judas' patriot sword doing duty for the circle-drawing 'ferrum.' In Superst. I, 581, the lopping is also done with gold instead of iron. When Renart finds in the meadow the wished-for plant, and cautiously pulls it up, it is said: 'ne l'a triblée n'esquachie, encois la menja sanz tribler, del remanant ala froter trestotes les plaies qu'il ot, et li cuir maintenant reclot et fu gariz et trestoz sains' 25105-11. The herb was neither to be fretted nor squashed; conf. Michel's Trist. 2, 50. In Thurneisser's Erkl. der archidoxen, Berl. 1575, when it says fol. 76: 'Verbeen, agrimenia, modelger Charfreytags graben hilfft dich sehr Das dir die frawen werden holdt, Doch brauch kein eisen, grab's mit goldt'; I think it must be drawn from Latin sources. Much more signifcant is what a song in the Hätzler book says of the 'herb Hope' 137. 294: 'Daz ist gar ein edel krût, Grab ez stille, nicht ze lût, Schültzen sind darüber gesetzt, Begrif man dich, du wurdst geletzt An dîner sælden hôhstem pfant' ('tis a priceless herb, I trow, dig it deftly, soft and slow: o'er it are set guards to watch thee; thou wouldst forfeit, should they catch thee, thy dearest pledge of happiness). These warders and watchers of the herb are on a par with that woodpecker that guards the peony: one would like to know more particulars about them (see Suppl.).

About the tying-on (alligare, usu. adalligare (4) of herbs when picked or dug up, Pliny imparts the following precepts: 'herba adalligata laevo brachio, ita ut aeger quid sit illud ignoret' 24, 19 [107]. 'magi heliotropium quartanis quater, in tertianis ter alligari jubent ab ipso aegro, precarique soluturum se nodos liberatum, et ita facere non exempta herba' 22, 21 [29]. 'sunt qui genicula novem vel unius vel e duabus tribusve herbis ad hunc articulorum numerum involvi lana succida nigra jubeant ad remedia strumae panorumve. jejunum debere esse qui colligat, ita ire in domum absentis cui medeatur, supervenientique ter dicere jejuno jejunum medicamentum dare, atque ita adalligare, triduoque id facere. quod e graminum genere septem internodia habet, efficacissime capiti intra dolores adalligatur' 24, 19 [118]. 'alliget ei septem folia' 26, 11 [71]. 'verbenaca jumentorum febribus in vino medetur, sed in tertianis a tertio geniculo incisa, quartanis a quarto,' ibid. (5) Or, instead of being tied, it was put under the patient's pillow: 'sedum, si involutum panno nigro ignorantis pulvino subjiciatur' 26, 10 [69]. 'absinthium somnos allicit olfactum, aut inscio sub capite positum' 27, 7 [28]. As a rule, the sufferer was not to know what was tied on or laid under him; knots and joints in the herb bore a reference to the manner of tying and its repetitions. Often it sufficed if the protecting plant were held in the hand or worn in the girdle: 'virgam populi in manu tenentibus intertrigo non metuatur' 24, 8 [32]. 'virgam (viticis) qui in manu habeant aut in cinctu, negantur intertriginem sentire' 24, 9 [38]. 'intertrigines negat fieri Cato absinthium Ponticum secum habentibus' 26, 8 [58]. Yet if you fall, holding in your hand the nymphæa, you become epileptic (p. 654).

But in many parts of Germany herbs of power used to be suspended up in the loft, on the main rafter, or over door and gate ways, and left there all the year round, till they were replaced by fresh ones.

The Romans had a strange custom of laying a sieve in the road, and using the stalks of grass that grew up through it for medical purposes: 'cribro in limite adjecto, herbae intus exstantes decerptae adalligataeque gravidis partus accelerant' 24,19 [109]. The sieve was a sacred utensil (p. 1108-12): exstare is extra stare, prominere. This reminds me of our old Weisthümer, which determine the fineness of a tissue by the stalks piercing through it, 1, 12: 'item, es sprechint ouch die hoflüt, das si hundert und sibentzig eln huobtuochs gebint dem von Hünwil, das selb huobtuoch sölli so swach sin, wenn man das spreit uf ein wasen, das gens gras und bollen durch das tuoch mugint essen.' And 1, 254: 'the said cloth shall be spread over turf and be of such substance that geese can eat grass through it, and not starve.' This has nothing to do with healing, but the mode of thought is similar.

Having made these general observations, I will now take up one by one the herbs most renowned for healing. Yet some of them seem purposely to have no distinct name given them; among these is the herb that kept birds away from millet and panic: 'pestem a milio atque panico, sturnorum passerumque agmina, scio abigi herba cujus nomen ignotum est, in quatuor angulis segetis defossa, mirum dictu, ut omnino nulla avis intret,' Pliny 18, 17 [45]. A poem in Ls. 1, 211-8 tells of a maiden that was picking flowers for a garland, and by chance got hold of a herb she did not know: no sooner was it in her hand than she saw all her lovers before her, heard their talk, and knew all their thoughts. At length one of her companions knocked the miraculous plant out of her hand, it fell into a brook that ran past, and floated away; and all the prophetic power was gone. Again, the nameless blue wonderflower (p. 964), that suddenly opens the shepherd's eyes who has unconsciously stuck it in his hat, and discloses the hitherto concealed entrance to the treasure (p. 971), comes before us the more mysteriously, as it cannot in the least be identified. (6) The name forget-me-not, which it may be said to assume to itself, is supposed to express no more than its sentiment, and seems not to have been applied to myosotis till a later time. A herb with an equally imperative name is reported by Pliny 27, 12 [106]: 'circa Ariminum nota est herba quam resedam vocant, discutit collectiones inflammationesque omnes. qui curant ea, addunt haec verba: "Reseda, morbos reseda! scisne, scisne quis hic pullos egerit? radices nec caput nec pedes habeant!" haec ter dicunt, totiesque despuunt.' Collectio is a gathering, and 'pullos agere' must refer to this or the inflammation. What we now call reseda (odorata) is apparently a different herb (see Suppl.).

Of roots, the Alrune stands first in fame. OHG. glosses already have alrûna, alrûn for mandragora (Graff 2, 523. Schm. 3, 97), and I have on fair grounds (p. 404) identified the name of the personified plant with that of wise-women in our remotest antiquity. H. Sachs iv. 3, 34 still pictures the Alraun as a goddess who meets you at the crossways. (7) Besides, the root itself has the shape of a man, and the process of pulling it up is described as follows: If a hereditary thief that has preserved his chastity gets hung, and drops water or seed from him, there grows up under the gallows the broad-leaved yellow-flowered mandrake. If dug up, she groans and shrieks so dismally, that the digger would die thereof. He must therefore stop his ears with cotton or wax, and go before sunrise on a Friday, and take with him a black dog that has not a white hair on him; make three crosses over the mandrake, and dig round her till the root holds by thin fibres only; these he must tie with a string to the dog's tail, hold up a piece of bread before him, and run away. The dog rushes after the bread, wrenches up the root, and falls dead, pierced by her agonizing wail. The root is now taken up (Pliny's in sublime tolli), washed with red wine, wrapt in silk red and white, laid in a casket, bathed every Friday, and clothed in a new little white smock every new-moon. When questioned, she reveals future and secret things touching welfare and increase, makes rich, removes all enemies, brings blessings upon wedlock, and every piece of coin put to her overnight is found doubled in the morning, but she must not be overloaded. When her owner dies, she goes to the youngest son, provided he puts a piece of bread and a coin in his father's coffin. If he dies before his father, the mandrake passes to the eldest son, who must in like manner with bread and money bury his brother. All these provisions sound ancient, and may date from a long way back. Our OHG. glosses have 'alrûna' for the mandragora occurring several times in the Vulgate, (8) Gen. 30, 14 seq., where the Hebrew text reads dudaim; but the poetized version in MHG. translates it erd-ephil, Diut. 2, 79. Now the mandragoras (masc., Gr. mandragoraj) is thus described in Pliny 25, 13 [94]: 'mandragoram alii Circaeum vocant; duo ejus genera, candidus qui et mas, niger qui femina existimatur...... cavent effossuri (album) contrarium ventum, et tribus circulis ante gladio circumscribunt, postea fodiunt ad occasum spectantes.' I find more to my purpose this time in two lines of Columella 10, 19:




Notes: