Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics Embracing the Myths,...

The sowing of Hemp-seed is performed by maidens, at midnight, on Midsummer Eve in Cornwall, on St. Martin’s night in Norfolk, and on All Hallow Eve in Scotland; the incantation being completed by the recital of the following or similar lines:—

Perhaps the origin of this custom of Hemp-sowing is the fact that from Hemp is made cord, which is used to bind, attach, or secure an object. The Sicilians, indeed, employ Hemp as a charm to secure the affection of those they love. De Gubernatis tells us that, on Friday (the day consecrated to the remembrance of our Lord’s Passion), they take a Hempen thread, and twenty-five needlefuls of coloured silk; and at midnight they plait this, saying:

Forthwith they go to the church with the plait in their hands, and enter at the moment of the Consecration: then they tie three knots in the plait, previously adding a little of the hair of the loved one; after which they invoke all evil spirits to entice the person beloved towards the person who craves his or her love.——In Piedmont, there is a belief that Hemp spun on the last day of Carnival will bring bad luck. On that day, in some districts, the following ceremony is gone through to divine what sort of Hemp crop may be expected:—A bonfire is lighted, and the direction of the flames is attentively watched: if the flames mount straight upwards, the crop will be good; but if they incline either way, it will be bad.——In the Côtes-du-Nord, France, there is a belief that Hemp enrages those who have been bitten by dogs. When fowls eat Hemp-seed, they cease to lay, and commence to sit. It is customary to leave the finest sprig of Hemp, that the bird St. Martin may be able to rest on it.——The Egyptians prepare an intoxicating substance from Hemp, called Hashîsh.

This they roll into balls the size of a Chesnut, and after having swallowed a few of these, they experience ecstatic visions.——The Arabians concoct a preparation of Hemp, which produces the most varied hallucinations, so that those who are intoxicated by it imagine that they are flying, or that they are changed into a statue, that their head is cut off, that their limbs stretch out to immense lengths, or that they can see, even through stone walls, “the colour of the thoughts of others” and the words of their neighbours.——In the Chinese Liao chai chih ye (A.D. 60–70), it is recorded that two friends wandering among the mountains culling simples, find at a fairy bridge two lovely maidens guarding it; at their invitation, the two friends cross this “azure bridge” and are regaled with Huma (Hemp—the Chinese Hashîsh); forthwith they fall deeply in love with their hostesses, and spend with them in the Jasper City what appears to them a few blissful days: at length, becoming home-sick, they return, to find that seven generations have passed, and that they have become centenarians.——To dream of Hemp betokens ill-luck.——Astrologers assign Hemp to the rule of Saturn.

HENBANE.—There are two species of Henbane (Hyoscyamus), the black and the white: the black or common Henbane grows on waste land by roadsides, and bears pale, woolly, clammy leaves, with venomous-looking cream-coloured flowers, and has a fœtid smell. Pliny calls this black Henbane a plant of ill omen, employed in funeral repasts, and scattered on tombs. The ancients thought that sterility was the result of eating this sinister plant, and that babes at the breast were seized with convulsions if the mother had partaken of it.——Henbane was called Insana, and was believed to render anyone eating it stupid and drowsy: it was also known as Alterculum, because those that had partaken of it became light-headed and quarrelsome.——According to Plutarch, the dead were crowned with chaplets of Henbane, and their tombs decorated with the baneful plant, which, for some unknown reason, was also employed to form the chaplets of victors at the Olympic games. Hercules is sometimes represented with a crown of Henbane. Priests were forbidden to eat Henbane, but the horses of Juno fed on it; and to this day, on the Continent, Henbane is prescribed for certain equine disorders.——Albertus Magnus calls Henbane the sixth herb of Jupiter, and recommends it especially for liver complaints.——In Sanscrit, Henbane is called Aj’amoda, or Goat’s Joy.

Both sheep and goats will eat the plant sparingly, but swine are said really to like it, and in England it is well known as Hog’s Bean.——In Piedmont, there is a tradition that if a hare be sprinkled with Henbane juice, all the hares in the neighbourhood will run away. They also have a saying, when a mad dog dies, that he has tasted Henbane.——In Germany, there is a superstitious belief that Henbane will attract rain.——The English name of Henbane was given to the plant on account of the baneful effects of its seed upon poultry, for, according to Matthiolus, birds that have eaten the seeds perish soon after, as do fishes also.——Anodyne necklaces, made of pieces of this root, are sometimes worn by infants to facilitate teething, and the leaves are smoked by country people to allay toothache. Gerarde says, “The root boiled with vinegre, and the same holden hot in the mouth, easeth the pain of the teeth. The seed is used by mountebank tooth-drawers, which run about the country, to cause worms to come forth of the teeth, by burning it in a chafing-dish of coles, the party holding his mouth over the fume thereof; but some crafty companions, to gain money, convey small lute-strings into the water, persuading the patient that those small creepers came out of his mouth or other parts which he intended to cure.”——The plant was one of those sought for by witches, and used in their potions.