e.
According to the "Grete Herbale," "if the hare come under it, he is sure
that no beast can touch hym." Topsell also, in his "Natural History,"
alludes to this superstition:--"When hares are overcome with heat, they
eat of an herb called _Latuca leporina_, that is, hare's-lettuce,
hare's-house, hare's-palace; and there is no disease in this beast the
cure whereof she does not seek for in this herb."

The hound's-tongue (_cynoglossum_) has been reputed to have the magical
property of preventing dogs barking at a person, if laid beneath the
feet; and Gerarde says that wild goats or deer, "when they be wounded
with arrows, do shake them out by eating of this plant, and heal their
wounds." Bacon in his "Natural History" alludes to another curious idea
connected with goats, and says, "There are some tears of trees, which
are combed from the beards of goats; for when the goats bite and crop
them, especially in the morning, the dew being on, the tear cometh
forth, and hangeth upon their beards; of this sort is some kind of
laudanum." The columbine was once known as _Herba leonis_, from a belief
that it was the lion's favourite plant, and it is said that when bears
were half-starved by hybernating--having remained for days without
food--they were suddenly restored by eating the arum. There is a curious
tradition in Piedmont, that if a hare be sprinkled with the juice of
henbane, all the hares in the neighbourhood will run away as if scared
by some invisible power.

Gerarde also alludes to an old belief that cats, "Are much delighted
with catmint, for the smell of it is so pleasant unto them, that they
rub themselves upon it, and swallow or tumble in it, and also feed on
the branches very greedily." And according to an old proverb they have a
liking for the plant maram:--

"If you set it, the cats will eat it;
If you sow it, the cats won't know it."

Equally fond, too, are cats of valerian, being said to dig up the roots
and gnaw them to pieces, an allusion to which occurs in Topsell's
"Four-footed Beasts" (1658-81):--"The root of the herb valerian
(commonly called Phu) is very like to the eye of a cat, and wheresoever
it groweth, if cats come thereunto they instantly dig it up for the love
thereof, as I myself have seen in mine own garden, for it smelleth
moreover like a cat."

Then there is the moonwort, famous for drawing the nails out of horses'
shoes, and hence known by the rustic name of "unshoe the horse;" wh