kly children
by passing through a split piece of oak. A German remedy for gout is to
take hold of an oak, or of a young shoot already felled, and to repeat
these words:--

"Oak-shoot, I to thee complain,
All the torturing gout plagues me;
I cannot go for it,
Thou canst stand it.
The first bird that flies above thee,
To him give it in his flight,
Let him take it with him in the air."

Another plant, which from its mystic character has been used for various
complaints, is the elder. In Bohemia, three spoonsful of the water which
has been used to bathe an invalid are poured under an elder-tree; and a
Danish cure for toothache consists in placing an elder-twig in the
mouth, and then sticking it in a wall, saying, "Depart, thou evil
spirit." The mysterious origin and surroundings of the mistletoe have
invested it with a widespread importance in old folk-lore remedies, many
of which are, even now-a-days, firmly credited; a reputation, too,
bestowed upon it by the Druids, who styled it "all-heal," as being an
antidote for all diseases. Culpepper speaks of it as "good for the grief
of the sinew, itch, sores, and toothache, the biting of mad dogs and
venomous beasts;" while Sir Thomas Browne alludes to its virtues in
cases of epilepsy. In France, amulets formed of mistletoe were much
worn; and in Sweden, a finger-ring made of its wood is an antidote
against sickness. The mandrake, as a mystic plant, was extensively sold
for medicinal purposes, and in Kent may be occasionally found kept to
cure barrenness; [12] and it may be remembered that La Fontaine's fable,
_La Mandragore_, turns upon its supposed power of producing children.
How potent its effects were formerly held may be gathered from the very
many allusions to its mystic properties in the literature of bygone
years. Columella, in his well-known lines, says:--

"Whose roots show half a man, whose juice
With madness strikes."

Shakespeare speaks of it as an opiate, and on the Continent it was much
used for amulets.

Again, certain plants seem to have been specially in high repute in
olden times from the marvellous influence they were credited with
exercising over the human frame; consequently they were much valued by
both old and young; for who would not retain the vigour of his youth,
and what woman would not desire to preserve the freshness of her beauty?

One of the special virtues of rosemary, for instance, was its ability to
make old folk