rdly burn."

In addition to guarding the homestead from ill, the hellebore was
regarded as a wonderful antidote against madness, and as such is spoken
of by Burton, who introduces it among the emblems of his frontispiece,
in his "Anatomie of Melancholy:"--

"Borage and hellebore fill two scenes,
Sovereign plants to purge the veins
Of melancholy, and cheer the heart
Of those black fumes which make it smart;
To clear the brain of misty fogs,
Which dull our senses and Soul clogs;
The best medicine that e'er God made
For this malady, if well assay'd."

But, as it has been observed, our forefathers, in strewing their floors
with this plant, were introducing a real evil into their houses, instead
of an imaginary one, the perfume having been considered highly
pernicious to health.

In the many curious tales related of the mystic henbane may be quoted
one noticed by Gerarde, who says: "The root boiled with vinegar, 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." Shakespeare, it may be
remembered, alludes to this superstition in "Much Ado About Nothing"
(Act iii. sc. 2), where Leonato reproaches Don Pedro for sighing for the
toothache, which he adds "is but a tumour or a worm." The notion is
still current in Germany, where the following incantation is employed:--

"Pear tree, I complain to thee
Three worms sting me."

The henbane, too, according to a German belief, is said to attract rain,
and in olden times was thought to produce sterility. Some critics have
suggested that it is the plant referred to in "Macbeth" by Banquo (Act
i. sc. 3):--

"Have we eaten of the insane root
That takes the reason prisoner?"

Although others think it is the hemlock. Anyhow, the henbane has long
been in repute as a plant possessed of mysterious attributes, and Douce
quotes the subjoined passage:--"Henbane, called insana, mad, for the use
thereof is perillous, for if it be eate or dronke, it breedeth madness,
or slowe lykeness of sleepe." In days gone by, when the mandrake was an
object o