Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 16, 1905.djvu/171

Rh is. Now the orange-blossom plays so important a part in marriage customs, and at the same time is so closely related to the Rue (for both are of the same tribe Rutales) and is also so frequently found with four petals only, that I have no hesitation in associating the spadino flowers with the orange-blossom.

Sometimes flowers are carried by birds in their beaks, and are then more difficult to identify; and their presence as part of a charm against the evil eye is not easy of explanation, except in the belief of the ancients that birds are endowed with a marvellous knowledge of the medicinal properties of herbs. Hawks and eagles, to become far-sighted, plucked hawkweed and wild lettuce respectively; pigeons and doves used vervain or pigeon's-grass, to counteract any dimness of sight which might prevent them from seeing their enemy, the hawk. So in these charms we may regard the flower as a contribution of the bird's to the general efficiency of the whole, or else as a private possession to increase his own power against the malign power of the evil eye.

The many-petalled flower is not common. In some cimarute in which I have found it, its stalk is pierced for suspension, and thereby we may recognize it as an amulet of originally independent existence. I believe that amulets of this type are intended to represent certain composite flowers, which perhaps, on account of their likeness to the full moon, were dedicated to Artemis or her equivalent. We are informed that the Moon Daisy (Chrysanthemum leucanthemum), the flower of Eileithueia, or the Greek Juno Lucina, was used for uterine diseases. When the duties of the moon-goddess were, transferred to St. Mary Magdalene and to St. Margaret of Cortona, the Moon-daisy became known as Maudelyn or Maudlinwort, just as the Marguerite Daisy, another flower of Artemis, was assigned to St. Margaret of Cortona. And there is some ground for putting into the same category Costmary or Maudlin