Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/465

Rh seven days would make any one beautiful; a superstition to which Martial refers in one of his epigrams:

The fact that many plants are named after the hare may also, as Oberle thinks, have a mythological significance; though the origin of such names as "hare-bell" and "hare-parsley" appears sufficiently explained in Hone's Table-Book upon other grounds.

VII. The hare, or some part of it, is frequently used in magical charms Thus, Mr. Edward Peacock has recorded, in Notes and Queries, the discovery of the heart of a hare pierced with pins buried in the foundations of a house. When it was found, the "elders" of the village declared it had been buried there "to withstand witching". "In a village near Preston, a girl, when slighted by her lover, got a hare's heart, stuck it full of pins, and buried it with many imprecations against the faithless man, whom she hoped by these means to torment."

In Egypt, the figure of a hare was worn as an amulet ; and hares' heads were worn as amulets by Arab women.

VIII. From the evidence of existing agricultural customs