Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/560

 250 "If any one hath with him this wort (vervain) he may not be barked at by dogs." (Herb. Ap. 67.)

Tying on the herbs with red wool. In the use of herbs as amulets it is interesting to note in passing that there is frequently the instruction to bind on the herb with red yarn. Red is the colour sacred to Thor, and it is also the colour abhorred by the powers of evil. Sonny (Arch. f. Rel. 1906, p. 525), in his article "Rote Farbe im Totenkulte," considers the use of red to be in imitation of blood. Of examples of tying on herbs with red wool in the Saxon herbals the following will suffice:

"Clove wort {ranunculus acris) for a lunatic take this wort and wreathe it with a red thread about the man's neck when the moon is on the wane in the month which is called April, soon he will be healed." (Herb. Ap.)

"In case a man ache in the head take the netherward part of crosswort, put it on a red fillet, let him bind the head therewith." (Leech Book HI. i.)

"For that ilk delve up waybroad without iron ere the rising of the sun and bind the roots about the head with crosswort by a red fillet, soon he will be well." {Ibid.)

Hanging up of herbs. Besides instructions for wearing herbs as amulets we also find instructions for hanging them up over doors, etc., for the benefit of not only human beings but cattle also. Of mugwort we read: "And if a root of this wort be hung over the door of any house then may not any man damage the house." (Herb. Ap.) Of croton oil plant for hail and rough weather to turn them away: "if thou hangest some seed of it in thine house or have it or its seed in any place whatever it turneth away the tempestuousness of hail." "Against temptation of the fiend a wort hight red viohn, red stalk, it waxeth by running water if thou hast it on thee and under thy head and bolster and over thy house door the devil may not scathe thee within nor without." (Herb. Ap.)