Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/729

Rh value to the history of the herbs and the traditions connected with them.

This does not mean that there has not been some ancient plant lore of an indigenous character, but this can only be discovered by careful comparison of the names and attributes of the plants found in these MSS. and books and also in the oral tradition and in folk medicine, with those found elsewhere. Over the old tradition many layers have been superimposed in the course of time and by succeeding influences: these will have to be eliminated one by one until we reach the lowest stratum, and no one is more fitted to do this comparative work than Miss Rohde, whose knowledge of the literature is so wide. To some extent, work of a similar character has been done by Hovorka and Kronfeld in their book on comparative Folk-medicine (Vergleichende Volksmedizin, Stuttgart, 1908–9), in which the virtues of herbs and plants play an important role. Vol. II. contains no less than forty pages of bibliography (pp. 902–960).

I am now turning to another weak point, if I may call it so, in Miss Rohde's book. I am referring to her doctrine of the "elf-shot" and the "flying venom," but more especially to the charms and conjurations, used either as prophylactic or apotropeic, to protect from or to attack the evil. This is part of the ancient leechcraft in which herbs were used in the cure, but their efficacy was strengthened by suitable conjurations and charms. Miss Rohde gives us a few fair specimens of conjurations and charms, but she describes the belief in the "elf-shot" as the cause of illness as of Indo-Aryan origin. It would be difficult to find the reason for limiting these beliefs to what is called the Indo-Aryan, in itself a somewhat elastic term; moreover, the parallels from the Babylonian conjurations, which Miss Rohde adduces, must disprove the theory propounded. The belief in the demoniacal origin of illness is universal, and a comparative study of charms and conjurations, carried on for many years, has led to the conclusion that the Anglo-Saxon formulas, far from being primitive, already show signs of decay and profound alteration. Many of the principal features are missing inasmuch as these