Page:The Tale of the Tulsi Plant and Other Stories.djvu/17

2 TALE OF THE TULSI PLANT strange occult properties. [n the second part of the Secrets of Alexis of Piedmont, translated by W. Ward, 1563, there is this entry:—

“To make a woman shall eate of nothing that is set upon the table. Take a little greene Basill and when men bring the dishes to the table put it underneth them, yet the woman perceive it not., for men saye that she will eate of none of that which is in the dish whercurader the Basil lieth.”

In “ The (yelades “by P. Bent there occurs the following passage :— “I have frequently realized how much prized the Basil is in Greece for its mystic properties. The herb, which they say grew on Christ’s grave, is almost worshipped in the Fastein Church. On St. Basil’s Day women take sprigs of this plant lo be blessed in Church. On returning home they cast more on the floor of the house lo secure luck for the ensuing year. They eat a little with their household, and no sickness, they maintain, will attack them for a year. Another bit they put in the cupboard and firmly believe that thcir embroideries and silken raiment will be free from the visitation of rats, mice and moths for the same period.”

We find too a reference to the Basil in Keats’ “Isabella.” Therein, it will be remembered, that Isabella after exhuming the murdered Lorenzo’s head:—

“ (She) wrapped it up ; and for its tomb did choose “A garden pot, wherein she laid it by And covered it with mould, and o’er it set “Sweet Basil, which her tears kept ever web.”

But as neither classical Greece nor Rome can help US to explain the origin of the Tulsi’s or Basil’s