The smoke of the juniper was equally repellent to serpents, and the juice of dittany “drives away venomous beasts, and doth astonish them.”  In olden times, for serpent bites, agrimony, chamomile, and the fruit of the bramble, were held efficacious, and Gerarde recommends the root of the bugloss, “as it keepeth such from being stung as have drunk it before; the leaves and seeds do the same.”  On the other hand, some plants had the reputation of attracting serpents, one of these being the moneywort or creeping loosestrife, with which they were said to heal themselves when wounded.  As far back as the time of Pliny serpents were supposed to be very fond of fennel, restoring to them their youth by enabling them to cast their old skins.  There is a belief in Thuringia that the possession of fern seed causes the bearer to be pursued by serpents till thrown away; and, according to a curious Eussian proverb, “from all old trees proceeds either an owl or a devil,” in reference, no doubt, to their often bare and sterile appearance.

Footnotes: 

1.  See Tylor’s “Primitive Culture,” ii. 316.

2.  Thorpe’s “Northern Mythology,” iii. 193.

3.  “Plant-lore Legends and Lyrics,” p. 486.

4.  Mr. Conway, Fraser’s Magazine, 1870, p. 593.

5.  Mr. Conway, Fraser’s Magazine, 1870, p. 107.

6.  “Plant-lore Legends and Lyrics,” p. 411.

7.  Folkard’s “Plant-lore Legends and Lyrics,” p. 448.

8.  See Friend’s “Flower-lore,” i. 68.

9.  Thorpe’s “Northern Mythology,” ii. 104.

10.  “Mystic Trees and Flowers,” Fraser’s Magazine.

CHAPTER VII.

PLANTS IN FAIRY-LORE.

Many plants have gained a notoriety from their connection with fairyland, and although the belief in this romantic source of superstition has almost died out, yet it has left its traces in the numerous legends which have survived amongst us.  Thus the delicate white flowers of the wood-sorrel are known in Wales as “fairy bells,” from a belief once current that these tiny beings were summoned to their moonlight revels and gambols by these bells.  In Ireland they were supposed to ride to their scenes of merrymaking on the ragwort, hence known as the “fairies’ horse.”  Cabbage-stalks, too, served them for steeds, and a story is told of a certain farmer who resided at Dundaniel, near Cork, and was considered to be under fairy control.  For a long time he suffered from “the falling sickness,” owing to the long journeys which he was forced to make, night by night, with the fairy folk on one of his own cabbage stumps.  Sometimes the good people made use of a straw, a blade of grass, or a fern, a further illustration of which is furnished by “The Witch of Fife:” 

  “The first leet night, quhan the new moon set,
    Quhan all was douffe and mirk,
  We saddled our naigis wi’ the moon-fern leif,
    And rode fra Kilmerrin kirk.