The prosperity of the poor peasant was soon on the wane, and before long he was reduced to abject poverty.[15] These legends, in addition to illustrating the fairy mythology of bygone years, are additionally interesting from their connection with the plants and flowers, most of which are familiar to us from our childhood.

Footnotes: 

1.  See Crofton Croker’s “Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South
   of Ireland,” 1862, p. 98.

2.  Folkard’s “Plant-lore Legends and Lyrics,” p. 30.

3.  Friend, “Flowers and Flower Lore,” p. 34.

4.  Thorpe’s “Northern Mythology,” ii. 81-2.

5.  Thorpe’s “Northern Mythology,” iii. 266.

6.  See “The Phytologist,” 1862, p. 236-8.

7.  “Folk-lore of Shakespeare,” p. 15.

8.  See Friend’s “Flower Lore,” i. 34.

9.  Thorpe’s “Northern Mythology,” iii. 266.

10.  Friend’s “Flower Lore,” i. 27.

11.  See Keightley’s “Fairy Mythology,” p. 231.

12.  Grimm’s “Teut.  Myth.,” 1883, ii. 451;

13.  “Asiatic Researches,” i. 345.

14.  See Keightley’s “Fairy Mythology,” p. 173.

15.  Thorpe’s “Northern Mythology,” i. 251-3.

CHAPTER VIII.

LOVE-CHARMS.

Plants have always been largely used for testing the fidelity of lovers, and at the present day are still extensively employed for this purpose by the rustic maiden.  As in the case of medical charms, more virtue would often seem to reside in the mystic formula uttered while the flower is being secretly gathered, than in any particular quality of the flower itself.  Then, again, flowers, from their connection with certain festivals, have been consulted in love matters, and elsewhere we have alluded to the knowledge they have long been supposed to give in dreams, after the performance of certain incantations.

Turning to some of the well-known charm formulas, may be mentioned that known as “a clover of two,” the mode of gathering it constituting the charm itself: 

  “A clover, a clover of two,
  Put it in your right shoe;
  The first young man you meet,
  In field, street, or lane,
  You’ll get him, or one of his name.”

Then there is the hempseed formula, and one founded on the luck of an apple-pip, which, when seized between the finger and thumb, is supposed to pop in the direction of the lover’s abode; an illustration of which we subjoin as still used in Lancashire: 

  “Pippin, pippin, paradise,
  Tell me where my true love lies,
  East, west, north, and south,
  Pilling Brig, or Cocker Mouth.”