James Frazer - The Golden Bough - A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 11 of 12)

Garlands of flowers of nine sorts gathered at Midsummer and used in divination and medicine.

Sometimes Bohemian damsels make a different use of their midsummer garlands twined of nine sorts of flowers. They lie down with the garland laid as a pillow under their right ear, and a hollow voice, swooning from underground, proclaims their destiny. 150 150 Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, loc. cit. Yet another mode of consulting the oracle by means of these same garlands is to throw them backwards and in silence upon a tree at the hour of noon, just when the flowers have been gathered. For every time that the wreath is thrown without sticking to the branches of the tree the girl will have a year to wait before she weds. This mode of divination is practised in Voigtland, 151 151 J. A. E. Köhler, Volksbrauch , etc., im Voigtlande , p. 376. East Prussia, 152 152 C. Lemke, Volksthümliches in Ostpreussen (Mohrungen, 1884-1887), i. 20. Silesia, 153 153 P. Drechsler, Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube in Schlesien (Leipsic, 1903-1906), i. 144 sq. Belgium, 154 154 Le Baron de Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, Calendrier Belge (Brussels, 1861-1862), i. 423. and Wales, 155 155 Marie Trevelyan, Folk-lore and Folk-stories of Wales (London, 1909), p. 252. and the same thing is done in Masuren, although we are not told that there the wreaths must be composed of nine sorts of flowers. 156 156 M. Töppen, Aberglauben aus Masuren , 2 p. 72. However, in Masuren chaplets of nine kinds of herbs are gathered on St. John's Eve and put to a more prosaic use than that of presaging the course of true love. They are carefully preserved, and the people brew a sort of tea from them, which they administer as a remedy for many ailments; or they keep the chaplets under their pillows till they are dry, and thereupon dose their sick cattle with them. 157 157 M. Töppen, op. cit. p. 71. In Esthonia the virtues popularly ascribed to wreaths of this sort are many and various. These wreaths, composed of nine kinds of herbs culled on the Eve or the Day of St. John, are sometimes inserted in the roof or hung up on the walls of the house, and each of them receives the name of one of the inmates. If the plants which have been thus dedicated to a girl happen to take root and grow in the chinks and crannies, she will soon wed; if they have been dedicated to an older person and wither away, that person will die. The people also give them as medicine to cattle at the time when the animals are driven forth to pasture; or they fumigate the beasts with the smoke of the herbs, which are burnt along with shavings from the wooden threshold. Bunches of the plants are also hung about the house to keep off evil spirits, and maidens lay them under their pillows to dream on. 158 158 A. Wiedemann, Aus dem inneren und äussern Leben der Ehsten (St. Petersburg, 1876), pp. 362 sq. In Sweden the “Midsummer Brooms,” made up of nine sorts of flowers gathered on Midsummer Eve, are put to nearly the same uses. Fathers of families hang up such “brooms” to the rafters, one for each inmate of the house; and he or she whose broom ( quast ) is the first to wither will be the first to die. Girls also dream of their future husbands with these bunches of flowers under their pillows. A decoction made from the flowers is, moreover, a panacea for all disorders, and if a bunch of them be hung up in the cattle shed, the Troll cannot enter to bewitch the beasts. 159 159 L. Lloyd, Peasant Life in Sweden (London, 1870), pp. 267 sq. The Germans of Moravia think that nine kinds of herbs gathered on St. John's Night (Midsummer Eve) are a remedy for fever; 160 160 Willibald Müller, Beiträge zur Volkskunde der Deutschen in Mähren (Vienna and Olmütz, 1893), p. 264. and some of the Wends attribute a curative virtue in general to such plants. 161 161 W. von Schulenburg, Wendisches Volksthum (Berlin, 1882), p. 145.

St. John's wort ( Hypericum perforatum ) gathered for magical purposes at Midsummer. St. John's blood on St. John's Day.

Of the flowers which it has been customary to gather for purposes of magic or divination at midsummer none perhaps is so widely popular as St. John's wort ( Hypericum perforatum ). The reason for associating this particular plant with the great summer festival is perhaps not far to seek, for the flower blooms about Midsummer Day, and with its bright yellow petals and masses of golden stamens it might well pass for a tiny copy on earth of the great sun which reaches its culminating point in heaven at this season. Gathered on Midsummer Eve, or on Midsummer Day before sunrise, the blossoms are hung on doorways and windows to preserve the house against thunder, witches, and evil spirits; and various healing properties are attributed to the different species of the plant. In the Tyrol they say that if you put St. John's wort in your shoe before sunrise on Midsummer Day you may walk as far as you please without growing weary. In Scotland people carried it about their persons as an amulet against witchcraft. On the lower Rhine children twine chaplets of St. John's wort on the morning of Midsummer Day, and throw them on the roofs of the houses. Here, too, the people who danced round the midsummer bonfires used to wear wreaths of these yellow flowers in their hair, and to deck the images of the saints at wayside shrines with the blossoms. Sometimes they flung the flowers into the bonfires. In Sicily they dip St. John's wort in oil, and so apply it as a balm for every wound. During the Middle Ages the power which the plant notoriously possesses of banning devils won for it the name of fuga daemonum ; and before witches and wizards were stretched on the rack or otherwise tortured, the flower used to be administered to them as a means of wringing the truth from their lips. 162 162 Montanus, Die deutschen Volksfeste, Volksbräuche und deutscher Volksglaube (Iserlohn, n. d.), p. 145; A. Wuttke, Der deutsche Volksaberglaube 2 (Berlin, 1869), p. 100, § 134; I. V. Zingerle, “Wald, Bäume, Kräuter,” Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie und Sittenkunde , i. (1853) p. 329; A. Schlossar, “Volksmeinung und Volksaberglaube aus der deutschen Steiermark,” Germania , N.R., xxiv. (1891) p. 387; E. Meier, Deutsche Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Schwaben (Stuttgart, 1852), p. 428; J. Brand, Popular Antiquities of Great Britain (London, 1882-1883), i. 307, 312; T. F. Thiselton Dyer, Folk-lore of Plants (London, 1889), pp. 62, 286; Rev. Hilderic Friend, Flowers and Flower Lore , Third Edition (London, 1886), pp. 147, 149, 150, 540; G. Finamore, Credenze, Usi e Costumi Abruzzesi (Palermo, 1890), pp. 161 sq. ; G. Pitrè, Spettacoli e Feste Popolari Siciliane (Palermo, 1881), p. 309. One authority lays down the rule that you should gather the plant fasting and in silence (J. Brand, op. cit. p. 312). According to Sowerby, the Hypericum perforatum flowers in England about July and August ( English Botany , vol. v. London, 1796, p. 295). We should remember, however, that in the old calendar Midsummer Day fell twelve days later than at present. The reform of the calendar probably put many old floral superstitions out of joint. In North Wales people used to fix sprigs of St. John's wort over their doors, and sometimes over their windows, “in order to purify their houses, and by that means drive away all fiends and evil spirits.” 163 163 Bingley, Tour round North Wales (1800), ii. 237, quoted by T. F. Thiselton Dyer, British Popular Customs (London, 1876), p. 320. Compare Marie Trevelyan, Folk-lore and Folk-stories of Wales (London, 1909), p. 251: “St. John's, or Midsummer Day, was an important festival. St. John's wort, gathered at noon on that day, was considered good for several complaints. The old saying went that if anybody dug the devil's bit at midnight on the eve of St. John, the roots were then good for driving the devil and witches away.” Apparently by “the devil's bit” we are to understand St. John's wort. In Saintonge and Aunis the flowers served to detect the presence of sorcerers, for if one of these pestilent fellows entered a house, the bunches of St. John's wort, which had been gathered on Midsummer Eve and hung on the walls, immediately dropped their yellow heads as if they had suddenly faded. 164 164 J. L. M. Noguès, Les mœurs d'autrefois en Saintonge et en Aunis (Saintes, 1891), pp. 71 sq. However, the Germans of Western Bohemia think that witches, far from dreading St. John's wort, actually seek the plant on St. John's Eve. 165 165 Alois John, Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube im deutschen Westböhmen (Prague, 1905), p. 84. They call the plant “witch's herb” ( Hexenkraut ). Further, the edges of the calyx and petals of St. John's wort, as well as their external surface, are marked with dark purple spots and lines, which, if squeezed, yield a red essential oil soluble in spirits. 166 166 James Sowerby, English Botany , vol. v. (London, 1796), p. 295. German peasants believe that this red oil is the blood of St. John, 167 167 Montanus, Die deutschen Volksfeste, Volksbräuche und deutscher Volksglaube (Iserlohn, n. d.), p. 35. and this may be why the plant is supposed to heal all sorts of wounds. 168 168 T. F. Thiselton Dyer, Folk-lore of Plants (London, 1889), p. 286; K. Bartsch, Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche aus Mecklenburg , ii. p. 291, § 1450 a . The Germans of Bohemia ascribe wonderful virtues to the red juice extracted from the yellow flowers of St. John's wort (W. Müller, Beiträge zur Volkskunde der Deutschen in Mähren , Vienna and Olmütz, 1893, p. 264). In Mecklenburg they say that if you pull up St. John's wort at noon on Midsummer Day you will find at the root a bead of red juice called St. John's blood; smear this blood on your shirt just over your heart, and no mad dog will bite you. 169 169 K. Bartsch, op. cit. ii. p. 286, § 1433. The blood is also a preservative against many diseases ( op. cit. ii. p. 290, § 1444). In the Mark of Brandenburg the same blood, procured in the same manner and rubbed on the barrel of a gun, will make every shot from that gun to hit the mark. 170 170 A. Kuhn, Märkische Sagen und Märchen (Berlin, 1843), p. 387, § 105. According to others, St. John's blood is found at noon on St. John's Day, and only then, adhering in the form of beads to the root of a weed called knawel, which grows in sandy soil. But some people say that these beads of red juice are not really the blood of the martyred saint, but only insects resembling the cochineal or kermes-berry. 171 171 Die gestriegelte Rockenphilosophie 5 (Chemnitz, 1759), pp. 246 sq. ; Montanus, Die deutschen Volksfesten, Volksbräuche und deutscher Volksglaube , p. 147. “About Hanover I have often observed devout Roman Catholics going on the morning of St. John's day to neighbouring sandhills, gathering on the roots of herbs a certain insect ( Coccus Polonica ) looking like drops of blood, and thought by them to be created on purpose to keep alive the remembrance of the foul murder of St. John the Baptist, and only to be met with on the morning of the day set apart for him by the Church. I believe the life of this insect is very ephemeral, but by no means restricted to the twenty-fourth of June.” 172 172 Berthold Seeman, Viti, An Account of a Government Mission to the Vitian or Fijian Islands in the years 1860-61 (Cambridge, 1862), p. 63.