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

Orpine ( Sedum telephium ) used in divination at Midsummer.

A similar mode of divination has been practised both in England and in Germany with the orpine ( Sedum telephium ), a plant which grows on a gravelly or chalky soil about hedges, the borders of fields, and on bushy hills. It flowers in August, and the blossoms consist of dense clustered tufts of crimson or purple petals; sometimes, but rarely, the flowers are white. 199 199 James Sowerby, English Botany , vol. xix. (London, 1804) p. 1319. In England the plant is popularly known as Midsummer Men, because people used to plant slips of them in pairs on Midsummer Eve, one slip standing for a young man and the other for a young woman. If the plants, as they grew up, bent towards each other, the couple would marry; if either of them withered, he or she whom it represented would die. 200 200 John Aubrey, Remains of Gentilisme and Judaisme (London, 1881), pp. 25 sq. ; J. Brand, Popular Antiquities of Great Britain (London, 1882-1883), i. 329 sqq. ; Rev. Hilderic Friend, Flowers and Flower Lore , Third Edition (London, 1886), p. 136; D. H. Moutray Read, “Hampshire Folk-lore,” Folk-lore , xxii. (1911) p. 325. Compare J. Sowerby, English Botany , vol. xix. (London, 1804), p. 1319: “Like all succulent plants this is very tenacious of life, and will keep growing long after it has been torn from its native spot. The country people in Norfolk sometimes hang it up in their cottages, judging by its vigour of the health of some absent friend.” It seems that in England the course of love has sometimes been divined by means of sprigs of red sage placed in a basin of rose-water on Midsummer Eve (J. Brand, op. cit. i. 333). In Masuren, Westphalia, and Switzerland the method of forecasting the future by means of the orpine is precisely the same. 201 201 M. Töppen, Aberglauben aus Masuren 2 (Danzig, 1867), pp. 71 sq. ; A. Kuhn, Sagen, Gebräuche und Märchen aus Westfalen (Leipsic, 1859), ii. 176, § 487; E. Hoffmann-Krayer, Feste und Bräuche des Schweizervolkes (Zurich, 1913), p. 163. In Switzerland the species employed for this purpose on Midsummer day is Sedum reflexum . The custom is reported from the Emmenthal. In Germany a root of orpine, dug up on St. John's morning and hung between the shoulders, is sometimes thought to be a cure for hemorrhoids (Montanus, Die deutschen Volksfeste , p. 145). Perhaps the “oblong, tapering, fleshy, white lumps” of the roots (J. Sowerby, English Botany , vol. xix. London, 1804, p. 1319) are thought to bear some likeness to the hemorrhoids, and to heal them on the principle that the remedy should resemble the disease.

Vervain gathered for magical purposes at Midsummer. Magical virtue of four-leaved clover on Midsummer Eve.

Another plant which popular superstition has often associated with the summer solstice is vervain. 202 202 See above, vol. i. pp. 162, 163, 165. In England vervain ( Verbena officinalis ) grows not uncommonly by road sides, in dry sunny pastures, and in waste places about villages. It flowers in July. The flowers are small and sessile, the corolla of a very pale lilac hue, its tube enclosing the four short curved stamens. The root of the plant, worn by a string round the neck, is an old superstitious medicine for scrofulous disorders. See James Sowerby, English Botany , vol. xi. (London, 1800) p. 767. In some parts of Spain people gather vervain after sunset on Midsummer Eve, and wash their faces next morning in the water in which the plants have been allowed to steep overnight. 203 203 Dr. Otero Acevado, in Le Temps , September 1898. See above, vol. i. p. 208, note 1. In Belgium vervain is gathered on St. John's Day and worn as a safeguard against rupture. 204 204 Le Baron de Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, Calendrier Belge (Brussels, 1861-1862), i. 422. In Normandy the peasants cull vervain on the Day or the Eve of St. John, believing that, besides its medical properties, it possesses at this season the power of protecting the house from thunder and lightning, from sorcerers, demons, and thieves. 205 205 A. de Nore, Coutumes, Mythes et Traditions des Provinces de France , p. 262; Amélie Bosquet, La Normandie romanesque et merveilleuse , p. 294; J. Lecœur, Esquisses du Bocage Normand , i. 287, ii. 8. In Saintonge and Aunis the plant was gathered on Midsummer Eve for the purpose of evoking or exorcising spirits (J. L. M. Noguès, Les mœurs d'autrefois en Saintonge et en Aunis , p. 72). Bohemian poachers wash their guns with a decoction of vervain and southernwood, which they have gathered naked before sunrise on Midsummer Day; guns which have been thus treated never miss the mark. 206 206 J. V. Grohmann, Aberglauben und Gebräuche aus Böhmen und Mähren , p. 207, § 1437. In our own country vervain used to be sought for its magical virtues on Midsummer Eve. 207 207 A. Kuhn, Sagen, Gebräuche und Märchen aus Westfalen (Leipsic, 1859), ii. 177, citing Chambers, Edinburgh Journal , 2nd July 1842. In the Tyrol they think that he who finds a four-leaved clover while the vesper-bell is ringing on Midsummer Eve can work magic from that time forth. 208 208 I. V. Zingerle, Sitten, Bräuche und Meinungen des Tiroler Volkes 2 (Innsbruck, 1871), p. 107, § 919. People in Berry say that the four-leaved clover is endowed with all its marvellous virtues only when it has been plucked by a virgin on the night of Midsummer Eve. 209 209 Laisnel de la Salle, Croyances et Légendes du Centre de la France (Paris, 1875), i. 288. In Saintonge and Aunis the four-leaved clover, if it be found on the Eve of St. John, brings good luck at play; 210 210 J. L. M. Noguès, Les mœurs d'autrefois en Saintonge et en Aunis , pp. 71 sq. in Belgium it brings a girl a husband. 211 211 Le Baron de Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, Calendrier Belge , i. 423.

Camomile gathered for magical purposes at Midsummer.

At Kirchvers, in Hesse, people run out to the fields at noon on Midsummer Day to gather camomile; for the flowers, plucked at the moment when the sun is at the highest point of his course, are supposed to possess the medicinal qualities of the plant in the highest degree. In heathen times the camomile flower, with its healing qualities, its yellow calix and white stamens, is said to have been sacred to the kindly and shining Balder and to have borne his name, being called Balders-brâ , that is, Balder's eyelashes. 212 212 W. Kolbe, Hessische Volks-Sitten und Gebräuche 2 (Marburg, 1888), p. 72; Sophus Bugge, Studien über die Entstehung der nordischen Götter- und Heldensagen (Munich, 1889), pp. 35, 295 sq. ; Fr. Kauffmann, Balder (Strasburg, 1902), pp. 45, 61. The flowers of common camomile ( Anthemis nobilis ) are white with a yellow disk, which in time becomes conical. The whole plant is intensely bitter, with a peculiar but agreeable smell. As a medicine it is useful for stomachic troubles. In England it does not generally grow wild. See James Sowerby, English Botany , vol. xiv. (London, 1802) p. 980. In Westphalia, also, the belief prevails that camomile is most potent as a drug when it has been gathered on Midsummer Day; 213 213 A. Kuhn, Sagen, Gebräuche und Märchen aus Westfalen (Leipsic, 1859), ii. 177, § 488. in Masuren the plant must always be one of the nine different kinds of plants that are culled on Midsummer Eve to form wreaths, and tea brewed from the flower is a remedy for many sorts of maladies. 214 214 M. Töppen, Aberglauben aus Masuren 2 (Danzig, 1867), p. 71.

Mullein ( Verbascum ) gathered for magical purposes at Midsummer.

Thuringian peasants hold that if the root of the yellow mullein ( Verbascum ) has been dug up in silence with a ducat at midnight on Midsummer Eve, and is worn in a piece of linen next to the skin, it will preserve the wearer from epilepsy. 215 215 A. Witzschel, Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Thüringen (Vienna, 1878), p. 289, § 139. In Prussia girls go out into the fields on Midsummer Day, gather mullein, and hang it up over their beds. The girl whose flower is the first to wither will be the first to die. 216 216 W. J. A. von Tettau und J. D. H. Temme, Volkssagen Ostpreussens, Litthauens und Westpreussens (Berlin, 1837), p. 283. Perhaps the bright yellow flowers of mullein, clustering round the stem like lighted candles, may partly account for the association of the plant with the summer solstice. In Germany great mullein ( Verbascum thapsus ) is called the King's Candle; in England it is popularly known as High Taper. The yellow, hoary mullein ( Verbascum pulverulentum ) “forms a golden pyramid a yard high, of many hundreds of flowers, and is one of the most magnificent of British herbaceous plants.” 217 217 James Sowerby, English Botany , vol. vii. (London, 1798), p. 487. As to great mullein or high taper, see id. , vol. viii. (London, 1799), p. 549. We may trace a relation between mullein and the sun in the Prussian custom of bending the flower, after sunset, towards the point where the sun will rise, and praying at the same time that a sick person or a sick beast may be restored to health. 218 218 Tettau und Temme, loc. cit. As to mullein at Midsummer, see also above, vol. i. pp. 190, 191.