FORMER EMPLOYMENT OF AN INFUSION OR DECOCTION OF MISTLETOE.
That an infusion or decoction of the plant was once in use may be gathered from the fact narrated by John Eliot Howard: “Water, in which the sacred mistletoe had been immersed, was given to or sprinkled upon the people.”—(“The Druids and their Religion,” John Eliot Howard, in “Transactions of Victoria Institute,” vol. xiv. p. 118, quoting “Le gui de chêne et les Druides,” E. Magdaleine, Paris, 1877.)
Montfaucon says of the Druids: “Ils croient que les animaux stériles deviennent féconds en buvant de l’eau de gui.”—(“L’antiquité Expliquée, Paris, 1722, tome 2, part 2, p. 436, quoting and translating Pliny.)
“The misselto, or ‘Uil-ice,’ was required to be taken, if possible, from the Jovine tree when in its prime; but it was rare to find it on any oak. If obtained from one about thirty-five years old, and taken in a potion, it conferred fertility on men, women, and children.”—(“Rivers of Life,” Forlong, vol. ii. p. 355.)
Eugene O’Curry speaks of the Irish Druids having a “drink of oblivion,” the composition of which has not, however, come down to us. (See “Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish,” vol. ii. p. 198.) O’Curry calls this drink of oblivion a “Druidical charm,” and a “Druidical incantation.”—(Idem, vol. ii. p. 226.)[28]
See notes in this monograph on the Hindu Lingam.