“As Christ healed the issue of blood,
Do thou cut what thou cuttest for good.”
Then, at sundown, the Club-Moss may be cut by the operator kneeling, and with carefully washed hands. The Moss is to be tenderly wrapped in a fair white cloth, and afterwards boiled in water procured from the spring nearest the spot where it grew. The liquor is to be applied as a fomentation
. The Club-Moss may also be made into an ointment, with butter made from the milk of a new cow. These superstitious customs have probably a Druidic origin, and tend to identify the Selago or Golden Herb of the Druids with the Club-Moss, as the Selago was held sacred by them, and gathered with many mystic observances. (See [Selago].)——In many parts of Germany, certain Fairy-folk, called Moss-women, are popularly believed to frequent the forests. In Thuringia, these little women of the wood are called Holzfrala, and in one of the legends of the Fichtelgebirge (a mountain-chain near the junction of Saxony, Bavaria, and Bohemia), we find it stated that there was a poor child whose mother lay sick of a fever. Going into the forest to gather Strawberries, the child saw a little woman entirely clothed with golden Moss—presumably Selago. The Moss-woman asked the child for some of the fruit, and her request having been readily acceded to, the Moss-woman ate her Strawberries and tripped away. When the child reached home, she found the fruit which she had carried in a jug was transformed to gold. The Moss dress of the little woman is described as being of a golden colour, which shone, when seen at a distance, like pure gold, but on close inspection lost all its lustre. It is thought that many of the stories about hidden treasure which are rife on the Fichtelgebirge are to be attributed to the presence there of this curious species of vegetation.
COCOA-NUT PALM.—The Cocos Nucifera (Sanscrit Nârikera), or Cocoa-Nut Palm is the most extensively-cultivated tree in the world, and its importance to myriads of the human race is almost beyond conception. George Herbert wrote truly of this Palm:—
“The Indian Nut alone
Is clothing, meat and trencher, drink and can,
Boat, cable, sail, mast, needle, all in one.”
A vigorous tree will grow one hundred feet high, and produce annually one hundred Nuts.——The Chinese call the Cocoa-Nut Yüe-wang-t’ou (head of Prince of Yüe) from a tradition that a certain Prince Lin-yi, who was at enmity with the Prince of Yüe, sent an assassin to cut off the head of his enemy. The deed was executed, and the severed head being caught in the branches of a Palm, it remained suspended there, and was transformed into a Cocoa-Nut, with two eyes in its shell.——The Portuguese are said to have given the name of Coco to the Nut because at one end of the Nut are three holes, resembling the head of a cat when mewing (Coca).——The Indians, when unable to recover the corpse of one of their people who has been slain, but whom they wish to honour, form an effigy of Reeds, and surmount it with a Cocoa-Nut, which is supposed to represent the head of the deceased. This sham corpse they cover with Dhak wood, after which they offer up prayers, and then burn it. The Cocoa-Nut is regarded by the natives of India as an oracle in cases of sickness. Thus, if an Indian has fallen ill, they spin a Cocoa-Nut on its end; if the Nut falls towards the west, he will die; if to the east, he will recover. The Deccan Indians never commence any building without first offering Cocoa-Nuts to their gods.——When a Fijian child is sick, and its friends want to know if it will live or die, they shake a bunch of dry Cocoa-Nuts: if all fall off, the little one will recover; if one remains, it will die. The Fijians also spin Cocoa-Nuts, and then prophecy of future events according to the direction in which the eye of the Nut lies when it rests still.
COCKLE.—The Corn Cockle, or Gith (Agrostemma Githago) is a troublesome weed, of which Gerarde says: “What hurt it doth among Corne, the spoile of bread, as well as in colour, taste, and unwholesomenesse, is better knowne than desired.” In the Book of Job, the Cockle coming up instead of the Barley is spoken of as a great misfortune; but it could not have been the Corn Cockle, which is unknown in Palestine and Arabia.——The plant is alluded to in an old English nursery rhyme, in which a garden allowed to run wild is said to be