Tormentil root.—This is the root of Potentilla tormentilla, and is an ordinary herbal medicine. Two girls inquired of one of my friends at Stratford-by-Bow for a "pennorth of tormentel." The next week they came for more, and were asked what they wanted it for. After much hesitation and nervousness, one of the girls said that the other, her sister, had been jilted by her young man. She had consulted an old woman who was "wise," and this old woman told her to get a bunch of 'tormentel' root and to burn it at midnight on a Friday. This would so worry and discomfort the "young man" that he would return to his sweetheart. My druggist friend told me that they came for three successive weeks, and then stopped. He does not know if they succeeded, or gave it up as a bad job, but he thinks they won!
Mandrake.—Although I have met with this at many herbalists in poorer parts of London, it seems to be generally used medicinally, and not as an amulet, or in magic. But in one lane in London a man has a street pitch, and does a big trade in penny slices of mandrake, which he assures his audience will cure everything. His stock-in-trade, however, consists of a root or two carefully selected on account of their resemblance to the human form. This root is the white bryony, and he assured me that it "screams terrible" when being pulled up; also that it must be pulled up at night.
Rules Concerning Perilous Days.
The following rules concerning perilous days will be found in the Historical Manuscripts Commission's Report (Manuscripts of Lord Montague of Beaulieu, pp. 1–2), and seem worthy of preservation in Folk-Lore:
(Probably 15th Century.) The furste rule of the distinacionis aforsaid. These buthe perilous daies as Sent Bernard seythe that ho so ys bore in eny of them his flesshe schall nevere roty. Thes dayes buthe marked above in the monthes in the signs aforsaide (ij days in Marche and one in Januare 19 eve Januar; 14 day Marc and 18 day Marc).
