mysterious plant. In a medical book entitled Simples incognitos en la Medicina, written by Friar Esteban de Villa, and published in Burgos in 1654, we are told that the swallow teaches us the use of "el colirio en la celidonia, con que da vista á sus pollos y nombre á esta planta, que se dijo hirundinaria, por su inventor la golondrina." It would appear from this that the mysterious pito-real is nothing more than celidonia—the chelidonium majus, or swallow-wort. The English name seems also to indicate some connexion with the swallows. Grimm accounts for this connexion differently: "Das chelidonium heisst daher, weil es mit Ankunft der Schwalben spriesst, und bei ihrem Abzug verdorrt."[1] Pliny however gives the same account of the use of this plant as Esteban de Villa: "Chelidoniam visui saluberrimam hirundines monstravere, vexatis pullorum oculis ilia medentes."[2]
There is a belief prevalent in some parts of Spain that snakes never die. When they feel death approaching they loosen their skin and draw themselves out of it. Then they grow to be serpents; and, finally, developing scales and wings, become dragons, and fly away to the wilderness. They regard the lizard as a staunch friend of men, but a bitter enemy of women. Another curious superstition is that cocks, when they grow old, lay an egg from which a basilisk is hatched. This basilisk kills with its look the first person it sees; but if the person sees it first it is killed itself. Analogies to the first part of this superstition are found in England, Scotland, Germany, and the north of France.[3] Pliny gives the same account of the basilisk's magic power of killing by a glance,[4] while Sir Thomas Browne even attempts an explanation of the phenomenon.[5]
- ↑ Deutsche Mythologie, xxiv. s. 636.
- ↑ Plinius, viii. 27.
- ↑ Notes and Queries, 6th S., vol. vi. pp. 278-477. Cf. also Gregor's Folk-Lore of the North-East of Scotland, p. 140. Is it not this which is alluded to in Isaiah, chapter lix. verse 5?
- ↑ Plinius, xxix. 4.
- ↑ Vulgar Errors, iii. 7. The superstition is alluded to by Quevedo (El Parnaso Espanol, musa vi. rom. xxiii.), and is the subject of a popular riddle (Marin, Cant. Pop. Espan. p. 397).
