A bad day for a dog
This week we’re still thinking about tradition and country ways. My friend and ex-laundry manager Jess showed me this passage from “Discovering the Folklore of Plants by Margaret Baker:
“The mandrake has an ancient reputation as “Devil’s apples”. Mandrake’s prized and curiously shaped root often in roughly human form, promoted fertility and stimulated passion in both men and animals.
Obtaining a mandrake was not easy. In strict conditions of wind and weather, a circle must be traced round the plant thrice with a sword and the plant cut with the collector facing east. Later, in a safeguard refinement, a dog was tied to the plant with a cord. The collector stopped up his ears and, when all was ready, and from a safe distance, offered the dog a plate of meat. As the dog lurched forward the plant was torn from the ground with a shriek so terrible that, unprotected, “living mortals hearing it run mad”, as Shakespeare reported. Ill-luck and childlessness were other fates in store for the carelessly prepared. As it was, with this method, the collector survived, the dog died”.
I loved this so much that I’ve set Harry to do some more research into the folklore of plants.
“Daisies as scientific indicators of love:
He loves me, he loves me not. What better way was there to find out if Adam from 2b was to be your future spouse than employing this age old petal-plucking exercise? Apparently the name Daisy is from the Anglo-Saxon term daes eage, or day’s eye which is a reference to the flower opening in the sunshine and closing when it’s gone. This particular practice is thought to be something Victorian maids dreamt up to determine if their suitors would love them once more again. They didn’t have drunken text messages back then.
Granary curling tongs…
Now, this could just be something my sister totally made up - she has a tendency to tell me something with the conviction of somebody reading an entry from an encyclopaedia whilst she’s actually just remembering a dream she once had. So, both of us being curly haired, the old eat-your-crusts-if-you-want-to-have-curly-locks thing never really motivated us to finish off our sandwiches. But anyway, she told me that the way this folky lore came about was because back in the old days (I think Victorian but they’re now being lumbered with the origins of two of these dubious protocols) women used to use dried up crusts to curl their hair with- eyeew. I know, bits of sunflower seed in your hair!! Dandruff that is actually just a million little crumbs!!
Know any plants/foodstuffs with strange attributes?