neither is it good to voyage in the interval between the old and new moon or in an eclipse of that luminary.* Then too different objects are affected by it in different manners; many things for instance, that encrease with the encreasing moon, cease to grow and become sapless when she wanes; while on the other hand some roots, such as the onion, germinate with the waning moon, and dry up as she waxes.† It is Next as to the names and qualities of the moon. white because it rules the waters, whose nature it is to become white in concretion. It was called Melissa as the presiding deity of generation,§ and Diana herself was named threeformed from the triple aspects of the moon-the horned; the half-moon; and the full moon.|| Spayed Bitches.-I believe all over England a spaied bitch is accounted wholesome; that is to say, they have No. 71; Cent. Secunda, p. 40. 12mo. Lugduni. 1556. This is printed with the MEMORABILIA of Mizaldus, forming the latter part of the volume. * "Silente aut deficiente luna non esse navigandum expertus est Synesius." Idem. No. 73. Cent. ii, p. 40. "Omnia quæ crescente luna gliscunt deficiente contra desinunt exuccaque sunt. Quamquam in quibusdam est antipathia, nam cepe, teste Plutarcho, luna decedente revirescit ac congerminat. Inarescitque eadem adolescente." Idem. No. 68; Cent. vi. p. 39. He afterwards adds that the onion is the only one root that acts by lunar antipathies, his text not being very consistent with itself. "Album porro colorem lunæ contribuunt quoniam aquis dominetur is planeta, quarum natura est uti concretione inalbescant. L. CELIUS RHODIGINUS. Lectiones Antiq. Lib. xxvi. cap. 9, p. 1207. D. § "Lunam quoque generationis præsidem, Melissam dixere." CALIUS RHODIGINUS, Lib. xxii. cap. 3, p. 1028. F. But the priests of Ceres were also called Melissas. "Quia vero triplicem faciat visitationem Luna-quum surgit in cornua et falcata dicitur-quumque dimidia est-et quum orbe circumacto-hinc propagatum autumant poeticum commentum de triformi Diana." Id. Lib. xx; cap. vi; p. 927. D. a strong belief that it keeps away evil spirits from haunting of a house; e. g. among many other instances, at Cranborn in Dorsetshire about 1686 a house was haunted and two tenants successively went away for that reason; a third came and brought his spaied bitch, and was never troubled.* Charm against Night-hags. "Bring the holy crust of bread, The Knife Charm. "Let the superstitious wife Neer the child's heart lay a knife, *AUBREY'S REMAINS OF GENTILISME, &c. MS.: Bibl.: Lansdown,—— folio 130. + Herrick's Hesperides, p. 336. + Id. Idem. § Idem. p. 234. THE MONTHS-FEBRUARY. VERSTEGAN tells us this month was called by our Saxon ancestors, sprout-kele, "by kele meaning the kele-wort, which we now call the colewurt, the greatest potwurt in time long past that our ancestors used, and the broth made therewith was thereof also called kele; for before we borrowed from the French the name of potage and the name of herbs, the one in our own language was called kele, and the other wurt; and as this kele-wurt, or potagehearbe, was the chief winter-wurt for the sustenance of the husbandman, so was it the first hearbe that in this moneth began to yield out wholesome young sprouts, and consequently gave thereunto the name of sproutkele."* It had also the name of Solmonath, which Bede explains by Pan-cake-month, because in the course of it cakes were offered up by the Pagan Saxons to the sun, and sol, or soul signified "food, or cakes." It is scarcely necessary to add that the Latin Februarius, the origin of our Fe * Restitution of Decayed Intelligence, p. 64, ed. 1674. D bruary, was derived from februa*, an expiatory, or purifying sacrifice offered to the Manes, because in that month the Luperci, or priests of Pan, perambulated the city, carrying thongs of goat-skin, with which they scourged the women, and this was received for an expiation. Hence we have the word, though it is now well-nigh obsolete, of februation, in the meaning of a purification. February has in general an ill name, and often worse than he deserves, for notwithstanding his thaws and clammy colds he shows some symptoms of the spring, though it must be granted that he is not always a very smiling harbinger. In his train appear many flowers, and all the more charming from their coming at a season that is otherwise somewhat dreary; the Primrose flowers and shows its pale blossoms on every bank; the double Daisies begin to blow; the fruitless Strawberry, the Butchers' Broom, the yellow Coltsfoot, will also open; and the Early Whitlow Grass flowers on old walls and the dry sides of fields. Then too, comes the early Cyclomen, but he requires the shelter of a green-house; the Oriental Hyacinth, an in-doors companion; the Heart's Ease, or Pansie; the Polyanthus ; the Yellow Spring Crocus; the Old Cloth of Gold Crocus; the Persian Iris, but he requires shelter; the Wall Speedwell; the Field Speedwell; the Noble Liverwort; the Particoloured Crocus; the Daisy, or Herb-Margaret; the Officinal Coltsfoot; the White Willow; the Brittle Willow; the Long-leaved Osier: the Ivy-leaved Veronica; the Purple Spring Crocus; and the Shepherd's Purse; a goodly catalogue of friends and visitors for so dull a gentleman as February is usually held to be, and one which speaks very fairly for his character. But he has other acquaintance whose tes *Februa has by some been supposed synonymous with Juno, and the manifest relation between the Februata Juno and the Purificata Virgo Maria is one of the many singular coincidences between Pagan and Christian rites. They are much too numerous to have been the effect of mere accident. The wood-lark, one of the timony is no less favourable. earliest and sweetest of our songsters, does him homage; and the green wood-pecker is heard in the forest; while the goats play about, and gnats swarm under the sunny hedges. Then too, he has more days of note than any other month in the year. In the very outset there is Candlemas Eve, his birth-day, as we may call it, since it falls upon the first, a time which our forefathers celebrated with a multitude of pleasing and significant ceremonies. They kindled the yule-brand, and allowed it to burn till sunset, when it was quenched and carefully laid by to teend the Christmas clog, or log, at the next return of the season, "And, where 'tis safely kept, the fiend The rosemary, the bay, the ivy, the holly, and the misletoe, the Christmas decorations of hall and cottage, were now pulled down, when according to the popular superstition not a branch, nor even a leaf, should be allowed to remain, "For look, how many leaves there be In their place, however, the " greener box was upraised," and Christmas now was positively at an end. Some, indeed, considered this to have been the case on Twelfth Night; and old Tusser, in his "Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry," strongly contends for it; but then his head was more full of the cart and plough than of regard for old customs: and, like any other master, he was naturally anxious that the holidays should be ended, and the labourers should get to work again as soon as possible; and certes, merry-making, however agreeable it may be, will not help to dig the land or sow the grain. But in spite of these wise saws, the truth of |