Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-06-01

that they possess any magic power,
ana even then the gathering of them
Is surrounded with so many fearful
conditions that it is seldom they are
fulfilled
IN the first place, the fern must
grow in spot where the sound of
human speech cannot be heard, and.
while 1t Is being gathered, no other
noise, however slight, must break the
stiffness. Alone, quite alone, the in
trepid seeker for magic power must
make his way to the spot, and as he
goes, the devil, who guards the fern
Will appear to him in many hideous
forms. Now he,is a gigantic serpent,
whose tongue darts out fire; now 1t is
a dancing light, Turing you towards
marshes below. Now it Is a shrieking
| demon, that rushes by through the
trees above with eyes Of flame glar-
ing on the mortal that dares invade
his solitude. Finally the place of the
fern Is reached, and the hour strikes
The earth trembles. the trees dance.
Under the fern you place your cloth,
for the seed must fall without you
shaking the plant; and then rise and
look. Through the darkness of the
trees comes a darker shadow, with
| flames of fire for eyes and with hands
full Of flame. He holds out the flame
to you. If you take 1t fearlessly in
your hand, 1t will not harm you: but
shrink or blanch, and in the morning
the spot where you stood will be a
blackened circle, with a little heap of
gray ashes within It.
Take up your cloth that was under
! the fern, and, with it in one hand.
and your gift from the evil one in
the other. go your way home: and
when you examine your treasure in
| the safety of your room, If you have
faithfully fulfilled your conditions, the
cloth will be full of fern seed and the
bag that looked like a flame when it
was handed to you will be filed with
gold, from which you may use at your
will, without decreasing your store.
But the gold has bought your soul,
and, when you die, the black man on
his black horse will wait for you in
the air outside the window, and you
will mount behind him for a journey
longer and more full of terror than
the one that gave you the magic seed.
And if you have failed in one condi-
ton, bag and cloth will be alike emp
ty, but the black horse will come for
you all the same, since in intention
you have sinned to the full. For in
stance, if you find and bite the first
fern that appears In the spring, you
will have no toothache for the year.
If, in spite of your fern chewing, you
have the aching tooth, you may be
sure that you failed to get the first
fern; and in this climate, where there
is no month of the winter that one
cannot find fern growing, we will have
to look to other sources for our dem
tistry.
TO set fire to growing fern was an
early charm for rainmaking, which.
they say, is still practiced in some
parts of Europe. The fern was also a
famous fortune teller, or, rather, the
bracken. If a root of this plant be
cut slantwise, and regarded with the
eyes of Imagination, it shows the hS-
ure Of an oak tree; and on the shape
Of that oak the fortune of the cutter
depends, and this fortune may be read
here, as In a cup of tea grounds, by
the skilful. The more perfect the rep
resentation of the tree, the luckier the
finder: for fairies haunt both ferns and
oaks, and therefore they will bless es-
pecielly this union ofthe two.
Through Shakespeare, and the other
poets of those days, are scattered many
references to this. superstition of the
fern seed. In BEAUMONT and Fletcher's
Fair Maid of the Inn we find these
lines:
Had you Gyges' ring?
Or the herb that gives invisibility?
Again, in Ben Johnson's New Inn"
I had no medicine, sir, to go Invisible,
No fern seed in my pocket.
This was the most horrible of all the
legends that grew up around the prac-
tice of watching the fern on inidsum-
mer," and it was of such nature that
no sane man would risk his soul in the
venture 1t was modified in various
places, sometimes so that the devil
after trying to brighten the seeker for
power, gave him gold without any con-
ditions attached: sometimes so that the
guard of the fern was only troop of
elves, who whisked about the ears of
tho gatherer, and, if he showed fear,
had power to change the seed to dust.
EOlIltlllil6o Tie bScd "&o -oesNN ~ N''-~0
like gold in the dark. Sometimes 1t had
voice that spoke to the adventurer.
In addition to its property of rem
de,ing the wearer invisible, 1t was said
to make visible to him, as lines of
blush fame, hidden treasure in the
bowels of the earth, and a tea made
frnm the seed would confer on the
drinker the blessing of eternal youth.
1t seems at first strange thing that
the weak fern should have been cred
tied by medieval superstition with such
mighty powers but here. as in nearly
every other superstition we know in
regard to plants, it may be traced to
that ancient misapplication of logic,
the doctrine Of signatures. The reason
Ing went thus: All plants have seeds,
without which they cannot propagate
themselves. The seed are formed by
the ripening Of the pistil which is
part of the foyer. The fern propagates
itself; therefore 1t must have seed,
and hence a flower. Flower and seed
are invisible; therefore. If one could
but gain possession of them, ne, too,
| would be invisible. And around the
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