(M45) More commonly in Germany the name of St. John’s flowers (_Johannisblumen_) appears to be given to the mountain arnica. In Voigtland the mountain arnica if plucked on St. John’s Eve and stuck in the fields, laid under the roof, or hung on the wall, is believed to protect house and fields from lightning and hail.(178) So in some parts of Bavaria they think that no thunderstorm can harm a house which has a blossom of mountain arnica in the window or the roof, and in the Tyrol the same flower fastened to the door will render the dwelling fire-proof. But it is needless to remark that the flower, which takes its popular name from St. John, will be no protection against either fire or thunder unless it has been culled on the saint’s own day.(179) (M46) Another plant which possesses wondrous virtues, if only it be gathered on the Eve or the Day of St. John, is mugwort (_Artemisia vulgaris_). Hence in France it goes by the name of the herb of St. John.(180) Near Péronne, in the French department of Somme, people used to go out fasting before sunrise on St. John’s Day to cull the plant; put among the wheat in the barn it protected the corn against mice. In Artois people carried bunches of mugwort, or wore it round their body;(181) in Poitou they still wear girdles of mugwort or hemp when they warm their backs at the midsummer fire as a preservative against backache at harvest;(182) and the custom of wearing girdles of mugwort on the Eve or Day of St. John has caused the plant to be popularly known in Germany and Bohemia as St. John’s girdle. In Bohemia such girdles are believed to protect the wearer for the whole year against ghosts, magic, misfortune, and sickness. People also weave garlands of the plant and look through them at the midsummer bonfire or put them on their heads; and by doing so they ensure that their heads will not ache nor their eyes smart all that year. Another Bohemian practice is to make a decoction of mugwort which has been gathered on St. John’s Day; then, when your cow is bewitched and will yield no milk, you have only to wash the animal thrice with the decoction and the spell will be broken.(183) In Germany, people used to crown their heads or gird their bodies with mugwort, which they afterwards threw into the midsummer bonfire, pronouncing certain rhymes and believing that they thus rid themselves of all their ill-luck.(184) Sometimes wreaths or girdles of mugwort were kept in houses, cattle-sheds, and sheep-folds throughout the year.(185) In Normandy such wreaths are a protection against thunder and thieves;(186) and stalks of mugwort hinder witches from laying their spells on the butter.(187) In the Isle of Man on Midsummer Eve people gathered _barran fealoin_ or mugwort “as a preventive against the influence of witchcraft”;(188) in Belgium bunches of mugwort gathered on St. John’s Day or Eve and hung on the doors of stables and houses are believed to bring good luck and to furnish a protection against