Pliny describes other Celtic herbs of grace. _Selago_ was culled without use of iron after a sacrifice of bread and wine--probably to the spirit of the plant. The person gathering it wore a white robe, and went with unshod feet after washing them. According to the Druids, _Selago_ preserved one from accident, and its smoke when burned healed maladies of the eye.[690] _Samolus_ was placed in drinking troughs as a remedy against disease in cattle. It was culled by a person fasting, with the left hand; it must be wholly uprooted, and the gatherer must not look behind him.[691] _Vervain_ was gathered at sunrise after a sacrifice to the earth as an expiation--perhaps because its surface was about to be disturbed. When it was rubbed on the body all wishes were gratified; it dispelled fevers and other maladies; it was an antidote against serpents; and it conciliated hearts. A branch of the dried herb used to asperge a banquet-hall made the guests more convivial[692] The ritual used in gathering these plants--silence, various tabus, ritual purity, sacrifice--is found wherever plants are culled whose virtue lies in this that they are possessed by a spirit. Other plants are still used as charms by modern Celtic peasants, and, in some cases, the ritual of gathering them resembles that described by Pliny.[693] In Irish sagas plants have magical powers. "Fairy herbs" placed in a bath restored beauty to women bathing therein.[694] During the _Táin_ Cúchulainn's wounds were healed with "balsams and healing herbs of fairy potency," and Diancecht used similar herbs to restore the dead at the battle of Mag-tured.[695] FOOTNOTES: [659] Sacaze, _Inscr. des Pyren._ 255; Hirschfeld, _Sitzungsberichte_ (Berlin, 1896), 448. [660] _CIL_ vi. 46; _CIR_ 1654, 1683. [661] D'Arbois, _Les Celtes_, 52. [662] Lucan, _Phar._ Usener's ed., 32; Orosius, v. 16. 6; Dio Cass. lxii. 6. [663] Pliny, xvi. 44. The Scholiast on Lucan says that the Druids divined with acorns (Usener, 33). [664] Max. Tyr. _Diss._ viii. 8; Stokes, _RC_ i. 259. [665] Le Braz, ii. 18. [666] Mr. Chadwick (_Jour. Anth. Inst._ xxx. 26) connects this high god with thunder, and regards the Celtic Zeus (Taranis, in his opinion) as a thunder-god. The oak was associated with this god because his worshippers dwelt under oaks. [667] Helbig, _Die Italiker in der Poebene_, 16 f. [668] Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_; Frazer, _Golden Bough_{2} iii. 198. [669] Frazer, _loc. cit._ [670] Evans, _Arch. Rev._ i. 327 f. [671] Joyce, _SH_ i. 236. [672] O'Curry, _MC_ i. 213. [673] _LL_ 199_b_; _Rennes Dindsenchas_, _RC_ xv. 420. [674] _RC_ xv. 455, xvi. 279; Hennessey, _Chron. Scot._ 76. [675] Keating, 556; Joyce, _PN_ i. 499. [676] Wood-Martin, ii. 159. [677] D'Arbois, _Les Celtes_, 51; Jullian, 41. [678] Cook, _Folk-Lore_, xvii. 60. [679] See Sébillot, i. 293; Le Braz, i. 259; _Folk-Lore Journal_, v. 218; _Folk-Lore Record_, 1882. [680] Val. Probus, _Comm. in Georgica_, ii. 84.