Download Ebook - Free History Ebooks

154 Symbolism of the East and West
In V>urk.€s Roma7tce of the Foi'iiJii it is stated that during
the trial of Mrs Manning the murderess, "the bench of the
dock was, according to custom, strewn with rue." This
practice was afterwards discontinued ; at the Old Bailey,
instead of herbs, a small bouquet of flowers was placed
upon the Judge's desk from April to October. In Notes
and Queries (London 1857), with reference to the use of
rue at the Old Bailey, we read that in Laurence's Life
of Fielding- it is stated that this custom arose after a con-
tagious disease which had been engendered by the foul
atmosphere of that Court of Justice upwards of one hundred
years previously, and in Bland's Popular Antiquities it is
mentioned that in Aristotle's time rue was hung about the
neck as an amulet against witchcraft.
This word " Witchcraft " strikes the keynote of another
branch of our subject—the being bewitched or "overlooked,"
which is the more usual expression in the British Isles.
A few years ago, when in the Maisur state, I was told of
a native, aged about twenty-seven, a young man of education,
and possessed of considerable talent, who then occupied a
post of some importance under the Government. He was
either the grandson or the great-grandson of Purnia, who
was Regent and Prime Minister of Maisur during the long
minority of the Maharaja, who was placed on the throne
in 1 799 by the British Government after the taking of
Seringapatam. This young official, Krishna Murti by name,
had a firm conviction that in consequence of a curse which
had been placed upon all the male members of his family,
many years previous to his birth, he would not survive his
thirty-second year. Purnia is said to have been an excellent