HICCUPS

An Alabama cure for the hiccups is to drink a tablespoonful of QUINCE juice (R B Browne). Wickop, or Wicopy, are American names for ROSEBAY WILLOWHERB (Chamaenerion angustifolium). They mean hiccup, for which the root was used as a cure (Sanecki). ANISE, according to Gerard, “… helpeth the yeoxing or hicket, both when it is drunken or eaten dry …”. An infusion of WHITE HELLEBORE has been used in Russian folk medicine. It would “stop hiccuping immediately” (Kourennoff). Naturally, with a plant as poisonous as this, doses would have to be very small. A few drops of CAJUPUT oil on sugar will quickly end hiccups (Mitton). Maya medical texts prescribed KIDNEY BEANS for the hiccups (Roys).

HINAU / Elaeocarpus dentatus

Hinau is the Maori name for this New Zealand tree. One particular specimen, in North Island, was famous with the Maori as a fertility smbol. A childless woman embraced the tree while her husband recited the necessary charm. The east side of the tree was the male side, the west the female, and the woman would make her choice of east or west according to whether she wanted a boy or girl child (Andersen).

HARTSTONGUE / Phyllitis scolopendrium

Both in Wales and in Scotland, hartstongue leaves have been used for a wound application (C P Johnson), and, made into an ointment, it was a Highland cure for burns (Beith).

HALLUCINOGENS

Some uses of SWEET FLAG stem directly from the fact that the oil expressed from the roots can produce an LSD-like experience. The Cree Indians, for instance, have long used it as a hallucinogen (Emboden 1979). In Europe it seems to have been connected with witchcraft (one formula for a witch ointment was “De la Bule, de l’Acorum vulgaire,, de la Morelle endormante, et de l’Huyle”

HASHISH

HASHISH is an Arabic word, meaning hay or dried herb (Grigson. 1974), but it is a term with many meanings, though it seemed to be applied by Burton to a form of CANNABIS (HEMP) taken or used voluntarily. “Tis composed of hemp leaflets whereunto are added aromatic roots and somewhat of sugar; then they cook it and prepare a kind of confection which they eat, but whoso eateth it, (especially if he eat more than enough), talketh of matters which reason may in no wise represent” (quoted by Lloyd). It is the resin obtained from the glandular leaves and floral parts of the female plant. The name appears, too, in the name of a Persian form Hashishin Rus (some would say it actually derived from that name). Al-Hasan ibn-al-Sabah (the “old man of the mountains”), a 12th century charismatic dissenter from orthodox Moslem thought, founded a new sect called Hashishin, a name that also produced the word assassin (Emboden. 1969). In Egypt and the Middle East, hashish is smoked in special pipes called josies (De Ropp). See also HEMP.

HAND OF GLORY

HAND OF GLORY is a magical torch made from a dead man’s hand, usually cut from a criminal on the gibbet, to cast people into deep sleep, a charm much used by thieves. It is mentioned in this context because VERVAIN played a part in its preparation, for one set of instructions (Radford & Radford) required the hand to be wrapped in a piece of winding sheet, drawing it tight so as to squeeze out the little blood that might remain. Then it had to be placed in an earthenware vessel with saltpetre, salt and pepper, all well dried and carefully powdered. It should remain a fortnight in the pickle, and then it had to be exposed to the sun in the dog days, till completely parched, or it could be dried in an oven heated with VERVAIN and fern.

HALITOSIS

Chew ORRIS-ROOT to neutralize the smell of liquor, garlic or tobacco on the breath (Moldenke & Moldenke).

HAEMORRHAGES

GREAT BURNET (Sanguisorba officinalis), besides being a wound herb in the usual sense, is able to deal with internal bleeding. As Gerard said, “Burnet is a singular good herb for wounds … it stauncheth bleeding, and therefore it was named Sanguisorba [Latin sanguis, blood], as well inwardly taken as outwardly applied …”. But SHEPHERD’S PURSE is “the great specific for haemorrhages of all kinds”, in Mrs Leyel’s words (Leyel. 1937). A 17th century physician, Symcott by name, was treating a pregnant woman for blood loss. Then “a baggar woman told me that she would recover if she took shepherd’s purse in her broth”. She was cured (Beier). It is still being recommended for similar conditions, and even if we did not know that, old names like Stanche and Sanguinary would quickly point out the use.

HANGOVER

A sailor’s cure for a hangover, from South Uist, was to pull a bunch of THRIFT, roots and all, and boil it for an hour or more. It had to be left to cool, then it was drunk slowly (Shaw). Sufferers in Norfolk would cure a hangover by the simple expedient of chewing CELERY. (V G Hatfield. 1994). RED POPPY, too, was a hangover treatment in Norfolk, (V G Hatfield. 1994), an interesting choice, for the underlying folklore has it that these plants will actually cause a headache. As John Clare said: Corn poppys that in crimson dwell

Call’d ‘head achs’ from their sickly smell.

HAND OF GLORY

is a magical torch made from a dead man’s hand, usually cut from a criminal on the gibbet, to cast people into deep sleep, a charm much used by thieves. It is mentioned in this context because VERVAIN played a part in its preparation, for one set of instructions (Radford & Radford) required the hand to be wrapped in a piece of winding sheet, drawing it tight so as to squeeze out the little blood that might remain. Then it had to be placed in an earthenware vessel with saltpetre, salt and pepper, all well dried and carefully powdered. It should remain a fortnight in the pickle, and then it had to be exposed to the sun in the dog days, till completely parched, or it could be dried in an oven heated with VERVAIN and fern.

HAEMORRHAGES

GREAT BURNET (Sanguisorba officinalis), besides being a wound herb in the usual sense, is able to deal with internal bleeding. As Gerard said, “Burnet is a singular good herb for wounds … it stauncheth bleeding, and therefore it was named Sanguisorba [Latin sanguis, blood], as well inwardly taken as outwardly applied …”. But SHEPHERD’S PURSE
is “the great specific for haemorrhages of all kinds”, in Mrs Leyel’s words (Leyel. 1937). A 17th century physician, Symcott by name, was treating a pregnant woman for blood loss. Then “a baggar woman told me that she would recover if she took shepherd’s
purse in her broth”. She was cured (Beier). It is still being recommended for similar conditions, and even if we did not know that, old names like Stanche and Sanguinary would quickly point out the use.

HALLUCINOGENS

Some uses of SWEET FLAG stem directly from the fact that the oil expressed from the roots can produce an LSD-like experience. The Cree Indians, for instance, have long used it as a hallucinogen (Emboden 1979). In Europe it seems to have been connected with witchcraft (one formula for a witch ointment was “De la Bule, de l’Acorum vulgaire,, de la Morelle endormante, et de l’Huyle” (Summers. 1927)