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From Cedar to Hyssop

2. Miriamiya, 'Sage of Vertue,' and other Aromatic Herbs

Salvia triloba L. Miriamiya. Sage of Vertue. (Plates 53, 54, 55)

On the first day that the ,authors of this book began their work together, while they were sitting happily discussing differ­ent plants of interest to the people of the village, a fair damsel of Artas, just returned from the market at Bethlehem, came into the room with her hands held awkwardly behind her back. "O lady," she began, in the breathless tone of one who has considered what best to say while walking all the way back home and must get it out at once, "O lady, I went to the market for the meat for supper, just as you bid me, and there was none in the market save that of a camel which had been run over by a motor car, and I knew you wouldn't like that. But I have brought you this," and with a great flourish she produced a plant of Sage torn up by the roots. "O Miriamiya! O Blessed Thing" (Ya Miriamiya, Ya Mubarake) cried those who recog­nised it. "Yes" (triumphantly) "and I had to carry it back all the way under my dress for fear of the Government (this is because the plant is too valuable for the bees to be rooted up carelessly), I knew if I brought you this you wouldn't mind about the meat." A chorus of approval from the botanists followed. "Truly plants are our meat and drink," they said, "and this one is blessed beyond all others. Thanks to you for bringing it"; (negligently, as an afterthought), "we will have eggs for supper."

But why is the Miriamiya so blessed? This is the story of the Miriamiya. What time Our Lady Miriam fled from King Herod into Egypt with Our Lord Jesus and he was yet a little Child, she sat down, weary, under the shade of a shrub. And she broke a sprig from the shrub and wiped the sweat from her face with the leaves until she found refreshment because of its fragrance. Then she said to the plant "Be thou blessed for ever" and since that day the plant is called Mir'iamiya in her memory, and truly it is blessed.

So the women of Palestine value and love the plant, believ­ing it full of healthful virtue. The leaves are sometimes used in an infusion with sugar or honey, but more usually they are chewed while fresh. Sometimes the leaves are thrown on red hot charcoal to cense a room "to keep illness away," a most reasonable disinfection, occasionally the plant is used as one of the ingredients in the ceremonial fumigation called "rakweh" and practised by wise women for recovery of a child upon whom it is believed "the Eye has fallen.''[1] But on the whole the feel­ing about the plant is not so much that it is curative as that it has great power to give and preserve good health, especially in women.

[79]

The belief in the value of this Sage is of peculiar interest because here the modem peasant lore agrees with the wisdom of the ancients. There is an old proverb, said to have come from the Arabs, "How can a man die who has Sage in his garden?" The very name "Salvia'" from Salus (Health), shows in what esteem the family was held; sometimes it was used punningly, Salvia Salvatrix, i.e., Sage the Saviour. John Evelyn says of Sage, '' 'Tis a plant indeed with so many and wonderful properties as that the assiduous use of it is said to render men immortal."[2] But above all its promises of "quickened minds" and "length of days" was reckoned its more ancient promise of health and strength to women. "Agrippa and likewise Aetius called it the Holie Herbe" and gave much praise to it, promising to those women who drank of its juice "store of children, which are the blessing of God, thus saith Agrippa."[3]

But of which Sage were the writers speaking? The English herbalists no doubt especially of Salvia officinalis, the Sage of English herb gardens, though they also ascribed the same virtues to minor sages, such as Sage of Vertue, with the three lobed leaves ("leaves with little eares") which is by some botanists identified with our S. triloba. But it is quite possible that the older herbalists were actually speaking of S. triloba, that it may be even the 'Elelisphakos' of Dioscorides and his followers itself, for S. officinalis is not common in Greece.

Another 'property' of the Miriamiya also links it with the Sages of the herbalists. Occasionally galls are found on the plant caused by some fly, probably Aulax sp. (See Plate 52). These, coming on the top of the plant and being in shape like little apples, are mistaken by the people for its fruit. The name given to them is Habb el miriamiya (Berry of the Miriamiya); they are picked while still soft, peeled and eaten, and are con­sidered to be both delicious and beneficial, having all the virtues of the plant itself.

Now in the English herbals Apple Bearing Sage of Candy (Salvia cretica pomifera) is often mentioned.[4] Parkinson, speak­ing of Sages of Candy, says, "These kindes likewise beare in the hot countries of Egypt, Candy, etc., at the joynts and sometimes between, certain excrescences like unto small apples or berryes bigger than Pistack Nuts, of an inch thickness at the least and covered with much down and cotton... of a taste not so hot, but more binding than the Sage and not unpleasant, which the people usually eat with bread, but in other colder countries it never beareth any."

[80]

Gerarde also mentions these apples and in his description of the plant bearing them says,[5] "The leaves also have sometimes little eares or appendices as in the smaller or Pig Sage, and in Candy (the place of the natural growth of the plant) it beareth excrescences or Apples (if we may so term them) of the bigness of large Galls or Oke Apples whence Clusius hath given you two figures by the same titles as I here present the same to your view."

Now the Salvia pomifera L. of botanists is indeed an Apple­ Bearing Sage of Candy, for it is found in Crete and is there often afflicted with galls, of which Sibthorp says, "These preserved with sugar are regarded as delicacies by the Cretans." It is a beautiful tall Sage, with larger flowers than S. triloba and has simple leaves, much curled at the edges. Sibthorp also notes that S. triloba also often has galls and considers it to be the Salvia pomifera of some herbalists, e.g., of Clusius, rather than our Salvia pomifera L., and this becomes very convincing as one reads Gerarde's description given above and looks at his illustration, taken from Clusius, of a Sage, with three lobed leaves – His Apple Bearing Sage for certain is our Miriamiya!

Our Palestinian Sage seems thus much linked with these precious herbs of olden days. A later, but also interesting link comes with the days of the Crusaders, for they took notice of the plants of the Holy Land. Burchard of Mount Zion says, "The soil yields many herbs. Fennel, Sage and Rue and Roses grow everywhere of their own accord on the plains."[6] The sage he saw must have been S. triloba, as there is no other wild sage in the country that would have been likely to be so named by him.

So far as we know, no other Sage in Palestine is credited with such virtues as S. triloba, it is certainly our 'Holie Herbe,' the Blessed one, "Miriamiya el Mubaraki." Such herbs in olden days in Europe were not to be picked without a rune or charm being said, – later on, a prayer. Perhaps the "Holie Herbe" for which this very beautiful 14th century (or earlier) prayer was to be used was a Sage of like virtue to our Miriamiya.

Haile be thou holie herbe

Growing on the ground,

All in the mount of Calvarie

First wert thou found.

Thou art good for manie a sore

And healest manie a wound;

In the name of sweete Jesus

I take thee from the ground[7]

[82]

 

Aromatic Herbs

Ocymum indicum. Rihan. Sweet Basil.

Rilhan is the name for myrtle in Syria, but in Artas for basil.

This Basil is not indigenaus, out as in Egypt is cultivated and kept in pots in the houses for its fragrance. The variety most prized has white flowers and yellowish green leaves; it is considered lucky for the grower if the leaves come fine and small, and we think this is alluded to in the Wedding Song:

     Solo

     Chorus

Fine, fine  

O Basil,

Smell and pick it,

O women,

Its leaves are fine;

The Basil,

Make a bunch of it

O Women,

For the Brides

The Basil.

And the Bridegrooms.

The Basil.

 

 

     Solo

     Chorus

Na'im na'im

Ya Rilhan

Shimmu limmu

Ya niswan

Waraqu na'im

Ha r Rilhan

Shakklu minnu

Ya niswan

Li l 'arrays

Ha r Rilhan

W el 'ursan.

Ha r Rilhan.

 

Thymus capitatus, L. Za'tar Farsi; Zuhef. Thyme of Hymettus.[8]

This Thyme has some reputation in medicine, even to curing the palsy, but is much more honoured as a honey plant for the bees. This is the thyme of Hymettus itself, of which the poets have sung. We think it is also Gerarde's "Time of Candy," described by him thus:[9] "Time of Candy is in all respects like unto. Common Time, but differeth in that this kind hath certain knoppie tufts like unto the small eares of Phalaris and not much unlike the spikes of Stoecades,[10] but much lesser, beset with slender flowers of a purple calour. The whole plant is of a more pontick and gratiaus smell than any of the Thymes and of another kind of taste as it were savoring like spice. The root is brittle and of a woodie substance."

 

Satureia thymbra, L. Za'tar el hamir (Donkey's Za'tar). Savory. (Plate 57)

People speak as if in olden days potions were made from this plant; it is now more valued for the bees. The Garden Savory, S. hortensis, still grown in kitchen gardens in England, was once much valued as medicine. According to Culpeper, "Mer­cury claims dominion over this herb... keep it dry by you all the year, if you lave yourself and your ease, and it is a hundred pounds to a penny if you do. not."

[82]

 

Calamintha incana S et Sm. Za'a. mane; Za'tar Sidna Musa. Grey Calamint (Plate 61).

This is a favourite herb, both for condiment and medicine. It grows in many places, but especially luxuriantly on the Ras of Beit Jala near Jerusalem and that is fortunate for the women of that charming village who. enjoy the walk up to the top of the hill in the evenings to pick it. The leaves are often cooked in pancakes, and in that form or taken in infusion are reckoned good for the stomach.

Gerarde says of Calamint, "It is called in Greek καλαμιυθη as though yee should say Elegans aut utilis mentha, a gallant or profitable mint." He is speaking of a near relation of the Palestinian plant, Calamintha officinalis, once, as its name shows, a medicinal plant. The catalogue of its virtues was extensive, ranging through "convulsions, cramp, shortness of breath, yellow jaundice, sciatica... to the taking away of the black and blue marks on the face that sometimes follow a heated argument... A valuable herb to keep by one if only half the list were true."[11]

 

Thymbra spicata, L. Za'tar sabbale (Eared za'tar). (Plate 56)

This plant has some medicinal virtue, but is more thought of nowadays on account of its importance as a bee plant. Finne­more mentions Oil of Thymbra spicata, "smelling of Thyme, and containing 66 p.c. carvacrol."[12] The name 'sabbale' is given to it because of the shape of its spikes of purple flowers, like that of ears of corn.

 

Teucrium chamaedrys, L. Kamendra. Wall Germander. (Plate 59)

Kamendra, boiled or soaked in water, was a favourite remedy for fever in Palestine before quinine became accessible, and is still used a good deal. This recalls its French name, Chasse fievre. Culpeper also mentions its use for fever: "The decoction, taken for four days driveth away and cureth tertian and quartan agues." And to this day the plant is sold at the Society of Herbalists in London and among its uses are men­tioned "an infusion... in intermittent fevers."

[83]

The plant has several names, Bride's Comb, "Imshat el Arus" or "Misht el Arus," and the Scallopped Plant, "ishbi el Musharrafe," both no doubt on account of its deeply cut leaves. The name Kamendra is that used in and near Bethlehem, and is sometimes thought to be a relic of the Crusaders. Really it comes, through the late Greek form Χαμαυολρα from the earlier Χαμαι δρνς, Ground Oak, of whose medicinal qualities and sweet smell and taste Theophrastus himself spoke.[13] The Greek name no doubt refers to the leaves, which may be thought to look like miniature oak leaves, and for the same reason one of the Speedwells has also received its name,  – Veronica chamaedrys, the 'Gennander' Speedwell.

 

Teucrium rosmarinifolium, Lam. Kamandera; qu'ede; zeijate (Dalman). Rosemary Germander. (Plate 60)

This Teucrium is also used as a medicine for fever, accord­ing to Dalman,[14] but its chief repute is as a honey plant.

 

Teucrium polium, L. Ja'de; Ja'det el Subyan. Poly Germander. (Plate 58)

This Teucrium is a famous remedy for stomach troubles in infants, also sometimes for colds and feverishness. The favourite way of applying it is happily, in a steam bath, for it is extremely nauseous. However, it is often put in a rag and given babes to suck. Older invalids, stout of heart, will soak it and drink it in spite of what Parkinson called its "loathsome bitterness." The scent of the plant is not unpleasant, but rather strong, inclining towards a turpentine like flavour.

On February 24, 1929, women were selling little bunches of the first young shoots of Ja'de and Miriamiya in the streets of the Old City in Jerusalem, for such herbs are of greatest value when their leaves are young and tender. In May, 1930, Ja'de was also observed being hawked through the streets of Aleppo.

This is the Poley Mountain of the herbalists, who much recommended it, for the ancients minded its bitterness as little as modern Palestinians. In the Syriac Book of Medicines it is included in seven different remedies; three for headache, one for bloodspitting, one for coughs and also in the famous Metdoritos, which had nearly as many uses as its forty-nine ingredients. The name in this book is given as Polion. Polion, Polium was probably given to it because the plant is covered so thickly with a white tomentum, from the Greek πογιον 'hoary.' "Because," says Parkinson, "it is like the hoary hairs of a man's head." Ja'de means curly, curly haired, but whether that is from the pretty little leaves, so curled and crisped at the edges, or whether there is also here some allusion to an old man's head of white curling hair, we must leave the reader to guess.

[84]

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[1] Masterman, "Hygiene and Disease in Palestine," p. 25.

[2] John Evelyn, "Acetaria." 1699. t Germ'de (Ed. of 1597), ch. 252.

[3] Germ'de (Ed. of 1597), ch. 252.

[4] John Parkinson, "Theatrum Botanicum."

[5] Gerarde, "Herbal" (Ed. of 1636), p. 766.

[6] Burchard of Mt. Zion. Pal. Pilg. Texts, p. 99, c. 1283

[7] Rohde, "A Garden of Herbs," p. 219.

[8] On a specimen of T. capitatus (No. 63) at the Herbarium at Kew is written, "This is the thyme so common on Mt. Hymettus."

[9] Gerarde, Herbal, ch. 174, Ed. of 1633.

[10] Lavandula Stoechas.

[11] E. Step., "Herbs of Healing," p. 150.

[12] Finnemore, op. cit. p. 763.

[13] Theophrastus, ix.9.5.

[14] Dalman, op. cit., p. 547.