Basil, stories from a distant past.
There are so many disagreements about no other plant in the ancient herbal books as about the royal herb, as basil is also called.'Van der crachten of basilicon like the old masters in counterpart meyninghen. ', wrote Dodonaeus. 'Dioscorides seyt that diets the eyes and winds maeckt and not lightly digested and is“. Other writers claimed that it was calming for cramps and flatulence and preventing constipation. To make the confusion even greater, the herb stood in Greece for hatred and poverty, and in Italy for love, while in India it was revered as a sacred herb, although it was not Ocimum basil but Ocimum sanctum. In short, there was great confusion regarding the #bazielkruid - Yes.
Culpeper over basil
Culpeper (17th century) otherwise not quickly knocked out of the field, says of the plant: 'This is the spice, over which all writers argue with each other as lawyers... I once went to my senses and came to the conclusion that it is a herb of Mars, which is under the sign of Scorpio. No wonder it carries combat aspects with it. If it is laid in a place where poisonous beasts have bitten or where a wasp or horn has stabbed, then the rap pulls the venom to itself. And like earths attract each other! Mizaldus claims high and low that if basil is allowed to rot in horse manure, it will produce toxic spawning. Hilarius, a French doctor, says he saw with his own eyes that a scorpion appeared in his brain, just by smelling the herb.
There must be something wrong with that plant: 'Nay bene, rhombus and basil do not want to grow side by side, or even stand at some distance from each other. And we all know that wine rhombus is the greatest enemy of poison, which only grows there. And then there is another thing: it drives off both the unborn child and the afterbirth. In other words, while on the one hand it replenishes the deficit of Venus, on the other hand it does not do all its work. No, I don't dare write about it anymore. “He doesn't do that any more. He doesn't even mention any virtue of basil.
Basil snuff and other stories
Scorpions or not, at the time of the Tudors, patients with nervous headaches received basil snuff from their nurses. The dosage of such a pinch listened closely, at least if one wants to believe Dodonaeus who claimed 'that sij oock hooftsueer makes as people too long or too much rieckt'. With the antipathy between rhombus and bassywort, it seems to be too bad. There are plenty of cases known of peaceful society.
Pliny told how the crowned snake Basilisk was defeated by a weasel who had eaten rhombus. Perhaps here lies the explanation for the stories about the enmity between the two plants.
