Dictated

[lightbranded]

[The last week had been difficult with so many new revelations.  Eventually Will had decided to distract himself with one of his favorite pastimes.  Gently teasing his acquaintances with his favorite reading material.  And that is why today you will hear a boy reading aloud into the journals with an air of great solemnity.]

The black graines (that is the seed) to the number of fifteene taken in wine or mead is a speciall remedie for those that are troubled in the night with the disease called the Night Mare, which is as though a heavy burthen were laid upon them and they oppressed therewith, as if they were overcome with their enemies, or overprest with some great weight or burthen, and they are also good against melancholie dreames.

Comments

[lioneyed]

[Something about that particular herbal remedy seems familiar, and after a moment of thinking, Thamuris has an idea why.]

...Laudanum?

[lightbranded]

Something like that. Grand way old Gerard had of putting it, don't you think?

[lioneyed]

I should think the wine alone would be enough for insomnia.

I don't think I'm familiar with Gerard.

[lightbranded]

A writer from long ago. I am reading from his herbal. He had some of the most interesting ideas. Some of them completely wrong, of course. There's this marvelous bit where he speaks very seriously about how barnacle geese hatch from barnacles.

[lioneyed]

Ah, I see. History does real some... rather interesting beliefs.

I take it it's primarily a medical text?

[lightbranded]

An Herbal, actually. Gerard's Herbal.

[lioneyed]

Ah, I see. Then it covers all the possible uses of herbs?

[lightbranded]

Plants of all kinds, really.

[lioneyed]

Interesting. I've seen a lot of gardens, but I only know the very beginnings of plant lore.

[lightbranded]

It's fascinating stuff. You could borrow the book if you like.

[lioneyed]

I think I'd enjoy that. When you're finished with it, of course.

[lightbranded]

Of course. I've read it before, so I don;t mind at all.

[lioneyed]

Really? Thank you very much, then.

[lightbranded]

It is no problem at all.

[lioneyed]

Still, I appreciate it.