Early Autumn Mushrooms

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Early Autumn Mushrooms

From Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882):

…. So also full of flowers, buds, leaves, & even tough grass & moss & mushrooms grown in a night all which I in my sauntering through unimportant country coldly botanizing for my pastime collected….

–Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks Vol. VI (1824-1836), p. 304.

And from Arnold Zweig (1887-1968)’s novel The Case of Sergeant Grischa (1927):

Adepts tell us that poisonous herbs should be gathered when the moon is up and on the increase: both gong and coming the gatherer must refrain from worldly speech, and if he meets with anyone on the road, he must devoutly murmur a Paternoster or an Ave Maria. He must also start upon his journey with the right foot, and return with his left foot foremost, being very careful not to change his step. And if he does all this, no evil spirits can meddle with his step.

–The Case of Sergeant Grischa (1927), trans. Eric Sutton, (New York: Viking, 1928) IV, v, p. 233.

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