Myths, folklore, & symbolism
Drgon's blood: A useful and powerful ingredient in love divination and other spells, used in a number of ways but usually involving the fire: "Buy a pennyworth of dragon's blood from a chemist, sprinkle the powder in the fire any night when the clock is striking twelve, and your future husband or wife will appear..." (Billson, 1865: 59-60) It was being used in this way well into the 20th century. Joseph Wright's English Dialect Dictionary glosses Dragon's Blood as the herb Robert (Geranium Robertianum); A.R. Wright (1928: 69) defines it as "the resin from the Calamus draco and certain other trees, used chiefly in varnish-making." (Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore)
I sometimes wish I lived in a time where "Buy a pennyworth of dragon's blood from a chemist, sprinkle the powder in the fire any night when the clock is striking twelve, and your future husband or wife will appear..." makes sense. And sometimes not.
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