Just a quick note while we're talking about garlic - garlic was among the "gifts" which were given to Jonathan by his fellow passengers on the coach back in May:
Jonathan's Journal, 5th May: [...] we were entering on the Borgo Pass. One by one several of the passengers offered me gifts, which they pressed upon me with an earnestness which would take no denial; these were certainly of an odd and varied kind, but each was given in simple good faith, with a kindly word, and a blessing, and that strange mixture of fear-meaning movements which I had seen outside the hotel at Bistritz—the sign of the cross and the guard against the evil eye.
Jonathan's Journal, 8th May How was it that all the people at Bistritz and on the coach had some terrible fear for me? What meant the giving of the crucifix, of the garlic, of the wild rose, of the mountain ash?Â
I think these gifts again show us 1) the expertise born of necessity of the locals, and 2) how much love and care there is in this book, even among strangers. I don't know if the passengers always carry garlic or wild rose or mountain ash with them, or they were only doing it because they were travelling through the Borgo Pass on the eve of St. George's Day, but several of them were willing to give up at least part of their own protection in the hope that it would be of some help to poor, clueless Jonathan.
