HE Ainu people—still extant as a group in Japan—believed that the oak and pine were the first trees and that mugwort () was the first herb, noting darkly that their spirits would wreak vengeance on any who disturbed their homes. It may seem that the idea of mugwort being the first herb was peculiar to them, but it is common throughout Eurasia, its area of origin. In the Middle Ages, it was known as ‘the
