ANNUAL MEETING AT SAGINAW. 491 



Other legends arc told, one of which is that an old thorn at Glastonbury is 

 one that miraculously sprang from the staff of Joseph of Arimathea, who 

 after the burial of Christ came to England to establish the first Christian 

 church. It sprang into growth and flower on Christmas day in answer to his 

 prayer that a miracle might be granted, so that the people might be led to 

 believe in his mission. The legend asserts that the old tree still blossoms at 

 ■Christmas time. 



These feelings of reverence that pertain to the elder and the thorn are still 

 more intensified in regard to the rowan or mountain ash. Its leaves are still 

 the most potent charm against the dark powers of witchcraft and magic. 

 Highlanders insert crosses of it with red thread in the linings of their coats, 

 and Cornish peasants still carry some in their pockefs and wind it around the 

 horns of their cattle, to keep off the evil eye. In Lancashire sprigs of it 

 were hung up at the bed heads and the churn staff was made of its wood. It 

 formerly stood in nearly every church yard in Scotland and Wales and crosses 

 of it were regularly distributed at christian festivals as a sure preventive of 

 evil spirits. The line in Shakespeare's tragedy of Macbeth, spoken by the 

 sailor's wife, should be a rowan tree witch, instead of ''aroint thee witch." 

 It was spoken as a charm against the witch who addressed her. In some 

 parts of England the dairymaid always drives the cattle to pasture with a 

 wand of rowan tree wood. In Strathspey the sheep and lambs are made to 

 pass through a hoop of this wood on the first of May. A little of it worn 

 upon any part of the person is a potent charm against all the dire effects of 

 witchcraft. These notions have doubtless descended from the heathen 

 mythology, as it was called Thor's helper. The Danes always used some of it 

 for their ships, to secure them against Ran, the great ocean god's wife, who 

 always stood ready with her nets to carry away any capsized mariners. Bishop 

 Heber speaks of a tree in India, an accacia, similar in appearance to the 

 mountain ash, which the natives believe to be the most useful as a pre- 

 ventive of magic. They say it sleeps all night and is alive in the day time, 

 but withdraws its leaves if anyone approaches to touch them. A sprig of it 

 worn in the turban, or suspended over the bed, was a certain preventive of 

 the evil eye. He says he is surprised that a plant so similar in appearance to 

 the mountain ash should have the same superstitions connected with it in a 

 part of the world so far away, and wonders which superstition is the father of 

 the other. 



The use of holly for decorative purposes in England at Christmas time 

 comes perhaps from the old Teutonic custom of hanging the interior of 

 dwellings with evergreens in winter as a refuge for the sylvan spirits from the 

 inclemency of the weather. In Derbyshire the tradition obtains that accord- 

 ing as the holly brought into the house at Christmas is smooth or rough the 

 wife or husband will be the master. Holly that has adorned churches at that 

 season is, in Worcestershire and Herefordshire, much esteemed, the posses- 

 sion of a small branch with berries being supposed to bring a lucky year. 

 Lonicerus mentions a notion, in his time commonly prevalent in Germany, 

 that consecrated twigs of the plant hung over the door are a protection against 

 thunder. 



The worship of trees and plants was found in all parts of North and South 

 America. Tlie Indians were full of superstitious fancies in regard to them, 

 and many curious incidents and observances are told by numerous writers. 

 -Many of the Indians disposed of their dead in the branches of trees. They 



