96 COMMON BRITISH ANIMALS 



they were continually liable, our provident forefathers 

 always kept a shrew-ash at hand, which, when once 

 medicated, would retain its virtue for ever. A shrew- 

 ash was made thus : Into the body of the tree a deep 

 hole was bored Avith an auger, and a poor, devoted 

 shrew-mouse was thrust in alive, and plugged in, no 

 doubt, with several incantations, long since for- 

 gotten/' 



Gilbert White goes on to say that this tree was 

 stubbed and burnt by the late vicar, ^' regardless of 

 the remonstrances of the bystanders, who interceded 

 in vain for its preservation, urging its power and 

 efficacy, and alleging that it had been preserved with 

 reverential awe for years. '^ 



A horse seized with cramp or numbness in the fields 

 was thought to be planet-struck or shrew-struck. 

 The treatment prescribed was to drag the horse 

 through a piece of bramble rooted at both ends. It> 

 is a habit of bramble branches to throw out roots 

 when they touch the ground. 



Shrews eat worms, insects and larva3, and in so 

 doing are the friends and assistants of man, and ii 

 is hard to see on what foundation these superstitions 

 were based, unless it be that shrews have the power 

 of emitting a musky, disagreeable odour from the 

 secretion of glands on their flanks. This scent, 

 though slight in our British shrews, is nevertheless 

 emphasised in some foreign species, rendering any 

 food that they have been near quite uneatable. It 

 is doubtless this secretion which makes dogs and cats^ 

 who will kill shrews, refuse to eat them. They are^ 

 however, eaten by owls and by their cousin the mole. 



