258 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 



popular. It was held to be efficacious in the finding 

 of water. A Y-shaped twig was held in the hand by 

 the forks and moved in the direction in which water 

 was to be found. Many men got their living by this 

 means, and it is relied on to-day as a sure mode of 

 finding water. There is considered to be some 

 psychic power in the person who wields the twig, 

 which causes it to indicate the position of a spring 

 or natural reservoir. The twig should be cut on 

 Midsummer night or at certain phases of the stars. 



A writer says, " In cutting it, one must face the 

 East so that the rod shall be one which catches the 

 first rays of the morning sun, or, as some say, the 

 eastern and western sun must shine through the fork 

 of the rod, otherwise it will be good for nothing." 



Notches were formerly cut on a Hazel twig for 

 each wart to be cured. 



Conway writes, " Groves of Hazel or of Elm, which 

 thence may have been called Witch-Hazel (and 

 Witch-Elm), were frequently chosen by the Saxons 

 for their temples (see the Saxon word wig), the Hazel 

 being one of Thor's trees. So deep was the faith of 

 the people in the relation of this tree to the Thunder 

 God that the Catholics adopted and sanctioned it by 

 a legend one may hear in Bavaria, that on their flight 

 into Egypt the Holy Family took refuge under it 

 from a storm." 



The Hazel is a cultivated shrub, which yields the 

 Filberts and Cobs (var. grandis) of the garden. 

 Walking sticks, cask hoops, hurdles, crates, etc., are 



