144 THE FRUITS OF THE COUNTRY-SIDE 



name by its fragrance, while others pronounce it mostly 

 sickly and objectionable. 



The berries of the rowan are at first green, but soon 

 turn to a rich red. They are globular in form and, like 

 their sister fruits, the haws, are surmounted by the remains 

 of the calyx. Under favourable conditions they are very 

 numerous, but they are very greedily devoured by the 

 birds, so that a tree is often very quickly stripped of all 

 its ruddy fruit. The berries are harsh and austere accord- 

 ing to man's standard, and he is ordinarily quite content 

 to leave them to the blackbirds and thrushes, but a very 

 pleasant preserve may be prepared from them, and the 

 mountaineers of Scotland make them into a kind of 

 cyder, or by distillation extract from them an ardent and 

 potent spirit. 



The rowan has also, by the older writers, been called 

 the witchentree, a name that testifies to the belief once 

 held in its sovereign efficacy against enchantment and the 

 evil eye. A branch of it was hung up over house portals 

 and the doorways of stables and cowhouses, to preserve 

 the respective indwellers from all sorts of perils. The 

 dairymaid brought home her charges from the mountain 

 pastures by the soft persuasiveness of a rod of rowan, 

 and the shepherd required all his lambs to jump soon 

 after their birth through a hoop of rowan as a defence 

 against the ills before them, while all who desired to 

 be free from the possibilities of enchantment and witch- 

 craft were careful to carry about with them at all times 

 a small piece of this sovereign antidote. 



