92 LORANTHE^ 



are eiitred into a discourse touching miselto, I cannot overpasse one strange 

 thing thereof used in France. The Druidse (for so they call their Divinours, 

 Wise Men, and the State of their clergie) esteeme nothing in the world more 

 sacred than miselto, and the tree whereon it breedeth, so it be on the oke. Now 

 you must take this by the way. These priests or clergiemen chose of purpose 

 such groves for their Divine service as stood onely upon okes : nay they 

 solemnise no sacrifice, nor perform any sacred ceremonies without branches 

 and leaves thereof, so that they may serve well enugh to be named thereupon 

 Dryidae in Greek, which signifieth as much as the oke priests. Certes to say, 

 whatsoever they find growing upon that tree over and besides its own f ruite, be 

 it Miselto, or any thing else, they esteeme it as a gift sent from Heaven, as a 

 sure signe that the God whom they serve giveth them to understand that he 

 hath chosen that peculiar tree. And no marveile, for in verie deed Miselto 

 is passing geason (scarce), and hard to be found on the oke." This naturalist 

 further describes how the Druids with many devout ceremonies cut down the 

 Mistletoe, as Drayton, many years after, relates in his " Poly-olbion ": — 



"The fearless British priests, under the aged oak. 

 Taking a milk-white bull, unstained with the yoke, 

 And with an axe of gold, from that Jove-sacred tree 

 The Mistleto cut down." 



Pliny also adds that the Mistletoe in some sort kills trees. He says, too, 

 that the Druids call it All-heal. Full as his own great work is of super- 

 stitions connected with plants, yet this old writer closes his account by 

 quaintly moralizing on these practices : "So vain and superstitious," he says, 

 " are many nations in the world, doing oftentimes such foolish things as 

 these." 



The Celtic name for the oak was gwid, gue or gay, meaning the shrub, par 

 excellence ; and the name by which the Mistletoe is still called in France, he 

 gui, is evidently but a slight alteration of this. Borlase, in his " Antiquities 

 of Cornwall," says that the Druids gathered the plant with great solemnity 

 near the close of the year, saying, "The new year is at hand — gather the 

 Mistletoe ;" and even yet, in some parts of France, the peasant boys go about 

 asking largesse, and crying, "^ giiy Van neitf /' while in the upper part of 

 Germany, the people, about Christmas time, run from door to door in the 

 villages, shouting, " Guthyl, Guthyl ;" which, he adds, are plainly the remains 

 of the Druidical custom. The name by which the plant is known in most parts 

 of Germany is Der Mistel. The people of Holstein call it Marentakken, which 

 means literally "the branch of the spectres," from the belief that holding a 

 branch of the Mistletoe in the hand would not only enable a man to see 

 ghosts, but also to speak to them. It is in Italy called Fisrhio, the Spaniards 

 term it Liga, the Poles Jemiel, and the Russians Omela. 



The Druids, probably, considered the Mistletoe of the oak efficacious in 

 all sorts of illness. In many parts of Germany it is yet valued for its healing 

 virtues, and supposed to cure wounds ; but it is evidently relied upon rather 

 as a charm than from any remedial properties in the plant itself ; for the 

 peasants believe, too, that if the huntsman carries it in his hand it will 

 ensure success. The herbalists in Queen Elizabeth's time, however, 

 enumerated various preparations of Mistletoe both as external and internal 



