234 OLEACE^— OLIVE TRIBE 



in country places ; though their repute for medicinal properties has probably 

 quite passed away. An old writer affirms : " The young tender tops with 

 the leaves, taken inwardly, and some of them outwardly applied, are singular 

 good against the biting of viper, adder, or any other venomous beast ; and 

 the water distilled therefrom being taken, a small quantity every morning 

 fasting, is a singular medicine for those that are subject to dropsy, or to 

 abate the greatness of those that are too gross or fat." A decoction of the 

 leaves is still esteemed a good febrifuge. The keys were believed to have 

 the same effects as the leaves. 



Both Pliny and Gerarde held that there is such an antipathy between the 

 adder and the Ash-tree, that if an adder were encompassed by Ash-leaves it 

 would refrain from biting. Evelyn says that in his day Ash-keys were pre- 

 served with salt and vinegar, and sent to table as a sauce, and that being 

 pickled they afforded a "delicate salading." Branches of the Ash-tree are 

 still sometimes hung about beds, to keep away gnats and other insects. The 

 plant was in former years much connected with charms and other superstitious 

 practices, most of which are happily disappearing before the increase of 

 general knowledge and the wide dissemination of religious truth. More 

 than one writer, however, of recent date, tells of some pollard Ash hollowed 

 out by age which is even yet prized by neighbouring villagers as a "Shrew- 

 ash." White mentions one of these trees, which about his time stood in the 

 village of Selborne. "At the corner side of the Plestor, or area near the 

 church," says this naturalist, " there stood about twenty years ago, a very 

 old grotesque pollard Ash, which for ages had been looked upon with no 

 small veneration as a Shrew-ash. Now, a Shrew-ash is an Ash whose twigs 

 or branches, when gently applied to the limbs of cattle, will immediately 

 relieve the pains which a beast sufiers from the running of a shrew-mouse 

 over the part affected ; for it is supposed that a shrew-mouse is of so baleful 

 and deleterious a nature, that wherever it creeps over a beast, be it horse, 

 cow, or sheep, the suffering animal is afflicted with cruel anguish, and 

 threatened with the loss of the use of the limb. Against this accident, to 

 which they were continually liable, our provident forefathers always kept a 

 Shrew-ash at hand, which, once medicated, would maintain its virtues for 

 ever." A Shrew-ash, it seems, was made by boring a hole into the body of 

 the tree, into which living tomb a poor little shrew-mouse was thrust, and 

 securely plugged up, probably with magic ceremonies unknown to the men 

 of our generation. Happily, no more Shrew-ashes can be made, since the 

 needful incantations are no longer in existence. 



The bark of the Ash-tree is useful in tanning, and when burnt it yields 

 a considerable quantity of potash. The ancients had a great veneration for 

 the Ash, and the heroes of Homer are represented as armed with the ashen 

 spear. The Romans used its wood for warlike weapons and agricultural 

 implements. In the sacred book of the Northmen, the Edcla, it holds a very 

 conspicuous place. 



This tree is mentioned once in Scripture, where the prophet Isaiah says, 

 " He heweth him down cedars, and taketh the cypress and the oak, which 

 he strengthen eth for himself among the trees of the forest : he planteth an 

 Ash, and the rain doth nourish it,." The word rendered "Ash " by our trans- 



