MYSTIC PLANTS. 439 



it grew upon the oak, was peculiarly sacred, and re- 

 garded as a divine gift. It was gathered, with great 

 ceremony, on the sixth day after the first new moon 

 of the year : two white oxen, which were then for the 

 first time placed in yoke, were brought beneath the 

 tree ; the sacrificing priest (Druid), clothed in white 

 garments, ascended it, and cut off the mistletoe with 

 a golden sickle ; it was caught in a white cloth held 

 beneath, and then distributed amongst the bystanders. 

 The oxen were sacrificed, with prayers for the happy 

 effects of the mistletoe. A beverage was prepared 

 from this, and used as a remedy for all poisons and 

 diseases, and which was supposed to favour fertility. 

 A remnant of this seems to exist still in France ; for 

 the peasant boys use the expression, ' au gui Fan 

 neuf,' as a new year's greeting. It is also a custom 

 in Britain to hang the mistletoe to the roof on Christ- 

 mas eve ; the men lead the women under it, and wish 

 a merry Christmas and a happy new year. Perhaps 

 the mistletoe was taken as a symbol of the new year, 

 on account of its leaves giving the bare tree the ap- 

 pearance of having regained its foliage." ^ 



One of the strangest of mystic plants is the 

 " Mandrake." Some belief in its power was evidently 

 current amongst the Hebrews. Josephus gives an 

 account of the custom in Jewish villages of pulling 



' Schouw, " Earth Plants and Man," p. 218. 



