^8 pPanC "bore, Isegel^t)/, and. I^Ljric/, 



passed through cleft trees, to cast out all witchcraft, or to neutralise 

 its baleful effects, and to protect them from the influence of Witches ; 

 and sometimes they were passed through the branches of a Maple, 

 in order that they might be long-lived. Sick sheep were made to 

 go through the cleft of a young Oak, with a view of transferring 

 their diseases to the spirit of the tree. People afflicted with ague 

 were directed to repair to the Cross Oaks which grew at the 

 junctions of cross-roads, for the purpose of transferring to them 

 their malady. Aguish patients were ordered to proceed without 

 speaking or crossing water, to a lofty Willow, to make a gash in 

 it, breathe three times into the crevice, close it quickly, and hasten 

 away without looking back : if they did this correctly, the ague 

 was warranted to leave them. A twisted neck or cuts in the body 

 were thought to be cured by twisting a Willow round the affected 

 part. In the West of England, peasants suffering from blackhead 

 were bidden to crawl under an drched Bramble, and if they had 

 the toothache, the prescribed remedy was for them to bite the 

 first Fern that appeared in Spring. In other parts of the country 

 toothache was cured by sticking into the bark of a young tree the 

 decayed tooth after it had been drawn. If a child did not willingly 

 learn to walk, the Wise Woman of the village would direct its 

 troubled mother to make it creep through the long withes of the 

 Blackberry-bush, which were grown down to the earth, and had 

 taken fresh root therein. Sufferers from gout were relieved by the 

 Witch transferring the disorder to some old Pine-tree, or rather to 

 the genius inhabiting it. Many magical arts attended the trans- 

 ference of the disease to the spirit of the vicarious tree, and the 

 operation was generally accompanied by the recital of some 

 formula. Amongst the forms of adjuration was the following com- 

 mencement : " Twig, I bind thee ; fever, now leave me ! " A 

 sufferer from cramp was ordered to stretch himself on a Plum-tree, 

 and say, " Climbing-plant, stand ! Plum-tree, waver," 



If we seek for the origin of this superstitious notion of trans- 

 ferring diseases to trees, we shall find a clue in the works of 

 Prof. Mannhardt, who recounts the names of demons which in 

 Germany are identified with nearly all the maladies of plants, and 

 particularly with those of Wheat and vegetables.* The super- 

 stitious country people, struck with the affinity which exists 

 between the vegetable world and the animal world, came, in course 

 of time, to think that the same demon caused the disease of plants 

 and that of man ; and therefore they conceived that, in order to 

 safeguard mankind, it was only necessary to confine the demon in 

 the plant. Examples of this belief are still to be found in our own 

 country, and similar superstitious observances are common on the 

 Continent. The German peasant creeps through an Oak cleft to 

 cure hernia and certain other disorders ; and the Russian moujik 



* The names of certain of these demons will be found in the previous chapter. 



