pfant Isore, Tscge^/, aHel Tsijnc/*, 253 



composed of it, as now, says Evelyn, " are the gentler rods of our 

 tyrannical pedagogues for lighter faults." According to Pliny, the 

 celebrated books which Nunia i'ompilius composed seven hundred 

 years before Christ, and which were buried with him, were written 



on the bark of the Birch-tree. It is in the northern countries of 



Europe that the Birch flourishes, and it is there the tree is held in 

 the highest esteem. The Russians have a proverb that the Birch 

 excels in four quahties: — It gives light to the world (with Birch- 

 boughs torches are made) ; it stifles cries (from Birch they extracfl 

 a lubricant which they apply to the wheels of carriages) ; it cleanses 

 (in Russian baths, to promote perspiration, they scourge the body 

 with branches of Birch) ; it cures diseases (by incision they obtain 

 a liquor stated to have all the virtues of the spirit of salt, and from 

 which a wine is distilled, excellent as a cordial and useful in cases 

 of consumption. Moreover, in Russia, the oil of the Birch is used 

 as a vermifuge and a balsam in the cure of wounds. In facft, to 

 the peasants of the North, the Birch is as beneficent as is the 

 Palm to the Indians. No wonder, then, that the Russians are very 

 fond of the Birch, and surround their dwellings with it ; believing, 



as they do, that this tree is never struck by lightning. On the 



Day of Pentecost, it is a custom among young Russian maidens to 

 suspend garlands on the trees they love best, and they are careful 

 to tie round the stems of the Birch-trees a little red ribbon as a 

 charm to cause them to flourish and to protecft them from the 

 Evil Eye. De Gubernatis quotes from a Russian author named 

 Afanassief, who tells us of a Birch that showed its appreciation 

 of the kindly attentions of a young girl in decking its stem, by 

 prote(51:ing her from the persecutions of a witch, who had become 

 her step-mother; and the same author makes mention of a certain 

 white Birch, which grew in the island of Buian, on the topmost 

 of whose branches it was currently believed the Mother of God 



might be seen sitting. Grohmann, a German writer, recounts 



the legend of a young shepherdess, who w^as spinning in the midst 

 of a forest of Birch-trees, when suddenly the Wild Woman of the 

 forest accosted her. The Wild W'oman was dressed in white, and 

 had a garland of flowers upon her head : she persuaded the shep- 

 herdess to dance with her, and for three days kept up the dance 

 until sunset, but so lightly that the grass under her feet was neither 

 trampled upon nor bent. At the conclusion of the dance, all the 

 yarn was spun, and the W^ild Woman was so satisfied, that 

 she filled the pocket of the little shepherdess with Birch-leaves, 



W'hich soon turned into golden money. Professor Mannhardt, 



says De Gubernatis, divulges to us the means employed by the 

 Russian peasants to evoke theLieschi, or Geni of the forest. They 

 cut down some very young Birch-trees, and arrange them in a circle 

 in such a manner that the points shall be turned towards the 

 middle : they enter this circle, and then they call up the spirit, who 

 forthwith makes his appearance. They place him on the stump of 



