pfant T^orc, ISeget^Ci/, anel ]9^ricf, 32 1 



Elder, affixed to cowhouses and stables, was supposed to protecfl 

 cattle from all possible harm. 



Shakspeare, in ' Love's Labour Lost,' says "Judas was hanged 

 on an Elder," and this belief was {general amonf; early writers, and 

 is constantly alluded to by authors of the Elizabethan period ; but 

 the name Judas-tree was applied to the Cercis siHqtiastnon (which 

 is the tree which still bears it), about the same period. Gerarde, 

 indeed, definitely tells us of the Cercis, " This is the tree whereon 

 Judas did hang himselfe, and not upon the Elder-tree, as is stated." 

 On the other hand, that old Eastern traveller. Sir John Maunde- 

 vile, tells us that the very Elder-tree upon which Judas hanged 

 himself was to be seen in his day close to the Pool of Siloe ; whilst 

 the legend which connecfts Judas with the Elder-tree is alluded to 

 by Ben Jonson, and is thus referred to in ' Piers Plowman ' : — 



"Judas, he japed 

 With Jewen silver 

 And sithen on an Eller 

 Hanged hymselve." 



But not only is the ill-omened Elder credited with being con- 

 necfted with the death of Judas, but there is a wide-spread belief 

 that it was the " accursed tree " on which the Redeemer's life was 

 given up ; therefore, although fuel may be scarce and these sticks 

 plentiful, in some places the superstitious poor will not burn -them. 



In Scotland, according to a writer in the ' Dublin Magazine,' 



it is called the Bour-tree, and the following rhyme is indicative of 

 the belief entertained in that country : — 



" Hour-tree, Bour-tree, crooked rung, 

 Never straight and never strong, 

 Ever bush and never tree. 

 Since our Lord was nailed on thee." 



In Chambers's ' Book of Days ' is an instance of the belief that 

 a person is perfe(ftly safe tmder the shelter of an Elder-tree during 

 a thunderstorm, as the lightning never strikes the tree of which the 

 Cross was made. Experience has taught that this is a fallacy, al- 

 though many curious exceptional instances are recorded. In 

 Napier's Folk-lore of the Northern Counties we read of a peculiar 

 custom: — the Elder is planted in the form of a cross upon a newly- 

 made grave, and if it blooms they take it as a sure sign that the 

 soul of the dead person is happy. 



It is not considered prudent to sleep under an Elder. Evelyn 

 describes the narcotic smell of the tree as very noxious to the air, 

 and narrates that a certain house in Spain, seated among Elder- 

 trees, diseased and killed almost all the inhabitants, " which, when at 

 last they were grubbed up, became a very wholesome and healthy 

 place." As regards the medical virtues of the tree, Evelyn ex- 

 claims: — " If the medicinal properties of the leaves, bark, berries, 

 &c., were thoroughly known, I cannot tell what our countryman 

 could ail for which he might not fetch a remedy from every hedge, 



Y 



