pPaat Tsorc, "Isege?^^/, and TsLjric/", 36 1 



In Lancashire, at the present day, the Mayers still, in some 

 districts, go from door to door, and sing: — 



" We have been rambling all this night, 

 And almost all this day ; 

 And now returned back again. 



We've brought you a branch of May. 



" A branch of. May we have brought you. 

 And at your door it stands ; 

 It is but a sprout, but it's well budded out 

 By the work of our Lord's hands." 



Aubrey, writing in 16S6, records that at Woodstock, in Oxford- 

 shire, the people were accustomed on May-eve to go into the park 

 and procure a number of Hawthorn-trees, which they set before 

 their doors. In Huntingdonshire, on May-day morn, the young 

 men used formerly to place, at sunrise, a branch of Hawthorn 



in blossom, before the door of anyone they wished to honour. 



A curious superstition survives in Suffolk, where to sleep in a 

 room, with the Hawthorn in bloom in it during the month of May, 

 is considered, by coimtry folk, to be unlucky, and sure to be 



followed by some great misfortune. In some parts of Ireland, it 



is thought unlucky to bring blossoming Hawthorn indoors, and 

 unsafe to gather even a leaf from certain old cind solitary Thorns 

 which grow in sheltered hollows of the moorlands, and on the 



fairies' trysting places. It is considered unlucky to cut down a 



Hawthorn-tree, and in many parts the peasants refuse to do it: 

 thus we read, in a legend of county Donegal, that a fairy had tried 

 to steal one Joe McDonough's baby, and, telling the story to her 

 neighbours : " I never affronted the gentry [fairies] to my know- 

 ledge," sighed the poor mother ; " but Joe helped Mr. Todd's 

 gardener to cut down the old Hawthorn-tree on the lawn Friday 

 was eight days: an' there's them that says that's a very bad thing 

 to do. I fleeched him not to touch it, but the master he offered 

 him six shillings if he'd help wi' the job, for the other men refused." 

 " That's the way of it," whispered the crones over their pipes and 

 poteen — "that's just it. The gude man has had the ill luck to dis- 

 please the 'gently,' an' there will be trouble in this house yet." 



Among the Pyrenean peasantry Hawthorn and Laurel are thought 

 to secure the wearer against thunder. The inhabitants of Biarritz 

 make Hawthorn wreaths on St. John's Day: they then rush to the sea, 

 plunge in after a prayer, and consider themselves safe during the en- 

 suing twelve months from the temptation of evil spirits. The old 



herbalists prescribe the distilled water of the Haws of the Hawthorn 

 as an application suited to " any place where thorns or splinters 

 doe abide in the flesh," the result being that the decoction " will 

 notably draw them out." Lord Bacon tells us, that a " store of 



Haws portends cold winters." Among the Turks, a branch of 



Hawthorn expresses the wish of a lover to receive a kiss. The 



Hawthorn attains to a great age, and its wood is remarkably 



