pPant Isore, Iseqe^/, and ^S)^r\c.f, 469 



prayed, a gracious lady appeared before her, and, thanks to her 

 intercession, no rain fell on the Oak, and the girl was enabled to 

 reach home without being wetted by a single drop. Everyone saw 

 it was a miracle ; the cur^ examined her, and from his representa- 

 tions the young girl was received into a convent at Rome, where 

 she proliably is preparing herself for canonisation. Under similar 

 circumstances, two centuries ago, a Tuscan shepherdess, Giovanna 

 of Signa, was canonised. In tlie district of Signa, near Ginestra, 

 the villagers still show a sacred Oak, which peo])le kneel to and 

 adore. The story runs that one day the shepherdess Giovanna, 

 surprised by a storm, called around her the shepherds and their flocks, 

 and stuck her shepherdess's crook into the ground ; when, wondrous 

 to relate, at the same instant shot forth an Oak, which sheltered 

 beneath its branches shepherds and sheep. No one was wetted by 

 the rain. On account of this miracle, Giovanna was made a saint, 

 and near the sacred Oak a little chapel was erected to the Virgin. 

 Strange to say, the tree throws down anyone climbing into its 

 branches to cut boughs ; but people are permitted to pluck sprays, 

 which are believed to guard themselves and their houses from the 

 effects of storms, provided that the names of Jesus and Mary are 

 invoked with certain ceremonies. 



Among the Bolognese, who inhabit a districft once occupied by 

 the Celts, and consequently Druidic, the sacred characfter of Oak- 

 trees was long acknowledged. In the fourteenth century, there 

 stood in Bologna an ancient Oak, which was regarded with the 

 greatest reverence, and beneath its boughs all important gatherings 

 of the people took place. In their religious processions the children 

 still carry garlands of the Oak and Olive. In the country distri<5ts, 

 images of the Virgin are often suspended from Oak-trees, and 

 these effigies are called after the trees, the little Madonnas of the 

 Oak. A legend of Bologna relates that in a chapel an image of the 

 Virgin had long been neglected, and overlooked, till, one day, a 

 pious shepherd took it away, and placed it in the trunk of a Cork- 

 tree (a species of Oak, the Quenus Siiber). Henceforth he visited it 

 daily, and to honour the Virgin played on the flute. The thief 

 having been denounced, the shepherd was seized and condemned 

 to death; but during the night, through the intervention of the 

 Madonna, the statue and the shepherd both returned to their 

 favourite tree, and notwithstanding subsequent efforts to remove 

 them, they again took up their place beneath its boughs. Thea 

 the people recognised a miracle performed by the Virgin, and 

 falling on their knees before the statue in the Oak, they asked 

 pardon of the shepherd. 



The time-honoured belief in the sacred and supernatural attri- 

 butes of the Oak have doubtless caused it to be regarded, even at 

 the present day, as a tree which would vicariously bear the diseases 

 of men. Thus, in England, Cross Oaks, which were trees planted 

 at the juncture of cross-roads, were formerly resorted to by people 



