584 pPant T^orc, Tsegel^/, aa^ IsLjrlcy, 



Michael who has given them good husbands." In Italy, a Nut with 

 three segments is considered most lucky. Carried in the pocket, 

 it preserves its owner from lightning, witchcraft, the Evil Eye, and 

 fever; it facilitates conquest, gives happiness, and performs other 

 benign services. In Bologna, it is thought that if one of these 

 Nuts be placed under the chair of a witch, she will be unable to 

 get up; and it thus becomes an infallible means of discovering 



witches. The Walnut has become in Europe, and especially 



in Italy, an accursed tree. The ancients thought it was dear to 

 Proserpine and all the deities of the infernal regions. In Ger- 

 many, the Black Walnut is regarded as a sinister tree, just as the 



Oak is looked upon as a tree of good omen. At Rome, there is a 



tradition that the church Santa Maria del Popolo was built by order 

 of Paschal II., on the spot where formerly grew a Walnut-tree, round 

 which troops of demons danced during the night. Near Prescia, 

 in Tuscany, we are told by Prof. Giuliani, there is a Walnut-tree 

 where witches are popularly supposed to sleep : the people of 

 the districft say that witches love Walnut-trees. At Bologna, 

 the peasantry think that witches hold a no(5turnal meeting beneath 

 the Walnut-trees on the Vigil of St. John. But among all other 

 Walnut-trees, the most infamous and the most accursed is the 

 Walnut of Benevento, regarding which there are many tales of its 

 being haunted by the Devil and witches. It is said that St. Barbatus, 

 the patron of Benevento, who lived in the time of Duke Romuald, 

 was a priest who was endowed with the power of exorcising devils 

 by his prayers. At that time the inhabitants still worshipped a 

 Walnut-tree on which was to be distinguished the effigy of a viper, 

 and beneath this tree the people performed many superstitious and 

 heathenish rites. The Emperor Constantius laid siege to Benevento ; 

 the citizens were in despair, but Barbatus rebuked them, and per- 

 suaded them that God had taken this means to punish them for their 

 idolatry ; so, with Romuald, they agreed to be converted to Chris- 

 tianity, and made Barbatus bishop of the town. Then Barbatus 

 uprooted the accursed Walnut-tree, and the Devil was seen in the 

 form of a serpent crawling away from beneath its roots. Upon 

 being sprinkled with holy water, however, he disappeared ; but 

 through his satanic power, whenever a meeting of demons is 

 desired, or a witches' sabbath is to be held, a Walnut-tree as large 

 and as verdant as the original appears by magic on the precise spot 



where it stood. A Walnut-tree with very different associations 



once grew in the churchyard on the north side of St. Joseph's Chapel 

 at Glastonbury. This miraculous tree never budded before the feast 

 of St. Barnabas (June i ith), and on that very day shot forth leaves 

 and flourished like others of its species. Queen Anne, King James 

 and many high personages are said to have given large sums of 

 money for cuttings from the original tree, which has long since 

 disappeared, and has been succeeded by a fine Walnut of the 

 ordinary sort. According to an old custom (which at one time 



