pfaat Tsore, Tsege?^/, cmil Tsijric/'. 585 



prevailed in England), every liousehold in the districfl of Lechrain, 

 in Bavaria, brings to the sacred fire which is lighted at Easter a 

 Walnut-branch, which, after being partially burned, is carried 

 home to be laid on the hearth-fire during tempests, as a protecflion 



against lightning. In Flanders, as a charm against ague, the 



patient catches a large black spider, and imprisons it between the 

 two halves of a Walnut-shell, and then wears it round his neck. 



In our own land, it is a common belief among country 



people that whipping a Walnut-tree tends to increase the crop and 

 improve the flavour of the Nuts. This belief is found embodied 

 in the following curious distich : — 



" A woman, a spaniel, and a Walnut-tree, 

 The more you whip them, the better they be." 



Evelyn, alluding to this custom, says it is thought better to beat 

 the Nuts off" than to gather them from the tree by hand. " In Italy," 

 he tells us, " they arm the tops of long poles with nails and iron 

 for the purpose, and believe the beating improves the tree, which 

 I no more believe than I do that discipline would reform a shrew," 



The Brahmans of the Himalaya observe a festival called the 



Walnut Festival, Akrot-ka-pooja, at which, after off'ering a sacrifice, 

 the priest, with a few companions, takes his place in the balcony 

 of the temple, and all the young men present pelt them liberally 

 with Walnuts and green Pine-cones, which the group in the balcony 



rapidly collecft and return in plentiful volleys. To dream of 



Walnuts portends difficulties and misfortunes in life: in love 

 affairs, such a vision implies infidelity and disappointment. 



Water Lily. — See Nymphaea. 



Waybread. — See Plantain. 



^A/'HORTLEBERRY.— Whort or Whortleberry (the Anglo- 

 Saxon Heonithcrge is another name for the Bilberry or Blaeberry, 

 {Vaccinium Myrtilhis). A species of Whortleberry, called Ohelo 

 (Vaccimttm reticulatum), is found in Hawaii, springing up from the 

 decomposed lava of the volcanoes of that island. Its flame- 

 coloured berries are sacred to Pele, the goddess of the volcano, and 

 in heathen days no Hawaiian dared taste one till he had off"ered 

 some to the goddess, and craved her permission to eat them. Miss 

 Gordon Gumming relates that when Mr. Ellis visited the island in 

 1822, he and his trusty friends rejoiced on discovering these large 

 juicy berries, but the natives implored them not to touch them lest 

 some dire calamity should follow. Though themselves faint and 

 parched, they dared not touch one till they reached the edge of the 

 crater, where, gathering branches loaded with the tempting clusters, 

 they broke them in two, and throwing half over the precipice, they 

 called Pele's attention to the offering, and to the fa(ft that they 

 craved her permission to eat of her Ohelos. (See also Bilberry.) 



WIDOW'S FLO^VER. — The Indian or Sweet Scabious 

 {Scabiosa atropurpiiyca) is called by the Italians Fior delta Vedova, and 



