THE JUNIPER TREE 187 



of myths and legends. The Juniper was consecrated 

 to the Furies, and the smoke of its green branches 

 was the incense offered to the Infernal Gods, while 

 its berries were burnt at funerals to keep off evil 

 spirits. The renowned lexicographer. Dr. Johnson, 

 hurls unsubstantiated charges of the most venomous 

 nature at its devoted head. He writes that its shade 

 was baleful, that its taste was bitter, that its shelter 

 was a dangerous zone to man and beast to be fled 

 from precipitately by all cautiously inclined, and by 

 those who walk the earth in fear of evil consequence 

 from superstitious influences. As a tree we neither 

 know nor can find any basis for these assumptions. 

 In the face of all these disheartening qualities, many 

 would-be gardeners and seekers of scenery revel to 

 this day in its presence, and take delight in a sight 

 of it upon many a bank and hill-side devoted to its 

 production. 



In the Bible we hear much of the Juniper in the 

 wilderness. As a phrase it " falls pleasantly " on our 

 ears, for some reason as unexplained as the why and 

 wherefore that the word Mesopotamia affected the 

 old lady of fiction. It brought '' great support and 

 comfort to her," she confided to her pastor. 



In the incidents spoken of in Holy Writ the Juniper 

 seems to have conferred the blessings of both shade 

 and food to many a weary wanderer in the sun- 

 scorched desert. Job pictures one, a melancholy 

 derelict, who, having suffered from the derision of 

 man, had sought the solitude of its sandy tracts, and 

 was reduced to making a meal off the roots of a 

 Juniper bush under which he rested. It reads un- 

 appetising as a diet, but still, for aught we know, it 

 may have given temporary satisfaction to a hungry 

 outcast sunk low in his own estimation and far 

 removed from any pleasures of the table ; but it is 

 a recital of an experience that must not be reckoned 



