254 TAXACE^ 



Other reasons may be accountable for its presence 

 in churchyards. Its wood was used for quarrel and 

 crossbow, as the weapon of defence of the day, 

 when wars were waged with long-bows and battle-axes, 

 and muskets and arquebuses were still unknown 

 quantities. 



The Greek word to^ov (a bow) was evolved 

 from another Greek word, rafo? (a yew), for the 

 reason, we are told, " because they made bows 

 and arrows from it " {quod ex eo sagittas et arcus 

 faciebant). 



But this does not exhaust all reasons assigned for 

 its presence in hallowed precincts. The yew contains 

 a poisonous alkaloid called taxine (presumably derived 

 from the Greek word signifying Yew), which acts as 

 a heart poison on animals of lowered vitality, or 

 unaccustomed by the acquired habits of slow stages 

 to its effects. These poisonous properties were 

 probably well known to the ancients. Virgil alludes 

 to yews as hurtful or noxious {taxos nocenies), and 

 the well-fenced-in churchyards, in spite of the incon- 

 testable fact, so wisely propounded and so frequently 

 quoted, that " those inside cannot get out, while 

 those outside have no wish to get in," show pretty 

 clearly that our forefathers of a long time back had 

 realized these poisonous properties. They knew that 

 the high walls or fences of such places were a safe 

 barrier against the entry of grazing animals in the 

 neighbourhood. 



Many are the curious phrases and fables that 

 stand to the renown of this God's acre planted tree. 

 Their very position and presence there invites them, 

 and their poisonous properties add cubits to their 

 superstitious reputation. They were regarded as 

 symbols of immortality, and emblematic of '* a 

 reflourishing state to come," as Evelyn in his Silvia 

 quaintly puts it ; as Palm Sunday decorations, as 



