58 THE ASH. 



though he afterwards stood indebted to a less cheerful 

 tree, the Cypress. The Romans called it Frdxinus, a name 

 which naturalists still retain, but the derivation of which 

 is very uncertain. They employed its wood in the manu- 

 facture of weapons and many kinds of agricultural imple- 

 ments. In the Teutonic Mythology, the Ash holds a 

 conspicuous place. Under the shade of an enormous 

 tree of which the branches overspread the earth, the top 

 reached to heaven, and the roots to the infernal regions 

 the gods held their court. On the summit was perched an 

 eagle, who watched the course of all earthly affairs, assisted 

 by a squirrel, who employed his time in descending and 

 ascending to examine into, and report upon, what was pass- 

 ing beneath. Pliny gravely informs us that the serpent 

 would rather creep into the fire than shelter itself in its 

 branches : l and Dioscorides, the physician, states that the 

 juice of the Ash is an antidote against the bite of the 

 same reptile. 



But we need not go back to ages so remote as these for 

 superstitious opinions respecting this tree. Gilbert White, 

 in his classical History of Selborne, says : " In a farmyard 

 near the middle of this village, stands at this day a row 

 of pollard-ashes, which, by the seams and long cicatrices 

 down their sides, manifestly show that in former times 

 they have been cleft asunder. These trees, when young 

 and flexible, were severed and held open by wedges, while 

 diseased children, stripped naked, were pushed through 

 the apertures, under a persuasion that, by such a process, 

 the poor babes would be cured of their infirmity. As 

 soon as the operation was over, the tree in the suffering 

 part was plastered with loam, and carefully swathed up. 

 If the parts coalesced and soldered together, as usually fell 

 out, where the feat was performed with any adroitness at 

 all, the party was cured ; but where the cleft continued 

 to gape, the operation, it was supposed, would prove 



1 "This," says Evelyn, "is an old imposture of Pliny, who 

 either took it upon trust or else we mistake the tree." 



