FOLK-LORE-WITCH-HAZEL. 



The folk-lore of Europe has reference on mul- 

 tiple occasions to the mythical properties and virtues 

 of witch-hazel. In most instances pronounced mag- 

 ical powers are ascribed to the shrub, bush, twig, or 

 tree. A forked staff of hazel-wood is employed by 

 witches as a wand to wave over a road or path, or 

 over a stream or pond of water, to influence the pre- 

 siding deities or sprites of the locality for good or evil 

 to those passing. Sometimes a wand of ash was se- 

 lected to execute a potent purpose ; and the leaves of 

 the ash tree were presumed to antidote the venom of 

 serpents. A Swedish peasant will assure you that the 

 touch of a hazel twig will extract the virus of a 

 snake's bite ; and that after a battle between serpents, 

 the wounded reptile will repair to a hazel bush, and 

 there remain until the venom has been antidoted. 



In the "Mythology of the Aryan Nations" we read 

 that amulets to cure and keep off epilepsy are made 

 of mistletoe ; and that children are relieved of hernia 

 by wearing a girdle of ash and hazel twigs or leaves. 

 Mr. Fiske, in his "Myth and Myth-Makers," says: 

 " The notion that snakes are afraid of an ash tree is 

 not extinct even in the United States. The other day 

 I was told, not by an old granny, but by a man fairly 

 educated and endowed with a very unusual amount of 

 good common sense, that a rattlesnake will sooner go 

 through fire than creep over ash leaves or into the 

 shadow of an ash tree." I can assure the writer that 



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