122 THE FOLK-LORE OF PLANTS. [CHAP. 



tree it would probably be cured. " The stem of a 

 young Ash being cleft down the middle, and kept 

 open by wedges, the afflicted child, in a state of nudity, 

 was forced through the opening, the mother standing 

 on one side of the tree, and the father on the other. 

 This uncomfortable transit having been twice per- 

 formed by the astonished and shivering infant, both 

 it and the disrupted tree were respectively swathed 

 up at the same time ; and if the wound in the latter 

 healed and the parts coalesced, as was generally the 

 case, a simultaneous cure was supposed to be effected 

 in the child."* 



Then there was what was known as the Shrew-ash 

 but it should be premised that the inoffensive little 

 shrew-mouse has the evil reputation of afflicting with 

 cramp any cattle it may touch or pass over. To cure 

 such cases the good country-folk always had recourse 

 to a Shrew-ash, a sprig of which applied to the afflicted 

 part would effect a cure ! But to turn an ordinary 

 Ash into a Shrew-ash required some special prepara- 

 tion. " This they managed by boring a deep hole 

 in the tree with an auger, into which a poor innocent 

 shrew-mouse was thrust alive, with appropriate incan- 

 tations. The entrance being then plugged up, of 

 course the wretched mouse shortly died, and the 

 tree thenceforward became a wonderful ' Shrew-ash,' 

 and, as such, was treated with the greatest vene- 

 ration." 



Our old friend Culpepper tells us of the Persicaria 

 or Water-pepper which he calls by another name 

 that if we put a good handful of it under a horse's 

 * Coleman, "Woodlands, Heaths, and Hedges." 



