PRACTICES TO OBTAIN CHILDREN 43 



such a tree is called the child-pear-tree. At Nierstein, 

 in Hesse, is a great lime-tree from which children for 

 the whole neighbourhood are fetched. At Gummers- 

 bach is another. A short distance from Nauders, in 

 the Tirol, stood a sacred tree, the last of the wood. 

 It was a larch. Torn and maimed by age and storms, 

 it was reduced to a mere trunk, and at last cut down 

 in the winter of 1855, though the stump remained in 

 the ground for several years longer. From this 

 sacred tree it was believed that children, especially 

 the boys, were brought. From its neighbourhood 

 superstitious awe prevented timber or firewood from 

 being gathered. Crying or screaming near it was 

 deemed a serious misbehaviour ; quarrelling, cursing, 

 or scolding was looked upon as an offence that called 

 to heaven for instant punishment. It was generally 

 believed (and the belief was supported by at least one 

 current story) that the tree would bleed if hacked or 

 cut, and that the blow would fall at the same moment 

 on the tree and on the body of the offender who dared 

 to use his axe or knife upon it ; nor would the wound 

 heal in his body until it healed in the tree. 1 On the 

 road from Boitzenhagen to Knesebeck, in a district of 

 northern Germany remote from railways, stands an 

 oak called the Children's Tree. It replaces a much 

 older tree, which has disappeared. The people of 

 Boitzenhagen have to go to Knesebeck for baptisms. 

 They always halt on such, occasions beside the tree to 

 partake of cakes and brandy, and are careful to give 

 the tree its share of both. Wedding processions also 

 halt and adorn its twigs with coloured ribbons ; the 



1 Zingerle, Sagen, no; Am Urquell, iv. 224; v. 287; Wolf, 

 Hessische Sagen> 13 (No. 15). 



