THE MOUNTAIN ASH. 127 



group with which it is connected a distinct genus (Sorbus). 

 The name Aucuparia (from auceps, a fowler) indicates the 

 use to which its berries are applied by bird-catchers in 

 France and Germany, who bait their traps with them as a 

 certain lure for thrushes and fieldfares. Its popular names 

 are very numerous : Mountain Ash, the commonest, is fr r 

 from correct, as it belongs to an entirely different tribe 

 from the Ash, which tree it resembles only in its leaves ; 

 Rowan, Roan, its common name in Scotland, and various 

 other forms of the same word, occur in old authors. It is 

 also called Quick-Beam, Wild or Fowler's Service-tree : 

 " Service " appears to be a corruption of-Sorbus, the ancient 

 Latin name of an allied species, Pyrus Sorbus. Witchen, 

 Wicken, Wiggen, c., evidently bear allusion to "the power 

 it was once supposed to possess of counteracting witchcraft. 



Lightfoot and Gilpin are both of opinion that the Moun- 

 tain Ash was held in high estimation by the Druids. The 

 former says, " It may to this day be observed to grow 

 more frequently than any other tree in the neighbourhood 

 of those druidical circles of stones so often seen in the 

 north of Britain ; and the superstitious still continue to 

 retain a great veneration for it, which was undoubtedly 

 handed down to them from early antiquity. They believe 

 that any small part of this tree, carried about them, will 

 prove a sovereign charm against all the dire effects of 

 enchantment and witchcraft. The cattle also, as well as 

 themselves, are supposed to be preserved by it from evil ; 

 for the dairy-maid will not forget to drive them from the 

 shealings, or summer pastures, with a rod of the Rowan- 

 tree, which she carefully lays up over the door of the 

 sheal-boothy or summer-house, and drives them home 

 again with the same. In Strathspey, they make, on Ihe 

 1st of May, a hoop with the wood of this tree, and in 

 the evening and morning cause the sheep and lambs to 

 pass through it." 



The belief in the efficacy of the Mountain Ash as a 

 preservative against witchcraft has led some commentators 



