22 DORSETSHIRE FOLK-SPEECH AND SUPERSTITIONS. 



Adder : It is said that if any auimal or man has been bitten by 

 an adder the best remedy that can be used is the fat taken from the 

 adder that has caused the injury. There seems to be a fancy that 

 the pest that has caused the injury contains in itself also the remedy. 



If you dream of adders or snakes it is a sign that you have 

 enemies who are trying to do you some secret mischief ; the same 

 meaning is attached to dreaming of bees and wasps. 



Air-mouse : The bat (see Here-mouse). 



Aller : The alder tree (alnus glutinosa.) 



Ash-candles : The seed vessels of the ash tree. The properties 

 of the ash, whether for the purposes of charms or divinations are 

 widely known. 



In Dorset the belief was widespread that if a young maiden ash 

 (i.e., not polled) were split and a ruptured child drawn through it, 

 the latter would become cured. The late Mr. Barnes stated that he 

 had known of two trees through which children had been so drawn. 

 [See Gilbert White's Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne 

 as to this.] 



Some people, believing the ash to be dioecious (that is to say, 

 the male and female flowers were found on different trees), 

 select what they suppose to be a female ash for a male patient and 

 vice versa. But I have the authority of our worthy President for 

 saying that although some members of the ash family are dioecious, 

 it is not the case with the common ash, which is undoubtedly 

 polygamous. Further, as the tree to be selected must be a sapling, 

 and therefore not old enough to bear fruit, its sex, if different, 

 could not be ascertained. 



The ash is also considered as throwing some light upon the 

 probable success or otherwise of the corn crops, as the following 

 couplet would tend to show : 



" As ash do coaly 

 Wheat do lowly." 



that obtain in the county. Any such assistance would be particularly 

 valuable to me in my contemplated work on Dorsetshire Folk-lore, and would 

 be most gratefully received. 



