238 On the Campus 



ever been suggested to indicate the power of these magic 

 syllables. 



There are many other plants to which age-long prac- 

 tice and tradition assign a similar virtue. The common 

 hazel has a reputation for discovery transcending sesame. 

 It has also other virtues. One day in Switzerland I saw 

 a clumsily shapen cross in a shop-window, fastened 

 against the window pane. I heeded it little until a sec- 

 ond glance showed that it was the hazel. Knowing the 

 lore of the little tree I made inquiry and learned, in fact, 

 that throughout southern Germany hazel rods, especially 

 in form of a cross, are good protectors against lightning, 

 since on their flight into Egypt, the Holy Family found 

 a hazel bush an efficient refuge in the time of storm. 

 But the cross is a baptized hazel, so to say. The plant 

 was famous long before Christianity carried its emblem 

 to any part of Europe, or even its founder had lent the 

 cross its present honor. The hazel was a lightning plant, 

 sacred to Thor, as was the ash, and hazel and ash bloom 

 together in many an ancient legend. Sometimes one, 

 sometimes the other has precedence. For thousands of 

 years the rod has been the symbol of authority ; was per- 

 haps the original scepter, probably because of its con- 

 venience as an instrument of enforcement. By means of 

 a rod the wonders were done in Egypt; but according to 

 Hebrew tradition Aaron's rod that budded was an al- 

 mond switch. I am in doubt about this, when I read that 

 in the old languages the words for almond and hazel 

 are the same. Jacob's trick-rods were hazel, as it ap- 

 pears, and hazel was and is the charmed wood of our 

 own ancestral peoples. The divining rod, which John 



