240 On the Campus 



species appear sometimes to have shared these honors. 

 The ash has been already mentioned; its fame, as we 

 know, fills the myths and legends of the northern world. 

 The oak belonged to Thor, and in all Aryan tradition as 

 well, it is the lightning tree. "It was the law of the 

 Ostrogoths that in the forest one might hew what tree 

 he would, save only the oak and the hazel," and we are 

 all familiar with the stories of sacred oaks in Britain. 

 Many very ancient trees in England, France, and Spain 

 owe their presence among us to this lingering supersti- 

 tion which protects the tree of Thor and Jove, and even 

 of Jehovah, if we rightly read our much-forgotten bibles. 



Within a few days we shall be hanging all our win- 

 dows with evergreen, mistletoe in preference, in honor, 

 we say, of Christmas. As a matter of fact, mistletoe is 

 far enough from Christmas; has not even, like the hazel, 

 been baptized. Its use is wholly pagan and dates from 

 the same background of human history from which come 

 not superstitions only but a thousand things we most 

 esteem. Our fruits and grains are of such far-off an- 

 tiquity; but the mistletoe was the friend of man the 

 grain-user; when duly placed, it saved him from light- 

 ning, from witchcraft, which was worse, and from dis- 

 ease, and especially saved his stores of seeds and wheat 

 from fire. When the wheat was gathered, a sprig of 

 mistletoe was placed in the middle of the heap. Mistle- 

 toe means mist-rod; it is an evergreen parasite on the 

 oak and hence doubly sacred; for the oak, and for the 

 incomprehensible mystery of its life. The Germans call 

 it donnerbesen, the broom of thunder. 



Many another tree might lend itself here to fanciful 



