HAZKL-NUT. 



211 



In the country where yeast is scarce, they twist the 

 slender branches of hazel together, and steep them in ale- 

 yeast during its fermentation : they are then hung up to 

 dry, and at the next brewing are put into the wort instead 

 of yeast. The chips of this wood are used to fine wines. 



In more superstitious times, divining-rods were made 

 of hazel, which were supposed to have the property, when 

 placed horizontally in the earth, of bend ing towards mines, 

 springs of water, &c. They were even used by the magi- 

 strates of those credulous days to find out criminals guilty 

 of murder, &c. by their inclining towards the person. 

 We find that even the wisest and best men of those days 

 could not entirely escape the infectious superstitions of 

 their age. Lord Bacon confesses by his writings his be- 

 lief of witches ; and Evelyn, in his " Discourse of Forest 

 Trees," says, under the article Hazel, *' But now, after all, 

 the most signal honour it was ever employed in, and 

 which might deservedly exalt this humble and common 

 plant above all the trees of the wood, is that of hurdles, 

 especially the flexible white, the red, and brittle ; not for 

 that it is generally used for the folding of our innocent 

 sheep, an emblem of the Church, but for making the walls 

 of one of* the first Christian Oratories in the world; and 

 particularly in this island, that venerable and sacred 

 fa brick at Glastonbury, founded by St. Joseph of Arima- 

 thea, which is storied to have been first composed out of 

 a few small hazel-rods interwoven about ceitain stakes 

 driven into the ground." 



p '2 



