82 SYLVA FLOKIFERA, 



the remembrance of what is useful in the 

 past. 



Three virgins are entrusted with the guar- 

 dianship of this sacred tree, who always re- 

 main beneath the branches to refresh the ash 

 with these salutary waters, which, on falling 

 back on the earth, forms a dew which pro- 

 duces honey : happy effects of the invention 

 of wisdom and science. 



The Edda of Woden, holds the ash in so 

 liigh a veneration, that man is described as 

 being formed from it. Hesiod, who is sup- 

 posed to have lived in Homer's time, deduces 

 his brazen race of men from the ash ; and 

 in his Theogony has nymphs of the name 



That the ancient writers should so highly 

 extol the ash is not extraordinary, as its inner 

 bark often was the substance they wrote on 

 before the invention of paper. Ancient 

 writers state, that serpents have such an anti- 

 pathy to the ash that they will not approach 

 even within its morning or evening shadow ; 

 and Pliny tells us, (he says upon experience), 

 that if a fire and a serpent be surrounded by 

 ash boughs, the serpent will sooner run into 

 the fire than into the boughs. He considers 

 it as providential that the ash should blossom 

 before the serpents appear, and that it should 



