192 SUPERSTITIONS. 



twenty miles of the capital, they seized on two superannuated 

 wretches, crazed with age, and overwhelmed with infirmities, 

 on a suspicion of witchcraft ; and, by trying experiments, 

 drowned them in a horse-pond. 



In a farm-yard, near the middle of this village, stands, at 

 this day, a row of pollard-ashes, which, by the seams and long 

 cicatrices down their sides, manifestly shew that, in former 

 times, they have been cleft asunder. These trees, when young 

 and flexible, were severed and held open by wedges, while 

 ruptured children, stripped naked, were pushed through the 

 apertures, under a persuasion that, by such a process, the poor 

 babes would be cured of their infirmity. As soon as the 

 operation was over, the tree in the suffering part was plastered 

 with loam, and carefully swathed up. * If the parts coalesced 



* Among the popular superstitions of Britain trees have always held a 

 conspicuous place. There is hardly a county in the kingdom, or indeed 

 a parish, that has not had its witch's thorn, or some such ominously 

 named tree. Among the peasantry of Scotland, the mountain ash, which 

 is termed the rowan tree, was considered a complete antidote against the 

 effects of witchcraft ; and, in consequence, a twig of it was very commonly 

 carried in the pocket : but that it might have complete efficacy, it was 

 necessary that it should be accompanied by the following couplet, written 

 on paper, wrapped round the wood, and secured by a red silk thread : 



Rowan tree and red thread 

 Keeps the witches at their speed. 



An amber bead was supposed to have precisely the same effect ; if the 

 red silk thread was attached to it with the above couplet, only the words 

 " lammar bead" were substituted for rowan tree. Among the higher 

 classes, amber beads were worn, and always strung with red silk thread. 

 The Hindoos have a similar superstition, as remarked by Bishop Heber, 

 near Boitpoor, in Upper Nilia. " I passed a fine tree of the mimosa, 

 with leaves, at a little distance, so much resembling those of the mountain 

 ash, that I was for a moment deceived, and asked if it did not bring 

 fruit ? They answered, no ; but that it was a very noble tree, being called 



* the imperial tree,' for its excellent properties ; that it slept all night, 

 and wakened and was alive all day, withdrawing its leaves if any one 

 attempted to touch them. Above ah 1 , however, it was useful as a pre- 

 servative against magic ; a sprig worn in the turban, or suspended over 

 the bed, was a perfect security against all spells, evil eye, &c. insomuch 

 that the most formidable wizard would not, if he could help it, approach 

 its shade. One, indeed, they said, who was very renowned for his 

 power (like Loorinite in the Kehama) of killing plants and drying up 

 their sap with a look, had come to this very tree, and gazed on it intently ; 



* but,' said the old man, who told me this, with an air of triumph, ' look 

 as he might, he could do the tree no harm ;' a fact of which I make no 

 question. I was amused and surprised to find the superstition, which, 

 in England and Scotland, attaches to the rowan tree, was applied to a 

 tree of nearly similar form. Which nation has been, in this case, the 



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