The Ashes and the Fringe Tree 



giant top supported the Heavens. The Fount of Wisdom and 

 Knowledge was at its base — so were the abodes of the Gods and 

 the Giants. The Fates, also, dwelt there, who held in their hands 

 the destinies of men. There were the Nornies "continually 

 watering the roots of this world-shadowing tree with honey-dew." 

 Hesiod in the South declares that a race of brazen men sprung 

 from the ash tree. In those days, when the world was new, men 

 sprang from oak trees, or from the soil, or the rifted rock, according 

 to the legends and fables handed down to us. 



Superstitious parents in rural England used to pass a poor 

 little babe suffering from rupture through the cleft stem of a 

 growing ash. Twice the stem must be sprung apart, and the 

 child passed through. The trunk was then tightly bound, and 

 when its halves were firmly knit, they believed that the child 

 would also be v/hole. An oil distilled from ash chips was counted 

 a sovereign remedy for many ailments, especially earache, John 

 Gerarde writes: "It is excellent to recover the hearing, some 

 drops of it being distilled warm into the ears" 



The kernels of ash seeds were credited with having medicinal 

 value. English apothecaries of Evelyn's time had stock of 

 "Lingua avis" on their shelves, calling them this because they 

 were "like almost to divers birds' tongues." Gerarde, citing 

 the authority of Pliny, says: "Serpents dare not so much as 

 touch the morning and evening shadows of the tree, but shun 

 them afar oflF. . . . Being penned with boughes laid round 

 about [they] will sooner go into the fire than come near the boughes 

 of the ash." And he adds: "It is a wonderful courtesie in 

 nature that the ash should floure before the Serpents appeare, 

 and not cast his leaves before they be gon again." 



As for lightning, the ash is said to attract it. Various warn- 

 ings are current: 



"Beware the oak, it draws the stroke; 

 Avoid the ash, it courts the flash; 

 Creep under the thorn — it will save you from harm." 



The unfortunate rustic, caught in a shower, probably knows 

 that beech is the safest tree to stand under, for experience and 

 tradition both hold that "a beech is never struck by lightning." 

 The early settlers had this saying from the Indians, and proved 

 its truth. A quaint recipe from Gerarde may interest some of 

 my readers, though certain makers of nostrums may frown upon 



442 



