234 Fairy Beliefs in Galloway. 



the drilling-stick of their fire-producing chark or churn, and 

 it was held by them to be proof against magic, as the white- 

 thorn was by the Romans, who used it as a torch at their 

 marriage ceremonies. 



In the Quarterly Review of July, 1863, speaking of sacred 

 trees and flowers, a writer says : — " The whitethorn is one 

 of the trees most in favour with the ' small people ' (the 

 fairies), and both in Brittany and some parts of Ireland it is 

 unsafe to gather even a leaf from certain old and solitary 

 thorns which grow in sheltered hollows of the woodland and 

 the fairies' trysting places." The Crown of Thorns was in 

 the Middle Ages thought to have been formed of whitethorn 

 branches, and was reverenced accordingly. Sir John Mande- 

 ville, the old traveller, said of the whitethorn : — " He that 

 beareth a braunch on him thereof, no thondere none manner 

 of tempest may hurt him, ne in the hous that yt is ynne may 

 now evil ghoste entre. "* 



Sir Norman Lockyer says that the hawthorn is associated 

 with the temple worship of the ancients in May, when it 

 flowers, and when also its berries or haws are conspicuous 

 in November. Like the rowan, which also flowers in May, 

 the old Norsemen treated the hawthorn as holy and sacred 

 to Thor.f I would here like to mention a curious tradition 

 that the common whitethorn was brought from Palestine by 

 the Crusaders. A short time ago a friend in Glenluce in- 

 formed me she had been told that the monks of Glenluce 

 Abbey brought the thorn from the Holy Land and planted 

 it in their fields and gardens. 



Though, strictly speaking, not directly belonging to the 

 subject, I might remind readers of the well-known flowering- 

 thorn of Glastonbury to which so many interesting legends 

 attach. In Cornwall they used to gather the hawthorn and 

 make whistles for the May rnusic and merry-making. Among 

 the many virtues attributed to the May-thorn was that of 

 preserving the complexion of those maidens who at daybreak 

 on May morning each year would wash themselves in haw- 

 thorn dew. 



* Kelly's Inclo-Uvrnpean Troditinns. 



t Stonefienge, Sir Norman Lockyer, chap, xs. 



