THE MOUNTAIN ASH 



(OR ROWAN). 



GENERAL REMARKS. 



HO that has felt the magic of the woods, and all hut 

 seen a fairy where some leaf twinkled, or startled the 

 revels of elves and pixies from the mossy mound at 

 the roots of a hollow beech, can wonder at the tales 

 of mvstery that have grown up everywhere about trees. Sometimes 

 they are the kindly traditions of healing powers, such as the scars 

 on some aged ash, inflicted in its sapling days, still bear witness to : 

 sometimes those of old-time religions, such as invested the world-tree 

 of the Norseman, with its twisted roots linking heaven and hell, the 

 sacred Oak of the Druid, or the Hazel of the Celts, with its scarlet 

 nuts. In the North Country superstitions of a darker kind are hardly 

 yet extinct, and linger especially about the Rowan Tree. 



" Rowan tree and red thread 

 ll.-iinl the witches a' in dread." 



