262 UNDER THE OPEN SKY 



host the choicest of food. In the case of 

 many parasites, this stealing of nourish- 

 ment leads to the entire loss of the leaves it 

 now no longer needs; but the mistletoe 

 keeps them, in at least partial support of it- 

 self. With an apparent shrewdness most 

 astonishing, it holds to them all the year 

 round, while its host has thrown away its 

 own leaves and stopped working for the 

 winter. 



THE CHRISTMAS CUSTOM 



The mistletoe, like the Easter egg, is one 

 of the evidences of the fact, that a new re- 

 ligion becomes superposed upon an old one, 

 rather than completely displaces it. In the 

 primitive worship of our Saxon ancestors, 

 the priests assembled their people beneath 

 the ancient oak, where often the horse served 

 for the bloody sacrifice. Reverencing the 

 oak as they did, what is more natural than 

 that an especial sacredness should attach 

 to the mysterious plant, the only one in 

 their experience, that flourished, green all 

 the year round, upon the branches of their 



