66 



THE YEW TREE. 



personal trial. Indeed, nothing is more com- 

 mon in this neighbourhood, when autumn has 

 set in, than to see the village lads idling under 

 yew trees, and partaking plentifully of the 

 fruit, which they appositely call snottle-berries. 



Ovid considered the appearance of the yew 

 tree sufficiently lugubrious to give it a place on 

 the hill-side which led down to the infernal re- 

 gions, — " funesta nubila taxo." And we learn 

 from Julius Caesar, that it proved fatal to the 

 human species ; for King Cativolcus, after 

 heartily cursing his ally Ambiorix, for having 

 brought him into an irretrievable scrape, had 

 recourse to the yew tree, in order to bid this 

 wicked world adieu for ever: — "Taxo, cujus 

 magna in Gallia, Germaniaque copia est, se 

 exanimavit." 



The Spaniards, in the days of Cervantes, ap- 

 plied sprigs of yew to mournful purposes, as 

 we gather from the story of Chrysostomo. This 

 unhappy swain fell into languor, and died for 

 the love of the shepherdess Marcela; and his 

 friend performed his obsequies with wreaths of 

 yew and cypress ; " Eran, qual de texo, y qual 

 de Cypres." But, here in England, the yew 

 sprig, far from being thought an emblem of 



