THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



not rise to the dignity of storms, are, so it was once Ijeliexed, 

 arranged by her. In Grimm's Fairy Tales she appears as the 

 Frau HoUe who sends the snow and is go old she knows almost 

 as much as Father Time himself. 



Sometimes, so it used to be said, she would come forth as 

 twilight fell, in the form of a little, bent old woman. Wood- 

 cutters used to see her in dim forest paths, with milk pails on 

 her arms. Sometimes she would come to help the tired reap- 

 ers, belated at their work, and she could cut the grain and bind 

 it into sheaves with astonishing quickness. In her goddess 

 form, Huldah is one of the lovliest figures in all heathen 

 mythology. She is robed in white, has luxuriant golden hair, 

 and wears a long, glistening veil. From her golden girdle 

 hangs a key which can unlock all the treasures of the earth. 



The little elves, too, w^ere supposed to take a special inter- 

 est in the elder. Hard by its roots one might find an entrance to 

 their underground dwelling, and it used to be said that if any- 

 one would stand by an elder bush at twelve o'clock on Mid- 

 summer night, he might see the King" of the Elves go by with 

 all his retinue. 



When Northern Europe was Christianized the heathen 

 gods and evervthing connected with them were condemned by 

 the priests. This bush, once so dear to Huldah and her elves, 

 then acquired a bad character. It was said that the elder used 

 to be a tree, till Judas hanged himself on it, but that it has been 

 accursed and stunted ever since. "The tree of eldre," says a 

 famous old book, "that Judas henge himself upon, for de- 

 spayre," and in a famous old poem, "The Vision of Piers 

 Plowman," we find this allusion to the legend: 



"Judas he japed (deceived) 

 For Jewen silver 



And sithen (afterwards) on an eller 

 Hanged himself." 



This legend of Judas caused the elder to become associated 

 in song and story with thoughts of grief and death. Thus in 



