WILLOW TREE. 



393 



Since so it is, I'll tell thee what ; 



To-morrow thou shalt see 

 Me wear the willow, after that 



To die upon the tree. 



As beasts unto the altars go 



With garlands dressed, so I 

 Will with ray willow wreath also 



Come forth, and sweetly die." 



The Willow seems, from the oldest times, to have 

 been dedicated to grief : under them the children of 

 Israel seem to have lamented their captivity : 



" By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea we wept 

 when we remembered Zion : we hanged our harps upon the willows 

 in the midst thereof." 



Psalms. 



The ancient Britons used boats made of wicker covered 

 with skins, for passing rivers and arms of the sea : 



Primum cana salix madefacto vimine parvam 

 Texitur in puppim, caesaque induta juvenca, 

 Vectoris patiens, tumidam superemicat amnera. 

 Sic Venetus, stagnante Pado, fusoque Britannus 

 Navigat oceano." 



LucAX, book iv. 



" The bending willow into barks they twine. 



Then line the work with spoils of slaughtered kine ; 

 Such are the floats Venetian fishers know, 

 W^here in dull marshes stands the settHng Po. 

 On such to neighbouring Gaul, allured by gain. 

 The bolder Britons cross the swelling main." 



Rowe's Lucan. 



Wicker baskets were made by our forefathers in very 

 early times, for Martial speaks of them : 



" Barbara de pictis veni Bascauda Britannis . 

 Sed me jam mavult dicere Roma suam." 



