MISTLETOE. 



71 



MISTLETOE. 

 By Walter Smyth. 



This "quaint and mystic plant that grows 'twixt earth and heaven " is 

 annually drawn attention to as the festive season of Christmas comes round 

 in the sequence of the events of the year. The mistletoe grows in quite 

 an extraordinary way, never sending its roots into the ground, but drawing 

 its nourishment from other trees, where its berries or its seeds within 

 same have been placed either by the agency of man or birds. I do not 

 think there is any other way in which the mistletoe is likely to be con- 

 veyed to the bark of a tree save as before mentioned. The berries might, 

 of course, be carried by mice in the case of ivy growing on an oak tree, 

 or by squirrels to whose feet they may have become attached, but I 

 have never seen these means suggested. Growing as it does in such a 

 different way from the immense majority of plants, mistletoe has always 

 been an object of interest ; but in the olden times it was more than this, 

 it was also an object of veneration. So much was this the case that 

 when the ancient order of priests called Druids found it growing on an oak 

 tree — a tree on which it is rarely found — they held a service under the tree 

 in its honour, as it was considered to be a forerunner of good fortune to 

 the people or tribe. At this service the priest, attired in a white robe, 

 cut away a portion of the mistletoe with a golden knife, letting the severed 

 part fall into the lap of a white-robed attendant who waited beneath the 

 tree. There are many other superstitions connected with mistletoe. In 

 Sweden a ring made from its wood is considered to be a charm against 

 evil. It is also called " the branch of spectres," as it was said to enable 

 the holder to see ghosts and familiar spirits when they came about, which 

 was, perhaps, a safe virtue, considering the rarity of the latter. A decoc- 

 tion from the wood was said to be a cure for strained sinews, toothache, 

 hydrophobia, and poisons. 



In Worcestershire there is a popular belief that farmers were in the 

 habit of cutting a bough of mistletoe and giving it to the cow that first 

 calved after New Year's Day to eat, as this act was supposed to avert ill- 

 luck from the dairy. In the West of England there is also a tradition 

 that the Cross was made of mistletoe, which until that time had been a 

 fine forest tree, but was henceforth as a punishment condemned to lead a 

 parasitical existence, and never to draw sustenance from the earth again. 

 The mistletoe was always cut at a particular age of the moon at the begin- 

 ning of the year, and it was only sought for when the Druids pretended 

 to have had visions directing them to seek it. If the mistletoe fell to the 

 ground without being touched it was considered to be an omen of mis- 

 fortune. The old and popular custom of kissing under the mistletoe is 

 one of its attractions at Christmas time. And who does not look back to 

 childhood with memories of those happy early days when, like the mistle- 

 toe, life was evergreen ? The custom seems to have been derived from the 



