236 
KUKAL HOURS. 
States ; the white, the red, the green or yellow, the blue, and the 
black, besides the small and very rare flowering ash, only twenty 
feet high. Of these different kinds, only the white and the black 
are understood to belong to our highland county ; both these are 
common here, and both are handsome and valuable trees, used 
for very many mechanical purposes. The white ash, indeed, is 
said to be as desirable as the hickory — our American tree being 
considered superior for timber to that of Europe, which it much 
resembles. When used for fuel, it has the peculiarity of burning 
nearly as well in a green state as when dry, and the timber also 
scarcely requires any seasoning. The black ash, more especially 
a northern tree, is abundant here ; it is smaller than the white, and 
is much used by the Indian basket-makers, being thought rather 
preferable to the white for their purposes. It is amusing to re- 
member that the small bows and arrows made to-day by the rov- 
ing Indians as playthings for our boys, are manufactured out of 
the same wood used for the arms of heroes in the ancient world ; 
many a great warrior besides Achilles has received his death- 
wound from an ashen spear ; ashen lances were shivered in the 
tomnaments of chivalrous days, by the stout knights of the mid- 
dle ages, the Richards and Bertrands, Ohviers and Edwards. At 
the present day the ash is still used, with the beech, to arm the 
regiments of modern lancers. Bows, also, were made of the ash, 
as well as of the yew, in ancient times. For all we know, the bow 
of William Tell may have been an ashen one. There is one very 
remarkable association connected with the European ash, which 
is a hardy tree, clinging to the rocky mountains of Northern Eu- 
rope. It figures largely in Scandinavian mythology. The ash- 
tree, Yggdrassil, was their tree of life, or an emblem of the world. 
