io8 
WAYSIDE AND WOODLAND TREES. 
seldom allowed to grow into a fully developed tree, but, thanks 
to the birds, it comes up on the common and the hillside, and 
has a chance of producing its masses of ruby fruit. Its wood is 
tough and elastic, but, owing to the smallness of its girth, it does 
not produce timber of any size. Still, it makes admirable poles 
and hoops. 
The word Rowan is one of the most interesting of tree-names, 
and connects the still-existing superstitious practices of our 
northern counties, not only with the old Norsemen, but with the 
ancient Hindus who spoke the Sanskrit tongue. The word is 
spelled in many ways which connect it with the Old Norse runa, 
a charm, it being supposed to have power to ward off the effects 
of the evil eye. In earlier times was the Sanskrit appella- 
tion for a magician ; riin-stafas were staves cut from the Rowan- 
tree upon which runes were inscribed. Until quite recently the 
respect for its magical properties was shown in the north by fixing 
a branch of Rowan to the cattle-byre as a charm against the 
evil designs of witches, warlocks, and others of that kidney. In 
this connection we may quote also from Evelyn’s “ Sylva.” He 
says : “ Ale and beer brewed with these berries, being ripe, is 
an incomparable drink, familiar in Wales, where this tree is 
reputed so sacred that there is not a churchyard without one 
of them planted in it (as among us the Yew) ; so, on a certain 
day in the year, everybody religiously wears a cross made of the 
wood ; and the tree is by some authors called Fraxinus Cambro- 
Britannica, reputed to be a preservative against fascinations 
and evil spirits ; whence, perhaps, we call it witchen, the boughs 
being stuck about the house or the wood used for walking- 
staves.” 
Among the numerous names of the Mountain Ash are 
Fowler’s Service (or Servise, from Cerevisia, a fermented 
drink). Cock-drunks, Hen-drunks (from the belief that fowls 
were intoxicated by eating the “ berries ”), Quickbeam, White 
Ash (from the colour of the flowers), Witch-wood, and Witchen. 
