December 20, 1890. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
249 
More usually it grew upon Apple, Pear, Willow, Poplar, 
Lime, Maple, Hawthorn and other trees, and was in 
those cases less highly esteemed. Having prepared 
sacrifices, and a feast under the Oak tree, or in the 
consecrated groves hard by, they brought up two white 
bulls, and having tied them by the horns, the priest 
or Druid, arrayed in a white garment, ascended the tree, 
and lopped the Mistleto with a golden knife. A white 
sheet was held beneath to receive it before touching the 
ground, otherwise its virtues would have been lost. 
After this operation they sacrificed their victims, which 
in Britain and France were sometimes human beings, 
probably criminals. 
This last phase was supposed to be a corrupt after¬ 
growth from the pure original worship in which fruits 
and flowers only were sacrificed. It is believed by 
name in the Gaelic and Irish uile-ice, the Welsh oll-iafflB. 
aud the Irish uile-iceach ; in all cases meaning all-heal 
in English. It was believed to be a panacea or cure 
for all evils, and a remedy against all poisons. Even as 
recently as 1578, or even later, virtues were ascribed to 
the Mistleto by the herbalists. They believed in its 
efficacy to cure old sores, swellings, ulcers, &c.; and 
it was said that the wood of the Mistleto, gathered 
from the Oak only,, was good to hang about the 
necks of patients subject to the falling evil and 
apoplexy. 
The word Mistleto, or Mistletoe, comes from the old 
English Missel, or Misselto ; and those again from the 
Anglo-Saxon Mistelta, and the German Mistel, or Mistil. 
The best philologists are of opinion that the latter name 
is a corruption of the Latin visculus, the diminutive for 
Mistleto does not appear to occur in Scottish song, and 
if it had been much employed in the Christmas, or 
more properly the Yuletide festivities, it would almost 
certainly have been immortalised in song by Burns. 
Yuletide and Yule are comparatively modern names 
for Jul, a feast held in honour of the Scandinavian 
deity Frei, whose name still lives in Friday, one of the 
days of our week. That the feast of Yule was still 
observed in Burns’ day we are certain, as evidenced in 
the song of Duncan Gray— 
“ Duncan Gray came here to woo, 
Ha, ha, the wooin’ o’t! 
On blythe Yule nicht when we were fou, 
Ha, ha, the wooin’ o’t! ” 
The feast of Jul being of Scandinavian origin, 
probably corresponded in time to the feasting and 
Cyclamen persicum and Agaricus deliquescens. 
some that the Irish Druids did not practise this 
barbarous custom. Ireland, in fact, was believed to be 
the original home of Druidism, and that it passed from 
thence to Britain, and so to Ancient Gaul—that is, the 
modern France. Csesar in his time, when the legions 
of Rome overspread the greater part of the then known 
world, believed that Druidism was invented by the 
British, and transported to the Gauls, their neighbours. 
The head-quarters of the Druids in Britain seem to 
have been in the Island of Anglesea, for there the 
Romans massacred the greater number of the priests in 
61, a.d. Some of the remainder escaped with their 
lives and settled in the island of Iona, which was then 
called Innisnan Druidlineach, the Isle of the Druids. 
This interesting little island became the last home of 
Druidism in Britain, and the first home of the Christian 
Religion. 
The English name Mistleto is comparatively of much 
more recent origin than that used by the Druids, the 
priests of the ancient Celts. We find the Druidical 
viscus, bird-lime, referring to the clammy juice of the 
berry of the Mistleto. Hence the derivation of the 
botanist’s name, Yiscum album, the specific name 
referring to the white colour of the berries. 
An Icelandic legend concerning the Mistleto was 
that Balder, one of the heroes of romance in that 
country, was slain by a dart made from Mistleto. 
His mother had previously obtained a vow from all 
things on earth that they would not injure her son. 
One of his enemies, knowing that the Mistleto had 
not taken the vow, slew Balder with a dart made 
from it. 
Judging from all of the above given names it is 
evident that the modern ones are all derivatives from 
the Latin. The old Druidical name has probably all 
but died out in spoken language. The old Celtic or 
Keltic tongue still survives in Irish, Cornish, Welsh, 
and Gaelic, but the Mistleto is not native to either 
Ireland or Scotland, and what they may now use must 
be imported from England or France. The name 
sacrificing of the Druids when they cut the sacred 
Mistleto. In either case it may be considered a relic 
of the religion of a people who were worshippers of the 
sun. May Day, or Beltine, and Hallow E’en are 
relics of those same people. On the spread of 
Christianity it took a great effort on'the part of the 
people in power to put down the ancient customs of 
sun-worship. But in later days the customs were, 
and to a certain extent are still carried on by the 
younger members of the populace in different parts 
of Britain without their knowing anything of the 
origin or real meaning of the practice. It does not 
seem certain how or when the present custom with the 
Mistleto originated ; but it is probably an innocent 
form of amusement that has gradually evolved itself from 
the ancient and superstitious practices of the Druids. 
What the latter would think or say could they make 
their appearance now may well be imagined. A 
future race may look back upon us and our customs 
aud exclaim, “ 0 tempora, 0 mores.” — Viscum, 
