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JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
of that tree, either morning or evening, notwithstanding at those 
times it reacheth farthest ; you may be sure then they will not 
approch the tree it selfe, by a great way. And this I am able to 
deliuer by the experience which I have seene, that if a man doe 
make a round circle with the leaues thereof, and enuiron therewith 
a serpent and fire together within, the serpent will chuse rather 
to go into the fire, than to flie from it to the leaues of the Ash. 
A wonderfull goodnesse of dame Nature, that the Ash bloometh 
and flourisheth alwaies before that serpents come abroad ; and 
neuer sheddeth leaues, but continneth greene, vntill they be retired 
into their holes, and hidden within the ground." 
"Iam astonished," says Evelyn, " at the universal confidence of 
some, that a serpent will rather creep into the fire than over a twig 
of Ash ; this is an old imposture of Pliny, who either took it upon 
trust, or we mistake the tree." Op. cit., p. 152. 
Mr. R. Hunt, in his work already quoted, says (p. 420), " It is 
said that no kind of snake is ever found near the 1 ashen-tree,' and 
that a branch of the ash-tree will prevent a snake from coming near 
a person. 
" A child who was in the habit of receiving its portion of bread 
and milk at the cottage door, was found to be in the habit of 
sharing its food with one of the poisonous adders. The reptile 
came regularly every morning, and the child, pleased with the 
beauty of his companion, encouraged the visits. The babe and 
adder were close friends. 
" Eventually this became known to the mother, and finding it to 
be a matter of difficulty to keep the snake from the child whenever 
it was left alone — and she was frequently, being a labourer in the 
fields, compelled to leave the child to shift for itself — she adopted 
the precaution of binding an ' ashen-twig ' about its body. 
" The adder no longer came near the child ; but from that day 
forward the child pined, and eventually died, as all around said, 
through grief at having lost the companion by whom it had been 
fascinated." 
Mrs. Bray, in her Traditions, Legends, Superstitions, and Sketches 
of Devonshire, &c, 1838, vol. i. p. 95, writes, when describing a 
visit to Wistman's Wood, Dartmoor, " The farmer says, ' 'Tis a 
