THE DEVONSHIRE ASH-TREE CHARM. 
145 
T. F. Thiselton Dyer (pp. cit, p. 28), "it is believed that the ash 
appears without its red buds on St. John's Day, because the 
witches eat them the night before on their way to the orgies of 
Walpurgisnacht. ' ' 
There appears to be an error here. The Walpurgisnacht — the 
night between April 30th and May 1st (See Noted and Queries, 
2nd s. viii., 270) — is not so near any one of the numerous St. John's 
Days as the author's statement implies. (See Sir H. Nicholas's 
Chron. of Hist, pp. 145-6.) 
13. Ash-Trees and Gipsies: — The same author states (p. 34) 
that the gipsies believe that the cross was made of ash. 
IV. The Connection of Ash-Trees with Idolatry, Mytho- 
logy, &c. 
Hitherto our attention has been confined to modern times, and, 
in most instances, even to the present century. The ash, how- 
ever, is closely connected with the Idolatries and Mythologies of 
antiquity, as the following quotations show : 
1. The Ash and Idolatry: — The prophet Isaiah (ch. xliv. 
v. 14-19) says, "He [the carpenter] planteth an ash, and the rain 
doth nourish it. Then shall it be for a man to burn : for he will 
take thereof and will warm himself ; yea, he kindleth it, and baketh 
bread ; yea, he maketh a god, and worshippeth it ; he maketh it a 
graven image and falleth down thereto. He burnetii part thereof 
in the fire ; with part thereof he eateth flesh ; he roasteth roast 
and is satisfied : yea, he warmeth himself, and saith, Aha, I am 
warm, I have seen the fire : And the residue thereof he maketh a 
god, even his graven image : he falleth down unto it, and worship- 
peth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith, Deliver me, for thou art my 
god. They have not known nor understood : for he hath shut their 
eyes, that they cannot see ; and their hearts, that they cannot 
understand. And none considereth in his heart, neither is there 
knowledge nor understanding to say, I have burned part of it in 
the fire ; yea, also I have baked bread upon the coals thereof ; I 
have roasted flesh, and eaten it : and shall I make the residue 
thereof an abomination % shall I fall down to the stock of a tree % " 
2. The Ash and Mythology : — Professor Max Miiller, in his 
Chip entitled The Norsemen in Iceland (1858), says, "There are 
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