


























132 HOPE. 
the Troglodytes, in the simplicity of their minds, 
tied hawthorn branches to the dead bodies of 
their parents and friends; and at the inter- 
ment of the corpse they strewed its branches 
upon the body, and afterwards covered it with 
stones, laughing through the whole of the cere- 
mony. They considered death as the dawning 
of a life which should never cease. 
The hawthorn boughs were used in England 
as one of the principal decorations of the May- 
pole in our ancient village amusements; and 
this circumstance, together with its flower- 
ing in May, have obtained for it more com- 
monly the name of that month. What more 
delights the young and the light-hearted, than 
to gather from our hedgerows a branch of this 
tree filled with its delicate flowers, whose 
petals are not unfrequently tinged with a beau- 
tiful delicate pink! and, as we read in the 
deathless works of Shakspeare, 
Gives not the hawthorn-bush a sweeter shade 
To shepherds, looking on their silly sheep, 
Than doth a rich embroidered canopy 
To kings, that fear their subjects’ treachery ? 
O! yes, it doth ; a thousand fold it doth. 
