













144 I SURMOUNT ALL DIFFICULTIES. 
tain the Christmas customs and gambols of our 
ancestors, need not that we should remind them 
of the part it plays in those festivities. The 
Druids had a species of adoration for a weak- 
ness so superior to strength. The tyrant sub- 
jugator of the oak appeared to them alike 
formidable to men and gods; and they related 
the following story in support of their opinion : 
—‘ One day, Balder told his mother Friga, that 
he had dreamed he should die. Friga con- 
jured the elements—earth, air, fire, and water ; 
metals, maladies, animals, and serpents, that 
they should do no evil to her son; and her 
conjurations were so powerful that nought 
could resist them. Balder, therefore, went 
to the combat of the gods, and fought in the 
midst of showers of arrows without fear. Loake, 
his enemy, wished to know the reason ; he 
took the form of an old woman, and sought out 
Friga. He addressed her thus: ‘ In the midst 
of our fight, the arrows and rocks fall on your 
son without hurting him.’ ‘I believe it,’ re- 
plied Friga, ‘ all those substances are sworn to 
me; there is nothing in nature which can hurt 
him. I have obtained this favour from every 
thing which has power. There is only one 
little plant that I cared not to ask, because it 
appeared too feeble to injure ; it was growing 
upon the bark of an oak, with scarcely any 
root; it lives without soil, and is called 
mistletoe.’ So spake Friga. Loake imme- 
