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271
The Folk-lore of Plants
·
T. F. Thiselton-Dyer
5
"In
a
farmyard
near
the
middle
of
the
village,"
he
writes,
"stands
at
this
day
a
row
of
pollard
ashes,
which
by
the
seams
and
long
cicatrices
down
their
sides,
manifestly
show
that
in
former
times
they
had
been
cleft
asunder.
These
trees,
when
young
and
flexible,
were
severed
and
held
open
by
wedges,
while
ruptured
children,
stripped
naked,
were
pushed
through
the
apertures."[14]
In
Somersetshire
the
superstition
still
lingers
on,
and
in
Cornwall
the
ceremony
to
be
of
value
must
be
performed
before
sunrise;
but
the
practice
does
not
seem
to
have
been
confined
to
any
special
locality.
It
should
also
be
added,
as
Mr.
Conway[15]
has
pointed
out,
that
in
all
Saxon
countries
in
the
Middle
Ages
a
hole
formed
by
two
branches
of
a
tree
growing
together
was
esteemed
of
highly
efficacious
value.
On
the
other
hand,
we
must
not
confound
the
spiritual
vitality
ascribed
to
trees
with
the
animistic
conception
of
their
being
inhabited
by
certain
spirits,
although,
as
Mr.
Tylor[16]
remarks,
it
is
difficult
at
times
to
distinguish
between
the
two
notions.
Instances
of
these
tree
spirits
lie
thickly
scattered
throughout
the
folk-lore
of
most
countries,
survivals
of
which
remain
even
amongst
cultured
races.
It
is
interesting,
moreover,
to
trace
the
same
idea
in
Greek
and
Roman
mythology.
Thus
Ovid[17]
tells
a
beautiful
story
of
Erisicthon's
impious
attack
on
the
grove
of
Ceres,
and
it
may
be
remembered
how
the
Greek
dryads
and
hamadryads
had
their
life
linked
to
a
tree,
and,
"as
this
withers
and
dies,
they
themselves
fall
away
and
cease
to
be;
any
injury
to
bough
or
twig
is
felt
as
a
wound,
and
a
wholesale
hewing
down
puts
an
end
to
them
at
once--a
cry
of
anguish
escapes
them
when
the
cruel
axe
comes
near."
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