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271
The Folk-lore of Plants
·
T. F. Thiselton-Dyer
6
In
"Apollonius
Rhodius"
we
find
one
of
these
hamadryads
imploring
a
woodman
to
spare
a
tree
to
which
her
existence
is
attached:
"Loud
through
the
air
resounds
the
woodman's
stroke,
When,
lo!
a
voice
breaks
from
the
groaning
oak,
'Spare,
spare
my
life!
a
trembling
virgin
spare!
Oh,
listen
to
the
Hamadryad's
prayer!
No
longer
let
that
fearful
axe
resound;
Preserve
the
tree
to
which
my
life
is
bound.
See,
from
the
bark
my
blood
in
torrents
flows;
I
faint,
I
sink,
I
perish
from
your
blows.'"
Aubrey,
referring
to
this
old
superstition,
says:
"I
cannot
omit
taking
notice
of
the
great
misfortune
in
the
family
of
the
Earl
of
Winchelsea,
who
at
Eastwell,
in
Kent,
felled
down
a
most
curious
grove
of
oaks,
near
his
own
noble
seat,
and
gave
the
first
blow
with
his
own
hands.
Shortly
after
his
countess
died
in
her
bed
suddenly,
and
his
eldest
son,
the
Lord
Maidstone,
was
killed
at
sea
by
a
cannon
bullet."
Modern
European
folk-lore
still
provides
us
with
a
curious
variety
of
these
spirit-haunted
trees,
and
hence
when
the
alder
is
hewn,
"it
bleeds,
weeps,
and
begins
to
speak.[18]"
An
old
tree
in
the
Rugaard
forest
must
not
be
felled
for
an
elf
dwells
within,
and
another,
on
the
Heinzenberg,
near
Zell,
"uttered
a
complaint
when
the
woodman
cut
it
down,
for
in
it
was
our
Lady,
whose
chapel
now
stands
upon
the
spot."[19]
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