Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/259

 ID s. VIIL SEPT. 14, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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rebuke, you must spit three times and pro- ceed (ib.). Neither must you burn elder- wood unless you are of a suicidal turn, for the tree is itself associated with fire perhaps because the will-o'-the-wisp haunts the marshy spots where it grows. You may shelter under an elder because the lightning never strikes it, partly for the reason that it furnished the wood of the Cross, but also perhaps because of its association with the mystic " corpse-candle." This belief exists in Suffolk. Its igneous properties overcome fire in other circumstances. The inner bark, applied to any burning, takes out the fire immediately (Evelyn's ' Silva,' Bk. I. chap. xx. 18).

It is identified with midsummer, and so with the sun and with fire, the sun's symbol.

If one take his stand under an elder-bush at 12 o'clock on Midsummer Eve, he will see the king of the elves go by, attended by his numerous retinue. These solar associations endowed it with properties adverse to the machinations of witchcraft. Berchta or Bertha, the " white lady " of Southern Germany, corresponds to Hulda, the " gracious lady " of Northern Germany, who with the advent of Christianity became a bogie to frighten children. But before this, like the rowan, it released from the spells of the sorcerer. From a sun-talisman it became a charm among Christians, wher- ever the new religion superseded the old. A cross made of elder - twigs and sallow protected children when hung about their necks.

"the small twigs of an elder-tree growing in a churchyard will form an amulet it' cut into lengths of about an inch, then threaded into a necklace, and hung round the neck of a sufferer from whooping- cough." Miss Burne's 'Shropshire Folk-lore,' p. 194

But the folk-lore of the elder is too ex- tensive to proceed further. The following references may prove useful, besides those above quoted ; Grimm's ' Teutonic Mytho- logy ' ; ' Hortus Sanitatis,' Bk. I. chap, ccccvi. ; Brand's ' Antiquities,' vol. iii. (Bohn) ; ' Popular Names of British Plants ' ; Britten and Holland's ' Diet, of Eng. Plant- Names,' Part I. p. 168; (?Hackwood's 'Christ Lore'); W. G. Black's 'Folk- Medicine ' ; Helm's ' Wanderings of Plants and Animals ' ; 'A Garden of Simples,' by Martha B. Flint, 1901 ('Wild Berries,' p. 77 et seq.) ; Louis Figuier's ' Vegetable World,' 1867, pp. 197, 504, 550 ; the county works on folk-lore ; a Globe " turnover," 26 Oct., 1903 (' A Tree of Parts '). &c.

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

Mr. A. W. Moore in his ' Folk-lore of the Isle of Man ' writes :

" The elder-tree, or Tramman, was vulgarly sup- posed to have been the tree upon which Judas Iscariot hanged himself, and it was possibly on this account that great reliance was formerly placed on its sanative and mystical virtues. It was used as a charm for protecting houses and gardens from the influence of sorcery and witchcraft; and even at the present time an elder-tree may be observed growing by almost every old cottage in the island.

Its leaves were picked on May Eve, and affixed

to doors and windows to protect the house from witchcraft."

FRED. G. ACKEBLEY.

Grindleton, Clitheroe.

Your correspondent will find an exhaustive article on this subject in Folkard's ' Plant- lore.' The elder is called " Christ's tree " because the Cross is in many places sup- posed to have been made of its wood. To cut it down is unlucky, partly, I suppose, on this account, partly because it is under the protection of the fairies. C. C. B.

The elves are supposed to transform themselves into elder-trees. Hyldemoer, or Mother Elder, is an Ellewoman identified with this tree. She is mentioned by Hans Christian Andersen in his stories.

E. YABDLEY.

One day during my late residence in Northamptonshire I came, in the course of a morning stroll, across an old man making up faggots for firewood. Noticing a heap of elderwood near by apparently discarded, I asked him why he did not include some of that in his faggots. " I mustn't put that in," said he ; " it 's bad luck to burn elder." I failed to elicit any reason for the super- stition, but from inquiries I have since made I find that the belief appears to be wide- spread.

See also 8 S. viii. 427, 489 ; ix. 91, 517 ; and Boulger's ' Familiar Trees,' i. 137.

JOHN T. PAGE.

When the elder bush blossoms we say it is eight weeks to harvest.

JOHN P. STILWELL.

MATTHEW DIAMOND BULD DEMONT (10 S. viii. 69). MB. FYNMOBE surely has misin- terpreted the entry to which he refers. Second Christian names are not common in. 1658, and it seems clear that the register refers to Matthew Diamond, vulg. Demont. I can, if your correspondent wishes, give him some entries relating. to the family of Dimond in Somerset. P- M T.