Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 6 1888.djvu/274

 266 possessed of mystic virtue, or malignant influence of any kind? As well as I can remember when I was a child, in days now long ago, the country people in Tipperary used to use the common ash and the rowan-tree indiscriminately to keep the witches, or evil influences of Bome sort, away from the cows. Whether this was done only at certain seasons or on certain days of the year I cannot recollect, but that the presence of leaves and branches about the cows' heads (which I have often seen) was considered to secure a good supply of milk I am certain, although not quite so sure that the common ash as well as the rowan-tree was used. I also remember an old gate-keeper in Tipperary telling me that the ash made the best of all walking-sticks, giving as a reason that ash trees might grow wherever they liked, but had a way of growing 'all of themselves' on the ruins of old churches and on the tops of the walls round graveyards. It was 'a good tree,' he said, and the impression left upon my mind was that he implied some mysterious sanctity in it. A few years ago, in Cork, at a holy well where an ash and some thorn-trees were decked with the usual rag offerings, a countryman I met at the spot told me the Irish held the ash and the thorn to be the best of all trees; but further information on the subject I could not get from him. I shall be much obliged if any one will help me with Irish ash-tree lore."

The rowan and hazel are known to have been and still are considered sacred trees; but the lone trees and those most often found at holy wells, stations, and ancient churches are the ash, the hawthorn (May), and the yew. When in such places they are considered holy, but whether they are naturally holy, or get their sanctity from the places, I cannot learn. The hawthorn, or skea, grows in most unaccountable places, away in wild mountains, and under such circumstances is supposed to be a fairy haunt. There was such a tree on the lone mountain road between Feakle and Gort near the mearing of Clare and Galway. When a boy my attention was directed to it by the parson of Feakle, who said it was considered a fairy bush, and pointed out the worn spot under it where they danced. The fairies were said to have left the county during the famine years (1848-52) as the grass grew on the bare spot, but they returned afterwards. As this was the only shelter for miles on the road, it is possible that