212
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. vra. SEPT. u, 1907.
Indeed, the virtue of every tree may be
supposed to have been comprehended in
that which sprang from the seeds that Seth
brought out of Paradise.
Tradition also has it that Judas hung him- self upon an elder ; and this, Miss Pratt suggested, was the origin of the name Jew's- ear applied to the fungus, Exidia auricula, which grows on the bark ( ' Flowering Plants of Great Britain,' vol. iii. pp. 130, 131).
Much use has been made of the elder and its products in medicine, empiric and other- wise. " Boerhaave," to cite Miss Pratt (p. 128), " is said sometimes to have taken off his hat when he passed the tree, so useful did he deem it in the alleviation of human maladies." Culpepper resorted to it in many distresses, ranging from freckles to possible hydrophobia ('The English Physitian Enlarged,' 1681, p. 92). It would be easy for riders to test the prescription of carrying two little sticks of elder in the pocket to prevent galling from the saddle. This and much more to the credit of Sambucus niger is to be met with in Brand's ' Popular Anti- quities ' (Bohn's edition), vol. iii. pp. 283-5 ; but boys should not be flogged with an elder stick, for fear their growth should be re- tarded.
Mr. Leland has something to say of the tree in ' Gypsy Sorcery,' pp. 29-31. Your correspondent might do worse than consult this. I will only add from its pages that in Scandinavia,
" growing in lonely, gloomy places, its form and the smell of its flowers seemed repulsive, so that it was associated with death, and some derived its name from Frau Holle, the sorceress and goddess of
death [Elsewhere] elder had certain preventive
and healing virtues. Hung before a stable door, it wa_rded off witchcraft, and he who planted it con- ciliated evil spirits. And if a twig of it were planted on a grave and it grew, that was a sign that the soul of the deceased was happy, which is the probable' reason why the very old Jewish cemetery at Prague was planted full of elders."
A long chapter might be written about the bush ; but I am not the one to write it.
ST. SWITHIN.
The elder is identified, like the cedar and the juniper, with the Furies, and also with the Northern Hulda or Hyldemoer ; and the underground people, the elves, come out of their fastnesses to meet in conclave under its branches. Its influence upon the for- tunes of men varied from good to evil, as circumstances prompted the peasant ima- gination. Hulda the benignant sent bride- grooms to maidens and children to the married ; but furniture must not be made of her wood. Hyldemoer, when a cradle was
made of elder-wood, came and pulled the
child by the legs, and gave it no rest till it
was put to sleep elsewhere. There is an
elder-tree in a farm-yard, says Keightley
in his ' Fairy Mythology,' which frequently
takes a walk in the twilight about the yard,
and peeps in through the window at the
children when they are alone. The children
were probably enj oying the protection of the
goddess whom the tree represented, for the
witch elder still watches over the victims
of the sorceress. As to the exact position of
a certain tree in Oxfordshire, however, the
tradition among the folk who Uve in the
neighbourhood of the Rollright Stones says
that it is shifting.
"According to some accounts, the witch elder used to stand in the field not far from the dolmen called ' The Whispering Knights,' near Wychwood
Forest Some say that it is to be found in the
hedge by the road not far from the King-stone, or further in the field beyond the mound, where an elder-bush that stood by a large stone was some years since pointed out to a friend as 'the Witch.' As a matter of fact, the elder still grows wher- ever a waste patch is found in the country road." Ditchfield's 'Old Oxfordshire,' 1903, pp. 29-30.
" In Danish Hyld or Hyl a word not far removed from Elle is elder,* and the peasantry believe that in or under the elder-tree dwells a being called Hyldemoer (Elder-mother), or Hyldequinde (Elder- woman), with her minutrant spirits (evidently the Frau Holle of the Germans." 'Fairy Myth,' Bohn, 1850, p. 93.
Not only were the evil associations of the tree transferred in the Christian era to Judas, who was, says Shakespeare, echoing a popular belief, " hanged on an elder " (' Love's Labour's Lost,' V. i ,), but it was also believed to be the tree of which the Cross was con- structed. In Shropshire the belief exists that it is dangerous to burn elder-wood, owing to the current superstition that the instrument of the Redeemer's final suffer- ings was made of that wood (Miss Burne's ' Shropshire Folk-lore '). The sacred tree bleeds when injured (' Old Oxfordshire/ p. 30).
Danish peasantry tell of a man who cut down an elder-tree, but he died suddenly soon after. The German forester in some parts is said to kneel and repeat, before felling an elder, the following formula three times :
Lady Elda !
Give me some of thy wood,
Then I will give thee some of mine.
'Flowers and Flower- Lore,' by the Rev. H. Friend.
If you wish to cut down an elder, you must
first ask its permission, and then, barring a
- But see Hilderic Friend's 'Flower-Lore,' 1884,
vol. ii. p. 628 (note 7 to chap. i.). The alder-tree is in Sussex called the " eller or " ellar."
