The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1884-12-31

The MiStletOe.

In old-fsshioned English families
q branch Of the mistletoe is suspended,
on Christmas eve, from the ceiling
IF the hail. AIRY woman who passes
beneath the mystic spray incurs the
penalty of being then and there
kissed by any man who chooses to
avail himself.of the privilege. One OF
the super-titlOLs associated with this
custom is that The maid who is moi
II, US kissed at Christmas will not be
married during that year.
The hanging of the mistletOe is q
| relic of the days of Druidisin, banded
down through the centuries. The
Druids ~reverenced the plant when
found on the oak, the favorite tree of
their divinity Tutanes. At the
winner solstice a great It stival was
celebrated in lis honor. The people,
led by their priests, the Drulds, went
in procession to gather the mlstl. toe.
When the oak was reached on which
it grew, two white bulls were bound
to a tree. The chief Druid, clothed
in white, assembled it, and with d
golden knife cut the sacred plant,
which Was caught by another priest
in the folds OF bis robe.
The bulls, and often human victims.
were sacrificed, and the III stletoe, d.
vlded into small pieces, was distri-
butte l among the people. They hung
the sprays over the doors Of their
houses as a Precipitation and shelter
to the sylvan deitles during the sea-
son of cold.
t. %h~ Gan plir vyion r,yfl,010nxy
the mistlelOe is a plant of 40 mean
Importance, so the legend retates,
having been the instrument of the
Staying of Balder, the god of elo-
quence and poetry.
Bladder, Il day, told Friga, his
mother, that ne bad dreamed a dream
which /" rboded his death. She, 10
protect her son, secured an oath
from fire, air, ealth. water, the ami
mails ald plauls, that they would d"
Bladder no harm. He, being thus as
sured, took hi, place among the COM
bats Of the gods, and fought without
fear.
Loake, bis enemy, seeing that not
one of his arrows. which fell IN showers
upon ba!der, did lin the least harm,
deternined to discover the secret of
his lnvulnerabllity. Disgusting hlnl-
self AS an old woman, he paid his
court " Friga, and conltlimented her
upon the vaiur and good fortune OF
ntr son. She, seduced uy the t1attery,
answered that nothing could lDjure
Balder, as all the powers OF nature
had sworn not TO harm him. She
added, however, that there was II
plant which she had not Invoked,
thinking it TOO Insignificant to inti.ct
injury on any one.
"And what may be the name of the
asked Loake, in the bland
of tones.
ut j. a feeble little shoot which
grows on the bark of the oak"
answered the simple Friga.
LOake immediately procured the
missile toe and made from it an arrow.
Entering the assembly of the gods
be said to the blind Heda, "Why do
you not contend with the arrows
If Balder?'
II am blind, and have no arms"
answered Heda.
''BaIder is before thee. Shoot!"
,aid Loake, handing her the arrows
If mistletOe. Heda shot and Balder
dead, pierced by the insignificant
Now, the mistletoe is found more
frequently on the apple tree than or
he oak. Its propagation was ascribed
0 the MISSED thrush which fed upon
is berries.
A Welsh writer a century ago d.
Jared the mistletoe to be the for
hidden tree OF Eedn, and while the
holly was dedicated TO Saturn, FrjZa,
he Northern Venus, vas its presld-
ny genius.