Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-12-02

lore. comes to the front. Within all the
rich range of our own evergreens there
is none that enshrines the magic Of the,
mistletoe.
And yet, why is there so little literary
homage paid to it? Now and then in the
fertile fields of fiction one comes upon
some reference to the mistletoe. a mere
sheen of thread woven into the Woof
of some Christian story, but where are
the poems, save one:
1.-The mistletoe hung in the castle hall,
The holly branch shone on the old oak
wall.
And the baron's retainers We're blithe
and gay,
Keeping their Christmas holiday"
The writer was discussing it recently
with a scholarly gentleman. who admit
ted that, although The Mistletoe Bough'
was one of his favorite poetic gems. he
could not recall it's authorship. Bart
let's Familiar Quotations." however.
gave the author as Thomas Haynes Bay
ley.
Prose references to mistletoe are not
%infrequent. In Brands Popular Anti
| Quities' is found an extract from a Curl
Gus tract, entitled Round About Our
Coal Fire, or Christmas Entertain
ments.' which gave the festive picture:
THE rooms were empowered with
holly, ivy. cypress, bays, laurel and mis-
tletoe, and a bouncing Christmas log in
the chimney
According to Aubrey, "in several parts
Of Oxfordshire, particularly at Lanton.
it was an ancient custom for the maid
servant to ask the mar for ivy to dress
the house. and if the man denied or neg
lected to fetch the ivy, the maid would
steal away a pair of his breeches. and
nail them up in the yard or the high
way"
Coles, in his "Introduction to the
knowledge of Plants" speaking of the
/ mistletoe, says: 1T is carried many
miles to be set up in houses about christ
mas time, when it is adorned with a
white glistening berry"
II am of the opinion writes Brand IN
his "Antiquities,' "although Gay men
tons the mistletoe among the eVergreenS
that were put in churches. 1t never en-
tered those sacred ediflces but by mis-
take or ignorance of the sections; for 1T
was the heathenish or profane plant, as
having been of such distinction IN the
pagan rites of Druidism. and it, there
fore. had it's place assigned it in the
Kitchen, where it was hung up IN great
state, with it's white berries; and what
ever female CHANGED to stand under 1t
the young man present either had a right
or claimed. one, of saluting her, n OF
plucking off a berry at each kiss.
II have made diligent Inquiries after
that it never came into church there.
sex, informed me that some mistletoe
sex, Informed me that some clstletoe
was once put up in the church there. but
was by the clergyman lHlIueuldteiS u
dered to be taken away
Sir John Colbach, in his dissertation
concerning mistletoe, which he strongly
recommended as a medicine sure to SUBJ
due not only the epilepsy but all other
convulsive disorders, observes that mis-
beautiful plant must have been designed
by the Almighty for further and more
noble purposes than barely to FEED
thrushes, or to be hung up superstitlously
in houses to drive away evil spirits
In those days 1t was evidently a
charm against witchcraft. He also
tells that the high veneration in which
the Druids were anciently held by the
people Of all ranks proceeded in a great
measure from the wonderful cures they
wrought by means OF the mistletoe of the
oak, this tree being sacred to them, but
none so that had not the mistletoe upo
them.
Mr.. W. Williams. dating from Penn
broke. Jan. %, 1891, tells us. in the Cen
clemens Magazine for February of that
year. 'guihdel, mistletoe. a magical
shrub, appeared to be the forbidden tree
in the middle of Eden. for in Edda the
mistletoe is said to be Balder's death,
who yet persisted through the blindness
and a woman
Again, Stukeley, in his "Medallic His
tory of Cardusius," mentions the intro
duction of mistletoe into York Cathedra,
OH CIlIlStIldS as Il ItIlldlNS VI DfululSHl
Speaking of the winter s%olstice, oul
Chris tmas, he says: -
This was the most respectable festival
of our Druits, called Yuletide, when the
mistletoe. which they called all.Iheal, was
carried in their hands and laid on theil
affairs as an emblem of the saultiferOus
advent of Messiah. The mistletoe they
cut off the trees with their upright
hatchets of brass. called ceits. and put
i, upon the ends of their staffs, which they
carried in their hands.
"Tnnumerable are these instrument
found an over the British Isles. The Gus
tom is still preserved. and lately at York
(see date of Madallic history on the eve
of Christmas day, they carry mistletoe
to the high altar of the Cathedral. and
proclaim a public and universal liberty,
pardon and freedom to all sorts of inferior
and even wicked people. at the gates OF
the city, toward the four quarters OF
heaven"
Coming down to more modern times,
even that tradition of the magic plant
being consigned to the kitchen for pie
beian lovers to plight their troth beneath
does not deter the naughty heiress from
hanging it from the chandelier of her bril-
liantly lighted drawing room. There is in
our own day a commercial value attached
to the little mistletoe that is of no small
consideration. Large quantities of Eng
lish mistletoe are shipped to New York
and sold to dealers all over the country
as well as to the local trade, for Christ
mas decoration. 1t is placed in crates fol
shipping and sold by the pound.