The Mobridge news. [volume] (Mobridge, Walworth Co., S.D.) 190?-1917, 1911-12-15


consider that you were perpetuating
one of the most hallowed and exalted
of religious ordinances handed down
through the ages in rendering such
tender homage to this orphan plant
of wondrous BIRTH"
And would it not surprise you to
learn that our very word marry"
and that our most impassioned Of the
graces of Terpsichore-the waltz
are traditionally enmeshed in the can
ny tendrils of the pearly-berried mis-
uetoe?
The mistletoe is a freak plant. a
parasite or excrescence. In its en-
bryonic period 1t is said to defy the
laws of gravitation by pushing its
radicles in the opposite direction to
the generality of plants. Not only it's
berries but its leaves grow in clusters
OF three united on one stock. hence
its sacred place in religious rites as
q symbol of the Holy Trinity.
It was believed by the Druids and
other ancient sects in northern and
western Europe that any tree to
which the mistletoe attaches itself is
selected by God himself for special
favor, and that all that grows on it is
sent direct from heaven.
Contrary to the general belief, 1t is
found more rarely on the oak tree
than on the apple, ash, elm, poplar,
willow and hawthorn, and 1t is due to
this scarcity that 1t was vested with
exceptional reverence when discovered
cling1ng to the sacred tree OF the
Druids-a name derived from the
an oak.
Says Pliny: when 1t (mistletoe
growing upon an oak) is discovered 1t
is treated with great ceremony. They
called 1t by name (guthil. or gutheyl
good heaD, which in their language
they have we'll and duly prepared
their festival cheer under the tree,
they bring hither a milk-white cow
and a bullock, hitherto unyoked; then
the priests in white vesture climb into
the tree and prune of the sacred herb
with q gold hook, bill or sickle, the
branches falling beneath into a white
sagum sheet. They must never touch
the ground. The common people re-
main at distance, formed in a circle.
while the priests approach with trem-
bling awe the bloody victims, which
were carried around the omen fire.
After this the animals are slaughtered
as a sacriflce-doubtless to the god.
dess Of fecundity. for the mistletoe is
. symbol Of the prolific.
In the myths of all nations we find
holy tree" world tree" Among
the Druids, as well as among other
creeds, this tree was the oak; and It
It very interesting thing to know
that our word church--from kirk
finds its root in quervus. the generic
name for the oak. This tree was
cherished as the mother and nurse OF
man, and was supposed to be the
dwelling place Of the food-dispensing
god. The ominous rustling of the
leaves and the mysterious notes OF
the feathered songsters siglalized the
presence of the divinity to the awe
struck votaries who consulted the in
dwelling oracle. burning odoriferous
fumes in homage. The Dodonean
oak and its oracle are celebrated In
epic, myth and story. its mystic ritual
being zealously perpetuated by the
Druids. They danced circular dances
in consecrated groves. and the rem.
nants of an old chant still preserved
by the Cvtts-Hey Derry Down Dey,
'in a circle the oak moves around
reveals the archtype Of our modern
waltz.
Another reminder that "the groves