Michael who has given them good husbands.” In Italy, a Nut with
three segments is considered most lucky. Carried in the pocket,
it preserves its owner from lightning, witchcraft, the E v il Eye, and
fever; it facilitates conquest, gives happiness, and performs other
benign services. In Bologna, it is thought that if one of these
Nuts be placed under the chair of a witch, she will be unable to
get u p ; and it thus becomes an infallible means of discovering
witches. The Walnut has become in Europe, and especially
in Italy, an accursed tree. The ancients thought it was dear to
Proserpine and all the deities of the infernal regions. In Germany,
the Black Walnut is regarded as a sinister tree, just as the
Oak is looked upon as a tree of good omen. At Rome, there is a
tradition that the church Santa Maria del Popolowas built by order
of Paschal II., on the spot where formerly grew a Walnut-tree, round
which troops of demons danced during the night. Near Prescia,
in Tuscany, we are told by Prof. Giuliani, there is a Walnut-tree
where_ witches are popularly supposed to sleep: the people of
the districil say that witches love Walnut-trees. At Bologna,
the peasantry think that witches hold a nociturnal meeting beneath
the Walnut-trees on the Vigil of St. John. But among all other
Walnut-trees, the most infamous and the most accursed is the
Walnut of Benevento, regarding which there are many tales of its
being haunted by the Devil and witches. It is said that St. Barbatus,
the patron of Benevento, who lived in the time of Duke Romuald,
was a priest who was enciowed with the power of exorcising devils
by his prayers. At that time the inhabitants still worshipped a
Walnut-tree on which was to be distinguished the effigy of a viper,
and beneath this tree the people performed many superstitious and
heathenish rites. The Emperor Constantins laid siege to Benevento ;
the citizens were in despair, but Barbatus rebuked them, and persuaded
them that God had taken this means to punish them for their
idolatry ; so, with Romuald, they agreed to be converted to Christianity,
and made Barbatus bishop of the town. Then Barbatus
uprooted the accursed Walnut-tree, and the Devil was seen in the
form of a serpent crawling away from beneath its roots. Upon
being sprinkled with holy water, _ however, he disappeared ; but
thrcpugh his satanic power, whenever a meeting of demons is
desired, or a witches’ sabbath is to be held, a Walnut-tree as large
and as verdant as the original appears by magic on the precise spot
where it stood. A Walnut-tree with very different associations
once grew in the churchyard on the north side of St. Joseph’s Chapel
at Glastonbury. This miraculous tree never budded before the feast
of St. Barnabas (June nth), and on that very day shot forth leaves
and flourished like others of its species. Queen Anne, King James
and many high personages are said to have given large sums of
nioney for cuttings from the original tree, which has long since
disappeared, and has been succeeded by a fine Walnut of the
ordinary sort. According to an old custom (which at one time
prevailed in England), every household in the districft of Lechrain,
in Bavaria, brings to the sacred fire which is lighted at Easter a
Walnut-branch, which, after being partially burned, is carried
home to be laid on the hearth-fire during tempests, as a proteiition
against lightning. In Flanders, as a charm against ague, the
patient catches a large black spider, and imprisons it between the
two halves of a Walnut-shell, and then wears it round his neck.
In our own land, it is a common belief among country
people that whipping a Walnut-tree tends to increase the crop and
improve the flavour of the Nuts. This belief is found embodied
in the following curious distich:—
“ A woman, a spaniel, and a Walnut-tree,
The more you whip them, the better they be.”
Evelyn, alluding to this custom, says it is thought better to beat
the Nuts off than to gather them from the tree by hand. “ In Italy,”
he tells us, “ they arm the tops of long poles with nails and iron
for the purpose, and believe the beating improves the tree, which
I no more believe than I do that discipline would reform a shrew.”
The Brahmans of the Himalaya observe a festival called the
Walnut Festival, Akvot-ha-pooja, at which, after offering a sacrifice,
the priest, with a few companions, takes his place in the balcony
of the temple, and all the young men present pelt them liberally
with Walnuts and green Pine-cones, which the group in the balcony
rapidly collecff and return in plentiful volley s.-I To dream of
Walnuts portends difficulties and misfortunes in life: in love
affairs, such a vision implies infidelity and disappointment.
W a t e r L i l y .— See Nymphaea.
W a y b r e a d .— See Plantain.
W H O R T L E B ER R Y .—Whort or Whortleberry (the Anglo-
Saxon Heofutbevge is another name for the Bilberry or Blaeberry,
{Vaccinium Myrtillus). A species of Whortleberry, called Ohelo
{Vaccinium reticulatum), is found in Hawaii, springing up from the
decomposed lava of the volcanoes of that island. Its flame-
coloured berries are sacred to Pélé, the goddess of the volcano, and
in heathen days no Hawaiian dared taste one till he had offered
some to the goddess, and craved her permission to eat them. Miss
Gordon Cumming relates that when Mr. Ellis visited the island in
1822, he and his trusty friends rejoiced on discovering these large
juicy berries, but the natives implored them not to touch them lest
some dire calamity should follow. Though themselves faint and
parched, they dared not touch one till they reached the edge of the
crater, where, gathering branches loaded with the tempting clusters,
they broke them in two, and throwing half over the precipice, they
called Pélé’s attention to the offering, and to the fadt that they
craved her permission to eat of her Ohelos. (See also B i l b e r r y . )
W ID OW ’S FLOW ER . — The Indian or Sweet Scabious
{Scabiosa atropurpúrea) is called by the Italians Fior della Vedova, anc.