Pnsidcntia/ Address. 31
Pelion, modified by Slavic iiiHuences.-^ So, in the Italian peninsula, the orthodox beliefs forni only a thin veneer over the primitive dcmonology and witchcraft, la veccJiia religionc, the old faith, as it is popularly called.
Needless to say, the same condition of things presents itstlf in these islands, — in our churches built on sacred hills, near holy wells, or prehistoric barrows ; in the rever- ence still shown to megalithic monuments; in well-dressing; in the washing in the May dew as a fertility charm or as a magical method of promoting moisture. To give two con- crete examples, — we find the animistic cult of trees in the famous Wishing Tree at Berry Pomeroy in South Devon.-^ On one side of this tree a peculiar excrescence looks exactly like a human ear. To obtain fulfilment of a wish you must, at peril of life or limb, walk three times round the tree, and whisper }our desires into its ear. In Wexford we meet the remarkable custom of carrying at a funeral pieces of wood in the shape of crosses, painted green, red, and yellow, which are laid at the cross-roads nearest to the cemetery, where there is always a hawthorn tree on whose branches the offerings are attached. Even where in some places the tree has fallen under the weight of the crosses, the site is always remembered, and the crosses are piled round it.-'^
" C/. cit., p. 255. Tlic continuity of the modern Greek folk-tales with those of the classical period has hecn recently disputed by Mr Ilalliday, (vol. xxiii., pp. 486-9).
'"* I am indebted to Mr. R. P. Chope for the following references: Tickler, Devoiisliire Skelihcs,^. Ii6; Mrs. H. V.\\\\\\covx\)e,Hygo>te Days in Devonshire and Cormvall, p. 86 ; H. Friend, Bygone Devonshire, p. 43 ; 1'. F. S. Amer)', Deion Notes and Queries, vol. i., p. 26; A. I.. Salmon, Popular Guide to Devonshire, p. 131 ; C. K. Kowe, South Devon, p. 162. Compare the tree at Melling, near Ormskirk, in which the sap, protruding like a man's head, was believed to be the abode of the poisoner Palmer, " because he was buried without a coffin," Aotes and Queries, 2nd S., vol. ii. (1856), p. 128.
- ' Miss M. Stoker, The Aeadeiny, vol. xJii., p. 390. For the hawthorn as a
death tree and therefore unlucky, see Folk-l.ore, vol. xxii., p. 213, vol. iii., p. 88, vol. xxi., p. 224; A'otes and Queries, 6th S., vol. vi., pp. 309, 494; Mrs. Gutch, Country Folk-Lore, vol. vi. (East Riding of Yorkshire), p. 31, — " In the East Riding the bloom of hawthorn is not permitted in the house ; "it has such a deathly smell,'"" — quoting S. O. Addy, Household Tales, p. 63.
