rely found in Europe on oaks, it had
been exterminated with the other druidical rites on the introduction of
Christianity. I am not sufficiently botanist to determine how far it is
possible to destroy the natural habitat of a plant propagated by
extrinsic means, and should be more inclined to account for the
difference then and now by supposing that the Druids may have known the
secret of inoculating a desirable oak with the seeds where birds had not
done so, and practised it when necessary.

P.S. Since writing the above, I recollect that the Latin verse,

"_Ad viscum Druidae_: Druidae clamare solebant,"

is frequently quoted from Ovid, sometimes, and that recently, specifying
the Fasti. I need not tell you that it is not to be found there, and I
wish to inquire if any of the numerous readers of your valuable
publication can say where I can meet with it; if classical, it is
another remarkable evidence of the endurance of popular customs to the
present day. In the following quotation from Keyssler's Treatise _de
Visco_, the Anklopferleinstag would be also a noisy demonstration dating
from druidical times, at a period of the year not far removed from the
beginning of November.

"In superiori Germaniae parte, Marchionatu Onolsbacensi
comprehensa, cujus inolae plurimas Gentilismi reliquias retinent,
regio ipsa multis Druidum vestigiis abundat, tempore adventus
Christi, sive media Hyeme (am Anklopferleinstag), vulgus per
vias et pagos currit malleisque pulsat fores et fenestras
indesinenter clamans _Gutheyl! Gutheyl!_ Quod quidem non salutem
per Christi adventum partam indicat, quasi diceres: Gut Heyl;
bona salus; multo minus fictitam Sanctam Guenthildem, quam
rustici illius tractus miris fabulis ac nugis celebrant, sed
nomen ipsum visci est." {164}

The present popular and only German name of the mistletoe, the parent of
our English denomination, is _Mistel_, which is evidently only
_Meist-heyl_ (most heal, or healing), the superlative of the above
_Gut-heyl_, and both wonderfully agreeing with the name which Pliny says
it bore in his time, _Omnia sanans_.

William Bell, Ph.D.

* * * * *

FOLK LORE.

_Folk Lore of South Northamptonshire._--No. 2.

_Mice._--A sudden influx of mice into a house, hitherto free from their
ravages, denotes approaching mortality among its inhabitants. A mouse
running over a person is considered to be an infallib