"
The same author, writing in 1814, says:--"I am acquainted myself with an
Anti-Burgher clergyman who actually procured from a person who pretended
to such skill in these charms two small pieces of carved wood, to be
kept in his father's cow-house as a security for the health of his
cows." The belief in the potency of the rowan tree to ward off evil is
no doubt a survival of ancient tree worship. Of this worship, the Rev.
F.W. Farrar says:--"It may be traced from the interior of Africa, not
only in Egypt and Arabia, but also onwards uninterruptedly into
Palestine and Syria, Assyria, Persia, India, Thibet, Siam, the
Philippine Islands, China, Japan, and Siberia; also westward into Asia
Minor, Greece, Italy, and other countries; and in most of the countries
here named it obtains at the present day, combined, as it has been, in
other parts with various forms of idolatry." Were it our object, it
could also be shown that tree worship has been combined with
Christianity. The rowan tree was held sacred by the Druids, and is often
found among their stone monuments.
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