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VII.—Notes on the “Hwiting Treow” of the Anglo-Saxons

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2012

John Yonge Akerman Esq.
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Extract

Tacitus, in his description of the ancient Germans, speaks of their reliance upon auguries and decisions by lot. The latter was performed with twigs cut from the branches of a fruit-bearing tree, and thrown upon a white garment:—“Sortium consuetudo simplex. Virgam frugiferæ arbori decisam in surculos amputant eosque notis quibusdam discretos super candidam vestem temere ac fortuito spargunt.”—Germ. 10.

Type
Research Article
Information
Archaeologia , Volume 42 , Issue 1 , 1869 , pp. 124 - 126
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1869

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References

page 125 note a See the interesting dissertation on Anglo-Saxon Eunes, by J. M. Kemble, in the Archæologia, xxviii. 307.

page 126 note a The term skewer-wood is given popularly to a tree known to the rustics as the catrash or catrush, perhaps from its having a green bark like a rush. It is preferred to the dogwood on account of its extreme hardness. It is also called spoke-wood, a term which seems to reflect the superstitious practice mentioned by Aubrey.