She wouldn't let us pick elder,
I can't remember why."
"That's a very old superstition. The 'elder mother' is supposed to live
inside the tree, and to be very angry indeed if any harm is done to it.
In the good old days, people used to ask her permission before they dared
to cut down an elder. They knelt on bended knees and prayed:
"Lady Elder! Lady Elder!
Give me some of thy wood.
"There's a story about a man who hadn't the politeness to perform this
little ceremony. He made a cradle for his baby out of the elder tree. But
the sprite was offended, and she used to come and pull the baby out of
the cradle by its legs, and pinch it and make it cry, so that it was
quite impossible to leave the poor little thing in the elder cradle, and
they had to weave one of basket-work for it instead."
"Tell us some more fairy lore about the plants!" begged the girls.
"Well, the St. John's wort is called 'the fairies' horse.' If you pick it
after sunset a fairy horse will rise from the ground and carry you about
all night, leaving you in the morning wherever you may chance to be at
sunrise.
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