its awe-inspiring portals, is exemplified
in another version of the same legend. A shepherd, while leading his
flock over the Ilsentein, pauses to rest, but immediately the mountain
opens by reason of the springwort or luck-flower in the staff on which
he leans. Within the cavern a white lady appears, who invites him to
accept as much of her wealth as he choses. Thereupon he fills his
pockets, and hastening to quit her mysterious domains, he heeds not her
enigmatical warning, "Forget not the best," the result being that as he
passes through the door he is severed in twain amidst the crashing of
thunder. Stories of this kind, however, are the exception, legendary
lore generally regarding the lightning as a benefactor rather than a
destroyer. "The lightning-flash," to quote Mr. Baring-Gould's words,
"reaches the barren, dead, and thirsty land; forth gush the waters of
heaven, and the parched vegetation bursts once more into the vigour of
life restored after suspended animation."

That this is the case we have ample proof in the myths relating to
plants, in many of which the life-giving properties of the lightning are
clearly depicted. Hence, also, the extraordinary healing properties
which are ascribed to the various lightning plants. Ash rods, for
instance, are still used in many parts of England for the cure of
diseased sheep, cows, and horses, and in Cornwall, as a remedy for
hernia, children are passed through holes in ash trees. The mistletoe
has the reputation of being an antidote for poisons and a specific
against epilepsy. Culpepper speaks of it as a sure panacea for apoplexy,
palsy, and falling sickness, a belief current in Sweden, where finger
rings are made of its wood. An old-fashioned charm for the bite of an
adder was to place a cross formed of hazel-wood on the wound, and the
burning of a thorn-bush has long been considered a sure preventive of
mildew in wheat. Without multiplying further illustrations, there can be
no doubt that the therapeutic virtues of these so-called lightning
plants may be traced to, in very many cases, their mythical origin. It
is not surprising too that plants of this stamp should have been
extensively used as charms against the influences of occult powers,
their symbolical nature investing them with a potency such as was
possessed by no ordinary plant.

Footnotes:

1. See an article on "Myths of the Fire Stealer," _Saturday Review_,
June 2, 1883, p. 689; Tylor's "Primitive