alive again. The prince, applying the leaves to his wife's
body, restores her also to life."[50] In the Greek story, told
by AElian and Apollodoros, Polyidos is shut up with the corpse
of Glaukos, which he is ordered to restore to life. He kills a
dragon which is approaching the body, but is presently
astonished at seeing another dragon come with a blade of grass
and place it upon its dead companion, which instantly rises
from the ground. Polyidos takes the same blade of grass, and
with it resuscitates Glaukos. The same incident occurs in the
Hindu story of Panch Phul Ranee, and in Fouque's "Sir Elidoc,"
which is founded on a Breton legend.

[50] Cox, Mythology of the Aryan Nations, Vol. 1. p. 161.

We need not wonder, then, at the extraordinary therapeutic
properties which are in all Aryan folk-lore ascribed to the
various lightning-plants. In Sweden sanitary amulets are made
of mistletoe-twigs, and the plant is supposed to be a specific
against epilepsy and an antidote for poisons. In Cornwall
children are passed through holes in ash-trees in order to
cure them of hernia. Ash rods are used in some parts of
England for the cure of diseased sheep, cows, and horses; and
in particular they are supposed to neutralize the venom of
serpents. The notion that snakes are afraid of an ash-tree is
not extinct even in the United States. The other day I was
told, not by an old granny, but by a man fairly educated and
endowed with a very unusual amount of good common-sense, that
a rattlesnake will sooner go through fire than creep over ash
leaves or into the shadow of an ash-tree. Exactly the same
statement is made by Piny, who adds that if you draw a circle