Note (return) — Chapter XIII
Reading edition
Other trees—the yew, the cypress, the alder, and the ash, were venerated, to judge by what Lucan relates of the sacred grove at Marseilles. The Irish Druids attributed special virtues to the hazel, rowan, and yew, the wood of which was used in magical ceremonies described in Irish texts.671 Fires of rowan were lit by the Druids of rival armies, and incantations said over them in order to discomfit the opposing host,672 and the wood of all these trees is still believed to be efficacious against fairies and witches.