In the _Viscum aureum_ we have the “golden bough,” the oak-borne _Aurum frondens_ and _Ramus aureus_ of Virgil; and it can easily be imagined that when the Druids reached our shores from a country which had supplied them with the _Viscum aureum_, this would be replaced by the _V. album_ growing chiefly on apple trees and not on oaks; indeed, Mr. Davies, in his “Celtic Researches,” tells us that the apple was the next sacred tree to the oak, and that apple orchards were planted in the vicinity of the sacred groves. The transplanting of the mistletoe from the apple to the oak tree before the mystic ceremonies began was not beyond the resources of priestcraft. It must not be forgotten that these ceremonies took place at both solstices--once in June, when the oak was in full leaf, and again in December, when the parasitic plant was better visible in the light of the young moon. Mr. Frazer, in his “Golden Bough” (iii. p. 328), points out that at the summer solstice not only was mistletoe gathered, but many other “magic plants, whose evanescent virtue can be secured at this mystic season alone.” It is the ripening of the berries at the winter solstice which secured for the mistletoe the paramount importance the ceremonials connected with it possessed at that time, when the rest of the vegetable world was dormant. With regard especially to the particular time of the year chosen for sun-worship and the worship of the gods and solar heroes connected with the years to which I have referred, I may add that the vague year in Egyptian chronology makes it a very difficult matter to determine the exact Gregorian dates for the ancient Egyptian festivals, but, fortunately, there is another way of getting at them. Mr. Roland Mitchell, when compiling his valuable “Egyptian Calendar” (Luzac and Co., 1900), found that the Koptic calendar really presents to us the old Egyptian year, “which has been in use for thousands of years, and has survived all the revolutions.” Of the many festivals included in the calendar, the great Tanta fair, which is also a Mohammedan feast. “is the most important of all held in Egypt. Religion, commerce, and pleasure offer combined attractions.” As many as 600,000 or 700,000 often attend this great fair, “no doubt the survival of one of the ancient Egyptian national festivals.” It is held so as to end on a Friday, and in 1901 the Friday was August 9! This naturally suggests that we should look for a feast in the early part of May. We find the Festival of Al-Khidr, or Elias in the middle of the wheat harvest in Lower Egypt; of this we read:--