"As they entered this wilderness, all the trees bowed themselves down in reverence to the infant God; only the Aspen, in her exceeding pride and arrogance, refused to acknowledge Him, and stood upright." In consequence of this "the Holy Child pronounced a curse against her; ... and, at the sound of His words, the Aspen began to tremble through all her leaves, and has not ceased to tremble to this day." According to a Sicilian legend, "the form of a hand is to be seen in the interior of the fruit of the pine," representing "the hand of Jesus blessing the tree which had saved Him during the flight into Egypt by screening Him and His mother from Herod's soldiers" (448. 496). We have from Rome the following tradition (415. 173):-- "One day the Madonna was carrying the Bambino through a lupine-field, and the stalks of the lupines rustled so, that she thought it was a robber coming to kill the Santo Bambino. She turned, and sent a malediction over the lupine-field, and immediately the lupines all withered away, and fell flat and dry on the ground, so that she could see there was no one hidden there. When she saw there was no one hidden there, she sent a blessing over the lupine-field, and the lupines all stood straight up again, fair and flourishing, and with ten-fold greater produce than they had at first." In a Bolognese legend the lupines are cursed by the Virgin, because, "by the clatter and noise they made, certain plants of this species drew the attentions of Herod's minions to the spot where the tired and exhausted travellers had made a brief halt" (448. 473). Another tradition, found over almost all Italy, says that when the Holy Family were fleeing from the soldiers of King Herod:-- "The brooms and the chick-peas began to rustle and crackle, and by this noise betrayed the fugitives. The flax bristled up. Happily for her, Mary was near a juniper; the hospitable tree opened its branches as arms and enclosed the Virgin and Child within their folds, affording them a secure hiding-place. Then the Virgin uttered a malediction against the brooms and the chick-peas, and ever since that day they have always rustled and crackled." The story goes on to tell us that the Virgin "pardoned the flax its weakness, and gave the juniper her blessing," which accounts for the use of the latter for Christmas decorations, --like the holly in England and France (448. 395). _Birds of the Christ-Child._ Several birds are associated with the infant Christ in the folk-lore of Europe and the East. In Normandy, the wren is called _Poulette de Dieu, Oiseau de Dieu,_ "God's Chicken," "God's Bird,"--corresponding to the old Scotch "Our Lady's Hen,"--because, according to legend, "she was present at the birth of the Infant Saviour, made her nest in his cradle, and brought moss and feathers to form a coverlet for the Holy Child" (539. 35).