polish villages and elder (sambucus nigra); practical uses and folk beliefs:
• in polish folk medicine, leaves, berries, and flowers alike were used in multiple ways - for humans but for animals as well. for example, pigs suffering from erysipelas would be treated with compresses from elder leaves.
• for humans, a plethora of illnesses would be treated with elder: cough, stomach and bladder issues, joint pain, and even insomnia, asthma, and various emotional or psychological states. for example, “quiet children,” believed to be charmed, would be given elder infusions.
• the berries were also used to make soup: they’d be boiled with sugar and cream and served with potatoes. variations of this soup are still popular today in some places.
• it was recorded in some villages that women would make the ink required for school from elder; it was also used to make multiple types of toys and small instruments for children, such as popguns, whistles and folk pipes.
• ash from the elder would be poured over spots believed to bear the marks of devil activity as a way to cleanse them.
• in some villages it was believed that an elder growing by the house or the barn will protect it from witches and from lighting, or bring good luck to the household.
• you can sleep safely in the shade of the elder as snakes and worms and insects and all other crawling creatures will not dare go near it.
• while in many villages elder was believed to protect one from evil (most notably witches and devils) in many others it was believed to be demonic or evil in nature; it was called “evil” or “cursed” and believed to have evil spirits, illnesses, or devil(s) within.
• due to the belief that devil - or devils - reside between the roots of the elder, it was forbidden to cut it down or uproot it. the fear was that the evil would take revenge after such an act, or the place would be haunted, or bad luck and even death would fall upon the one who destroyed the tree.
• if an elder growing by the water was cut, the water itself would become poisonous. similarly, the consequences of ingesting raw and unripe elderberries were attributed to the influence of the evil spirit within it.
[sources: Komentarze do Polskiego Atlasu Etnograficznego t. VI. Agnieszka Lebeda: Wiedza i wierzenia ludowe, 2002. Podania, przesądy, gadki i nazwy ludowe w dziedzinie przyrody. Cz. 2, Rośliny. Bronisław Gustawicz, 1882.]
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