X IV . p f a n t b o re , b c g a r ^ / , cm i bijnc/*,
(infroc^ucfion X V .
again, we find these nebulous overspreading world-trees conneifted
with the mysteries of death, and giving shelter to the souls of the
departed in the solemn shade of their dense foliage.
Looking upon vegetation as symbolical of life and generation,
man, in course of time, connecfled the origin of his species with
these shadowy cloud-trees, and hence arose the belief that humankind
first sprang from Ash and Oak-trees, or derived their being from
Holda, the cloud-goddess who combined in her person the form of a
lovely woman and the trunk of a mighty tree. In after years trees
were almost universally regarded either as sentient beings or as
constituting the abiding places of spirits whose existence was
bound up in the lives of the trees they inhabited. Hence arose the
conceptions of Hamadryads, Dryads, Sylvans, Tree-nymphs, Elves,
Fairies, and other beneficent spirits who peopled forests and dwelt
in individual trees—not only in the Old World, but in the dense
woods of North America, where the Mik-amwes, like Puck, has
from time immemorial frolicked by moonlight in the forest
openings. Hence, also, sprang up the morbid notion of trees
being haunted by demons, mischievous imps, ghosts, nats, and evil
spirits, whom it was deemed by the ignorant and superstitious
necessary to propitiate by sacrifices, offerings, and mysterious rites
and dances. Remnants of this superstitious tree-worship are still
extant in some European countries. The Ivminsul of the Germans
and the Central Oak of the Druids were of the same family as
the Asherah of the Semitic nations. In England, this primeval
superstition has its descendants in the village maypole bedizened
with ribbons and fiowers, and the Jack-in-the-Green with its
attendant devotees and whirling dancers. The modern Christmas
tree, too, although but slightly known in Germany at the
beginning of the present century, is evidently a remnant of the
pagan tree-worship; and it is somewhat remarkable that a similar
tree is common among the Burmese, who call it the PadaytJia-hin.
This Turanian Christmas-tree is made by the inhabitants of towns,
who deck its Bamboo twigs with all sorts of presents, and pile its
roots with blankets, cloth, earthenware, and other useful articles.
The wealthier classes contribute sometimes a Ngway Padaytha, or
silver Padaytha, the branches of which are hung with rupees and
smaller silver coins wrapped in tinsel or coloured paper. ^ These
trees are first carried in procession, and afterwards given to
monasteries on the occasion of certain festivals or the funerals
of Buddhist monks. They represent the wishing-tree, which,
according to Burmese mythology, grows in the Northern Island
and heaven of the nats or spirits, where it bears on its fairy
branches whatever may be wished for.
The ancient conception of human trees can be traced in the
superstitious endeavours of ignorant peasants to get rid of diseases
by transferring them to vicarious trees, or rather to the spirits
who are supposed to dwell in them; and it is the same idea
that impels simple rustics to bury Elder-sticks and Peach-leaves
to which they have imparted warts, &c. The recognised analogy
between the life of plants and that of man, and the cherished
superstition that trees were the homes of living and sentient
spirits, undoubtedly infiuenced the poets of the ancients m
forming their conceptions of heroes and heroines metamorphosed
into trees and fiowers ; and traces of the old belief are ^ to be
found in the custom of planting a tree on the bmth of an infant ;
the tree being thought to symbolise human life in its destiny
of growth, produaion of fruit, and multiplication of its species ;
and, when fully grown, giving shade, shelter, and proteaion. This
pleasant rite is still extant in our country as well as in Germany,
France, Italy, and Russia ; and from it has probably arisen a
custom now becoming very general of planting a tree to commemorate
any special occasion. Nor is the belief confined to the
Old World, for Mr. Leland has quite recently told us that he
observed near the tent of a North American Indian two small
evergreens, which were most carefully tended. On enquiry he
found the reason to be that when a child is born, or is yet young,
its parent chooses a shrub, which growing as the child grows, will,
during the child’s absence, or even in after years, indicate by its
appearance whether the human counterpart be ill or well, alive or
dead. In one of the Quadi Indian stories it is by means of the
sympathetic tree that the hero learns his brother’s death. .
In the middle ages, the old belief in trees possessing intelligence
was utilised by the monks, who have embodied the conception