5 ^
i •
80 p P a n t Isor©, Tsiegel^/, onsl l5)Ljrio/,
Should there be none, the tied-back leaves will, at any rate, stand
in evidence to the Nat or demon who presides over the forest.
Some of the Nats or spirits are known far and wide by special or
generic names. There is the Hmin Nat who lives in woods, and
shakes those he meets so that they go mad. There is the Akakasoh,
who lives in the tops of trees ; Shekkasoh, who lives in the trunk;
and Boomasoh, who dwells contentedly in the roots. The presence
of spirits or demons in trees the Burman believes may always be
ascertained by the quivering and trembling of the leaves when all
around is still.
Schweinfurth, the African explorer, tells us that, at the
present day, among the Bongos and the Niam-Niams, woods and
forests are regarded with awe as weird and mysterious places, the
abodes of supernatural beings. The malignant spirits who are
believed to inhabit the dark and gloomy forests, and who mspire
the Bongos with extraordinary terror, have, like the Devil, wizards,
and witches, a distinctive name : they are called hitdbohs; whilst
the sylvan spirits inhabiting groves and woods are known as rangas.
Under this last designation are comprised owls of different species,
bats, and the ndorr, a small ape, with large red eyes and erect ears,
which shuns the light of day, and hides itself m the trunks of
trees, from whence it comes forth at night. As a protection
against the influence of these malignant spirits of the woods, the
Bongos have recourse to certain magical roots which are sold to
them by their medicine-men. According to those worthies no one
can enter into communication with the wood spirits except by
means of certain roots, which enable the possessor to exorcise
evil spirits, or give him the power of casting spells. All old
people, but especially women, are suspected of having relations,
more or less intimate, with the sylvan spirits, and of consulting
the malign demons of the woods when they wish to injure
any of their neighbours. This belief in evil spirits, which
is general among the Bongos and other tribes of Africa, exists
also among the Niam-Niams. For the latter, the forest is the
abode of invisible beings who are constantly conspiring to injure
man; and in the rustling of the foliage they imagine they hear
the mysterious dialogues of the ghostly inhabitants of the
woods. ■ J J
The ancient German race, in whom there existed a deep
reverence for trees, peopled their groves and forests with a whole
troup of Waldgeister, both beneficent and malevolent. _A striking
example is to be seen in the case of the Elder, in which dwells
the Hylde-moer (Elder-mother), or Hylde-vinde (Elder-queen), who
avenges all injuries done to the Elder-tree. On this account
Elder branches may not be cut until permission has been asked of
the Hylde-moer. In Lower Saxony the woodman will, on his
bended knee, ask permission of the Elder-tree before cutting it,
in these words: “ Lady Elder, give me some of thy wood ; then
re© 8 r
will I give thee, also, some of mine when it grows in the forest.”
This formula is repeated three times.
Nearly allied to the tree-spirits were the Corn-spirits,* which
haunted and protected the green or yellow fields. Mr. Ralston
tells us that by the popular fancy they were often symbolised under
the form of wolves, or of “ buckmen,” goat-legged creatures, similar
to the classic Satyrs. “ When the wind blows the long Grass or
waving Corn, German peasants still say, ‘ The Grass-wolf ’ or
‘ The Corn-wolf,’ is abroad ! In some places the last sheaf of Rye
is left as a shelter to the Roggenwolf, or Rye-wolf, during the
winter’s cold ; and in many a summer or autumn festive rite, that
being is represented by a rustic, who assumes a wolf-like appearance.
The Corn-spirit, however, was often symbolised under a
human form.”
The belief in the existence of a spirit whose life is bound up
in that of the tree it inhabits remains to the present day. There is
a wide-spread German belief that if a sick man is passed through
a cleft made in a tree, which is immediately afterwards bound up,
the man and the tree become mysteriously connected—if the tree
flourishes so will the man ; but if it withers he will die. Should,
nowever, the tree survive the man, the soul of the latter will inhabit
the tree ; and (according to Pagan tradition) if the tree be fellec,
and used for ship-building, the dead man’s ghost becomes the
haunting genius of the ship. This strange notion may have had
its origin in the classic story of the Argonauts and their famous ship,
A beam on the prow of the Argo had been cut by Minerva out of
the forest of Dodona, where the trees were thought to be inhabitée
3y oracular spirits : hence the beam retained the power of giving
oracles to the voyagers, and warned them that they would never
reach their country till Jason had been purified of the murder of
Absyrtus. There is a story that tells how, when a musician cut a
piece of wood from a tree into which a girl had been metamorphosed
by her angry mother, he was startled to see blood oozing from the
wound. And when he had shaped it into a bow, and played with
it upon his violin before her mother, such a heart-rending wail
made itself heard, that the mother was struck with remorse, anc
Ditterly repented of her hasty deed. Mr. Ralston quotes a Czekh
story of a Nymph who appeared day by day among men, but
always went back to her willow by night. She married a mortal,
bare him children, and lived happily with him, till at length he
cut down her Willow-tree : that moment his wife died. Out of
this Willow was made a cradle, which had the power of instantly
lulling to sleep the babe she had left behind her ; and when the
babe became a child, it was able to hold converse with its dead
mother by means of a pipe, cut from the twigs growing on the
stump, which once had been that mother’s abiding-place.
* Further details will be found in the succeeding chapter.