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C H A P T E R X L
®Ja6uPou/, ©Y/onc^rou/, alit) MiracuPou/
E have seen how, among the ancient races of the
earth, traditions' existed which connected the
origin of man with certain trees. In the Bunde-
hesh, man is represented as having first appeared
on earth under the form of the plant Reiva
[Rheum ribes). In the Iranian account of man’s
creation, the primal couple are stated to have
first grown up as a single tree, and at muturity
to have been separated and endowed with a distinct existence by
Ormuzd. In the Scandinavian Edda, men are represented as
having sprung from the Ash and Poplar. The Greeks traced the
origin of the human race to the maternal Ash ; and the Romans
regarded the Oak as the progenitor of all mankind. The conception
of human trees was present in the mind .of the Prophet
Isaiah, when he predicted that from the stem of Jesse should come
forth a rod, and from his roots, a branch. The same idea is preserved
in the genealogical trees of modern heraldry; and the marked
analogy between man and trees has doubtless given rise to the
custom of planting trees at the birth of children. The old Romans
were wont to plant a tree at the birth of a son, and to judge of the
prosperity' of the child by the growth and thriving of the tree. It
is said in the life of Virgil, that the Poplar planted at his birth
fiourished exceedingly, and far outstripped all its contemporaries.
De Gubernatis records that, as a rule, in Germany, they plant
Apple-trees for boys, and Pear-trees for girls. In Polynesia, at
the birth of an infant, a Cocoa-nut tree is planted, the nodes of
which are supposed to indicate the number of years promised to
the little stranger.
According to a legend that Hamilton found current in Central
India, the Khatties had this strange origin. When the five sons
of Bandn (the heroes whose exploits are told in the Mahdbhd-
©JaSaFou/ 1 1 7
rata) had become simple tenders of flocks, Kama, their illegitimate
brother, wishing to deprive them of these their last resource, prayed
the gods to assist him; then he struck the earth with his staff,
which was fashioned from the branch of a tree. The staff instantly
opened, and out of it sprang a man, who said that his name was
Khat, a word which signifies “ begotten of wood.” Kama employed
this tree-man to steal the coveted cattle, and the Khatties claim to
be descended from this strange forefather.
The traditions of trees that brought forth human beings, and
of trees that were in themselves partly human, are current among
most of the Aryan and Semitic races, and are also to be found
among the Sioux Indians. These traditions (which have been previously
noticed in Chapter V II.) have probably given rise to
others, which represent certain trees as bearing for fruit human
beings and the members of human beings.
In the fourteenth century, an Italian voyager, Odoricus de
Foro Julii, on arriving at Malabar, heard the natives speaking of
trees which, instead of fruit, bore men and women : these creatures
were scarcely a yard high, and their nether extremities were
attached to the tree’s trunk, like branches. Their bodies were
fresh and radiant when the wind blew, but on its dropping, they
became gradually withered and dried up.
In the first book of the Mahdbhdrata, reference is made, in the
legend of Garuda, to an enormous Indian Fig-tree [Ficus religiosa),
from the branches of which are suspended certain devotees of
dwarfed proportions, called Vdlahhilyas.
Among the Arabs, there exists a tradition of an island in the
Southern Ocean called Wak-Wak, which is so-named because certain
trees growing Je re o n produce fruit having the form of a human
head, which cries Wak ! Wak !
Among the Chinese, the myth of men being descended from
trees is reversed, for we find a legend current in the Flowery Land
that, in the beginning, the herbs and plants sprang from the hairs
of a cosmic giant.
The Chinese, however, preserve the tradition of a certain lake
by whose margin grew great quantities of trees, the leaves of which
when developed became changed into birds. In India, similar
trees are referred to in many of the popular tales : thus, in ‘ The
Rose of Bakavali ” mention is made of a garden of Pomegranate-
trees, the fruit of which resembled earthenware vases. When
these were plucked and opened, out hopped birds of beautiful
plumage, which immediately flew away.
Pope Pius II., in his work on Asia and Europe, published
towards the end of the fifteenth century, states that in Scotland
there grew on the banks of a river a tree which produced fruits
resembling ducks; these fruits, when matured, fell either on the
river bank or into the water : those which fell on the ground
perished instantly ; those which fell into the water became turned