The Folk-lore of Plants Part 3

'In such green palaces the first kings reigned; Slept in their shade, and angels entertained.

With such old counsellors they did advise, And by frequenting sacred shades grew wise.'

Even Paradise itself, says Evelyn, was but a kind of 'nemorous temple or sacred grove,' planted by G.o.d himself, and given to man _tanquam primo sacerdoti_; and he goes on to suggest that the groves which the patriarchs are recorded to have planted in different parts of Palestine may have been memorials of that first tree-shaded paradise from which Adam was expelled."

Briefly noticing the antecedent history of plant-wors.h.i.+p, it would seem to have lain at the foundation of the old Celtic creed, although few records on this point have come down to us.[9] At any rate we have abundant evidence that this form of belief held a prominent place in the religion of these people, allusions to which are given by many of the early cla.s.sical writers. Thus the very name of Druidism is a proof of the Celtic addiction to tree-wors.h.i.+p, and De Brosses,[10] as a further evidence that this was so, would derive the word kirk, now softened into church, from _quercus_, an oak; that species having been peculiarly sacred. Similarly, in reviewing the old Teutonic beliefs, we come across the same references to tree-wors.h.i.+p, in many respects displaying little or no distinction from that of the Celts. In explanation of this circ.u.mstance, Mr. Keary[11] suggests that, "The nature of the Teutonic beliefs would apply, with only some slight changes, to the creed of the predecessors of the Germans in Northern and Western Europe. Undoubtedly, in prehistoric days, the Germans and Celts merged so much one into the other that their histories cannot well be distinguished."

Mr. Fergusson in his elaborate researches has traced many indications of tree-adoration in Germany, noticing their continuance in the Christian period, as proved by Grimm, whose opinion is that, "the festal universal religion of the people had its abode in woods," while the Christmas tree of present German celebration in all families is "almost undoubtedly a remnant of the tree-wors.h.i.+p of their ancestors."

According to Mr. Fergusson, one of the last and best-known examples of the veneration of groves and trees by the Germans after their conversion to Christianity, is that of the "Stock am Eisen" in Vienna, "The sacred tree into which every apprentice, down to recent times, before setting out on his "Wanderjahre", drove a nail for luck. It now stands in the centre of that great capital, the last remaining vestige of the sacred grove, round which the city has grown up, and in sight of the proud cathedral, which has superseded and replaced its more venerable shade."

Equally undoubted is the evidence of tree-wors.h.i.+p in Greece--particular trees having been sacred to many of the G.o.ds. Thus we have the oak tree or beech of Jupiter, the laurel of Apollo, the vine of Bacchus. The olive is the well-known tree of Minerva. The myrtle was sacred to Aphrodite, and the apple of the Hesperides belonged to Juno.[12] As a writer too in the _Edinburgh Review_[13] remarks, "The oak grove at Dodona is sufficiently evident to all cla.s.sic readers to need no detailed mention of its oracles, or its highly sacred character. The sacrifice of Agamemnon in Aulis, as told in the opening of the 'Iliad,'

connects the tree and serpent wors.h.i.+p together, and the wood of the sacred plane tree under which the sacrifice was made was preserved in the temple of Diana as a holy relic so late, according to Pausanias, as the second century of the Christian era." The same writer further adds that in Italy traces of tree-wors.h.i.+p, if not so distinct and prominent as in Greece, are nevertheless existent. Romulus, for instance, is described as hanging the arms and weapons of Acron, King of Cenina, upon an oak tree held sacred by the people, which became the site of the famous temple of Jupiter.

Then, again, turning to Bible history,[14] the denunciations of tree-wors.h.i.+p are very frequent and minute, not only in connection with the wors.h.i.+p of Baal, but as mentioned in 2 Kings ix.: "And they (the children of Israel) set themselves up images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree." These acts, it has been remarked, "may be attributable more to heretical idolatrous practices into which the Jews had temporarily fallen in imitation of the heathen around them, but at the same time they furnish ample proof of the existence of tree and grove wors.h.i.+p by the heathen nations of Syria as one of their most solemn rites." But, from the period of King Hezekiah down to the Christian era, Mr. Fergusson finds no traces of tree-wors.h.i.+p in Judea.

In a.s.syria tree-wors.h.i.+p was a common form of idolatrous veneration, as proved by Lord Aberdeen's black-stone, and many of the plates in the works of Layard and Botta.[15] Turning to India, tree-wors.h.i.+p probably has always belonged to Aryan Hinduism, and as tree-wors.h.i.+p did not belong to the aboriginal races of India, and was not adopted from them, "it must have formed part of the pantheistic wors.h.i.+p of the Vedic system which endowed all created things with a spirit and life--a doctrine which modern Hinduism largely extended[16]."

Thus when food is cooked, an oblation is made by the Hindu to trees, with an appropriate invocation before the food is eaten. The Bo tree is extensively wors.h.i.+pped in India, and the Toolsee plant (Basil) is held sacred to all G.o.ds--no oblation being considered sacred without its leaves. Certain of the Chittagong hill tribes wors.h.i.+p the bamboo,[17]

and Sir John Lubbock, quoting from Thompson's "Travels in the Himalaya,"

tells us that in the Simla hills the _Cupressus toridosa_ is regarded as a sacred tree. Further instances might be enumerated, so general is this form of religious belief. In an interesting and valuable paper by a Bengal civilian--intimately acquainted with the country and people[18]--the writer says:--"The contrast between the acknowledged hatred of trees as a rule by the Bygas,[19] and their deep veneration for certain others in particular, is very curious. I have seen the hillsides swept clear of forests for miles with but here and there a solitary tree left standing. These remain now the objects of the deepest veneration. So far from being injured they are carefully preserved, and receive offerings of food, clothes, and flowers from the pa.s.sing Bygas, who firmly believe that tree to be the home of a spirit." To give another ill.u.s.tration[20], it appears that in Beerbhoom once a year the whole capital repairs to a shrine in the jungle, and makes simple offerings to a ghost who dwells in the Bela tree. The shrine consists of three trees--a Bela tree on the left, in which the ghost resides, and which is marked at the foot with blood; in the middle is a Kachmula tree, and on the right a Saura tree. In spite of the trees being at least seventy years old, the common people claim the greatest antiquity for the shrine, and tradition says that the three trees that now mark the spot neither grow thicker nor increase in height, but remain the same for ever.

A few years ago Dr. George Birwood contributed to the _Athenaeum_ some interesting remarks on Persian flower-wors.h.i.+p. Speaking of the Victoria Gardens at Bombay, he says:--"A true Persian in flowing robe of blue, and on his head his sheep-skin hat--black, glossy, curled, the fleece of Kar-Kal--would saunter in, and stand and meditate over every flower he saw, and always as if half in vision. And when the vision was fulfilled, and the ideal flower he was seeking found, he would spread his mat and sit before it until the setting of the sun, and then pray before it, and fold up his mat again and go home. And the next night, and night after night, until that particular flower faded away, he would return to it, and bring his friends in ever-increasing troops to it, and sit and play the guitar or lute before it, and they would all together pray there, and after prayer still sit before it sipping sherbet, and talking the most hilarious and shocking scandal, late into the moonlight; and so again and again every evening until the flower died. Sometimes, by way of a grand finale, the whole company would suddenly rise before the flower and serenade it, together with an ode from Hafiz, and depart."

Tree-wors.h.i.+p too has been more or less prevalent among the American Indians, abundant ill.u.s.trations of which have been given by travellers at different periods. In many cases a striking similarity is noticeable, showing a common origin, a circ.u.mstance which is important to the student of comparative mythology when tracing the distribution of religious beliefs. The Dacotahs wors.h.i.+p the medicine-wood, so called from a belief that it was a genius which protected or punished them according to their merits or demerits.[21] Darwin[22] mentions a tree near Siena de la Ventana to which the Indians paid homage as the altar of Walleechu; offerings of cigars, bread, and meat having been suspended upon it by threads. The tree was surrounded by bleached bones of horses that had been sacrificed. Mr. Tylor[23] speaks of an ancient cypress existing in Mexico, which he thus describes:--"All over its branches were fastened votive offerings of the Indians, hundreds of locks of coa.r.s.e black hair, teeth, bits of coloured cloth, rags, and morsels of ribbon. The tree was many centuries old, and had probably had some mysterious influence ascribed to it, and been decorated with such simple offerings long before the discovery of America."

Once more, the Calchaquis of Brazil[24] have been in the habit of wors.h.i.+pping certain trees which were frequently decorated by the Indians with feathers; and Charlevoix narrates another interesting instance of tree-wors.h.i.+p:--"Formerly the Indians in the neighbourhood of Acadia had in their country, near the sea-sh.o.r.e, a tree extremely ancient, of which they relate many wonders, and which was always laden with offerings.

After the sea had laid open its whole root, it then supported itself a long time almost in the air against the violence of the winds and waves, which confirmed those Indians in the notion that the tree must be the abode of some powerful spirit; nor was its fall even capable of undeceiving them, so that as long as the smallest part of its branches appeared above the water, they paid it the same honours as whilst it stood."

In North America, according to Franklin,[25] the Crees used to hang strips of buffalo flesh and pieces of cloth on their sacred tree; and in Nicaragua maize and beans were wors.h.i.+pped. By the natives of Carolina the tea-plant was formerly held in veneration above all other plants, and indeed similar phases of superst.i.tion are very numerous. Traces of tree-wors.h.i.+p occur in Africa, and Sir John Lubbock[26] mentions the sacred groves of the Marghi--a dense part of the forest surrounded with a ditch--where in the most luxuriant and widest spreading tree their G.o.d, Zumbri, is wors.h.i.+pped. In his valuable work on Ceylon, Sir J.

Emerson Tennent gives some interesting details about the consecration of trees to different demons to insure their safety, and of the ceremonies performed by the kattadias or devil-priests. It appears that whenever the a.s.sistance of a devil-dancer is required in extreme cases of sickness, various formalities are observed after the following fas.h.i.+on.

An altar is erected, profusely adorned with garlands and flowers, within sight of the dying man, who is ordered to touch and dedicate to the evil spirit the wild flowers, rice, and flesh laid upon it.

Traces of plant-wors.h.i.+p are still found in Europe. Before sunrise on Good Friday the Bohemians are in the habit of going into their gardens, and after falling on their knees before a tree, to say, "I pray, O green tree, that G.o.d may make thee good," a formula which Mr. Ralston[27]

considers has probably been altered under the influence of Christianity "from a direct prayer to the tree to a prayer for it." At night they run about the garden exclaiming, "Bud, O trees, bud! or I will flog you." On the following day they shake the trees, and clank their keys, while the church bells are ringing, under the impression that the more noise they make the more fruit will they get. Traces, too, of tree-wors.h.i.+p, adds Mr. Ralston,[28] may be found in the song which the Russian girls sing as they go out into the woods to fetch the birch tree at Whitsuntide, and to gather flowers for wreaths and garlands:

"Rejoice not, oaks; Rejoice not, green oaks.

Not to you go the maidens; Not to you do they bring pies, Cakes, omelettes.

So, so, Semik and Troitsa [Trinity]!

Rejoice, birch trees, rejoice, green ones!

To you go the maidens!

To you they bring pies, Cakes, omelettes."

The eatables here mentioned probably refer to the sacrifices offered in olden days to the birch--the tree of the spring. With this practice we may compare one long observed in our own country, and known as "wa.s.sailing." At certain seasons it has long been customary in Devons.h.i.+re for the farmer, on the eve of Twelfth-day, to go into the orchard after supper with a large milk pail of cider with roasted apples pressed into it. Out of this each person in the company takes what is called a clome--i.e., earthenware cup--full of liquor, and standing under the more fruitful apple trees, address them in these words:

"Health to thee, good apple tree, Well to bear pocket fulls, hat fulls, Peck fulls, bushel bag fulls."

After the formula has been repeated, the contents of the cup are thrown at the trees.[29] There are numerous allusions to this form of tree-wors.h.i.+p in the literature of the past; and Tusser, among his many pieces of advice to the husbandman, has not omitted to remind him that he should,

"Wa.s.sail the trees, that they may bear You many a plum and many a pear; For more or less fruit they will bring, As you do them wa.s.sailing."

Survivals of this kind show how tenaciously old superst.i.tious rites struggle for existence even when they have ceased to be recognised as worthy of belief.

Footnotes:

1. "Outlines of Primitive Belief," 1882, p. 54.

2. "Tree and Serpent Wors.h.i.+p."

3. See Sir John Lubbock's "Origin of Civilisation," pp. 192-8.

4. _Fortnightly Review_, "The Wors.h.i.+p of Animals and Plants," 1870, vii. 213.

5. _Ibid._, 1869, vi. 408.

6. "Principles of Sociology," 1885, i. p. 359.

7. "The Origin of Civilisation and Primitive Condition of Man."

8. _Quarterly Review_, cxiv. 212.

9. Keary's "Primitive Brlief," pp. 332-3; _Edinburgh Review_, cx.x.x.

488-9.

10. "Du Culte des Dieux Fetiches," p. 169.

11. "Primitive Belief," pp. 332-3.

12. Fergusson's "Tree and Serpent Wors.h.i.+p," p. 16.

13. cx.x.x. 492; see Tacitus' "Germania," ix.

14. See _Edinburgh Review_, cx.x.x. 490-1.

15. _Edinburgh Review_, cx.x.x. 491.

16. Mr. Fergusson's "Tree and Serpent Wors.h.i.+p." See _Edinburgh Review_, cx.x.x. 498.

17. See Lewin's "Hill Tracts of Chittagong," p. 10.

18. _Cornhill Magazine_, November 1872, p. 598.

19. An important tribe in Central India.

20. See Sherring's "Sacred City of the Hindus," 1868, p. 89.

21. Dorman's "Primitive Superst.i.tions," p. 291.

22. See "Researches in Geology and Natural History," p. 79.