648 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



GHOST WORSHIP AND TREE WORSHIP. 



By GRANT ALLEN. 

 II. 



PROVIDED with this universal master-key, then, we can now 

 proceed to unlock niany intricate puzzles of tree and plant 

 worship which have hitherto baffled us. How full of meaning 

 from our present standpoint, for example, is Mr. Turner's state- 

 ment that at a certain spot in the island of Savaii there was " an 

 old tree inland of the village, which was a place of refuge for 

 murderers and other capital offenders ! If that tree was reached 

 by the criminal he was safe, and the avenger of blood could pur- 

 sue no farther, but wait investigation and trial. It is said that 

 the king of a division of Upolu, called Atua, once lived at that 

 spot. After he died, the house fell into decay ; but the tree was 

 fixed on as representing the departed king, and out of respect for 

 his memory it was made the substitute of a living and royal pro- 

 tector." * Not less striking is the case of the large tree, Hernan- 

 dia peltata, in which " a family god of the same name " (as the 

 native one of the tree) "was supposed to live ; and hence no one 

 dared to pluck a leaf or break a branch." In all these relatively 

 primitive cases it is noticeable that it is a family god who is 

 believed to inhabit the tree. We stand as yet quite close to the 

 original form of worship which is almost exclusively domestic 

 and directed straight at the heads of the family ghosts. After all 

 this, it is interesting to read that on the closely related Savage 

 Island the kings — who would of course be the descendants of such 

 divine ancestors, and therefore themselves both gods and priests — 

 " were supposed to cause the food to grow " ; and that " the people 

 got angry with them in times of scarcity, and killed them ; and, 

 as one after another was killed, the end of it was that no one 

 wished to be king." f Readers of The Golden Bough, however, 

 will be more likely to suspect that the kings were sacrificed on the 

 same principle as the Rex Nemorensis, and that at last the royal 

 stock got exhausted by too rapid using up of the whole available 

 supply of divinity. Indeed, the proper keeping up of the king- 

 god's family, in cases where godship has to pay for its dignity by 

 the unpleasant incident of final sacrifice, willing or unwilling, 

 must be an endless source of anxiety and trouble to primitive 

 politicians. Where the safety of the crops and of the tribesmen 

 themselves depends entirely upon a single life, a very painful state 

 of tension must often exist, and the authorities must frequently 



* Turner, Samoa, p. 65. f Ibid., p. 305. 



