32 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



In a Kirghiz story, quoted by Bronevsky/ from the graves of 

 two lovers, spring two willows "which mingle their branches as if in 

 an embrace." 



In a Chinese legend, King Kang had a secretary named Hanpang, 

 whose beautiful wife he coveted. He threw Hanpang into prison, 

 and his wife threw herself from a high terrace. Disregarding the 

 wishes expressed in a letter discovered in her bosom after her death, 

 the king had her interred in a grave separated from her husband. 

 The same night two cedars sprang from the graves, and in ten days 

 had grown tall and vigorous, while their branches and roots interlaced. 

 The cedars were henceforth called "The trees of faithful love."^ 



In several ballads and romances, the kind of trees or plants is 

 not specified. An Icelandic ballad and an Icelandic saga, for instance, 

 mention two trees which spring from the bodies of Tristan and Isolde — 

 buried on opposite sides of a church — and meet over the church roof.3 



According to a Hungarian ballad, the lovers throw themselves 

 into a deep lake, plants rise above the water and intertwine. The 

 bodies are brought up by divers and buried in the church where the 

 marvel occurs again. ^ 



A mother, in a White-Russian song, in attempting to poison her 

 son's wife, poisons her son also. They are buried separately, one in 

 the church, one in the graveyard. Trees from their graves join their 

 tops.^ 



A Ruthenian song differs from the last only in this: the two lovers 

 are buried on different sides of the church; and the mother while 

 trying to cut down the plants, which meet over the church, is turned 

 into a pillar.^ 



An Afghan song tells how two trees spring from the remains of 

 the lovers Audan and Doorkhaunee who have been buried at some 

 distance from each other, and the branches mingle over the tombs.^ 



(3) We will now consider instances where the two trees or shrubs 

 have been planted on the graves. In the German romances of Tristan, 



1 Cited by W. R. S. Ralston, Russian Folk-Tales (London, 1873), p. 232, note. 



2 Gubernatis, A. de, La Mythologie des Plantes, II, p. 53, from Schlegel's Urano- 

 graphie chinoise, p. 679. 



3 Child (I, 98) citing several authors (from 1854 to 1885). 

 * Ibid., (I. 98) citing Aigner, op. cit. 



^ Ibid., (X, 295) citing different authors. 

 « Ibid., (VI, 498) citing Hermann. 



^ Elphinstone, Hon. Mountstuart, An Account of the Kingdom of Caubul (Second 

 edition, London, 1819), Vol. I, p. 297. 



