(irii'roc|uclion. XV. 



smaller silver coins wrapped in tinsel or coloured paper. These 

 trees are first carried in procession, and afterwards given to 

 monasteries on the occasion of certain festivals or the funerals 

 of Buddhist monks. They represent the wishing-tree, which, 

 according to Burmese mythology, grows in the Northern Island 

 and heaven of the nats or spirits, where it bears on its fairy 

 branches whatever may be wished for. 



The ancient conception of human trees can be traced in the 

 superstitious endeavours of ignorant peasants to get rid of diseases 

 by transferring them to vicarious trees, or rather to the spirits 

 who are supposed to dwell in them ; and it is the same idea 

 that impels simple rustics to bury Elder-sticks and Peach-leaves 

 to which they have imparted warts, &c. The recognised analogy 

 between the life of plants and that of man, and the cherished 

 superstition that trees were the homes of living and sentient 

 spirits, undoubtedly influenced the poets of the ancients in 

 forming their conceptions of heroes and heroines metamorphosed 

 into trees and flowers ; and traces of the old belief are to be 

 found in the custom of planting a tree on the birth of an infant ; 

 the tree being thought to symbolise human life in its destiny 

 of growth, producftion of fruit, and multiplication of its species ; 

 and, when fully grown, giving shade, shelter, and protecftion. This 

 pleasant rite is still extant in our country as well as in Germany, 

 France, Italy, and Russia ; and from it has probably arisen a 

 custom now becoming very general of planting a tree to comme- 

 morate any special occasion. Nor is the belief confined to the 

 Old World, for Mr. Leland has quite recently told us that he 

 observed near the tent of a North American Indian two small 

 evergreens, which were most carefully tended. On enquiry he 

 found the reason to be that when a child is born, or is yet young, 

 its parent chooses a shrub, which growing as the child grows, will, 

 during the child's absence, or even in after years, indicate by its 

 appearance whether the human counterpart be ill or well, alive or 

 dead. In one of the Quadi Indian stories it is by means of the 

 sympathetic tree that the hero learns his brother's death. 



In the middle ages, the old belief in trees possessing intelli- 

 gence was utilised by the monks, who have embodied the conception 



