xiv. pPaat "bore, Isegel^^/, anel "bijricy. 



again, we find these nebulous overspreading world-trees conne(5led 

 with the mysteries of death, and giving shelter to the souls of the 

 departed in the solemn shade of their dense foliage. 



Looking upon vegetation as symbolical of life and generation, 

 man, in course of time, connecfled the origin of his species with 

 these shadowy cloud-trees, and hence arose the belief that human- 

 kind first sprang from Ash and Oak-trees, or derived their being from 

 Holda, the cloud-goddess who combined in her person the form of a 

 lovely woman and the trunk of a mighty tree. In after years trees 

 were almost universally regarded either as sentient beings or as 

 constituting the abiding places of spirits whose existence was 

 bound up in the lives of the trees they inhabited. Hence arose the 

 conceptions of Hamadryads, Dryads, Sylvans, Tree-nymphs, Elves, 

 Fairies, and other beneficent spirits who peopled forests and dwelt 

 in individual trees — not only in the Old World, but in the dense 

 woods of North America, where the Mik-amwes, like Puck, has 

 from time immemorial frolicked by moonlight in the forest 

 openings. Hence, also, sprang up the morbid notion of trees 

 being haunted by demons, mischievous imps, ghosts, nats, and evil 

 spirits, whom it was deemed by the ignorant and superstitious 

 necessary to propitiate by sacrifices, offerings, and mysterious rites 

 and dances. Remnants of this superstitious tree-worship are still 

 extant in some European countries. The Irminsul of the Germans 

 and the Central Oak of the Druids were of the same family as 

 the Asherah of the Semitic nations. In England, this primeval 

 superstition has its descendants in the village maypole bedizened 

 with ribbons and flowers, and the Jack-in-the-Green with its 

 attendant devotees and whirling dancers. The modern Christ- 

 mas-tree, too, although but slightly known in Germany at the 

 beginning of the present century, is evidently a remnant of the 

 pagan tree- worship ; and it is somewhat remarkable that a similar 

 tree is common among the Burmese, who call it the Padaytha-hin. 

 This Turanian Christmas-tree is made by the inhabitants of towns, 

 who deck its Bamboo twigs with all sorts of presents, and pile its 

 roots with blankets, cloth, earthenware, and other useful articles. 

 The wealthier classes contribute sometimes a Ngway Padaytha, or 

 silver Padaytha, the branches of which are hung with rupees and 



