pPant "bore, Ts)egc7^/, aa^ "bijrio/. 289 



water procured from the spring nearest the spot where it grew. 

 The hquor is to be applied as a fomcutation. The Club-Moss may 

 also be made into an ointment, with butter made from the milk of 

 a new cow. These superstitious customs have probably a Druidic 

 origin, and tend to identify the Selago or Golden Herb of the 

 Druids with the Club-Moss, as the Selago was held sacred by them, 



and gathered with many m3'stic observances. (See Selago.) 



In many parts of Germany, certain Fairy-folk, called Moss-women, 

 are popularly believed to frequent the forests. In Thuringia, these 

 little women of the wood are called Holzfrala, and in one of the 

 legends of the Fichtelgebirge (a mountain-chain near the juncflion 

 of Saxony, Bavaria, and Bohemia), we find it stated that there was 

 a poor child whose mother lay sick of a fever. Going into the 

 forest to gather Strawberries, the child saw a little woman entirely 

 clothed with golden Moss — presumably Selago. The Moss-woman 

 asked the child for some of the fruit, and her request having been 

 readily acceded to, the Moss-woman ate her Strawberries and 

 tripped away. When the child reached home, she found the fruit 

 which she had carried in a jug was transformed to gold. The 

 Moss dress of the little woman is described as being of a golden 

 colour, which shone, when seen at a distance, like pure gold, but 

 on close inspection lost all its lustre. It is thought that many of 

 the stories about hidden treasure which are rife on the Fichtelge- 

 birge are to be attributed to the presence there of this curious 

 species of vegetation. 



COCOA-NUT PALM.— The Cocos Nucifera {Sdinscxit Ndri- 

 keva), or Cocoa-Nut Palm is the most extensively-cultivated tree in 

 the world, and its importance to myriads of the human race is 

 almost beyond conception. George Herbert wrote truly of this 

 Palm :— 



"The Indian Nut alone 

 Is clothing, meat and trencher, drink and can, 

 Boat, cable, sail, mast, needle, all in one." 



A vigorous tree will grow one hundred feet high, and produce 



annually one hundred Nuts. The Chinese call the Cocoa-Nut 



Yue-wang-fou (head of Prince of Yiie) from a tradition that a certain 

 Prince Lin-yi, who was at enmity with the Prince of Yiie, sent an 

 assassin to cut off the head of his enemy. The deed was executed, 

 and the severed head being caught in the branches of a Palm, 

 it remained suspended there, and was transformed into a Cocoa- 

 Nut, with two eyes in its shell. The Portuguese are said to have 



given the name of Coco to the Nut because at one end of the Nut 

 are three holes, resembling the head of a cat when mewing {Coca). 



The Indians, when vmable to recover the corpse of one of their 



people who has been slain, but whom they wish to honour, form 

 an effigy of Reeds, and surmount it with a Cocoa-Nut, which is 

 supposed to represent the head of the deceased. This sham corpse 

 they cover with Dhak wood, after which they offer up prayers, and 



u 



