pfant Isorc, "bege^/, cmR '\s^r\cj', 567 



belief that toads sit on tlicm. Thus Spenser, in his ' Shepherd's 

 Calendar,' says : — 



" The griesly Todestool grown there mought I see, 

 And loathed paddocks lording on the same." 



P'ungi are in some parts of the country called Paddock-stools from 

 the same notion that toads are fond of sitting on them ; and in the 

 Western counties they bear the name of Pixie-stools. In Sussex, 

 the Puff-ball [Lycoperdon) is called Puck's-stool ; and in other places 

 these fungi are known among country folks as Puckfists. These 

 names tend to identify Puck, the mischievous king of the fairies, 

 with the toad (pogge), which is popularly believed to be the imper- 

 sonation of the Devil himself: hence Toad-stools, Paddock-stools, 

 Puck's-stools, Puckfists, and Pixie-stools have been superstitiously 

 thought to be the droppings of elves or of Satan, and in some dis- 

 tricTts are known as Devil's droppings. 



TOBACCO.— With the Aborigines of Southern America, the 

 Tobacco [Nicotiaita) was regarded as a sacred plant, and Darwin 

 has described how, in the pampas of Patagonia, he saw the sacred 

 tree of Wallitchon. This tree grew on a hill in the midst of a vast 

 plain, and when the Indians perceived it afar off, they saluted it 

 with loud cries. The branches were covered with cords, from 

 which were suspended votive offerings, consisting of cigars, bread, 

 meat, pieces of cloth, &c. In a fissure of the tree they found spirits 

 and vegetable extracts. W'hen smoking, they blew the Tobacco 

 smoke towards the branches. All around lay the bleached bones 



of horses that they had sacrificed to the sacred tree. The 



Indians believe that this worship ensures good luck to themselves 

 and their horses. In other parts of America, the Indians throw 

 Tobacco as an offering to the spirit supposed to inhabit the water- 

 falls and whirlpools. — • — M. Cochet, a French traveller, recounts 

 that the Indians of Upper Peru, entertain a religious reverence 

 for Tobacco. They consider it an infallible remedy for the sting 

 of serpents, and each year a festival-day is consecrated to the 

 plant. On that day they construct, in the most secluded portion, 

 of the forest, a round hut, adorned with flowers and feathers. At 

 the foot of the central pillar which supports the hut is placed a 

 basket richly decorated, containing a roll of Tobacco. Into this 

 hut troop in one by one the Indians of the district, and before the 

 shrine of the sacred Tobacco perform their customary acts of 



worship. In reference to the use of Tobacco by pagan priests 



in the delivery of their oracles, Gerarde tells us that the " priests 

 and enchanters of hot countries do take the fume thereof until they 

 be drunke, that after they have lien for dead three or foure houres, 

 they may tell the people what wonders, visions, or illusions they 

 have seen, and so give them a prophetical dirciftion or foretelling 

 (if we may trust to the Divell) of the successe of their businesse." 

 In the Ukraine, Tobacco is looked upon as an ill-omened 



