TREES IN MYTH AND LEGEND. 201 



that sits within the fir tree. One may still look on where 

 Franconian damsels go to a tree on St Thomas's Day, knock 

 three times solemnly, and listen for the indwelling spirit to give 

 answer by raps from within what manner of husbands they are 

 to have. 



These are a few examples chosen at random of the beliefs of 

 primitive peoples, and serve to show to some extent their faith 

 in the god-like attributes of trees, or the power over their fortunes, 

 which the indwelling spirits of the trees possessed. 



7. Such animistic beliefs have survived in the East in actual 

 tree-marriage for a symbolical or ceremonial purpose. The 

 idea at the root of this custom is that the tree is capable of 

 taking ill-luck to itself. Thus in the Punjab if a man has lost 

 several wives in succession he is married to a tree before the 

 actual marriage ; the tree is then assumed to die in the place of 

 the woman. Other cases are known with the same purpose 

 of diverting some particular ill-luck to the tree-bride. Again 

 many tribes in India observe the custom of marrying both 

 bride and bridegroom to trees as a preliminary ceremony ; 

 perhaps to divert all evil influences to them, or possibly with a 

 view to obtaining good luck from them. Whatever be the 

 rationale of such rites it is clear that they could never have 

 arisen except on the assumption that the tree was actually 

 likened to a man, and that actual unions between men and trees 

 had once taken place. 



So far, then, it has been attempted to show the attitude of 

 primitive peoples towards trees. We have seen that the tree 

 may be worshipped as the god itself; or the tree may have the 

 spirit or demon embodied in it, as in the transmigration of souls 

 theory; or the tree may be the spirit's perch or shelter or 

 favourite haunt. The tree may be sacred simply because it is 

 the altar of some god, a place at once convenient and con- 

 spicuous where offerings can be set out for some spiritual being 

 who may be a tree-spirit or perhaps the local deity, living there 

 just as a man might do who had his hut and owned his plot of 

 land around. 



The tree may be the place of spiritual resort, and as such there 

 is no real distinction between the sacred tree and the sacred 

 grove. The shelter of some single tree or the seclusion of a 

 forest grove is a place of worship set apart by nature ; of some 

 tribes, the only temple; of many tribes, perhapst he earliest. 



VOL. XXXIV. PART II. O 



