tHE APPLE TREE WASSAIL. 57 



In this connection it may be interesting to note that the 

 sacred tree and the sacred pillar are considered to be merely 

 two aspects of the same thing. The tree is a living sacred 

 pillar, a pillar is a petrified tree. Each is the house of a god 

 or spirit, the place of its indwelling, a central point between 

 the spiritual and material worlds. 



Jacob, when he set up the Stone of Bethel, poured on it .wine 

 and oil in consecration and named it the " House of God," 

 thereby indicating that for him at least it w r as the dwelling- 

 place of the God of his fathers whom he proposed to serve. 



The cider poured on the tree is not a drink for the spirit 

 dwelling there. It is a rather more magical rite, indicating 

 that the celebrant is trying to bring about a desired result by 

 assuming it done. He pours cider because he wants cider 

 next year. 



In the sacred dance we have imitated the desired result; in 

 the song we have expressed our wishes and hopes in words; 

 by pouring cider we have done our best by physical means to 

 secure that a comparatively dead tree will come to life. All 

 this belongs to a very .early stage in religious thought, when 

 gods and spirits are scarcely as yet conceived as such. 

 Primitive man thinks not so much of deities as of divinities 

 vague, half understood forces at work something like that 

 which the natives of Melanesia call " mana." And this word 

 is so expressive that it has passed into current anthropological 

 jargon. Thus we have hitherto dealt only with forces which 

 are more or less impersonal and can be controlled by magic, 

 spirits not requiring to be sought in prayer because they are 

 not regarded as possessing definite personal wills. It is the 

 great distinction between magic and religion as we know it. 

 With the former it is a matter of knowing how to do the 

 right thing, while the latter is a question of personal relation- 

 ship with a being. Now the noise brings us to the stage in 

 which a being is introduced. 



The shcuting, stamping, and gun-firing, while they may in 

 some measure express the joy of life, yet none the less are 

 intended to awaken the spirit in the tree who has fallen asleep 



