60 THE APPLE TREE WASSAIL. 



the gods of the sea, the vegetation demons and those divine 

 or semi-divine beings who possess the power of appearing in 

 the form of beasts such as Dionysus would, as long as they 

 remain agriculturists, practise their particular cults; and that 

 these would, moreover, be learnt by any races who came into 

 contact with them who wished to change from the wandering 

 pastoral life to the more settled occupation of agriculture. 

 Primitive man knew very \vell that it w r as useless to carry on 

 an occupation until he had first of all put himself right with 

 the spirits whose special concern that occupation was. This 

 fact alone would explain how the ceremony could survive 

 through various changes of civilisation and religion, and w r ould 

 also explain why so many of these customs have been able to 

 make honourable terms even with triumphant Christianity. 



The Apple Tree Wassail is one of the more obscure of these 

 ancient rites, but it is none the less interesting, and I have 

 endeavoured to put forward an analysis of its elements and a 

 suggestion as to the lines on which further investigation may 

 be pursued. 



XOTK. An article in Folk-lore, Volume XXXI, page 307, by 

 Miss M. A. Berkeley, in commenting on some of the conclusions 

 reached by Miss J. L. Weston in her work From Ritual to 

 Romance, points out that Avalon in Afalon has the traditional 

 interpretation of the " Isle of Apples," and that Mr. Cook has 

 in the " European Sky and Tree God " connected the " Apple 

 tree of Avallach " the "god" of Avalon with magic trees of 

 Irish legends and with the grove of Nemi. After shewing the 

 connection of the Holy Thorn with sacred trees in general 

 Miss Berkeley proceeds to set out evidence for the existence 

 of an important and widely-known cult of the life principle at 

 Glastonbury in early, and even in historic, times. The whole 

 of the article is most suggestive in connection with the 

 persistence of the apple cult in Somerset in modern times. 



