160 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



where the old antiquary reports concerning the parish 

 of Ockley, in Surrey, a custom of planting roses at the 

 grave of a deceased lover, adding as a conclusion of 

 his own " they planted a tree or a flower on the grave 

 of their friend, and they thought the soul of the party 

 deceased went into the tree or plant. " 1 Aubrey's 

 conclusion is doubtless correct, if not for his own 

 time, for one not many generations off; but it presents 

 a development of the original conception, his friend 

 Mrs. Smyth's " notion of men being metamorphosed 

 into trees and flowers/' which he damns as " ingeniose," 

 being much nearer the truth than he seems to 

 imagine. 



In India the legend of Krishna relates that his wife 

 Rukmini died in his absence. Her body was burnt 

 and the ashes buried in a new earthenware jar ac- 

 cording to the prescribed ritual. When Krishna 

 returned and was shown the burial-place a tulsi-plant 

 had grown upon it. This plant was Rukmini in a new 

 form ; and hence the tulsi is regarded as sacred. 2 In 

 the Molucca Islands there is a tree which bears during 

 the night from sunset to sunrise a rapid succession of 

 fragrant white flowers. To account for this pheno- 

 menon the inhabitants of Ternate have a tradition 

 that there was once a beautiful woman who was 

 beloved by the Sun, and who, being deserted by her 

 fickle lover, slew herself. Her body was, in accordance 

 with the custom of the country, burnt ; and from her 

 ashes arose the tree, called by the early Portuguese 



1 Mrs. Gomme, ii. 16 ; Aubrey, Remaines, 155. According to 

 the Book of Ballymote an apple-tree grew up through the grave of 

 Aillem, daughter of Lughaid, King of Leinster, who died of shame 

 on being ravished away by Cremh (Silva Gad. ii. 531). 



2 AnthropoS) ii. 276. 



