TRANSFORMATION 161 



voyagers the Tree of Sorrow. 1 East and west, 

 literally " from China to Peru " as well as in the 

 Pacific islands, a similar origin has been attributed to 

 a large number of trees, particularly to those like the 

 cocoa-tree, the areca-palm, and the coca-tree, which 

 are useful to mankind. In Borneo Sir Hugh Low 

 was once walking in the jungle with a Land Dyak from 

 a neighbouring village when a large snake crossed 

 their path. The Dyak drew his parang and raised 

 his arm to strike, but suddenly stopped. Sir Hugh 

 asked him the reason, and he said that the bamboo- 

 bush opposite to which they were standing had been 

 a man and one of his relations who, dying about ten 

 years previously, had appeared in a dream to his 

 widow and informed her that he had become that 

 bamboo-tree, and the ground about it and everything 

 on it were sacred on that account. He went on to 

 say that in spite of that warning a man had once had 

 the hardihood to cut a branch from the tree, in conse- 

 quence of which he soon after died a punishment for 

 his sacrilegious act. A small bamboo altar was erected 

 before the bush, and Sir Hugh Low noted that upon 

 it were the remnants of offerings presented, though 

 not recently, to the spirit of the tree. 2 



The belief that a tree growing on a grave is thus a 

 transformation of the dead man within has led to the 

 planting of trees for the purpose of providing a new 

 body for the deceased. Aubrey in a passage already 

 quoted referred to the planting of roses in England. 



1 Rev. Trad. Pop. ix. 75, quoting Argensola, Histoire de la 

 Conquete des Isles Moluques (Amsterdam, 1706). A Creole story 

 from Louisiana attributes a similar origin to the ash-tree ; hence its 

 name (Alcee Fortier, Journ. Am. F. L. xix. 126). 



a Roth, Sarawak, i. 265, quoting Low. 



I L 



