i-66 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



Maidu inhabiting the foot-hills of the Sierra Nevada 

 in California hold that " bad people " are changed into 

 rocks and bushes. 1 A similar belief is obvious in the 

 Bavarian saga concerning three women who led an 

 abandoned life in a castle in the forest near Nuremberg, 

 to which they enticed strangers and then plundered 

 and put them to death. Their dwelling was even- 

 tually struck by lightning ; they perished with it ; but 

 their souls entered three great trees. I f one of the trees 

 be cut down the soul passes over into another. After 

 the bell for evening prayer has sounded a passer-by 

 may hear from the tree-tops in the gloom soft voices 

 calling him, or a mischievous titter ; and he will think 

 he catches sight of a beckoning form not obscurely 

 between the branches. 2 



As in the case of trees so also plants of smaller 

 growth have been referred to transformations of sacred 

 or mysterious personages. The various American 

 legends of the origin of maize are too well known to 

 need repetition. The Brazilian legend of the manioc 

 is similar. It was a maiden born to a chiefs daughter 

 who had never known man. She grew to maturity in 

 a year, died without any disease and was buried in her 

 mother's house. The grave was watered every day 

 according to the ancient custom of the tribe, and in due 

 course a plant grew up from it, flourished and bore 

 fruit. It is called manioc, Mani's house or trans- 

 formation. 3 The calabash- tree and the tobacco-plant 



1 R. Dixon, Bull. Am. Mus. N. H. xvii. 261. 



2 Mannhardt, BK. 41, citing Panzer. Frazer, G. B. i. 178, cites 

 other cases of souls passing into trees which it is unnecessary to 

 reproduce here. 



3 Granada, 216, citing Magalhaes. See also Dorman, 293, citing 

 m th's Brazil'; von den Steinen, 369 ; Journ. Am. F. L. xx. 147. 



