RELIGIOUS TREES 167 



During all this time, many of the old tree beliefs 

 of the East still persisted or were superseded by 

 others. A very interesting mediaeval tree-story 

 comes to us from India. It is said that Tsong Kaba, 

 who later became Buddha, had very beautiful white 

 hair as an infant. For some unknown reason, his 

 parents decided to cut it off when the lad was about 

 three years old. No doubt the child protested, but 

 his head was shaved forthwith and the pretty locks 

 thrown outside the tent. They had not been there 

 long, when lo, there sprang up from them a tree, 

 which exhaled a delicious perfume and bore mysti- 

 cal Thibetian characters on each of its leaves. As 

 can be well imagined, such a remarkable plant at 

 once became the object of adoration. The Em- 

 peror Khang-Hi built a silver dome over it to pro- 

 tect it from the elements and as the "Tree of Ten 

 Thousand Images" it became a famous place of 

 pilgrimage. The Abbe Hue is said to have visited 

 it in person and vouched for its genuineness. 



So strong a hold had tree worship on the inhabi- 

 tants of Europe that they carried over certain of 

 their modified beliefs into Christianity. Their an- 

 cient woodland gods under Christian influences be- 

 came elves, sprites, witches, goblins, etc. Individ- 

 ual trees heretofore sacred because of mighty deeds 

 wrought in their vicinity by Thor or Odin now be- 



