The Folk-Lore of Plants. 393 
heard, on calm days,.a sound like the voice of a spirit 
speaking to men, issuing from the recesses of a certain tree. 
They, therefore, thought it the abode of a powerful divinity 
and held the tree sacred. 
The influence of the doctrine of the transmigration of 
souls long continued in the notion that the spirits of the de- 
parted took up their abode in plants. Classical and 
medieval literature furnish many beautiful illustrations, 
and a similar idea prevailed among savage nations. Thus, 
“some of the North-Western Indians believed that those 
who died a natural death would be compelled to dwell 
among the branches of tall trees.” ‘‘ Among the Virginian 
tribes, red clover was supposed to have sprung from and to 
be coloured by the blood of red men slain in battle.’ ! In 
certain parts of Canada, it is still thought that wherever 
Sanguinaria canadensis grows in the woods an Indian has 
been buried, and that the red juice of the plant is the dead 
man’s blood.* The Ojibwé legend of Mondamin, which 
has been beautified and extended by Longfellow, furnishes 
another illustration. Mondamin comes from the sky as a 
handsome youth in garments green and yellow, and strug- 
gles with Hiawatha at his “ fast of virility.” At last 
Mondamin is overcome and laid in his grave. 
“ Day by day did Hiawatha 
Go to wait and watch beside it, 
Kept the dark mould soft above it, 
Kept it clean from weeds and insects, 
Drove away with shouts and shoutings, 
Kahahgee, the king of ravens. 
Till at length a small green feather 
From the earth shot slowly upward, 
- Then another and another, 
And before the summer ended 
Stood the Maize in all its beauty, 
With its shining robes about it, 
And its long, soft, yellow tresses.” 
1 Dyer’s Folk-Lore of Plants. 
?Ghost Worship and Tree Worship, by Grant Allan. Pop. 
Sci. Monthly, Feb., 1893. 
26 
