THE ‘FOLKLORE OF INDIAN PLANTts.”? 50 
own matchless beauty he pined away, when at last the compassion 
of gods turned him into a daffodil In our own day we speak of 
“ successful’? men bearing the palm, from the ancient Roman custom 
of giving the gladiator a palm tree branch, Our leading poet is called 
the “Poet Laureate.” ‘The laurel is an emblem of peace and victory 
in our day. In modern days our flowers have a language, which 
finds no small pleasure, encouragement, and fruitful occupation to 
two young loving hearts about to be united in the sacred bonds of 
wedlock The lady love sends a beautifully pressed dried heart’s-ease. 
The sweetheart swears constancy and warmth by enclosing a rose. 
The lady-love sends a hly-of-the-valley—the sweetheart sends back 
love-lies-bleeding, and so on till the orange blossom veil hands ever 
the virgin wife to her ardently admiring husband. Nor is the vil- 
lage tree, or the way-side bush, free from its own tale. Near Glas- 
tonbury Abbey they say there is an old hawthorn tree that Sprang 
up and at once threw out bud and blossom, when Joseph, the first 
preacher of Christianity in Britain, thrust his staff into the ground to 
convince the British Islanders that he had a divine mission to fulfil. 
They all sing its praises. India is no exception to this universal 
natural propensity of the human mind to connect tales of more or 
less interest with the trees and plants we see around. 
Have you seen the peepul (I"icus religiosa) tree yonder? It is dusk 
now. Don’tyoupass by it. Don’t.stand under its rustling branches, 
or you will be possessed of the spirits that haunt its deepening 
shadow. Why should the peepul more than any other tree, say its 
neighbour the acacia or babul, be haunted by spirits? There is no 
more reason for this than there is for young Narcissus being looked 
upon as turnedinto a daffodil in preference toa rose. Nobody has 
seen these spirits in propria persond. It is all imagination. Good 
spirits, according to other accounts, dwell on the different parts of 
the peepul. Thus Bramha, the creator of men, is at the plate where 
the roots strike the ground; Vishnu, the preserver, is at its middle ; 
and Shiva, the destroyer, is at the top: The ghosts, or evil spirits, 
are supposed to haunt the branches. It is possible that the idea 
of evil spirits has struck the story-teller’s mind from the topmost 
deity being inordinately fond of the company of goblins or demons. 
What are these demons? Principally there are two—the Hedli, 
a female, and the Munja, or an unmarried youth, a boy under or 
about twelve. The Hedli is a ghastly figure, being the spirit of a 
married woman dying during the lifetime of her husband. She is 
