THE HAWTHORN. 



183 



who cross the sandy and rocky waste over which 

 we passed ; they en route to Mecca^ ice to a less holy 

 shrine. The tree is thickly covered with pendent 

 fragments of the well-worn clothing of countless 

 pilgrims^ deposited there in memory of their desert 

 journey." * Darwin, in his Journal of Researches 

 into the Natural History of the Countries visited 

 during the voyage of H, S, Beagle round the 

 World, in the account of his journey from the 

 mouth of the Rio Negro to Buenos Ayres, says : 

 Shortly after passing the first spring, we came in 

 sight of a famous tree, which the Indians reverence 

 as the altar of AValleechu. It is situated on a high 

 part of the plain, and hence is a land-mark visible 

 at a great distance. As soon as a trihe of Indians 

 come in sight of it, they offer their adorations 

 by loud shouts. The tree itself is low, much 

 branched, and thorny : just above the root it has a 

 diameter of about three feet. It stands by itself 

 \vithout any neighbour, and was indeed the first 

 tree we saw ; afterwards we met with a few others 

 of the same kind^ but they were far from common. 

 Being winter the tree had no leaves, but, in their 

 place, numberless threads, by which the various 

 off'erings, such as cigars, bread, meat, pieces of 

 cloth, &c. had been suspended. Poor Indians, 

 not having anything better, only pull a thread 

 out of their ponchos, and fasten it to the tree. 

 Richer Indians are accustomed to pour spirits 

 and mate into a certain hole, and likewise to 

 smoke upwards, thinking thus to aff'ord all possi- 

 ble gratification to Walleechu. To complete the 

 scene, the tree was surrounded by the bleached 

 bones of horses which had been slaughtered as 



* "A Year and a Day in the East." 



