212 
BRAMBLES AND BAY LEAVES. 
ing truth, handed down by oral tradition and sculptured 
emblems from one generation to another; pointing back 
through the dark to the great fountain of all things, and 
telling, in words and images not yet illegible, the simple 
story of the birth of nature. Beautiful indeed are these 
revelations of the flowers; sweet old time that, when 
green leaves and yellow blossoms were parts of the life 
of man, and the fragrance of the wood-cups mingled with 
the globules of his blood, filling his heart and hands 
with a holy purpose, one with nature, with God, and 
with himself. 
Amid the luxuriance of the land of the sun, man was 
born into a world of flowers. Nourished with the milk 
of a mother whose life and love had flown together through 
those channels of religious beauty, he goes forth in his 
youth to the fields and the forests, and kneels before the 
protecting lord of spirits, the adorable Ganesa, the 
son of Siva, whose images are placed beside the high¬ 
ways, in the jungles, and amid the pastures surrounded 
with green beauty and w 7 ith flow r ers. The god himself 
is represented by an upright stake of the plant Cacay,* 
which of all green herbs is most sacred to Ganesa. 
Bound this rustic image of the god, the ground is 
levelled and consecrated, and then the sincere worshipper 
kneels and makes his offering of milk and honey.t 
When his blood, warmed into the generosity of manhood 
and love, beats and burns in his bosom, it is Cama,J 
the son of Maya, who, with a bow of flowers strung with 
* Cassia fistula. 
+ Buchanan’s “ Journey into Mysore,” i. 52. 
J Cama is the Cupid in the mythology of the Paranas. 
