Part 3 (2/2)

”Health to thee, good apple tree, Well to bear pocket fulls, hat fulls, Peck fulls, bushel bag fulls.”

After the formula has been repeated, the contents of the cup are thrown at the trees.[29] There are numerous allusions to this form of tree-wors.h.i.+p in the literature of the past; and Tusser, among his many pieces of advice to the husbandman, has not omitted to remind him that he should,

”Wa.s.sail the trees, that they may bear You many a plum and many a pear; For more or less fruit they will bring, As you do them wa.s.sailing.”

Survivals of this kind show how tenaciously old superst.i.tious rites struggle for existence even when they have ceased to be recognised as worthy of belief.

Footnotes:

1. ”Outlines of Primitive Belief,” 1882, p. 54.

2. ”Tree and Serpent Wors.h.i.+p.”

3. See Sir John Lubbock's ”Origin of Civilisation,” pp. 192-8.

4. _Fortnightly Review_, ”The Wors.h.i.+p of Animals and Plants,” 1870, vii. 213.

5. _Ibid._, 1869, vi. 408.

6. ”Principles of Sociology,” 1885, i. p. 359.

7. ”The Origin of Civilisation and Primitive Condition of Man.”

8. _Quarterly Review_, cxiv. 212.

9. Keary's ”Primitive Brlief,” pp. 332-3; _Edinburgh Review_, cx.x.x.

488-9.

10. ”Du Culte des Dieux Fetiches,” p. 169.

11. ”Primitive Belief,” pp. 332-3.

12. Fergusson's ”Tree and Serpent Wors.h.i.+p,” p. 16.

13. cx.x.x. 492; see Tacitus' ”Germania,” ix.

14. See _Edinburgh Review_, cx.x.x. 490-1.

15. _Edinburgh Review_, cx.x.x. 491.

16. Mr. Fergusson's ”Tree and Serpent Wors.h.i.+p.” See _Edinburgh Review_, cx.x.x. 498.

17. See Lewin's ”Hill Tracts of Chittagong,” p. 10.

18. _Cornhill Magazine_, November 1872, p. 598.

19. An important tribe in Central India.

20. See Sherring's ”Sacred City of the Hindus,” 1868, p. 89.

21. Dorman's ”Primitive Superst.i.tions,” p. 291.

22. See ”Researches in Geology and Natural History,” p. 79.

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