places, when an old tree has been blown down, they set it up, smear it with blood, and deck it with flags “to appease the soul of the tree.”[1] People in Congo place calabashes of palm-wine at the foot of certain trees for the trees to drink when they are thirsty.[2] In India shrubs and trees are formally married to each other or to idols.[3] In the North West Provinces of India a marriage ceremony is performed in honour of a newly-planted orchard; a man holding the Salagram represents the bride-groom, and another holding the sacred Tulsi (Ocymum sanctum) represents the bride.[4] On Christmas Eve German peasants used to tie fruit-trees together with straw ropes to make them bear fruit, saying that the trees were thus married.[5]
In the Moluccas when the clove-trees are in blossom they are treated like pregnant women. No noise must be made near them; no light or fire must be carried past them at night; no one must approach them with his hat on, but must uncover his head. These precautions are observed lest the tree should be frightened and bear no fruit, or should drop its fruit too soon, like the untimely delivery of a woman who has been frightened in her pregnancy.[6] So when the paddy (rice) is in bloom the Javanese say it is pregnant and make no noises (fire no guns, etc.) near
- ↑ Hupe “Over de godsdienst, zeden, enz. der Dajakker’s” in Tijdschrift voor Neêland’s Indië, 1846, dl. iii. 158.
- ↑ Merolla, “Voyage to Congo,"” in Pinkerton’s Voyages and Travels, xvi. 236.
- ↑ Monier Williams, Religious life and Thought in India, p. 334 sq.
- ↑ Sir Henry M. Elliot and J. Beames, Memoirs on the History etc. of the Races of the North Western Provinces of India, i. 233.
- ↑ Die gestriegelte Rockenphilosophie (Chemnitz, 1759), p. 239 sq.; U. Jahn, Die deutsche Opfergebraüche bei Ackerban und Viehzucht, p. 214 sqq.
- ↑ Van Schmid, “Aanteekeningen, nopens de zeden, gewoonten en gebruiken, etc., der bevolking van de eilanden Saparoea, etc.” in Tijdschrift v. Neêrland’s Indië, 1843, dl. ii, 605; Bastian, Indonesien, i. 156.
