- watha is powerless, because Megissogwon is invulnerable.
At evening Hiawatha retires wounded, despairing for a while, in order to rest:
"Paused to rest beneath a pine-tree,
From whose branches trailed the mosses,
And whose trunk was coated over
With the Dead-man's Moccasin-leather,
With the fungus white and yellow."
This protecting tree is described as coated over with the moccasin leather of the dead, the fungus. This investing of the tree with anthromorphic attributes is also an important rite wherever tree worship prevails, as, for example, in India, where each village has its sacred tree, which is clothed and in general treated as a human being. The trees are anointed with fragrant waters, sprinkled with powder, adorned with garlands and draperies. Just as among men, the piercing of the ears was performed as an apotropaic charm against death, so does it occur with the holy tree. Of all the trees of India there is none more sacred to the Hindoos than the Aswatha (Ficus religiosa). It is known to them as Vriksha Raja (king of trees), Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesvar live in it, and the worship of it is the worship of the triad. Almost every Indian village has an Aswatha,[51] etc. This "village linden tree," well known to us, is here clearly characterized as the mother symbol; it contains the three gods.
Hence, when Hiawatha retires to rest under the pine-tree,[52] it is a dangerous step, because he resigns himself to the mother, whose garment is the garment of death (the devouring mother). As in the whale-dragon, the
