235. The explanation has been suggested by Mr. W. Crooke (Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxviii. (1899) p. 243). There are other facts, however, which point to a different explanation, namely, that the practice is intended to avert possible evil consequences from bride or bridegroom. For example, “the superstition regarding a man’s third marriage, prevalent in Barār and, I believe in other parts of India, is not despised by the Vēlamās. A third marriage is unlucky. Should a man marry a third wife, it matters not whether his former wives be alive or not, evil will befall either him or that wife. No father would give his girl to a man whose third wife she would be. A man therefore, who has twice entered the married state and wishes to mate yet once again, cannot obtain as a third wife any one who has both the wit and the tongue to say no; a tree has neither, so to a tree he is married. I have not been able to discover why the tree, or rather shrub, called in Marāthī ru’i and in Hindūstānī madar (Asclepias gigantea), is invariably the victim selected in Barār, nor do I know whether the shrub is similarly favoured in other parts of India. The ceremony consists in the binding of a mangal sūtra round the selected shrub, by which the bridegroom sits, while turmeric-dyed rice (akṣata) is thrown over both him and the shrub. This is the whole of the simple ceremony. He has gone through his unlucky third marriage, and any lady whom he may favour after this will be his fourth wife” (Captain Wolseley Haig, “Notes on the Vēlamā Caste in Bārār,” Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, lxx. part iii. (1901) p. 28). Again, the Vellalas of Southern India “observe a curious custom (derived from Brāhmans) with regard to marriage, which is not unknown in other communities. A man marrying a second wife after the death of his first has to marry a plantain tree, and cut it down before tying the tāli, and, in case of a third marriage, a man has to tie a tāli first to the erukkan (arka: Calotropis gigantea) plant. The idea is that second and fourth wives do not prosper, and the tree and the plant are accordingly made to take their places.” (Mr. Hemingway, quoted by E. Thurston, Castes and Tribes of Southern India, vii. 387). Tying the tali to the bride is the common Hindoo symbol of marriage, like giving the ring with us. As to these Indian marriages to trees see further my Totemism and Exogamy, i. 32 sq., iv. 210 sqq.; Panjab Notes and Queries, ii. § 252, iii. §§ 12, 90, 562, iv. § 396; North Indian Notes and Queries, i. § 110; D. C. J. Ibbetson, Settlement Report of the Karnal District, p. 155; H. H. Risley, Tribes and Castes of Bengal, i. 531; Capt. E. C. Luard, in Census of India, 1901, vol. xix. 76; W. Crooke, Tribes and Castes of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, ii. 363; id., Popular Religion and Folk-lore of Northern India (Westminster, 1896), ii. 115-121. I was formerly disposed to connect the custom with totemism, but of this there seems to be no sufficient evidence.
236. W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, pp. 51 sq.
237. Merolla, “Voyage to Congo,” in Pinkerton’s Voyages and Travels, xvi. 236 sq.
238. C. Bötticher, Der Baumkultus der Hellenen (Berlin, 1856), pp. 30 sq.
239. Quoted by J. Brand, Popular Antiquities, i. 246 (ed. Bohn).
240. T. F. Thiselton Dyer, British Popular Customs (London, 1876), p. 254.
241. W. Borlase, The Natural History of Cornwall (Oxford, 1758), p. 294.
242. J. Brand, op. cit. i. 212 sq.
243. T. F. Thiselton Dyer, Popular British Customs, p. 233.
244. R. Chambers, Book of Days (London and Edinburgh, 1886), i. 578; T. F. Thiselton Dyer, op. cit. pp. 237 sq.
245. W. Hone, Every Day Book (London, N.D.), ii. 615 sq.; T. F. Thiselton Dyer, British Popular Customs, pp. 251 sq. At Polebrook in Northamptonshire the verses sung by the children on their rounds include two which are almost identical with those sung at Abingdon in Berkshire. See Dyer, op. cit. pp. 255 sq. The same verses were formerly sung on May Day at Hitchin in Hertfordshire (Hone, Every Day Book, i. 567 sq.; Dyer, op. cit. pp. 240 sq.).
246. Dyer, op. cit. p. 263.
247. Percy Manning, in Folk-lore, iv. (1893) pp. 403 sq.
248. Id., in Folk-lore, viii. (1897) p. 308. Customs of the same sort are reported also from Combe, Headington, and Islip, all in Oxfordshire (Dyer, British Popular Customs, pp. 261 sq.). See below, pp. 90 sq.
249. Dyer, op. cit. p. 243.
250. W. H. D. Rouse, in Folk-lore, iv. (1893) p. 53. I have witnessed the ceremony almost annually for many years. Many of the hoops have no doll, and ribbons or rags of coloured cloth are more conspicuous than flowers in their decoration.
251. J. P. Emslie, in Folk-lore, xi. (1900) p. 210.
252. Memoirs of Anna Maria Wilhelmina Pickering, edited by her son, Spencer Pickering (London, 1903), pp. 160 sq.
253. Lady Wilde, Ancient Cures, Charms, and Usages of Ireland (London, 1890), pp. 101 sq. At the ancient Greek festival of the Daphnephoria or “Laurel-bearing” a staff of olive-wood, decked with laurels, purple ribbons, and many-coloured flowers, was carried in procession, and attached to it were two large globes representing the sun and moon, together with a number of smaller globes which stood for the stars. See Proclus, quoted by Photius, Bibliotheca, p. 321, ed. Bekker.
254. E. Cortet, Essai sur les fêtes religieuses (Paris, 1867) pp. 167 sqq.
255. Revue des traditions populaires, ii. (1887) p. 200.
256. W. Müller, Beiträge zur Volkskunde der Deutschen in Mähren (Wien und Olmütz, 1893), pp. 319 sq., 355-359.
257. Folk-lore, i. (1890) pp. 518 sqq.
258. W. R. S. Ralston, Songs of the Russian People 2nd Ed., (London, 1872), pp. 234 sq.
259. A. Kuhn, Märkische Sagen und Märchen (Berlin, 1843), p. 315.
260. W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, p. 162.
261. L. Lloyd, Peasant Life in Sweden, p. 235.
262. L. Lloyd, op. cit. pp. 257 sqq.
263. H. Pröhle, Harzbilder (Leipsic, 1855), pp. 19 sq. Compare id., in Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie und Sittenkunde, i. (1853) pp. 81 sq.; W. Mannhardt, Germanische Mythen, pp. 512 sqq.; A. Kuhn und W. Schwartz, Norddeutsche Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche (Leipsic, 1848), p. 390, § 80.
264. Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, Fest-Kalendar aus Böhmen (Prague, N.D.), pp. 308 sq. A fuller description of the ceremony will be given later.
265. For the evidence see J. Brand, Popular Antiquities, i. 234 sqq.; W. Hone, Every Day Book, i. 547 sqq., ii. 574 sqq.; R. Chambers, Book of Days, i. 574 sqq.; T. F. Thiselton Dyer, British Popular Customs, pp. 228 sqq.; W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, pp. 168 sqq.
266. Phillip Stubbes, The Anatomie of Abuses, p. 149 (F. J. Furnivall’s reprint). In later editions some verbal changes were made.
267. W. Borlase, Natural History of Cornwall (Oxford, 1758), p. 294.
268. W. Hutchinson, View of Northumberland (Newcastle, 1778), ii. Appendix, pp. 13 sq.; Dyer, British Popular Customs, p. 257.
269. “Padstow ‘Hobby Hoss,’” Folklore, xvi. (1905) pp. 59 sq.
270. E. Meier, Deutsche Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Schwaben (Stuttgart, 1852), p. 396.
271. E. Mogk, in R. Wuttke’s Sächsische Volkskunde 2nd Ed., (Dresden, 1901), pp. 309 sq.
272. M. Rentsch, in R. Wuttke’s op. cit. p. 359.
273. A. De Nore, Coutumes, mythes et traditions des provinces de France (Paris and Lyons, 1846), p. 137.
274. Bérenger-Féraud, Superstitions et survivances (Paris, 1896), v. 308 sq. Compare id., Reminiscences populaires de la Provence, pp. 21 sq., 26, 27.
275. J. G. Scott and J. P. Hardiman, Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States, part i. vol. i. (Rangoon, 1900) p. 529.
276. W. Hone, Every Day Book, i. 547 sqq.; R. Chambers, Book of Days, i. 571.
277. Bavaria, Landes- und Volkskunde des Königreichs Bayern, i. 372.
278. W. Hone, Every Day Book, ii. 597 sq. Mr. G. W. Prothero tells me that about the year 1875 he saw a permanent May-pole decked with flowers on May Day on the road between Cambridge and St. Neot’s, not far from the turning to Caxton.
280. Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, Fest-Kalendar aus Böhmen, p. 217; W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, p. 566.
281. A. Birlinger, Volksthümliches aus Schwaben (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1861-1862), ii. 74 sq.; W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, p. 566.
282. Aristophanes, Plutus, 1054; W. Mannhardt, Antike Wald- und Feldkulte, pp. 222 sq.
283. Boecler-Kreutzwald, Der Ehsten abergläubische Gebräuche, Weisen und Gewohnheiten, pp. 112-114. Some traits in this story seem to suggest that the return of the trooper to his old home was, like that of the war-broken veteran in Campbell’s poem, only a soldier’s dream.
284. Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, Fest-Kalendar aus Böhmen, pp. 86 sqq.; W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, p. 156.
286. W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, p. 312.
287. W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, p. 313.
288. Ibid. p. 314.
289. Bavaria, Landes- und Volkskunde des Königreichs Bayern, iii. 357; W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, pp. 312 sq. The word Walber probably comes from Walburgis, which is doubtless only another form of the better known Walpurgis. The second of May is called Walburgis Day, at least in this part of Bavaria.
290. W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, pp. 313 sq.
291. H. von Wlislocki, Volksglaube und religiöser Brauch der Zigeuner (Münster i. W., 1891), pp. 148 sq.
292. E. T. Dalton, Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal, p. 261.
293. B. A. Gupte, “Harvest Festivals in honour of Gauri and Ganesh,” Indian Antiquary, xxxv. (1906) p. 61.
294. W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, pp. 315 sq.
296. W. R. S. Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, p. 234.
297. W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, p. 318; J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, 4th ed., ii. 657.
298. A. de Nore, Coutumes, mythes et traditions des provinces de France, pp. 17 sq.; Bérenger-Féraud, Réminiscences populaires de la Provence, pp. 1 sq.
299. A. Meyrac, Traditions, coutumes, légendes et contes des Ardennes (Charleville, 1890), pp. 79-82. The girl was called the Trimouzette. A custom of the same general character was practised down to recent times in the Jura (Bérenger-Féraud, Réminiscences populaires de la Provence, p. 18).
300. F. A. Reimann, Deutsche Volksfeste im neunzehnten Jahrhundert (Weimar, 1839), pp. 159 sq.; W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, p. 320; A. Witzschel, Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Thüringen, p. 211.
301. W. Kolbe, Hessische Volks-Sitten und Gebräuche im Lichte der heidnischen Vorzeit (Marburg, 1888), p. 70.
302. Bavaria, Landes- und Volkskunde des Königreichs Bayern, iv. 2, pp. 359 sq. Similarly in the Département de l’Ain (France) on the first of May eight or ten boys unite, clothe one of their number in leaves, and go from house to house begging (W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, p. 318).
303. E. Hoffmann-Krayer, “Fruchtbarkeitsriten im schweizerischen Volksbrauch,” Schweizerisches Archiv für Volkskunde, xi. (1907) p. 252.
304. W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, p. 322; W. Hone, Every-Day Book, i. 583 sqq.; T. F. Thiselton Dyer, British Popular Customs, pp. 230 sq.
305. W. H. D. Rouse, “May-Day in Cheltenham,” Folk-lore, iv. (1893) pp. 50-53. On May Day 1891 I saw a Jack-in-the-Green in the streets of Cambridge.
306. W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, p. 323.
307. W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, p. 323; H. Herzog, Schweizerische Volksfeste, Sitten und Gebräuche (Aarau, 1884), pp. 248 sq.
308. A. Birlinger, Volksthümliches aus Schwaben, ii. 114 sq.; W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, p. 325.
309. W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, pp. 314 sq.
310. A. Kuhn und W. Schwartz, Norddeutsche Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche, p. 380.
311. F. Tetzner, “Die Tschechen und Mährer in Schlesien,” Globus, lxviii (1900) p. 340.
312. A. Kuhn und W. Schwartz, op. cit. pp. 383 sq.; W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, p. 342.
313. R. Andree, Braunschweiger Volkskunde (Brunswick, 1896), pp. 249 sq.
314. K. Seifart, Sagen, Märchen, Schwänke und Gebräuche aus Stadt und Stift Hildesheim, Zweite Auflage (Hildesheim, 1889), pp. 180 sq.
315. Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, Fest-Kalendar aus Böhmen, pp. 260 sq.; W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, pp. 342 sq.
316. F. A. Reimann, Deutsche Volksfeste im neunzehnten Jahrhundert, pp. 157-159; W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, pp. 347 sq.; A. Witzschel, Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Thüringen (Vienna, 1878), p. 203.
317. Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, Fest-Kalendar aus Böhmen, pp. 253 sqq.
318. Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, Fest-Kalendar aus Böhmen, p. 262; W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, pp. 353 sq.
319. Baumkultus, p. 355.
320. Above, vol. i. pp. 292, 293.
321. Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, Fest-Kalendar aus Böhmen, p. 93; W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, p. 344.
322. W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, pp. 343 sq.
323. T. F. Thiselton Dyer, British Popular Customs, pp. 270 sq.
324. W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, pp. 344 sqq.; E. Cortet, Fêtes religieuses, pp. 160 sqq.; D. Monnier, Traditions populaires comparées, pp. 282 sqq.; Bérenger-Féraud, Réminiscences populaires de la Provence, pp. 17 sq.; Ch. Beauquier, Les Mois en Franche-Comté (Paris, 1900), pp. 65-69. In Franche-Comté she seems to be generally known as l’épousée, “the spouse.”
325. From information given me by Mabel Bailey, in the service of Miss A. Wyse of Halford. My informant’s father is a native of Stourton, and she herself has spent much of her life there. I conjecture that the conical flower-bedecked structure may once have been borne by a mummer concealed within it. Compare the customs described above, pp. 82 sq.
327. From information given me by Miss A. Wyse of Halford.
328. Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, Fest-Kalendar aus Böhmen, pp. 265 sq.; W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, p. 422.
329. P. Drechsler, Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube in Schlesien, i. (Leipsic, 1903) pp. 125-129.
330. D. Monnier, Traditions populaires comparées (Paris, 1854), p. 304; E. Cortet, Fêtes religieuses, p. 161; W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, p. 423.
331. J. Brand, Popular Antiquities, i. 233 sq.; W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, p. 424. We have seen (p. 62) that a custom of the same sort used to be observed at Bampton-in-the-Bush in Oxfordshire.
332. E. Hoffmann-Krayer, “Fruchtbarkeitsriten im schweizerischen Volksbrauch,” Schweizerisches Archiv für Volkskunde, xi. (1907) pp. 257 sq.
333. E. Sommer, Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche aus Sachsen und Thüringen (Halle, 1843), pp. 151 sq.; W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, pp. 431 sq. The custom is now obsolete (E. Mogk, in R. Wuttke’s Sächsische Volkskunde, 2nd Ed., Dresden, 1901, p. 309).
334. H. F. Feilberg, in Folk-lore, vi. (1895) pp. 194 sq.
336. L. Lloyd, Peasant Life in Sweden, p. 257.
337. Mr. W. C. Crofts, in a letter to me dated February 3, 1901, 9 Northwich Terrace, Cheltenham.
338. For details see Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Second Edition, pp. 202 sq.
339. This custom was told to W. Mannhardt by a French prisoner in the war of 1870-71 (Baumkultus, p. 434).
340. W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, pp. 434 sq.
341. Ibid. p. 435.
343. M. Martin, Description of the Western Islands of Scotland (London, 1673 [1703]), p. 119; id. in Pinkerton’s Voyages and Travels, iii. 613; W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, p. 436. According to Martin, the ceremony took place on Candlemas Day, the second of February. But this seems to be a mistake. See J. G. Campbell, Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, pp. 247 sq. The Rev. James Macdonald, of Reay in Caithness, was assured by old people that the sheaf used in making Briid’s bed was the last sheaf cut at harvest (J. Macdonald, Religion and Myth, p. 141). Later on we shall see that the last sheaf is often regarded as embodying the spirit of the corn, and special care is therefore taken of it.
344. John Ramsay of Ochtertyre, Scotland and Scotsmen in the Eighteenth Century, edited by Alex. Allardyce (Edinburgh, 1888), ii. 447. At Ballinasloe in County Galway it is customary to fasten a cross of twisted corn in the roof of the cottages on Candlemas Day. The cross is fastened by means of a knife stuck through a potato, and remains in its place for months, if not for a year. This custom (of which I was informed by Miss Nina Hill in a letter dated May 5, 1898) may be connected with the Highland one described in the text.
345. J. Train, Historical and Statistical Account of the Isle of Man (Douglas, Isle of Man, 1845), ii. 116.
346. See below, pp. 240 sqq. Brigit is the true original form of the name, which has been corrupted into Breed, Bride, and Bridget. See Douglas Hyde, A Literary History of Ireland (London, 1899), p. 53, note 2.
347. A. Kuhn, Märkische Sagen und Märchen, pp. 318 sqq.; W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, p. 437.
348. W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, p. 438.
349. R. Andree, Braunschweiger Volkskunde (Brunswick, 1896), p. 248.
350. D. Monnier, Traditions populaires comparées, pp. 283 sq.; E. Cortet, Fêtes religieuses, pp. 162 sq.; W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, pp. 439 sq.
352. Brasseur de Bourbourg, Histoire des nations civilisées du Mexique et de l’Amérique Centrale (Paris, 1857-1859), ii. 565; H. H. Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States, ii. 719 sq., iii. 507; O. Stoll, Die Ethnologie der Indianerstämme von Guatemala (Leyden, 1889), p. 47.
353. P. J. de Arriaga, Extirpacion de la idolatria del Piru (Lima, 1621), pp. 36 sq.
354. G. A. Wilken, “Het animisme bij de volken van den Indischen Archipel,” De Indische Gids, June 1884, p. 958.
355. J. G. F. Riedel, De sluik-en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en Papua, pp. 337, 372-375, 410 sq.; G. W. W. C. Baron van Hoëvell, in Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde, xxxiii. (1890) pp. 204 sq., 206 sq.; id., in Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie, viii. (1895) p. 134; J. A. Jacobsen, Reisen in die Inselwelt des Banda-Meeres (Berlin, 1896), pp. 123, 125; J. H. de Vries, “Reis door eenige eilandgroepen der Residentie Amboina,” Tijdschrift van het konink. Nederlandsch Aardrijkskundig Genootschap, Tweede Serie, xvii. (1900) pp. 594, 612, 615 sq. The name of the festival is variously given as porĕke, porĕka, porka, and purka. In the island of Timor the marriage of the Sun-god with Mother Earth is deemed the source of all fertility and growth. See J. S. G. Gramberg, “Eene maand in de Binnenlanden van Timor,” Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen, xxxvi. 206 sq.; H. Sondervan, “Timor en de Timoreezen,” Tijdschriftvan het Nederlandsch Aardrijkskundig Genootschap, Tweede Serie, dl. v. (1888), Afdeeling meer uitgebreide artikelen, p. 397.
356. T. C. Hodson, “The Native Tribes of Manipur,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxxi. (1901) p. 307.
357. Maimonides, translated by D. Chwolsohn, Die Ssabier und der Ssabismus, ii. 475. It is not quite clear whether the direction, which Maimonides here attributes to the heathen of Harran, is taken by him from the beginning of The Agriculture of the Nabataeans, which he had referred to a few lines before. The first part of that work appears to be lost, though other parts of it exist in manuscript at Paris, Oxford, and elsewhere. See D. Chwolsohn, op. cit. i. 697 sqq. The book is an early Mohammedan forgery; but the superstitions it describes may very well be genuine. See A. von Gutschmid, Kleine Schriften, ii. 568-713.