depart." Tree-worship too has been more or less prevalent among the
American Indians, abundant illustrations of which have been given by
travelers at different periods. In many cases a striking similarity is
noticeable, showing a common origin, a circumstance which is important to
the student of comparative mythology when tracing the distribution of
religious beliefs. The Dacotahs worship the medicine-wood, so called from a
belief that it was a genius which protected or punished them according to
their merits or demerits.[21] Darwin[22] mentions a tree near Siena de la
Ventana to which the Indians paid homage as the altar of Walleechu;
offerings of cigars, bread, and meat having been suspended upon it by
threads. The tree was surrounded by bleached bones of horses that had been
sacrificed. Mr. Tylor[23] speaks of an ancient cypress existing in Mexico,
which he thus describes:--"All over its branches were fastened votive
offerings of the Indians, hundreds of locks of coarse black hair, teeth, bits of
coloured cloth, rags, and morsels of ribbon. The tree was many centuries
old, and had probably had some mysterious influence ascribed to it, and
been decorated with such simple offerings long before the discovery of
America."
Once more, the Calchaquis of Brazil[24] have been in the habit of
worshipping certain trees which were frequently decorated by the Indians
with feathers; and Charlevoix narrates another interesting instance of tree-
worship:--"Formerly the Indians in the neighbourhood of Acadia had in
their country, near the sea-shore, a tree extremely ancient, of which they
relate many wonders, and which was always laden with offerings.
After the sea had laid open its whole root, it then supported itself a long
time almost in the air against the violence of the winds and waves, which
confirmed those Indians in the notion that the tree must be the abode of
some powerful spirit; nor was its fall even capable of undeceiving them, so
that as long as the smallest part of its branches appeared above the water,
they paid it the same honours as whilst it stood."
In North America, according to Franklin,[25] the Crees used to hang
strips of buffalo flesh and pieces of cloth on their sacred tree; and in
Nicaragua maize and beans were worshipped. By the natives of Carolina
the tea-plant was formerly held in veneration above all other plants, and
indeed similar phases of superstition are very numerous. Traces of tree-
worship occur in Africa, and Sir John Lubbock[26] mentions the sacred
groves of the Marghi--a dense part of the forest surrounded with a ditch--
where in the most luxuriant and widest spreading tree their god, Zumbri, is
worshipped. In his valuable work on Ceylon, Sir J. Emerson Tennent gives
some interesting details about the consecration of trees to different demons
to insure their safety, and of the ceremonies performed by the kattadias or
devil-priests. It appears that whenever the assistance of a devil-dancer is
required in extreme cases of sickness, various formalities are observed after
the following fashion. An altar is erected, profusely adorned with garlands
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