and flowers, within sight of the dying man, who is ordered to touch and
dedicate to the evil spirit the wild flowers, rice, and flesh laid upon it.
Traces of plant-worship are still found in Europe. Before sunrise on
Good Friday the Bohemians are in the habit of going into their gardens, and
after falling on their knees before a tree, to say, "I pray, O green tree, that
God may make thee good," a formula which Mr. Ralston[27] considers has
probably been altered under the influence of Christianity "from a direct
prayer to the tree to a prayer for it." At night they run about the garden
exclaiming, "Bud, O trees, bud! or I will flog you." On the following day
they shake the trees, and clank their keys, while the church bells are ringing,
under the impression that the more noise they make the more fruit will they
get. Traces, too, of tree-worship, adds Mr. Ralston,[28] may be found in the
song which the Russian girls sing as they go out into the woods to fetch the
birch tree at Whitsuntide, and to gather flowers for wreaths and garlands:
"Rejoice not, oaks;
Rejoice not, green oaks.
Not to you go the maidens;
Not to you do they bring pies,
Cakes, omelettes.
So, so, Semik and Troitsa [Trinity]!
Rejoice, birch trees, rejoice, green ones!
To you go the maidens!
To you they bring pies,
Cakes, omelettes."The eatables here mentioned probably refer to the sacrifices offered in
olden days to the birch--the tree of the spring. With this practice we may
compare one long observed in our own country, and known as "wassailing."
At certain seasons it has long been customary in Devonshire for the farmer,
on the eve of Twelfth-day, to go into the orchard after supper with a large
milk pail of cider with roasted apples pressed into it. Out of this each person
in the company takes what is called a clome--i.e., earthenware cup--full of
liquor, and standing under the more fruitful apple trees, address them in
these words:
"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-worship 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,