CREEPING THROUGH HOLES IN TREES. 155

earth or rocks, or through natural or artificial openings in trees, especially the ash and the oak, is common to most European countries. In our own it appears to have been no unusual thing in Saxon times for women who were troubled with crying brats to dig a hole in the ground and make a tunnel through which they dragged the poor little squallers. There was a bushy oak near Wittstock in Altmark, the branches of which had grown together again at some distance from the stem, leaving open spaces between them. Whoever crept through these spaces was freed from his malady whatever it might be, and many crutches lay about, which had been thrown away by visitors to the tree who no longer needed them.* Close to the road passing through the forest of Süllingswald, there was an aged oak with a hole shaped like the eye of a needle in its huge stem. This gave the foresters and charcoal burners a welcome opportunity for "hanselling" strangers who passed that way, that is to say, forcing them to pay a small sum if they did not wish to be dragged through the needle's eye. This custom of hanselling travellers kept its ground after the belief in the healing virtue of the tree had died out.

This creeping through oak-cleft, earth or stone,"

* D. M. 1119.

156

CURE-WORKING HOLES.

says Grimm," seems a transference of the malady or the bewitchment to the genius of the tree or the earth." But this is not a satisfactory explanation ; for though such a mode of shifting off bodily disorders from men to trees is well known, nothing of the kind appears to have been intended in the case in question. For the cure of hernia, for instance, it was thought essential that the cleft tree should become whole again. Moreover, Grimm's theory is manifestly untenable with reference to a cure-working hole in a church wall, such as that of Stappenbeck, to which "there was formerly a great resort of sick people, for whenever one of them crept through it he was instantly cured. But it lost its virtue at last when sick animals were made to pass through it, and then it was stopped up."* The best explanation which has been given of this superstition is that proposed by Liebrecht,† who thinks that the whole proceeding was originally designed to symbolise the new birth of the patient, who, coming naked again into the world, left all his former maladies behind him. It appears indeed to be a close copy of a Hindu religious usage, and probably had its origin, like the latter, in times previous to the dispersion of the Aryans.

* Kuhn u. Schwartz, Ndd. p. 129.

Ger. Tilb. p. 170.

TYPICAL REGENERATION.

157

"For the purpose of regeneration," says Coleman, "it is directed to make an image of pure gold, of the female power of nature, in the shape either of a woman or of a cow. In this statue the person to be regenerated is enclosed and dragged through the usual channel. As a statue of pure gold and proper dimensions would be too expensive, it is sufficient to to make an image of the sacred yoni, through which the person to be regenerated is to pass. Perforated rocks are considered as emblems of the yoni, through which pilgrims and others pass for the purpose of being regenerated. The utmost faith is placed in this sin-expelling transit.” *

X

The Hindu custom symbolises the new birth of the soul, the European that of the body. The cloud, the matrix of the vital spark, is represented in the one by the figure of the woman or the cow, in the other by the tree, and in both by the rock.

* Coleman, "Hindu Mythology," 151, 175.

"The first part of this quotation attributed to Coleman, although occurring in Coleman, (H.M. 151) is taken from Capt. Wilford article. "Ave Mount Car casus", As. Res. VI. 538 EWm. Mackey

CHAPTER VI.

THE ROWAN OR MOUNTAIN ASH-THE DIVINING ROD-THE MANDRAKE

-THE SPRINGWORT-FORGET-ME-NOT-HAZEL-THORN-MISTLETOE.

OF the many ways in which the Vedas recount the descent of the heavenly soma to earth, one is to the following effect. When gods and men were pining for the precious beverage, the falcon undertook to steal it from the demons who kept it shut up in the rock (cloud). The attempt was successful, but as the falcon was flying off with its prize, it was grazed by an arrow shot after it by one of the demons, and lost a claw and a feather. They fell to the earth and struck root there, the claw becoming a species of thorn, and the feather a palasa tree, otherwise called parna, which has a red sap and scarlet blossoms. Trees owning such an origin could not fail to possess many supernatural properties, the more so as the bird from which the claw and the feather had dropped was a transformed god-some hymnists say Indra, others say Agni. Sprung from a god of the lightning, the trees were themselves

THE PALASA ROD.

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divine, and they were incorporations not only of the heavenly fire, but also of the soma with which the claw and the feather were impregnated. The virtues which distinguish them exist in no less degree in many of their European representatives, such as the black and white thorn, rowan or mountain ash, hasel, fern, &c.

The palasa was much employed by the Hindus in religious ceremonies, and particularly in one which has descended to the dairy farms of Germany and Sweden, where it is retained to this day with surprisingly little change.

The milk used in the sacrifice which it was customary to offer in the new moon (the season of increase) on behalf of the Hindu master of a herd, was only to be taken from cows that were still suckling their calves. That there might be enough of it, therefore, it was necessary that the calves should be separated from their dams and driven to pasture. To this end the officiating priest chose on the night of the new moon, or on that preceding it, a palasa or sami rod which grew on the north-east, north, or east side of the tree, and he cut it off saying, "For strength cut I thee." Then having stripped off its leaves with the words, "For sap (strip I) thee," and having placed together at least