3. Fraser’s Magazine, 1870, p. 597.

4.  “Northern Mythology,” i. 154-5.

5.  See Max Miller’s “Chips from a German Workshop.”

6.  See Keary’s “Outlines of Primitive Belief,” p. 64.

7.  Book viii. p. 314.

8.  “Outlines of Primitive Belief,” p. 63.

9.  Gifford.

10.  Kelly’s “Indo-European Folk-lore,” p. 143.

11.  Keary’s “Outlines of Primitive Belief,” p. 63; Fiske, “Myth
    and Myth Makers,” 1873, pp. 64-5.

12.  “Primitive Belief,” p. 65.

13.  Grimm’s “Teutonic Mythology,” i. 69.

14. Quarterly Review, 1863, cxiv. 214-15.

15.  See Bunsen’s “The Keys of St Peter,” &c., 1867, p. 414.

16.  “Teutonic Mythology.”

17.  Quoted by Mr. Keary from Leroux de Lincy, “Le Livre des
    Legendes,” p. 24.

18.  Gallon’s “South Africa,” p. 188.

19.  “Primitive Superstitions,” p. 289.

20.  Folkard’s “Plant Lore,” p. 311.

21.  “Indo-European Folk-lore,” p. 92.

22.  Grimm’s “Teutonic Mythology,” ii. 672-3.

CHAPTER III.

PLANT-WORSHIP.

A form of religion which seems to have been widely-distributed amongst most races of mankind at a certain stage of their mental culture is plant-worship.  Hence it holds a prominent place in the history of primitive belief, and at the present day prevails largely among rude and uncivilised races, survivals of which even linger on in our own country.  To trace back the history of plant-worship would necessitate an inquiry into the origin and development of the nature-worshipping phase of religious belief.  Such a subject of research would introduce us to those pre-historic days when human intelligence had succeeded only in selecting for worship the grand and imposing objects of sight and sense.  Hence, as Mr. Keary observes,[1] “The gods of the early world are the rock and the mountain, the tree, the river, the sea;” and Mr. Fergusson[2] is of opinion that tree-worship, in association with serpent-worship, must be reckoned as the primitive faith of mankind.  In the previous chapter we have already pointed out how the animistic theory which invested the tree and grove with a conscious personality accounts for much of the worship and homage originally ascribed to them—­identified, too, as they were later on, with the habitations of certain spirits.  Whether viewed, therefore, in the light of past or modern inquiry, we find scattered throughout most countries various phases of plant-worship, a striking proof of its universality in days gone by.[3]