“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,

  “Wassail the trees, that they may bear
  You many a plum and many a pear;
  For more or less fruit they will bring,
  As you do them wassailing.”

Survivals of this kind show how tenaciously old superstitious rites struggle for existence even when they have ceased to be recognised as worthy of belief.

Footnotes: 

1.  “Outlines of Primitive Belief,” 1882, p. 54.

2.  “Tree and Serpent Worship.”

3.  See Sir John Lubbock’s “Origin of Civilisation,” pp. 192-8.

4. Fortnightly Review, “The Worship of Animals and Plants,” 1870,
   vii. 213.

5. Ibid., 1869, vi. 408.

6.  “Principles of Sociology,” 1885, i. p. 359.

7.  “The Origin of Civilisation and Primitive Condition of Man.”

8. Quarterly Review, cxiv. 212.

9.  Keary’s “Primitive Brlief,” pp. 332-3; Edinburgh Review, cxxx.
   488-9.

10.  “Du Culte des Dieux Fetiches,” p. 169.

11.  “Primitive Belief,” pp. 332-3.

12.  Fergusson’s “Tree and Serpent Worship,” p. 16.

13. cxxx. 492; see Tacitus’ “Germania,” ix.

14.  See Edinburgh Review, cxxx. 490-1.

15. Edinburgh Review, cxxx. 491.

16.  Mr. Fergusson’s “Tree and Serpent Worship.”  See Edinburgh
    Review, cxxx. 498.

17.  See Lewin’s “Hill Tracts of Chittagong,” p. 10.

18. Cornhill Magazine, November 1872, p. 598.

19.  An important tribe in Central India.

20.  See Sherring’s “Sacred City of the Hindus,” 1868, p. 89.

21.  Dorman’s “Primitive Superstitions,” p. 291.

22.  See “Researches in Geology and Natural History,” p. 79.

23.  “Anahuac,” 215, 265.

24.  Dorman’s “Primitive Superstitions.” p. 292.

25.  “Journeys to the Polar Sea.” i. 221.

26.  “The Origin of Civilisation.”

27.  “Songs of the Russian People.” p. 219.

28. Ibid., p. 238.

29.  See my “British Popular Customs.” p. 21.

CHAPTER IV.

LIGHTNING PLANTS.