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