occurred in the family, and occasionally this formula is employed--"The
master is dead, the master is dead." Even recently, writes Sir John
Lubbock[10], an oak copse at Loch Siant, in the Isle of Skye, was held
so sacred that no persons would venture to cut the smallest branch from
it. The Wallachians, "have a superstition that every flower has a soul,
and that the water-lily is the sinless and scentless flower of the lake,
which blossoms at the gates of Paradise to judge the rest, and that she
will inquire strictly what they have done with their odours."[11] It is
noteworthy, also, that the Indian belief which describes the holes in
trees as doors through which the special spirits of those trees pass,
reappears in the German superstition that the holes in the oak are the
pathways for elves;[12] and that various diseases may be cured by
contact with these holes. Hence some trees are regarded with special
veneration--particularly the lime and pine[13]--and persons of a
superstitious turn of mind, "may often be seen carrying sickly children
to a forest for the purpose of dragging them through such holes." This
practice formerly prevailed in our own country, a well-known
illustration of which we may quote from White's "History of Selborne:"

"In a farmyard near the middle of the village," he writes, "stands at
this day a row of pollard ashes, which by the seams and long cicatrices
down their sides, manifestly show that in former times they had been
cleft asunder. These trees, when young and flexible, were severed and
held open by wedges, while ruptured children, stripped naked, were
pushed through the apertures."[14]

In Somersetshire the superstition still lingers on, and in Cornwall the
ceremony to be of value must be performed before sunrise; but the
practice does not seem to have been confined to any special locality. It
should also be added, as Mr. Conway[15] has pointed out, that in all