lonely thorn, occasionally seen in a field, but which never grows
larger. Trees of this kind are always bewitched, and care should be
taken not to approach them in the night time, "as there comes a fiery
wheel forth from the bush, which, if a person cannot escape from, will
destroy him."

In modern Greece certain trees have their "stichios," a being which has
been described as a spectre, a wandering soul, a vague phantom,
sometimes invisible, at others assuming the most widely varied forms. It
is further added that when a tree is "stichimonious" it is dangerous for
a man, "to sleep beneath its shade, and the woodcutters employed to cut
it down will lie upon the ground and hide themselves, motionless, and
holding their breath, at the moment when it is about to fall, dreading
lest the stichio at whose life the blow is aimed with each stroke of the
axe, should avenge itself at the precise moment when it is
dislodged."[22]

Turning to primitive ideas on this subject, Mr. Schoolcraft mentions an
Indian tradition of a hollow tree, from the recesses of which there
issued on a calm day a sound like the voice of a spirit. Hence it was
considered to be the residence of some powerful spirit, and was
accordingly deemed sacred. Among rude tribes trees of this kind are held
sacred, it being forbidden to cut them. Some of the Siamese in the same
way offer cakes and rice to the trees before felling them, and the
Talein of Burmah will pray to the spirit of the tree before they begin
to cut the tree down[23]. Likewise in the Australian bush demons whistle
in the branches, and in a variety of other eccentric ways make their
presence manifest--reminding us of Ariel's imprisonment:[24]

"Into a cloven pine; within which rift