und 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
Imprison'd, thou didst painfully remain,
A dozen years; ...
... Where thou didst vent thy groans,
As fast as mill-wheels strike."

Similarly Miss Emerson, in her "Indian Myths" (1884, p. 134), quotes the
story of "The Two Branches":

"One day there was a great noise in a tree under which Manabozho was
taking a nap. It grew louder, and, at length exasperated, he leaped into
the tree, caught the two branches whose war was the occasion of the din,
and pulled them asunder. But with a spring on either hand, the two
branches caught and pinioned Manabozho between them. Three days the god
remained imprisoned, during which his outcries and lamentations were the
subject of derision from every quarter--from the birds of the air, and
from the animals of the woods and plains. To complete his sad case, the
wolves ate the breakfast he had left beneath the tree. At length a good
bear came to his rescue and released him, when the god disclosed his
divine intuitions, for he returned home, and without delay beat his
two wives."

Furthermore, we are told of the West Indian tribes, how, if any person
going through a wood perceived a motion in the trees which he regarded
as supernatural, frightened at the prodigy, he would address himself to
that tree which shook the most. But such trees, however, did not
condescend to converse, but ordered him to go to a boie, or priest