, who
would order him to sacrifice to their new deity.[25] From the same
source we also learn[26] how among savage tribes those plants that
produce great terrors, excitement, or a lethargic state, are supposed to
contain a supernatural being. Hence in Peru, tobacco is known as the
sacred herb, and from its invigorating effect superstitious veneration
is paid to the weed. Many other plants have similar respect shown to
them, and are used as talismans. Poisonous plants, again, from their
deadly properties, have been held in the same repute;[27] and it is a
very common practice among American Indians to hang a small bag
containing poisonous herbs around the neck of a child, "as a talisman
against diseases or attacks from wild beasts." It is commonly supposed
that a child so protected is proof against every hurtful influence, from
the fact of its being under the protection of the special spirits
associated with the plant it wears.

Again, closely allied to beliefs of this kind is the notion of plants as
the habitation of the departing soul, founded on the old doctrine of
transmigration. Hence, referring to bygone times, we are told by
Empedocles that "there are two destinies for the souls of highest virtue
--to pass either into trees or into the bodies of lions."[28] Amongst the
numerous illustrations of this mythological conception may be noticed
the story told by Ovid,[29] who relates how Baucis and Philemon were
rewarded in this manner for their charity to Zeus, who came a poor
wanderer to their home. It appears that they not only lived to an
extreme old age, but at the last were transformed into trees. Ovid,
also, tells how the gods listened to the prayer of penitent Myrrha, and
eventually turned her into a tree. Although, as Mr. Keary remarks,
"she has lost understanding with her former shape, she still weeps, and
the drops which fall from her bark (_i.e._, the myrrh) preserve the
story of their mistress, so that she will be forgotten in no age
to come."

The sisters of Phaethon, bewailing his death on the shores of Eridanus,
were changed into poplars. We may, too, compare the story of Daphne and
Syrinx, who, when they could no longer elude the pursuit of Apollo and
Pan, change themselves into a laurel and a reed. In modern times, Tasso
and Spenser have given us graphic pictures based on this primitive phase
of belief; and it may be remembered how Dante passed through that
leafless wood, in the bark of every tree of