o a tradition current among the Miamis, one year when there
was an unusual abundance of corn, the spirit of the corn was very angry
because the children had thrown corn-cobs at each other in play,
pretending to have suffered serious bodily injury in consequence of
their sport[8]. Similarly, when the wind blows the long grass or waving
corn, the German peasant will say, "the Grass-wolf," or "the Corn-wolf"
is abroad. According to Mr. Ralston, in some places, "the last sheaf of
rye is left as a shelter to the _Roggenwolf_ or Rye-wolf during the
winter's cold, and in many a summer or autumn festive rite that being is
represented by a rustic, who assumes a wolf-like appearance. The corn
spirit was, however, often symbolised under a human form."

Indeed, under a variety of forms this animistic conception is found
among the lower races, and in certain cases explains the strong
prejudice to certain herbs as articles of food. The Society Islanders
ascribed a "varua" or surviving soul to plants, and the negroes of Congo
adored a sacred tree called "Mirrone," one being generally planted near
the house, as if it were the tutelar god of the dwelling. It is
customary, also, to place calabashes of palm wine at the feet of these
trees, in case they should be thirsty. In modern folk-lore there are
many curious survivals of this tree-soul doctrine. In Westphalia,[9] the
peasantry announce formally to the nearest oak any death that may have
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 o