on the
most probable theories which the science of comparative folk-lore may
have suggested. In analysing, too, the evidence for determining the
possible association of ideas which induced our primitive forefathers to
form those mythical conceptions that we find embodied in the folk-tales
of most races, it is necessary to unravel from the relics of the past
the one common notion that underlies them. Respecting the origin of
fire, for instance, the leading idea--as handed down to us in myths of
this kind--would make us believe that it was originally stolen. Stories
which point to this conclusion are not limited to any one country, but
are shared by races widely remote from one another. This circumstance is
important, as helping to explain the relation of particular plants to
lightning, and accounts for the superstitious reverence so frequently
paid to them by most Aryan tribes. Hence, the way by which the Veda
argues the existence of the palasa--a mystic tree with the Hindus--is
founded on the following tradition:--The demons had stolen the heavenly
soma, or drink of the gods, and cellared it in some mythical rock or
cloud. When the thirsty deities were pining for their much-prized
liquor, the falcon undertook to restore it to them, although he
succeeded at the cost of a claw and a plume, of which he was deprived by
the graze of an arrow shot by one of the demons. Both fell to the earth
and took root; the claw becoming a species of thorn, which Dr. Kuhn
identifies as the "_Mimosa catechu_," and the feather a "palasa tree,"
which has a red sap and scarlet blossoms. With such a divine origin--for
the falcon was nothing less than a lightning god[3]--the trees naturally
were incorporations,[4] "not only of the heavenly fire, but also of the
soma, with which the claw and feather were impregnated."

It is not surprising, therefore, that extraordinary virtues were
ascribed to these lightning plants, qualities which, in no small degree,
distinguish their representatives at the present day. Thus we are told
how in India the mimosa is known as the imperial tree on account of its
remarkable properties, being credited as an efficacious charm against
all sorts of malignant influences, such as the evil eye. Not unlike in
colour to the blossom of the Indian palasa are the red berries of the
rowan or mountain-ash (_Pyrus aucuparia_), a tree which has acquired
European renown from the Aryan tradition of its being an embodiment of
the lig