haracter of the tree, but in that
of the primitive mind which deifies mountains, waters, and trees,
irrespective of their nature. It is true, however, that the greater
veneration due to some trees and plants has a special reason. Thus
_soma_ intoxicates: and the _tulas[=i]_, 'holy basil,' has medicinal
properties, which make it sacred not only in the Krishna-cult, but in
Sicily.[32] This plant is a goddess, and is wed annually to the
C[=a]lagr[=a]ma stone with a great feast.[33] So the _cam[=i]_ plant
is herself divine, the goddess Cam[=i]. Again, the mysterious rustle
of the _bo_ tree, _pipal_ may be the reason for its especial
veneration; as its seeming immortality is certainly the cause of the
reverence given to the banian. It is not necessary, however, that any
mystery should hang about a tree. The palm is tall, (Civa's) _acoka_
is beautiful, and no trees are more revered. But trees are holy _per
se_. Every 'village-tree' (above, p. 374, and Mbh[=a]. ii. 5. 100) is
sacred to the Hindu. And this is just what is found among the wild
tribes, who revere their hut-trees and village-trees as divine,
without demanding a special show of divinity. The birth-tree (as in
Grecian mythology) is also known, both to Hindu sect and to wild
tribe. But here also
there is no basis of Aryan ideas, but of common human experience. The
ancestor-tree (totem) has been noticed above in the case of the Gonds,
who claim descent from trees. The Bh[=a]rs revere the (Civaite!)
_bilva_ or _bel_, but this is a medicinal tree. The marriage-tree is
universal in the South (the tree is the male or female ancestor), and
even the Brahmanic wedding, among its secondary after-rites, is not
without the tree, which is adorned as part of the ceremony.

Two points of view remain to be taken before the wild tribes are
dismissed. The first is that Hindu law is primitive. Maine and Leist
both cite laws as if any Hindu law were an oracle of primitive Aryan
belief. This method is ripe in wrong conclusions. Most of the matter
is legal, but enough grazes religion to make the point important. Even
with the sketch we have given it becomes evident that Hindu law cannot
be unreservedly taken as an exponent of early Brahmanic law, still
less of Aryan law. For instance, Maine regards matriarchy as a late
Brahmanic intrusion on patriarchy, an inner growth.[34] To prove this,
he cites two late books, one being Vishnu, the Hindu law-giver of the
South. But it is from the Sou