The dryads and hamadryads sometimes appeared in the form of peasant girls, or shepherdesses, or followers of the hunt, but it was thought that they perished when certain trees which had been their abode died or were felled, and upon whose existence theirs depended. The Romans, whose mythology is based for the most part upon the Greek mythology, except that their names for the gods were different, have some special plant gods of their own. Faunus was worshipped as a god of fields and shepherds, and the god Sylvanus presided over forest glades and ploughed fields. Then there was Flora, the goddess of flowers, and Pomona, the goddess of fruit trees, and Vertumnus, the husband of Pomona, the guardian of fruit trees, gardens and vegetables. Many lovely stories are based upon this idea that the plant world is also a living world, some of which you may read for yourselves in this chapter. STORY OF THE AINO WHO FELL ASLEEP AT THE FOOT OF A PINE TREE (_Japanese_) There was once a young Aino who fell asleep at the foot of a pine of extraordinary height. While asleep there appeared to him in a dream the goddess of the tree. This pine was near the entrance of an immense cavern at the far end of which is a gleam of light, where there is an issue to another world. He found this cavern by pursuing a bear, who turned out to be a god, up a mountain of the underworld, until it took refuge in a hole in the ground which led into the cavern. When he awoke, he offered up thanks to the tree and set up divine symbols in its honor. WUNZH, THE FATHER OF INDIAN CORN (_North American Indian_) In time past—we cannot tell exactly how many, many years ago—a poor Indian was living, with his wife and children, in a beautiful part of the country. He was not only poor, but he had the misfortune to be inexpert in procuring food for his family, and his children were all too young to give him assistance. Although of a lowly condition and straitened in his circumstances, he was a man of kind and contented disposition. He was always thankful to the Great Spirit for everything he received. He even stood in the door of his lodge to bless the birds that flew past in the summer evenings; although, if he had been of a complaining temper, he might have repined that they were not rather spread upon the table for his evening meal. The same gracious and sweet disposition was inherited by his eldest son, who had now arrived at the proper age to undertake the ceremony of the fast, to learn what kind of a spirit would be his guide and guardian through life. Wunzh, for that was his name, had been an obedient boy from his infancy—pensive, thoughtful, and gentle—so that he was beloved by the whole family.