The Golden Bough, A Study in Magic and Religion The Golden Bough A Study in Magic and Religion By SIR James George Frazer, D.C.L., LL.D., Litt.D. Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge Professor of Social Anthropology in the University of Liverpool. Third Edition. Vol. II. Part I The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings Vol. II Macmillan and Co., Limited St. Martin’s Street, London 1917 _Third Edition March 1911_ _Reprinted July 1911, 1913, 1917_ CONTENTS Chapter VIII.—Departmental Kings of Nature Pp. 1-6 The King of the Wood at Nemi probably a departmental king of nature; Kings of Rain in Africa; Kings of Fire and Water in Cambodia. Chapter IX.—The Worship of Trees Pp. 7-58 § 1. _Tree-spirits_—Great forests of ancient Europe; tree-worship practised by all Aryan races in Europe; trees regarded as animate; tree-spirits, sacrifices to trees; trees sensitive to wounds; apologies for cutting down trees; bleeding trees; trees threatened to make them bear fruit; attempts to deceive spirits of trees and plants; trees married to each other; trees in blossom and rice in bloom treated like pregnant women; trees tenanted by the souls of the dead; trees as the abode, not the body, of spirits; ceremonies at felling trees; propitiating tree-spirits in house-timber; sacred trees the abode of spirits; sacred groves. § 2. _Beneficent Powers of Tree-spirits_—Tree-spirit develops into anthropomorphic deity of the woods; tree-spirits give rain and sunshine; tree-spirits make crops to grow; the Harvest May and kindred customs; tree-spirits make herds and women fruitful; green boughs protect against witchcraft; influence of tree-spirits on cattle among the Wends, Esthonians, and Circassians; tree-spirits grant offspring or easy delivery to women. Chapter X.—Relics of Tree-worship in Modern Europe Pp. 59-96