CHAPTER III WOOD-DEMONS AND TREE-SPIRITS General characteristics of the tree-demon—The fabulous monsters of Chaldaea—The _jinni_ of Arabia—The hairy monsters of the Bible—The tree-demons of Egypt—The woodland creatures of Greece—Centaurs and Cyclops—Pan, satyrs, and sileni—The fauns and silvani of Italy—Female woodland spirits—The hamadryads—Alexander and the flower-maidens—The vine-women of Lucian—Corresponding instances in modern folk-lore—The soul of the nymph actually held to inhabit the tree—The belief that blood would flow when the tree was injured—Examples from Virgil, Ovid, and from modern folk-lore—Indian belief in wood-spirits. The wood-spirits of Central and North Europe—Their general characteristics—The moss-women—The wild women of Tyrol—The wood-spirits of the Grisons—The white and green ladies—The Swedish tree-spirit—The Russian Ljeschi—The Finnish Tapio—The Tengus of Japan—Wood-demons of Peru and Brazil 52 CHAPTER IV THE TREE IN ITS RELATION TO HUMAN LIFE The tree represented as the progenitor of the human race; as related in the Eddas; in Iranian mythology; amongst the Sioux Indians—The classical view—Human beings represented as the fruit of a tree—Individual births from a tree—Mythical births beneath a tree; Zeus; Hermes; Hera; Apollo and Artemis; Romulus and Remus. Metamorphoses—Apollo and Daphne—Meaning of the legend—The daughters of Clymene—Baucis and Philemon—Other instances of metamorphosis—The growth of flowers from the blood of the dead, or from the tears shed over them—Transmigration of souls into trees—Tristram and Iseult—Sweet William and Fair Margaret—Other instances. The conception of the tree as sympathetically interwoven with human life—The family tree—The community tree—The fig-tree in the Roman Comitium—The patrician and plebeian myrtle-trees. The tree as the symbol of reproductive energy—The Semitic mother-goddess—Interpretation of the Chaldaean sacred tree as the symbol of fertility—The tree-inhabiting spirit of vegetation as the patron of fertility—Observances connected therewith 72 CHAPTER V THE TREE AS ORACLE