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TREE KANGAROO
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See also:TREE See also:KANGAROO , any individual of the diprotodont See also:mar= supial genus Dendrolagus (see MAxsUPIALIA). Three See also:species are inhabitants of New See also:Guinea and the See also:fourth is found in See also:North See also:Queensland. They differ greatly from all other members of the See also:family (Macropodidae), being chiefly arboreal in their habits, and feeding on bark, leaves and See also:fruit. Their hinder limbs are shorter than in the true kangaroos, and their fore limbs are longer and more robust, and have very strong curved and pointed claws. The best-known species, Lumholtz' tree kangaroo (Dendrolagus lumholtzi), is found in North Queensland. It was named by See also:Professor Collett in See also:honour of its discoverer, who described it as living on the highest parts of the mountains, in the densest scrub and most inaccessible places. It is hunted by the blacks with trained dingoes; the flesh is much prized by the blacks, but the presence of a See also:worm between the muscles and the skin renders it less inviting to Europeans. TREE-See also:SHREW, any of the arboreal insectivorous mammals of the genus Tupaia. There are about a dozen species, widely distributed over the See also:east. There is a See also:general resemblance to squirrels. The species differ chiefly in the See also:size and in See also:colour and length of the See also:fur. Nearly all have See also:long bushy tails. Their See also:food consists of See also:insects and fruit, which they usually seek for in the trees. When feeding they often sit on their haunches, holding the focd, after the manner of squirrels, between their fore paws. The See also:pen-tailed tree-shrew ( Ptilocercuslowi) ,from See also:Borneo, See also:Sumatra and the See also:Malay See also:Peninsula, is the second generic representative of the family Tupaiidae. The See also:head and See also:body, clothed in blackish-See also: Some-times, however, the tree is an See also:index, a mysterious token which shows its sympathy with an absent See also:hero by weakening or dying, as the man becomes See also:ill or loses his life. These two features very easily combine, and they agree in representing a—to us—mysterious sympathy between tree- and human-life, which, as a See also:matter of fact, frequently manifests itself in recorded beliefs and customs of See also:historical times? Thus, sometimes the new-See also:born See also:child is associated with a newly planted tree with which its life is supposed to be See also:bound up; or, on ceremonial occasions (See also:betrothal, See also:marriage, ascent to the See also:throne), a See also:personal relationship of this See also:kind is instituted by planting trees, upon the fortunes of which the career of the individual depends. Sometimes, moreover, boughs or See also:plants are selected and the individual draws omens of life and death from the See also:fate of his or her choice. Again, a man will put himself into relationship with a tree by depositing upon it something which has been in the closest contact with himself (See also:hair, clothing, &c.). This is not so unusual as might appear; there are numerous examples of the conviction that a sympathetic relationship continues to subsist between things which have once been connected (e.g. a man and his hair), and this may be illustrated especially in magical practices upon material See also:objects which are supposed to affect the former owner.3 We have to start then with the recognition that the notion of a real inter-connexion between human life and trees has never presented any difficulty to primitive minds. The See also:custom of transferring disease or sickness from men to trees is well known' Sometimes the hair, nails, clothing, &c., of a sickly See also:person are fixed to a tree, or they are forcibly inserted in a hole in the See also:trunk, or the tree is split and the patient passes through the See also:aperture. Where the tree has been thus injured, its recovery and that of the patient are often associated. Different explanations may be found of such customs which naturally take rather different forms among peoples in different grades of In this as in other subjects of comparative See also:religion (see See also:SERPENT-WORSHIP), the comparative and historical aspects of the problems should not be severed from See also:psychology, which investigates the actual See also:mental processes themselves. A naive See also:rationalism or intellectualism which would ridicule or deplore the modern retention of " primitive" ideas has to reckon with the psychology of the modern See also:average mental constitution; a more See also:critical and more sympathetic attitude may recognize in religious and in other forms of belief and custom the necessary consequences of a continuous development linking together the highest and the lowest conceptions of life. ' See the evidence collected by E. S. Hartland, The See also:Legend of See also:Perseus (1894-1896), ii.; J. G. Frazer, The See also:Golden Bough (1900), iii. 351 sqq., 391; and in general, A. E. Crawley, The Idea of the Soul (1909). 'There appears to be a fundamental confusion of association, likeness and identity, which on psychological grounds is quite intelligible. It is appropriate to See also:notice the custom of injuring an enemy by simply beating a tree-stump over which his name had previously been pronounced (A.B. See also:Ellis, The See also:Ewe-speaking Peoples of the Slave See also:Coast of See also:West See also:Africa, 1890, p. g8). The folk-See also:lore of the " name" is widespread and of See also:great antiquity, and certain features of it show that a thing (individual or See also:object) and its name were not easily disconnected, and that what affected the one affected the other. In this See also:case, by pronouncing the name the tree-stump for all intents and purposes became the enemy. Hartland ii. 142 sqq.; Frazer, iii. 26 sqq.See also:civilization. Much depends upon the theory of illness. In See also:India, for example, when the patient is supposed to be tormented by a demon, ceremonies are performed to provide it with a tree where it will dwell peacefully without molesting the patient so long as the tree is See also:left unharmed.' Such ideas do not enter, of course, when the rite merely removes the illness and selfishly endangers the See also:health of those who may approach the tree.' Again, sometimes it is clearly See also:felt that the man's See also:personality has been mystically See also:united with some healthy and sturdy tree, and in this case we may often presume that such trees already possessed some See also:peculiar reputation. The custom finds an See also:analogy when hair, See also:nail-clippings, &c., are hung upon a tree for safety's See also:sake lest they fall into the hands of an enemy who might injure the owner by means of them. In almost every part of the world travellers have observed the custom of See also:hanging objects upon trees in See also:order to establish some sort of a relationship between the offerer and the tree. veneration Such trees not infrequently adjoin a well or are accom- of Trees. panied by sacred buildings, pillars, &c. Throughout See also:Europe, also, a See also:mass of evidence has been collected testifying to the lengthy persistence of " superstitious " practices and beliefs concerning them. The trees are known as the scenes of See also:pilgrim-ages, See also:ritual ambulation, and the See also:recital of (See also:Christian) prayers. Wreaths,' See also:ribbons or rags are suspended to win favour for sick men or See also:cattle, or merely for " See also:good See also:luck." Popular belief associates the sites with healing, bewitching, or See also:mere " wishing "; and though now perhaps the tree is the object only of some vague respect, there are abundant allusions to the earlier vitality of coherent and systematic cults? Decayed or fragmentary though the features may be in Europe, modern observers have found in other parts of the world more organic examples which enable us, not necessarily to reconstruct the fragments which have survived in the higher religions and civilizations, but at least to understand their earlier significance. In India, for example, the Korwas hang rags on the trees which form the shrines of the See also:village-gods. In See also:Nebraska the object of the custom was to propitiate the super-natural beings and to procure good See also:weather and See also:hunting. In See also:South See also:America See also:Darwin recorded a tree honoured by numerous offerings (rags, See also:meat, cigars, &c.); libations were made to it, and horses were sacrificed .6 If, in this instance, the Gauchos regarded the tree, not as the embodiment or See also:abode of Walleechu, but as the very See also:god himself, this is a subtle but very important transference of thought, the failure to realize which has not been confined to those who have venerated trees.
Among the See also:Arabs the sacred trees are haunted by angels or by See also:jinn; sacrifices are made, and the sick who See also:sleep beneath them receive prescriptions in their dreams. Here, as frequently elsewhere, it is dangerous to pull a bough. Spemiritbosdy
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This dread of damaging See also:special trees is See also:familiar: See also:Cato instructed the woodman to See also:sacrifice to the male or See also:female deity before thinning a See also: B. See also:Tylor, Primitive Culture (1903), ii. 149 seq., G. L. Gomme, See also:Ethnology in Folk-lore (1892), 141 seq. 7 Hartland ii. 175 sqq.; Gomme, pp. 85, 94 seq., 102 sqq., and the literature at the end of this article. ' Tylor ii. 223 seq. 9 See generally Frazer i. 170 sqq., Tylor i. 475 sqq., ii. 219 seq. For the survival of the idea of modern See also:Greece, see J. G. See also:Lawson, Modern Greek Folk-lore (1910), p. 158 seq. 10 Crooke ii. 77, 87, 90 sqq. stump as a new See also:home for the spirit. In the See also:Gold Coast the See also:silk-See also:cotton and odum (See also:poison) trees are especially sacred as the abode of the two deities, who are honoured by sacrifices—even of human victims; these indwelt trees must not be cut, and, since all trees of these species are under their See also:protection, they can be felled only after certain purificatory ceremonies.' In general the evidence shows that sacred trees must not be injured unless they (i.e. their spirits) have been appeased, or means taken to provide the occupant with another abode. That the difference between the sacred object and the sacred occupant was not always clearly See also:drawn is quite intelligible from those beliefs of much less rudimentary religions which confuse the unessential with the essential. Again, when the See also:jungle-races of India clear the forests, they leave behind certain trees which are carefully protected lest the sylvan gods should abandon the locality (Crooke ii. 9o). These trees embody the See also:local deities much in the same way as the north See also:European See also:homestead had a tree or a small grove for the See also:guardian-spirit or " See also:lord of the home," and they resemble the tree tutelary See also:genius of old See also:German villages and the See also:Japanese trees which are the terrestrial dwelling-places of the guardian of the hamlets.' Such beliefs as these are more significant when trees are associated with the spirits of the dead. Trees were planted around See also:graves in Greece, and in See also:Roman thought groves were associated with the See also:manes of the pious. The Baduyas of the central provinces of India worship the souls of their ancestors in groves of Saj trees, and this may be supplemented by various modern See also:burial usages where the dead are buried in trees, or where the sacred tree of the village enshrines the souls of the dead forefathers. Thus among the natives of South See also:Nigeria each village has a big tree into which the spirits of the dead are supposed to enter; when a woman wants a child or when a man is sick, sacrifice is made to it, and if the " Big God " Osowo who lives in the See also:sky is favourable the See also:request is granted. Often the tree is famous for oracles. Best known, perhaps, is the See also:oak of See also:Dodona tended by priests who slept on the ground. Forms of The tall oaks of the old Prussians were inhabited cu!. by gods who gave responses, and so numerous are the examples that the old See also:Hebrew " See also:terebinth of the teacher " (Gen. xii. 6), and the " terebinth of the diviners " (Judg. IX. 37) may reasonably be placed in this See also:category. Important sacred trees are also the object of See also:pilgrimage, one of the most noteworthy being the See also:branch of the Bo tree at See also:Ceylon brought thither before the Christian era.' The tree-spirits will hold sway over the surrounding See also:forest or See also:district, and the animals in the locality are often sacred and must not be harmed. Thus, the pigeons at the grove of Dodona, and the beasts around the north European tree-sanctuaries, were left untouched, even as the modern Dyak would allow no interference with the snake by the side of the See also:bush which enshrined a dead kinsman.' Sacred fires burned before the Lithuanian Perkuno and the Roman See also:Jupiter; both deities were closely associated with the oak, and, indeed, the oak seems to have been very commonly used for the perpetual holy fires of the See also:Aryans.' The powers of the tree-deities, though often especially connected with the elements, are not necessarily restricted, and the sacred trees can form the centre of religious, and sometimes, also, of See also:national life. Such deities are not abstract beings, but are potent and immediate, and the cultus is primarily as utilitarian as the duties of life itself. They may have their proper ministrants. (a) the See also:chief See also:sanctuary of the old Prussians was a holy oak around which lived priests and a high See also:priest known as " God's mouth "; (b) in Africa there are ' A. B. Ellis, op. cit. pp. 49 sqq.; cf. further Frazer i. 18o, 182 sqq. 2 Tylor ii. 225; II. M. See also:Chadwick, " The Oak and the See also:Thunder-god," Joarn. of the .1nthrop. Inst. (1900), pp. 30, 32, 43. 'C. See also:Partridge, The See also:Cross See also:River Natives (1904), p. 273; cf. further Crooke ii. 85, 91 ; Tylor ii. to seq.; Frazer i. 178 sqq.; J. G. Forlong, Faiths of Man, iii. 446. ° Tylor ii. 218, and for other examples, pp. 224, 226; W. R. See also: That the invisible spirit naturally enjoyed only the spiritual part of the offerings is a belief which may have been shared by others than the African See also:negro.8 Human sacrifice is known on the Slave Coast and in the See also:Punjab; it was practised among the See also:Druids, and at See also:Odin'' See also:grave at See also:Upsala. It is also said that the pollution of old Prussian sacred groves and springs by the intrusion of Christians was atoned for by human victims. Indeed, to See also:judge from later popular custom and tradition, and from the allusion in See also:ancient writers, various grisly See also:rites and acts of licentiousness (such as the more advanced Hebrew prophets denounced) were by no means unusual features in the cults of trees and vegetation.' Although trees have played so prominent a part in the history of religions, the utmost caution is necessary in any See also:attempt to estimate the significance of isolated evidence and its Forms of relation to the contemporary thought. Let it suffice Develop-to notice that in West See also:Equatorial Africa the death of meat. the sacred tree near the temples leads to the See also:abandonment of the village, that in See also:Rome the withering of the sacred fig-tree of See also:Romulus in the See also:Forum caused the greatest consternation. One can now understand in some measure why so much importance should be attached to a venerated tree, but these examples will illustrate the different historical and religious conditions which require study in any investigation of tree-worship. Unfortunately one constantly reaches the point where the ancient writer or the modern observer has failed to See also:record the required See also:information. Moreover, we do not encounter tree-cults at their rise: in every case we See also:arrest the evidence at a certain See also:stage of development. It is often impossible to determine why certain trees are sacred; sometimes it may be that the solitary tree is the survivor of a forest or grove, or it has attracted See also:attention from its curious or uncanny form, or again it stands on a spot which has an immemorial reputation for sanctity. The persistence of sacred localities is often to be observed in the East, where more rudimentary forms of tree-cults stand by the side of or outlive higher types of religion.L" The See also:evolution of sacred trees and of religious beliefs and practices associated therewith have not always proceeded along parallel lines. As ideas advanced, the spirits associated with trees were represented by posts, idols, or masks; altars were added, and the trunk was roughly shaped to represent the superhuman occupant. There is reason to believe that the last-mentioned transformation has frequently happened in the development of iconography. Indeed, the natives of the See also:Antilles suppose that certain trees instructed sorcerers to shape their trunks into idols, and to instal them in See also:temple-huts where they could be worshipped and could inspire their priests with oracles." (a) Chadwick 32; (b) Tylor ii. 224; (c) The See also:Standard, See also:Sept. 19, 1904. For an African tree-god with priesthood and " wives, see Ellis, op. cit. p. 5o. 8 Tylor ii. 216 (citing See also:Waitz, Anthrop. ii. 188). 'See Golden Bough, i. 171 seq.; See also:Lucan, Thar. iii. 4o5; P. H. See also:Mallet, Northern Antiquities, i. 113. Chadwick 32; and, for the survivals, Golden Bough iii. 345. 'o So in See also:Asia See also:Minor where a tree hung with rags stands by a See also:rock with an ancient " Hittite " See also:representation of the god of vegetation (W. M. See also:Ramsay, The Expositor, Nov., 1966, p. 461 seq.). " Hittite " religion has long passed away, but the locality preserves its sacred See also:character and presents a form of cult older than the " Hittite " civilization itself (cf. also the persistence of the veneration of trees in See also:Palestine in spite of some four thousand years of history). There has not been a reversion to ancient forms of cult in their organic entirety, but with the weakening and loss of the positive influences in the course of history, there has been no progression, and the communities live in simpler conditions and at a simpler stage of mental evolution and they are " childlike " rather than " senile " or " decadent." 11 Tylor, ii. 216. Here one may observe: (a) the virtues of the tree as a whole will be retained—as in the case of the relic of a See also:medieval See also:saint—in any part of it (cf. ibid. 217; the offshoots of the oak of
The development of the beliefs See also:relating to the spirit-occupants themselves would take us along quite another See also:line of inquiry. When the tree-spirit was conceived to be of human shape the numerous stories which See also:associate trees with men or deities of flesh and See also:blood would easily arise; and just as See also:Indian natives have gods which are supposed to dwell in trees, so in higher religions we find a See also:Zeus or a See also:Dionysus Endendros, gods, " occupants of trees," who have been identified with one or other of the leading members of a recognized See also:pantheon.'
The vicissitudes of the old tree-spirits are influenced by the circumstances of history. Syrian writers speak of a " See also: G. Frazer (Golden Bough; Lectures on Kingship; See also:Adonis, See also:Attis and See also:Osiris; See also:Totemism and See also:Exogamy), other literature cited in the course of this article, and the numerous works dealing with primitive religious and other customs. Among the most useful monographs are those of C. Boetticher, Der Baumkultus d. Hellenen (1856); W. Mannhardt, Der Baumkultus der Gerrnanen and ihrer Na,chbarstamme (1875), Antike Wald- and Feldkulte (1877), and, for See also:introductory study, Mrs J. H. Philpot, The Sacred Tree, or the Tree in Religion and Myth (1897). (S. A. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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