Traces, too, of tree-worship, adds Mr.Ralston,[28] may be found in the song which the Russian girls sing as they go out into the woods to fetch the birch tree at Whitsuntide, and to gather flowers for wreaths and garlands: "Rejoice not, oaks; Rejoice not, green oaks.
Not to you go the maidens; Not to you do they bring pies, Cakes, omelettes.
So, so, Semik and Troitsa [Trinity]! Rejoice, birch trees, rejoice, green ones! To you go the maidens! To you they bring pies, Cakes, omelettes." The eatables here mentioned probably refer to the sacrifices offered in olden days to the birch--the tree of the spring.

With this practice we may compare one long observed in our own country, and known as "wassailing." At certain seasons it has long been customary in Devonshire for the farmer, on the eve of Twelfth-day, to go into the orchard after supper with a large milk pail of cider with roasted apples pressed into it.

Out of this each person in the company takes what is called a clome--i.e., earthenware cup--full of liquor, and standing under the more fruitful apple trees, address them in these words: "Health to thee, good apple tree, Well to bear pocket fulls, hat fulls, Peck fulls, bushel bag fulls." After the formula has been repeated, the contents of the cup are thrown at the trees.[29] There are numerous allusions to this form of tree-worship in the literature of the past; and Tusser, among his many pieces of advice to the husbandman, has not omitted to remind him that he should, "Wassail the trees, that they may bear You many a plum and many a pear; For more or less fruit they will bring, As you do them wassailing." Survivals of this kind show how tenaciously old superstitious rites struggle for existence even when they have ceased to be recognised as worthy of belief.
Footnotes: 1.

"Outlines of Primitive Belief," 1882, p.

54.
2.