Note 3 — SOME SACRED TREES.

‘Not long since,’ said a writer some years ago in Notes and Queries, ‘an old woman in the neighbourhood of Benares was observed walking round and round a certain peepul-tree. At every round she sprinkled a few drops of water from the water-vessel in her hand on the small offering of flowers she had laid beneath the tree. A bystander, who was questioned as to this ceremony, replied: “This is a sacred tree; the good spirits live up amidst its branches, and the old woman is worshipping them.”’