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271
The Folk-lore of Plants
·
T. F. Thiselton-Dyer
80
In
Germany
we
find
a
race
of
elves,
somewhat
like
the
dwarfs,
popularly
known
as
the
Wood
or
Moss
people.
They
are
about
the
same
size
as
children,
"grey
and
old-looking,
hairy,
and
clad
in
moss."
Their
lives,
like
those
of
the
Hamadryads,
are
attached
to
the
trees;
and
"if
any
one
causes
by
friction
the
inner
bark
to
loosen
a
Wood-woman
dies."[11]
Their
great
enemy
is
the
Wild
Huntsman,
who,
driving
invisibly
through
the
air,
pursues
and
kills
them.
On
one
occasion
a
peasant,
hearing
the
weird
baying
in
a
wood,
joined
in
the
cry;
but
on
the
following
morning
he
found
hanging
at
his
stable
door
a
quarter
of
a
green
Moss-woman
as
his
share
of
the
game.
As
a
spell
against
the
Wild
Huntsman,
the
Moss-women
sit
in
the
middle
of
those
trees
upon
which
the
woodcutter
has
placed
a
cross,
indicating
that
they
are
to
be
hewn,
thereby
making
sure
of
their
safety.
Then,
again,
there
is
the
old
legend
which
tells
how
Brandan
met
a
man
on
the
sea,[12]
who
was,
"a
thumb
long,
and
floated
on
a
leaf,
holding
a
little
bowl
in
his
right
hand
and
a
pointer
in
his
left;
the
pointer
he
kept
dipping
into
the
sea
and
letting
water
drop
from
it
into
the
bowl;
when
the
bowl
was
full,
he
emptied
it
out
and
began
filling
it
again,
his
doom
consisting
in
measuring
the
sea
until
the
judgment-day."
This
floating
on
the
leaf
is
suggestive
of
ancient
Indian
myths,
and
reminds
us
of
Brahma
sitting
on
a
lotus
and
floating
across
the
sea.
Vishnu,
when,
after
Brahma's
death,
the
waters
have
covered
all
the
worlds,
sits
in
the
shape
of
a
tiny
infant
on
a
leaf
of
the
fig
tree,
and
floats
on
the
sea
of
milk
sucking
the
toe
of
his
right
foot.[13]
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