In the tree-lore of China there are interesting links between trees and stones. It has been shown that jade was an “avatar” of the mother-goddess, who created it for the benefit of mankind; that tree foliage was identified with jade; that dragons were born from stones; certain coloured stones were “dragon eggs”, the eggs of the “Dragon Mother”, the mother-goddess herself, who had “many forms and many colours”. Sacred stones were supposed to have dropped from the sky, or to have grown in the earth. Pliny refers to a stone that fell from the sun.
In Ancient Egypt it was believed that the creative or fertilizing tears of the beneficent deities, like those of Osiris and Isis, caused good shrubs to spring up, and that the tears of a deity like Set, who became the personification of evil, produced poisonous plants. The weeping Prajapati of the Aryo-Indians resembles the weeping sun-god Ra of Egypt. At the beginning, Prajapati’s tears fell into the water and “became the air”, and the tears he “wiped away, upwards, became the sky”.[26]
It is evident that the idea of the weeping deity reached China, for there are references to “tree tears” [[181]]and to “stone tears”. Both the tree and stone “avatars” of the Great Mother or Great Father shed creative tears.
The Chinese appear to have discovered their wonderful “weeping tree” in Turkestan in the second century B.C., but the beliefs connected with it were evidently of greater antiquity. They already knew about the weeping deities who created good and baneful vegetation, and the discovery of the tree, it would appear, simply afforded proof to them of the truth of their beliefs.
The tree in question (the hu tʼun tree) has been identified by Laufer as the balsam poplar. “This tree”, he quotes from a Chinese commentator, “is punctured by insects, whereupon flows down a juice, that is commonly termed hu tʼun lei (‘hu tʼun tears’), because it is said to resemble human tears. When this substance penetrates earth or stone it coagulates into a solid mass, somewhat on the order of rock salt.” Laufer notes that Pliny “speaks of a thorny shrub in Ariana, on the borders of India, valuable for its tears, resembling the myrrh, but difficult of access on account of the adhering thorns. It is not known what plant is to be understood by the Plinian text; but the analogy of the tears,” comments Laufer, “with the above Chinese term is noteworthy.”
An ancient Chinese scholar, dealing with the references to the weeping trees, says that “its sap sinks into the earth, and is similar to earth and stone. It is used as a dye, like the ginger stone” (a variety of stalactite). Ta Min, who lived in the tenth century of our era, wrote regarding the tree, “There are two kinds—a tree sap, which is not employed in the Pharmacopœia, and a stone sap collected on the surface of stones; this one only is utilized as medicine. It resembles in appearance small pieces of stone, and those coloured like loess take the [[182]]first place. The latter was employed as a remedy for toothache.”[27]
In Babylonia toothache was supposed to be caused by the marsh-worm demon which devours “the blood of the teeth” and “destroys the strength of the gums”. The god Ea smites the worm, which is a form of the dragon Tiamat.[28]
The antique conception enshrined in the “weeping tree” is that the mother-goddess of the sky sheds tears, which cause the tree to grow, and that, as the tree, she sheds tears that become stones, while the stones shed tears that provide soul substance to cure disease by removing pain and promoting health. In Egypt the stone specially sacred to the sky-goddess Hathor was the turquoise, in which was, apparently, concentrated the vital essence or “soul substance” of the sky. The goddess sprang from water, and her tears were drops of the primeval water from which all things that are issued forth. Those stones that contained water were in China “dragon stones” or “dragon eggs”. In various countries there are legends about deities, and men and women have sprung from moisture-shedding stones. The mother-goddess of Scotland, who presides over the winter season, transforms herself at the beginning of summer into a stone that is often seen to be covered with moisture. In Norse mythology the earliest gods spring from stones that have been licked by the primeval mother-cow. Mithra of Persia sprang from a rock. Indonesian beliefs regarding moist stones, from which issue water and human beings, are fairly common.[29]
The Kayan of Sumatra are familiar with the beliefs that connect stones and vegetables with the sky and water. [[183]]They say that “in the beginning there was a rock. On this rain fell and gave rise to moss, and the worms, aided by the dung beetles, made soil by their castings. Then a sword handle came down from the sun and became a large tree. From the moon came a creeper which, hanging from the tree, mated through the action of the wind.” From this union of tree and creeper, i.e. sun and moon, “the first men were produced”.[30]
The connection between sky, plant, and animals is found in the lore regarding the Chinese sant si mountain herb which is eaten by goats. This herb, like other herbs, is produced from the body-moisture of the goddess; it is the goddess herself—the goddess who sprang from water. The plant is guarded by the mountain goat as the pearls are guarded by the shark, and the goat, which browses on the plant, is, like the shark, an avatar of the goddess. Goat’s blood is therefore as efficacious as the sap of the herb.