 regarded as a means to promote and quicken the
growth of vegetation. For the killing of the tree-spirit is associated
always (we must suppose) implicitly, and sometimes explicitly also, with a
revival or resurrection of him in a more youthful and vigorous form. So in
the Saxon and Thueringen custom, after the Wild Man has been shot he is
brought to life again by a doctor;(577) and in the Wurmlingen ceremony
there figures a Dr. Iron-Beard, who probably once played a similar part;
certainly in another spring ceremony, which will be described presently,
Dr. Iron-Beard pretends to restore a dead man to life. But of this revival
or resurrection of the god we shall have more to say anon.

(M168) The points of similarity between these North European personages
and the subject of our enquiry--the King of the Wood or priest of Nemi--are
sufficiently striking. In these northern maskers we see kings, whose dress
of bark and leaves, along with the hut of green boughs and the fir-trees
under which they hold their court, proclaim them unmistakably as, like
their Italian counterpart, Kings of the Wood. Like him they die a violent
death, but like him they may escape from it for a time by their bodily
strength and agility; for in several of these northern customs the flight
and pursuit of the king is a prominent part of the ceremony, and in one
case at least if the king can outrun his pursuers he retains his life and
his office for another year. In this last case the king in fact holds
office on condition of running for his life once a year, just as the King
of Calicut in later times held office on condition of defending his life
against all comers once every twelve years, and just as the priest of Nemi
held office on condition of defending himself against any assault at any
time. In every one of these instances the life of the god-man is prolonged
on condition of his shewing, in a severe physical contest of fight or
flight, that his bodily strength is not decayed, and that, therefore, the
violent death, which sooner or later is