"…a peepul tree, a kind of aspen, which strikes its roots into every crack and fissure of a building, and soon loosens the stones. The seeds are carried by birds, and are often deposited on the bark of another tree, where they take root, and completely smother their abode. There is among the natives a superstition that if a man who has planted a tree, dies in debt, the creditor comes in the form of a peepul, roots itself in the tree and destroys it."