,illustration3 ,illustration3 ,sacred tree with its supporters1 from ,st ,mark's1 ,venice4 ,,the ,,sacred ,,tree ,,or ,,the ,,tree ,,in ,,religion ,,and ,,myth ,,by ,,mrs4 ,j4 ,h4 ,,philpot ,illustration3 ,london ,,macmillan ,,and ,,co41 ,limited ,,new ,,york3 ,,the ,,macmillan ,,company #ahig ,all rights reserved ,,preface ,the reader is requested to bear in mind that this volume lays no claim to scholarship1 independent research1 or originality of view4 ,its aim has been to select and collate1 from sources not always easily accessible to the general reader1 certain facts and conclusions bearing upon a subject of acknowledged interest4 ,in so dealing with one of the many modes of primitive religion1 it is perhaps inevitable that the writer should seem to exaggerate its importance1 and in isolating a given series of data to undervalue the significance of the parallel facts from which they are severed4 ,it is undeniable that the worship of the spirit-inhabited tree has usually1 if not always1 been linked with1 and in many cases overshadowed by other cults2 that sun1 moon1 and stars1 sacred springs and stones1 holy mountains1 and animals of the most diverse kind1 have all been approached with singular impartiality by primitive man1 as enshrining or symbolising a divine principle4 ,but no other form of pagan ritual has been so widely distributed1 has left behind it such persistent traces1 or appeals so closely to modern sympathies as the worship of the tree2 of none is the study better calculated to throw light on the dark ways of primitive thought1 or to arouse general interest in a branch of research which is as vigorous and fruitful as it is new4 ,for these reasons1 in spite of obvious disadvantages1 its separate treatment has seemed to the writer to be completely justifiable4 ,,contents ,,chapter ,i ,,tree-,,worship--,,its ,,distribution ,,and ,,origin ,primitive conception of the tree-spirit--,illustrations of the evidence for tree-worship3 from archaeology1 from folk-lore1 from literature1 from contemporary anthropology--,earliest record of tree-worship1 the cylinders of ,chaldaea--,the symbol of the sacred tree2 its development--,meaning of the symbol--,tree-worship amongst the ,semites--,canaanitish tree-worship--,the ashra--,the decoration of the ,temple at ,jerusalem--,tree-worship in ancient ,egypt--,the sacred sycamores--,survival of the worship in the ,soudan and in ,africa generally--,osiris1 originally a tree-god2 compared with other vegetation spirits--,tammuz1 ,adonis1 ,attis1 ,dionysus--,the sacred trees of the ,persians--,tree-worship still existent in ,india2 evidence of its ancient prevalence--,its incorporation in ,buddhism--,other instances of tree-worship in the ,east--,the evidence from ,america4 ,greek and ,roman tree-worship--,the ,german religion of the grove--,persistence of the belief in tree-spirits in ,russia1 ,poland1 and ,finland--,sacred trees in mediaeval ,france--,the rites of the ,druids--,evidence of tree-worship in ,saxon ,england2 its survival in ,may-day customs--,general conclusions as to the ancient prevalence of tree-worship--,its origin2 views of ,robertson ,smith1 ,herbert ,spencer1 and ,grant ,allen ,page #a ,,chapter ,,ii ,,the ,,god ,,and ,,the ,,tree ,tree-spirits divisible into tree-gods and tree-demons--,the gods of antiquity subject to physical limitations1 and approachable only through their material embodiment or symbol--,this embodiment frequently a tree--,the sycamores of ,egypt believed to be inhabited by deities--,developments of this conception--,in ,greece the tree one of the earliest symbols of the god--,the chief ,greek gods in their origin deities of vegetation--,the ritual of the tree--,the tree dressed or carved to represent an anthropomorphic god--,late survival of this custom amongst the classical nations--,its prevalence in other countries4 ,the god's own tree--,zeus and the oak--,apollo and the laurel--,aphrodite and the myrtle--,athena and the olive--,the association of a particular god with a particular tree not known amongst the ,semites--,the bodhi-trees or trees of wisdom of the ,buddhas--,the sculptures of ,bharhut--,brahma and the golden lotus--,the holy basil of ,india--,the grove of ,upsala1 the home of ,woden--,taara and the oak--,the great oak at ,romove4 ,gifts to the tree3 in ,arabia1 in ,egypt1 in ,greece--,dedication of arms1 trophies1 etc4 ,the use of branches and wreaths in religious ceremonies--,the procession of the sacred bough in ,greek festivals--,the ceremonial use of branches common throughout the ,east4 ,the tree as sanctuary and asylum #bd ,,chapter ,,iii ,,wood-,,demons ,,and ,,tree-,,spirits ,general characteristics of the tree-demon--,the fabulous monsters of ,chaldaea--,the jinni of ,arabia--,the hairy monsters of the ,bible--,the tree-demons of ,egypt--,the woodland creatures of ,greece--,centaurs and ,cyclops--,pan1 satyrs1 and sileni--,the fauns and silvani of ,italy--,female woodland spirits--,the hamadryads--,alexander and the flower-maidens--,the vine-women of ,lucian--,corresponding instances in modern folk-lore--,the soul of the nymph actually held to inhabit the tree--,the belief that blood would flow when the tree was injured--,examples from ,virgil1 ,ovid1 and from modern folk-lore--,indian belief in wood-spirits4 ,the wood-spirits of ,central and ,north ,europe--,their general characteristics--,the moss-women--,the wild women of ,tyrol--,the wood-spirits of the ,grisons--,the white and green ladies--,the ,swedish tree-spirit--,the ,russian ,ljeschi--,the ,finnish ,tapio--,the ,tengus of ,japan--,wood-demons of ,peru and ,brazil #eb ,,chapter ,,iv ,,the ,,tree ,,in ,,its ,,relation ,,to ,,human ,,life ,the tree represented as the progenitor of the human race2 as related in the ,eddas2 in ,iranian mythology2 amongst the ,sioux ,indians--,the classical view--,human beings represented as the fruit of a tree--,individual births from a tree--,mythical births beneath a tree2 ,zeus2 ,hermes2 ,hera2 ,apollo and ,artemis2 ,romulus and ,remus4 ,metamorphoses--,apollo and ,daphne--,meaning of the legend--,the daughters of ,clymene--,baucis and ,philemon--,other instances of metamorphosis--,the growth of flowers from the blood of the dead1 or from the tears shed over them--,transmigration of souls into trees--,tristram and ,iseult--,sweet ,william and ,fair ,margaret--,other instances4 ,the conception of the tree as sympathetically interwoven with human life--,the family tree--,the community tree--,the fig-tree in the ,roman ,comitium--,the patrician and plebeian myrtle-trees4 ,the tree as the symbol of reproductive energy--,the ,semitic mother-goddess--,interpretation of the ,chaldaean sacred tree as the symbol of fertility--,the tree-inhabiting spirit of vegetation as the patron of fertility--,observances connected therewith #gb ,,chapter ,v ,,the ,,tree ,,as ,,oracle ,the oracular power a corollary to the belief in the tree-inhabiting god--,connection of the tree-oracle with the earth-oracle--,the oracles of the ,chaldaeans--,canaanite tree-oracles--8,the tree of the soothsayers0--,the oracular oak of ,zeus at ,dodona--,the oracle of ,zeus ,ammon--,the prophetic laurel of ,delphi--,oracular trees in ,armenia1 in ,arabia--,alexander the ,great and the ,persian tree-oracles--,the prophetic ilex grove at ,rome--,other ,italian tree-oracles3 at ,tibur2 at ,preneste--,tree-omens--,legends of speaking trees--,oracle-lots--,the origin of the divining-rod--,cut rods believed to retain some of the divine power resident in the tree--,the life-rood--,the divining-rod a survival of the tree-oracle--,its modern use--,divination by roots and leaves #ic ,,chapter ,,vi ,,the ,,universe-,,tree ,wide distribution of the conception--,its plausibility to the primitive mind2 especially to the inhabitants of level countries--,earliest version of the world-tree found in an ,accadian hymn of great antiquity--,probably a poetical amplification of the sacred spirit-inhabited tree--,the world-tree and the world-mountain--,the two conceptions combined in the ,norse ,yggdrasil1 as described in the ,eddas--,indian and ,persian versions of the world-tree--,buddhist development of the idea--,the cosmogony of the ,phoenicians--,egyptian variants2 the ,tt-pillar2 the golden gem-bearing tree of the sky--,traces of the world-tree in ,chinese and ,japanese mythology--,a similar tradition amongst ,north ,american ,indians4 ,the ,eastern conception of the stars as fruits of the world-tree1 and as jewels hung thereon--,a motive common in ,oriental art--,the golden apples of the ,hesperides--,other instances of the world-tree in ,european legend--,the monster oak of the ,kalevala--,corresponding tradition amongst the ,esthonians4 ,the food of the gods1 a conception associated with that of the world-tree--,the ,persian haoma1 a mystical tree1 producing an immortalising juice--,its terrestrial counterpart2 the haoma sacrament--,the ,vedic soma2 not only a plant but a powerful deity--,identification of the plant--,de ,gubernatis on the soma ritual--,the effect of the soma drink--,corresponding conceptions amongst the ,greeks--,origin of the idea #aji ,,chapter ,,vii ,,paradise ,varieties of the tradition3 7#a7 as the seat of the gods2 7#b7 as the home of the first parents2 7#c7 as the abode of the blessed--,all associated with the conception of a mystical tree1 in itself an idealisation of the spirit-inhabited tree worshipped on earth--,the paradise of the gods in ,indian tradition2 its five miraculous trees--,the paradise of ,genesis and of the ,persian sacred books--,the tree of paradise compared with sacred cedar of ,chaldaea--paradise as the abode of the blessed1 a post-exilic tradition amongst the ,jews--,the paradise of the ,talmud2 and of the ,koran--,the confusion in the ancient traditions of paradise partly due to a limited conception of space and to a belief in the propinquity of heaven--,greek conceptions of paradise--,milton's description influenced by ancient traditions of an elevated paradise4 ,the earthly paradise--,persistence of the tradition2 ,sir ,john ,maundeville's version--,icelandic tradition--,the lost ,atlantis of ,plato a variant of the paradise legend--,st4 ,brandan and the ,isle of ,avalon--,christopher ,columbus--,japanese tradition of an island of eternal youth1 with its marvellous tree--,developments of the idea of the tree of paradise--,its representation in art #abh ,,chapter ,,viii ,,may ,,celebrations ,their ancient religious significance--,the old ,english ,may-day--,fetching in the ,may--,puritan condemnation of the ,may-poles--,their removal 8as a heathenish vanity0--,existing survivals of ,may customs--,may-day rhymes4 ,origin of the celebrations3 #a4 ,the bringing in of the ,may-bough--,wide distribution of the custom an evidence of its antiquity--,its original intention--8,the ,may0 related to the harvest-bush of ,france and ,western ,germany1 and to the ,greek eiresione--,their common purpose1 to bring to the house a share of the blessings assumed to be at the disposal of the tree-inhabiting spirit4 #b4 ,the ,may-pole3 its primitive intention to bring to the village1 as the ,may-bough to the family1 the newly-quickened generative potency resident in the woods--,wide prevalence of the custom--,association of the ,may-pole with a human image or doll1 representing the vegetation spirit--,the ,greek festival of the little ,daedala--,the ,may-pole1 originally renewed every year1 became later a permanent erection1 newly dressed on ,may-day--,assumed beneficent influence of the ,may-pole4 #c4 ,the ,may ,queen1 ,may ,lady1 or ,king and ,queen of the ,may3 ,evidence that these personages were originally regarded as human representatives or embodiments of the generalised tree-soul--,often associated with its vegetable representative1 the tree or bough2 or clothed in leaves and flowers1 e4g4 the ,green ,george of ,carinthia and our ,jack-in-the-,green--,the custom general throughout ,europe--,robin ,hood and ,maid ,marian originally ,king and ,queen of the ,may--,in primitive times the human representative of the vegetation spirit probably sacrificed1 in order that the spirit might pass to a more vigorous successor--,human sacrifice in ,mexico--,survival in symbol of this ancient custom in ,bavaria1 ,swabia1 ,saxony1 etc4 #add ,,chapter ,,ix ,,christmas ,,observances ,distinctly pagan in their origin1 and adapted to ,christian use under the influence of the ,church--,the ,roman ,saturnalia--,the use of mistletoe a direct legacy from the ,druids--,the decoration of the house with evergreens also a ,druidic custom4 ,the ,christmas-tree2 its introduction into ,england extremely recent2 not universally established in ,germany1 the land of its origin1 until the present century--,references to it by ,goethe and ,schiller--,earliest record from ,strasburg about #afjj ,a4,d4--,theological disapproval--,theories as to its origin--,probably connected with the legend of ,christmas flowering trees--,examples--,the ,glastonbury thorn--,mannhardt's view2 a decorated tree the recognised scenic symbol of ,christmas in the paradise play of the ,middle ,ages1 wherein the story of the ,fall was dramatically associated with that of the ,nativity--,an ancient ,german custom to force into flower boughs cut on a sacred night during the great autumn festival--,the date of severance delayed under priestly influence so that the boughs might flower at ,christmas--,instances of the survival of this custom--,the lights on the ,christmas-tree a comparatively recent innovation--,legends of light-bearing trees--,the lights possibly derived from ancient solstitial observances--,the ,christmas-tree an illustration of the blending of pagan and mediaeval ideas--,a point in which the many phases of tree-worship converge #afb ,,index #age ,,illustrations ,,chapter ,,page ,sacred tree with its supporters1 from ,st4 ,mark's1 ,venice ,frontispiece #a1 ,rudimentary and conventionalised forms of the sacred tree #e #b1 #e #c4 #e #d4 ,sacred tree with its supporters1 surmounted by the winged disc1 from an ,assyrian cylinder #f #e4 ,sacred tree1 from the ,temple of ,athena at ,pryene #f #f4 ,the same1 from a sculptured slab in the ,treasury of ,st4 ,mark's1 ,venice #g #g4 ,a ,ba or soul receiving the lustral water from a tree-goddess #aj #h4 ,sacred tree with worshippers1 from eastern gateway at ,snchi #ae #i4 ,sacred tree1 from a ,mexican manuscript #ag #aj4 ,the goddess ,nut in her sacred sycamore bestowing the bread and water of the next world #bf #aa4 ,sacred tree of ,dionysus1 with a statue of the god and offerings #bg #ab4 ,sacred pine of ,silvanus1 with a bust of the god1 and votive gifts #bh #ac4 ,fruit-tree dressed as ,dionysus #ca #ad1 ,forms of the ,tt or ,did1 the emblem of ,osiris #cd #ae4 #cd #af4 ,apollo on his sacred tripod1 a laurel branch in his hand #cf #ag4 ,coin of ,athens1 of the age of ,pericles or earlier1 showing olive spray #ch #ah4 ,coin of ,athens1 third century ,b4,c4 #ch #ai4 ,the ,bodhi-tree of ,kanaka ,muni #da #bj4 ,wild elephants paying their devotions to the sacred banian of ,ksyapa ,buddha #db #ba4 ,sacred sycamore1 with offerings #dd #bb4 ,sacred tree of ,artemis1 hung with weapons of the chase #de #bc4 ,sacred laurel of ,apollo at ,delphi1 adorned with fillets and votive tablets2 beneath it the god appearing to protect ,orestes #ej #bd4 ,imperial coin of ,myra in ,lycia1 showing tree-goddess #hg #be4 ,sacred tree and worshipper1 from a ,chaldaean cylinder #hh #bf4 ,sacred tree as symbol of fertility1 from an ,assyrian bas-relief #hi #bg4 ,yggdrasil1 the ,scandinavian world-tree #aae #bh4 ,from a ,babylonian seal #acj ,,chapter ,i ,,tree-,,worship--,,its ,,distribution ,,and ,,origin ,it is the purpose of the present volume to deal as concisely as possible with the many religious observances1 popular customs1 legends1 traditions and ideas which have sprung from or are related to the primitive conception of the tree-spirit4 ,there is little doubt that most if not all races1 at some period of their development1 have regarded the tree as the home1 haunt1 or embodiment of a spiritual essence1 capable of more or less independent life and activity1 and able to detach itself from its material habitat and to appear in human or in animal form4 ,this belief has left innumerable traces in ancient art and literature1 has largely shaped the usages and legends of the peasantry1 and impressed its influence on the ritual of almost all the primitive religions of mankind4 ,there is1 indeed1 scarcely a country in the world where the tree has not at one time or another been approached with reverence or with fear1 as being closely connected with some spiritual potency4 ,the evidence upon which this assertion is based is overwhelming in amount1 and is frequently to be found in quarters where until lately its presence was unsuspected or its significance ignored4 ,for instance1 in the interior of that fascinating storehouse of antiquity1 ,st4 ,mark's at ,venice1 there are embedded in the walls1 high above one's head1 a number of ancient sculptured slabs1 on each of which a conventionalised plant1 with foliage most truthfully and lovingly rendered1 is set between two fabulous monsters1 as fantastic and impossible as any supporters to be met with in the whole range of heraldry 7see ,frontispiece74 ,to the ordinary observer these strange sculptures say nothing2 probably he passes over them lightly1 as the offspring of that quaint mediaeval fancy which was so prolific in monstrous births4 ,but the student of ,oriental art at once detects in them a familiar design1 a design whose pedigree can be traced back to the day1 six thousand years ago1 when the ,chaldaean ,semites were taking their culture and religion from the old ,accadians who dwelt on the shores of the ,persian ,gulf4 ,in the central plant he recognises the symbol or ideograph of a divine attribute or activity1 if not a representation of the visible embodiment or abode of a god1 and in the raised hand or forepaw of the supporters he discerns the conventional attitude of adoration4 ,the design1 in short1 which was probably handed on from ,assyria to ,persia1 and from ,persia to ,byzantium1 and so to ,venice1 is a vestige of that old world religion which regarded the tree as one of the sacred haunts of deity4 ,again1 the same conception1 the record of which is thus strangely preserved in the very fabric of a ,christian edifice1 is to be traced with equal certainty in the older and scarcely less permanent fabric of popular tradition and custom4 ,the folk-lore of the modern ,european peasant1 and the observances with which ,christmas1 ,may-day1 and the gathering of the harvest are still celebrated in civilised countries1 are all permeated by the primitive idea that there was a spiritual essence embodied in vegetation1 that trees1 like men1 had spirits1 passing in and out amongst them1 which possessed a mysterious and potent influence over human affairs1 and which it was therefore wise and necessary to propitiate4 ,a third example of the less recondite evidence on the subject is to be found in the ,book that we all know best4 ,when we once realise how deeply rooted and time-honoured was the belief that there was a spiritual force inherent in vegetation1 we cease to wonder at the perversity with which the less cultured ,israelites persisted in planting groves and setting up altars under every green tree4 ,read in the light of modern research1 the ,old ,testament presents a drama of surpassing interest1 a record of internecine struggle between the aspiration of the few towards the worship of a single1 omnipresent1 unconditioned ,god and the conservative adhesion of the many to the primitive ritual and belief common to all the ,semitic tribes4 ,for the backsliding children of ,israel were no more idolaters1 in the usual meaning of the word1 than were the ,canaanites whose rites they imitated4 ,their view of nature was that of the primitive ,semite1 if not of the primitive man4 ,all parts of nature1 in their idea1 were full of spiritual forces1 more or less1 but never completely1 detached in their movements and action from the material objects to which they were supposed properly to belong4 8,in ritual the sacred object was spoken of and treated as the god himself2 it was not merely his symbol1 but his embodiment1 the permanent centre of his activity1 in the same sense in which the human body is the permanent centre of man's activity4 ,the god inhabited the tree or sacred stone not in the sense in which a man inhabits a house1 but in the sense in which his soul inhabits his body40#a ,to the three classes of evidence1 derived respectively from archaeology1 from folk-lore1 and from ancient literature1 which have been thus briefly exemplified1 may be added a fourth1 equally important and prolific1 that namely of contemporary anthropology4 ,scarcely a book is printed on the customs of uncivilised races which does not contribute some new fact to the subject4 ,the illustration of an ,arab praying to a tree1 in ,slatin ,pasha's recently published volume1 is no surprise to the anthropologist1 who has learnt to look for such survivals of primitive customs wherever culture still remains primitive4 ,rudimentary and conventionalised forms of the sacred tree4 7,from ,chaldaean and ,assyrian cylinders4 ,goblet d',alviella47 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #a4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #b4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #c4 ,now of all primitive customs and beliefs there is none which has a greater claim upon our interest than the worship of the tree1 for there is none which has had a wider distribution throughout the world1 or has left a deeper impress on the traditions and observances of mankind4 ,its antiquity is undoubted1 for when history begins to speak1 we find it already firmly established amongst the oldest civilised races4 ,what is probably its earliest record is met with on the engraved cylinders of ,chaldaea1 some of which date back to #djjj ,b4,c4 ,even at that period it would appear that the ,chaldaeans had advanced beyond the stage of crude tree-worship1 as found to this day amongst uncivilised races1 for the sacred tree had already undergone a process of idealisation4 ,in a bilingual hymn1 which is of ,accadian origin1 and probably one of the most ancient specimens of literature in existence1 a mystical tree is described as the abode of the gods4 ,and it was probably by a similar process of idealisation that a conventional representation of the sacred tree came to be one of the most important symbols of ,chaldaean religion4 ,this symbol1 which we have already seen in decorative use on the slabs at ,st4 ,mark's1 appears on the oldest ,chaldaean cylinders 8as a stem divided at the base1 surmounted by a fork or a crescent1 and cut1 midway1 by one or more cross bars which sometimes bear a fruit at each extremity4 ,this rudimentary image frequently changes into the palm1 the pomegranate1 the cypress1 vine1 etc4#b ,on the ,assyrian monuments of about #ajjj ,b4,c4 and later1 the figure becomes still more complex and more artistically conventionalised1 and it nearly always stands between two personages facing each other1 who are sometimes priests or kings in an attitude of adoration1 sometimes monstrous creatures1 such as are so often met with in ,assyro-,chaldaean imagery1 lions1 sphinxes1 griffins1 unicorns1 winged bulls1 men or genii with the head of an eagle1 and so forth4 ,above it is frequently suspended the winged circle1 personifying the supreme deity40 ,in his exhaustive chapter on this ancient design1 ,m4 ,goblet d',alviella has shown that it obtained a wide dissemination throughout the world1 and is used even to this day in the fictile and textile art of the ,east4#c ,m4 ,menant concludes from his exhaustive study of the cylinders1 that the worship of the sacred tree in ,assyria was intimately associated with that of the supreme deity1 its symbol being incontestably one of the most sacred emblems of the ,assyrian religion4#d ,m4 ,lenormant's view was that the winged circle1 in conjunction with the sacred tree1 represented the primeval cosmogonic pair1 the creative sun and the fertile earth1 and was a symbol of the divine mystery of generation4#e ,in ,babylonia the sacred tree was no doubt closely associated with ,istar1 the divine mother1 who was originally not a ,semitic1 but an ,accadian goddess1 and whose cult1 together with that of her bridegroom ,tammuz1 was introduced into ,chaldaea from ,eridu1 a city which flourished on the shores of the ,persian ,gulf between #cjjj and #djjj ,b4,c4#f ,that the ,accadians were familiar with the worship of the tree may also be inferred from the fact that their chief god1 ,ea1 was closely associated with the sacred cedar1 on whose core his name was supposed to be inscribed4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #d4--,sacred tree with its supporters1 surmounted by the winged disc47,from an ,assyrian cylinder4 ,goblet d',alviella47 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #e4--,sacred tree1 much conventionalised47,from a capital of the ,temple of ,athena at ,pryene4 ,goblet d',alviella47 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #f4--,sacred tree1 from a sculptured slab in the ,treasury of ,st4 ,mark's1 ,venice4 ,but however much their attitude towards the sacred tree may have been modified under ,accadian influence1 the ,chaldaeans in their worship of the tree only followed the rule of their ,semitic kindred1 for 8the conception of trees as demoniac beings was familiar to all the ,semites1 and the tree was adored as divine in every part of the ,semitic area40#g ,even that stationary ,semite1 the modern ,arab1 holds certain trees inviolable as being inhabited by spirits1 and honours them with sacrifices and decorations1 and to this day the traveller in ,palestine sometimes lights upon holy trees hung with tokens of homage4 ,this strange persistence of a primitive religion in the very birthplace of a most exalted spiritual worship is an additional evidence of its remarkable vitality4 ,for there is no country in the world where the tree was ever more ardently worshipped than it was in ancient ,palestine4 ,amongst the ,canaanites every altar to the god had its sacred tree beside it1 and when the ,israelites established local sanctuaries under their influence1 they set up their altar under a green tree1 and planted beside it as its indispensable accompaniment an ashra1 which was either a living tree or a tree-like post1 and not a 8grove10 as rendered in the ,authorised ,version4 ,this ashra was undoubtedly worshipped as a sacred symbol of the deity4 ,originally it appears to have been associated with ,ashtoreth or ,astarte1 the ,syrian ,istar1 the revolting character of whose worship perhaps explains the excessive bitterness of the biblical denunciations4#h ,but the ashra was also erected by the altars of other gods1 and in pre-prophetic days even beside that of ,jehovah ,himself1 whence it may be concluded that 8in early times tree-worship had such a vogue in ,canaan1 that the sacred tree or the pole1 its surrogate1 had come to be viewed as a general symbol of deity40#i ,the great antiquity of the cult in ,syria was recognised in the local traditions1 for an old ,phoenician cosmogony1 quoted by ,eusebius1 states that 8the first men consecrated the plants shooting out of the earth1 and judged them gods1 and worshipped them1 and made meat and drink offerings to them40#aj ,in addition to the ashra1 the ,chaldaean symbol of the sacred tree between its supporters was also familiar to the ,phoenicians1 and is found wherever their art penetrated1 notably in ,cyprus and on the archaic pottery of ,corinth and ,athens4#aa ,it is highly probable that both these sacred symbols had a common origin1 but the connection must have been lost sight of in later times1 for we find ,ezekiel1 to whom the prophetic denunciations of the ashra must have been familiar1 decorating the temple of his vision with designs evidently derived from the ,chaldaean sacred tree1 8a palm-tree between a cherub and a cherub40#ab ,a similar ornamentation with palm-trees and cherubim1 it will be remembered1 had been used in the temple built by ,solomon4#ac ,amongst the ancient ,egyptians1 whose 8exuberant piety0 required1 according to ,m4 ,maspero1 8an actual rabble of gods0 to satisfy it1 trees were enthusiastically worshipped1 side by side with other objects1 as the homes of various divinities4 ,the splendid green sycamores1 which flourish here and there as though by miracle on the edge of the cultivated land1 their rootlets bathed by the leakage of the ,nile1 were accounted divine and earnestly worshipped by ,egyptians of every rank1 in the belief that they were animated by spirits1 who on occasion could emerge from them4 ,they were habitually honoured with fruit offerings1 and the charitable found an outlet for their benevolence in daily replenishing the water-jars placed beneath them for the use of the passer-by1 who in his turn would express his gratitude for the boon by reciting a prayer to the deity of the tree4 ,the most famous of these sycamores--the sycamore of the ,south--was regarded as the living body of ,hthor upon earth2 and the tree at ,metairieh1 commonly called the ,tree of the ,virgin1 is probably the successor of a sacred tree of ,heliopolis1 in which a goddess1 perhaps ,hthor1 was worshipped4#ad ,the district around ,memphis was known as the ,land of the ,sycamore1 and contained several trees generally believed to be inhabited by detached doubles of ,nut and ,hthor4 ,similar trees are worshipped at the present day both by ,christian and ,mussulman fellahn4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #g4--;,a ,ba or soul receiving the lustral water from a tree-goddess47,from a painting discovered by ,prof4 ,petrie at ,thebes4 ,illustrated ,london ,news1 #beth ,july #ahif47 ,on the outskirts of the province of ,darfur the ,bedeyat ,arabs1 though surrounded by ,moslem tribes1 still adhere to the same primitive cult4 ,under the wide-spreading branches of an enormous heglik-tree1 and on a spot kept beautifully clean and sprinkled with fine sand1 they beseech an unknown god to direct them in their undertakings and to protect them from danger4#ae ,they have1 in short1 retained1 in spite of the pressure of ,islamism1 the old heathen worship which still widely prevails amongst the uncivilised races of the ,african continent4 ,thus on the ,guinea ,coast almost every village has its sacred tree1 and in some parts offerings are still made to them4 ,the negroes of the ,congo plant a sacred tree before their houses and set jars of palm-wine under it for the tree-spirit4#af ,in ,dahomey prayers and gifts are offered to trees in time of sickness4 ,one of the goddesses of the ,fantis has her abode in huge cotton-trees4 ,in the ,nyassa country1 where the spirits of the dead are worshipped as gods1 the ceremonies are conducted and offerings placed not at the grave of the dead man1 but at the foot of the tree which grows before his house1 or if that be unsuitable1 beneath some especially beautiful tree selected for the purpose4#ag ,to return to ancient ,egypt1 there is evidence that the great ,osiris was originally a tree-god4 ,according to ,egyptian mythology1 after he had been murdered his coffin was discovered enclosed in a tree-trunk1 and he is spoken of in the inscriptions as 8the one in the tree10 8the solitary one in the acacia40 ,the rites1 too1 by which his death and burial were annually celebrated appear to couple him closely with ,tammuz1 ,adonis1 ,attis1 ,dionysus1 and other gods whose worship was associated with a similar ritual4#ah ,mr4 ,frazer1 following ,mannhardt1 contends that all these deities were tree-gods1 and that the ceremonial connected with their worship was symbolical of the annual death and revival of vegetation4 ,it is certainly true that in ,babylonia1 ,egypt1 ,phoenicia1 and above all in ,phrygia1 a peculiarly emotional form of worship1 which subsequently extended to ,cyprus1 ,crete1 ,greece1 and ,italy1 arose in connection with deities who were closely associated with vegetable life4 ,tammuz-- ,whose annual wound in ,lebanon allured ,the ,syrian damsels to lament his fate1 and for whose resuscitation his bride1 the goddess ,istar1 descended into ,hades--was represented as originally dwelling in a tree4#ai ,adonis1 who was the beloved of ,aphrodite--the ,syrian ,astarte--and is ,tammuz under another name1 was born from a myrrh-tree4 ,attis1 the favourite of ,cybele1 who was worshipped with barbarous rites in ,phrygia1 was represented in the form of a decorated pine-tree1 to which his image was attached4 ,dionysus1 whose death and resurrection were celebrated in ,crete and elsewhere1 was worshipped throughout ,greece as 8,dionysus of the ,tree40 ,these facts are sufficient to warrant the inference that tree-worship was very firmly rooted in those regions where the ,semitic races came into contact with the ,aryans4 ,in ,phrygia it was peculiarly prominent1 as we know from classical references4 ,the archaeological evidence is vague and incomplete1 but a characteristic device frequent in ,phrygian art1 in which two animals1 usually lions rampant1 face one another on either side of a pillar1 or an archaic representation of the mother-goddess ,cybele1#bj recalls the sacred tree of ,babylonia4 ,the device is familiar in connection with the lion-gate of ,mycenae1 which was probably erected under ,phrygian influence4 ,the ,persians venerated trees as the dwelling-place of the deity1 as the haunts of good and evil spirits1 and as the habitations in which the souls of heroes and of the virtuous dead continued their existence4 ,according to ,plutarch1 they assigned some trees and plants to the good ,god1 others to the evil demon4#ba ,the ,zend-,avesta ordained that the trees which ,ormuzd had given should be prayed to as pure and holy1 and adored with fire and lustral water2#bb and according to tradition1 when ,zoroaster died1 ,ormuzd himself translated his soul into a lofty tree1 and planted it upon a high mountain4 ,the cypress was regarded by the ,persians as especially sacred4 ,it was closely associated with fire-worship1 and was revered as a symbol of the pure light of ,ormuzd4 ,it is frequently represented on ancient gravestones in conjunction with the lion1 the symbol of the sun-god ,mithra4#bc ,another venerated tree was the myrtle1 a branch of which was used as an essential accompaniment in all religious functions4 ,the observances connected with the ,persian worship of the ,haoma plant will be dealt with in a later chapter4 ,the ,achaemenian kings regarded the plane as their peculiar tree1 and a representation of it in gold formed part of their state4 ,a certain plane-tree in ,lydia was presented by ,xerxes with vessels of gold and costly apparel1 and committed to the guardianship of one of his 8immortals40#bd ,in ,india1 where tree-worship once enjoyed a wide prevalence1 it has left indubitable traces on the religions which displaced it1 and it is still encountered in its crudest form amongst some of the aboriginal hill tribes4 ,the ,garrows1 for instance1 who possess neither temples nor altars1 set up a bamboo before their huts1 and sacrifice before it to their deity4#be ,on a mountain in ,travancore there existed until quite recently an ancient tree1 which was regarded by the natives as the residence of a powerful deity4 ,sacrifices were offered to it1 and sermons preached before it2 it served1 indeed1 as the cathedral of the district4 ,at length1 to the horror of its worshippers1 an ,english missionary had it cut down and used in the construction of a chapel on its site4#bf ,the ancient prevalence of tree-worship in ,india is established by frequent references to sacred trees in the ,vedas1 and by the statement of ,q4 ,curtius that the companions of ,alexander the ,great noticed that the ,indians 8reputed as gods whatever they held in reverence1 especially trees1 which it was death to injure40#bg ,this ancient reverence for the tree was recognised by ,buddhism1 and adapted to its more advanced mode of thought4 ,the asvattha or pippala-tree1 ,ficus ,religiosa1 which had previously been identified with the supreme deity1 ,brahma1 came to be venerated above all others by the special injunction of ,gautama1 as that under which he had achieved perfect knowledge4#bh ,in his previous incarnations ,gautama himself is represented as having been a tree-spirit no less than forty-three times4 ,the evidence of the monuments as to the importance attached to the tree in early ,buddhism is equally definite4 ,the ,snchi and ,ama-ravati sculptures1 some casts of which are in the ,british ,museum1 contain representations of the sacred tree decorated with garlands and surrounded by votaries1 whilst the worship of the trees identified with the various ,buddhas is repeatedly represented on the ,stpa of ,bharhut4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #h4--,sacred tree with worshippers1 from eastern gateway of ,buddhist ,tope at ,snchi47,fergusson's ,tree and ,serpent ,worship 7#ahfh71 ,plate xxv47 ,there is very little evidence of the existence of tree-worship amongst the ,chinese1 but they have a tradition of a ,tree of ,life1 and of a drink of immortality made from various sacred plants4 ,they also make use of the divining-rod1 which is an offshoot of tree-worship1 and certain ,taoist medals1 like the talismans worn in ,java1 bear the familiar symbol of the sacred tree4#bi ,in ,japan certain old trees growing near ,shinto temples are regarded as sacred1 and bound with a fillet of straw rope1 8as if they were tenanted by a divine spirit40#cj ,japanese mythology tells of holy sakaki trees growing on the ,mountain of ,heaven1 and of a herb of immortality to be gathered on the ,island of ,eternal ,youth4 ,amongst the semi-civilised races which border upon these ancient states the tree is still almost universally regarded as the dwelling-place of a spirit1 and as such is protected1 venerated1 and often presented with offerings4 ,in ,sumatra and ,borneo certain old trees are held to be sacred1 and the ,dyaks would regard their destruction as an impious act4 ,the ,mintira of the ,malay ,peninsula believe that trees are inhabited by terrible spirits capable of inflicting diseases4 ,the ,talein of ,burmah never cut down a tree without a prayer to the indwelling spirit4 ,the ,siamese have such veneration for the takhien-tree that they offer it cakes and rice before felling it2 so strong1 indeed1 is their dread of destroying trees of any kind1 and thereby offending the gods inhabiting them1 that all necessary tree-felling is relegated to the lowest criminals4 ,even at the present day they frequently make offerings to the tree-dwelling spirits1 and hang gifts on any tree whose deity they desire to propitiate4#ca ,in the ,western ,hemisphere1 the fact that the drawing of a tree with two opposed personages or supporters1 similar in design to the sacred tree of the ,chaldaeans1 has been found in an ancient ,mexican ,,ms41 has been put forward as an additional argument in favour of the pre-,columbian colonisation of that continent and its early contact with the ,eastern world4#cb ,speaking generally1 however1 the worship of the tree appears to have flourished less widely in the ,new ,world than the ,old1 though traces of it have been found all over the continent4#cc ,a large ash-tree is regarded with great veneration by the ,indians of ,lake ,superior1 and in ,mexico there was a cypress1 the spreading branches of which were loaded by the natives with votive offerings1 locks of hair1 teeth1 and morsels of ribbon2 it was many centuries old1 and had probably had mysterious influence ascribed to it1 and been decorated with offerings long before the discovery of ,america4#cd ,by that date1 however1 the ,mexicans had apparently advanced beyond the earliest stage of religious development1 and expanded the idea of individual tree-spirits into the more general conception of a god of vegetation4 ,it was in the honour of such a god that their ,may-,day celebrations were held and their human sacrifices offered4 ,in ,nicaragua cereals were worshipped as well as trees4 ,in more primitive ,patagonia the cruder form of worship persists1 a certain tree standing upon a hill being still resorted to by numerous worshippers1 each of whom brings his offering4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #i4--;,from a ,mexican manuscript47,goblet d',alviella47 ,to return nearer home1 the worship of the tree has prevailed at one time or another in every country of ,europe4 ,it played a vital part in the religion of ,greece and ,rome1 and classical literature is full of traditions and ideas which can have been derived from no other source4 ,the subject has been exhaustively treated by ,btticher in his ,baumkultus der ,hellenen4#ce ,mr4 ,farnell1 in his recently published work1 says that in the earliest period of ,greek religion of which we have any record1 the tree was worshipped as the shrine of the divinity that housed within it2 hence the epithet 1 applied to ,zeus1 and the legend of ,helene ,dendritis4#cf ,discoveries made in ,crete and the ,peloponnese within the present year 7#ahif7 seem to show that the worship of deities in aniconic shape as stone pillars or as trees played a great part in the religion of the ,mycenaean period about #aejj ,b4,c4#cg ,the persistent belief of the ,greek and ,roman peasantry in the existence and power of the various woodland spirits is also vitally connected with the primitive idea of the tree-soul4 ,in the centre of ,europe1 covered as it once was with dense forest1 the veneration of the tree tinctured all the religious usages of the primitive inhabitants4 ,in ancient ,germany1 the universal ceremonial religion of the people had its abode in the 8grove10 and the earliest efforts of the ,christian missionaries were directed towards the destruction of these venerated woods1 or their consecration by the erection within them of a ,christian edifice4#ch ,but long after their nominal conversion the ,germans continued to people every wood with spirits1 and the legends and folk-lore of their modern descendants are still rich in memories of this time-honoured superstition4 ,some of these wood-inhabiting spirits were favourable to man1 ready to befriend and help him in difficulty2 others were malicious and vindictive4 ,the whole subject has been studied in ,germany with characteristic thoroughness1 the standard work being ,mannhardt's well-known and fascinating ,wald- und ,feldkulte4#ci ,in ,poland trees appear to have been worshipped as late as the fourteenth century1 and in parts of ,russia the power of the tree-spirit over the herds was so firmly held1 that it was long customary to propitiate it by the sacrifice of a cow4 ,the ,permians1 a tribe related to the ,finns1 worshipped trees1 among other things1 until their conversion to ,christianity about #achj ,a4,d4#dj ,in parts of ,esthonia the peasants even within the present century regarded certain trees as sacred1 carefully protected them1 hung them with wreaths1 and once a year poured fresh bullock's blood about their roots1 in order that the cattle might thrive4#da ,in the remoter parts of the ,czar's domain the belief in tree-demons still persists4 ,they are held to be enormous creatures1 who can change their stature at will1 and whose voice is heard in the clash of the storm as they spring from tree to tree4 ,in ,finland the oak is still called 8,god's tree10 and to this day the birch and the mountain-ash are held sacred by the peasants1 and planted beside their cottages with every sign of reverence4 ,in ,france at ,massilia 7now ,marseilles7 human sacrifices were1 in primitive times1 offered to trees4#db ,in the fourth century of our era there was a famous pear-tree at ,auxerre which was hung with trophies of the chase and paid all the veneration due to a god4#dc ,in the life of ,st4 ,amandus mention is made of sacred groves and trees worshipped near ,beauvais1 and various ,church councils in the early middle ages denounced those who venerated trees1 one held at ,nantes in #hie ,a4,d4 expressly enjoining the destruction of trees which were consecrated to demons4 ,traces of the ancient worship still survive here as elsewhere in popular custom2 in the south of ,france they have a graceful observance1 in which the spirit of vegetation is personified by a youth clad in green1 who feigning sleep is awakened by a maiden's kiss4 ,in our own islands1 as every one knows1 the oak-tree played a salient part in the old ,druidical worship1 and ,pliny#dd even derives the name ,druid from1 an oak1 as some still connect it with darach1 the ,celtic word for that tree4 ,the important rites with which the mistletoe was severed from the parent tree and dedicated at the altar furnish evidence of the veneration paid to the spirit of the tree1 who1 according to the teaching of the ,druids1 retreated into the parasite-bough when the oak leaves withered4 ,the ,teutons no doubt brought with them to ,britain the religion of the sacred grove1 and we find ,king ,edgar condemning the idle rites in connection with the alder and other trees1 and ,canute fifty years later forbidding the worship entirely4#de ,the ceremonies once connected with the worship of the tree survived in the form of a picturesque symbolism long after their origin had been forgotten4 ,in #aeae1 at a ,twelfth-,night pageant held at his palace of ,greenwich by order of ,henry ,,viii41 tree-spirits represented by 8,,viii wylde-men1 all apparayled in grene mosse sodainly came oute of a place lyke a wood0 and engaged in battle with the royal knights4#df ,it was also a custom of this king in the early years of his reign to resort to the woods with a richly-apparelled retinue in order 8to fetche ,may or grene bows10--the spirit of vegetation1 whose renewed vigour was symbolised1 unconsciously no doubt1 in the green boughs with which the courtiers decked their caps4#dg ,may-day ceremonies to celebrate the new life in the forest can be traced in ,england as far back as the thirteenth century1 and the importance still attached to them by the people as late as the seventeenth century is indicated by the rancour with which the ,puritans attacked the ,maypole1 8a heathenish vanity greatly abused to superstition and wickedness40 ,these and other survivals will be more fully treated in a later chapter1 and are only mentioned here as showing the ancient prevalence of a belief in tree-spirits1 which indeed is alone competent to account for such customs4 ,in fine1 no one who has not studied the subject can have any idea of the sanctity associated with the tree amongst pre-,christian nations4 ,the general conclusion which ,btticher gives as the result of his elaborate research1 is that the worship of the tree was not only the earliest form of divine ritual1 but was the last to disappear before the spread of ,christianity2 it existed long before the erection of temples and statues to the gods1 flourished side by side with them1 and persisted long after they had disappeared4#dh ,mr4 ,tylor1 with greater caution1 concludes that direct and absolute tree-worship may lie very wide and deep in the early history of religion1 but that apart from this 8there is a wide range of animistic conceptions connected with tree and forest worship4 ,the tree may be the spirit's perch1 or shelter1 or favourite haunt2 or may serve as a scaffold or altar1 where offerings can be set out for some spiritual being2 or its shelter may be a place of worship set apart by nature1 of some tribes the only temple1 of many tribes1 perhaps1 the earliest2 or lastly1 it may be merely a sacred object patronised by1 or associated with1 or symbolising some divinity40#di ,these varied conceptions1 ,mr4 ,tylor thinks1 conform1 in spite of their confusion1 to the animistic theology in which they all have their essential principles4 ,to discuss the origin of tree-worship would involve the consideration of the whole question of primitive culture1 the theory of animism1 and the subject of ancestor worship1 together with a digression on the very obscure problem of totemism4 ,the last word has not yet been said on these questions1 and the time has certainly not yet come to say it4 ,as will be shown in the next two chapters1 the general conception of the tree-spirit includes at least two different series of ideas1 that on the one hand of the tree-god1 whose worship became organised into a definite religion1 and on the other hand that of the tree-demons or tree-spirits1 whose propitiation was degraded into or never rose above the level of sorcery and incantation4 ,to define the relation between these two conceptions is extremely difficult1 and it has been approached by different writers along two different lines of thought4 ,either the gods were developed from the spiritual forces assumed by primitive man to be inherent in nature1 and gradually differentiated from the less friendly powers embodied in the various demons1 until they came to be regarded as the kinsmen and parents of their worshippers2 or they were ancestral spirits1 at once feared and trusted from their very origin by their kinsmen1 whilst all the class of minor spirits and demons were but degenerate gods or the ancestral spirits of enemies4 ,the former view is put forward by ,professor ,robertson ,smith1 in a chapter that deserves most careful study1 but he admits that it is difficult to understand how the friendly powers of nature that haunted a district in which men lived and prospered1 and were regarded as embodied in holy trees and springs1 became identified with the tribal god of a community and the parent of a race4#ej ,there is no such difficulty in ,mr4 ,herbert ,spencer's theory that all religion arose from ancestor worship1 or in ,mr4 ,grant ,allen's supplementary contention that trees and stones came to be regarded as sacred and to be honoured with sacrifices because they were originally associated with the ancestral grave1 and were hence assumed to have become the haunts or embodiments of the ancestral spirit4#ea ,this latter view1 however1 does not seem to take sufficient account of the thousand spirits who1 in the belief of primitive men1 thronged the woods1 the mountains1 and the springs1 and appeared in horrible animal or semi-human form4 ,probably the truth lies between the two theories1 and the primitive worship of the tree had more than one root4 ,,chapter ,,ii ,,the ,,god ,,and ,,the ,,tree ,when we examine more closely the spiritual beings who have been thought to haunt or inhabit vegetation1 we find that they fall more or less distinctly into two classes--into tree-gods on the one hand1 and on the other into the various tree-demons1 wood-spirits1 dryads1 elves1 jinns1 and fabulous monsters common to the mythology of all countries4 ,there is1 perhaps1 no absolutely definite line of demarcation between the two classes1 for primitive thought does not deal in sharp definitions4 ,but the division1 besides being convenient for our present purpose1 is a vital one4 ,for a god is an individual spirit who enters into stated relations with man1 is mostly if not invariably regarded as akin to his worshippers1 and is presumably their friend1 ally1 and protector4 ,whereas the demon is an independent and1 as a rule1 not individualised spirit1 without human kinship1 and for the most part unfriendly to man4 ,the god is to be revered1 approached and called upon by name2 the demon1 as a rule1 to be dreaded and shunned4 ,the present chapter will be devoted to the belief in the tree-inhabiting god4 ,the conception of an ubiquitous1 unconditioned spirit is entirely foreign to primitive thought4 ,all the gods of antiquity were subject to physical limitations4 ,those even of ,greece and ,rome were by no means independent of a material environment4 ,there was always some holy place or sanctuary1 some grove1 tree1 stone1 or fountain1 or later on some temple or image1 wherein the god was assumed to dwell1 and through which he had to be approached4 ,to ,moses ,jehovah is 8,he that dwelt in the bush10#eb and centuries later ,cyrus1 while admitting that the ,lord of ,israel had made him king of the whole world1 yet speaks of ,him as 8the ,lord that dwelleth in ,jerusalem40#ec ,very frequently1 especially in early times1 this home or haunt of the god was a tree2 his ceremonial worship was conducted beneath its shadow1 and the offerings of his worshippers were hung upon its branches1 or placed at its foot1 or upon a table by its side1 and assumed thereby to have reached the god4 ,thus the sacred sycamores of ,egypt were believed to be actually inhabited by ,hthor1 ,nut1 ,selkt1 ,nt1 or some other deity1 and were worshipped and presented with offerings as such4 ,the vignettes in the ,book of the ,dead demonstrate this belief unmistakably4 ,they frequently depict the soul on its journey to the next world coming to one of these miraculous sycamores on the edge of the terrible desert before it1 and receiving from the goddess of the tree a supply of bread1 fruit1 or water1 the acceptance of which made it the guest of the deity and prevented it from retracing its steps without her express permission4 8,o1 sycamore of the ,goddess ,nut10 begins one of the chapters in the ,book of the ,dead1 8let there be given to me the water which is in thee40 ,as a rule in the vignettes the bust of the goddess is represented as appearing from amidst the sheltering foliage1 but sometimes only her arm is seen emerging from the leaves with a libation-bowl in the hand4 ,the conception is illustrated still more clearly on an ancient sarcophagus in the ,marseilles ,museum1 where the trunk from which the branches spread is represented as the actual body of the deity4#ed ,illustration3 ,fig4 #aj4--,the goddess ,nut in her sacred sycamore bestowing the bread and water of the next world47,maspero1 ,dawn of ,civilisation47 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #aa4--,sacred tree of ,dionysus1 with a statue of the god and offerings47,btticher1 ,fig4 #bd47 ,as man's conception of the deity became more definitely anthropomorphic on the one hand and less local on the other1 this primitive representation of the god in the tree underwent a change in two corresponding directions4 ,in the one case an attempt was made to express more clearly the manlike form of the god2 the tree was dressed or carved in human semblance1 or a mask or statue of the god was hung upon or placed beside it4 ,in the other case1 as the god widened his territory or absorbed other local gods he became associated with all trees of a certain class1 and was assumed to dwell not in a particular tree1 but in a particular kind of tree1 which thenceforward became sacred to and symbolical of him4 ,this latter idea received special development in the religions of ,greece and ,rome4 ,but in the early history of both those countries cases occur in which a god was worshipped in an individual tree4 ,at ,dodona1 which was perhaps the most ancient of all ,greek sanctuaries1 ,zeus was approached as immanent in his sacred oak1 and legendary afterthought explained the primitive ritual by relating that the first oak sprang from the blood of a ,titan slain while invading the abode of the god1 who thereupon chose it as his own peculiar tree4 ,again1 in ancient ,rome1 according to ,livy1 ,jupiter was originally worshipped in the form of a lofty oak-tree which grew upon the ,capitol4 ,the same was probably true of other gods at their first appearance4 ,amongst the ,greeks1 indeed1 the tree was the earliest symbol or of the god1 and as such is frequently represented on ancient vases1 marble tablets1 silver vessels1 and wall-paintings4 ,indeed1 the solitary tree standing in ,attic fields and worshipped as the sacred habitation of a god was in all probability the earliest ,greek temple1 the forerunner of those marvellous edifices which have aroused the admiration of every subsequent age2 whilst the elaborate worship of which those temples became the home was presumably based upon a ceremonial originally connected with the worship of the tree4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ab4--,sacred pine of ,silvanus1 with a bust of the god1 and votive gifts represented by a bale of merchandise and a ,mercury's staff47,btticher1 ,fig #ah47 ,according to ,mr4 ,farnell1 the latest writer on the subject1 the chief gods of the ,greeks were in their origin deities of vegetation1 the special attributes which we associate with them being subsequent accretions4 ,the pre-,hellenic ,cronos gave his name to an ,attic harvest-festival held in ,july1 and his ancient emblem was the sickle4#ee ,zeus1 besides being the oak-god of ,dodona1 was worshipped in ,attica as a god of agriculture and honoured with cereal offerings4#ef ,artemis was not primarily a goddess of chastity1 nor a moon-goddess1 nor the twin-sister of ,apollo1 but an independent divinity1 closely related to the wood-nymphs1 and connected with water and with wild vegetation and forest beasts4 ,she was worshipped in ,arcadia as the goddess of the nut-tree and the cedar1 and in ,laconia as the goddess of the laurel and the myrtle4 ,her idol at ,sparta was said to have been found in a willow brake1 bound round with withies4 ,at ,teuthea in ,achaea she was worshipped as the goddess of the woodland pasture1 and at ,cnidus as the nurturer of the hyacinth4#eg ,in the legend of the colonisation of ,boiae she was represented as embodied in a hare which suddenly disappeared in a myrtle-tree4#eh ,but her character as a tree-goddess comes out still more clearly in the cult of the 8hanging ,artemis0 at ,kaphyae in ,arcadia1#ei which no doubt grew out of the primitive custom of suspending a mask or image of the vegetation spirit to the sacred tree4 ,the association of ,hera with tree-worship is less pronounced4 ,she was said to have been born under a willow-tree at ,samos1 and her worship in that island was characterised by a yearly ceremony in which her priestess secreted her idol in a willow brake1 where it was subsequently rediscovered and honoured with an oblation of cakes4#fj ,in ,argos she was worshipped as the deity who gave the fruits of the earth1 and as such was represented with a pomegranate in her hand4 ,it is also worthy of note that the familiar symbol of a conventionalised tree between two griffins appears on the stephanos or coronet of the goddess on coins of ,croton of the fourth century1 and of certain ,south ,italian cities1 as well as on a colossal bust now at ,venice1 which1 like the head on the coins1 was presumably copied from the temple-image at ,croton4#fa ,aphrodite was not a primitive ,greek deity1 but her connection with vegetative life is abundantly clear4 ,she was1 in fact1 but a ,hellenised variant of the great ,oriental goddess1 worshipped in different parts as ,istar1 ,astarte1 ,cybele1 etc41 who was essentially a divinity of vegetation4#fb ,this primitive connection of the gods of ,greece with vegetative life was lost sight of in their later developments4 ,even at the date of the ,homeric poems the more advanced of the ,greeks had evidently arrived at 8a highly developed structure of religious thought1 showing us clear-cut personal divinities with ethical and spiritual attributes40#fc ,but the older and cruder ideas of the nature of the gods left a persistent trace in the ritual with which they were worshipped1 as well as in the designs of the artists who reflected the popular traditions4 ,thus the ancient custom of burning incense before the tree1 decking it with consecrated fillets1 and honouring it with burnt offerings1 survived long after the belief of which it was the natural development had decayed4 ,a sculpture preserved in the ,berlin ,museum represents the holy pine-tree of ,pan adorned with wreaths and fillets4 ,an image of ,pan is near1 and offerings are being brought to an altar placed beneath it4 ,again1 ,theocritus describes how at the consecration of ,helen's plane-tree at ,sparta1 the choir of ,lacedaemonian maidens hung consecrated wreaths of lotus flowers upon the tree1 anointed it with costly spikenard1 and attached to it the dedicatory placard3 8,honour me1 all ye that pass by1 for ,i am ,helen's tree40#fd ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ac4--;,fruit-tree dressed as ,dionysus47,btticher1 ,fig4 #dd47 ,the practice of giving the tree a human semblance1 by clothing it in garments or carving its stump in human form1 was the natural result of this worship amongst an artistic race1 groping its way towards a concrete expression of its ideas4 ,it represented the crude strivings of a people who1 in their attempts to create gods in their own image1 eventually produced an unsurpassable ideal of human grace and beauty4 ,from the rudely carved tree-stump arose in due time the ,hermes of ,praxiteles4 ,btticher reproduces several ancient designs in which the trunk of a tree is dressed as ,dionysus4 ,in one of these a mask is fastened at the top of the trunk in such a way that the branches appear to grow from the head of the god1 and the trunk itself is clothed with a long garment2 a table1 or altar1 loaded with gifts1 stands beside it4#fe ,in other cases1 probably where the worshipped tree had died1 its trunk or branches were rudely carved into an image of the god1 and either left in situ1 or hewn down and placed near the temple or1 later1 in the very temple itself4 ,both ,pausanias and ,pliny state that the oldest images of the gods were made of wood1 and several ,latin authors refer to the custom of thus carving the branches of auspicious trees 7felicium arborum7 as prevalent in primitive times amongst the ,greeks4#ff ,the or emblem of ,aphrodite1 dedicated by ,pelops1 was wrought out of a fresh verdant myrtle-tree4 ,at ,samos a board was the emblem of ,hera2 two wooden stocks joined together by a cross-piece was the sign of the twin-brethren at ,sparta1 and a wooden column encircled with ivy was consecrated to ,dionysus at ,thebes4#fg ,it may be fairly assumed that in cases such as these the worshippers believed that the dead piece of wood retained some at least of the power originally attributed to the spirit dwelling in the living tree4 ,their idolatry was but a childish deduction from an ancient and deeply-rooted theology4 ,the same may be said for the wood-cutter1 derided in the ,apocrypha1 who1 8taking a crooked piece of wood and full of knots1 carveth it with the diligence of his idleness1 and shapeth it by the skill of his indolence2 then he giveth it the semblance of the image of a man1 smearing it with vermilion and with paint colouring it red2 and having made for it a chamber worthy of it1 he setteth it in a wall1 making it fast with iron40#fh ,side by side with this foolish wood-cutter1 who 8for life beseecheth that which is dead10 may be placed the ,sicilian peasant whom ,theocritus represents as offering sacrifice to a carved ,pan4 8,when thou hast turned yonder lane1 goatherd1 where the oak-trees are1 thou wilt find an image of fig-tree wood newly carven2 three legged it is1 the bark still covers it1 and it is earless withal4 ,a right holy precinct runs round it1 and a ceaseless stream that falleth from the rocks on every side is green with laurels and myrtles and fragrant cypress4 ,and all around the place that child of the grape1 the vine1 doth flourish with its tendrils1 and the merles in spring with their sweet songs pour forth their woodnotes wild1 and the brown nightingales reply with their complaints1 pouring from their bills their honey sweet song40#fi ,this crude worship of the god in the anthropomorphised tree lingered on amongst the peasantry side by side with the splendid temple ritual1 even into days when the revelation of a ,deity who filled all time and space1 and was worshipped in temples not made with hands1 was rapidly undermining the pagan worship of the cities4 ,maximus ,tyrius1 who lived in the second century ,a4,d41 and counted among his most diligent pupils the great ,marcus ,aurelius1 relates how even in his day at the festival of ,dionysus every peasant selected the most beautiful tree in his garden to convert it into an image of the god and to worship it4#gj ,and ,apuleius1 another writer of the same period1 bears similar testimony4 8,it is the custom10 he says1 8of pious travellers1 when their way passes a grove or holy place1 that they offer up a prayer for the fulfilment of their wishes1 offer gifts and remain there a time2 so ,i1 when ,i set foot in that most sacred city1 although in haste1 must crave for a pardon1 offer a prayer and moderate my haste4 ,for never was traveller more justified in making a religious pause1 when he perchance shall have come upon a flower-wreathed altar1 a grotto covered with boughs1 an oak decorated with many horns1 or a beech-tree with skins hung to it1 a little sacred hill fenced around1 or a tree trunk hewn as an image 7truncus dolamine effigatus740#ga ,forms of the ,tt or ,did1 the emblem of ,osiris4 7,maspero1 op4 cit47 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ad4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ae4 ,this custom of carving a tree into the semblance of a god1 and subsequently worshipping it as his sanctuary or symbol1 was current in many parts of the world4 ,the chief idol form of ,osiris1 the ,did or ,tt1 is believed by ,maspero to have originated as a simple tree-trunk disbranched and planted in the ground4#gb ,usually it is represented with a grotesque face1 beneath four superimposed capitals1 with a necklace round its neck1 a long robe hiding the base of the column in its folds1 and the whole surmounted by the familiar ,osirian emblems4 ,again1 it is said to have been a practice amongst the ,druids1 when an oak died to strip off its bark and shape it into a pillar1 pyramid1 or cross1 and continue to worship it as an emblem of the god4#gc ,the cross especially was a favourite form1 and any oak with two principal branches forming a cross with the main stem was consecrated by a sacred inscription1 and from that time forward regarded with particular reverence4 ,the same custom prevailed in ,india4 ,in the seventeenth century there existed near ,surat a sacred banian-tree1 supposed to be #cjjj years old1 which the ,hindus would never cut or touch with steel for fear of offending the god concealed in its foliage4 ,they made pilgrimages to it and honoured it with religious ceremonies4 ,on its trunk at a little distance from the ground a head had been roughly carved1 painted in gay colours1 and furnished with gold and silver eyes4 ,this simulacrum was constantly adorned with fresh foliage and flowers1 the withered leaves which they replaced being distributed amongst the pilgrims as pious souvenirs4#gd ,it was predominantly1 though by no means exclusively1 a ,greek development to associate a particular god with a particular variety of tree4 ,the oak1 excelling all others in majestic strength and inherent vigour1 became the emblem and embodiment of ,zeus4 ,the connection arose in all probability from the primitive worship of the ,pelasgic ,zeus in the oak grove of ,dodona1 but in classical times it was accepted throughout ,greece4 ,on coins and in other works of art the god is frequently represented as crowned with oak leaves1 or as standing or sitting beside an oak-tree4#ge ,to have partaken of the acorns of ,zeus was a vernacular expression for having acquired wisdom and knowledge4 ,this especial sanctity of the oak as the tree of the father of the gods passed into ,italy1 and ,virgil speaks of it as-- ,jove's own tree ,that holds the world in awful sovereignty4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #af4--;,apollo on his sacred tripod1 a laurel branch in his hand47,from a coin1 probably of ,delphi47 ,more sacred even than the oak to ,zeus was the laurel to ,apollo4 ,no sanctuary of his was complete without it2 none could be founded where the soil was unfavourable to its growth4 ,no worshipper could share in his rites who had not a crown of laurel on his head or a branch in his hand4 ,as endowed with the power of the god1 who was at once the prophet1 poet1 redeemer1 and protector of his people1 the laurel assumed an important and many-sided rle in ceremonial symbolism4#gf ,the staff of laurel in the hand of the reciting poet was assumed to assist his inspiration1 in the hand of the prophet or diviner to help him to see hidden things4 ,thus the use of the laurel played an essential part in the oracular ceremonial of ,delphi4 ,everywhere1 in short1 the bearing of the laurel bough was the surest way to the god's protection and favour4 ,the conception was slow to die4 ,clement1 writing about #bjj ,a4,d41 still finds the warning necessary that 8one must not hope to obtain reconciliation with ,god by means of laurel branches adorned with red and white ribbons40#gg ,by an easy transition the laurel became sacred also to ,aesculapius4 ,as the source at once of a valuable remedy and a deadly poison1 it was held in high esteem by ,greek physicians4 ,it was popularly believed that spirits could be cast out by its means1 and it was usual to affix a laurel bough over the doorway in cases of serious illness1 in order to avert death and keep evil spirits at bay4#gh ,the ceremonial use of the laurel passed from ,greece into ,italy4 ,when the ,sibylline books were consulted at ,rome1 the laurel of prophecy always adorned the chair of the priest4#gi ,victors were crowned with laurel1 and in ,roman triumphs the soldiers decked their spears and helmets with its leaves4 ,the tree of ,aphrodite was the myrtle4#hj ,it was held to have the power both of creating and of perpetuating love1 and hence from the earliest times was used in marriage ceremonies4 ,in the ,eleusinian mysteries the initiates crowned themselves with the oak leaves of ,zeus and the myrtle of ,aphrodite4 ,the ,graces1 her attendants1 were represented as wearing myrtle chaplets1 and her worshippers crowned themselves with myrtle sprays4 ,at ,rome ,venus was worshipped under the name of ,myrtea in her temple at the foot of the ,aventine4 ,the apple-tree held a subsidiary but yet important place in the cult of ,aphrodite4 ,its fruit was regarded as an appropriate offering to her and1 according to ,theocritus1 played its part in love games4#ha ,the apples of ,atalanta had no doubt a symbolical significance4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ag4--;,coin of ,athens1 of the age of ,pericles or earlier1 showing olive spray4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ah4--;,coin of ,athens1 third century ,b4,c4 ,athena also had her special tree4 ,according to mythology she sprang fully armed from the head of ,zeus1 but research into the origins of the gods makes it much more probable that her true pedigree was from the olive1 which grew wild upon the ,athenian ,acropolis1 the chief seat of her worship4 ,mr4 ,m#8,lennan even inclined to regard the olive as originally the totem of the ,athenians4#hb ,at any rate their connection with that tree dates from an ancient time4 8,the produce of the olive-tree had an almost religious value for the men of ,attica1 and the physical side of ,greek civilisation much depended on it40#hc ,from the era of ,pericles onwards the coins of ,athens were stamped with the olive-branch1 amongst other usual accompaniments of the tutelary goddess4 ,every sanctuary and temple of ,athena had its sacred olive-tree1 which was regarded as the symbol of the divine peace and protection4 ,naturally a legend arose to explain the connection4 ,athena and ,poseidon1 being at variance as to which of them should name the newly-founded city of ,athens1 referred the question to the gods1 who in general assembly decreed the privilege to that claimant who should give the most useful present to the inhabitants of earth4 ,poseidon struck the ground with his trident and a horse sprang forth4 ,but ,athena 8revealed the spray of the gray-green olive1 a divine crown and glory for bright ,athens40#hd ,and the gods decided that the olive1 as the emblem of peace1 was a higher gift to man than the horse1 which was the symbol of war4 ,so ,athena named the city after herself and became its protectress4 ,this myth1 which1 according to ,mr4 ,farnell1 is one of the very few creation-myths in ,greek folk-lore1 was a favourite subject in art1 and is frequently represented on late ,attic coins4#he ,other gods had their sacred trees3 ,dionysus1 the vine2 ,dis and ,persephone1 the poplar1 which was supposed to grow on the banks of ,acheron4 ,the cypress1 called by ,greeks and ,romans alike the 8mournful tree10 was also sacred to the rulers of the underworld1 and to their associates1 the ,fates and ,furies4 ,as such it was customary to plant it by the grave1 and1 in the event of a death1 to place it either before the house or in the vestibule1 in order to warn those about to perform a sacred rite against entering a place polluted by a dead body4#hf ,in regard to the number of trees which they held sacred the ,semitic nations rivalled the ,greeks4 ,they venerated 8the pines and cedars of ,lebanon1 the evergreen oaks of the ,palestinian hills1 the tamarisks of the ,syrian jungles1 the acacias of the ,arabian wadies10 besides such cultivated trees as the palm1 the olive1 and the vine4 ,but there is no clear evidence to prove that they ever coupled a particular species of tree with a particular god4 ,in ,phoenicia the cypress was sacred to ,astarte1 but it was equally connected with the god ,melcarth1 who was believed to have planted the cypress-trees at ,daphne4 8,if a tree belonged to a particular deity1 it was not because it was of a particular species1 but because it was the natural wood of the place where the god was worshipped40#hg ,it is true that the ,chaldaeans regarded the cedar as the special tree of the god ,ea1 but the association was probably borrowed1 like the god himself1 from the non-,semitic ,accadians1 while the connection of the ,nabataean god1 ,dusares1 with the vine may be traced to ,hellenic influence4 ,outside the ,semitic area individual gods are often found1 as in ,greece1 linked with particular kinds of trees4 ,in ,persia the cypress was the sacred tree of the god ,mithra1 while in ,egypt the acacia was intimately associated with ,osiris4 ,on an ancient sarcophagus an acacia is represented with the device1 8,osiris shoots up40#hh ,and in mortuary pictures the god is sometimes represented as a mummy covered with a tree or with growing plants4 ,in both cases the idea of life arising out of death is probably implied4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ai4--,the ,bodhi-tree of ,kanaka ,muni 7,ficus glomerata747,the ,stpa of ,bharhut1 by ,major-,general ,cunningham1 ,plate xxiv4 #d47 ,in ,india each ,buddha was associated with his own bodhi-tree or tree of wisdom4 ,the trumpet-flower1 the sl-tree1 the acacia1 the pippala1 and the banian all belonged to different ,buddhas1 and are so depicted on the ,stpa of ,bharhut4 ,here in the case of the earliest of the ,buddhas whose bodhi-tree has been found1 the ,buddha ,vipasin1 the particular tree represented is the ptali or trumpet-flower4 ,in front of it is placed 8a throne or bodhi-manda1 before which two people are kneeling1 whilst a crowd of others with joined hands are standing on each side of the tree40#hi ,the ,buddha ,gautama's tree was the pippala or ,ficus religiosa1 which is much more elaborately treated at ,bharhut than any other bodhi-tree4 ,in the sculpture representing its adoration1 8the trunk is entirely surrounded by an open pillared building with an upper story1 ornamented with niches containing umbrellas4 ,two umbrellas are placed in the top of the tree1 and numerous streamers are hanging from the branches4 ,in the two upper corners are flying figures with wings1 bringing offerings of garlands4 ,on each side there is a male figure raising a garland in his right hand and holding the tip of his tongue with the thumb and forefinger of his left4 ,in the lower story of the building is a throne in front of a tree4 ,two figures1 male and female1 are kneeling before the throne1 while a female figure is standing to the left1 and a ,nga ,raja with his hands crossed on his breast to the right4 ,this figure is distinguished by a triple serpent crest4 ,to the extreme right there is an isolated pillar surmounted by an elephant holding out a garland in his trunk4 ,on the domed roof of the building is inscribed1 #8,the ,bodhi-,tree of the ,buddha ,skya ,muni4'0#ij ,in another sculpture elephants old and young are paying their devotions to a banian-tree1 while others are bringing garlands to hang on its branches4 ,the important bearing of these sculptures on the history of tree-worship is obvious4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #bj4--,wild elephants paying their devotions to the sacred banian of ,ksyapa ,buddha47,the ,stpa of ,bharhut1 ,plate xv47 ,it may be noted in passing that neither in the many sculptured scenes at ,bharhut and ,buddha ,gaya1 all of which are contemporary with ,asoka 7circa #bej ,b4,c471 nor even in the much later sculptures of ,sanchi dating from the end of the first century ,a4,d4 is there any representation of ,buddha1 the sole objects of reverence being stpas 7representations of the tombs of holy men71 wheels1 or trees4 ,at a later date the tree appears to have lost its organic connection with the venerated personage1 and to have preserved only a ceremonial and symbolic significance1 for the ,bo-tree1 under which truth gradually unfolded itself to the meditating ,gautama1 is regarded as sacred by ,buddhists in much the same way as the cross is by ,christians4 ,there can be no doubt1 however1 that in the earliest forms of worship current in ,india1 the alliance between the plant world and the divine essence was extremely intimate4 ,the great creative god ,brahma1 who1 by the light of his countenance1 dispelled the primeval gloom1 and by his divine influence evoked the earth from the primeval ocean1 is represented in ,hindu theology as having emanated from a golden lotus which had been quickened into life when the spirit of ,om moved over the face of the waters4 ,again1 in ,brahminical worship the very essence of the deity is supposed to descend into his tree4 ,the tulasi or holy basil of ,india is believed by the ,hindus to be pervaded by the divinity of ,vishnu and of his wife ,lakshmi1 and hence is venerated as a god4 ,it opens the gates of heaven to the pious worshipper1 and those who uproot it will be punished by ,vishnu in time and eternity4#ia ,in fact1 in the twilight of religion1 wherever we turn1 the same idea of a tree-inhabiting god prevails4 ,in the mythology of ,northern ,europe the grove of ,upsala1 the most sacred spot in all the ,scandinavian peninsula1 was the home of ,woden1 the god who1 after hanging for nine nights on the gallows-tree1 descended to the underworld and brought back the prize of wisdom in the form of nine rune songs4#ib ,in the ,middle ,ages1 according to the rule by which the gods of one age become the demons of the next1 ,woden was converted into ,satan1 his grove became the ,brocken1 and the ,valkyrie degenerated into witches4 ,taara1 the supreme god of the ,finns and ,esthonians1 was associated with the oak1 and the same is true of the ,norse god1 ,balder1 at whose death1 we are told1 men1 animals1 and plants wept4 ,the principal god of the ancient ,prussians was supposed to dwell by preference in the great oak at ,romove1#ic before which a hierarchy of priests kept up a continual fire of oak-logs4 ,the oak was veiled from view1 like the pictures in a modern continental church1 and only shown from time to time to its worshippers4 ,the grove where it stood was so sacred that only the consecrated were allowed to enter1 and no branch in it might be injured4#id ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ba4--,sacred sycamore1 with offerings47,maspero1 op4 cit47 ,if proof were needed of the reverence with which the tree was regarded in ancient times and of its hold upon the reverence of the people1 as being the dwelling-place of the god1 it could be found alone in the number of the gifts1 which1 by the evidence of ancient literature and art1 it was the practice to hang upon its branches or place about its trunk4 ,in ,arabia there was a tree1 identified by ,robertson ,smith with the sacred acacia of ,nakhla1 the dwelling-place of the goddess ,al-',ozza1 on which the people of ,mecca at an annual pilgrimage hung weapons1 garments1 ostrich eggs1 and other offerings4#ie ,it is spoken of in the traditions of ,mahomet by the vague name of a dht anwt1 or 8tree to hang things on40 ,another ,arabian tree1 the sacred date-palm at ,nejrn1 was also adored at an annual feast1 and hung with fine clothes and women's ornaments4#if ,in ,egypt1 offerings of figs1 grapes1 cucumbers1 etc4 were habitually made to the deities inhabiting the sycamores4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #bb4--,sacred tree of ,artemis1 hung with weapons of the chase47,btticher1 ,fig4 #i47 ,a similar custom was well known in ,greece1 as is proved by the many vases and sculptured tablets in which the tree is shown hung with consecrated fillets and offerings1 while the altar beneath groans with gifts4 ,statius1 writing in the second century ,b4,c41 describes a widely celebrated tree1 amongst many others similarly laden1 as being covered with bows and arrows1 heads of boars1 skins of lions1 and huge horns1 which had been dedicated to it as trophies of the chase4#ig ,conquerors1 returning from battle1 would hang their weapons on the sacred tree with a dedication to the all-powerful ,zeus4 ,the arms thus dedicated were respected even by the enemy4 ,this custom of making offerings to the tree is no doubt of great antiquity4 ,in the legend of the ,golden ,fleece1 ,phryxus1 having been carried by the fabled ram across the ,hellespont1 sacrificed it to ,ares1 and hung its priceless fleece on the boughs of a sacred beech-tree1#ih whence it was subsequently recovered by ,jason4 ,such dedication at the shrines of the gods of something that had been of service and still had value to the worshipper1 was very common in ,greek and ,roman worship1 and in many cases the tree was the recipient of the gift4#ii ,the rich brought their jewels1 the poor their homely tools and utensils4 ,the fisherman dedicated his nets in gratitude for an exceptional catch4 ,the shepherd offered his flute as a welcome gift to ,pan4 ,some of the dedicatory inscriptions preserve for us the pathos of the gift4 8,daphnis1 the flute-player1 bowed with shaking age1 has here dedicated his shepherd's staff1 too heavy for his weak hand1 to meadow-loving ,pan40#ajj ,lais1 grown old1 hangs her too truthful mirror on the sacred tree of ,aphrodite4 8,take it1 ,o lovely ,cytherea2 to thee alone is undying beauty given40#aja ,in the same way ,bacchic revellers1 their frenzy past1 brought to the tree the cymbals1 robes1 and perfumed tresses they had used4#ajb ,there is further evidence of the sanctity of the tree in the important function given to branches and wreaths in religious ceremonies1 a custom which can find logical explanation only in a precedent tree-worship deeply rooted in the popular mind4 ,in the service of the gods of ,greece and ,rome the wreath was indispensable4 ,an uncrowned worshipper was in the position of the man in the parable who had no wedding garment4 ,and the wreath must have been taken from the particular tree of the god worshipped1 so that the worshipper might be placed in closest communion with the deity1 and remain inviolate from molestation while thus clothed with the divine protection4#ajc ,the carrying of the sacred branch in solemn procession formed the essential feature in some of the most important religious festivals of ,greece4 ,at the ,daphnephoria1 held every nine years at ,thebes in ,boeotia in honour of ,apollo1 the chief post in the procession was held by the ,daphnephorus1 or laurel-bearer1 a boy chosen for his strength and beauty4 ,he was followed to the temple of the god by a chorus of maidens1 also bearing branches and chanting a processional hymn1 and was regarded for the occasion as the priest of ,apollo1 who himself bore amongst his many other appellations that of ,daphnephorus1 because he had brought the laurel to ,delphi and planted it there4#ajd ,at the ,pyanepsia and the ,thargelia1 two important ,athenian festivals1 the ,eiresione1 a harvest wreath of olive or laurel bound round with red and white wool1 and hung with the choicest first-fruits1 was borne about by singing boys1 while offerings were made to the gods4#aje ,a vine branch with the grapes upon it gave its name to another ,athenian festival1 the ,oschophoria1 or grape carrying1 held in honour of ,dionysus4 ,a race between chosen youths formed one of the events of the festival1 the competitors running from the temple of ,dionysus to that of ,athena1 with boughs in their hands4#ajf ,apart1 however1 from these important festivals1 the use of wreaths or branches was a familiar incident in the daily life of the ,greeks1 bearing with it always a sort of religious significance4 ,the bringer of good news was rewarded with a wreath2 the guests at a feast were crowned with flowers4 ,no gift to the gods was complete without its floral accompaniment1 and their statues were often hidden under the wreaths brought thither as the most acceptable offering4 ,it can scarcely be doubted that this lavish employment of blossom and leaf as the expression of a religious emotion originally sprang from reverence for the tree as the favourite home of a god4 ,the ,greeks1 with their instinctive love for all things beautiful1 naturally pushed this graceful custom further than other races4 ,but the ceremonial use of branches and flowers was common throughout the ,east4 ,the ,chaldaean sacred texts mention the use of 8green branches0 in religious ceremonies4#ajg ,at the ,feast of ,tabernacles the ,israelites were enjoined to 8take the boughs of goodly trees1 branches of palm-trees1 and the boughs of thick trees and willows of the brook1 and rejoice before the ,lord40#ajh ,the ,apocrypha mentions the 8festal olive boughs of the ,temple40#aji ,in ,persia and ,armenia it was customary to bear a branch when approaching the god4 ,in ,egypt ,isis was worshipped with sprays of absinthe1 palm-branches were carried in funeral processions1 and lotus wreaths usually worn at feasts1 whilst in the ,assyrian sculptures illustrious persons are frequently represented holding a flower4#aaj ,however little benefit the votaries of trees and images derived from their observances1 apart from the subjective strength and solace that flow from every act of worship1 there was at least one tangible service their gods could render them--the right of sanctuary and asylum4 ,for the sacred tree1 sharing as it did in the protective power of the indwelling deity1 offered an inviolable refuge to the persecuted and the god's forgiveness to the sinner who implored it4 ,to have touched it was regarded amongst the ,greeks as equivalent to having touched an altar or statue of the god4 ,a branch of it1 entwined with the consecrated fillet1 assured its bearer from persecution4 ,hence a possible explanation of the legend of the young ,dionysus standing secure amongst the branches of the sacred tree whilst the flames raged around him4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #bc4--,sacred laurel of ,apollo at ,delphi1 adorned with fillets and votive tablets2 beneath it the god appearing to protect ,orestes47,from a vase-painting1 ,btticher1 ,fig4 #b47 ,frequent references occur in the ,classics to tree-sanctuaries4 ,the ,amazons1 defeated by ,hercules1 found a safe asylum beneath the holy tree at ,ephesus1 which was worshipped both as the symbol and temple of ,artemis1 before her statue was set up in the tree or her temple built around it4#aaa ,herodotus relates how ,cleomenes1 having burnt the sacred grove of ,argos1 together with the five thousand conquered ,argives who had taken refuge there1 was visited by the gods with madness for his act of sacrilege4#aab ,orestes1 in his flight from the ,furies1 is represented on a ,greek vase as seeking refuge beneath ,apollo's laurel4#aac ,the god appears out of the tree to succour him and scare away his pursuers4 ,the cypress grove on the ,acropolis at ,phlius in ,peloponnesus was another instance4 ,fugitives from justice on reaching it became inviolable1 and escaped prisoners hung upon its trees the chains for which they had no further use1#aad just as the modern cripple1 whose limbs have been freed from the prison of his palsy1 dedicates his crutches to 8our ,lady of ,lourdes40 ,,chapter ,,iii ,,wood-,,demons ,,and ,,tree-,,spirits ,in nearly all parts of the world1 as at nearly all periods of history1 we find evidences of a belief in the existence of wood-spirits and tree-spirits1 which1 however they may differ in outward form1 are strangely similar in their general characteristics4 ,it cannot be asserted of all these beings that they were regarded as the actual spirits of individual trees1 connected with them as closely as a man's soul is with his body1 but it is emphatically true of some of them4 ,to the class of wood-spirits as a whole belong certain at least of the jinni of ,arabia1 the woodland spirits of ,greek and ,roman mythology1 and the wild men and elves of ,european folk-lore1 besides the tree-inhabiting spirits of various uncivilised races4 ,though not always sharply demarcated from the gods1 they differ from them1 as a rule1 in being regarded and spoken of generically1 and in not having stated relations with man4 ,their alliances are rather with trees1 plants1 and animals1 whose growth and prosperity are often believed to be under their protection1 and their presence is often assumed to be expressed in natural phenomena1 in the mysterious sounds of the woods1 and in the fury of the storm4 ,to man they are frequently unfriendly1 and numerous observances1 still practised in uncivilised parts1 have arisen from the belief that it was necessary to propitiate their favour4 ,broadly speaking1 their friendliness to man is directly proportionate to their human semblance1 and this in its turn would seem to depend on the extent to which man has been able to conquer the dangers of the regions where they dwell4 ,the farther back they are traced the more animal-like and inhuman their appearance4 ,they preceded the gods and outlasted them1 flourishing in times when these were still animal and totemistic1 and retaining their animal characteristics long after the gods had become anthropomorphic4 ,to the peasant mind there was1 perhaps1 no very clear distinction between the two classes1 and the line between them has never been an unpassable one1 for demons may develop into gods1 just as gods may degenerate into demons4 ,it is not claimed that all1 or indeed most demons were tree-spirits in their origin1 but a large class of them at any rate were closely associated with vegetable life and the phenomena that foster or threaten it4 ,chaldaean mythology recognised1 side by side with gods emphatically human1 a class of fabulous monsters who were essentially demons and inferior spirits4 ,there is not much evidence to couple these monsters with trees1 but in one of the ,babylonian hymns the aid of the gods is invoked against a terrible demon who 8makes all creatures hurry in fear10 and of whom it is stated that 8his hand is the storm-demon1 his eye is filled with the shadow of the forest1 the sole of his foot is the lullub-tree40#aae ,in the case of the jinni of ,arabia the connection with trees is more clearly demonstrable4 ,they were regarded as hairy monsters1 more like beasts than men1 haunting dense1 untrodden thickets and endowed with the power of assuming various shapes4 ,such an uncouth and alarming presentment may well have arisen from their presumed association with places1 which1 as the natural lairs of dangerous animals1 were perilous to man1 but 8the association of certain kinds of jinni with trees must in many cases be regarded as primary1 the trees themselves being conceived as animated demoniac beings40#aaf ,they have apparently had a longer career than most demons of the class1 for their existence is still firmly believed in by certain ,bedouins1 who asseverate that they have actually seen them4 ,mr4 ,theodore ,bent found the same superstitious dread of the jinni both in the ,hadramaut and in ,dhofar4 ,they are described as semi-divine spirits1 who live by rocks near the streams1 under trees1 or in the lakes4 ,mr4 ,bent could not induce the ,bedouins of his escort to gather a certain water-plant for fear of offending the jinn of the lake4 ,in fact in the ,gara ,mountains the fear of the jinni1 and the skill of certain magicians in keeping them friendly1 appear to constitute the only tangible forms of religion4#aag ,under the word srm1 hairy monsters1 ,e4,v4 8satyrs0 and 8devils10 the ,bible makes occasional mention of mythical creatures who were presumably related to the ,arabian jinni4#aah ,they are represented as frequenting waste-places1 forsaken by man and given over to nettles and brambles4 ,in one passage the word is used of the heathen gods of ,canaan1#aai whose close association with trees has already been noticed4 ,the fantastic monsters of the ,egyptian desert1 thought to appear only at the moment when the minor functions assigned to them had to be performed1 and at other times to conceal themselves in inanimate objects1 are represented as sometimes dwelling in trees or in stakes planted in the ground4#abj ,their assumed complete incorporation in such objects is proved by the expressive term used by the ,egyptians--the objects 8ate them up40 ,their existence and their unfriendliness to man were firmly believed in4 ,the shepherd feared them for his flock1 the hunter for himself4 ,similar beasts roamed through the ,egyptian ,hades and threatened the wayfaring spirits of the dead4 ,these fragmentary evidences are important as casting a side-light on the parallel superstitions of the ,aryan races1 amongst which1 as we shall see1 the belief in wood-demons and tree-spirits was almost universal4 ,in ,greek and ,roman mythology there is a whole gallery of wild creatures inhabiting the mountains and woods1 and more or less closely associated with vegetable life--centaurs and cyclops1 ,pans and satyrs1 fauns and silvani1 nymphs and dryads4 ,mannhardt has diligently compared these mythical beings with the wild people and wood-spirits of ,european folk-lore1 and has clearly demonstrated a remarkable relationship4#aba ,in their evolution they present a distinctly progressive humanisation4 ,the earliest of them1 the centaurs and cyclops1 remind us of the fabulous monsters of ,semitic legend1 and their contests with1 and eventual disappearance before the higher powers seem paralleled in the similar conflict between the gods and demons of ,chaldaea4 ,mannhardt adduces many arguments to prove that the centaurs first originated as local wood and mountain spirits4 ,their earliest haunt was the thickly wooded ,pelion2 one of them is represented as the son of the dryad ,philyra or the linden2 another as the son of ,melia or the ash4 ,their weapons were uprooted trees4 ,like the ,european wild men of the woods they were covered with long shaggy hair4 ,chiron1 the most friendly of them1 was skilled in the use of simples and in the hidden powers of nature4 ,lastly1 their presence was assumed in the whirlwind and other violent atmospheric phenomena4 ,all these features class the archaic centaurs with the undoubted wood-spirits of a later mythology4 ,the same is probably true of the cyclops1 whose characteristics--their single eye1 their use of uprooted trees for weapons1 and their connection with sheep and goats--may be paralleled amongst the legendary wood-spirits of modern ,europe4 ,in later times the place of the extinct centaurs and cyclops was taken by a tribe1 half men half goats1 known as ,pan1 satyrs1 and sileni1 who originally were in all probability local wood-spirits1 ,pan proceeding from ,arcadia1 the satyrs from ,argos1 the sileni from ,phrygia4 ,in the case of ,pan we seem to see a class of doubtfully amicable wood-spirits developing into a more or less benevolent god4 ,the ,greek poets of the ,periclean age speak of a whole tribe of wood-demons known as ,panes or ,panisci1 from which eventually an individual1 8the ,great ,pan10 seems to have emerged4 ,the son of a nymph1 ,pan is called in the ,classics 8god of the wood10 8companion of kids10 8goatherd40 ,he is represented with horns and goat's legs1 standing beside a sacred oak or pine1 a fir-wreath on his head1 and a branch in his hand4 ,he leads the revels of the satyrs1 pipes and dances amongst the wood-nymphs under the trees1 and woos a pine-tree personified as ,pithys4 ,like other wood-spirits he protects the herds1 and1 as befits a demon on the way to apotheosis1 is for the most part friendly to man4 ,but he never1 apparently1 quite lost his original character1 for he is sometimes classed with incubi and spirits who cause evil dreams4 ,the satyr was a degraded1 or rather unhumanised ,pan1 more sensual and malicious in character1 coarser in feature1 and more bestial in form4 ,hesiod calls the satyrs 8a useless and crafty tribe40 ,they were originally wood-demons1 and men represented as satyrs took part in the festivals of ,dionysus1 the chief of vegetation spirits4 ,silenus1 like ,pan1 the individualised head of a class1 was also closely associated with ,dionysus4 ,the sileni1 in fact1 were but ,phrygian variants of the satyrs1 and are represented in the ,homeric hymn to ,aphrodite as consorting with the hamadryads4 ,in ,art they appear clothed in goatskins4 ,it may be added that the modern ,greek peasant still believes in malicious goat-footed demons who inhabit the mountains4#abb ,in ,roman mythology the fauns and silvani played the same part as ,pan and the satyrs in ,greece1 and the same confusion existed as to whether they were individual or generic4 ,the fauns seldom appeared to mortal sight1 but their presence was made known in the weird noises and the ghostly appearances of the dark forest4 ,when seen they had horns and goat's feet1 though in a later rendering they are more human in appearance4 ,they guarded the flocks pasturing in the woods and1 like other wood-spirits1 also protected the cornfield4 ,silvanus and the silvani1 as their name denotes1 were tree-spirits even more emphatically than the fauns4 ,according to ,virgil the oldest inhabitants of ,latium allotted to ,silvanus a sacred grove and a special festival2#abc in later times he was universally regarded as the patron of the garden and field4 ,at harvest time an offering of milk was poured over the roots of his sacred tree4 ,in ,art1 ,silvanus is represented as covered with hair 7horridus7 and standing under1 or growing out of a garlanded tree1 a crown of pine sprays on his head1 a large pine bough in one hand and a sickle in the other4 ,an inscription speaks of him as half enclosed in a sacred ash 7sacr semiclusus fraxino74 ,another account associates the silvani with the fig-tree1 and states that they were called by some fauni ficarii4 ,both fauns and silvani had an evil reputation for their supposed propensity to assault women1 to carry off children1 and to disturb the dreams of sleepers4 ,the peasants of ,north ,italy and ,sicily still believe in wood-spirits1 gente selvatica1 closely resembling the old silvani4 ,a ,sicilian incantation is addressed to the spirit of the fig-tree and the devils of the nut-trees4#abd ,taking the sum of their characteristics1 ,mannhardt is doubtless right in classing these legendary beings with the wood-spirits met with in the folk-lore of ,northern ,europe4 ,it is1 however1 in the female counterparts of these woodland creatures that the idea of an actual tree-soul is most clearly exemplified4 ,the most striking instance is the familiar one of the hamadryads1 the deep-bosomed nymphs of wooded ,ida1 to whose care ,aphrodite entrusted the infant ,aeneas1 and whose very name expresses their intimate connection with their trees4 ,to quote the ,homeric hymn to ,aphrodite1 which was probably written under ,phrygian influence1 8,they belong neither to the mortals nor to the immortals3 they live long1 indeed1 enjoying immortal food1 and with the immortals they join in the lordly dance4 ,the sileni mate with them1 and ,hermes1 too1 in the privy recesses of delightful grottoes4 ,with them1 when they were born1 upon the mountains lofty pines and oaks sprang forth from the earth that gives food to man4 ,yet when at last the fate of death overtakes them1 first the beautiful trees wither upon the earth1 the bark dies around them1 their branches fall away1 and therewith the souls of the nymphs leave the light of the sun40#abe ,pindar1 who would appear to have first given them the name of hamadryads1 speaks of them as having the same length of life as a tree4#abf ,but the case of the hamadryads is by no means an isolated example of the ,greek belief in spirits whose life was bound up with the life of the tree4 ,in the ,homeric hymn to ,ceres the nymphs rejoice when the oaks are in leaf1 and weep when their branches become bare4#abg ,elsewhere a nymph is depicted imploring that the oak wherein she dwelt should not be hewn down1 and as bringing vengeance on him who ignored her entreaty4#abh ,it was not only the oak and the pine that might be inhabited by a spirit4 ,amongst the names of nymphs that have come down to us is ,philyra 7the linden71 ,daphne 7the laurel71 ,rhoea 7the pomegranate71 and ,helike 7the willow74 ,in later times an attempt was made in some cases to explain the connection by metamorphosis1 a living nymph being supposed to have been converted into a tree1 but it is extremely probable that this was an inversion of the primitive nexus4 ,there are many instances closely parallel to these classical myths in mediaeval and modern legend4 ,the story of ,alexander and the flower-maidens1 for instance1 which was a favourite with the troubadours1 and was subsequently popularised by ,lamprecht1 and later by ,uhland1 was presumably founded on a legend current in ancient ,greece4 ,the story goes that in a certain wood1 when spring came1 numbers of enormous flower buds appeared out of the ground1 from each of which1 as it opened1 there leapt forth a beautiful maiden4 ,their robes were a part of their growth1 and in colour they were just like their flowers1 red and white4 ,they played and danced in the shade1 and their singing rivalled the birds'4 ,all past heartaches were wiped away1 and a life of joy and abundance seemed to open to him who saw them4 ,but it was death for a maiden to leave her shady retreat and encounter the scorching sun4 ,when summer was past1 and the flowers withered and the birds were silent1 the beautiful creatures died4 ,alexander and his knights1 coming upon this magical wood1 mated with the flower-maidens1 and for more than three months lived in perfect happiness1 till one by one the flowers faded1 one by one the nymphs died1 and the king and his companions had sorrowfully to resume their travels4#abi ,legends of this sort no doubt provided ,lucian with the motive for that 8true history0 of his1 wherein he tells of the wonderful vines growing on the far side of a certain river that ran wine instead of water4 ,these vines below had a very thick stem1 but above bore maidens' bodies of perfect form4 ,bunches of grapes grew from their finger-tips1 and vine leaves and grapes formed their hair4 ,they gave the travellers a friendly greeting1 and bade them welcome1 most speaking ,greek1 others ,lydian or ,indian4 ,whoever accepted their kisses felt a sudden drunken bewilderment4 ,they shrieked aloud with pain when one attempted to pluck their grapes4 ,two of the travellers who surrendered themselves to their embraces could not get free again1 but took root and budded forth vine leaves4#acj ,the above1 of course1 was intended as a literary parody1 but stories1 not a whit less wonderful1 are found in the folk-lore of many modern countries1 and are no doubt recited and received in good faith4 ,there is a modern ,greek legend1 for instance1 of a childless wife1 to whom ,heaven1 in answer to her prayer for children1 sent a golden laurel berry4 ,despising the gift she threw it away4 ,from it there grew a laurel-tree with golden sprays4 ,a prince1 following the chase1 was so struck by its beauty that he ordered his dinner to be prepared beneath it4 ,in the absence of the cook the tree opened and a fair maiden stepped forth1 and after strewing a handful of salt over his food1 withdrew to the tree1 which immediately reinclosed her4 ,the following day the prince again found his dinner spoilt1 and on the third day he determined to keep watch4 ,the maid came forth and was captured by the prince before she could regain her tree4 ,after a time she escaped1 and coming back to the tree called upon it to open and receive her4 ,but it remained closed1 and she was obliged to return to her prince1 with whom1 after various mischances1 she lived happily for ever after4#aca ,the ,czekhs have a similar story of a nymph who roamed the forest by day1 but at night invariably returned to her willow4 ,she married a mortal and bore him a child4 ,one day the willow was cut down and the nymph died4 ,a cradle fashioned out of its wood had the power of lulling her child to sleep1 and when he grew up he was able to hold converse with his mother by means of a pipe formed from the twigs which grew about the stump4#acb ,that the soul of the nymph was thought actually to inhabit the tree is further proved by the belief current both in ancient and modern myth1 that blood would flow when the tree was injured4 ,it was firmly held in primitive times that the blood was the very life1 the soul of an animal1 and hence in primitive ritual it was the blood of the sacrifice that was offered to the god4 ,it is interesting to note that in some cases wine--8the blood of the grape0--and the juices of fruits and vegetables1 i4e4 the vehicle of the plant-soul1 were used as substitutes for blood4#acc ,in a later chapter we shall see that herbs and flowers were fabled to grow from the blood of the dead and so to re-embody his spirit1 and it will be remembered how ,virgil makes the cornel and myrtle which grew upon the grave of ,polydorus at once bleed and speak when torn up by the hand of ,aeneas4#acd ,so ,ovid1 recounting a similar occurrence in the case of the dryads' oak1 sacrilegiously felled by ,eresicthon1 was probably only giving a poetic version of a familiar belief3-- ,he it was ,whose impious axe mid ,ceres' sacred grove ,dared violate her immemorial shades4 ,huge with the growth of ages in its midst ,an ancient oak there stood1 itself a grove1 ,with votive tablets hung and grateful gifts ,for vows accomplished4 ,underneath its shade ,the dryads wove their festal dance4 ,eresicthon1 in spite of warnings1 refused to stay his hand4 ,the trembling tree sent forth an audible groan6 ,from its pale leaves and acorns died the green1 ,dark oozing sweat from every branch distilled1 ,and as the scoffer smote it1 crimson-red ,gushed from the wounded bark the sap1 as streams ,when at the altar falls some mighty bull ,the life-blood from his neck4 ,then from its heart ,issued a voice1 8,thou strikest in this trunk ,a nymph whom ,ceres loves1 and for the deed ,dearly shalt pay4 ,with my last voice thy doom ,i prophesy1 and in thy imminent fate ,find solace for my own40#ace ,mannhardt quotes several mediaeval and modern instances of the belief in bleeding trees4#acf ,and stories of punishment incurred for destroying a spirit-inhabited tree are not uncommon in folk-lore4 ,there is a ,german legend of an old crone who attempted to uproot the trunk of an ancient fir-tree4 ,in the midst of her labours a sudden weakness fell upon her1 insomuch that she was scarcely able to walk4 ,while endeavouring to crawl home she met a mysterious stranger1 who1 hearing her story1 at once pronounced that in her attempts to uproot the tree she had wounded an elf inhabiting it4 ,if the elf recovered1 he said1 so would she2 if not1 she would die4 ,as the old woman perished that self-same night we are left to infer that the elf died also4 ,from ,india comes a similar recital4 ,while felling a tree the youthful ,satyavant broke out into a profuse sweat1 and overcome with sudden weakness1 fainted and died upon the spot3 he had mortally wounded the indwelling spirit4 ,such stories have no doubt arisen from the dread inspired by wood-spirits amongst all people who believe in them4 ,in short1 the wild inhabitants of the woods have always retained some of the awe with which their forerunners1 the demons1 were regarded4 ,often they are credited with quite a wanton vindictiveness4 ,a ,bengal folk-tale tells of a certain banian-tree haunted by spirits who had a habit of wringing the necks of all who ventured to approach the tree by night4#acg ,in another ,indian story a tree that grew beside a ,brahman's house was inhabited by a sankchinni1 a female spirit of white complexion1 who one day seized the ,brahman's wife and thrust her into a hole in the tree4#ach ,sometimes the tree-spirit will be wicked and foolish enough to enter into a human being1 and then the exorcist's services are called in4 ,the presence of the spirit is easily discovered4 ,the exorcist has only to set fire to a piece of turmeric root1 it being of common knowledge that no spirit can endure the smell of burning turmeric4 ,the ,shnrs of ,india believe that disembodied spirits haunt the earth1 dwelling in trees and taking especial delight in dark forests and solitary places4#aci ,when a ,burman starts upon a journey he hangs a branch of plantains or a spray of the sacred ,eugenia on the pole of his buffalo cart1 to conciliate any spirit upon whom he may be unfortunate enough to intrude4 ,the hunter following his lonely quest in the forest will deposit some rice and a little bundle of leaves at the foot of any more than usually majestic tree1 hoping thereby to propitiate the nat or spirit dwelling therein4#adj ,something of the same fear is felt by the peasants for the fairies1 elves1 pixies1 and all the tribe of little people familiar to ,european folk-lore4 ,these1 too1 are all more or less associated with trees1 being supposed to dwell either amongst the branches or in the hollow trunks4 ,german elves have a partiality for the oak and elder1 and the holes in the trunks are the doorways by which they pass in and out4 ,a similar idea exists amongst the ,hindus4 ,though1 as a rule1 these forest-elves bear a good character1 they are not to be lightly offended1 or more will be heard of it4 ,hence prudent country-folk will never injure trees inhabited by fairies1 for when aggrieved they have ample means of avenging themselves by inflicting some malady or causing some ill-luck4 ,even in ,england1 especially in ,devon and ,cornwall1 there still exist people who believe that oaks are inhabited by elves-- ,fairy elves1 whose midnight revels ,by a forest side or fountain ,some belated peasant sees4 ,and it is not yet quite an obsolete custom to turn the coat for luck when passing through elf-haunted groves4 ,it was on ,st4 ,john's eve that the fairies held their special revels1 and in old days many a timorous hand might be found attaching to his doorway branches of ,st4 ,john's wort1 gathered at midnight on ,st4 ,john's eve1 to protect his dwelling from an invasion of elves4 ,similarly the peasants living near ,mount ,etna never sleep beneath trees on ,st4 ,john's eve1 lest the spirits who then issue freely from their leafy dwelling-places should enter into the sleeper4#ada ,but it is in ,central and ,north ,europe1 in the ,tyrol and the ,vosges1 in the ,german forests1 in ,russia1 ,scandinavia1 and ,finland1 that the belief in wood-spirits is most deeply rooted and persistent4 ,mannhardt1 who has diligently collected an enormous mass of evidence on the subject1 states that traditions concerning the wild people of the woods are current in all the more wooded countries of ,europe4 ,he sees in these traditions an amalgamation of the idea of tree-spirits with that of wind-spirits1 and rejects the hypothesis that they arose out of remembrances of savage half-bestial aborigines who took to the woods on the advance of more civilised races4#adb ,he thus summarises the character of the wild people of ,germany1 ,russia1 and ,scandinavia4 ,they are often of gigantic proportions1 dwell in woods or mountains1 and originally were no doubt closely connected with the spirits of trees1 their knowledge of 8simples0 and remedies for sick cattle connecting them with the spirits of vegetation4 ,from head to foot they are clothed in moss1 or covered with rough shaggy hair1 their long locks floating behind them in the wind4 ,occasionally they assume an animal form4 ,they announce their presence in the wind and tempest4 ,the male spirits carry as weapons uprooted pines or other trees1 and in their fights with each other use tree trunks and pieces of rock4 ,they are almost invariably of a wanton disposition4#adc ,of all the various spirits of the woods1 the moss-woman of ,central ,germany appears to be the most definite example of a tree-spirit4 ,as with the ,greek dryad1 her life is bound up with that of a tree4#add ,the moss-women bear different names and somewhat different characters in different localities1 but the following description by the author of ,the ,fairy ,family represents the common tradition3-- 8,a moss-woman10 the haymakers cry ,and over the fields in terror they fly1 ,she is loosely clad from neck to foot ,in a mantle of moss from the maple's root1 ,and like lichen gray on its stem that grows ,is the hair that over her mantle flows4 ,her skin like the maple-rind is hard1 ,brown and ridgy and furrowed and scarred2 ,and each feature flat like the bark we see1 ,when a bough has been lopped from the bole of a tree1 ,when the newer bark has crept healingly round ,and laps o'er the edge of the open wound2 ,her knotty1 root-like feet are bare1 ,and her height is an ell from heel to hair4 ,sometimes1 however1 the moss-women and their relatives the wood-maidens are more friendly to man1 and will help him industriously in the harvest-field2 they have even been known to enter his service and bring prosperity to all his undertakings4 ,the wild women of ,tyrol1 known locally as ,wild-fanggen1 are much more terrifying individuals4 ,gigantic in stature1 their whole body is covered with hair and bristles1 and their face distorted with a mouth that stretches from ear to ear4 ,they live together in the woods1 with which their lives are bound up4 ,if their special wood is destroyed they disappear2 if the tree from which a fangga takes her name dies or is felled1 she passes out of existence4#ade ,the peasants in the ,swiss ,canton of the ,grisons1 which by the way has a 8wild-man0 for its heraldic device1 believe in wood-spirits of great strength and agility1 who are skilled in weather-lore and the recovery of strayed cattle4#adf ,the female spirits1 some of whom have been known to marry mortals1 are clothed in skins2 but the males1 who are hairy1 content themselves with a crown of oak leaves4 ,they are sometimes helpful to men1 but more often mischievous1 having a propensity for stealing the milk and carrying off the children of the peasants4 ,the white and green ladies of ,franche ,comt and ,neufchatel belong to the same family1 their special proclivity being to entice men away1 to drag them through brake and brier1 and leave them stripped of their possessions4#adg ,in ,neufchatel there is a rock1 8,la roche de la ,dame ,verte10 which young men are especially warned to avoid2 and in the ,jura1 a wood where beneath an oak the green ladies are wont to light a fire1 and may be heard singing and dancing around it4 ,the peasants when they see the wild flowers and the young corn waving in the wind1 whisper to each other that the green lady is passing over them with her companions4 ,the ,swedish conception of the tree-spirit is very similar4 ,he also delights to lead astray those who intrude upon his forest domain4 ,the well-known tendency of man1 after losing himself1 to wander round and round until he regains his starting-place1 is attributed to the wood-spirit4 ,he looks like a man when you meet him1 but touch him and he shoots to the height of the loftiest tree4 ,you cry out in terror1 and he laughs 8,ha1 ha60 ,hunters seek the friendship of these lords of the forest1 for he who stands well with them never misses his aim4#adh ,the wood-demon of the ,russians1 ,ljeschi1 calls to mind both classical and modern traditions4 ,he is of human form1 with the horns1 ears1 and feet of a goat1 his fingers are long claws1 and he is covered with rough hair1 often of a green colour4 ,he can assume many forms1 and vary his stature at will2 in the fields he is no higher than the grass1 in the woods as tall as the trees4 ,sometimes he is like a man1 clothed in sheepskins1 and often1 like the cyclops1 with only one eye4 ,like other wood-demons1 he announces his presence in the storm and the wind4 ,he springs from tree to tree1 and rocks himself in the branches1 screeching and laughing1 neighing1 lowing1 and barking4 ,he delights to mislead the traveller and plunge him in difficulties4 ,however unfriendly to man1 ,ljeschi is on good terms with animals2 all the birds and beasts of the wood are under his protection1 and the migrations of squirrels1 field-mice1 and such small deer are carried out under his guidance4 ,the peasants are at pains to propitiate him4 ,in the province of ,olonitz the shepherds offer him a cow every summer1 to secure his favour for the herd2 elsewhere the hunter gives him the first thing he shoots1 leaving it for him in an oak-wood1 or places a piece of bread or pancake strewed with salt upon a tree stump4 ,there are certain ways of conjuring his presence and his aid by means of birch-twigs1 or by uttering a given formula while standing on a tree-stump1 from which it would appear that he is thought of as dwelling in these vegetable fragments4#adi ,the ,russians also believe in female wood-spirits of terrifying appearance1 but they are of less importance than the male4 ,in the folk-lore of the ,finns the spirits of the woods bear a more benign character4 ,the chief of them1 8,tapio10 is termed 8the gracious god of the woodlands10 and is represented as very tall and slender1 with a long brown beard1 a coat of tree moss1 and a high-crowned hat of fir leaves4 ,his consort is ,mielikki1 8the honey rich mother of the woodland10 8the hostess of glen and forest40 ,the neighbouring ,esthonians have their 8grass-mother0 who1 besides presiding over the home-field1 is also queen of the woods4 ,it is not perhaps singular to find that the traditions with regard to wood-spirits current amongst contiguous peoples should exhibit such a strong resemblance to each other1 but when almost exactly the same conceptions are met with in such distant parts as ,japan and ,south ,america1 we can only conclude that the human mind1 wherever it exists1 is similarly constituted1 and1 granted the same phenomena1 falls back upon the same ideas to explain them4 ,the ,tengus of ,japanese legend have many of the characteristic marks of the wood-spirit4 ,they dwell in the topmost branches of lofty trees1 are skilled in the language and lore of animals and plants1 and are a terror to untruthful children4 ,they have the body of a man1 the head of a hawk1 with a long proboscis1 and powerful claws on their hands2 on their feet1 also provided with claws1 are stilt-like clogs a foot high4 ,they are hatched from eggs1 and in their youth have feathers and wings4#aej ,a traveller in ,peru only sixty years ago found the tradition of a living wood-ghost1 who dwelt in the darkest part of the forest1 the haunt of night-birds1 and issued forth to decoy the ,indians to their destruction4#aea ,the idea of a wild man of the woods also exists in ,brazil4 ,the ,indians call him ,curupira1 and attribute to his agency all such forest sounds as they cannot understand4#aeb ,some of the foregoing traditions present a glimpse of the transition towards a later and more highly developed conception1 in which the many spirits once believed in become generalised into a single 8spirit of vegetation40 ,it is not indeed contended that this belief is necessarily destructive of the earlier4 ,indeed it is possible that in the loosely working mind of the peasant the two conceptions may exist side by side4 ,the many interesting ceremonies and observances which arose out of this generalised conception will be dealt with in a later chapter4 ,,chapter ,,iv ,,the ,,tree ,,in ,,its ,,relation ,,to ,,human ,,life ,having dealt with the ,tree in its connection on the one hand with gods1 and on the other with spirits of more equivocal attributes1 we have now to consider a series of myths and traditions wherein it was regarded as entering into a still more intimate relationship with man4 ,sometimes it was represented as the source from which the human race originally sprang1 sometimes1 conversely1 as the object into which the soul might retreat after death1 or into which an individual might be transmuted1 body and soul1 by some miraculous agency4 ,in other cases the life of a particular tree was held to be bound up with that of an individual or a community1 and lastly1 in a still larger conception1 the tree came to be very widely regarded as the embodiment of the spirit of fertility1 the especial patron of the field and flock4 ,to the modern mind1 which claims to have deciphered ,nature's scattered hieroglyphs1 and finds a genealogical document even in the evanescent wrinkles on a baby's foot1 the idea of man taking origin from a tree will seem in the highest degree fantastic1 but to the primitive intelligence it probably presented no greater difficulty than the extraction of the new baby from the parsley bed does to the modern child4 ,the early inquirer may well have found in it the most natural answer to the eternal riddle1 8,whence came our first parents80 the most plausible solution to the strange problem of man's separate existence upon the globe1 supplying the necessary link between him and the great mother-earth1 which supported and fed him while alive1 and received him again into her bosom when dead4 ,speculation apart1 however1 the solution would appear to have commended itself to many different inquirers1 for the belief that the human race took its first origin from trees is met with in the mythology of the most widely separated races4 ,thus we read in the ,eddas that when heaven and earth had been made1 ,odin and his brothers walking by the sea-shore came upon two trees4 ,these they changed into human beings1 male and female4 ,the first brother gave them soul and life2 the second endowed them with wit and will to move2 the third added face1 speech1 sight1 and hearing4 ,they clothed them also and chose their names1 ,ask for the man's and ,embla for the woman's4 ,and then they sent them forth to be the parents of the human race4#aec ,again1 according to the ,iranian account of the creation the first human couple1 ,maschia and ,maschina1 issued from the ground in the form of a rhubarb plant 7the ,rheum ribes71 which was at first single1 but in process of time became divided into two4#aed ,ormuzd imparted to each a human soul1 and they became the parents of mankind4 ,in the corresponding legend current amongst the ,sioux of the ,upper ,missouri#aee one seems to catch an echo from the ,garden of ,eden4 ,here the original parents1 like the trees from which they developed1 at first stood firmly fixed to the earth1 until a monster snake gnawed away the roots and gave them independent motion1 just as in ,paradise the serpent destroyed the harmony and mutual trust which united ,adam and ,eve4 ,the classical nations possessed a similar tradition4 ,according to ,hesychius it was believed by the ,greeks that the human race was the fruit of the ash1 and ,hesiod relates that it was from the trunks of ash-trees that ,zeus created the third or bronze race of men4#aef ,the oak was particularised as the favoured tree in another tradition4 8,whence art thou80 inquires ,penelope of the disguised ,ulysses1 8for thou are not sprung of oak or rock1 as old tales tell40#aeg ,virgil1 too1 speaks of ,nymphs1 and fauns1 and savage men1 who took ,their birth from trunks of trees and stubborn oak4#aeh ,the ,damaras of ,south ,africa believe that the universal progenitor was a tree1 out of which came ,damaras1 ,bushmen1 oxen and zebras1 and everything else that lives4#aei ,in other legends human beings are represented as arising from the tree as its fruit4 ,the first book of the ,mahbhrata tells of an enormous ,indian fig-tree from whose branches hung little devotees in human form2 and an ,italian traveller of the fourteenth century was assured by the natives of ,malabar that they knew of trees1 which instead of fruit bore pigmy men and women4 ,so long as the wind blew they remained fresh and healthy1 but when it dropped they became withered and dry4#afj ,a somewhat similar tradition was familiar to the ,arab geographers1 who tell of a talking tree growing at the easternmost point of the habitable world1 which bore young women on its branches in place of fruit4#afa ,and even to the present day folk-tales of ,saxony and ,thuringia speak of children as 8growing on the tree40 ,in another class of origin-myths individual births are represented as taking place directly from a tree4 ,adonis came forth at the stroke of a sword from the tree into which his mother1 the guilty ,myrrha1 had been transformed in answer to her prayers4#afb ,the ,phrygian ,attis1 according to one version1 was fathered by an almond-tree2 while1 according to another1 his body was confined by ,cybele in a pine-tree1 from which on the return of spring he was born again4#afc ,the ,khatties of ,central ,india claim to be descended from a certain ,khat1 8begotten of wood10 who1 at the prayer of ,karna1 an illegitimate brother of the five sons of ,pndu 7heroes of the ,mahbhrata71 sprang from the staff he had fashioned from the branch of a tree to assist him against his legitimate kinsmen4#afd ,the above examples prove how widely the conception prevailed that human beings or man-like spirits might owe their first origin to the tree4 ,in a later stage these crude myths were rationalised in three directions4 ,in one the tree came to be1 not the source1 but the scene of a miraculous birth2 in another its supposed connection with a human being was explained by a metamorphosis legend2 and1 thirdly1 the tree came to be regarded as the symbol and minister of fecundity4 ,many of the gods of ,greece were born or brought up1 according to tradition1 at the foot of some tree1 whence ,btticher argues that their worship was founded on a pre-existing tree-cult4 ,rhea gave birth to ,zeus beneath a poplar in ,crete1 and the ruins of her temple in an adjoining cypress grove were shown even up to the ,augustan age4#afe ,the people of ,tanagra asserted that the young ,hermes was reared amongst them under a purslane-tree 7andrachnos71 the remains of which were for long treasured in the temple of the god as a sacred souvenir of the institution of his worship4#aff ,hera was born and brought up under a willow in ,samos1 described by ,pausanias1 who saw it still in leaf1 as the most ancient of the sacred trees known to the ,greeks4#afg ,leto gave birth to ,apollo and ,artemis in the island of ,delos while clasping two trees1 by some authorities particularised as an olive and a palm1 by others1 under the idea that ,apollo must have been born at the foot of his own tree1 as two laurels4#afh ,romulus and ,remus were found under the ,ficus ruminalis by the ,tiber1 and in later days were worshipped in the ,comitium beneath a sapling from that tree4 ,the same idea is met with in the mythology of other nations4 ,vishnu was born beneath the pillared shade of the banian2 ,buddha was born and died under a sl-tree4 ,the converse of these origin myths is represented in the numerous legends of metamorphosis and transmigration4 ,the well-known story of ,apollo and ,daphne seems to supply an instance of the way in which the metamorphosis story arose to explain a more primitive connection1 the meaning of which had been lost4 ,it is an established fact that the laurel was held sacred in ,greece as connected with earth-oracles before the worship of ,apollo was introduced4 ,a sacred laurel grew by the prophetic cleft at ,delphi in the days when the earth-goddess1 ,gaia1 still presided over the oracle1 and according to tradition the goddess' daughter1 ,daphne1 a mountain nymph1 was priestess under her4#afi ,the story which explains the transference of the oracular power from ,gaia to ,apollo tells how ,daphne1 fleeing before the god1 entreats her mother1 ,earth1 to save her2 the ground opens to receive her1 and in her place a laurel appears4 ,apollo1 balked of his love1 cries3 8,if thou may'st not be my wife1 thou shalt for ever be my tree10 and henceforward he makes the laurel his sanctuary1 and crowns his head and his lyre with its leaves4 ,thus he steps into her mother's place1 and the laws of ,zeus--the old earth-oracles under a new name--are proclaimed through him4 ,the story is one of the many folk-tales concerning the conversion of mortals into trees which ,ovid has so gracefully elaborated in his ,metamorphoses1 and which assume a new importance now that we can trace them back into that old world when tree and man1 and indeed all living things1 were held to be so near akin4 ,how far they owed their origin to the desire to find a new sanction for the traditional tree-worship by investing it with a human interest1 it is impossible to say4 ,it is sufficient for us that they demonstrate the survival of very ancient modes of thought amongst races who had otherwise reached a high degree of civilisation4 ,they were amongst the miracles of classical antiquity1 and like other miracles1 if they prove nothing else1 they at least afford invaluable evidence as to the state of mental culture amongst those who found them credible4 ,one of the most interesting of these metamorphosis legends concerns the fate of the three daughters of the ,sun and ,clymene1 who were so heart-broken at the tragic fate of their brother ,phaton that they were changed into poplars by the banks of the stream into which he had been hurled1--the ,eridanus or ,po4 ,the tears they shed were preserved in the form of amber3-- ,as she bent ,to kneel1 ,phathusa1 eldest born1 her feet ,felt stiffen1 and ,lampeti1 at her cry ,starting1 took sudden root1 and strove in vain ,for motion to her aid4 ,the third1 her hair ,in anguish tearing1 tore off leaves6 ,and now ,their legs grow fixed as trunks1 their arms as boughs ,extend1 and upward round them creeps a bark ,that gradual folds the form entire1 save yet ,the head and mouth1 that to their mother shrieks ,for help4 ,what help is hers to give8 ,now here1 ,now there she rushes1 frantic1 kissing this ,or that while yet she can1 and strives to rend ,their bodies from the clasping bark1 and tears ,the fresh leaves from their sprouting heads1 and sees1 ,aghast1 red drops as from some wound distil4 ,and 8,ah1 forbear60 the sufferer shrieks2 8forbear1 ,o mother dear6 our bodies in these trees ,alone are rent6 ,farewell60 ,and o'er the words1 ,scarce-uttered1 closed the bark1 and all was still4 ,but yet they weep2 and in the sun their tears ,to amber harden1 by the clear stream caught ,and borne1 the gaud and grace of ,latian maids4#agj ,the story of ,baucis and ,philemon--the worthy peasants who so hospitably entertained the gods1 ,zeus and ,hermes1 disguised as travellers1 that their cottage was changed into a temple and they themselves into its priest and priestess--is more familiar4 ,their prayer that neither should witness the death of the other was fulfilled by the gods1 by means of a device familiar enough to the folk-lore of the time3-- ,as one morn upon the hallowed steps1 ,bowed now with years1 they stood1 and to a knot ,of wondering hearers told the ,temple's tale1 ,surprised each saw the other's figure change ,and sprout with sudden verdure3 and1 as round ,their forms the rapid foliage spread1 while yet ,they could1 one mutual fond 8,farewell0 they took1 ,one kiss1 and o'er their faces closed the bark1 ,and both in trees were hidden6 ,still the boughs ,that interlacing link the neighbour trunks ,tyana's peasant loves to show3--the tale ,her gravest elders--men not like to lie1 ,as wherefore should they lie8--with serious faith ,attested to these ears4 ,the honoured boughs ,myself have seen with garlands decked1 myself ,one garland added more4#aga ,in many cases metamorphosis legends were attached to particular kinds of trees1 thereby no doubt reinforcing the reverence and affection with which they were regarded4 ,the ,greek name for the almond tree1 8,phylla10 recalled the fate of ,phyllis1 the beautiful ,thracian1 who hanged herself in despair when she thought ,demophoon had deserted her1 and was changed by the gods into one of these trees4 ,shortly afterwards the truant lover returned1 heard the sorrowful tidings1 visited the tree1 and embraced it with tears4 ,then suddenly its branches1 which till then had remained bare1 burst forth into blossom and verdure1 as if to show how joyfully conscious they were of the beloved's return4 ,melus1 priest of ,aphrodite1 filled with grief at the death of his foster-son ,adonis1 hanged himself1 and was changed by the goddess he served into an apple-tree1 from which time forward the apple came to be regarded as the most acceptable gift that a lover could offer at her shrine4 ,lotis1 a beautiful nymph1 pursued by ,priapus1 threw herself on the mercy of the gods1 and by them was changed into the lotus-tree4 ,the pine-tree1 into which ,cybele1 in a moment of anger1 had changed her lover and devotee1 ,attis1 owed its perennial verdure to the compassion of ,zeus for her remorse4 ,the pomegranate was connected in tradition with a certain maid whom ,dionysus loved1 and the crown-like form of its blossom was accounted for by the story that the god1 before he changed her into a tree1 had promised her that she should one day wear a crown4 ,the frankincense-tree owed its virtue to the nectar and ambrosia scattered by ,apollo on the tomb of ,leucothea1 who had secured his love1 and in consequence had been buried alive at the instance of her rival1 ,clytia4 ,the tree grew from her grave1 and ,clytia1 pining away in turn from grief1 was changed into a plant whose blossoms were destined henceforth1 like our sunflower1 perpetually to confront the sun1 her faithless lover4 ,the vicarious immortality which the jealous but faithful ,clytia thus secured was shared by other fabled personages1 many of whom1 according to that poetical sentiment which is begotten of all that is gentle and beautiful in nature1 were changed into flowers4 ,the idea is indeed a graceful one4 ,for a beautiful youth or maiden1 dying young and unhappy1 no better recompense than such a flower-change could be imagined by a people1 full indeed of the instinctive craving for immortality1 but vague in their assurance of a life beyond the grave4 ,the nymphs who1 hearing of the sad death of the beautiful ,narcissus1 hurried to perform his obsequies1 found that he had been changed into a flower1 the cup of which was filled with the tears that he had shed4 8,bid daffodillies fill their cups with tears10 sings ,milton1 using the old ,english name for the narcissus4 ,rhodanthe1 the universal praise of whose beauty had aroused the jealous anger of ,artemis1 was changed by ,apollo into the rose4 ,the pipe of ,pan was fashioned from the reeds into which the nymph1 ,syrinx1 had been transformed by her sister nymphs in their determination to rescue her from the god's unwelcome overtures4 ,there are many instances in classical mythology wherein flowers were believed to have arisen from the blood1 i4e4 the very life1 of dying persons4 ,the violet sprang from the blood of ,attis when ,cybele changed him into a pine-tree4 ,from the blood of ,hyacinthus1 killed in anger by ,zephyrus1 ,apollo caused the hyacinth to grow4 ,acis1 crushed to death by ,polyphemus1 was changed into a stream1 but from his blood there sprang the flowering rush4 ,according to the ,egyptians the vine arose from the blood of the ,titans4 ,in other cases tear-drops were1 so to speak1 the seed of the miracle4 ,the anemone grew from the tears that ,aphrodite shed at the death of ,adonis3-- 8,woe1 woe for ,cytherea1 he hath perished1 the lovely ,adonis4 ,a tear the ,paphian sheds for each blood-drop of ,adonis1 ,and tears and blood on the earth are turned to flowers4 ,the blood brings forth the rose2 the tears1 the wind-flower2 ,woe1 woe for ,cytherea1 he hath perished1 the lovely ,adonis60#agb ,shakespeare1 it will be remembered1 gives to the anemone the magical power of producing love4#agc ,the legendary lore of the ,east contains traditions similar to those above mentioned1 of which it will be sufficient to cite the following3--,the ,burmese believe that the ,canna ,indica or ,indian shot sprang from the sacred blood of the ,buddha4 ,his evil-minded brother-in-law1 incensed at not being allowed to hold a separate assembly of his own1 rolled down a rock upon the teacher from a lofty hill4 ,a fragment bruised the ,buddha's toe1 and drew from it a few drops of blood1 from which the sacred plant arose4#agd ,in another class of legends1 more characteristic of mediaeval than of classical mythology1 the soul of the dead person was believed to pass into a tree4 ,they are1 in fact1 cases rather of metempsychosis than of metamorphosis4 ,a legend current in ,cornwall tells how1 after the loss of her lover1 ,iseult died broken-hearted1 and was buried in the same church with ,tristram1 but by the king's decree at some distance from him4 ,soon ivy sprang from either grave1 and each branch grew and grew until it met its fellow at the crown of the vaulted roof1 and there clasped it and clung to it as only ivy can4#age ,in another version the plants that sprang from the graves of the lovers were a rose and a vine4 ,the same idea is met with in the familiar ballad of ,fair ,margaret and ,sweet ,william4 ,margaret was buried in the lower chancl1 ,and ,william in the higher2 ,out of her breast there sprang a rose1 ,and out of his a brier4 ,they grew till they grew into the church top1 ,and then they could grow no higher2 ,and there they tyed in a true lover's knot1 ,which made all the people admire4#agf ,a story is told in ,japan of a faithful couple who1 after enjoying long years of happiness1 died at last at the same moment2 their spirits withdrew into a tall pine-tree of great age1 which a god had once planted as he passed that way4 ,on moonlight nights the lovers may be seen raking together the pine-needles under the tree1 which to this day is known as the ,pine of the ,lovers4#agg ,a certain ,chinese king had a secretary1 ,hanpang1 for whose young and beautiful wife he conceived a violent passion4 ,failing in his designs upon her1 the king threw ,hanpang into prison1 where he shortly died of grief4 ,his wife1 to escape the royal suit1 threw herself from a lofty terrace1 having entreated as a last favour that she might be buried beside her husband4 ,the king in his anger ordered otherwise4 ,but that same night a cedar sprang from each grave1 and in ten days they had become so tall and vigorous in their growth that they were able to interlace both branch and root1 and the people called them the ,trees of ,faithful ,love4#agh ,in ,germany the following story is told to explain why a certain blue flower1 the endive1 which grows by the roadside1 is called the 8,wegewarte0 or way-watcher4 ,a maiden1 eagerly anticipating the return of her lover from a long voyage1 visited every morning and evening the spot where they had parted1 and anxiously paced the road1 awaiting his coming4 ,at last1 worn out by her long vigil1 she sank down by the wayside and expired4 ,on the spot where she breathed her last the flower appeared4#agi ,there is a ,japanese story in which a mother is represented as hearing her dead son's voice in the sighing of a sacred willow which grew above his grave4#ahj ,grimm quotes other examples4#aha ,in the song of ,roncesvalles1 a blackthorn grows above the dead ,saracens1 a white flower above the dead ,christians4 ,in other legends white lilies grow from the graves of persons unjustly executed4 ,from a maiden's grave grew three lilies which none but her lover might pluck4 ,in all these legends we have a survival of very primitive ideas about the soul1 ideas out of which subsequently arose the formal doctrine of transmigration4 ,the immortality of the soul was accepted1 but there was always an inclination to quarter it in some new living thing4 ,the instances above given1 in which it was thought to pass into some plant1 especially concern us1 as illustrating the primitive belief that trees and shrubs might contain a spirit in human form4 ,a further derivative of the assumed kinship between human and vegetable life is the conception of the tree as sympathetically interwoven with the life and fortunes of an individual1 a family1 or a community4 8,in folktales the life of a person is sometimes so bound up with the life of a plant that the withering of the plant will immediately follow or be followed by the death of the person4 ,among the ,m#8,bengas in ,western ,africa1 about the ,gaboon1 when two children are born on the same day the people plant two trees of the same kind and dance round them4 ,the life of each of the children is believed to be bound up with the life of one of the trees1 and if the tree dies or is thrown down they are sure that the child will soon die4 ,in the ,cameroons1 also1 the life of a person is believed to be sympathetically bound up with that of the tree4 ,some of the ,papuans unite the life of a new-born child sympathetically with that of a tree1 by driving a pebble into the bark of the tree4 ,this is supposed to give them complete mastery over the child's life2 if the tree is cut down the child will die40#ahb ,according to the ,talmud1 the destruction of ,bithar1 in which four hundred thousand ,israelites lost their lives1 originated in the resentment of one of its inhabitants at the wanton destruction of a young cedar-tree1 which1 according to the custom of the place1 he had planted at the birth of his child4#ahc ,it was usual amongst the ,romans to plant a tree at the birth of a son1 and from its vigour to forecast the prosperity of the child4 ,it is related in the life of ,virgil1 that the poplar planted at his birth flourished exceedingly1 and far outstripped all its contemporaries4 ,a similar superstition has persisted even into times that are almost contemporary4 ,lord ,byron1 for all his scepticism1 had the idea that his life and prosperity depended on the fate of an oak which he had planted when he first visited ,newstead4#ahd ,the mystical relationship of man and tree is further illustrated in an old ,german belief quoted by ,mannhardt1 that a sick child placed in a hole made in a tree by sawing off a branch1 or by splitting it open with a wedge1 will recover as soon as the tree-wound heals4 ,should the child die and the tree survive1 the human soul will inhabit the tree for the rest of its life4#ahe ,the family tree and the community tree were merely extensions of this conception4 ,the heroic descendants of ,pelops regarded the plane-tree as especially sacred to them and bound up with their fortunes1 and in later times we find families taking their names from trees4 ,mannhardt quotes in this connection the ,german surnames ,linde1 ,holunder1 ,kirschbaum1 ,birnbaum1 etc4#ahf ,but more important than the family tree is the community tree4 ,in many an old ,german village there stood a tree1 often a ,may-tree1 which the villagers guarded as the apple of their eye4 ,it was looked upon as the life-tree1 the tutelary genius1 the second 8,i0 of the whole community4 ,devotions were paid to it and gifts offered as to a deity4#ahg ,the ancient fig-tree in the ,comitium at ,rome1 already alluded to as a supposed descendant of the very tree under which ,romulus and ,remus were found1 is another case in point4#ahh ,it was held to be closely connected with the fortunes of the city1 and ,tacitus describes the terror of the ,romans when1 in the reign of ,nero1 it suddenly began to flag and wither1 and their relief when1 upon the ,emperor's death1 it was found to have renewed its vigour4#ahi ,pliny tells of two myrtle-trees1 called the ,patrician and ,plebeian1 which grew before the temple of ,quirinus at ,rome4 ,as sacred to ,venus1 and hence symbolical of union1 these trees were held to represent the amity which existed between the two orders4 ,at first they had grown with equal vigour1 but when the patricians began to encroach upon the power of the plebs their tree outgrew the other1 which languished beneath its baleful shadow4 ,after the ,marsian war1 however1 from which date the power of the ,senate began to decline1 it was noticed that the patrician tree showed signs of age1 while the plebeian sprouted forth with new vigour4#aij ,curiously enough1 there is1 or was so recently as #ahhe1 an old tree in ,jerusalem1 opposite ,cook's office1 belonging to an old family and protected by the ,sultan's firman1 which the ,arabs consider will fall when the ,sultan's rule ends4 8,it lost a large limb during the ,turco-,russian war1 and is now 7#ahhe7 in a decayed state40#aia ,illustration3 ,fig4 #bd4--;,imperial coin of ,myra in ,lycia1 showing tree-goddess47,goblet d',alviella47 ,from conceptions such as these the transition is easy to that wider view which regarded the tree as the material representative of the mysterious feminine reproductive power1 the good genius of general prosperity4 ,we know that the ,semitic nations worshipped under various names a great mother-goddess1 the progenitrix of gods and men1 and there is evidence to show that the tree was widely venerated as her divine symbol4 ,in the coins of ,heliopolis 7,baalbek71 where this great deity was worshipped under the name of ,astarte1 the figure of the goddess under the peristyle of her temple is sometimes replaced by a pyramidal cypress4 ,in a coin of ,myra1 in ,lycia1 the bust of a goddess is represented in the foliage of a tree4#aib ,the goddess1 who is of the veiled archaic type and wears on her head the calathus1 the symbol of fertility1 is identified by ,mr4 ,farnell with ,artemis-,aphrodite1 8who is here clearly conceived as a divinity of vegetation40#aic ,the ,canaanites1 and under their influence the ,israelites1 worshipped ,ashtaroth1 the fruitful goddess1 under the symbol of an ashra1 a tree or pole1 decked with fillets1 like the ,may-tree4 ,an ancient ,babylonian cylinder represents a decorated tree with a worshipper beside it1 who in the inscription invokes the goddess as her servant4#aid ,on other cylinders the tree-symbol sometimes accompanies and sometimes replaces the figure of ,istar1 the great procreative goddess more or less related to the goddess of the ashrim4#aie ,illustration3 ,fig4 #be4--,sacred tree and worshipper47,goblet d',alviella47 ,the conception of the tree as the symbol of fertility seems to be still more clearly emphasised in the ,assyrian cylinders and bas-reliefs1 where it is conventionally represented as a date-palm between two personages1 who approach it from either side bearing in their hands a cone similar to the inflorescence of the male date-palm4 ,mr4 ,tylor suggests that these personages1 variously represented as kings or priests1 genii with wings and heads of eagles1 or mythical animals1 may represent the fertilising winds or divinities1 whose procreative influence was typified by the artificial fecundation of the palm1 a procedure which is necessary for its successful culture1 and which we know from ,herodotus to have been familiar to the ,babylonians4#aif ,the design is usually surmounted by the winged disc representing the sun1 and the whole is not improbably meant to symbolise the mystery of procreation1 in which the male element enshrined in the sun1 and the female element inhabiting the tree are appropriately represented4 ,the same collocation is met with on an altar from the ,palmyrene now in ,rome1 on one of the faces of which is the image of a solar god1 and on the other the figure of a cypress with a child carrying a ram amidst its foliage4#aig ,in this connection it may be remembered that ,apuleius1 wishing to paint the son of ,venus in his mother's lap1 is related to have depicted him in the midst of a cypress-tree4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #bf4--,the sacred tree as symbol of fertility47,from an ,assyrian bas-relief4 ,perrot et ,chipiez47 ,the above facts are important for their bearing on the conception of a tree-inhabiting spirit of vegetation or generalised tree-soul1 which1 as ,mannhardt and ,frazer have shown1 lies at the root of many otherwise inexplicable observances found amongst the peasantry in different countries and at different periods of history4 ,these customs will be dealt with more fully in a subsequent chapter4 ,in all of them we find a tree1 or the branch of a tree1 or a human being or puppet dressed to represent a tree1 figuring as the symbol or representative of a spirit who is regarded as more or less friendly to man1 and endowed with the power of assisting his material prosperity4 ,in more primitive times than the present this prosperity resolved itself into a question of fecundity1 and the power which could make the fields to bear1 the flocks to multiply1 and women to give increase1 naturally held the foremost place in the affections of the people4 ,the rich and the cultured found other attributes to worship and other gods to personify them1 but the peasant clung to the observances by which the spirit of fertility was propitiated4 ,hence the tree1 long after it had ceased to be worshipped as the home of the great gods1 or to be regarded as the parent of mankind1 still held a firm place in the devotions of the people as the embodiment of the all-powerful patron of universal fertility4 ,of the innumerable observances founded on this idea the following may be taken as a sample4 ,the sacred chili or cedar of ,gilgit1 on the north-western frontier of ,india1 was held to have the power of causing the herds to multiply and women to bear children4 ,at the commencement of wheat-sowing three chosen unmarried youths1 who had undergone purification for three days1 started for the mountains where the cedars grew1 taking with them wine1 oil1 and bread1 and fruit of every kind4 ,having found a suitable tree they sprinkled the oil and wine on it1 while they ate the bread and fruit as a sacrificial feast4 ,then they cut off a branch and brought it to the village1 where amid general rejoicing it was placed on a large stone beside running water4 ,a goat was then sacrificed and its blood poured over the cedar branch1 while the villagers danced around it4 ,the goat's flesh was eaten1 and every man went to his house bearing a spray of cedar4 ,on his arrival he said to his wife1 8,if you want children ,i have brought them to you2 if you want cattle ,i have brought them2 whatever you want1 ,i have it40#aih ,the same idea is no doubt to be traced in the form of survival1 in the custom of giving a branch of laurel to a bride which is found1 according to ,mannhardt1 at ,carnac in ,brittany2#aii in the introduction of a decorated pine-bough into the house of the bride1 met with in ,little ,russia1 as well as in the ceremony of 8carrying the ,may10 adorned with lights1 before the bride and bridegroom in ,hanoverian weddings4#bjj ,the day of these observances is past1 but underlying them there was a vital and still valid truth4 ,to us as to the ancients the tree is still the patron of fertility1 as those have discovered to their cost who have bared a country of its forests4 ,to us as to them it is still the thing of all things living that is endowed with the most enduring life1 the most persistent vigour4 ,generations come and go1 but the tree lives on and every spring puts forth new leaves1 and every autumn bears new seed1 and even to its last decrepitude the leaves are as green and the seeds as full of life as in the prime of its youth4 ,what changes has not the oldest tree in ,england witnessed6 ,in the southern counties there is an ancient way1 once thronged by travellers1 but now deserted and broken in its continuity2 yet to this day1 even where parks and pastures have overlain it1 its course may still be traced by the yew-trees planted at its side by pilgrims journeying to the shrine of ,st4 ,thomas of ,canterbury1 in the days when their brothers were fighting for the ,white ,rose or the ,red4 ,,chapter ,v ,,the ,,tree ,,as ,,oracle ,amongst the innumerable sources from which the nations of antiquity professed to derive knowledge of futurity and practical guidance in the affairs of life the tree held a very prominent place4 ,tree-oracles formed1 indeed1 the natural corollary of tree-worship1 and their number and popularity provide additional testimony to the genuineness and extent of the ancient belief that certain trees were tenanted by a supernatural essence4 ,for it was as 8animated demoniac beings10 to use ,robertson ,smith's phrase1 that trees possessed oracular virtue4 ,it was the god dwelling in them who produced the mysterious rustlings and movements of the branches1 from which the responses were interpreted by the attendant priests4 ,but according to the ancient view the tree derived a further title to its oracular prestige from its connection by means of its roots with the under-world1 the mysterious abode of departed spirits1 in whom wisdom and knowledge of the future were supposed to be vested4 ,thus the special prophetic power attributed to the variety of oak 7probably the ,quercus esculus7 which grew at ,dodona was ascribed by later writers to the fact that its roots pierced the earth more deeply than those of other trees1 reaching down even to ,tartarus 7tantum radice in ,tartara74#bja ,it was from this under-world that ,saul summoned ,samuel1 and it was in the hope of obtaining help from the spirit of some dead hero by means of a dream1 that men were wont to pass the night at his tomb or his temple4 ,the modern ,arabs who still worship certain sacred trees1 as the place where angels or jinni descend1 believe that a sick man who sleeps under such a tree will receive counsel in a dream for the restoration of his health4#bjb ,of organised oracles the earliest was no doubt the earth oracle1 and the part played in the ceremonial by natural fissures1 springs1 and trees probably grew out of their close connection with the earth4 ,the most famous oracle of antiquity1 that of ,delphi1 was situated at the opening of a natural cleft in the rock1 believed to be at the very centre of the earth1 and was originally presided over by the great earth-mother1 ,gaia1 the subordinate part played by the laurel which once grew near the cleft being expressed by the legend that ,daphne was the daughter and priestess of ,gaia4#bjc ,the procedure at another famous oracle1 that of ,trophonius at ,lebadea1 near ,mount ,helicon in ,boeotia1 was distinctly modelled on the idea of a descent into the under-world1#bjd the suppliant obtaining his answer in a cave1 where his experiences were so terrible that he never smiled again2 whence it came to be said of any particularly lugubrious individual that he had consulted the oracle of ,trophonius4 ,a still more striking illustration of the antiquity of this conception is found in the account of the initiation of an augur given on a ,babylonian tablet in the ,british ,museum4 ,the candidate is there made to descend into an artificial imitation of the lower world1 where he beholds 8the altars amidst the waters1 the treasures of ,anu1 ,bel1 and ,ea1 the tablets of the gods1 the delivering of the oracle of heaven and earth1 and the cedar-tree1 the beloved of the great gods40#bje ,here the earth-oracle and the tree-oracle are seen in very early conjunction2 but the belief in the divine power inherent in the tree can be traced still farther back1 for in a bilingual text of much earlier date we read of 8the cedar-tree1 the tree that shatters the power of the incubus1 upon whose core is recorded the name of ,ea10 i4e4 the god of wisdom4#bjf ,the idea of the tree-oracle was familiar to other branches of the ,semitic race1 and is expressed in their common tradition of a tree of knowledge4 ,several allusions to oracular trees are met with in the ,old ,testament4 ,that ,jehovah should speak to ,moses out of the burning-bush1 if not to be regarded as a case in point1 was at any rate quite in conformity with surrounding tradition1 for there is no doubt that the belief in trees as places of divine revelation was very prevalent in ,canaan4 ,the famous holy tree near ,shechem1 called the tree of the soothsayers in ,judges ix4 #cg1 and the tree or trees of the revealer in ,genesis xii4 #f and ,deuteronomy xi4 #cj1 must have been the seat of a ,canaanite tree-oracle4#bjg ,the prophetess ,deborah gave her responses under a palm near ,bethel1 which1 according to sacred tradition1 marked the grave of the nurse of ,rachel4 ,and ,david1 when he inquired of the ,lord as to the right moment for attacking the ,philistines1 received the signal in 8the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry-trees40#bjh ,the ashra or artificial tree in which the deity was supposed to dwell also appears to have been used by the ,canaanites for the purposes of divination1 a practice probably alluded to in the rebuke of the prophet1 8,my people ask counsel at their stock1 and their staff declareth unto them40#bji ,but by far the most striking instance of a tree-oracle1 and perhaps one may even say the most signal vestige of the primitive tree-worship1 was the oracle of the ,pelasgic ,zeus at ,dodona in ,epirus4 ,here in a grove of oaks there was a very ancient tree1 believed to be the actual seat of the deity1 whose responses were interpreted from the rustling of its branches1 from the murmur of the sacred spring which welled forth at its foot1 or from the drawing of the oracle lots kept in an urn beneath it4 ,the origin of the oracle is lost in prehistoric gloom2 probably it existed earlier than the worship of ,zeus himself4 ,homer makes ,ulysses visit it1#baj and ,hesiod states that ,zeus dwelt there in the trunk of a tree4#baa ,herodotus affirms1 on the testimony both of the priestesses of ,dodona and of the ,egyptian priests at ,thebes1 that the oracle was introduced from ,egypt1 and adds that the manner in which oracles were delivered at ,thebes and at ,dodona was very similar4 ,the priests at ,thebes told him that two women employed in their temple had been captured by ,phoenicians1 and sold the one into ,libya1 the other to the ,greeks2 the former established the oracle of ,zeus ,ammon in the ,libyan desert1 the latter that of ,dodona4 ,in the account given him by the ,dodonaean priestesses1 it was asserted that the oracles were founded by two black pigeons from ,thebes4#bab ,we know from other sources that the oracle of ,zeus-,ammon was vested in an ancient tree 774#bac ,but whatever may have been its origin there is no doubt that the oracle of ,dodona had a long and active career1 continuing for close upon two thousand years4 ,silius ,italicus1 towards the end of the first century ,a4,d41 reiterates the statement of ,hesiod that the deity at ,dodona occupied a tree2#bad ,pausanias a hundred years later found the tree still green and flourishing1#bae and ,philostratos about the same time saw it adorned with wreaths and sacred fillets1 8because1 like the ,delphic tripod1 it gave forth oracles40#baf ,a later writer states that the oracular voices ceased on the felling of the tree by a certain ,illyrian bandit1#bag but there is evidence that the tree and the oracle were still in existence in the middle of the fourth century ,a4,d4 ,these ancient testimonies to the importance of the oracle have been marvellously corroborated by the discovery in the course of recent excavations of a large number of leaden tablets inscribed with the questions addressed to the god by his votaries1 and dating from #djj ,b4,c4 onwards4#bah ,according to classical mythology1 the oracular virtue of the famous oak of ,dodona was not only transmitted to its offshoots1 but even preserved in the dead wood after its separation from the tree4 ,ovid1 in relating the story of the plague of ,aegina1 tells how ,aeacus1 standing beneath ,a branching oak1 the ,sire's own tree1 from seed ,of old ,dodona sprung1 calls upon ,zeus to repeople his stricken kingdom1 and fill his desolate walls anew with citizens as numerous as the ants at his feet4 ,not a breath ,was stirring1 but the branches shook1 the leaves ,with rustling murmur waved4 ,accepting the omen he kisses the sacred tree1 falls asleep beneath it1 and wakes to find that the ants have been miraculously changed into men1 the famous ,myrmidons4#bai ,again1 it is related by more than one author that when the good ship ,argo was built1 ,athena introduced into it by way of amulet a beam hewn in the grove of ,dodona1 which in the subsequent voyage constantly gave the ,argonauts warning and advice4#bbj ,at the famous oracle of ,delphi the tree played as intrinsic1 if not so predominant1 a part as at ,dodona1 its function being shared by the fissure in the earth and the sacred spring1 which testify to the chthonic origin of the oracle1 whilst the use of the sacred tripod has been thought to connect it with the class of fire oracles4#bba ,there is evidence that a laurel-tree grew beside the oracular fissure in ,gaia's time1#bbb and1 according to tradition1 the earliest temple of ,apollo was a hut of laurel boughs erected by the god's own hands4#bbc ,and later on1 when the original tree had disappeared and the fissure had been enclosed in the ,adytum1 the entrance to the latter1 as well as the tripod on which the ,pythia sat1 were hidden in fresh laurel leaves whenever the oracle was given1 and the priestess having chewed laurel leaves and crowned herself with a wreath of the sacred plant1 waved a laurel branch while chanting her ecstatic utterances4 ,every ninth year1 moreover1 a bower of laurel branches was erected in the forecourt of the temple4 ,it is uncertain how far ,apollo's close connection with the laurel may have originated from ,delphi1 but it is a fact that in later times his oracular function was inseparably bound up with the use of that tree1 and the laurel became the recognised instrument of prophecy 7per lauros geomantis74 ,and at ,delphi1 when the laurel trees had disappeared1 the oracle ceased1 for the messenger sent by the ,emperor ,julian to reinaugurate it received for answer1 8,tell the king that the cunningly-built chamber has fallen to the ground2 ,apollo no longer has bower1 or inspired laurel1 or prophetic spring2 vanished is the talking water40#bbd ,to pass briefly over other examples of tree-oracle1 in ,armenia the fire-priests were wont to interpret the will of the god from the movements observed in the branches of the holy plane-tree at ,armavira4#bbe ,the ,chaldaeo-,assyrians read the future in the rustling of the leaves of the prophetic trees4#bbf ,at ,nejrn1 in ,yemen1 the ,arabs professed to obtain oracles from the spirit who inhabited a sacred date-palm4#bbg ,in the ,shh ,nmeh1 ,firdausi1 working no doubt upon an ancient tradition1 tells how ,sikander1 or ,alexander the ,great1 consulted a tree-oracle in ,persia4#bbh 8,from thence he proceeded to another city1 where he was received with great homage by the most illustrious of the nation4 ,he inquired of them if there were anything wonderful or extraordinary in their country1 that he might go to see it1 and they replied that there were two trees in the kingdom1 one a male1 the other a female1 from which a voice proceeded4 ,the male tree spoke in the day and the female tree in the night1 and whoever had a wish went thither to have his desires accomplished4 ,sikander immediately repaired to the spot1 and approaching it1 he hoped in his heart that a considerable part of his life still remained to be enjoyed4 ,when he came under the tree a terrible sound arose and rang in his ears1 and he asked the people present what it meant4 ,the attendant priest said it implied that fourteen years of his life still remained4 ,sikander at this interpretation of the prophetic sound wept1 and the burning tears ran down his cheeks4 ,again he asked1 #8,shall ,i return to ,rm and see my mother and children before ,i die8' and the answer was1 #8,thou wilt die at ,kashn4'0 ,amongst the ,romans other forms of augury appear to have taken the place of the old tree-oracles and reduced them to comparative insignificance4 ,the most important of those that remained was the prophetic ilex grove upon the ,aventine hill1 sacred to ,faunus and ,picus4 ,hither the applicant came1 fasting and meanly clothed1 and having crowned himself with beech leaves1 sacrificed two sheep to the deities of the grove1 and laying himself down upon their pelts1 awaited the counsel of the gods in his dream4#bbi ,there was another grove oracle of ,faunus at ,tibur by the ,albunean spring1#bcj and at the neighbouring ,preneste1 where the oracle of ,jupiter was held in great repute1 the oracle lots were fashioned from the wood of his sacred oak4#bca ,at the more sequestered ,tiora ,matiena the tree-oracle appears to have dwindled into a mere vestige1 the responses being given by a woodpecker perched upon an oaken column4#bcb ,to tree-omens1 as distinguished from tree-oracles1 the ,romans attached much importance1 and they possessed several treatises dealing with such portents4 ,the family and community tree described in the last chapter had a certain oracular character1 and foretold in its own fortunes the prosperity or adversity of those whom it represented4 ,the withering of the laurel grove of ,augustus was held to portend the death of ,nero1 and with him the extinction of the ,augustan house and its adopted members2 the fall of ,vespasian's cypress foretold the death of ,domitian4 ,if the sacred tree attached to a sanctuary were uprooted by the wind1 it was a clear proof that the deity had withdrawn his protection1 and unless the tree upreared itself anew1 his worship at that spot was discontinued4 ,the ,sibylline books contained explicit instructions with regard to these eventualities and were invariably consulted in every such case4 ,innumerable instances of these tree-omens are given in classical literature4#bcc ,the legends of trees which spoke intelligibly belong rather to myth than to history1 but they were quite in accordance with the ancient belief that any tree which contained a tree-soul1 were it the spirit of a god or only that of a dryad1 might express itself in words4 ,thus the spirits inhabiting the three trees of the ,hesperides gave advice to the wandering ,argonauts4 ,philostratus relates that at the command of ,apollonius a tree addressed him in a distinct female voice4#bcd ,when ,rome was invaded by the ,gauls a voice from out of the grove of ,vesta warned the ,romans to repair their walls or their city would fall4#bce ,and after the battle in which ,brutus and ,aruns ,tarquinius slew each other1 a powerful voice from the neighbouring grove of ,arsia announced that the victory lay with the ,romans4#bcf ,a later instance is that of the gharcad tree which spoke to ,moslim b4 #8,ocba in a dream1 and designated him to the command of the army of ,yazd against ,medina4#bcg ,it has already been mentioned that the responses at ,dodona were sometimes interpreted from the oracle lots kept in an urn that stood upon a sacred table beneath the tree1 and the same form of divination was also apparently in use at ,delphi1#bch whilst at ,preneste it was the sole method employed4 ,indeed this outgrowth of the tree-oracle was in common use throughout the ancient world4 ,there is a probable allusion to it in ,ezekiel xxi4 #ba4 ,the ,scythian soothsayers were wont to divine by the help of a number of willow rods1 which they placed upon the ground1 uttering their predictions as they gathered them up one by one4 ,they also practised divination by means of the bark of the linden-tree4#bci ,amongst the neighbouring ,alani1 in ,sarmatia1 women foretold the future by means of straight rods cut with secret enchantments at certain times and marked very carefully4#bdj ,the ,germans used to divine by means of the fragments of a branch cut from a fruit-tree1 which they threw on to a white cloth4#bda ,the omen sticks of the ,druids1 frequently referred to in the ,bardic poems1 were probably rods cut from a fruit-tree and marked with mystical emblems4#bdb ,it is not easy to define the exact connection between these oracle-lots and that strange survival1 the divining-rod1 but it may be taken for certain that the belief in the efficacy of the latter is 8a superstition cognate to the belief in sacred trees10#bdc and that the idea underlying both the oracle-lot and the divining-rod was that they were animated by an indwelling spirit1 probably by the spirit of the tree from which they were cut4 ,we know from ,pliny and ,pausanias that the earliest images of the gods were made of wood1 and that the ,greeks1 ,romans1 and other pre-,christian nations worshipped stakes or peeled rods of wood1 painted1 or dressed1 or roughly carved in the semblance of an anthropomorphic god1 and supposed to be inhabited by a divine essence4 ,it was probably by a similar mode of reasoning that the spear1 the sceptre1 the staff of the general1 the standards of the army1 the herald's wand1 the rods of the flamens1 the lituus of the augur1 and the truncheon of the constable came to be symbolically representative of power and inviolability1 the primitive assumption being that they retained some of the divine spirit resident in the tree from which they were cut4#bdd ,from a similar parentage sprang the popular custom of striking men1 cattle1 and plants with a green switch 7,lebensrute7 at certain seasons of the year in order to make them fruitful1 an observance of which so many instances have been collected by ,mannhardt4 8,it was the tree-soul1 the spirit of vegetation10 he concludes1 8communicated by means of this switching1 which drove away the demons of sickness and sterility and evoked fruitfulness and health40#bde ,the divining-rod is1 if one may say so1 first cousin to the 8life-rood40 ,each represents and embodies a different function of the supernatural--the one its procreative1 the other its prophetic attribute4 ,the divining-rod is the meagre survival of the once renowned tree-oracle4 ,it may seem strange that in this positive age there should exist people calling themselves educated1 who believe that a stick cut from a hazel or thorn-bush may in the hands of a specially endowed person possess a magical power of revealing the secrets of the earth4 ,but so it is4 ,there are in this country at the present hour some half-dozen professional experts1 who claim the faculty of discovering unsuspected springs of water by means of the divining-rod1 and furnish well-attested instances of their success4 ,it is not necessary to discuss the credibility of their assertions or to formulate a theory to account for their success4 ,the subject of the divining-rod concerns us only in so far as it is a vestige--a poor and atrophied vestige--of the magic eloquence once associated with the sacred tree4 ,it is impossible to say when the use of the divining-rod first originated4 ,it is mentioned in the ,vedas1 and is well known to have flourished amongst the ,chaldaeans and ,egyptians4 ,but in those early days the function of the magical rod was not restricted1 as it was later and is now1 to the search for water or buried treasure4 ,the ,greeks and ,romans found many uses for it4 ,cicero speaks of providing for one's wants1 quasi virgul divin1 ut aiunt4 ,it was a familiar instrument in the hands of the ,british ,druids1 and is still largely employed in ,china4 ,mediaeval writers speak of it as being in very common use among the miners of ,germany4#bdf ,at all times and in all places the act of cutting and preparing the rod has been the subject of much ceremony4 ,it had to be severed at a particular moment1 and from a particular kind of tree1 the latter varying according to the country4 ,as a rule a fruit-tree1 or some other tree that was useful and beneficent to man1 was chosen4 ,the ,chinese prefer the peach2 the ,druids made choice of the apple-tree4#bdg ,elsewhere the hazel1 the willow1 and the black-thorn have been selected1 and the last-named is still known in ,germany as the 8wishing-thorn10 as it is the tree from which wishing-rods were cut4 ,the time at which the rod was cut was equally important4 ,for centuries the ,chinese have adhered to the first new moon after the winter solstice as the most favourable date for the ceremony4 ,the ,french custom was to cut it on ,mercury's day 7,wednesday7 at the planetary hour of ,mercury4#bdh ,in ,sweden divining-rods of mistletoe are cut on midsummer eve4#bdi ,even in comparatively modern times believers in the divining-rod professed to expect more of a rod which had been cut between sunset and sunrise1 upon some holy day or at new moon1 from a branch on which the rising sun first shone4#bej ,these mystic observances smack of a far-distant past1 and the modern water-finder appears to have discarded them4 ,his practice is to cut a forked branch about eighteen inches in length from any convenient hazel or white-thorn bush1 and grasping the prongs very firmly between the thumb and two first fingers of each hand1 the joint being held downwards1 he walks over the ground where it is desired to find water4 ,if he approaches a hidden spring1 the joint will begin to rise against his will1 and when he has reached it1 will make a complete half revolution1 breaking or bending the twigs held in his hands1 until the joint is uppermost4 ,the depth of the spring is estimated by the force with which the rod is repelled from it4 ,the mental exhaustion of the operator after a successful operation is said to be considerable4 ,in an old volume of the ,quarterly ,review 7,no4 #dd7 an account is given of a certain ,lady ,noel who was skilful in the use of the divining-rod4 ,she used a thin forked hazel-twig1 which immediately bent when she came over the underground spring1 its motion being more or less rapid as she approached or withdrew from the spot4 8,when just over it the twig turned so quick as to snap1 breaking near the fingers1 which by pressing it were indented and heated and almost blistered4 ,a degree of agitation was also visible in her face40 ,many of the superstitious practices that still survive in remote villages are no doubt of the same ancestry as the divining-rod4 ,in the valley of ,lanzo in ,piedmont1 lovers in doubt whether to marry consult the oracle in the form of a herb called concordia1 the root of which is shaped like two hands1 each with its five fingers4 ,if the herb they find has the hands conjoined1 the omen is favourable2 but unfavourable if the hands point different ways4#bea ,the following nave recital is quoted in ,brand's antiquities3--8,last ,friday was ,valentine's day1 and the night before ,i got five bay-leaves1 and pinned four of them to the four corners of my pillow1 and the fifth to the middle2 and then1 if ,i dreamt of my sweetheart1 ,betty said we should be married before the year was out40#beb ,this belief in the magical power of certain leaves is enshrined in many jingles1 still found in the rustic formulary1 such as-- ,the even ash-leaf in my glove ,the first ,i meet shall be my love2#bec or ,find even ash or four-leaved clover ,and you'll see your true love before the day's over4#bed ,in old days on ,st4 ,valentine's eve many a rustic maid has sprinkled bay-leaves with rose-water and laid them across her pillow1 and then lying down in a clean night-gown1 turned wrong side out1 has softly recited-- ,good ,valentine1 be kind to me1 ,in dreams let me my true love see2#bee or1 if she were a ,staffordshire lass1 she probably preferred ,st4 ,thomas's eve1 and having placed a sprig of evergreen under her pillow1 sighed-- ,good ,st4 ,thomas1 stand by my bed ,and tell me when ,i shall be wed4#bef ,to those who are new to the subject of comparative mythology these doggrels whispered by foolish country girls under the stress of a natural impulse may seem absurdly irrelevant4 ,but to that science which strives to unravel the beliefs and ideas of long dead people1 every vestige1 every survival is important4 ,the charms above mentioned did not spring1 fully matured1 from the brain of some peculiarly inventive dairy-maid4 ,they have a long1 long pedigree1 and1 like the zebra stripe which will sometimes appear on a purebred horse1 they throw us back to an age when man believed that the world was controlled by spirits1 and that he1 like everything else1 was but a puppet in their hands4 ,,chapter ,,vi ,,the ,,universe-,,tree ,one of the most interesting points in connection with tree myths is the wide distribution of the conception of the cosmogonic or world-tree1 of which the ,scandinavian ,yggdrasil is the most familiar example4 ,the idea is met with amongst the ancient ,chaldaeans1 the ,egyptians1 the ,persians1 the ,hindus1 and the ,aryan races of ,northern ,europe1 as well as in the mythology of ,china and ,japan2 and this community of tradition has been regarded by some authorities as pointing to a prehistoric intercourse between these widely-separated races1 if not to their common origin4#beg ,but1 apart from the fact that the same conception is also found in a rudimentary form amongst the aborigines of ,new ,zealand and ,america1 it is not difficult to imagine that it may have occurred separately to more than one inquirer4 ,in short1 8the idea of referring to the form of a tree the apparent conformation of the universe is one of the most natural methods of reasoning which can occur to the savage mind40#beh ,the moment he began to concern himself with such questions1 the primitive thinker must have asked himself why the heavenly firmament1 with its sun and stars and the waters above it1 did not fall to earth like everything else within his knowledge4 ,his mind naturally demanded some prop or support to antagonise what in his experience was the unrestricted despotism of geocentric gravitation4 ,the ,egyptian explained the problem by representing the sky as the star-spangled body of the goddess ,nut1 who had been separated from her husband ,sib1 the earth1 by the efforts of ,sh4 ,in the mythology of the ,maoris1 ,rangi1 the sky1 was forcibly separated from his wife1 the universal mother1 earth1 by one of their children1 ,tane ,mahuta1 father of forests1 who planting his head upon the earth1 upheld the heavens with his feet4#bei ,the fact that the celestial bodies were observed to revolve around a fixed point rendered it a necessity that this assumed support of the heaven should be of the nature of a central axis1 upholding the sky-roof as the pole upholds a tent4 ,to the inhabitants of mountainous countries1 who saw the clouds resting upon the peaks1 the idea of a heaven-supporting mountain no doubt presented itself as the most reasonable solution4 ,thus ,aristotle1 to quote ,lord ,bacon1 8elegantly expoundeth the ancient fable of ,atlas 7that stood fixed and bare up the heaven from falling7 to be meant of the poles or axle-tree of heaven40 ,to plain-dwellers1 however1 the tree was the loftiest object within their experience1 and it may be conjectured that the idea of a central world-supporting tree was a product of the lowlands4 ,in some cases the two conceptions were combined and the world-tree was placed on the summit of a world-mountain4 ,it is interesting1 however1 to note that the earliest known version of a world-tree1 pure and simple1 comes to us from the fertile alluvial plain on the borders of the ,persian ,gulf4 ,the account1 contained in an old bilingual hymn1 and probably of ,accadian origin1 represents the tree as growing in the garden of ,edin or ,eden1 placed by ,babylonian tradition in the immediate vicinity of ,eridu1 a city which flourished at the mouth of the ,euphrates between #cjjj and #djjj ,b4,c4 ,in ,eridu a stalk grew overshadowing2 in a holy place did it become green2 ,its roots were of white crystal1 which stretched towards the deep4 7,before7 ,ea was its course in ,eridu1 teeming with fertility2 ,its seat was the 7central place of the earth72 ,its foliage 787 was the couch of ,zikum the 7primaeval7 mother4 ,into the heart of its holy house1 which spread its shade like a forest1 hath no man entered4 7,there is the home7 of the mighty mother who passes across the sky4 ,in the midst of it was ,tammuz4 ,there is the shrine of the two 7gods74#bfj ,of this glorified tree or stem it is to be observed that it grew at the centre of the earth2 that its roots pierced down into the abysmal watery deep1 where the amphibious ,ea1 the god of wisdom1 had his seat1 and whence he nourished the earth with springs and streams2 that its foliage supported ,zikum1 the primordial heavens1 and overshadowed the earth1 which was apparently regarded as a plane placed midway between the firmament above and the deep below4 ,the stem itself was the home of ,davkina1 consort of ,ea1 the great mother1 8the lady of the ,earth10 and of her son ,tammuz1 a temple too sacred for mortals to enter4 ,even were it not to be inferred from other evidence1 there could be little doubt that the people amongst whom the above conception arose must have been already familiar with tree-worship4 ,the mighty stem1 in which the great gods dwelt1 was but a poetical amplification of the sacred1 spirit-inhabited tree1 and arose out of the same idealising process as that which gave birth to the nearly related tree of knowledge and tree of life4 ,side by side with that of a world-tree the conception of a world-mountain is also met with in the primitive cosmogony of the ,chaldaeans1 but while the former tradition belonged to ,sumir or ,southern ,babylonia1 the latter seems to have prevailed in the ,northern ,accad1 whose inhabitants had once been mountain-dwellers4#bfa ,this 8mountain of the world10 8whose head rivalled the heaven10 which had the pure deep for its foundation and was the home of the gods1 was placed in the north1 and its worship survived in that of the 8illustrious mounds0 of the ,babylonian plain1 which were equally regarded as the visible habitation of divine spirits4 ,isaiah represents the king of ,babylon as boasting1 8,i will ascend into heaven1 ,i will exalt my throne above the stars of ,god2 and ,i will sit upon the mount of congregation1 in the uttermost parts of the north40#bfb ,it seems clear that the prophet is alluding to the myth of a ,chaldaean ,olympus1 where the gods held their assemblies4 ,in one of the ,babylonian hymns this mountain is addressed as1 8,o thou who givest shade1 ,lord who castest thy shadow over the land1 great mount10#bfc from which it might appear that the idea of the world-mountain was not very strictly dissociated from that of a world-tree4 ,in the corresponding cosmogony1 which was current five thousand years later amongst the ,scandinavians1 the two conceptions were unequivocally combined4 ,the ,norse ,yggdrasil1 in spite of the many quaint symbolical fancies which have been embroidered on to the main conception1 represents such a remarkable amalgamation of ideas originally ,oriental that it is difficult to believe that it can have had a totally independent origin4 ,the world-mountain1 the world-tree with the birds in its branches1 and the connection of the latter with another peculiarly ,eastern idea1 that of the food of the gods1 are all reproduced in the cosmogonic traditions of the ,eddas1 and it is highly probable that they formed part of a primitive folk-lore common to the different races4 ,as their culture grew the ,chaldaeans gave up their earlier conception1 and came to regard the earth as a gigantic bowl floating bottom upwards upon the deep1 but to the ,norse poet the world still remained a flat disc surrounded by a river ocean1 and limited by mountain ranges4 ,in its centre ,asgard1 the mountain of the gods1 was pierced by a mighty tree trunk1 the branches of which overshadowed the world and supported the sky1 the stars1 and the clouds1 whilst its roots stretched downwards into the primordial abyss4 ,the apples stored in ,valhal1 by eating which the gods preserved their youth1 closely correspond to the amrita or soma which1 as we shall see1 was a peculiar feature of the ,eastern conception of the world-tree4 8,the chief and most holy seat of the gods10 say the ,eddas1 8is by the ash ,yggdrasil4 ,there the gods meet in council every day4 ,it is the greatest and best of all trees1 its branches spread over all the world and reach above heaven4 ,three roots sustain the tree and stand wide apart3 one is with the ,asa2 the second with the ,frost-giants2 the third reaches into ,niflheim1 and under it is ,hvergelmer1 where ,nidhug gnaws the root from below4 ,but under the second root1 which extends to the ,frost-giants1 is the well of ,mimer1 wherein knowledge and wisdom are concealed4 ,the third root of the ash is in heaven1 and beneath it is the most sacred fountain of ,urd4 ,here the gods have their doomstead4 ,the ,asa ride thither every day over ,bifrost1 which is also called ,asa-bridge4 ,there stands a beautiful hall near the fountain beneath the ash4 ,out of it come three maids4 ,these maids shape the lives of men and we call them the ,norns4 ,on the boughs of the ash sits an eagle1 who knows many things4 ,between his eyes sits the hawk1 called ,vedfolner4 ,a squirrel1 by name ,ratatsk1 springs up and down the tree and bears words of hate between the eagle and ,nidhug4 ,four stags leap about in the branches of the ash and bite the buds4 ,the ,norns that dwell by the fountain of ,urd every day take water from the fountain1 and clay that lies around the fountain1 and sprinkle therewith the ash1 in order that its branches may not wither or decay4444 ,in ,valhal there is a chest1 kept by ,ithun1 in which are the apples that the gods must bite when they grow old1 in order to become young again40#bfd ,in the above description the various denizens of the tree have been supposed to symbolise natural phenomena4 ,the stags who bite the buds are the four cardinal winds2 the eagle and the hawk represent respectively the air and the wind-still ether2 the serpent ,nidhug who gnaws the root in the subterranean abyss symbolises volcanic forces1 and the squirrel1 who runs up and down the tree1 hail and other atmospheric phenomena4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #bg4--,yggdrasil--the ,scandinavian world-tree47,from ,finn ,magnusen's ,eddalaeren47 ,a similar if somewhat less detailed symbolism is met with in both the ,indian and ,persian traditions of the world-tree1 a symbolism which often obscures and overshadows its cosmic function4 ,in both countries the mythical tree was venerated rather as a tree of life1 the source of the immortalising soma or haoma1 than as the supporter of the universe4 ,the latter function was not indeed quite lost sight of1 for the ,kalpadruma of the ,vedas was a cloud-tree of colossal size1 which grew on a steep mountain1 and by its shadow produced day and night before the creation of the sun and moon2 and in the ,rig-,veda ,brahma himself is described as the vast over-spreading tree of the universe1 of which the gods are the branches4 ,similarly in ,persian legend1 near the haoma-tree stood the tree of all seeds1 frequented by two birds1 one of which when he settled on it broke off a thousand branches and caused their seeds to fall1 while the other carried them to a place whence they might be conveyed to the earth with the rain4 ,the same idea1 even to the two birds1 recurs in the ,indian traditions of the mystical soma-tree1 which1 besides producing the immortalising drink1 also bore fruit and seed of every kind4 ,it was from this tree that the immortals shaped the heaven and the earth3 it grew in the third heaven1 overshadowing it with its branches4 ,beneath it sat the gods1 quaffing the precious soma1 whereby they preserved their immortality4 ,amongst the followers of ,buddha this tradition of a supernatural tree underwent a further process of idealisation4 ,their fancy described it as covered with divine flowers1 and gleaming with every kind of precious stone4 ,to its smallest leaf it was formed of gems4 ,it grew on a pure and level sward1 resplendent in colour as the peacock's neck4 ,it received the homage of the gods4#bfe ,it was beneath this tree that ,gautama took his seat1 resolved not to stir until he had attained to perfect knowledge4 ,the tempter ,mra1 with his hosts of demons1 assailed him with fiery darts1 with rain in floods and hurricanes2 but the ,buddha remained unmoved1 until the defeated demons fled away4 ,this is probably a ,buddhist rendering of the ,vedic account of the great fight between the powers of light and darkness for the clouds and the ambrosia they contained4 ,gautama also wins the victory1 but for him it is knowledge and enlightenment that should constitute the true object of human desire4 ,briefer references to the cosmic tree are met with in the traditions of other races4 ,according to the ,phoenicians the universe was framed on the model of a tent1 its axis a revolving cosmic tree1 supporting a blue canopy on which the heavenly bodies were embroidered4 ,the ,egyptians1 in one of their schemes of the universe1 also represented the central axis as a colossal tree1 on whose branches ,bennu the sun god perched4 ,it gave forth celestial rain1 which descended on the fields of ,lower ,egypt1 and penetrated to the under-world to refresh those who are in ,amenti4 ,the ,osirian ,tt-pillar1 alluded to in a previous chapter1 is thought by ,professor ,tiele to be derived from the conception of the world-pillar1 though ,m4 ,maspero regards its cosmic symbolism as a later accretion4 8,on a post on which is graven a human countenance1 and which is covered with gay clothing1 stands the so-called ,tt-pillar1 entirely made up of superimposed capitals1 one of which has a rude face scratched upon it1 intended no doubt to represent the shining sun4 ,on the top of the pillar is placed the complete head-dress of ,osiris1 the ram's horns1 the sun1 the ureus adder1 the double feather1 all emblems of light and sovereignty1 which in my judgment must have been intended to represent the highest heaven40#bff ,the conception of the world-tree is also found in the golden gem-bearing tree of the sky1 where1 according to ,egyptian mythology1 ,nut had her abode4 8,she is goddess of the heavenly ocean1 whose body is decked with stars4 ,the pilgrim to the lower world eats of the fruit1 and the goddess leaning from the tree pours out the water of life40 ,this was in the west on the way travelled by the dead4 ,to the east there was another tree1 with wide radiating branches bearing jewels1 up which the strong morning sun1 ,horus1 climbed to the zenith of heaven4 ,it has been suggested that this 8,sycamore of ,emerald0 was a mythological rendering of the beautiful green tints on the horizon at the rising and setting of the sun4#bfg ,the tradition of a universe-tree is found also in ,china and ,japan4 ,the legends of the latter country speak of an enormous metal pine which grows in the north at the centre of the world4#bfh ,in ,chinese mythology seven miraculous trees once flourished on the ,kuen ,ln ,mountains4 ,one of them1 which was of jade1 bore fruit that conferred immortality2 another1 named ,tong1 grew on the highest peak1 8hard by the closed gate of heaven40#bfi ,it is interesting to find somewhat similar traditions current in the ,new ,world4 ,according to the cosmogony of the ,sia ,indians--a small diminished tribe inhabiting ,new ,mexico--there was in each of the six regions of the world1 ,north1 ,south1 ,east1 ,west1 ,zenith1 and ,nadir1 a mountain bearing a giant tree1 in a spring at the foot of which dwelt one of the six 8cloud rulers10 each attended by one of the six primal ,sia priestesses1 chosen by the arch-mother to intercede with the cloud rulers to send rain to the ,sia4 ,the six trees were specified as the spruce1 pine1 aspen1 cedar1 and two varieties of the oak4#bgj ,the beautiful conception met with in some of the above traditions1 by which the stars were compared at once to gems and to the fruits of a mighty tree1 is frequently encountered in ancient literature4 ,the ,arabians represented the zodiac as a tree with twelve branches1 of which the stars were the fruit1 and a somewhat similar idea appears in the ,apocalyptic tree of life1 which 8bare twelve manner of fruits1 and yielded her fruit every month40#bga ,the ,babylonian hero ,gilgames1 in his wanderings beyond the gates of ocean1 came upon a forest1 which ,to the forest of the trees of the gods in appearance was equal2 ,emeralds it carried as its fruit2 ,the branch refuses not to support a canopy2 ,crystal they carried as shoots1 ,fruit they carry and to the sight it is glistening4#bgb ,the device of a golden tree hung with jewels1 which is common throughout the ,east in all fine goldsmiths' work1 and a good example of which was formerly one of the treasures of the palace of the ,great ,mogul at ,agra1#bgc was no doubt derived from the conception of a star-bearing world-tree4 ,for it must be remembered that the ancients believed gems to be self-lustrous like the stars4 ,homer's palaces emitted a radiance like moonlight1 and the columns of gold and emerald seen by ,herodotus at ,tyre gave out light4#bgd ,we have no direct instance of gem-bearing trees in ,greek mythology1 though the golden apples of the ,hesperides growing on ,mount ,atlas1 the sky-sustaining mountain in the country beyond the north wind1 had evidently some kinship to the jewelled fruit of ,eastern legend4 ,in addition to the ,norse ,yggdrasil1 there are other traces of the tradition of a world-tree to be met with amongst ,european nations4 ,the ,russians have a legend1 derived from ,byzantium1 of an iron-tree1 the root of which is the power of ,god1 while its head sustains the three worlds1 the heavenly ocean of air1 the earth1 and hell with its burning fire and brimstone4#bge ,amongst the ,saxons the idea of a world-tree seems to have persisted even to the time of ,charlemagne1 who in the course of his campaign against them in #ggb ,a4,d4 solemnly destroyed as a heathen idol their ,irmensl or 8,world-pillar10 a lofty tree-trunk1 which they worshipped as typifying the universal column that supports all things4 ,mannhardt1 however1 regards the ,irmensl as simply a national tree1 corresponding to the community trees already mentioned1 and explains ,charlemagne's act as a political rather than a religious one4#bgf ,in the ,cathedral at ,hildesheim there is an ancient stone column known as the ,irmensule 7though its claim to the name is disputed71 which was dug up under ,louis le ,dbonnaire1 and transformed into a candelabrum surmounted by an image of the ,virgin1#bgg the conception of moral support thus taking the place of the grosser idea of a material stay4 ,as in ,eastern legend the universe-tree was venerated as something more than a mere material supporter of the world1 being sometimes the giver of wisdom and sometimes the conveyer of immortality1 so in ,european myth it is found linked with a similar beneficence4 ,in the legends of the ,finns its branches are represented as conferring 8eternal welfare10 and 8the delight that never ceases40 ,the ,kalevala1 which dates back to an unknown antiquity1 relates how the last of created trees1 the oak1 sprang from the magic acorn planted by the hero ,wainamoinen in the ashes of burnt hay which had been mown by the water-maidens3-- ,spreads the oak-tree many branches1 ,rounds itself a broad corona1 ,raises it above the storm clouds2 ,far it stretches out its branches1 ,stops the white clouds in their courses1 ,with its branches hides the sunlight1 ,with its many leaves the moonbeams1 ,and the starlight dies in heaven4 ,sad the lives of man and hero1 ,sad the house of ocean-dwellers1 ,if the sun shines not upon them1 ,if the moonlight does not cheer them4 ,at the prayer of ,wainamoinen1 appalled by the monstrous growth1 his mother1 the wind-spirit1 sends a tiny water-creature1 who1 soon turning into a giant1 with a mighty swing of his hatchet strikes the tree4 ,with the second stroke he cuts it1 and with the third fire springs from its huge bulk and the oak yields1 8shaking earth and heaven in falling40 ,it is not till then that its beneficent powers are made manifest3-- ,eastward far the trunk extending1 ,far to westward flew the tree-tops1 ,to the south the leaves were scattered1 ,to the north its hundred branches4 ,whosoe'er a branch has taken ,has obtained eternal welfare4 ,who receives himself a tree top ,he has gained the master-magic4 ,who the foliage has gathered ,has delight that never ceases4#bgh ,the corresponding legend amongst the neighbouring ,esthonians1 as told in their epic1 the ,kalevipoeg1 contains a quaint medley of the practical and the poetic4 ,here1 too1 the monstrous oak is felled by a giant who grows from a dwarf2 in falling it covers the sea with its branches and is quickly turned to use by the people4 ,from the trunk is fashioned a bridge with two arms1 one stretching to ,finland1 the other to an adjoining island4 ,ships are built from the crown1 and towns from the roots1 and toy-boats from the chips4 ,what is left over is used to build shelters for old men1 widows1 and orphans1 and the last remainder to provide a hut for the minstrel4 ,therewith he gains 8the master-magic10 for the strangers who cross the bridge now and again1 and stop at his door to ask what city and what splendid palace stand before them1 receive for answer that the palace is his poor hut1 and all the splendour around is the light of his songs reflected from heaven4#bgi ,to return again to the ,east1 it has already been mentioned that in a tradition common both to the ,persians and the ,hindus1 and therefore presumably of considerable antiquity1 the cosmic tree produced the food whereby the gods preserved their immortality4 ,the universe-tree had become a tree of life4 ,this conception of a mystical life-giving tree was associated with the ritual use of an earthly counterpart of the immortalising drink4 ,according to the ,persian tradition the haoma-tree grew beside the tree of all seeds in a lake1 where it was guarded by two fish against the attacks of the lizard sent by ,ahriman to destroy the sacred sap wherewith the gods were nourished4 ,it was the first of all trees planted by ,ormuzd in the fountain of life1 and was identified with the god ,haoma1 who gave strength and health to the body1 and to the soul enlightenment and eternal life4 ,this god was regarded as assimilated to the earthly haoma1 and as present in it4 ,it is related in the sacred writings that he appeared one day to ,zoroaster as he was tending the holy fire1 and thus addressed him3 8,i am the divine ,haoma1 who keeps death at bay4 ,call upon me1 express my juice that ye may enjoy me2 worship me with songs of praise40 ,zoroaster replied1 8,honour to ,haoma4 ,he is good1 well1 and truly born1 the giver of welfare and health1 victorious and of golden hue2 his branches bow down that one may enjoy them4 ,to the soul he is the way to heaven4 ,in the beginning ,ormuzd gave to ,haoma the girdle glittering with stars1 wherewith he girded himself upon the tops of the mountains40#bhj ,the juice of the terrestrial haoma was obtained from the plant by the use of pestle and mortar1 and was taken whenever prayer was offered4 ,every house in ,persia had its haoma-plant and its sacred pestle and mortar1 which had to be protected from pollution as carefully as the holy fire and the sacred myrtle-twigs4 ,the preparation of the haoma-drink had its special liturgy1 and in dedicating it the cup was held aloft1 not placed on the ground1 lest it should be polluted by the breath of the worshipper or other impurity4#bha ,the ,semnion or ,theombrotion which1 according to ,pliny1 was taken by the ,persian kings to keep off bodily decay and to produce constancy of mind1 was probably identical with the haoma-drink4#bhb ,the ,parsees of ,bombay still continue the ritual use of the haoma-juice1 deriving it from a plant with a knotted stem and leaves like those of the jasmine1 supplies of which are specially obtained from ,kirman in ,persia4 ,they refuse to admit the identity of the ,vedic soma with their own sacred plant1 which they assert is never found in ,india4#bhc ,this fact1 if true1 would account for the confusion which appears to exist as to the exact nature of the plant from which the ,vedic soma or amrita was derived1 and indeed it is very probable that in their migrations southward the ,hindus made use successively of different plants4 ,but there can be little doubt that the soma ritual and the conceptions associated with it were originally derived from the same source as that of the haoma1 and date back to a period before the ,aryan races had become separated4 ,like the haoma1 the soma is not only a plant but also a powerful deity1 and in both the ,vedas and the ,zendavesta 8the conceptions of the god and the sacred juice blend wonderfully with each other40#bhd ,according to ,professor ,roth1 the plant which is the source of the intoxicating drink offered to the gods in ,hindu sacrifices is the ,sarcostemma acidum or ,asclepias acida1 a leafless herb containing a milky juice1 but it is doubtful whether it is identical with the ,vedic soma plant4#bhe ,dr4 ,haug states distinctly that the plant at present used by the sacrificial priests of the ,deccan is not the soma of the ,vedas4 ,it grows on the hills near ,poona2 its sap1 which is whitish1 is bitter and astringent1 but not sour2 it is a very nasty drink1 but has some intoxicating effect4 ,de ,gubernatis concludes that as the earthly drink was merely a symbol of the heavenly soma1 its source and character were not material4 ,it is not necessary that the drink which the worshipper pretends to drink or to offer to ,indra at the sacrifice should be really intoxicating4 ,the object of the rite is to induce ,indra in heaven to drink the water of strength1 the true soma1 the real ambrosia1 sometimes conceived as hidden in the clouds1 sometimes as dwelling in the soft light poured forth by the great ,soma1 ,indu1 the moon1--the tree whose stem1 long1 dark1 and leafless1 resembles that of the earthly plant from which the drink is ordered to be prepared4 ,the ritual resolves itself1 according to ,de ,gubernatis1 into a sun-charm4 ,soma1 the moon1 the god of plants1 the lord of the dark forest of night or winter1 is the good genius who furnishes the miraculous drink wherewith ,indra1 the solar hero1 recruits his forces4 ,it is under its influence1 say the ,vedas1 that ,indra performs his great deeds4 ,soma does really intoxicate the gods in heaven1 incessantly renewing the triumph of light over its enemies4 ,the sacrifice of the soma on earth is only a pale1 nave1 and grotesque reproduction of that divine miracle4#bhf ,according to the ,vedas1 however1 the soma-drink1 which ,windischman describes as 8the holiest offering of the ancient ,indian worship10 had a genuinely intoxicating effect4 ,it is described as 8stimulating speech10 8calling forth the ardent thought10 8generating hymns with the powers of a poet02 and is invoked as 8bestower of good1 master of a thousand songs1 the leader of sages40 ,a hymn in the ,rig-,veda has been thus translated3-- ,we've quaffed the ,soma bright ,and are immortal grown1 ,we've entered into light ,and all the gods have known4 ,what mortal now can harm ,or foeman vex us more8 ,through thee1 beyond alarm1 ,immortal god6 we soar4#bhg ,in the ,hindu worship the fermented juice of the soma-plant was presented in ladles to the deities invoked1 part sprinkled on the sacrificial fire1 part on the sacred grass strewed upon the floor1 and the remainder invariably drunk by those who conducted the ceremony4#bhh ,in early times1 says ,windischman1 its use was looked upon as a holy action1 and as a sacrament by which the union with ,brahma was obtained4 ,the ambrosia of the ,olympian gods1 like the word itself1 was no doubt in its essence identical with the ,vedic amrita or soma4 ,it contained the principle of immortality1 and was hence withheld from mortals4 ,but the word was also applied1 like the soma1 to a mixture of various fruits used in religious rites4#bhi ,a still closer analogy1 however1 with the ,hindu and ,persian conception is to be found in the cult of ,dionysus1 who was regarded as present in the wine1 which was his gift to man4 8,he1 born a god10 says ,euripides1 8is poured out in libations to the gods40#bij ,and again1 8,this god is a prophet4 ,for when he forces his way into the body1 he makes those who rave to foretell the future40#bia ,the fact that ,dionysus was essentially a tree-god1 8the spiritual form of the vine10#bib renders the analogy still more striking4 ,to discuss the genesis of the above conceptions would be to reopen the whole question of the origin of tree-worship4 ,the drinking of vegetable juices1 fermented or otherwise1 was no doubt one of the means by which early races were accustomed to produce dreams and visions1 and so1 in their view1 to get themselves possessed by or put into communication with a spirit4 ,it was natural1 therefore1 for them to assume that the spirit in question had entered into them with the drug1 and was therefore present in it and in the plant from which it was derived4 ,mr4 ,herbert ,spencer1 indeed1 argues that this particular assumption was one of the chief factors in the origin of plant-worship in general1 a main reason why plants yielding intoxicating agents1 and hence other plants1 came to be regarded as containing supernatural beings4#bic ,it would probably1 however1 be safer to conclude that the sacramental use of the juice of plants is merely one amongst many cognate religious usages1 and like the ritual employment of wreaths in the service of the gods1 the attachment of branches to the house1 and the smiting with the 8life-rood10 sprang out of the desire of men to bring nearer to themselves a spirit already believed to exist1 and thus to ensure their enjoyment of the protection and the benefits presumed to be at his disposal4 ,,chapter ,,vii ,,paradise ,no account of tree-worship would be complete without a chapter on that tradition of a paradise or ideal garden of delight which is met with in the mythology of almost all the nations of antiquity4 ,the form of the tradition varies4 ,paradise was sometimes represented 7#a7 as the seat of the gods2 sometimes 7#b7 as the first home of the parents of mankind2 and in other cases as 7#c7 the abode of the spirits of the blessed4 ,occasionally the different conceptions are combined2 but the earlier traditions all concur in connecting paradise with a miraculous tree or trees1 or with a more or less legendary mountain1 from which it may be plausibly inferred that they date back to the days of that primitive cosmogony when the heavens were supposed to be upheld by a material support4 ,thus in one1 at least1 of its aspects the tradition of paradise must be regarded as an offshoot of the sacred tree4 ,it is not difficult to understand how the various conceptions arose4 ,in the first place1 as the idea of a life or spirit more or less bound to the tree became expanded into that of a powerful and wide-ranging god1 the idealising process demanded for him some home in heaven corresponding to the tree which was his favourite habitat or embodiment on earth4 ,the sacred god-haunted tree1 to which worship and gifts were accorded below1 suggested a mystical counterpart above1 and the proper home of deity was assumed to be that marvellous tree whose branches were the sky and its fruit the sun and stars1 or that lofty mountain whose summit touched and supported the heavens4 ,in the second place1 the belief1 common in primitive mythology1 that the first parents were born from trees1 presumably led to the idea that these honoured ancestors1 whose innocence was a part of their idealisation1 lived amongst trees and in a garden equally idealised4 ,the third conception of paradise naturally grew out of the earlier conceptions1 when there arose the belief in a future life of reward or punishment2 though it has been pointed out that the conception of heaven under the form of a garden prevailed1 par excellence1 amongst settled nations1 living under kings of whose state a luxurious garden or pleasaunce formed an essential part4#bid ,of paradise regarded as the abode of the gods1 the ,indian tradition of the garden of ,indra furnishes the best example4 ,it was situated on ,mount ,meru1 on the confines of ,cashmere1 and contained the five wonderful trees which sprang from the waters1 after the churning of the cosmic ocean by the gods and the demons4 ,under these trees the gods took their ease1 enjoying the ambrosia that fell from them4 ,the garden1 watered by springs and rivulets1 contained luminous flowers1 fruits that conferred immortality1 and birds whose song even the gods loved to hear4 ,the chief of its five miraculous trees was the paridjata1 the flower of which preserved its freshness throughout the year1 contained in itself every scent and flavour1 and gave happiness to whoever demanded it4 ,it was1 moreover1 a test of virtue1 losing its splendour in the hands of the sinful1 and preserving it for him who followed duty4 ,each person found in it his favourite colour and perfume4 ,it served as a torch by night1 was a talisman against hunger1 thirst1 disease1 and decrepitude1 and discoursed the sweetest and most varied music4#bie ,de ,gubernatis quotes several other instances from ,indian literature of a legendary celestial garden4#bif ,illustration3 ,fig4 #bh4--;,from a ,babylonian seal47,goblet d',alviella47 ,of paradise1 as the home of the first parents1 the ,pentateuch gives the most circumstantial account1 though it would appear from ,genesis iii4 #h that the ,biblical paradise was also regarded as a favourite resort of ,jehovah4 ,the sacred books of the ,parsis contain a very similar version4 ,the original human pair1 ,maschia and ,maschina1 sprang from a tree in ,heden1 a delightful spot where grew hom or haoma1 the marvellous tree of life1 whose fruit imparted vigour and immortality4 ,the woman1 at the instance of ,ahriman1 the spirit of evil in the guise of a serpent1 gave her husband fruit to eat and so led to their ruin4#big ,the tradition is no doubt of very ancient origin1 and is supposed to be represented on an early ,babylonian seal now in the ,british ,museum4 ,the tree stands in the middle1 from either side two human beings seated stretch forth their hands for its fruit2 the serpent stands erect behind one of them4#bih ,on another cylinder in the ,museum at the ,hague there is represented a garden with trees and birds2 in the middle a palm1 from which two personages are plucking the fruit2 a third with a fruit in his hand seems to address them4#bii ,the two mystical trees of the ,biblical paradise find their common counterpart in the sacred cedar of the ,chaldaeans1 which1 besides being essentially a tree of life1 employed in magic rites to restore strength and life to the body1 was also 8the revealer of the oracles of earth and heaven40 ,upon its core the name of ,ea1 the god of wisdom1 was supposed to be written1#cjj just as the name of ,ormuzd was first disclosed to man by appearing carved in the wood of his sacred cypress4 ,the tree of life also finds a parallel in the divine soma1 the giver of eternal youth and immortality1 a drink reserved only for the celestial gods or the souls of the blessed4 ,the third conception of paradise1 as the dwelling-place of the righteous dead1 is met with in the earliest ,greek literature1#cja but there is no definite trace of it amongst the ,semitic nations until much later4 ,it did not1 apparently1 find recognition amongst the ,jews until after the exile1 but references to it are frequent in their later apocalyptic literature4#cjb ,in the second book of ,esdras1 the ,lord tells ,his people that ,he will bring them out of the tombs1 and that ,he has sanctified and prepared for them 8twelve trees1 laden with divers fruits1 and as many fountains flowing with milk and honey1 and seven mighty mountains1 whereupon there grow roses and lilies40#cjc 8,they shall have the tree of life for an ointment of sweet savour2 they shall neither labour nor be weary40#cjd ,in the ,rabbinical writings1 and still more in the ,koran1 this conception of paradise is embroidered with many fanciful extravagances4 ,the ,talmud even invents two paradises4 8,there is an upper paradise and a lower paradise4 ,and between them is fixed a pillar1 by which they are joined together1 and which is called #8,the strength of the ,hill of ,sion4' ,and by this pillar on every ,sabbath and festival the souls of the righteous ascend from the lower to the upper paradise1 and there enjoy the light of the ,divine ,majesty till the end of the ,sabbath or festival1 when they descend and return into the lower paradise40#cje ,this pillar is no doubt a survival of the old tradition of the world-tree1 a tradition still more obviously traceable in the ,mahometan belief4 ,according to the ,koran paradise is situated in the seventh heaven4 ,in the centre of it stands the marvellous tree called ,tooba1 which is so large that a man mounted on the fleetest horse could not ride round its branches in a hundred years4 ,this tree not only affords the most grateful shade over the whole extent of the ,mussulman paradise1 but its boughs1 laden with delicious fruits of a size and taste unknown to mortals1 bend themselves to be plucked at the wish of the happy denizens of that blissful abode4 ,the rivers of paradise take their rise from the tree1 flowing some with water1 some with milk1 and some with honey2 while others are filled with wine1 the use of which is not forbidden to the blessed4#cjf ,the confusion of thought apparent in these ancient traditions of paradise was no doubt partly due to the fact that primitive man1 with his limited grasp of the possibilities of space1 pictured heaven as not far distant from him4 ,it was a happier and a brighter earth1 which offered material rather than spiritual joys1 and where1 according to the earliest conceptions1 the spirits of the departed carried on the same pursuits1 reaped and sowed and hunted1 as they had done while in life4 ,thus the old ,accadian dwellers by the ,euphrates pictured the sky as the counterpart of their own fertile plains1 and the sun as a ploughman yoking his oxen to the glittering plough1 with which he tilled the heavenly pasture4#cjg ,the same idea is exemplified in the names of the zodiacal constellations1 which are of extremely ancient origin1 the sign we still know as ,taurus being called by the ,accadians 8the bull who guides the year40 ,so near was heaven that it was not impossible to climb up to it1 if you could but find the cosmic tree by which it was upheld4 ,the ,khasias of ,india have a legend that the stars are men who have climbed into heaven by a tree4#cjh ,the ,mbocobis of ,paraguay still believe that the souls of the dead go up 8to the earth on high0 by the tree which joins us to heaven1 and find an entrance by means of the holes in the sky-roof through which the rain descends4#cji ,there is a ,chinese story of a king1 who having heard of the glories of paradise1 set forth in search of it4 ,after long wanderings he came to a mighty column1 which1 he had been told1 must be climbed in order to reach the wished-for goal4 ,but it was too slippery1 and he was compelled to fall back upon the alternative route1 a steep and rugged mountain path4 ,when almost fainting with fatigue he was assisted by some friendly nymphs1 and at length arrived at a beautiful garden1 with a wondrous tree in its midst1 and a fountain of immortality1 from which four rivers1 flowing to the four corners of the earth1 took their rise4#caj ,the same notion of the similarity and propinquity of the heavenly field is illustrated by the story of the ,etruscan priest1 who by his charms brought down to earth a bit of heaven whereon to build his temple4 ,the ,mahometans assert that the ,caaba was lowered directly from the celestial paradise exactly at the centre of the earth4 ,and the ,bedouins of ,arabia still believe that the jinni1 living near the lowest heaven1 can hear the conversation of the angels1 and so gain valuable information which they are able to impart to men4#caa ,homer placed the seat of the gods and the court of ,zeus upon the summit of ,olympus1#cab which was supposed to touch heaven1 and piercing through the region of rain and cloud to reach into the calm ether1 where reigned eternal spring4 ,by later writers1 however1 ,olympus was represented as an unsubstantial region overhead1 with the palace of ,zeus in its midst4 ,the earlier view of ,olympus exactly corresponds with the ,chaldaean 8mount of the world10 the mountain of ,arallu or ,hades1 where the gods had their seat1 and beneath which was the world of ghosts2#cac also with the ,mount of the ,assembly spoken of by ,isaiah1 and with the ,scandinavian ,asgard4 ,but there is a clearer reminiscence of the elevated paradise of ,oriental legend in the beautiful gardens of the world-supporting ,atlas1 with their delicious fruits1 their golden apples1 and their protecting dragon4 ,the third conception of paradise1 as the abode of the blessed1 is also met with in ,greek mythology in the ,elysian fields1 or islands of the blessed1 also placed by some authorities in the neighbourhood of ,mount ,atlas4 ,here the souls of the virtuous enjoyed perfect happiness1 in bowers for ever green1 and amongst meadows watered by pleasant streams and bestarred with asphodel4 ,the air was pure and serene1 the birds warbled in the groves1 and the inhabitants carried on such avocations as they had delighted in when on earth4 ,later writers1 however1 substituted for these innocent pleasures the voluptuous indulgences of the ,mahometan paradise4 ,it was1 no doubt1 the ancient tradition of an elevated paradise1 of a paradise seated on the summit of a heaven-touching world-mountain1 which influenced ,milton in his celebrated description1 for there is nothing in the ,biblical account to suggest the excessive altitude that he so deliberately accentuates4 ,paradise1 according to the poet-- crowns with her enclosure green1 ,as with a rural mound1 the champain head ,of a steep wilderness1 444 and overhead up-grew ,insuperable height of loftiest shade1 ,cedar1 and pine1 and fir1 and branching palm2 444 ,yet higher than their tops ,the verdurous wall of paradise up-sprung4 99 99 99 99 99 ,and higher than that wall a circling row ,of goodliest trees1 loaden with fairest fruit4#cad ,as man's conceptions of ,god have widened with a more extended knowledge of ,his universe and a fuller realisation of his own history on the earth1 these older conceptions of paradise as the home of deity and the abode of the blessed have decayed1 until at the present day1 however much our theologians may differ in their descriptions of heaven1 they agree at least in this1 that whatever it is1 it is not a garden4 ,but the belief in the existence of an earthly paradise1 which formed a part of the traditions of so many ancient nations1 lingered on for centuries after 8the ,holy ,city0 of the ,new ,testament had displaced the ,paradise of the ,old4 ,the features of this earthly paradise are for the most part similar to those familiar to us in the ,biblical description4 ,it contained the fountain of immortality1 from which sprang the four rivers that flowed to the four quarters of the earth4 ,purling brooks ran with the far-famed ambrosia4 ,the dwellers therein reposed on flowery lawns1 lulled by the melodious warblings of birds and feasting on delicious fruits4 ,whatever there was of beautiful or sublime in nature there found its more perfect counterpart4 ,absolute contentment and serenity and the delight that never dies were the boons it offered4 ,there man could cease from toil1 for nature1 unassisted1 produced all that was necessary for his sustenance4 ,this garden of delight was often sought after but seldom found1 except by semi-divine heroes divinely led4 ,hercules1 directed by ,nereus1 the sea-god1 succeeded in attaining the gardens of the ,hesperides on the world-supporting ,mount ,atlas1 the ,pillar of ,heaven1 as ,herodotus calls it4 ,he conquered the protecting dragon and secured the golden sun-fruit from the central tree4#cae ,the ,chaldaean ,hercules1 ,gilgames1 referred to in a previous chapter1 found a similar tree with magic fruit upon it when he reached the gates of ocean4 ,this idea of an actual paradise upon earth has fascinated the mind of man in all ages1 and has been one of his most cherished and persistent traditions4 ,it was an idea that no doubt arose out of and corresponded to his lifelong craving for a perfect peace and happiness which he never found in the world he knew1 and which he has at length realised to be incompatible with his own organisation4 ,it has taken him centuries to discover that if there is no earthly paradise it is he himself and not the world that is at fault4 ,but the tradition was slow to die1 and there are probably people who still believe1 as ,sir ,john ,maundeville believed in the fourteenth century1 that the ,garden of ,eden exists somewhere upon the earth if it could only be found4 ,this is what the famous traveller says3-- 8,and beyond the land1 and isles1 and deserts of ,prester ,john's lordship1 in going straight towards the ,east1 men find nothing but mountains and great rocks2 and there is the dark region1 where no man may see1 neither by day nor night1 as they of the country say4 ,and that desert1 and that place of darkness1 lasts from this coast unto ,terrestrial ,paradise1 where ,adam1 our first father1 and ,eve were put1 who dwelt there but a little while1 and that is towards the east1 at the beginning of the earth4 8,of ,paradise ,i cannot properly speak1 for ,i was not there4 ,it is far beyond2 and ,i repent not going there1 but ,i was not worthy4 ,but as ,i have heard say of wise men beyond1 ,i shall tell you with good-will4 ,terrestrial ,paradise1 as wise men say1 is the highest place of the earth2 and it is so high that it nearly touches the circle of the moon1 there as the moon makes her turn4 ,for it is so high that the flood of ,noah might not come to it1 that would have covered all the earth of the world all about1 and above and beneath1 except ,paradise4 ,and this ,paradise is enclosed all about with a wall1 and men know not whereof it is2 for the wall is covered all over with moss1 as it seems2 and it seems not that the wall is natural stone4 ,and that wall stretches from the south to the north2 and it has but one entry1 which is closed with burning fire1 so that no man that is mortal dare enter4 ,and in the highest place of ,paradise1 exactly in the middle1 is a well that casts out four streams1 which run by divers lands1 of which the first is called ,pison or ,ganges1 that runs through ,india or ,emlak1 in which river are many precious stones1 and much lignum alos1 and much sand of gold4 ,and the other river is called ,nile or ,gyson1 which goes through ,ethiopia1 and after through ,egypt4 ,and the other is called ,tigris1 which runs by ,assyria and by ,armenia the ,great4 ,and the other is called ,euphrates1 which runs through ,media1 ,armenia1 and ,persia4 ,and men there beyond say that all the sweet waters of the world1 above and beneath1 take their beginning from the well of ,paradise2 and out of that well all waters come and go40#caf ,the paradise in the existence of which the great traveller so firmly believed is represented in a thirteenth-century map as a circular island lying to the east of ,india1 and the cartographer has not forgotten to introduce even the gate from which our first parents were expelled4 ,a fourteenth-century ,icelandic saga describes a voyage undertaken by a prince and his chosen friend in search of the ,deathless ,land4 ,they first went to ,constantinople to consult the ,emperor1 and were told that the earthly paradise was slightly to the south of ,india4 ,arrived in that country they continued the journey on horseback1 and came at last to a dense forest1 the gloom of which was so great through the interlacing of the boughs that even by day the stars could be seen4 ,emerging from it they saw1 across a strait1 a beautiful land1 which was unmistakably paradise4 ,the strait was crossed by a stone bridge guarded by a dragon4 ,the prince1 in no ways deterred1 walked deliberately sword in hand against the dragon1 and the next moment1 to his infinite surprise and delight1 he found himself in paradise4 ,here he encountered all the joys heart could desire1 and exhausted with delight he fell asleep4 ,in his dreams his guardian angel appeared to him and promised to lead him home1 but to come for him again and take him away for ever at the expiration of the tenth year4#cag ,many other mediaeval stories could be quoted1 in which the traveller claims to have found paradise4 ,it was a favourite subject with the court minstrels1 proving that even the envied dwellers around a throne are not less open than other men to the fascinating dream of a still more perfect happiness4 ,plato's story of the lost ,atlantis1 supposed to have been related to ,solon when in ,egypt1 also belongs to the class of paradise legends4 ,it was situated in the ,atlantic1 in the neighbourhood of the ,pillars of ,hercules4 ,larger than ,libya and ,asia together1 it was the seat of a great and wonderful empire1 the subjects of which1 after many conquests1 set out to subdue ,hellas1 but were defeated by the ,athenians4 ,shortly afterwards there arose violent earthquakes and floods1 and in a single day and night the island disappeared beneath the sea4 ,all this happened #ijjj years before the time of ,plato4#cah ,according to other accounts1 when the gods distributed the whole earth amongst themselves ,atlantis fell to the lot of ,poseidon1 and the children he had by ,cleito1 a mortal1 ruled over the surrounding country4 ,the eldest1 ,atlas1 gave his name to the island and to the ,atlantic ,ocean4 ,this sacred land brought forth in abundance the most beautiful and delicious fruits1 and magnificent buildings were constructed from the minerals and fragrant woods of the place1 notably a holy temple dedicated to ,poseidon and ,cleito1 which was protected by an enclosure of gold4 ,a wealth of fountains and hot and cold springs supplied luxurious baths4 ,the government was humane and just1 and the people took their due share in it4 ,so long as the divine nature lasted in them they were obedient to the laws and well affected to the gods1 their kinsmen1 evincing gentleness and wisdom in the various chances of life and in their intercourse with each other1 and setting more value on virtue than on wealth and luxury4 ,but in the end1 as the divine part in them died away1 they fell from virtue1 and they and their island were submerged for ever beneath the waves4 ,this legend1 which would appear to combine with the idea of an earthly paradise another tradition equally familiar to antiquity1 that of a retributory deluge1 survived into the ,middle ,ages1 and became blended with the legends of the ,celtic ,church4 ,for the ,atlantic paradise is distinctly reproduced in that legendary ,isle of ,avalon1#cai which ,st4 ,brandan1 an ,irish saint of the sixth century1 was said to have found in the course of a seven years' voyage2 the isle-- ,where falls not hail or rain or any snow1 ,nor ever wind blows loudly1 but it lies ,deep-meadowed1 happy1 fair1 with orchard lawns ,and bowery hollows4 ,columbus1 in his third voyage1 came upon a spot1 the site of which corresponded with the description given of the earthly paradise by 8holy and wise theologians40 ,but he hesitated to ascend thither and assure himself of the correctness of his conclusion1 as no one could succeed in such an undertaking without the divine permission4#cbj ,the ,japanese have a legend of an ,island of ,eternal ,youth1 which exists beyond the horizon in the shadowy unknown4 ,some fortunate observers have from time to time seen a wondrous tree rising high above the waves4 ,it is the tree which has stood for all ages on the loftiest peak of ,fusan1 the ,mountain of ,immortality4 ,the island has the traditional characteristics of the earthly paradise1--endless spring1 airs ever sweet1 unclouded skies1 unfading flowers1 birds that sing of love and joy1 trees whose celestial dews carry with them the secret of eternity4 ,sorrow1 pain1 and death are unknown1 and the elect of the gods1 who people that delightful spot1 fill their days with music and laughter and song1 knowing nothing of the flight of time4 ,the miracle of the spring in other lands is due to the whisper of the spirit of the island4#cba ,this ,japanese legend preserves the intimate connection between paradise and the cosmic tree1 which is often found to have dropped out of other versions of the tradition4 ,there can be no doubt1 however1 that originally the mystical tree was the essential feature of paradise1 and the garden was merely its precinct or setting--one of the many conceptions which grew up around the central idea of the cosmic tree4 ,each nation1 according to its stage of culture or its prevailing habit of thought1 emphasised one feature of it4 ,the monster tree which1 according to primitive cosmogony1 was believed to support the universe by material branches1 became in the minds of more cultivated races the central tree of a dimly-realised paradise1 and eventually the symbol of an abstract idea4 ,the intellectual ,buddhist saw in it the emblem of knowledge2 the ,persian thought of it as the tree of immortality2 the ,hebrew1 filled with the idea of man's frailty and with the longing to explain it1 made it the tree of temptation4#cbb ,but in all these various conceptions we find a central idea1 derived no doubt from an antecedent and universal tree-worship1 an idea which places a tree at the root of all philosophy1 refers all phenomena to the existence of a central tree1 serviceable to man here or hereafter1 and concentrating upon itself the reverent devotion which had outgrown its earthly counterpart4 ,there are many facts to prove the importance attached in ancient times to this conception of a glorified tree4 ,amongst the gorgeous decorations of the palaces of ,eastern kings a symbolical representation of the tree of paradise was frequently found4 ,tall as the cedar of the mountain1 here ,rose the gold branches1 hung with emerald leaves1 ,blossomed with pearls1 and rich with ruby fruit4 ,sir ,john ,maundeville describes one which he saw in the palace of the ,chan of ,cathay4 8,it is a vine made of fine gold1 which spreads all about the hall1 and it has many clusters of grapes1 some white1 some green1 some yellow1 some red1 and some black1 all of precious stones2 the white are of crystal1 beryl1 and iris2 the yellow of topazes2 the red of rubies1 grenaz1 and alabraundines2 the green of emeralds and perydoz and of chrysolites2 and the black of onyx and garnets4 ,and they are all so properly made that it appears a real vine1 bearing natural grapes40#cbc ,according to an ,arab writer1 quoted by ,gibbon1#cbd there existed in the magnificent palace of the ,caliph of ,bagdad1 in #iag ,a4,d41 amongst other spectacles of rare and stupendous luxury1 a tree of gold and silver1 spreading into eighteen large branches1 on which and on the lesser boughs sat a variety of birds made of the same precious metals4 ,while the machinery effected spontaneous motions the several birds warbled their natural harmony4 ,the intention was1 no doubt1 to represent the traditional luxuriance of paradise1 and a similar motive is met with in ,eastern design even in the present day4 ,the tradition of a king who built a false paradise1 like ,sheddad in ,southey's ,thalaba1 seems always to have been current in ,western ,asia4 ,there is in the ,british ,museum a sculpture from ,koyunjik representing a palace1 or may be a temple1 constructed in imitation of a paradise4 ,the artificial hill1 representing the world-mountain on which it stands1 is planted with trees and flowers1 and watered by a stream that issues from a hanging garden4 ,,chapter ,,viii ,,may ,,celebrations ,in these days1 when so much is done to equalise the seasons1 when in the flower-shops spring treads on the heels of autumn1 and ,christmas windows are gay with tropical fruits1 when fresh meat is always on the stalls1 and the earth is tapped of its light and warmth to make up for the absent sun1 it is difficult to realise the delight and enthusiasm with which our forefathers welcomed the yearly miracle of the spring4 ,it meant so much to them1--release from the cold and the darkness that fell hardly on all but the rich2 a feast of colour to eyes weary of winter grays2 luscious1 varied1 and plentiful food to palates dulled by salt meat and pease-pudding4 ,no wonder that the first hint of the sun's return at ,christmas1 and the fulfilment of the promise of spring at ,may-day1 were welcomed with an abandonment of joy to which our modern festivals offer but a pale parallel4 ,it is doubtful1 however1 whether1 even in the far-off days when the ceremonies possessed the highest religious sanction and significance1 they were celebrated with a finer exuberance than in the comparatively recent times when this country was still 8merrie ,england40 ,fetching in the ,may or going a-,maying was then a most important festival1 in which people of all ranks took part4 ,henry ,,viii4 himself rode a-,maying with ,queen ,katharine and his ,court4 ,every village had its ,may-pole1 and the first of ,may was everywhere 8the maddest1 merriest day of all the glad ,new ,year40 ,the celebration was recognised by the ,roman ,church1 the note for the #cjth of ,april in an old ,calendar being1 8,the boys go out and seek ,may-trees40#cbe ,chaucer represents the whole ,court as going into the fields 8on ,may-day when the lark begins to rise0-- ,to fetch the floures fresh and branch and blome4 ,and namely hawthorne brought both page and grome1 ,with fresh garlants party blew and white1 ,and than rejoysen in their great delight4#cbf ,the poet makes the whole ,court pelt each other with flowers1 8the primerose1 the violete and the gold10 but the general custom was to bring home the branches and flowers as an adornment for the house4 ,even the barns and the cow-byres were carefully decorated1 long after the primitive intention of the ceremony had been forgotten1 and it had degenerated into a licensed opportunity for revelry and love-making4 ,the two aspects of the celebration1 the decorative and the amatory1 are charmingly illustrated in this lyric of ,herrick's3-- ,come1 my ,corinna1 come2 and coming mark ,how each field turns a street1 each street a park1 ,made green and trimmed with trees3 see how ,devotion gives each house a bough ,or branch3 each porch1 each door ere this ,an ark1 a tabernacle is1 ,made up of white-thorn neatly interwove1 ,as if here were those cooler shades of love4 ,can such delights be in the street ,and open fields and we not see't8 ,come1 we'll abroad2 and let's obey ,the proclamation made for ,may3 ,and sin no more1 as we have done by staying2 ,but1 my ,corinna1 come1 let's go a-,maying4 ,the lover of old customs owes little to the ,puritans1 for they did their best to root them out1 but he is certainly indebted to them incidentally for some valuable evidence as to those same customs1 not otherwise attainable4 ,stubbs1 a ,puritan writer of the time of ,elizabeth1 thus describes the setting up of the ,maypole in his time3--8,but their cheefest jewell they bring from thence 7the woods7 in their ,maie ,poole1 whiche they bring home with greate veneration as thus3 ,they have twentie or fourtie yoke of oxen1 every oxe havyng a sweete nosegaie of flowers tyed on the tippe of his hornes1 and these oxen drawe home this ,maie poole 7this stinckyng idoll rather7 which is covered all over with flowers and hearbes1 bounde rounde aboute with stringes1 from top to bottome1 and sometimes painted with variable colours1 with twoo or three hundred men1 women1 and children followyng it with greate devotion4 ,and thus beyng reared up with handkercheifes and flagges streamyng on the toppe1 they strawe the grounde aboute1 binde greene boughes about it1 sett up sommer-haules1 bowers1 and arbours hard by it4 ,and then fall they to banquet and feast1 to leape and daunce aboute it1 as the ,heathen people did at the dedication of their idolles1 whereof this is a perfect patterne1 or rather the thyng itself40#cbg 8,what adoe make our yong men at the time of ,may80 cries another ,puritan writer4 8,do they not use night-watchings to rob and steale young trees out of other men's grounde1 and bring them home into their parishe1 with minstrels playing before3 and when they have set it up they will decke it with floures and garlands and daunce rounde 7men and women togither1 moste unseemley and intolerable1 as ,i have proved before7 about the tree1 like unto the children of ,israell that daunced about the golden calfe that they had set up40#cbh ,thomas ,hall1 another author of the same class1 was also moved to eloquence on the subject3 8,had this rudeness been acted only in some ignorant and obscure parts of the land ,i had been silent2 but when ,i perceived that the complaints were general from all parts of the land1 and that even in ,cheapside itself the rude rabble had set up this ensign of profaneness1 and had put the ,lord ,mayor to the trouble of seeing it pulled down1 ,i could not1 out of my dearest respects and tender compassion to the land of my nativity1 and for the prevention of like disorders 7if possible7 for the future1 but put pen to paper1 and discover the sinful use and vile profaneness that attend such misrule40#cbi ,as every one knows1 the ,puritans had their will of the ,may-poles1 and the ,long ,parliament in ,april #afdd decreed their removal as 8a heathenish vanity1 generally abused to superstition and wickednesse40 ,they were indeed reinstated after the ,restoration and the old festivities revived1 but the ,puritan epoch had left its mark upon the spirit of the people1 and ,may-day was never again quite what it had been1 so that the following lament by a writer of ,cromwell's time was not quite out of date even when ,king ,charles had again come to his own3-- ,happy the age and harmlesse were the dayes 7,for then true love and amity was found7 ,when every village did a ,may-pole raise1 ,and ,whitsun-ales and ,may-games did abound1 ,and all the lusty yonkers in a rout ,with merry lasses daunc'd the rod about4 ,then ,friendship to their banquets bid the guests ,and poor men far'd the better for their feasts4 99 99 99 99 99 ,but since the ,summer poles were overthrown1 ,and all good sports and merriments decayed1 ,how times and men are chang'd so well is knowne1 ,it were but labour lost if more were said4 ,in ,england the once universal joy-making on the first of ,may has dwindled into a mere eleemosynary device1 and every year takes away something even from this poor survival4 ,we are only reminded of the day in ,london by here and there a peripatetic ,jack-in-the-,green with his retinue of begging clowns1 by the gay ribbons on a few draught horses1 and by the newspaper reports of the election of ,mr4 ,ruskin's ,may-queen at ,whitelands ,college4 ,but in many old-world towns and villages throughout the country the children still carry round wands1 with bunches of flowers tied to them1 or garlands1 consisting of a little bower fashioned out of two crossed hoops1 hidden in flowers1 with a doll seated in the centre4 ,the obvious intention of this pretty custom is the collection of coppers1 which no one will grudge4 ,it is1 so to say1 a religious ceremony1 whereof only the collection has survived1 as the following old rhyme sufficiently illustrates3-- ,gentlemen and ladies6 ,we wish you happy ,may2 ,we've come to show our garlands1 ,because it is ,may-day2 ,come1 kiss my face1 and smell my mace1 ,and give the lord and lady something4#ccj ,in place of the final couplet it was sometimes the custom of one of the bearers to say1 8,please to handsel the lord and lady's purse40 ,the practice once current in the ,north of ,england of going into the woods on the first of ,may1 8when the day begins to break10 and bringing home 8knots of flowers and buds and garlands gay0 wherewith to adorn the windows and doors of the houses at sunrise1 is illustrated in the following doggrel1 which used to be sung in the streets of ,newcastle-on-,tyne3#cca-- ,rise up1 maidens1 fie for shame6 ,for ,i've been four long miles from hame2 ,i've been gathering my garland gay1 ,rise up1 fair maids1 and take in your ,may4 ,it now remains to trace back these ceremonies--these survivals--to their origin1 and to show how once they were the essential outcome of a living creed1 and had a serious1 and1 so to speak1 sacramental significance4#ccb ,the ,may-day celebrations combined three different usages4 ,first1 the bringing in of the ,may and the decoration of the homestead4 ,secondly1 the planting of the ,may-pole and the dancing around it4 ,thirdly1 the selection of some youth or maiden as ,king or ,queen of the ,may4 7#a7 ,the custom of going to the woods to fetch in the ,may is not by any means peculiar to ,england4 ,it was until recently very general throughout ,europe1 and still survives in many districts1 though sometimes ,whitsuntide or ,midsummer is the date chosen for the ceremony4 ,this wide distribution at once stamps it as an ancient observance1 and indeed it was already represented as such so long ago as the thirteenth century4#ccc ,in some districts the branches that were brought in were fastened over the house door or upon the roof1 or planted in front of the cattle stalls1 a separate bush being attached for each head of cattle4 ,here the acknowledged purpose was to make the cows good milkers4 8,they fancy10 says a writer on the manners of the ,irish1 8that a green bough fastened on ,may-day against the house will produce plenty of milk that summer40#ccd ,in other districts the ,may-bushes were decorated with nosegays and ribbons and carried in solemn procession from house to house1 the bearers singing a song and collecting their recompense in a basket4 ,in some parts of ,sweden on ,may-day eve boys still go round at the heels of the village fiddler1 each with a bunch of freshly-gathered birch-twigs1 singing songs in which fine weather1 good harvests1 and other blessings are entreated4 ,at every cottage where they are duly compensated for their pains they adorn the door with one of their birch-sprays4 ,in ,stockholm on ,st4 ,john's eve miniature ,may-poles1 known as ,majstnger1 are sold by the thousand4#cce ,in ,russia the custom of decking the houses with branches at ,whitsuntide is universal4#ccf ,similar instances might be multiplied indefinitely4 ,much light has been thrown on these ,may-day ceremonies by the study of many cognate observances met with amongst different nations and at different periods4 ,in ,western ,germany and over the greater part of ,france it is customary at harvest-time to select a green sapling or branch1 adorn it with flowers1 ribbons1 and coloured paper1 and hang it with harvest fruits1 eggs1 cakes1 and sweetmeats1 and sometimes even with sausages1 rolls of tobacco1 rings1 needles1 etc4 ,often bottles of wine or beer are also suspended to it4 ,it is known as the ,may1 harvest-,may1 bouquet de la moisson1 and it is frequently set up in the field which is in process of cutting4 ,when the reaping is over it is brought home on the last sheaf or on the last load1 or is borne by a harvestman seated on the waggon or walking before it4 ,on its arrival at the homestead it is solemnly welcomed by the farmer1 and attached to some conspicuous spot on the barn or house4 ,here it remains for a year until replaced by its successor4 ,another feature of the ceremony1 which is no doubt of the nature of a rain charm1 consists in the drenching of the ,may and its bearers with water1 or in the sprinkling of them with wine4 ,a variant of this observance is met with in other parts of ,europe1 where at some date after harvest the farmer causes a lofty pole1 dressed with ribbons and hung with handkerchiefs1 articles of clothing1 cakes1 fruit1 etc41 to be erected in his field4 ,the labourers then climb or race for the prizes4#ccg ,there can be no question as to the antiquity of these customs4 ,mannhardt1 who has carefully studied the subject1 finds a most remarkable similarity between the harvest festivals of ancient ,greece and those of modern ,europe4 ,the eiresione or harvest-bush of the ,greeks1 which is reproduced 8with almost photographic exactness0 in the harvest-,may above described1#cch was a branch of olive or laurel1 bound with red and white wool1 and hung with ribbons1 the finest harvest-fruits1 cakes1 and jars of honey1 oil1 and wine4 ,it was carried in solemn procession with choral songs1 at the ,thargelia or feast of first-fruits in the late spring1 and at the ,pyanepsia or true harvest-festival in the early autumn1 its destination at the former festival being the temple of ,athena ,polias1 at the latter that of ,apollo4 ,it was planted before the door of the temple1 the contents of the jars attached to it were poured over it1 and the following lines were sung3 8,eiresione brings figs and plump loaves1 and honey in jars1 and oil wherewith to anoint yourself1 and cups of wine unwatered1 that you may drink yourself to sleep40#cci ,in addition to this official ceremony each landowner who grew corn and fruit held his own festival1 the eiresione in that case being suspended or fastened before his house-door1 or placed inside the house beside the ancestral images4 ,there it remained for a twelve-month1 until on the bringing home of the next year's branch it was taken down and burnt4 ,it was to this private eiresione that the familiar passages in ,aristophanes allude4 ,demos hearing a noise at his front door1 jumps to the conclusion that a street brawl is imminent3 8,who's making that hullaballoo80 he cries2 8away from my door4 ,what1 will ye tear down my eiresione80#cdj ,his dread is that his harvest-branch will be requisitioned as a weapon of offence1 a possible application of it also alluded to by the poet in another passage4#cda ,elsewhere it is jestingly said of a dried-up old woman1 that if a spark fell on her1 she would burn up like an old eiresione1#cdb a comparison which throws light on the mode of disposing of the last year's branch4 ,the ,oschophoria1 or carrying in procession of the oschos1 a vine-branch with the ripe grapes upon it1 was another of the ,athenian harvest festivals1 and is interesting in the present connection from its being associated1 like some modern harvest observances1 with a racing competition4 ,these festivals1 which were probably of prehistoric origin1 were in classical times sanctified for the popular mind by being linked with and accounted for by some legendary event which appealed to the patriotic sentiment4 ,but in spite of this they would appear in course of time to have undergone something of the same debasement as our own ,may observances1 and degenerated into a begging procession from door to door4 ,at any rate the word eiresione1 originally applied to the festival hymn as well as to the branch1 became in later times the general name for all begging-songs4 ,initially1 however1 the eiresione was1 no doubt1 a symbolical representation of the genius of vegetation1 and as such was addressed as a person4#cdc ,traced to its remote origin1 there can be little doubt that the ceremony of bringing in the ,may arose from a similar process of reasoning4 ,the gods or spirits of those far-off times had their habitation1 or at least manifested their activity1 in the tree4 ,the gifts of rain and sunshine were in their hands4 ,they made the crops to grow1 the herds to multiply1 and women to give increase4 ,according to ,aeneas ,sylvius1 the ,lithuanians believed that their sacred groves were the house of the god who gave them rain and sunshine4#cdd ,in ,circassia the pear-tree is still regarded as the protector of cattle1 and in the autumn is cut down1 carried home1 and worshipped as a god4#cde ,in many countries trees are held to have the power of helping women in childbirth4#cdf ,it was therefore no more unnatural for an ignorant peasantry to believe that the same power and influence existed in the cut branches of trees than it is for a modern uncultured ,catholic to expect help from sacred relics4 ,in each case the process of thought is the same4 ,eventually the ceremony of carrying the branch round the village1 the primitive purpose of which was to make each house a sharer in the benevolent offices of the tree-spirit1 degenerated into a meaningless observance1 a pretext for indulging in festivities and levying contributions4 ,but there can be no doubt that the securing of fertility and abundance1 together with the supply of rain and sunshine necessary thereto1 was originally the root-idea of the worldwide spring observances4 7#b7 ,the custom of setting up the ,may-pole on the village green had1 no doubt1 a similar genesis4 ,it represented for the community what the ,may-day decoration of the house represented for the family4 ,in parts of ,europe the pole is sometimes planted in front of the ,mayor's or ,burgomaster's house4#cdg ,the intention1 evidently1 was to bring to the village as a whole the newly-quickened generative spirit resident in the woods4 ,the custom of cutting down a tree1 decorating it with garlands and ribbons1 re-erecting it1 and fting it with dance and song1 has prevailed in almost every country in the world4 ,in some instances it is further dressed as a mortal1 or a human image is attached to it1 as in the ,attis rites1 testifying to the anthropomorphic conception of the tree-spirit4 ,the doll placed in the centre of the children's ,may garlands would seem to be a survival of this custom4 ,the same feature of the celebration is illustrated most clearly in the ,greek festival of the little ,daedala1 which may be regarded as 8a classical equivalent of an ,english ,may-day in the olden time40#cdh ,the festival was inaugurated in an ancient oak-forest4 ,cooked meat was placed upon the ground and the movements of the birds which came to feed upon it were carefully observed4 ,the tree upon which a bird was first observed to alight with the meat in its bill was cut down1 carved into the image of a woman1 and dressed as a bride4 ,it was then placed upon a cart and drawn in procession with singing and dancing4 ,it must be added that ,mr4 ,farnell regards this festival as a survival from prehistoric times of the processional ceremony of the 8sacred marriage0 between ,zeus and ,hera1 which may possibly have been symbolical of the marriage of earth and heaven in spring4#cdi ,in the case of our own ,may-pole1 it was originally1 no doubt1 the custom to erect a fresh tree every year1 in order that the newly-awakened energy of the forest might be communicated to the village1 and in many parts this feature of the custom appears to have survived1 as we may gather from the ,puritan accounts above quoted4 ,elsewhere1 as the intention of the ceremony was lost sight of1 a permanent ,may-pole was substituted for the annual tree1 and was converted on ,may-day1 by means of garlands and flowers1 into the semblance of a living growth4 ,the ,may-tree of the ,german village1 for instance1 is a permanent construction1 made up of several tall trunks4#cej ,on ,may-day1 cakes1 sausages1 eggs1 and other desirable things are hung upon it1 the villagers dance around it1 and the young men climb it to secured its gifts4 ,in some parts the ,may-pole is surmounted by a cross1 and the symbol of a dead faith is consecrated by that of a living one4 ,yet the old faith long left its traces in several quaint observances4 ,amongst the ,wends of the ,elbe the cattle were driven every year round the village tree4 ,the bride imported from another village must dance around it and pay it her footing4 ,the wounded villager also gave it money and got himself healed by rubbing himself against it4#cea ,such usages are only intelligible on the theory that the tree was once seriously believed to be the local habitation of a spirit1 who concentrated in himself the marvellous fruitfulness and healing beneficence of nature4 ,the custom so often met with on the ,continent#ceb of attaching a young sapling or a branch to the roof of a house newly built1 or in process of erection1 is another survival1 descended1 no doubt1 from the ancient belief in the benign influence of the tree-inhabiting spirit4 ,in some places it is usual to decorate the bough with flowers1 ribbons1 and strings of eggs1 which last are clearly intended to symbolise the life-giving power assumed to be the spirit's special attribute4 7#c7 ,but the conception which underlay and actuated the ,may celebrations is illustrated still more clearly by their third feature--the choice of a youth or maiden1 or both1 to personify the reawakened and rejoicing nature4 ,a great deal of evidence on this subject has been collected by ,mannhardt and ,frazer1 which can only be briefly summarised here4 ,in the case of the begging processions with ,may-trees or ,may-boughs from door to door1 it was once really believed that the good genius of growth was present unseen in the bough4 ,but often he was represented in addition by a man dressed in green leaves and flowers1 or by a girl similarly adorned1 who being looked upon as an actual representative of the spirit of vegetation1 was supposed to produce the same beneficial effects on the fowls1 the fruit-trees1 and the crops as the presence of the deity himself4 8,the names ,may1 ,father ,may1 ,may ,lady1 ,queen of the ,may1 by which the anthropomorphic spirit of vegetation is often denoted1 show that the conception of the spirit of vegetation is blent with a personification of the season at which his powers are most strikingly manifested40#cec ,in some cases the human representative of the tree-spirit goes hand in hand with his vegetable representative1 the tree or branch4 ,the former may be merely a doll or puppet1 as in the ,lady of the ,may of our own ,may garlands1 or it may be a chosen youth or girl1 who carries a miniature ,may-tree1 or is throned beside the ,may-pole1 or dances around it1 clad in leafy garments4 ,sometimes the chief actor in the ceremony is ducked in a pond or drenched with water1 or1 as is still the case in some parts of ,ireland1 carries a pail of water and a mop to distribute its contents1 with the idea of ensuring rain by a sort of sympathetic magic4 ,in other cases the tree disappears from the celebration1 and the whole burden of representing its indwelling spirit falls upon its human substitute1 who in such event is almost always swathed in leaves or flowers4 ,the ,green ,george of ,carinthia#ced and our own ,jack-in-the-,green are instances of this custom4 ,the pence collected no doubt represent what was once a willing contribution for services presumably useful and worthy of reward4 ,the custom of electing a ,king or ,queen of the ,may is very general throughout ,europe4#cee ,the original purpose was1 no doubt1 to personify the regal character of the spirit who ruled the woods1 but in other cases the representative is termed a ,bridegroom or ,bride1 emphasising another attribute of the deity4 ,in ,england the crowning of the ,may-queen closed the long day's ceremonies1 and the young people who had been up before sunrise to bring in the ,may1 and had danced all day upon the village green1 ended their pleasant labours at sundown with this graceful observance4 ,in some instances two representatives of the spirit of vegetation were chosen1 under the names of ,king and ,queen1 or ,prince and ,princess1 or ,lord and ,lady4 ,the ,king and ,queen are mentioned in an ,english document of the thirteenth century1 and there is evidence to show that ,robin ,hood and ,maid ,marian were originally representatives of the vegetation spirit1 for the former is spoken of in an old book of #aegf as ,king of the ,may1 while ,marian or ,may-,marian1 as she was sometimes called1 was certainly a ,queen of ,may1 and as such was represented wearing a golden crown and carrying in her hand a red pink1 the emblem of summer4#cef ,at the time when we first encounter them in history these celebrations had already lost their religious significance and passed into graceful observances1 the excuse for innocent mirth4 ,but if we trace them back into the gloom in which they arose we come upon evidence which seems to show that they were not always so innocent4 ,it is quite probable that in very early times the human representative of the spirit of vegetation was actually sacrificed1 in order that the divine spirit incarnate in him might be transferred in unabated vigour to his successor1#ceg just as the old ,may-pole was destroyed and a new one set up in its place4 ,herein was typified the annual death and resurrection of the spirit of vegetation1 a conception which has given rise to many celebrations1 not always free from bloodshed1 in different parts of the world4 ,the rites by which in ,egypt and ,western ,asia the death and resurrection of ,osiris1 ,adonis1 ,tammuz1 ,attis1 and ,dionysus were solemnised find their parallels not only in the barbarous usages once current in ,mexico1 but also in certain spring and summer celebrations of the peasants of ,europe4 ,the ,mexican god of the plant-world was ,huitzilopochtli1 and at the feast of ,teteionan1 mother of the gods1 a woman clothed as the goddess was sacrificed1 her head cut off1 and her skin used to dress a youth1 who was then taken to the god's temple1 accompanied by a large crowd of worshippers4#ceh ,that is to say1 the old embodiment of plant life was killed1 and its personality1 typified by the skin1 was given to a youthful successor1 who1 doubtless1 was sacrificed in his turn when it was considered necessary for the health of the plant-world4 ,in some modern ,european spring observances the actual putting to death of the spirit of vegetation survives in symbol4 8,in ,lower ,bavaria1 the ,whitsuntide representative of the tree-spirit--the ,pfingstl1 as he is called--was clad from top to toe in leaves and flowers4 ,on his head he wore a high pointed cap1 the ends of which rested on his shoulders1 only two holes being left for his eyes4 ,the cap was covered with water-flowers and surmounted with a nosegay of peonies4 ,the sleeves of his coat were also made of water-plants1 and the rest of his body was enveloped in alder and hazel leaves4 ,on each side of him marched a boy1 holding up one of the ,pfingstl's arms4 ,these two boys carried drawn swords1 and so did most of the others who formed the procession4 ,they stopped at every house where they hoped to receive a present1 and the people in hiding soused the leaf-clad boy with water4 ,all rejoiced when he was well drenched4 ,finally he waded into the brook up to his middle1 whereupon one of the boys1 standing on the bridge1 pretended to cut off his head40#cei 8,at ,wurmlingen in ,swabia a score of young fellows dress themselves on ,whit-,monday in white shirts and white trousers with red scarves round their waists1 and swords hanging from the scarves4 ,they ride on horseback into the wood1 led by two trumpeters blowing their trumpets4 ,in the wood they cut down leafy oak branches1 in which they envelope from head to foot him who was the last of their number to ride out of the village4 ,his legs1 however1 are encased separately1 so that he may be able to mount his horse again4 ,further1 they give him a long artificial neck1 with an artificial head and a false face on the top of it4 ,then a ,may-tree is cut1 generally an aspen or beech about ten feet high2 and being decked with coloured handkerchiefs and ribbons1 it is entrusted to a special #8,may-bearer4' ,the cavalcade then returns1 with music and song1 to the village4 ,amongst the personages who figure in the procession are a ,moorish king with a sooty face and crown on his head1 a ,dr4 ,iron-,beard1 a corporal1 and an executioner4 ,they halt on the village green1 and each of the characters makes a speech in rhyme4 ,the executioner announces that the leaf-clad man has been condemned to death1 and cuts off his false head4 ,then the riders race to the ,may-tree1 which has been set up a little way off4 ,the first man who succeeds in wrenching it from the ground as he gallops past keeps it with all its decorations4 ,the ceremony is observed every second or third year40#cfj ,in ,saxony and ,thuringia1 at ,whitsuntide1 the ,wild ,man1 a person disguised in branches and moss1 was chased through the woods4 ,on being overtaken he was shot at with blank cartridge and pretended to fall down dead4 ,a mock doctor then bled him and he soon came to life again4 ,the rejoicing people placed him in a waggon1 and led him about in procession1 to receive gifts at the houses of the village4#cfa ,the common feature in all these apparently senseless observances is the symbolical sacrifice of the human representative of the spirit of vegetation1 and they drive us to the conclusion that there was a time when the victim was sacrificed in reality4 ,in the same way the custom still current in ,belgium and ,french ,flanders at the summer festival of drawing in procession large wicker figures enclosing living men1 recalls the gigantic images of ozier-work1 covered with leaves1 in which the ,druids confined the victims destined for their fiery sacrifices4#cfb ,,chapter ,,ix ,,christmas ,,observances ,in modern times1 as the once joyful celebrations of ,may-day have waned the festivities of ,christmas-tide have undergone increase and development4 ,the grosser features of the festival have1 no doubt1 been eliminated2 the mummers and the lord of misrule have for the most part gone the way of the ,may-king1 but all the more graceful and orderly observances of the time have strengthened their hold on the popular favour4 ,the decoration of the house is as usual to-day at ,christmas as it once was at ,may-day1 and the ,christmas-tree has stepped into the place which the ,may-tree once held in the affections of the young4 ,yet if we trace these ,christmas observances back to their origin1 we find them as distinctively pagan in their ancestry as the festivities of ,may-day4 ,we owe the survival of many pagan customs largely to the ,roman ,church1 whose settled policy it was to adapt the old festal rites to the purposes of the new faith1 and to divert its rude converts from the riotous festivities of their unconverted friends by offering them the more orderly rejoicings of a ,christian holy day4 ,gregory the ,great1 when he sent his missionaries to ,britain1 instructed them to ,christianise the festivals and temples of the heathen1 8raising their stubborn minds upwards not by leaps1 but step by step40 ,and ,dr4 ,tille1 in his learned work on the ,german ,christmas1#cfc has shown what pains were taken by the priesthood to transfer to their own feast the rude rejoicings with which the unconverted ,germans celebrated their great festival at the beginning of winter4 ,the same transference of pre-,christian usages occurred in ,italy1 where the ,christmas festival1 first definitely fixed at the time of the winter solstice by ,bishop ,liberius1 ,a4,d4 #ced1cfd inherited1 as expressly stated by ,polydore ,virgil1 several of the features of the great ,roman festival of the ,saturnalia1 held about the same time4 ,this festival was an occasion for universal mirth and festivity4 ,friends visited and feasted each other1 and there was a general interchange of presents1 the objects presented consisting usually of branches1 wax tapers1 and clay dolls4 ,the stalls were laden with gifts1 like the ,christmas shops of to-day4 ,one of the days of the festival1 the dies juvenalis1 was devoted to children4 ,the solstitial character of the festival is shown by the fact that another of its days was dedicated by the ,emperor ,aurelian to the ,persian sun-god1 ,mithra2 and ,varro states that the clay dolls1 which were an important feature of the celebration1 represented the infant sacrifices once made to a ,phoenician ,baal who had been introduced to ,rome under the name of ,saturn or ,cronos4#cfe ,however this may be1 it is clear that some observances familiar to us at ,christmas--the feasting1 the present giving1 and the now obsolete mumming--have an origin which is lost in antiquity4 ,other customs1 too1 though with a different provenance1 have an equally venerable ancestry4 ,the use of mistletoe1 for instance1 is without doubt a direct legacy from the ,druids1 who were wont at the time of the solstices solemnly to place upon their altars the mysterious branch1 into which it was thought that the spirit of the tree retreated when the rest of the leaves had fallen4 ,this practice1 strangely enough1 survived until within comparatively recent years in a ceremonial practised at ,york ,minster and some other northern churches1#cff though as a rule the introduction of the mistletoe into ,christian edifices was strongly reprobated1 on the score that it was a heathen emblem4 ,the practice of decorating the house at the ,new ,year with holly and other evergreens was also a pagan observance4 ,dr4 ,chandler refers to it as a ,druidic custom1 the intention being to provide the sylvan spirits with a shelter to which they might repair1 8and remain unnipped with frost and cold winds1 until a milder season had renewed the foliage of their darling abodes40#cfg ,in early times the ,church made a stand against this use of evergreens as being a pagan custom1 but the interdict was not persevered in1 and later on we find the decoration of the churches a recognised practice1 the note for ,christmas eve in the old ,calendar being1 ,templa exornantur4#cfh ,the observance1 however1 which most concerns us here is that of the ,christmas-tree1 the evolution of which furnishes us with one of the most interesting chapters in the history of religious development4 ,to the present generation the ,christmas-tree appears such an essential feature of the festival1 as celebrated in this country1 that many will be surprised to hear how recent an importation it is4 ,but as a matter of fact1 the ,christmas-tree was practically unknown in ,england until it was introduced by the late ,prince ,consort4#cfi ,even in ,germany1 the land of its origin1 it was not universally established as an integral part of the festival until the beginning of the present century1#cgj and it was only at that date that it came to be known as the 8,weihnachtsbaum0 and 8,christbaum40#cga ,goethe in #aggd describes it as adorned with wax tapers1 sweetmeats1 and apples1 but calls it simply the 8decorated tree40#cgb ,schiller in #aghi finds no more distinctive name for it than the 8green tree40#cgc ,since that time1 or rather since #ahcj1 its diffusion throughout the world has been so marvellously rapid that there is nothing to compare with it in the whole history of popular customs4 ,in ,germany the ,christmas-tree can be traced back more or less in its present form to the beginning of the seventeenth century1 when an unnamed writer1 in some extremely fragmentary notes1 tells us that it was the custom at ,strasburg to set up fir-trees in the houses at ,christmas1 and to deck them with roses of coloured paper1 apples1 etc4#cgd ,the next mention of it occurs half a century later in the writings of ,professor ,dannhauer1 a celebrated theologian1 also living in ,strasburg4#cge 8,amongst the other absurdities10 he writes1 8with which men are often more busied at ,christmas than with the ,word of ,god1 there is also the ,christmas or fir-tree1 which they erect in their houses1 hang it with dolls and sweetmeats1 and then shake it and cause it to shed its flowers4 ,i know not the origin of the custom1 it is a child's game4444 ,far better were it to lead the children to the spiritual cedar1 ,christ ,jesus40 ,the reprobation of the ,strasburg preacher was echoed by other divines1 and to this cause probably the ,christmas-tree owed its slow diffusion throughout ,germany4 ,the theological dislike of it1 however1 as it turned out1 was ill-advised1 for eventually the ,christmas-tree displaced other popular observances of a far less innocent nature4 ,so far we have been treading historical ground1 but in tracing the ,christmas-tree still farther back we have only inference to go upon4 ,the subject1 however1 has been carefully worked out by ,dr4 ,tille1#cgf and the pedigree which he traces for the tree is a most interesting one4 ,his argument must here be condensed as closely as possible4 ,the ,christmas-tree1 with its lights1 its artificial flowers1 and its apples and other fruit1 is presumably connected with the legend of ,christmas flowering trees1 which was very familiar to the ,middle ,ages1 and of which the ,english myth of the ,glastonbury thorn is an example4 ,the origin of the legend in ,germany is thus explained by ,dr4 ,tille3--,it is not unusual when the season is mild to find trees blossoming in ,november1 especially the cherry and the crab-tree4 ,for the old ,german peasant the ,new ,year began with the great slaughtering feast early in ,november1 when the cattle were brought in from the pastures1 and all the superfluous ones were butchered and feasted on2 the winter was thus counted to the ,new ,year1 like the eve to a holy day4 ,hence when trees blossomed late1 a casual connection was inevitably traced between the strange phenomenon and the ,new ,year feast at which it took place4 ,on the introduction of ,christianity the feasts of ,st4 ,martin1 ,st4 ,andrew1 and ,st4 ,nicholas were substituted for the ancient festivals4 ,the strange blossoming power of nature was connected with ,st4 ,andrew's ,day1 and fruit-boughs severed on that day were believed by the people to possess particular virtue4#cgg ,the ,mediaeval ,church1 always eager to enlist popular superstitions in its own support1 set itself to transfer to ,christmas the blossoming tree of the ,november festival1 and the legends which related how celebrated magicians like ,albertus ,magnus1 ,paracelsus1 and ,faustus had made for themselves a summer in the heart of winter were incorporated by the monks into the lives of certain saints4#cgh ,the belief in trees that blossomed and bore fruit at ,christmas was widely distributed and firmly held amongst the people in the later ,middle ,ages4 ,in the ,german literature of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries many instances of the miraculous fact are circumstantially recorded4#cgi ,a writer in #adcj relates that 8not far from ,nuremburg there stood a wonderful tree4 ,every year1 in the coldest season1 on the night of ,christ's birth this tree put forth blossoms and apples as thick as a man's thumb4 ,this in the midst of deep snow and in the teeth of cold winds40 ,in a ,,ms4 letter of the ,bishop of ,bamberg1 dated #adbf1 and preserved in the ,hofbibliothek at ,vienna1 the actual blossoming of two apple-trees at ,christmas is mentioned as an acknowledged fact1 and we find a ,protestant preacher giving full credence to the belief nearly a couple of centuries later4 ,but the most striking instance of the hold which such legends had taken on the popular mind is to be found in connection with our own miraculous tree1 the ,glastonbury ,thorn-- ,the winter thorn ,which blossoms at ,christmas1 mindful of our ,lord4 ,this tree1 which was the object of such veneration in the later ,middle ,ages that the merchants of ,bristol are said to have found the export of its blossoms extremely remunerative1 stood upon an eminence near the town of ,glastonbury4 ,the legend ran that ,joseph of ,arimathea1 who1 according to monkish teaching1 was the first ,christian missionary to this country1 one ,christmas eve planted his staff in the ground4 ,the staff1 which years previously had been cut from a hawthorn-tree1 at once took root and put forth leaves1 and by the next day was in full blossom4 ,the miracle was repeated on every subsequent ,christmas-day4 ,even after the ,reformation we find ,king ,james ,i4 and his queen and other persons of quality giving large sums for cuttings from the tree1 which were believed to have the same miraculous virtue as the parent thorn1 and even in the following reign it was customary to carry a branch of the tree in procession and present it to the king4 ,in the ,civil ,war the original tree was destroyed1 but some of its off-shoots survived1 one especially at ,quainton in ,buckinghamshire1 which suddenly sprang into fame again when the new style was introduced into the ,calendar in #ageb1 and the people1 resenting the loss of their eleven days1 appealed from the decision of their rulers to the higher wisdom of the miraculous tree4 ,according to the ,gentleman's ,magazine for #agec1 about two thousand people on the night of #bdth ,december #ageb came with lanthorns and candles to view the thorn-tree1 8which was remembered 7this year only7 to be a slip from the ,glastonbury thorn40 ,as the tree remained bare the people agreed that #beth ,december1 ,n4,s41 could not be the true ,christmas-day1 and refused to celebrate it as such4 ,their excitement was intensified when on #eth ,january the tree was found to be in full bloom1 and to pacify them the authorities were driven to decree that the old ,christmas-day should be celebrated as well as the new4 ,it may be added that two thorn-trees still exist near the ruins of ,glastonbury ,abbey1 which blossom during the winter1 and are identified by ,loudoun with a variety of hawthorn1 the ,crataegus oxyacantha praecox1 which is admittedly a winter flowerer4#chj ,there is1 however1 as ,mannhardt points out1#cha another way in which a fruit-bearing tree became popularly associated with ,christmas4 ,the ancient ,church had devoted the day before ,christmas-day to the memory of ,adam and ,eve1 and it was customary at ,christmas in many parts of the ,continent to give a dramatic representation of the story of the ,creation and ,fall in connection with the drama of the ,nativity4 ,hence arose the ,paradise-plays which were familiar to the ,middle ,ages from the thirteenth century onward4 ,the well-known legend that the cross of ,christ was fashioned from a tree which had sprung from a slip of the ,tree of ,knowledge served as a link between the events celebrated so closely together1 the ,fall and the ,birth of the ,redeemer1 and gave additional significance to the scenery of the ,paradise-play1 consisting1 as it usually did1 of trees1 or sometimes of a single tree1 laden with apples and decked with ribbons4 ,in some cases the tree was carried on to the stage by one of the actors4 ,in this way the apple-bearing tree became the recognised scenic symbol of ,christmas1 and naturally connected itself with1 if it did not spring out of1 the very early legend of the ,church that all nature blossomed at the birth of ,christ1 who ,himself1 according to the fanciful symbolism of the time1 was the very ,tree of ,life which had once stood in paradise4 ,another popular custom1 which dates back to the time when the belief in the beneficent power of sylvan deities was general1 is also probably entitled to a place in the pedigree of the ,christmas-tree4 ,it was customary amongst the ancient ,germans on one of the sacred nights of the winter festival1 when1 according to the popular belief1 nature was permeated with new life1 to cut wands from the hedges4#chb ,these were brought home1 put in water or planted in a pot of moist earth1 and solemnly placed1 some in the open air1 some in the stable1 and some in the house4 ,a month later each wand would be in full bloom1 and it was then the custom to carry it round and lightly strike with it those to whom one wished to impart health1 strength1 and fruitfulness4 ,those struck with it rewarded the striker with presents1 in recompense for the benefit he was assumed to convey4 ,this custom1 which is probably of ,indian origin1 survived in some parts of the ,continent as a child's game even in the present century4 ,under the influence of ,christianity the day for cutting the wands was delayed1 so that they might bloom at ,christmas1 and in some parts it is still usual to arrange that there shall be a flowering branch in the house at that time4 ,in ,nordlingen1 a century ago1 families used to compete with each other as to which should be able to show the most flourishing branch at ,christmas-tide4#chc ,to this day in ,austrian ,silesia the peasant women sally forth at midnight on ,st4 ,andrew's eve to pluck a branch from an apricot-tree4 ,it is put in water and flowers about ,christmas time1 and is taken by them to ,mass on ,christmas-day4#chd ,amongst people to whom the apple-bearing tree of the ,paradise-play was familiar the substitution for the blooming branch of an evergreen decked with fruits and ribbons and artificial flowers was quite natural4 ,it became1 as it were1 a proxy for the deciduous branch1 still remaining the occasion for present-giving1 though now the tree became the giver instead of the receiver of gifts4 ,the custom of hanging lights upon the ,christmas-tree is a comparatively late innovation1 the well-known print of 8,christmas in ,luther's ,home10 where an illuminated fir-tree is represented as the centre of the festivity1 being demonstrably an anachronism4 ,the ,christmas-tree1 when we first definitely meet with it at the beginning of the seventeenth century1 was certainly not illuminated4 ,but the idea of a light-bearing tree was familiar to the ,middle ,ages4 ,an old ,icelandic legend relates that once upon a time1 at ,mdhrufell1 there stood a mountain-ash which had sprung from the blood of two innocent persons who had been executed there4#che ,every ,christmas-eve the tree was seen to be covered with lights1 which the strongest gale could not extinguish4 ,these lights were its wonderful blossoms1 for in folk-lore lights are often made to represent flowers and vice-vers4#chf ,in the old ,french legend of ,perceval1 the hero is represented as coming upon a tree illuminated with a thousand candles1 and ,durmals le ,galois1 another hero of mediaeval legend1 twice saw a magnificent tree covered with lights from top to bottom4#chg ,it has already been mentioned that wax-tapers were given as presents at the ,roman ,saturnalia1 and it may well be that the connection of lighted candles with ,christmas time may date back to the ancient solstitial celebrations1 in which they were regarded as symbolical of the new birth of the sun4 ,the same idea--that of typifying the renewal of life by means of lighted tapers--is found in the ,netherlands in connection with the ,may-tree1 which there bears lights amongst its other decorations4 ,at ,venlo on the ,maas the maidens light the tapers as the evening comes on and then dance around the lighted tree4#chh ,at ,lneberg1 at wedding festivities1 it is usual to carry a 8,may0 adorned with lights before the bridal pair1 and in the ,hartz ,mountains the so-called 8,st4 ,john's tree10 round which the peasants dance1 is a pyramid adorned with wreaths1 flowers1 and lights4 ,in all these customs1 which are no doubt survivals of the belief in a tree-inhabiting deity1 we see the collateral relations1 if not the direct progenitors of our ,christmas-tree4 ,in short1 modern as it is in its present form1 the ,christmas-tree epitomises many most ancient ideas2 is the point to which many streams converge whose source is hidden in a far distant antiquity4 ,it is the meeting-point of the old pagan belief in the virtues vested in the tree and of the quaint fancies of the ,middle ,ages1 which loved to see spiritual truths embodied in material forms4 ,christ1 the ,tree of ,life1 blossoming on ,christmas-eve in ,mary's bosom2 the fatal tree of paradise whence sprang the cross1 the instrument of man's salvation1--that 8fruit-bearing heavenly-nourished tree planted in the midst of redeemed man10 so often represented in mediaeval art2 the miracle of nature1 so stirred by the wonder of the event as to break forth into blossom in the midst of winter--all these ideas1 so characteristic of mediaeval thought1 became grafted together with observances derived from solstitial worship1 upon the stock of the sacred tree1 laden with offerings and decked with fillets4 ,indeed the ,christmas-tree may be said to recapitulate the whole story of tree-worship1--the ,may-tree1 the harvest-tree1 the ,greek eiresione1 the tree as the symbol and embodiment of deity1 and last but not least1 the universe-tree1 bearing the lights of heaven for its fruit and covering the world with its branches4 ,,footnotes #a,robertson ,smith1 ,religion of the ,semites 7,edin4 #ahhi71 p4 #hd4 #b;,goblet d',alviella1 ,the ,migration of ,symbols 7,london1 #ahid71 p4 #aai4 #c,op4 cit4 chap4 iv4 #d;,j4 ,menant1 ,les ,pierres graves de la ,haute-,asie 7,paris1 #ahhf71 ,part ,,ii4 p4 #fc4 #e,les ,origines de l',histoire 7,paris1 #ahhh71 vol4 i4 p4 #hh4 #f;,a4 ,h4 ,sayce1 ,religion of the ,ancient ,babylonians 7,london1 #ahhg71 ,lect4 ,,iv4 #g,robertson ,smith1 op4 cit4 p4 #afi4 #h;,cf4 ,ex4 xxxiv4 #ac2 ,deut4 vii4 #e1 xii4 #c1 xvi4 #ba2 ,judges iii4 #g1 vi4 #be2 #a ,kings xiv4 #ae2 #b ,kings xvii4 #af2 cf4 also ,isaiah i4 #bi1 lxv4 #c1 lxvi4 #ag4 #i,robertson ,smith1 op4 cit4 p4 #agb4 #aj;,eusebius1 ,praepar4 ,evang41 lib4 i4 cap4 #aj4 #aa;,goblet d',alviella1 op4 cit4 p4 #abe4 #ab;,ezek4 xli4 #ah4 #aca ,kings vi4 #bi-ce4 #ad;,g4 ,maspero1 ,the ,dawn of ,civilisation 7,london1 #ahid71 p4 #abb4 #ae,slatin ,pasha1 ,fire and ,sword in the ,sudan 7,london1 #ahif71 p4 #aad4 #af;,j4 ,g4 ,frazer1 ,the ,golden ,bough 7,london1 #ahij71 vol4 i4 p4 #fj4 #ag;,duff ,macdonald1 ,africana 7,london1 #ahhb71 vol4 i4 p4 #fj4 #ah;,frazer1 op4 cit4 vol4 i4 p4 #cjg4 #ai;,a4 ,h4 ,sayce1 op4 cit4 p4 #bch4 #bj;,encyclop4 ,brit41 #ith edition1 vol4 xviii4 p4 #hej4 #ba;,isis et ,osiris1 #df4 #bb,lajard1 ,le ,culte du cyprs pyramidal 7#ahde71 p4 #adh4 #bc,sir4 ,w4 ,ouseley1 ,travels 7,london1 #ahai71 vol4 iii4 p4 #hc4 #bd;,herodotus1 vii4 #ca4 #be,r4 ,folkard1 ,plant-lore1 ,legends1 and ,lyrics 7,london1 #ahib71 p4 #bci4 #bf,m4 ,d4 ,conway1 ,demonology and ,devil-lore 7,london1 #ahgi71 vol4 i4 p4 #bii4 #bg,quintus ,curtius1 ,de ,gestis ,alex4 viii4 #cc4 #bh;,folkard1 op4 cit4 p4 #d4 #bi;,goblet d',alviella1 op4 cit4 p4 #acj4 #cj,murray's ,handbook for ,japan 7,london1 #ahhd71 p4 #ff4 #ca;,e4 ,b4 ,tylor1 ,primitive ,culture 7,london1 #ahga71 vol4 ii4 pp4 #aif1 #aih4 #cb;,goblet d',alviella1 op4 cit4 p4 #aca4 #cc,mller1 ,amerikanische ,urreligionen 7,basel1 #ahee71 p4 #did4 #cd;,e4 ,b4 ,tylor1 ,anahuac 7,london1 #ahfa71 pp4 #bae1 #bfe4 #ce;,carl ,btticher1 ,der ,baumkultus der ,hellenen 7,berlin1 #ahef74 #cf,l4 ,r4 ,farnell1 ,the ,cults of the ,greek ,states 7,oxford1 #ahif71 vol4 i4 p4 #ad4 #cg;,arthur ,evans1 in the anthropological section of the ,british ,association1 ,times1 #bcrd ,sept4 #ahif4 #ch;,jacob ,grimm1 ,deutsche ,mythologie 7,gttingen1 #ahdd71 vol4 i4 p4 #fj4 #ci;,der ,baumkultus der ,germanen und ihrer ,nachbarstmme 7,berlin1 #ahge72 ,antike ,wald- und ,feldkulte 7,berlin1 #ahgg74 ,these volumes will be referred to as ,mannhardt ,i4 and ,,ii4 #dj;,a4 ,castren1 ,ethnologische ,vorlesungen 7,st4 ,petersburg1 #aheg71 p4 #ada4 #da;,boecler1 ,der ,esthen aberglubische ,gebruche1 etc4 7,st4 ,petersburg1 #ahed71 quoted in ,fergusson's ,tree and ,serpent ,worship4 #db,lucan1 ,pharsalia1 iii4 #dje4 #dc;,jacob ,grimm1 op4 cit4 vol4 i4 p4 #fg4 #dd,pliny1 ,nat4 ,hist4 lib4 xvi4 #ie4 #de,mannhardt ,i4 p4 #gj4 #df;,hall's ,chronicle 7,london1 #ahji71 p4 #ehj4 #dg;,ibid4 pp4 #eae1 #ebj4 #dh;,btticher1 op4 cit4 p4 #ecd4 #di;,e4 ,b4 ,tylor1 ,primitive ,culture1 vol4 ii4 p4 #bjb4 #ej,op4 cit4 ,lecture ,,iii4 #ea,the ,attis of ,catullus 7,london1 #ahib71 ,excursus ,,ii4 #eb;,deuteronomy xxxiii4 #af4 #eca ,esdras ii4 #e4 #ed,maspero1 op4 cit4 p4 #hd1 note #a4 #ee;,farnell1 op4 cit4 vol4 i4 chap4 iii4 #ef;,ibid4 vol4 i4 p4 #ff4 #eg;,ibid4 vol4 ii4 p4 #dbi4 #eh;,ibid4 vol4 ii4 p4 #dcb4 #ei,pausanias1 #h1 #bc1 #f4 #fj;,farnell1 op4 cit4 vol4 i4 p4 #ahe4 #fa;,ibid4 vol4 i4 p4 #bab4 #fb;,ibid4 vol4 ii4 p4 #fdd4 #fc;,ibid4 vol4 i4 p4 #i4 #fd,theocritus1 ,idyll4 xviii4 #dh4 #fe;,btticher1 op4 cit4 pp4 #ajc1 #bbi4 #ff;,ibid4 pp4 #bag1 #bbj4 #fg;,farnell1 op4 cit4 vol4 i4 p4 #ad4 #fh,wisdom xiii4 #aa 7,revised ,version74 #fi,theocritus1 ,epigram4 ,,iv4 #gj,maximus ,tyrius1 viii4 #a4 #ga;,apuleius1 ,florid4 i4 #a4 #gb,maspero1 op4 cit4 p4 #hd1 note #c1 and p4 #acj4 #gc;,folkard1 op4 cit4 p4 #dfg4 #gd;,de ,gubernatis1 ,mythologie des ,plantes1 vol4 ii4 p4 #bf et seq4 #ge;,farnell1 op4 cit4 vol4 i4 pp4 #ajh-aaj4 #gf;,btticher1 op4 cit4 p4 #cde4 #gg;,clemens ,alex41 ,protrepticus1 cap4 #a1 sect4 #aj4 #gh;,folkard1 op4 cit4 p4 #djg4 #gi;,btticher1 op4 cit4 p4 #cea4 #hj;,ibid4 p4 #dde4 #ha,theocritus1 ,idyll4 vi4 #g4 #hb;,fortnightly ,review1 ,february #ahgj4 #hc;,farnell1 op4 cit4 vol4 i4 p4 #bib4 #hd;,euripides1 ,troades1 #gie4 #he;,farnell1 op4 cit4 vol4 i4 p4 #cbe4 #hf,pliny1 xvi4 #fj2 ,servius ad ,virgil4 ,aen4 iv4 #ejg4 #hg,robertson ,smith1 op4 cit4 p4 #age4 #hh,tiele1 ,religion de l',egypte1 etc4 p4 #hc4 #hi;,a4 ,cunningham1 ,the ,stpa of ,bharhut 7,london1 #ahgi71 p4 #aac4 #ij;,a4 ,cunningham1 op4 cit4 p4 #aad4 #ia;,folkard1 op4 cit4 p4 #bde4 #ib;,c4 ,f4 ,keary1 ,the ,vikings of ,western ,christendom 7,london1 #ahia71 pp4 #cf1 #eb1 #ec4 #ic;,frazer1 op4 cit4 vol4 i4 p4 #fd4 #id;,j4 ,grimm1 op4 cit4 vol4 i4 p4 #cfi4 #ie,robertson ,smith1 op4 cit4 p4 #afi4 #if,sir ,w4 ,ouseley1 ,travels1 vol4 i4 p4 #cfi4 #ig,statius1 ,theb4 ix4 #ehe4 #ih;,apollon4 ,rhod4 ,argonaut4 #b4 #ii;,cf4 ,ovid1 ,metamorphoses1 viii4 #gdc4 #ajj;,btticher1 op4 cit4 p4 #gi4 #aja,orelli1 ,no4 #abff4 #ajb;,btticher1 op4 cit4 p4 #hh4 #ajc;,ibid4 chap4 xxi4 #ajd;,ibid4 p4 #che4 #aje;,btticher1 chap4 xxv4 #ajf;,ibid4 p4 #cih4 #ajg,sayce1 op4 cit4 pp4 #ecf1 #eci4 #ajh,leviticus xxiii4 #dj4 #ajib ,maccabees xiv4 #d4 #aaj;,btticher1 op4 cit4 pp4 #cba1 #cbb4 #aaa,pausanias1 vii4 #b1 #d4 #aab;,herodotus1 vi4 #ge4 #aac;,btticher1 op4 cit4 p4 #ce4 #aad,pausanias1 ii4 #ac1 #c4 #aae,sayce1 op4 cit4 p4 #dic4 #aaf,robertson ,smith1 op4 cit4 p4 #abe4 #aag,nineteenth ,century1 ,october #ahie1 p4 #fjg4 #aah;,isaiah xiii4 #ba2 xxxiv4 #ad4 #aai,leviticus xvii4 #g4 #abj,maspero1 op4 cit4 pp4 #hc1 #hd4 #aba,mannhardt ,,ii4 chap4 ii4 #abb,mannhardt ,,ii4 p4 #aci4 #abc;,aeneid1 viii4 #fja4 #abd,mannhardt ,,ii4 p4 #ca4 #abe;,hymn4 ,homer4 ,aphrod4 #bei-bgc4 #abf,plutarch1 ,de ,defect4 ,orac4 #aa4 #abg;,hymn4 in ,cererem4 #da4 #abh;,apollonius ,rhod41 ,argonaut4 i4 #dga et seq4 #abi,mannhardt ,,ii4 p4 #a4 #acj,lucian1 ,verae ,historiae1 lib4 #a4 #aca,w4 ,r4 ,s4 ,ralston1 ,contemporary ,review1 vol4 xxxi4 p4 #eba4 #acb;,ibid4 vol4 xxxi4 p4 #ebe4 #acc,robertson ,smith1 op4 cit4 pp4 #abf1 #bac1 #dfa4 #acd;,aeneid1 iii4 #bg-cd4 #ace,metamorphoses1 viii4 #gda1 #ggd1 translated by ,henry ,king 7,london1 #ahga74 #acf,mannhardt ,i4 pp4 #cd et seq4 #acg;,folkard1 op4 cit4 p4 #gi4 #ach;,ibid4 p4 #gi4 #aci;,ibid4 p4 #gi4 #adj;,folkard1 op4 cit4 p4 #gi4 #ada;,folkard1 op4 cit4 p4 #hc4 #adb,mannhardt ,i4 p4 #adf4 #adc,mannhardt ,,ii4 p4 #ci4 #add;,ibid4 ,i4 p4 #ge4 #ade,mannhardt ,i4 p4 #hi4 #adf;,ibid4 ,i4 p4 #ic4 #adg;,ibid4 ,i4 p4 #aag4 #adh,mannhardt ,i4 pp4 #abf et seq4 #adi,mannhardt ,i4 pp4 #ach et seq4 #aej;,f4 ,rinder1 ,old-,world ,japan 7,london1 #ahie71 p4 #acg4 #aea,mannhardt ,i4 p4 #adc4 #aeb;,h4 ,w4 ,bates1 ,the ,naturalist on the ,amazon 7,london1 #ahfc71 vol4 i4 p4 #gc4 #aec,the ,prose or ,younger ,edda1 translated by ,g4 ,w4 ,dasent 7,stockholm1 #ahdb71 p4 #aj4 #aed,mannhardt ,i4 p4 #g4 #aee;,catlin1 ,letters1 etc41 on ,north ,american ,indians1 vol4 ii4 p4 #afi4 #aef,works and ,days1 v4 #adc4 #aeg,odyssey1 xix4 #afb4 #aeh;,aeneid1 viii4 #cae4 #aei;,f4 ,galton1 ,narrative of an ,explorer1 etc4 7,london1 #ahec71 p4 #ahh4 #afj;,folkard1 op4 cit4 p4 #aag4 #afa;,alex4 v4 ,humboldt1 ,examen ,critique1 vol4 i4 p4 #eb4 #afb;,apollod4 iii4 #ad1 #c4 #afc;,goblet d',alviella1 op4 cit4 p4 #adb4 #afd;,folkard1 op4 cit4 p4 #aaf4 #afe;,diodor4 v4 #ff4 #aff,pausanias1 ix4 #bb1 #b4 #afg;,ibid4 vii4 #d1 #d2 viii4 #bc1 #d4 #afh,servius ad ,virgil4 ,aeneid1 iii4 #ia4 #afi;,btticher1 op4 cit4 p4 #cch4 #agj,metamorphoses1 ii4 #cdf-cff1 translated by ,henry ,king 7,london1 #ahga74 #aga,metamorphoses1 viii4 #gaa-gbd4 ,the story is told by ,lelex of ,troezene at a feast given to ,theseus by ,achelous1 the river-god4 #agb;,bion1 ,idyl4 i4 #fc4 #agc,midsummer ,night's ,dream1 ,act ii4 ,sc4 #b4 #agd;,folkard1 op4 cit4 p4 #bfh4 #age;,ibid4 p4 #chi4 #agf,percy's ,reliques4 #agg,old-,world ,japan1 p4 #aae4 #agh;,folkard1 op4 cit4 p4 #bgd4 #agi;,folkard1 op4 cit4 p4 #cbe4 #ahj,old-,world ,japan1 p4 #abg4 #aha,op4 cit4 vol4 ii4 p4 #ghf4 #ahb;,frazer1 op4 cit4 vol4 ii4 p4 #cbh4 #ahc,selections from the ,talmud 7,london1 #ahhi71 p4 #cah4 #ahd,moore's ,life of ,lord ,byron1 vol4 i4 p4 #aja4 #ahe,mannhardt ,i4 p4 #cb4 #ahf;,ibid4 p4 #ec4 #ahg;,ibid4 p4 #ahb4 #ahh,pliny1 ,hist4 ,nat4 lib4 xvi4 #bg4 #ahi,tacitus1 ,annal4 xiii4 #eh4 #aij,pliny1 op4 cit4 lib4 xv4 #cf4 #aia,the late ,general ,gordon1 in ,times for #eth ,january #ahhe4 #aib;,goblet d',alviella1 op4 cit4 p4 #adb4 #aic;,farnell1 op4 cit4 vol4 ii4 p4 #fie4 #aid;,j4 ,menant1 op4 cit4 vol4 i4 p4 #bbj4 #aie;,ibid4 vol4 i4 p4 #agj et seq4 #aif;,goblet d',alviella1 op4 cit4 p4 #ade et seq4 #aig,lajard1 op4 cit4 ,pl4 i4 #aih;,frazer1 op4 cit4 vol4 i4 p4 #gj4 #aii,mannhardt ,i4 p4 #bbb4 #bjj;,ibid4 p4 #df4 #bja,virgil1 ,georg4 ii4 #bia2 ,servius ad ,virgil4 ,aeneid1 iv4 #ddf4 #bjb,robertson ,smith1 op4 cit4 p4 #afi4 #bjc,pausanias1 x4 #e1 #c4 #bjd;,encyclop4 ,brit41 #ith edition1 vol4 xvii4 p4 #hjh4 #bje,sayce1 op4 cit4 p4 #bda4 #bjf;,ibid4 p4 #bdj4 #bjg,robertson ,smith1 op4 cit4 p4 #agi4 #bjhb ,samuel v4 #bd4 #bji;,hosea iv4 #ab 7,r4 ,v474 #baj,odyssey1 xiv4 #cbg4 #baa,scholiast on ,sophocles1 ,trachiniae #aafi4 #bab;,herodotus1 ii4 #eb1 #eg4 #bac;,clem4 ,alex41 ,protrept4 ii4 #aa4 #bad,silius ,ital4 vi4 #fia4 #bae,pausanias1 viii4 #bc1 #d2 i4 #ag1 #e4 #baf,philostrat4 ,imag4 ii4 #cc4 #bag,servius ad ,virgil4 ,aen4 iii4 #dff4 #bah;,encyclop4 ,brit41 #ith edition1 vol4 xvii4 p4 #hji4 ,cf4 also ,farnell1 op4 cit4 vol4 i4 p4 #dj4 #bai,metam4 vii4 #fbb-fed4 #bbj;,apollod4 i4 #i1 #af2 ,philostrat4 ,imag4 ii4 #ae4 #bba;,btticher1 op4 cit4 p4 #cda4 #bbb;,euripides1 ,hecuba1 #def4 #bbc;,btticher1 op4 cit4 p4 #cdd4 #bbd;,btticher1 op4 cit4 p4 #cdd4 #bbe,moses ,choren1 ,hist4 ,armen4 i4 #ae1 #ai4 #bbf;,f4 ,lenormant1 ,la ,divination chez les ,chaldens 7,paris1 #ahge71 p4 #he4 #bbg,sir ,w4 ,ouseley1 ,travels1 vol4 i4 p4 #cfi4 #bbh,the ,shh ,nmeh1 ,chandos ,classics1 p4 #ccf4 #bbi,ovid1 ,fasti1 iii4 #bid4 #bcj;,ibid4 iv4 #fej2 ,virgil1 ,aeneid1 vii4 #ha4 #bca;,cicero1 ,de ,divinat4 ii4 #dj4 #bcb;,dion4 ,halic4 i4 #ad4 #bcc;,btticher1 op4 cit4 chap4 xi4 #bcd;,btticher1 op4 cit4 p4 #afd4 #bce;,cicero1 ,de ,divinat4 i4 #de4 #bcf;,dion4 ,halic4 v4 #af4 #bcg,robertson ,smith1 op4 cit4 p4 #abf4 #bch;,btticher1 op4 cit4 p4 #aac1 note #bb4 #bci;,herodotus1 iv4 #fg4 #bdj;,ammian4 ,marcell4 ,l4 #ca4 #bda,tacitus1 ,germ4 x4 #bdb;,e4 ,davies1 ,celtic ,researches1 p4 #hab2 ,british ,druids1 p4 #dc4 #bdc,r4 ,smith1 op4 cit4 p4 #agi1 note #e4 #bdd,the whole subject is very fully treated by ,btticher1 op4 cit4 chap4 xvi4 #bde,mannhardt ,i4 p4 #cjc4 #bdf;,de ,vallemont1 ,physique occulte 7#afif71 p4 #aj4 #bdg;,folkard1 op4 cit4 p4 #aac4 #bdh;,john ,o',neill1 ,the ,night of the ,gods1 vol4 i4 p4 #ec4 #bdi;,frazer1 op4 cit4 vol4 ii4 p4 #cfg4 #bej;,folkard1 op4 cit4 p4 #aad4 #bea;,a4 de ,gubernatis1 op4 cit4 vol4 i4 p4 #ii4 #beb;,j4 ,brand1 ,observations on the ,popular ,antiquities of ,great ,britain 7,london1 #ahdi71 vol4 i4 p4 #eh4 #bec,w4 ,hone1 ,year ,book 7#ahgh71 p4 #ehh4 #bed,w4 ,henderson1 ,folk-lore of the ,northern ,counties1 pp4 #aaj1 #aaa4 #bee;,j4 ,o4 ,halliwell1 ,popular ,rhymes and ,nursery ,tales 7#ahdi71 pp4 #bai1 #bbj4 #bef;,c4 ,h4 ,poole1 ,customs1 ,legends1 and ,superstitions of ,staffordshire1 p4 #gd4 #beg;,goblet d',alviella1 op4 cit4 p4 #afi4 #beh;,ibid4 p4 #aga4 #bei,sir ,g4 ,grey1 ,polynesian ,mythology 7,london1 #ahee71 p4 #a4 #bfj;,a4 ,h4 ,sayce1 op4 cit4 p4 #bch4 #bfa;,a4 ,h4 ,sayce1 op4 cit4 p4 #cfb4 #bfb;,isaiah xiv4 #ac4 #bfc;,de ,gubernatis1 op4 cit4 vol4 i4 p4 #de4 #bfd,the ,prose or ,younger ,edda1 translated by ,g4 ,w4 ,dasent1 p4 #af4 #bfe;,de ,gubernatis1 op4 cit4 vol4 i4 p4 #hj4 #bff;,c4 ,p4 ,tiele1 ,history of the ,egyptian ,religion 7,london1 #ahhb71 p4 #df4 #bfg,lethaby1 ,architecture1 ,mysticism1 and ,myth 7,london1 #ahib71 p4 #abj4 #bfh;,ibid4 p4 #aaa4 #bfi;,babylonian and ,oriental ,record 7,june #ahhh71 pp4 #adi-aei4 #bgj;,eleventh ,annual ,report of the ,bureau of ,ethnology 7,washington1 #ahid74 #bga,revelation xxii4 #b4 #bgb,lethaby1 op4 cit4 p4 #ajg4 #bgc;,ibid4 p4 #ajb4 #bgd;,herodotus1 ii4 #dd4 #bge;,de ,gubernatis1 op4 cit4 vol4 i4 p4 #ajb4 #bgf,mannhardt ,i4 #cjg4 #bgg;,goblet d',alviella1 op4 cit4 pp4 #ajg1 #aac4 #bgh,kalevala1 ,second ,rune4 #bgi,w4 ,f4 ,kirby1 ,the ,hero of ,esthonia 7,london1 #ahie71 vol4 i4 p4 #dh4 #bhj;,btticher1 op4 cit4 p4 #eaf4 #bha;,ibid4 p4 #eah4 #bhb,pliny1 xxiv4 #ajb4 #bhc;,folkard1 op4 cit4 p4 #cgh4 #bhd,windischman1 quoted by ,herbert ,spencer1 ,principles of ,sociology1 vol4 i4 p4 #cge4 #bhe;,de ,gubernatis1 op4 cit4 vol4 ii4 p4 #cej4 #bhf;,de ,gubernatis1 op4 cit4 vol4 ii4 p4 #cea4 #bhg;,j4 ,muir1 ,metrical ,translations from ,sanskrit writers 7,london1 #ahgi71 p4 #afh4 #bhh;,folkard1 op4 cit4 p4 #edh4 #bhi;,athenaeus1 #dgc ,c4 #bij;,bacchae1 #bhd4 #bia;,bacchae1 #big4 #bib,w4 ,pater1 ,greek ,studies 7,london1 #ahie71 p4 #g4 #bic,principles of ,sociology1 vol4 i4 p4 #cgg4 #bid;,de ,gubernatis1 op4 cit4 vol4 i4 p4 #bfa4 #bie;,de ,gubernatis1 vol4 i4 p4 #bfb4 #bif;,ibid4 p4 #ahb4 #big;,folkard1 op4 cit4 p4 #i4 #bih;,g4 ,smith1 ,chaldaean ,account of ,genesis1 pp4 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#ia1 #aga2 offerings to1 #cj1 #de1 #df2 of paradise1 #aca1 #afi2 in relation to human life1 #gb2 as symbol of fertility1 #hh2 of universe1 #aji et seq41 #agc ,tree-deities1 #i1 #af1 #bd et seq4 ,tree-demons1 #af1 #bd1 #eb1 #ee et seq4 ,tree-nymphs1 #ee1 #ef1 #eh1 #ei1 #fa1 #fb ,tree-oracles1 #ic et seq4 ,tree-origins1 #gc et seq4 ,tree-omens1 #aja ,tree-sanctuaries1 #di ,tree-soul1 the generalised1 #ij2 primitive conception of1 #a ,tree-worship1 in ,africa1 #aa2 in ,america1 #af1 #ag2 in ,arabia1 #de2 in ,assyria1 #f2 in ,borneo1 #af2 in ,burma1 #af2 in ,canaan1 #c1 #h2 in ,chaldaea1 #d1 #f1 #aaa2 in ,china1 #ae2 in ,egypt1 #i1 #aj1 #be1 #de2 in ,england1 #bj2 in ,esthonia1 #ai2 in ,france1 #ai2 in ,finland1 #ai2 in ,germany1 #ah2 in ,greece1 #ag1 #bh1 #df2 in ,india1 #ac1 #ad1 #ce1 #dj1 #dc1 #fd1 #abd2 in ,japan1 #ae2 in ,mexico1 #ag2 in ,nicaragua1 #ag2 in ,palestine1 #c1 #g1 #h2 in ,patagonia1 #ag2 in ,persia1 #ac1 #abc2 in ,phoenicia1 #h1 #ab2 in ,phrygia1 #ab2 in ,poland1 #ai2 in ,rome1 #ag1 #df2 in ,russia1 #ai2 in the ,semitic area1 #g1 #ci1 #hg2 in ,siam1 #af2 in the ,sudan1 #aa2 in ,sumatra1 #af2 origin of1 #bb ,trees1 ,christmas flowering1 #aaf2 legends of bleeding1 #fb1 #fc2 legends of speaking1 #aja ,tristram and ,iseult1 legend of1 #hb ,trophonius1 oracle of1 #id ,tylor1 ,mr4 ,e4 ,b41 on tree-worship1 #ba ,tyrol1 wild women of1 #fg ,u ,upsala1 sacred grove of1 #dc ,v ,vine-women of ,lucian1 the1 #fj ,vine1 the1 sacred to ,dionysus1 #ci2 to ,dusares1 #dj2 venerated by the ,semites1 #ci ,vishnu1 #dc1 #gf ,w 8,wege-warte10 legend of the1 #hc ,wends1 the1 and the ,may-pole1 #aef ,wild-fanggen1 the1 #fg ,wild men of the woods1 #ba1 #eb1 #ef1 #ff1 #fh1 #ga1 #afa ,willow1 the1 connected with ,artemis1 #bi2 with ,hera1 #bi1 #gf2 inhabited by tree-spirit1 #fb ,woden1 #dc ,wood-maidens1 #fg ,world-mountain1 the1 #aaj1 #aab1 #aah1 #acd ,world-tree1 the1 #aji et seq42 of ,buddhists1 #aaf2 of ,chaldaea1 #aaa2 of ,egypt1 #aaj1 #aag2 of ,esthonia1 #abb2 of ,finland1 #abj2 of ,india1 #aae2 of ,persia1 #aae2 of ,scandinavia1 #aab ,y ,yggdrasil1 #aab et seq4 ,z ,zeus1 a tree-god1 #ah1 #bh1 #bi1 #ce1 #df1 #aee2 oracle of1 at ,dodona1 #ic1 #if ,zeus-,ammon1 oracle of1 #if ,,the ,,end ,printed by ,r4 ,r4 ,clark1 ,limited1 ,edinburgh4 ,transcriber's ,notes --,silently corrected a few palpable typos4 --,in the text versions only1 delimited italicized text in underscores4 --,in the ,latin-#a text version only1 the unusual character 8latin u with dasia0 is represented by 8u'04 --,in the ,latin-#a text version only1 transliterated ,greek words are delimited by brackets4