{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_47215/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_47215","id":"gutenberg_47215","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/47215","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Archaeology & Anthropology","Category: History - Ancient","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Tree worship"],"text":"[Illustration: ]\n\n[Illustration: Sacred tree with its supporters, from St Mark\u2019s, Venice.]\n\n\n\n\n                            THE SACRED TREE\n                                   OR\n                     THE TREE IN RELIGION AND MYTH\n\n\n                                   BY\n                           MRS. J. H. PHILPOT\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\n                                _London_\n                       MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited\n                    NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY\n                                  1897\n\n                         _All rights reserved_\n\n\n\n\n                                PREFACE\n\n\nThe reader is requested to bear in mind that this volume lays no claim\nto scholarship, independent research, or originality of view. Its aim\nhas been to select and collate, from sources not always easily\naccessible to the general reader, certain facts and conclusions bearing\nupon a subject of acknowledged interest. In so dealing with one of the\nmany modes of primitive religion, it is perhaps inevitable that the\nwriter should seem to exaggerate its importance, and in isolating a\ngiven series of data to undervalue the significance of the parallel\nfacts from which they are severed. It is undeniable that the worship of\nthe spirit-inhabited tree has usually, if not always, been linked with,\nand in many cases overshadowed by other cults; that sun, moon, and\nstars, sacred springs and stones, holy mountains, and animals of the\nmost diverse kind, have all been approached with singular impartiality\nby primitive man, as enshrining or symbolising a divine principle. But\nno other form of pagan ritual has been so widely distributed, has left\nbehind it such persistent traces, or appeals so closely to modern\nsympathies as the worship of the tree; of none is the study better\ncalculated to throw light on the dark ways of primitive thought, or to\narouse general interest in a branch of research which is as vigorous and\nfruitful as it is new. For these reasons, in spite of obvious\ndisadvantages, its separate treatment has seemed to the writer to be\ncompletely justifiable.\n\n\n\n\n                                CONTENTS\n\n\n                               CHAPTER I\n                TREE-WORSHIP\u2014ITS DISTRIBUTION AND ORIGIN\n\n  Primitive conception of the tree-spirit\u2014Illustrations of the evidence\n      for tree-worship: from archaeology, from folk-lore, from\n      literature, from contemporary anthropology\u2014Earliest record of\n      tree-worship, the cylinders of Chaldaea\u2014The symbol of the sacred\n      tree; its development\u2014Meaning of the symbol\u2014Tree-worship amongst\n      the Semites\u2014Canaanitish tree-worship\u2014The _ash\u00eara_\u2014The decoration\n      of the Temple at Jerusalem\u2014Tree-worship in ancient Egypt\u2014The\n      sacred sycamores\u2014Survival of the worship in the Soudan and in\n      Africa generally\u2014Osiris, originally a tree-god; compared with\n      other vegetation spirits\u2014Tammuz, Adonis, Attis, Dionysus\u2014The\n      sacred trees of the Persians\u2014Tree-worship still existent in India;\n      evidence of its ancient prevalence\u2014Its incorporation in\n      Buddhism\u2014Other instances of tree-worship in the East\u2014The evidence\n      from America.\n\n  Greek and Roman tree-worship\u2014The German religion of the\n      grove\u2014Persistence of the belief in tree-spirits in Russia, Poland,\n      and Finland\u2014Sacred trees in mediaeval France\u2014The rites of the\n      Druids\u2014Evidence of tree-worship in Saxon England; its survival in\n      May-day customs\u2014General conclusions as to the ancient prevalence\n      of tree-worship\u2014Its origin; views of Robertson Smith, Herbert\n      Spencer, and Grant Allen                                     Page 1\n\n\n                               CHAPTER II\n                          THE GOD AND THE TREE\n\n  Tree-spirits divisible into tree-gods and tree-demons\u2014The gods of\n      antiquity subject to physical limitations, and approachable only\n      through their material embodiment or symbol\u2014This embodiment\n      frequently a tree\u2014The sycamores of Egypt believed to be inhabited\n      by deities\u2014Developments of this conception\u2014In Greece the tree one\n      of the earliest symbols of the god\u2014The chief Greek gods in their\n      origin deities of vegetation\u2014The ritual of the tree\u2014The tree\n      dressed or carved to represent an anthropomorphic god\u2014Late\n      survival of this custom amongst the classical nations\u2014Its\n      prevalence in other countries.\n\n  The god\u2019s own tree\u2014Zeus and the oak\u2014Apollo and the laurel\u2014Aphrodite\n      and the myrtle\u2014Athena and the olive\u2014The association of a\n      particular god with a particular tree not known amongst the\n      Semites\u2014The bodhi-trees or trees of wisdom of the Buddhas\u2014The\n      sculptures of Bharhut\u2014Brahma and the golden lotus\u2014The holy basil\n      of India\u2014The grove of Upsala, the home of Woden\u2014Taara and the\n      oak\u2014The great oak at Romove.\n\n  Gifts to the tree: in Arabia, in Egypt, in Greece\u2014Dedication of arms,\n      trophies, etc.\n\n  The use of branches and wreaths in religious ceremonies\u2014The procession\n      of the sacred bough in Greek festivals\u2014The ceremonial use of\n      branches common throughout the East.\n\n  The tree as sanctuary and asylum                                     24\n\n\n                              CHAPTER III\n                      WOOD-DEMONS AND TREE-SPIRITS\n\n  General characteristics of the tree-demon\u2014The fabulous monsters of\n      Chaldaea\u2014The _jinni_ of Arabia\u2014The hairy monsters of the Bible\u2014The\n      tree-demons of Egypt\u2014The woodland creatures of Greece\u2014Centaurs and\n      Cyclops\u2014Pan, satyrs, and sileni\u2014The fauns and silvani of\n      Italy\u2014Female woodland spirits\u2014The hamadryads\u2014Alexander and the\n      flower-maidens\u2014The vine-women of Lucian\u2014Corresponding instances in\n      modern folk-lore\u2014The soul of the nymph actually held to inhabit\n      the tree\u2014The belief that blood would flow when the tree was\n      injured\u2014Examples from Virgil, Ovid, and from modern\n      folk-lore\u2014Indian belief in wood-spirits.\n\n  The wood-spirits of Central and North Europe\u2014Their general\n      characteristics\u2014The moss-women\u2014The wild women of Tyrol\u2014The\n      wood-spirits of the Grisons\u2014The white and green ladies\u2014The Swedish\n      tree-spirit\u2014The Russian Ljeschi\u2014The Finnish Tapio\u2014The Tengus of\n      Japan\u2014Wood-demons of Peru and Brazil                             52\n\n\n                               CHAPTER IV\n                 THE TREE IN ITS RELATION TO HUMAN LIFE\n\n  The tree represented as the progenitor of the human race; as related\n      in the Eddas; in Iranian mythology; amongst the Sioux Indians\u2014The\n      classical view\u2014Human beings represented as the fruit of a\n      tree\u2014Individual births from a tree\u2014Mythical births beneath a tree;\n      Zeus; Hermes; Hera; Apollo and Artemis; Romulus and Remus.\n\n  Metamorphoses\u2014Apollo and Daphne\u2014Meaning of the legend\u2014The daughters of\n      Clymene\u2014Baucis and Philemon\u2014Other instances of metamorphosis\u2014The\n      growth of flowers from the blood of the dead, or from the tears\n      shed over them\u2014Transmigration of souls into trees\u2014Tristram and\n      Iseult\u2014Sweet William and Fair Margaret\u2014Other instances.\n\n  The conception of the tree as sympathetically interwoven with human\n      life\u2014The family tree\u2014The community tree\u2014The fig-tree in the Roman\n      Comitium\u2014The patrician and plebeian myrtle-trees.\n\n  The tree as the symbol of reproductive energy\u2014The Semitic\n      mother-goddess\u2014Interpretation of the Chaldaean sacred tree as the\n      symbol of fertility\u2014The tree-inhabiting spirit of vegetation as\n      the patron of fertility\u2014Observances connected therewith          72\n\n\n                               CHAPTER V\n                           THE TREE AS ORACLE\n\n  The oracular power a corollary to the belief in the tree-inhabiting\n      god\u2014Connection of the tree-oracle with the earth-oracle\u2014The\n      oracles of the Chaldaeans\u2014Canaanite tree-oracles\u2014\u201cThe tree of the\n      soothsayers\u201d\u2014The oracular oak of Zeus at Dodona\u2014The oracle of Zeus\n      Ammon\u2014The prophetic laurel of Delphi\u2014Oracular trees in Armenia, in\n      Arabia\u2014Alexander the Great and the Persian tree-oracles\u2014The\n      prophetic ilex grove at Rome\u2014Other Italian tree-oracles: at Tibur;\n      at Preneste\u2014Tree-omens\u2014Legends of speaking trees\u2014Oracle-lots\u2014The\n      origin of the divining-rod\u2014Cut rods believed to retain some of the\n      divine power resident in the tree\u2014The life-rood\u2014The divining-rod a\n      survival of the tree-oracle\u2014Its modern use\u2014Divination by roots and\n      leaves                                                           93\n\n\n                               CHAPTER VI\n                           THE UNIVERSE-TREE\n\n  Wide distribution of the conception\u2014Its plausibility to the primitive\n      mind; especially to the inhabitants of level countries\u2014Earliest\n      version of the world-tree found in an Accadian hymn of great\n      antiquity\u2014Probably a poetical amplification of the sacred\n      spirit-inhabited tree\u2014The world-tree and the world-mountain\u2014The\n      two conceptions combined in the Norse Yggdrasil, as described in\n      the Eddas\u2014Indian and Persian versions of the world-tree\u2014Buddhist\n      development of the idea\u2014The cosmogony of the Phoenicians\u2014Egyptian\n      variants; the T\u00e2t-pillar; the golden gem-bearing tree of the\n      sky\u2014Traces of the world-tree in Chinese and Japanese mythology\u2014A\n      similar tradition amongst North American Indians.\n\n  The Eastern conception of the stars as fruits of the world-tree, and\n      as jewels hung thereon\u2014A motive common in Oriental art\u2014The golden\n      apples of the Hesperides\u2014Other instances of the world-tree in\n      European legend\u2014The monster oak of the Kalevala\u2014Corresponding\n      tradition amongst the Esthonians.\n\n  The food of the gods, a conception associated with that of the\n      world-tree\u2014The Persian haoma, a mystical tree, producing an\n      immortalising juice\u2014Its terrestrial counterpart; the haoma\n      sacrament\u2014The Vedic soma; not only a plant but a powerful\n      deity\u2014Identification of the plant\u2014De Gubernatis on the soma\n      ritual\u2014The effect of the soma drink\u2014Corresponding conceptions\n      amongst the Greeks\u2014Origin of the idea                           109\n\n\n                              CHAPTER VII\n                                PARADISE\n\n  Varieties of the tradition: (1) as the seat of the gods; (2) as the\n      home of the first parents; (3) as the abode of the blessed\u2014All\n      associated with the conception of a mystical tree, in itself an\n      idealisation of the spirit-inhabited tree worshipped on earth\u2014The\n      paradise of the gods in Indian tradition; its five miraculous\n      trees\u2014The paradise of Genesis and of the Persian sacred books\u2014The\n      tree of paradise compared with sacred cedar of Chaldaea\u2014paradise\n      as the abode of the blessed, a post-exilic tradition amongst the\n      Jews\u2014The paradise of the Talmud; and of the Koran\u2014The confusion in\n      the ancient traditions of paradise partly due to a limited\n      conception of space and to a belief in the propinquity of\n      heaven\u2014Greek conceptions of paradise\u2014Milton\u2019s description\n      influenced by ancient traditions of an elevated paradise.\n\n  The earthly paradise\u2014Persistence of the tradition; Sir John\n      Maundeville\u2019s version\u2014Icelandic tradition\u2014The lost Atlantis of\n      Plato a variant of the paradise legend\u2014St. Brandan and the Isle of\n      Avalon\u2014Christopher Columbus\u2014Japanese tradition of an island of\n      eternal youth, with its marvellous tree\u2014Developments of the idea\n      of the tree of paradise\u2014Its representation in art               128\n\n\n                              CHAPTER VIII\n                            MAY CELEBRATIONS\n\n  Their ancient religious significance\u2014The old English May-day\u2014Fetching\n      in the May\u2014Puritan condemnation of the May-poles\u2014Their removal \u201cas\n      a heathenish vanity\u201d\u2014Existing survivals of May customs\u2014May-day\n      rhymes.\n\n  Origin of the celebrations: 1. The bringing in of the May-bough\u2014Wide\n      distribution of the custom an evidence of its antiquity\u2014Its\n      original intention\u2014\u201cThe May\u201d related to the harvest-bush of France\n      and Western Germany, and to the Greek _eiresione_\u2014Their common\n      purpose, to bring to the house a share of the blessings assumed to\n      be at the disposal of the tree-inhabiting spirit.\n\n  2. The May-pole: its primitive intention to bring to the village, as\n      the May-bough to the family, the newly-quickened generative\n      potency resident in the woods\u2014Wide prevalence of the\n      custom\u2014Association of the May-pole with a human image or doll,\n      representing the vegetation spirit\u2014The Greek festival of the\n      little Daedala\u2014The May-pole, originally renewed every year, became\n      later a permanent erection, newly dressed on May-day\u2014Assumed\n      beneficent influence of the May-pole.\n\n  3. The May Queen, May Lady, or King and Queen of the May: Evidence\n      that these personages were originally regarded as human\n      representatives or embodiments of the generalised tree-soul\u2014Often\n      associated with its vegetable representative, the tree or bough;\n      or clothed in leaves and flowers, _e.g._ the Green George of\n      Carinthia and our Jack-in-the-Green\u2014The custom general throughout\n      Europe\u2014Robin Hood and Maid Marian originally King and Queen of the\n      May\u2014In primitive times the human representative of the vegetation\n      spirit probably sacrificed, in order that the spirit might pass to\n      a more vigorous successor\u2014Human sacrifice in Mexico\u2014Survival in\n      symbol of this ancient custom in Bavaria, Swabia, Saxony, etc.  144\n\n\n                               CHAPTER IX\n                         CHRISTMAS OBSERVANCES\n\n  Distinctly pagan in their origin, and adapted to Christian use under\n      the influence of the Church\u2014The Roman Saturnalia\u2014The use of\n      mistletoe a direct legacy from the Druids\u2014The decoration of the\n      house with evergreens also a Druidic custom.\n\n  The Christmas-tree; its introduction into England extremely recent;\n      not universally established in Germany, the land of its origin,\n      until the present century\u2014References to it by Goethe and\n      Schiller\u2014Earliest record from Strasburg about 1600\n      A.D.\u2014Theological disapproval\u2014Theories as to its origin\u2014Probably\n      connected with the legend of Christmas flowering\n      trees\u2014Examples\u2014The Glastonbury thorn\u2014Mannhardt\u2019s view; a decorated\n      tree the recognised scenic symbol of Christmas in the paradise\n      play of the Middle Ages, wherein the story of the Fall was\n      dramatically associated with that of the Nativity\u2014An ancient\n      German custom to force into flower boughs cut on a sacred night\n      during the great autumn festival\u2014The date of severance delayed\n      under priestly influence so that the boughs might flower at\n      Christmas\u2014Instances of the survival of this custom\u2014The lights on\n      the Christmas-tree a comparatively recent innovation\u2014Legends of\n      light-bearing trees\u2014The lights possibly derived from ancient\n      solstitial observances\u2014The Christmas-tree an illustration of the\n      blending of pagan and mediaeval ideas\u2014A point in which the many\n      phases of tree-worship converge                                 162\n\n\n  INDEX                                                               175\n\n\n\n\n                             ILLUSTRATIONS\n\n\n                                                                  CHAPTER\n PAGE\n\n  Sacred tree with its supporters, from St. Mark\u2019s, Venice _Frontispiece_\n\n  1, Rudimentary and conventionalised forms of the sacred tree          5\n\n  2,                                                                    5\n\n  3.                                                                    5\n\n  4. Sacred tree with its supporters, surmounted by the winged disc,\n      from an Assyrian cylinder                                         6\n\n  5. Sacred tree, from the Temple of Athena at Pryene                   6\n\n  6. The same, from a sculptured slab in the Treasury of St. Mark\u2019s,\n      Venice                                                            7\n\n  7. A _Ba_ or soul receiving the lustral water from a tree-goddess    10\n\n  8. Sacred tree with worshippers, from eastern gateway at S\u00e2nchi      15\n\n  9. Sacred tree, from a Mexican manuscript                            17\n\n  10. The goddess Nu\u0314\u00eet in her sacred sycamore bestowing the bread and\n      water of the next world                                          26\n\n  11. Sacred tree of Dionysus, with a statue of the god and offerings  27\n\n  12. Sacred pine of Silvanus, with a bust of the god, and votive gifts\n                                                                       28\n\n  13. Fruit-tree dressed as Dionysus                                   31\n\n  14, Forms of the T\u00e2t or Did\u00fb, the emblem of Osiris                   34\n\n  15.                                                                  34\n\n  16. Apollo on his sacred tripod, a laurel branch in his hand         36\n\n  17. Coin of Athens, of the age of Pericles or earlier, showing olive\n      spray                                                            38\n\n  18. Coin of Athens, third century B.C.                               38\n\n  19. The Bodhi-tree of Kanaka Muni                                    41\n\n  20. Wild elephants paying their devotions to the sacred banian of\n      K\u00e2syapa Buddha                                                   42\n\n  21. Sacred sycamore, with offerings                                  44\n\n  22. Sacred tree of Artemis, hung with weapons of the chase           45\n\n  23. Sacred laurel of Apollo at Delphi, adorned with fillets and votive\n      tablets; beneath it the god appearing to protect Orestes         50\n\n  24. Imperial coin of Myra in Lycia, showing tree-goddess             87\n\n  25. Sacred tree and worshipper, from a Chaldaean cylinder            88\n\n  26. Sacred tree as symbol of fertility, from an Assyrian bas-relief  89\n\n  27. Yggdrasil, the Scandinavian world-tree                          115\n\n  28. From a Babylonian seal                                          130\n\n\n\n\n                               CHAPTER I\n                TREE-WORSHIP\u2014ITS DISTRIBUTION AND ORIGIN\n\n\nIt is the purpose of the present volume to deal as concisely as possible\nwith the many religious observances, popular customs, legends,\ntraditions and ideas which have sprung from or are related to the\nprimitive conception of the tree-spirit. There is little doubt that most\nif not all races, at some period of their development, have regarded the\ntree as the home, haunt, or embodiment of a spiritual essence, capable\nof more or less independent life and activity, and able to detach itself\nfrom its material habitat and to appear in human or in animal form. This\nbelief has left innumerable traces in ancient art and literature, has\nlargely shaped the usages and legends of the peasantry, and impressed\nits influence on the ritual of almost all the primitive religions of\nmankind. There is, indeed, scarcely a country in the world where the\ntree has not at one time or another been approached with reverence or\nwith fear, as being closely connected with some spiritual potency.\n\nThe evidence upon which this assertion is based is overwhelming in\namount, and is frequently to be found in quarters where until lately its\npresence was unsuspected or its significance ignored. For instance, in\nthe interior of that fascinating storehouse of antiquity, St. Mark\u2019s at\nVenice, there are embedded in the walls, high above one\u2019s head, a number\nof ancient sculptured slabs, on each of which a conventionalised plant,\nwith foliage most truthfully and lovingly rendered, is set between two\nfabulous monsters, as fantastic and impossible as any supporters to be\nmet with in the whole range of heraldry (see Frontispiece). To the\nordinary observer these strange sculptures say nothing; probably he\npasses over them lightly, as the offspring of that quaint mediaeval\nfancy which was so prolific in monstrous births. But the student of\nOriental art at once detects in them a familiar design, a design whose\npedigree can be traced back to the day, six thousand years ago, when the\nChaldaean Semites were taking their culture and religion from the old\nAccadians who dwelt on the shores of the Persian Gulf. In the central\nplant he recognises the symbol or ideograph of a divine attribute or\nactivity, if not a representation of the visible embodiment or abode of\na god, and in the raised hand or forepaw of the supporters he discerns\nthe conventional attitude of adoration. The design, in short, which was\nprobably handed on from Assyria to Persia, and from Persia to Byzantium,\nand so to Venice, is a vestige of that old world religion which regarded\nthe tree as one of the sacred haunts of deity.\n\nAgain, the same conception, the record of which is thus strangely\npreserved in the very fabric of a Christian edifice, is to be traced\nwith equal certainty in the older and scarcely less permanent fabric of\npopular tradition and custom. The folk-lore of the modern European\npeasant, and the observances with which Christmas, May-day, and the\ngathering of the harvest are still celebrated in civilised countries,\nare all permeated by the primitive idea that there was a spiritual\nessence embodied in vegetation, that trees, like men, had spirits,\npassing in and out amongst them, which possessed a mysterious and potent\ninfluence over human affairs, and which it was therefore wise and\nnecessary to propitiate.\n\nA third example of the less recondite evidence on the subject is to be\nfound in the Book that we all know best. When we once realise how deeply\nrooted and time-honoured was the belief that there was a spiritual force\ninherent in vegetation, we cease to wonder at the perversity with which\nthe less cultured Israelites persisted in planting groves and setting up\naltars under every green tree. Read in the light of modern research, the\nOld Testament presents a drama of surpassing interest, a record of\ninternecine struggle between the aspiration of the few towards the\nworship of a single, omnipresent, unconditioned God and the conservative\nadhesion of the many to the primitive ritual and belief common to all\nthe Semitic tribes. For the backsliding children of Israel were no more\nidolaters, in the usual meaning of the word, than were the Canaanites\nwhose rites they imitated. Their view of nature was that of the\nprimitive Semite, if not of the primitive man. All parts of nature, in\ntheir idea, were full of spiritual forces, more or less, but never\ncompletely, detached in their movements and action from the material\nobjects to which they were supposed properly to belong. \u201cIn ritual the\nsacred object was spoken of and treated as the god himself; it was not\nmerely his symbol, but his embodiment, the permanent centre of his\nactivity, in the same sense in which the human body is the permanent\ncentre of man\u2019s activity. The god inhabited the tree or sacred stone not\nin the sense in which a man inhabits a house, but in the sense in which\nhis soul inhabits his body.\u201d[1]\n\nTo the three classes of evidence, derived respectively from archaeology,\nfrom folk-lore, and from ancient literature, which have been thus\nbriefly exemplified, may be added a fourth, equally important and\nprolific, that namely of contemporary anthropology. Scarcely a book is\nprinted on the customs of uncivilised races which does not contribute\nsome new fact to the subject. The illustration of an Arab praying to a\ntree, in Slatin Pasha\u2019s recently published volume, is no surprise to the\nanthropologist, who has learnt to look for such survivals of primitive\ncustoms wherever culture still remains primitive.\n\n       Rudimentary and conventionalised forms of the sacred tree.\n      (From Chaldaean and Assyrian cylinders. Goblet d\u2019Alviella.)\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 1.]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 2.]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 3.]\n\nNow of all primitive customs and beliefs there is none which has a\ngreater claim upon our interest than the worship of the tree, for there\nis none which has had a wider distribution throughout the world, or has\nleft a deeper impress on the traditions and observances of mankind. Its\nantiquity is undoubted, for when history begins to speak, we find it\nalready firmly established amongst the oldest civilised races. What is\nprobably its earliest record is met with on the engraved cylinders of\nChaldaea, some of which date back to 4000 B.C. Even at that period it\nwould appear that the Chaldaeans had advanced beyond the stage of crude\ntree-worship, as found to this day amongst uncivilised races, for the\nsacred tree had already undergone a process of idealisation. In a\nbilingual hymn, which is of Accadian origin, and probably one of the\nmost ancient specimens of literature in existence, a mystical tree is\ndescribed as the abode of the gods. And it was probably by a similar\nprocess of idealisation that a conventional representation of the sacred\ntree came to be one of the most important symbols of Chaldaean religion.\nThis symbol, which we have already seen in decorative use on the slabs\nat St. Mark\u2019s, appears on the oldest Chaldaean cylinders \u201cas a stem\ndivided at the base, surmounted by a fork or a crescent, and cut,\nmidway, by one or more cross bars which sometimes bear a fruit at each\nextremity. This rudimentary image frequently changes into the palm, the\npomegranate, the cypress, vine, etc.[2] On the Assyrian monuments of\nabout 1000 B.C. and later, the figure becomes still more complex and\nmore artistically conventionalised, and it nearly always stands between\ntwo personages facing each other, who are sometimes priests or kings in\nan attitude of adoration, sometimes monstrous creatures, such as are so\noften met with in Assyro-Chaldaean imagery, lions, sphinxes, griffins,\nunicorns, winged bulls, men or _genii_ with the head of an eagle, and so\nforth. Above it is frequently suspended the winged circle, personifying\nthe supreme deity.\u201d In his exhaustive chapter on this ancient design, M.\nGoblet d\u2019Alviella has shown that it obtained a wide dissemination\nthroughout the world, and is used even to this day in the fictile and\ntextile art of the East.[3] M. Menant concludes from his exhaustive\nstudy of the cylinders, that the worship of the sacred tree in Assyria\nwas intimately associated with that of the supreme deity, its symbol\nbeing incontestably one of the most sacred emblems of the Assyrian\nreligion.[4] M. Lenormant\u2019s view was that the winged circle, in\nconjunction with the sacred tree, represented the primeval cosmogonic\npair, the creative sun and the fertile earth, and was a symbol of the\ndivine mystery of generation.[5] In Babylonia the sacred tree was no\ndoubt closely associated with Istar, the divine mother, who was\noriginally not a Semitic, but an Accadian goddess, and whose cult,\ntogether with that of her bridegroom Tammuz, was introduced into\nChaldaea from Eridu, a city which flourished on the shores of the\nPersian Gulf between 3000 and 4000 B.C.[6] That the Accadians were\nfamiliar with the worship of the tree may also be inferred from the fact\nthat their chief god, Ea, was closely associated with the sacred cedar,\non whose core his name was supposed to be inscribed.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 4.\u2014Sacred tree with its supporters, surmounted by\nthe winged disc.(From an Assyrian cylinder. Goblet d\u2019Alviella.)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 5.\u2014Sacred tree, much conventionalised.(From a\ncapital of the Temple of Athena at Pryene. Goblet d\u2019Alviella.)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 6.\u2014Sacred tree, from a sculptured slab in the\nTreasury of St. Mark\u2019s, Venice.]\n\nBut however much their attitude towards the sacred tree may have been\nmodified under Accadian influence, the Chaldaeans in their worship of\nthe tree only followed the rule of their Semitic kindred, for \u201cthe\nconception of trees as demoniac beings was familiar to all the Semites,\nand the tree was adored as divine in every part of the Semitic area.\u201d[7]\nEven that stationary Semite, the modern Arab, holds certain trees\ninviolable as being inhabited by spirits, and honours them with\nsacrifices and decorations, and to this day the traveller in Palestine\nsometimes lights upon holy trees hung with tokens of homage.\n\nThis strange persistence of a primitive religion in the very birthplace\nof a most exalted spiritual worship is an additional evidence of its\nremarkable vitality. For there is no country in the world where the tree\nwas ever more ardently worshipped than it was in ancient Palestine.\nAmongst the Canaanites every altar to the god had its sacred tree beside\nit, and when the Israelites established local sanctuaries under their\ninfluence, they set up their altar under a green tree, and planted\nbeside it as its indispensable accompaniment an _ash\u00eara_, which was\neither a living tree or a tree-like post, and not a \u201cgrove,\u201d as rendered\nin the Authorised Version. This _ash\u00eara_ was undoubtedly worshipped as a\nsacred symbol of the deity. Originally it appears to have been\nassociated with Ashtoreth or Astarte, the Syrian Istar, the revolting\ncharacter of whose worship perhaps explains the excessive bitterness of\nthe biblical denunciations.[8] But the _ash\u00eara_ was also erected by the\naltars of other gods, and in pre-prophetic days even beside that of\nJehovah Himself, whence it may be concluded that \u201cin early times\ntree-worship had such a vogue in Canaan, that the sacred tree or the\npole, its surrogate, had come to be viewed as a _general_ symbol of\ndeity.\u201d[9] The great antiquity of the cult in Syria was recognised in\nthe local traditions, for an old Phoenician cosmogony, quoted by\nEusebius, states that \u201cthe first men consecrated the plants shooting out\nof the earth, and judged them gods, and worshipped them, and made meat\nand drink offerings to them.\u201d[10] In addition to the _ash\u00eara_, the\nChaldaean symbol of the sacred tree between its supporters was also\nfamiliar to the Phoenicians, and is found wherever their art penetrated,\nnotably in Cyprus and on the archaic pottery of Corinth and Athens.[11]\nIt is highly probable that both these sacred symbols had a common\norigin, but the connection must have been lost sight of in later times,\nfor we find Ezekiel, to whom the prophetic denunciations of the _ash\u00eara_\nmust have been familiar, decorating the temple of his vision with\ndesigns evidently derived from the Chaldaean sacred tree, \u201ca palm-tree\nbetween a cherub and a cherub.\u201d[12] A similar ornamentation with\npalm-trees and cherubim, it will be remembered, had been used in the\ntemple built by Solomon.[13]\n\nAmongst the ancient Egyptians, whose \u201cexuberant piety\u201d required,\naccording to M. Maspero, \u201can actual rabble of gods\u201d to satisfy it, trees\nwere enthusiastically worshipped, side by side with other objects, as\nthe homes of various divinities. The splendid green sycamores, which\nflourish here and there as though by miracle on the edge of the\ncultivated land, their rootlets bathed by the leakage of the Nile, were\naccounted divine and earnestly worshipped by Egyptians of every rank, in\nthe belief that they were animated by spirits, who on occasion could\nemerge from them. They were habitually honoured with fruit offerings,\nand the charitable found an outlet for their benevolence in daily\nreplenishing the water-jars placed beneath them for the use of the\npasser-by, who in his turn would express his gratitude for the boon by\nreciting a prayer to the deity of the tree. The most famous of these\nsycamores\u2014the sycamore of the South\u2014was regarded as the living body of\nH\u0101thor upon earth; and the tree at Metairieh, commonly called the Tree\nof the Virgin, is probably the successor of a sacred tree of Heliopolis,\nin which a goddess, perhaps H\u0101thor, was worshipped.[14] The district\naround Memphis was known as the Land of the Sycamore, and contained\nseveral trees generally believed to be inhabited by detached doubles of\nNu\u0314\u00eet and H\u0101thor. Similar trees are worshipped at the present day both\nby Christian and Mussulman fellah\u00een.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 7.\u2014A Ba or soul receiving the lustral water from a\ntree-goddess.(From a painting discovered by Prof. Petrie at Thebes.\nIllustrated London News, 25th July 1896.)]\n\nOn the outskirts of the province of Darfur the Bedeyat Arabs, though\nsurrounded by Moslem tribes, still adhere to the same primitive cult.\nUnder the wide-spreading branches of an enormous heglik-tree, and on a\nspot kept beautifully clean and sprinkled with fine sand, they beseech\nan unknown god to direct them in their undertakings and to protect them\nfrom danger.[15] They have, in short, retained, in spite of the pressure\nof Islamism, the old heathen worship which still widely prevails amongst\nthe uncivilised races of the African continent. Thus on the Guinea Coast\nalmost every village has its sacred tree, and in some parts offerings\nare still made to them. The negroes of the Congo plant a sacred tree\nbefore their houses and set jars of palm-wine under it for the\ntree-spirit.[16] In Dahomey prayers and gifts are offered to trees in\ntime of sickness. One of the goddesses of the Fantis has her abode in\nhuge cotton-trees. In the Nyassa country, where the spirits of the dead\nare worshipped as gods, the ceremonies are conducted and offerings\nplaced not at the grave of the dead man, but at the foot of the tree\nwhich grows before his house, or if that be unsuitable, beneath some\nespecially beautiful tree selected for the purpose.[17]\n\nTo return to ancient Egypt, there is evidence that the great Osiris was\noriginally a tree-god. According to Egyptian mythology, after he had\nbeen murdered his coffin was discovered enclosed in a tree-trunk, and he\nis spoken of in the inscriptions as \u201cthe one in the tree,\u201d \u201cthe solitary\none in the acacia.\u201d The rites, too, by which his death and burial were\nannually celebrated appear to couple him closely with Tammuz, Adonis,\nAttis, Dionysus, and other gods whose worship was associated with a\nsimilar ritual.[18] Mr. Frazer, following Mannhardt, contends that all\nthese deities were tree-gods, and that the ceremonial connected with\ntheir worship was symbolical of the annual death and revival of\nvegetation. It is certainly true that in Babylonia, Egypt, Phoenicia,\nand above all in Phrygia, a peculiarly emotional form of worship, which\nsubsequently extended to Cyprus, Crete, Greece, and Italy, arose in\nconnection with deities who were closely associated with vegetable life.\nTammuz\u2014\n\n  Whose annual wound in Lebanon allured\n  The Syrian damsels to lament his fate,\n\nand for whose resuscitation his bride, the goddess Istar, descended into\nHades\u2014was represented as originally dwelling in a tree.[19] Adonis, who\nwas the beloved of Aphrodite\u2014the Syrian Astarte\u2014and is Tammuz under\nanother name, was born from a myrrh-tree. Attis, the favourite of\nCybele, who was worshipped with barbarous rites in Phrygia, was\nrepresented in the form of a decorated pine-tree, to which his image was\nattached. Dionysus, whose death and resurrection were celebrated in\nCrete and elsewhere, was worshipped throughout Greece as \u201cDionysus of\nthe Tree.\u201d These facts are sufficient to warrant the inference that\ntree-worship was very firmly rooted in those regions where the Semitic\nraces came into contact with the Aryans. In Phrygia it was peculiarly\nprominent, as we know from classical references. The archaeological\nevidence is vague and incomplete, but a characteristic device frequent\nin Phrygian art, in which two animals, usually lions rampant, face one\nanother on either side of a pillar, or an archaic representation of the\nmother-goddess Cybele,[20] recalls the sacred tree of Babylonia. The\ndevice is familiar in connection with the lion-gate of Mycenae, which\nwas probably erected under Phrygian influence.\n\nThe Persians venerated trees as the dwelling-place of the deity, as the\nhaunts of good and evil spirits, and as the habitations in which the\nsouls of heroes and of the virtuous dead continued their existence.\nAccording to Plutarch, they assigned some trees and plants to the good\nGod, others to the evil demon.[21] The Zend-Avesta ordained that the\ntrees which Ormuzd had given should be prayed to as pure and holy, and\nadored with fire and lustral water;[22] and according to tradition, when\nZoroaster died, Ormuzd himself translated his soul into a lofty tree,\nand planted it upon a high mountain. The cypress was regarded by the\nPersians as especially sacred. It was closely associated with\nfire-worship, and was revered as a symbol of the pure light of Ormuzd.\nIt is frequently represented on ancient gravestones in conjunction with\nthe lion, the symbol of the sun-god Mithra.[23] Another venerated tree\nwas the myrtle, a branch of which was used as an essential accompaniment\nin all religious functions. The observances connected with the Persian\nworship of the Haoma plant will be dealt with in a later chapter. The\nAchaemenian kings regarded the plane as their peculiar tree, and a\nrepresentation of it in gold formed part of their state. A certain\nplane-tree in Lydia was presented by Xerxes with vessels of gold and\ncostly apparel, and committed to the guardianship of one of his\n\u201cimmortals.\u201d[24]\n\nIn India, where tree-worship once enjoyed a wide prevalence, it has left\nindubitable traces on the religions which displaced it, and it is still\nencountered in its crudest form amongst some of the aboriginal hill\ntribes. The Garrows, for instance, who possess neither temples nor\naltars, set up a bamboo before their huts, and sacrifice before it to\ntheir deity.[25] On a mountain in Travancore there existed until quite\nrecently an ancient tree, which was regarded by the natives as the\nresidence of a powerful deity. Sacrifices were offered to it, and\nsermons preached before it; it served, indeed, as the cathedral of the\ndistrict. At length, to the horror of its worshippers, an English\nmissionary had it cut down and used in the construction of a chapel on\nits site.[26] The ancient prevalence of tree-worship in India is\nestablished by frequent references to sacred trees in the Vedas, and by\nthe statement of Q. Curtius that the companions of Alexander the Great\nnoticed that the Indians \u201creputed as gods whatever they held in\nreverence, especially trees, which it was death to injure.\u201d[27] This\nancient reverence for the tree was recognised by Buddhism, and adapted\nto its more advanced mode of thought. The asvattha or pippala-tree,\n_Ficus Religiosa_, which had previously been identified with the supreme\ndeity, Brahma, came to be venerated above all others by the special\ninjunction of Gautama, as that under which he had achieved perfect\nknowledge.[28] In his previous incarnations Gautama himself is\nrepresented as having been a tree-spirit no less than forty-three times.\nThe evidence of the monuments as to the importance attached to the tree\nin early Buddhism is equally definite. The S\u00e2nchi and Ama-ravati\nsculptures, some casts of which are in the British Museum, contain\nrepresentations of the sacred tree decorated with garlands and\nsurrounded by votaries, whilst the worship of the trees identified with\nthe various Buddhas is repeatedly represented on the St\u00fbpa of Bharhut.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 8.\u2014Sacred tree with worshippers, from eastern\ngateway of Buddhist Tope at S\u00e2nchi.(Fergusson\u2019s Tree and Serpent Worship\n(1868), Plate xxv.)]\n\nThere is very little evidence of the existence of tree-worship amongst\nthe Chinese, but they have a tradition of a Tree of Life, and of a drink\nof immortality made from various sacred plants. They also make use of\nthe divining-rod, which is an offshoot of tree-worship, and certain\nTaoist medals, like the talismans worn in Java, bear the familiar symbol\nof the sacred tree.[29] In Japan certain old trees growing near Shinto\ntemples are regarded as sacred, and bound with a fillet of straw rope,\n\u201cas if they were tenanted by a divine spirit.\u201d[30] Japanese mythology\ntells of holy _sakaki_ trees growing on the Mountain of Heaven, and of a\nherb of immortality to be gathered on the Island of Eternal Youth.\n\nAmongst the semi-civilised races which border upon these ancient states\nthe tree is still almost universally regarded as the dwelling-place of a\nspirit, and as such is protected, venerated, and often presented with\nofferings. In Sumatra and Borneo certain old trees are held to be\nsacred, and the Dyaks would regard their destruction as an impious act.\nThe Mintira of the Malay Peninsula believe that trees are inhabited by\nterrible spirits capable of inflicting diseases. The Talein of Burmah\nnever cut down a tree without a prayer to the indwelling spirit. The\nSiamese have such veneration for the takhien-tree that they offer it\ncakes and rice before felling it; so strong, indeed, is their dread of\ndestroying trees of any kind, and thereby offending the gods inhabiting\nthem, that all necessary tree-felling is relegated to the lowest\ncriminals. Even at the present day they frequently make offerings to the\ntree-dwelling spirits, and hang gifts on any tree whose deity they\ndesire to propitiate.[31]\n\nIn the Western Hemisphere, the fact that the drawing of a tree with two\nopposed personages or supporters, similar in design to the sacred tree\nof the Chaldaeans, has been found in an ancient Mexican MS., has been\nput forward as an additional argument in favour of the pre-Columbian\ncolonisation of that continent and its early contact with the Eastern\nworld.[32] Speaking generally, however, the worship of the tree appears\nto have flourished less widely in the New World than the Old, though\ntraces of it have been found all over the continent.[33] A large\nash-tree is regarded with great veneration by the Indians of Lake\nSuperior, and in Mexico there was a cypress, the spreading branches of\nwhich were loaded by the natives with votive offerings, locks of hair,\nteeth, and morsels of ribbon; it was many centuries old, and had\nprobably had mysterious influence ascribed to it, and been decorated\nwith offerings long before the discovery of America.[34] By that date,\nhowever, the Mexicans had apparently advanced beyond the earliest stage\nof religious development, and expanded the idea of individual\ntree-spirits into the more general conception of a god of vegetation. It\nwas in the honour of such a god that their May-Day celebrations were\nheld and their human sacrifices offered. In Nicaragua cereals were\nworshipped as well as trees. In more primitive Patagonia the cruder form\nof worship persists, a certain tree standing upon a hill being still\nresorted to by numerous worshippers, each of whom brings his offering.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 9.\u2014From a Mexican manuscript.(Goblet d\u2019Alviella.)]\n\nTo return nearer home, the worship of the tree has prevailed at one time\nor another in every country of Europe. It played a vital part in the\nreligion of Greece and Rome, and classical literature is full of\ntraditions and ideas which can have been derived from no other source.\nThe subject has been exhaustively treated by B\u00f6tticher in his\n_Baumkultus der Hellenen_.[35] Mr. Farnell, in his recently published\nwork, says that in the earliest period of Greek religion of which we\nhave any record, the tree was worshipped as the shrine of the divinity\nthat housed within it; hence the epithet \u1f14\u03bd\u03b4\u03b5\u03bd\u03b4\u03c1\u03bf\u03c2, applied to Zeus, and\nthe legend of Helene Dendritis.[36] Discoveries made in Crete and the\nPeloponnese within the present year (1896) seem to show that the worship\nof deities in aniconic shape as stone pillars or as trees played a great\npart in the religion of the Mycenaean period about 1500 B.C.[37] The\npersistent belief of the Greek and Roman peasantry in the existence and\npower of the various woodland spirits is also vitally connected with the\nprimitive idea of the tree-soul.\n\nIn the centre of Europe, covered as it once was with dense forest, the\nveneration of the tree tinctured all the religious usages of the\nprimitive inhabitants. In ancient Germany, the universal ceremonial\nreligion of the people had its abode in the \u201c_grove_,\u201d and the earliest\nefforts of the Christian missionaries were directed towards the\ndestruction of these venerated woods, or their consecration by the\nerection within them of a Christian edifice.[38] But long after their\nnominal conversion the Germans continued to people every wood with\nspirits, and the legends and folk-lore of their modern descendants are\nstill rich in memories of this time-honoured superstition. Some of these\nwood-inhabiting spirits were favourable to man, ready to befriend and\nhelp him in difficulty; others were malicious and vindictive. The whole\nsubject has been studied in Germany with characteristic thoroughness,\nthe standard work being Mannhardt\u2019s well-known and fascinating _Wald-\nund Feldkulte_.[39]\n\nIn Poland trees appear to have been worshipped as late as the fourteenth\ncentury, and in parts of Russia the power of the tree-spirit over the\nherds was so firmly held, that it was long customary to propitiate it by\nthe sacrifice of a cow. The Permians, a tribe related to the Finns,\nworshipped trees, among other things, until their conversion to\nChristianity about 1380 A.D.[40] In parts of Esthonia the peasants even\nwithin the present century regarded certain trees as sacred, carefully\nprotected them, hung them with wreaths, and once a year poured fresh\nbullock\u2019s blood about their roots, in order that the cattle might\nthrive.[41] In the remoter parts of the Czar\u2019s domain the belief in\ntree-demons still persists. They are held to be enormous creatures, who\ncan change their stature at will, and whose voice is heard in the clash\nof the storm as they spring from tree to tree. In Finland the oak is\nstill called \u201cGod\u2019s tree,\u201d and to this day the birch and the\nmountain-ash are held sacred by the peasants, and planted beside their\ncottages with every sign of reverence.\n\nIn France at Massilia (now Marseilles) human sacrifices were, in\nprimitive times, offered to trees.[42] In the fourth century of our era\nthere was a famous pear-tree at Auxerre which was hung with trophies of\nthe chase and paid all the veneration due to a god.[43] In the life of\nSt. Amandus mention is made of sacred groves and trees worshipped near\nBeauvais, and various Church councils in the early middle ages denounced\nthose who venerated trees, one held at Nantes in 895 A.D. expressly\nenjoining the destruction of trees which were consecrated to demons.\nTraces of the ancient worship still survive here as elsewhere in popular\ncustom; in the south of France they have a graceful observance, in which\nthe spirit of vegetation is personified by a youth clad in green, who\nfeigning sleep is awakened by a maiden\u2019s kiss.\n\nIn our own islands, as every one knows, the oak-tree played a salient\npart in the old Druidical worship, and Pliny[44] even derives the name\nDruid from\u03b4\u03c1\u1fe6\u03c2, an oak, as some still connect it with _darach_, the\nCeltic word for that tree. The important rites with which the mistletoe\nwas severed from the parent tree and dedicated at the altar furnish\nevidence of the veneration paid to the spirit of the tree, who,\naccording to the teaching of the Druids, retreated into the\nparasite-bough when the oak leaves withered. The Teutons no doubt\nbrought with them to Britain the religion of the sacred grove, and we\nfind King Edgar condemning the idle rites in connection with the alder\nand other trees, and Canute fifty years later forbidding the worship\nentirely.[45] The ceremonies once connected with the worship of the tree\nsurvived in the form of a picturesque symbolism long after their origin\nhad been forgotten. In 1515, at a Twelfth-Night pageant held at his\npalace of Greenwich by order of Henry VIII., tree-spirits represented by\n\u201cVIII wylde-men, all apparayled in grene mosse sodainly came oute of a\nplace lyke a wood\u201d and engaged in battle with the royal knights.[46] It\nwas also a custom of this king in the early years of his reign to resort\nto the woods with a richly-apparelled retinue in order \u201cto fetche May or\ngrene bows,\u201d\u2014the spirit of vegetation, whose renewed vigour was\nsymbolised, unconsciously no doubt, in the green boughs with which the\ncourtiers decked their caps.[47] May-day ceremonies to celebrate the new\nlife in the forest can be traced in England as far back as the\nthirteenth century, and the importance still attached to them by the\npeople as late as the seventeenth century is indicated by the rancour\nwith which the Puritans attacked the Maypole, \u201ca heathenish vanity\ngreatly abused to superstition and wickedness.\u201d These and other\nsurvivals will be more fully treated in a later chapter, and are only\nmentioned here as showing the ancient prevalence of a belief in\ntree-spirits, which indeed is alone competent to account for such\ncustoms.\n\nIn fine, no one who has not studied the subject can have any idea of the\nsanctity associated with the tree amongst pre-Christian nations. The\ngeneral conclusion which B\u00f6tticher gives as the result of his elaborate\nresearch, is that the worship of the tree was not only the earliest form\nof divine ritual, but was the last to disappear before the spread of\nChristianity; it existed long before the erection of temples and statues\nto the gods, flourished side by side with them, and persisted long after\nthey had disappeared.[48] Mr. Tylor, with greater caution, concludes\nthat _direct and absolute tree-worship_ may lie very wide and deep in\nthe early history of religion, but that apart from this \u201cthere is a wide\nrange of animistic conceptions connected with tree and forest worship.\nThe tree may be the spirit\u2019s perch, or shelter, or favourite haunt; or\nmay serve as a scaffold or altar, where offerings can be set out for\nsome spiritual being; or its shelter may be a place of worship set apart\nby nature, of some tribes the only temple, of many tribes, perhaps, the\nearliest; or lastly, it may be merely a sacred object patronised by, or\nassociated with, or symbolising some divinity.\u201d[49] These varied\nconceptions, Mr. Tylor thinks, conform, in spite of their confusion, to\nthe animistic theology in which they all have their essential\nprinciples.\n\nTo discuss the origin of tree-worship would involve the consideration of\nthe whole question of primitive culture, the theory of animism, and the\nsubject of ancestor worship, together with a digression on the very\nobscure problem of totemism. The last word has not yet been said on\nthese questions, and the time has certainly not yet come to say it. As\nwill be shown in the next two chapters, the general conception of the\ntree-spirit includes at least two different series of ideas, that on the\none hand of the tree-god, whose worship became organised into a definite\nreligion, and on the other hand that of the tree-demons or tree-spirits,\nwhose propitiation was degraded into or never rose above the level of\nsorcery and incantation. To define the relation between these two\nconceptions is extremely difficult, and it has been approached by\ndifferent writers along two different lines of thought. Either the gods\nwere developed from the spiritual forces assumed by primitive man to be\ninherent in nature, and gradually differentiated from the less friendly\npowers embodied in the various demons, until they came to be regarded as\nthe kinsmen and parents of their worshippers; or they were ancestral\nspirits, at once feared and trusted from their very origin by their\nkinsmen, whilst all the class of minor spirits and demons were but\ndegenerate gods or the ancestral spirits of enemies. The former view is\nput forward by Professor Robertson Smith, in a chapter that deserves\nmost careful study, but he admits that it is difficult to understand how\nthe friendly powers of nature that haunted a district in which men lived\nand prospered, and were regarded as embodied in holy trees and springs,\nbecame identified with the tribal god of a community and the parent of a\nrace.[50] There is no such difficulty in Mr. Herbert Spencer\u2019s theory\nthat all religion arose from ancestor worship, or in Mr. Grant Allen\u2019s\nsupplementary contention that trees and stones came to be regarded as\nsacred and to be honoured with sacrifices because they were originally\nassociated with the ancestral grave, and were hence assumed to have\nbecome the haunts or embodiments of the ancestral spirit.[51] This\nlatter view, however, does not seem to take sufficient account of the\nthousand spirits who, in the belief of primitive men, thronged the\nwoods, the mountains, and the springs, and appeared in horrible animal\nor semi-human form. Probably the truth lies between the two theories,\nand the primitive worship of the tree had more than one root.\n\n\n\n\n                               CHAPTER II\n                          THE GOD AND THE TREE\n\n\nWhen we examine more closely the spiritual beings who have been thought\nto haunt or inhabit vegetation, we find that they fall more or less\ndistinctly into two classes\u2014into tree-gods on the one hand, and on the\nother into the various tree-demons, wood-spirits, dryads, elves, jinns,\nand fabulous monsters common to the mythology of all countries. There\nis, perhaps, no absolutely definite line of demarcation between the two\nclasses, for primitive thought does not deal in sharp definitions. But\nthe division, besides being convenient for our present purpose, is a\nvital one. For a god is an individual spirit who enters into stated\nrelations with man, is mostly if not invariably regarded as akin to his\nworshippers, and is presumably their friend, ally, and protector.\nWhereas the demon is an independent and, as a rule, not individualised\nspirit, without human kinship, and for the most part unfriendly to man.\nThe god is to be revered, approached and called upon by name; the demon,\nas a rule, to be dreaded and shunned. The present chapter will be\ndevoted to the belief in the tree-inhabiting god.\n\nThe conception of an ubiquitous, unconditioned spirit is entirely\nforeign to primitive thought. All the gods of antiquity were subject to\nphysical limitations. Those even of Greece and Rome were by no means\nindependent of a material environment. There was always some holy place\nor sanctuary, some grove, tree, stone, or fountain, or later on some\ntemple or image, wherein the god was assumed to dwell, and through which\nhe had to be approached. To Moses Jehovah is \u201cHe that dwelt in the\nbush,\u201d[52] and centuries later Cyrus, while admitting that the Lord of\nIsrael had made him king of the whole world, yet speaks of Him as \u201cthe\nLord that dwelleth in Jerusalem.\u201d[53] Very frequently, especially in\nearly times, this home or haunt of the god was a tree; his ceremonial\nworship was conducted beneath its shadow, and the offerings of his\nworshippers were hung upon its branches, or placed at its foot, or upon\na table by its side, and assumed thereby to have reached the god. Thus\nthe sacred sycamores of Egypt were believed to be actually inhabited by\nH\u0101thor, Nu\u0314\u00eet, Selk\u00eet, N\u00eet, or some other deity, and were worshipped and\npresented with offerings as such. The vignettes in the _Book of the\nDead_ demonstrate this belief unmistakably. They frequently depict the\nsoul on its journey to the next world coming to one of these miraculous\nsycamores on the edge of the terrible desert before it, and receiving\nfrom the goddess of the tree a supply of bread, fruit, or water, the\nacceptance of which made it the guest of the deity and prevented it from\nretracing its steps without her express permission. \u201cO, sycamore of the\nGoddess Nu\u0314\u00eet,\u201d begins one of the chapters in the _Book of the Dead_,\n\u201clet there be given to me the water which is in thee.\u201d As a rule in the\nvignettes the bust of the goddess is represented as appearing from\namidst the sheltering foliage, but sometimes only her arm is seen\nemerging from the leaves with a libation-bowl in the hand. The\nconception is illustrated still more clearly on an ancient sarcophagus\nin the Marseilles Museum, where the trunk from which the branches spread\nis represented as the actual body of the deity.[54]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 10.\u2014The goddess Nu\u0314\u00eet in her sacred sycamore\nbestowing the bread and water of the next world.(Maspero, Dawn of\nCivilisation.)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 11.\u2014Sacred tree of Dionysus, with a statue of the\ngod and offerings.(B\u00f6tticher, Fig. 24.)]\n\nAs man\u2019s conception of the deity became more definitely anthropomorphic\non the one hand and less local on the other, this primitive\nrepresentation of the god in the tree underwent a change in two\ncorresponding directions. In the one case an attempt was made to express\nmore clearly the manlike form of the god; the tree was dressed or carved\nin human semblance, or a mask or statue of the god was hung upon or\nplaced beside it. In the other case, as the god widened his territory or\nabsorbed other local gods he became associated with all trees of a\ncertain class, and was assumed to dwell not in a particular tree, but in\na particular kind of tree, which thenceforward became sacred to and\nsymbolical of him. This latter idea received special development in the\nreligions of Greece and Rome. But in the early history of both those\ncountries cases occur in which a god was worshipped in an individual\ntree. At Dodona, which was perhaps the most ancient of all Greek\nsanctuaries, Zeus was approached as immanent in his sacred oak, and\nlegendary afterthought explained the primitive ritual by relating that\nthe first oak sprang from the blood of a Titan slain while invading the\nabode of the god, who thereupon chose it as his own peculiar tree.\nAgain, in ancient Rome, according to Livy, Jupiter was originally\nworshipped in the form of a lofty oak-tree which grew upon the Capitol.\nThe same was probably true of other gods at their first appearance.\nAmongst the Greeks, indeed, the tree was the earliest symbol or \u1f04\u03b3\u03b1\u03bb\u00b5\u03b1\nof the god, and as such is frequently represented on ancient vases,\nmarble tablets, silver vessels, and wall-paintings. Indeed, the solitary\ntree standing in Attic fields and worshipped as the sacred habitation of\na god was in all probability the earliest Greek temple, the forerunner\nof those marvellous edifices which have aroused the admiration of every\nsubsequent age; whilst the elaborate worship of which those temples\nbecame the home was presumably based upon a ceremonial originally\nconnected with the worship of the tree.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 12.\u2014Sacred pine of Silvanus, with a bust of the god,\nand votive gifts represented by a bale of merchandise and a Mercury\u2019s\nstaff.(B\u00f6tticher, Fig 18.)]\n\nAccording to Mr. Farnell, the latest writer on the subject, the chief\ngods of the Greeks were in their origin deities of vegetation, the\nspecial attributes which we associate with them being subsequent\naccretions. The pre-Hellenic Cronos gave his name to an Attic\nharvest-festival held in July, and his ancient emblem was the\nsickle.[55] Zeus, besides being the oak-god of Dodona, was worshipped in\nAttica as a god of agriculture and honoured with cereal offerings.[56]\nArtemis was not primarily a goddess of chastity, nor a moon-goddess, nor\nthe twin-sister of Apollo, but an independent divinity, closely related\nto the wood-nymphs, and connected with water and with wild vegetation\nand forest beasts. She was worshipped in Arcadia as the goddess of the\nnut-tree and the cedar, and in Laconia as the goddess of the laurel and\nthe myrtle. Her idol at Sparta was said to have been found in a willow\nbrake, bound round with withies. At Teuthea in Achaea she was worshipped\nas the goddess of the woodland pasture, and at Cnidus as the nurturer of\nthe hyacinth.[57] In the legend of the colonisation of Boiae she was\nrepresented as embodied in a hare which suddenly disappeared in a\nmyrtle-tree.[58] But her character as a tree-goddess comes out still\nmore clearly in the cult of the \u201changing Artemis\u201d at Kaphyae in\nArcadia,[59] which no doubt grew out of the primitive custom of\nsuspending a mask or image of the vegetation spirit to the sacred tree.\n\nThe association of Hera with tree-worship is less pronounced. She was\nsaid to have been born under a willow-tree at Samos, and her worship in\nthat island was characterised by a yearly ceremony in which her\npriestess secreted her idol in a willow brake, where it was subsequently\nrediscovered and honoured with an oblation of cakes.[60] In Argos she\nwas worshipped as the deity who gave the fruits of the earth, and as\nsuch was represented with a pomegranate in her hand. It is also worthy\nof note that the familiar symbol of a conventionalised tree between two\ngriffins appears on the stephanos or coronet of the goddess on coins of\nCroton of the fourth century, and of certain South Italian cities, as\nwell as on a colossal bust now at Venice, which, like the head on the\ncoins, was presumably copied from the temple-image at Croton.[61]\n\nAphrodite was not a primitive Greek deity, but her connection with\nvegetative life is abundantly clear. She was, in fact, but a Hellenised\nvariant of the great Oriental goddess, worshipped in different parts as\nIstar, Astarte, Cybele, etc., who was essentially a divinity of\nvegetation.[62]\n\nThis primitive connection of the gods of Greece with vegetative life was\nlost sight of in their later developments. Even at the date of the\nHomeric poems the more advanced of the Greeks had evidently arrived at\n\u201ca highly developed structure of religious thought, showing us clear-cut\npersonal divinities with ethical and spiritual attributes.\u201d[63] But the\nolder and cruder ideas of the nature of the gods left a persistent trace\nin the ritual with which they were worshipped, as well as in the designs\nof the artists who reflected the popular traditions. Thus the ancient\ncustom of burning incense before the tree, decking it with consecrated\nfillets, and honouring it with burnt offerings, survived long after the\nbelief of which it was the natural development had decayed. A sculpture\npreserved in the Berlin Museum represents the holy pine-tree of Pan\nadorned with wreaths and fillets. An image of Pan is near, and offerings\nare being brought to an altar placed beneath it. Again, Theocritus\ndescribes how at the consecration of Helen\u2019s plane-tree at Sparta, the\nchoir of Lacedaemonian maidens hung consecrated wreaths of lotus flowers\nupon the tree, anointed it with costly spikenard, and attached to it the\ndedicatory placard: \u201cHonour me, all ye that pass by, for I am Helen\u2019s\ntree.\u201d[64]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 13.\u2014Fruit-tree dressed as Dionysus.(B\u00f6tticher, Fig.\n44.)]\n\nThe practice of giving the tree a human semblance, by clothing it in\ngarments or carving its stump in human form, was the natural result of\nthis worship amongst an artistic race, groping its way towards a\nconcrete expression of its ideas. It represented the crude strivings of\na people who, in their attempts to create gods in their own image,\neventually produced an unsurpassable ideal of human grace and beauty.\nFrom the rudely carved tree-stump arose in due time the Hermes of\nPraxiteles. B\u00f6tticher reproduces several ancient designs in which the\ntrunk of a tree is dressed as Dionysus. In one of these a mask is\nfastened at the top of the trunk in such a way that the branches appear\nto grow from the head of the god, and the trunk itself is clothed with a\nlong garment; a table, or altar, loaded with gifts, stands beside\nit.[65]\n\nIn other cases, probably where the worshipped tree had died, its trunk\nor branches were rudely carved into an image of the god, and either left\n_in situ_, or hewn down and placed near the temple or, later, in the\nvery temple itself. Both Pausanias and Pliny state that the oldest\nimages of the gods were made of wood, and several Latin authors refer to\nthe custom of thus carving the branches of auspicious trees (_felicium\narborum_) as prevalent in primitive times amongst the Greeks.[66] The\n\u1f04\u03b3\u03b1\u03bb\u00b5\u03b1 or emblem of Aphrodite, dedicated by Pelops, was wrought out of a\nfresh verdant myrtle-tree. At Samos a board was the emblem of Hera; two\nwooden stocks joined together by a cross-piece was the sign of the\ntwin-brethren at Sparta, and a wooden column encircled with ivy was\nconsecrated to Dionysus at Thebes.[67]\n\nIt may be fairly assumed that in cases such as these the worshippers\nbelieved that the dead piece of wood retained some at least of the power\noriginally attributed to the spirit dwelling in the living tree. Their\nidolatry was but a childish deduction from an ancient and deeply-rooted\ntheology. The same may be said for the wood-cutter, derided in the\nApocrypha, who, \u201ctaking a crooked piece of wood and full of knots,\ncarveth it with the diligence of his idleness, and shapeth it by the\nskill of his indolence; then he giveth it the semblance of the image of\na man, smearing it with vermilion and with paint colouring it red; and\nhaving made for it a chamber worthy of it, he setteth it in a wall,\nmaking it fast with iron.\u201d[68] Side by side with this foolish\nwood-cutter, who \u201cfor life beseecheth that which is dead,\u201d may be placed\nthe Sicilian peasant whom Theocritus represents as offering sacrifice to\na carved Pan. \u201cWhen thou hast turned yonder lane, goatherd, where the\noak-trees are, thou wilt find an image of fig-tree wood newly carven;\nthree legged it is, the bark still covers it, and it is earless withal.\nA right holy precinct runs round it, and a ceaseless stream that falleth\nfrom the rocks on every side is green with laurels and myrtles and\nfragrant cypress. And all around the place that child of the grape, the\nvine, doth flourish with its tendrils, and the merles in spring with\ntheir sweet songs pour forth their woodnotes wild, and the brown\nnightingales reply with their complaints, pouring from their bills their\nhoney sweet song.\u201d[69]\n\nThis crude worship of the god in the anthropomorphised tree lingered on\namongst the peasantry side by side with the splendid temple ritual, even\ninto days when the revelation of a Deity who filled all time and space,\nand was worshipped in temples not made with hands, was rapidly\nundermining the pagan worship of the cities. Maximus Tyrius, who lived\nin the second century A.D., and counted among his most diligent pupils\nthe great Marcus Aurelius, relates how even in his day at the festival\nof Dionysus every peasant selected the most beautiful tree in his garden\nto convert it into an image of the god and to worship it.[70] And\nApuleius, another writer of the same period, bears similar testimony.\n\u201cIt is the custom,\u201d he says, \u201cof pious travellers, when their way passes\na grove or holy place, that they offer up a prayer for the fulfilment of\ntheir wishes, offer gifts and remain there a time; so I, when I set foot\nin that most sacred city, although in haste, must crave for a pardon,\noffer a prayer and moderate my haste. For never was traveller more\njustified in making a religious pause, when he perchance shall have come\nupon a flower-wreathed altar, a grotto covered with boughs, an oak\ndecorated with many horns, or a beech-tree with skins hung to it, a\nlittle sacred hill fenced around, or a _tree trunk hewn as an image_\n(_truncus dolamine effigatus_).\u201d[71]\n\n            Forms of the T\u00e2t or Did\u00fb, the emblem of Osiris.\n                         (Maspero, _op. cit._)\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 14.]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 15.]\n\nThis custom of carving a tree into the semblance of a god, and\nsubsequently worshipping it as his sanctuary or symbol, was current in\nmany parts of the world. The chief idol form of Osiris, the Did\u00fb or T\u00e2t,\nis believed by Maspero to have originated as a simple tree-trunk\ndisbranched and planted in the ground.[72] Usually it is represented\nwith a grotesque face, beneath four superimposed capitals, with a\nnecklace round its neck, a long robe hiding the base of the column in\nits folds, and the whole surmounted by the familiar Osirian emblems.\n\nAgain, it is said to have been a practice amongst the Druids, when an\noak died to strip off its bark and shape it into a pillar, pyramid, or\ncross, and continue to worship it as an emblem of the god.[73] The cross\nespecially was a favourite form, and any oak with two principal branches\nforming a cross with the main stem was consecrated by a sacred\ninscription, and from that time forward regarded with particular\nreverence.\n\nThe same custom prevailed in India. In the seventeenth century there\nexisted near Surat a sacred banian-tree, supposed to be 3000 years old,\nwhich the Hindus would never cut or touch with steel for fear of\noffending the god concealed in its foliage. They made pilgrimages to it\nand honoured it with religious ceremonies. On its trunk at a little\ndistance from the ground a head had been roughly carved, painted in gay\ncolours, and furnished with gold and silver eyes. This simulacrum was\nconstantly adorned with fresh foliage and flowers, the withered leaves\nwhich they replaced being distributed amongst the pilgrims as pious\nsouvenirs.[74]\n\nIt was predominantly, though by no means exclusively, a Greek\ndevelopment to associate a particular god with a particular variety of\ntree. The oak, excelling all others in majestic strength and inherent\nvigour, became the emblem and embodiment of Zeus. The connection arose\nin all probability from the primitive worship of the Pelasgic Zeus in\nthe oak grove of Dodona, but in classical times it was accepted\nthroughout Greece. On coins and in other works of art the god is\nfrequently represented as crowned with oak leaves, or as standing or\nsitting beside an oak-tree.[75] To have partaken of the acorns of Zeus\nwas a vernacular expression for having acquired wisdom and knowledge.\nThis especial sanctity of the oak as the tree of the father of the gods\npassed into Italy, and Virgil speaks of it as\u2014\n\n                            Jove\u2019s own tree\n  That holds the world in awful sovereignty.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 16.\u2014Apollo on his sacred tripod, a laurel branch in\nhis hand.(From a coin, probably of Delphi.)]\n\nMore sacred even than the oak to Zeus was the laurel to Apollo. No\nsanctuary of his was complete without it; none could be founded where\nthe soil was unfavourable to its growth. No worshipper could share in\nhis rites who had not a crown of laurel on his head or a branch in his\nhand. As endowed with the power of the god, who was at once the prophet,\npoet, redeemer, and protector of his people, the laurel assumed an\nimportant and many-sided r\u00f4le in ceremonial symbolism.[76] The staff of\nlaurel in the hand of the reciting poet was assumed to assist his\ninspiration, in the hand of the prophet or diviner to help him to see\nhidden things. Thus the use of the laurel played an essential part in\nthe oracular ceremonial of Delphi. Everywhere, in short, the bearing of\nthe laurel bough was the surest way to the god\u2019s protection and favour.\nThe conception was slow to die. Clement, writing about 200 A.D., still\nfinds the warning necessary that \u201cone must not hope to obtain\nreconciliation with God by means of laurel branches adorned with red and\nwhite ribbons.\u201d[77]\n\nBy an easy transition the laurel became sacred also to Aesculapius. As\nthe source at once of a valuable remedy and a deadly poison, it was held\nin high esteem by Greek physicians. It was popularly believed that\nspirits could be cast out by its means, and it was usual to affix a\nlaurel bough over the doorway in cases of serious illness, in order to\navert death and keep evil spirits at bay.[78]\n\nThe ceremonial use of the laurel passed from Greece into Italy. When the\nSibylline books were consulted at Rome, the laurel of prophecy always\nadorned the chair of the priest.[79] Victors were crowned with laurel,\nand in Roman triumphs the soldiers decked their spears and helmets with\nits leaves.\n\nThe tree of Aphrodite was the myrtle.[80] It was held to have the power\nboth of creating and of perpetuating love, and hence from the earliest\ntimes was used in marriage ceremonies. In the Eleusinian mysteries the\ninitiates crowned themselves with the oak leaves of Zeus and the myrtle\nof Aphrodite. The Graces, her attendants, were represented as wearing\nmyrtle chaplets, and her worshippers crowned themselves with myrtle\nsprays. At Rome Venus was worshipped under the name of Myrtea in her\ntemple at the foot of the Aventine. The apple-tree held a subsidiary but\nyet important place in the cult of Aphrodite. Its fruit was regarded as\nan appropriate offering to her and, according to Theocritus, played its\npart in love games.[81] The apples of Atalanta had no doubt a symbolical\nsignificance.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 17.\u2014Coin of Athens, of the age of Pericles or\nearlier, showing olive spray.]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 18.\u2014Coin of Athens, third century B.C.]\n\nAthena also had her special tree. According to mythology she sprang\nfully armed from the head of Zeus, but research into the origins of the\ngods makes it much more probable that her true pedigree was from the\nolive, which grew wild upon the Athenian Acropolis, the chief seat of\nher worship. Mr. M\u2018Lennan even inclined to regard the olive as\noriginally the totem of the Athenians.[82] At any rate their connection\nwith that tree dates from an ancient time. \u201cThe produce of the\nolive-tree had an almost religious value for the men of Attica, and the\nphysical side of Greek civilisation much depended on it.\u201d[83] From the\nera of Pericles onwards the coins of Athens were stamped with the\nolive-branch, amongst other usual accompaniments of the tutelary\ngoddess. Every sanctuary and temple of Athena had its sacred olive-tree,\nwhich was regarded as the symbol of the divine peace and protection.\nNaturally a legend arose to explain the connection. Athena and Poseidon,\nbeing at variance as to which of them should name the newly-founded city\nof Athens, referred the question to the gods, who in general assembly\ndecreed the privilege to that claimant who should give the most useful\npresent to the inhabitants of earth. Poseidon struck the ground with his\ntrident and a horse sprang forth. But Athena \u201crevealed the spray of the\ngray-green olive, a divine crown and glory for bright Athens.\u201d[84] And\nthe gods decided that the olive, as the emblem of peace, was a higher\ngift to man than the horse, which was the symbol of war. So Athena named\nthe city after herself and became its protectress. This myth, which,\naccording to Mr. Farnell, is one of the very few creation-myths in Greek\nfolk-lore, was a favourite subject in art, and is frequently represented\non late Attic coins.[85]\n\nOther gods had their sacred trees: Dionysus, the vine; Dis and\nPersephone, the poplar, which was supposed to grow on the banks of\nAcheron. The cypress, called by Greeks and Romans alike the \u201cmournful\ntree,\u201d was also sacred to the rulers of the underworld, and to their\nassociates, the Fates and Furies. As such it was customary to plant it\nby the grave, and, in the event of a death, to place it either before\nthe house or in the vestibule, in order to warn those about to perform a\nsacred rite against entering a place polluted by a dead body.[86]\n\nIn regard to the number of trees which they held sacred the Semitic\nnations rivalled the Greeks. They venerated \u201cthe pines and cedars of\nLebanon, the evergreen oaks of the Palestinian hills, the tamarisks of\nthe Syrian jungles, the acacias of the Arabian wadies,\u201d besides such\ncultivated trees as the palm, the olive, and the vine. But there is no\nclear evidence to prove that they ever coupled a particular species of\ntree with a particular god. In Phoenicia the cypress was sacred to\nAstarte, but it was equally connected with the god Melcarth, who was\nbelieved to have planted the cypress-trees at Daphne. \u201cIf a tree\nbelonged to a particular deity, it was not because it was of a\nparticular species, but because it was the natural wood of the place\nwhere the god was worshipped.\u201d[87] It is true that the Chaldaeans\nregarded the cedar as the special tree of the god Ea, but the\nassociation was probably borrowed, like the god himself, from the\nnon-Semitic Accadians, while the connection of the Nabataean god,\nDusares, with the vine may be traced to Hellenic influence.\n\nOutside the Semitic area individual gods are often found, as in Greece,\nlinked with particular kinds of trees. In Persia the cypress was the\nsacred tree of the god Mithra, while in Egypt the acacia was intimately\nassociated with Osiris. On an ancient sarcophagus an acacia is\nrepresented with the device, \u201cOsiris shoots up.\u201d[88] And in mortuary\npictures the god is sometimes represented as a mummy covered with a tree\nor with growing plants. In both cases the idea of life arising out of\ndeath is probably implied.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 19.\u2014The Bodhi-tree of Kanaka Muni (Ficus\nglomerata).(The St\u00fbpa of Bharhut, by Major-General Cunningham, Plate\nxxiv. 4.)]\n\nIn India each Buddha was associated with his own bodhi-tree or tree of\nwisdom. The trumpet-flower, the s\u00e2l-tree, the acacia, the pippala, and\nthe banian all belonged to different Buddhas, and are so depicted on the\nSt\u00fbpa of Bharhut. Here in the case of the earliest of the Buddhas whose\nbodhi-tree has been found, the Buddha Vipasin, the particular tree\nrepresented is the _p\u00e2tali_ or trumpet-flower. In front of it is placed\n\u201ca throne or bodhi-manda, before which two people are kneeling, whilst a\ncrowd of others with joined hands are standing on each side of the\ntree.\u201d[89] The Buddha Gautama\u2019s tree was the pippala or _Ficus\nreligiosa_, which is much more elaborately treated at Bharhut than any\nother bodhi-tree. In the sculpture representing its adoration, \u201cthe\ntrunk is entirely surrounded by an open pillared building with an upper\nstory, ornamented with niches containing umbrellas. Two umbrellas are\nplaced in the top of the tree, and numerous streamers are hanging from\nthe branches. In the two upper corners are flying figures with wings,\nbringing offerings of garlands. On each side there is a male figure\nraising a garland in his right hand and holding the tip of his tongue\nwith the thumb and forefinger of his left. In the lower story of the\nbuilding is a throne in front of a tree. Two figures, male and female,\nare kneeling before the throne, while a female figure is standing to the\nleft, and a N\u00e2ga Raja with his hands crossed on his breast to the right.\nThis figure is distinguished by a triple serpent crest. To the extreme\nright there is an isolated pillar surmounted by an elephant holding out\na garland in his trunk. On the domed roof of the building is inscribed,\n\u2018The Bodhi-Tree of the Buddha S\u00e2kya Muni.\u2019\u201d[90] In another sculpture\nelephants old and young are paying their devotions to a banian-tree,\nwhile others are bringing garlands to hang on its branches. The\nimportant bearing of these sculptures on the history of tree-worship is\nobvious.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 20.\u2014Wild elephants paying their devotions to the\nsacred banian of K\u00e2syapa Buddha.(The St\u00fbpa of Bharhut, Plate xv.)]\n\nIt may be noted in passing that neither in the many sculptured scenes at\nBharhut and Buddha Gaya, all of which are contemporary with Asoka\n(_circa_ 250 B.C.), nor even in the much later sculptures of Sanchi\ndating from the end of the first century A.D. is there any\nrepresentation of Buddha, the sole objects of reverence being st\u00fbpas\n(representations of the tombs of holy men), wheels, or trees. At a later\ndate the tree appears to have lost its organic connection with the\nvenerated personage, and to have preserved only a ceremonial and\nsymbolic significance, for the Bo-tree, under which truth gradually\nunfolded itself to the meditating Gautama, is regarded as sacred by\nBuddhists in much the same way as the cross is by Christians.\n\nThere can be no doubt, however, that in the earliest forms of worship\ncurrent in India, the alliance between the plant world and the divine\nessence was extremely intimate. The great creative god Brahma, who, by\nthe light of his countenance, dispelled the primeval gloom, and by his\ndivine influence evoked the earth from the primeval ocean, is\nrepresented in Hindu theology as having emanated from a golden lotus\nwhich had been quickened into life when the spirit of Om moved over the\nface of the waters. Again, in Brahminical worship the very essence of\nthe deity is supposed to descend into his tree. The tulasi or holy basil\nof India is believed by the Hindus to be pervaded by the divinity of\nVishnu and of his wife Lakshmi, and hence is venerated as a god. It\nopens the gates of heaven to the pious worshipper, and those who uproot\nit will be punished by Vishnu in time and eternity.[91]\n\nIn fact, in the twilight of religion, wherever we turn, the same idea of\na tree-inhabiting god prevails. In the mythology of Northern Europe the\ngrove of Upsala, the most sacred spot in all the Scandinavian peninsula,\nwas the home of Woden, the god who, after hanging for nine nights on the\ngallows-tree, descended to the underworld and brought back the prize of\nwisdom in the form of nine rune songs.[92] In the Middle Ages, according\nto the rule by which the gods of one age become the demons of the next,\nWoden was converted into Satan, his grove became the Brocken, and the\nValkyrie degenerated into witches. Taara, the supreme god of the Finns\nand Esthonians, was associated with the oak, and the same is true of the\nNorse god, Balder, at whose death, we are told, men, animals, and plants\nwept. The principal god of the ancient Prussians was supposed to dwell\nby preference in the great oak at Romove,[93] before which a hierarchy\nof priests kept up a continual fire of oak-logs. The oak was veiled from\nview, like the pictures in a modern continental church, and only shown\nfrom time to time to its worshippers. The grove where it stood was so\nsacred that only the consecrated were allowed to enter, and no branch in\nit might be injured.[94]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 21.\u2014Sacred sycamore, with offerings.(Maspero, op.\ncit.)]\n\nIf proof were needed of the reverence with which the tree was regarded\nin ancient times and of its hold upon the reverence of the people, as\nbeing the dwelling-place of the god, it could be found alone in the\nnumber of the gifts, which, by the evidence of ancient literature and\nart, it was the practice to hang upon its branches or place about its\ntrunk. In Arabia there was a tree, identified by Robertson Smith with\nthe sacred acacia of Nakhla, the dwelling-place of the goddess Al-\u2019Ozza,\non which the people of Mecca at an annual pilgrimage hung weapons,\ngarments, ostrich eggs, and other offerings.[95] It is spoken of in the\ntraditions of Mahomet by the vague name of a _dh\u00e2t anw\u00e2t_, or \u201ctree to\nhang things on.\u201d Another Arabian tree, the sacred date-palm at Nejr\u00e2n,\nwas also adored at an annual feast, and hung with fine clothes and\nwomen\u2019s ornaments.[96] In Egypt, offerings of figs, grapes, cucumbers,\netc. were habitually made to the deities inhabiting the sycamores.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 22.\u2014Sacred tree of Artemis, hung with weapons of the\nchase.(B\u00f6tticher, Fig. 9.)]\n\nA similar custom was well known in Greece, as is proved by the many\nvases and sculptured tablets in which the tree is shown hung with\nconsecrated fillets and offerings, while the altar beneath groans with\ngifts. Statius, writing in the second century B.C., describes a widely\ncelebrated tree, amongst many others similarly laden, as being covered\nwith bows and arrows, heads of boars, skins of lions, and huge horns,\nwhich had been dedicated to it as trophies of the chase.[97] Conquerors,\nreturning from battle, would hang their weapons on the sacred tree with\na dedication to the all-powerful Zeus. The arms thus dedicated were\nrespected even by the enemy.\n\nThis custom of making offerings to the tree is no doubt of great\nantiquity. In the legend of the Golden Fleece, Phryxus, having been\ncarried by the fabled ram across the Hellespont, sacrificed it to Ares,\nand hung its priceless fleece on the boughs of a sacred beech-tree,[98]\nwhence it was subsequently recovered by Jason. Such dedication at the\nshrines of the gods of something that had been of service and still had\nvalue to the worshipper, was very common in Greek and Roman worship, and\nin many cases the tree was the recipient of the gift.[99] The rich\nbrought their jewels, the poor their homely tools and utensils. The\nfisherman dedicated his nets in gratitude for an exceptional catch. The\nshepherd offered his flute as a welcome gift to Pan. Some of the\ndedicatory inscriptions preserve for us the pathos of the gift.\n\u201cDaphnis, the flute-player, bowed with shaking age, has here dedicated\nhis shepherd\u2019s staff, too heavy for his weak hand, to meadow-loving\nPan.\u201d[100] Lais, grown old, hangs her too truthful mirror on the sacred\ntree of Aphrodite. \u201cTake it, O lovely Cytherea; to thee alone is undying\nbeauty given.\u201d[101] In the same way Bacchic revellers, their frenzy\npast, brought to the tree the cymbals, robes, and perfumed tresses they\nhad used.[102]\n\nThere is further evidence of the sanctity of the tree in the important\nfunction given to branches and wreaths in religious ceremonies, a custom\nwhich can find logical explanation only in a precedent tree-worship\ndeeply rooted in the popular mind. In the service of the gods of Greece\nand Rome the wreath was indispensable. An uncrowned worshipper was in\nthe position of the man in the parable who had no wedding garment. And\nthe wreath must have been taken from the particular tree of the god\nworshipped, so that the worshipper might be placed in closest communion\nwith the deity, and remain inviolate from molestation while thus clothed\nwith the divine protection.[103]\n\nThe carrying of the sacred branch in solemn procession formed the\nessential feature in some of the most important religious festivals of\nGreece. At the Daphnephoria, held every nine years at Thebes in Boeotia\nin honour of Apollo, the chief post in the procession was held by the\nDaphnephorus, or laurel-bearer, a boy chosen for his strength and\nbeauty. He was followed to the temple of the god by a chorus of maidens,\nalso bearing branches and chanting a processional hymn, and was regarded\nfor the occasion as the priest of Apollo, who himself bore amongst his\nmany other appellations that of Daphnephorus, because he had brought the\nlaurel to Delphi and planted it there.[104]\n\nAt the Pyanepsia and the Thargelia, two important Athenian festivals,\nthe _Eiresione_, a harvest wreath of olive or laurel bound round with\nred and white wool, and hung with the choicest first-fruits, was borne\nabout by singing boys, while offerings were made to the gods.[105] A\nvine branch with the grapes upon it gave its name to another Athenian\nfestival, the Oschophoria, or grape carrying, held in honour of\nDionysus. A race between chosen youths formed one of the events of the\nfestival, the competitors running from the temple of Dionysus to that of\nAthena, with boughs in their hands.[106]\n\nApart, however, from these important festivals, the use of wreaths or\nbranches was a familiar incident in the daily life of the Greeks,\nbearing with it always a sort of religious significance. The bringer of\ngood news was rewarded with a wreath; the guests at a feast were crowned\nwith flowers. No gift to the gods was complete without its floral\naccompaniment, and their statues were often hidden under the wreaths\nbrought thither as the most acceptable offering.\n\nIt can scarcely be doubted that this lavish employment of blossom and\nleaf as the expression of a religious emotion originally sprang from\nreverence for the tree as the favourite home of a god. The Greeks, with\ntheir instinctive love for all things beautiful, naturally pushed this\ngraceful custom further than other races. But the ceremonial use of\nbranches and flowers was common throughout the East. The Chaldaean\nsacred texts mention the use of \u201cgreen branches\u201d in religious\nceremonies.[107] At the Feast of Tabernacles the Israelites were\nenjoined to \u201ctake the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm-trees,\nand the boughs of thick trees and willows of the brook, and rejoice\nbefore the Lord.\u201d[108] The Apocrypha mentions the \u201cfestal olive boughs\nof the Temple.\u201d[109] In Persia and Armenia it was customary to bear a\nbranch when approaching the god. In Egypt Isis was worshipped with\nsprays of absinthe, palm-branches were carried in funeral processions,\nand lotus wreaths usually worn at feasts, whilst in the Assyrian\nsculptures illustrious persons are frequently represented holding a\nflower.[110]\n\nHowever little benefit the votaries of trees and images derived from\ntheir observances, apart from the subjective strength and solace that\nflow from every act of worship, there was at least one tangible service\ntheir gods could render them\u2014the right of sanctuary and asylum. For the\nsacred tree, sharing as it did in the protective power of the indwelling\ndeity, offered an inviolable refuge to the persecuted and the god\u2019s\nforgiveness to the sinner who implored it. To have touched it was\nregarded amongst the Greeks as equivalent to having touched an altar or\nstatue of the god. A branch of it, entwined with the consecrated fillet,\nassured its bearer from persecution. Hence a possible explanation of the\nlegend of the young Dionysus standing secure amongst the branches of the\nsacred tree whilst the flames raged around him.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 23.\u2014Sacred laurel of Apollo at Delphi, adorned with\nfillets and votive tablets; beneath it the god appearing to protect\nOrestes.(From a vase-painting, B\u00f6tticher, Fig. 2.)]\n\nFrequent references occur in the Classics to tree-sanctuaries. The\nAmazons, defeated by Hercules, found a safe asylum beneath the holy tree\nat Ephesus, which was worshipped both as the symbol and temple of\nArtemis, before her statue was set up in the tree or her temple built\naround it.[111] Herodotus relates how Cleomenes, having burnt the sacred\ngrove of Argos, together with the five thousand conquered Argives who\nhad taken refuge there, was visited by the gods with madness for his act\nof sacrilege.[112] Orestes, in his flight from the Furies, is\nrepresented on a Greek vase as seeking refuge beneath Apollo\u2019s\nlaurel.[113] The god appears out of the tree to succour him and scare\naway his pursuers. The cypress grove on the Acropolis at Phlius in\nPeloponnesus was another instance. Fugitives from justice on reaching it\nbecame inviolable, and escaped prisoners hung upon its trees the chains\nfor which they had no further use,[114] just as the modern cripple,\nwhose limbs have been freed from the prison of his palsy, dedicates his\ncrutches to \u201cour Lady of Lourdes.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n                              CHAPTER III\n                      WOOD-DEMONS AND TREE-SPIRITS\n\n\nIn nearly all parts of the world, as at nearly all periods of history,\nwe find evidences of a belief in the existence of wood-spirits and\ntree-spirits, which, however they may differ in outward form, are\nstrangely similar in their general characteristics. It cannot be\nasserted of _all_ these beings that they were regarded as the actual\nspirits of individual trees, connected with them as closely as a man\u2019s\nsoul is with his body, but it is emphatically true of some of them. To\nthe class of wood-spirits as a whole belong certain at least of the\n_jinni_ of Arabia, the woodland spirits of Greek and Roman mythology,\nand the wild men and elves of European folk-lore, besides the\ntree-inhabiting spirits of various uncivilised races. Though not always\nsharply demarcated from the gods, they differ from them, as a rule, in\nbeing regarded and spoken of generically, and in not having stated\nrelations with man. Their alliances are rather with trees, plants, and\nanimals, whose growth and prosperity are often believed to be under\ntheir protection, and their presence is often assumed to be expressed in\nnatural phenomena, in the mysterious sounds of the woods, and in the\nfury of the storm. To man they are frequently unfriendly, and numerous\nobservances, still practised in uncivilised parts, have arisen from the\nbelief that it was necessary to propitiate their favour.\n\nBroadly speaking, their friendliness to man is directly proportionate to\ntheir human semblance, and this in its turn would seem to depend on the\nextent to which man has been able to conquer the dangers of the regions\nwhere they dwell. The farther back they are traced the more animal-like\nand inhuman their appearance. They preceded the gods and outlasted them,\nflourishing in times when these were still animal and totemistic, and\nretaining their animal characteristics long after the gods had become\nanthropomorphic. To the peasant mind there was, perhaps, no very clear\ndistinction between the two classes, and the line between them has never\nbeen an unpassable one, for demons may develop into gods, just as gods\nmay degenerate into demons. It is not claimed that all, or indeed most\ndemons were tree-spirits in their origin, but a large class of them at\nany rate were closely associated with vegetable life and the phenomena\nthat foster or threaten it.\n\nChaldaean mythology recognised, side by side with gods emphatically\nhuman, a class of fabulous monsters who were essentially demons and\ninferior spirits. There is not much evidence to couple these monsters\nwith trees, but in one of the Babylonian hymns the aid of the gods is\ninvoked against a terrible demon who \u201cmakes all creatures hurry in\nfear,\u201d and of whom it is stated that \u201chis hand is the storm-demon, his\neye is filled with the shadow of the forest, the sole of his foot is the\nlullub-tree.\u201d[115]\n\nIn the case of the _jinni_ of Arabia the connection with trees is more\nclearly demonstrable. They were regarded as hairy monsters, more like\nbeasts than men, haunting dense, untrodden thickets and endowed with the\npower of assuming various shapes. Such an uncouth and alarming\npresentment may well have arisen from their presumed association with\nplaces, which, as the natural lairs of dangerous animals, were perilous\nto man, but \u201cthe association of certain kinds of _jinni_ with trees must\nin many cases be regarded as primary, the trees themselves being\nconceived as animated demoniac beings.\u201d[116] They have apparently had a\nlonger career than most demons of the class, for their existence is\nstill firmly believed in by certain Bedouins, who asseverate that they\nhave actually seen them. Mr. Theodore Bent found the same superstitious\ndread of the _jinni_ both in the Hadramaut and in Dhofar. They are\ndescribed as semi-divine spirits, who live by rocks near the streams,\nunder trees, or in the lakes. Mr. Bent could not induce the Bedouins of\nhis escort to gather a certain water-plant for fear of offending the\n_jinn_ of the lake. In fact in the Gara Mountains the fear of the\n_jinni_, and the skill of certain magicians in keeping them friendly,\nappear to constitute the only tangible forms of religion.[117]\n\nUnder the word s\u0115\u012br\u012bm, hairy monsters, E.V. \u201csatyrs\u201d and \u201cdevils,\u201d the\nBible makes occasional mention of mythical creatures who were presumably\nrelated to the Arabian _jinni_.[118] They are represented as frequenting\nwaste-places, forsaken by man and given over to nettles and brambles. In\none passage the word is used of the heathen gods of Canaan,[119] whose\nclose association with trees has already been noticed.\n\nThe fantastic monsters of the Egyptian desert, thought to appear only at\nthe moment when the minor functions assigned to them had to be\nperformed, and at other times to conceal themselves in inanimate\nobjects, are represented as sometimes dwelling in trees or in stakes\nplanted in the ground.[120] Their assumed complete incorporation in such\nobjects is proved by the expressive term used by the Egyptians\u2014the\nobjects \u201cate them up.\u201d Their existence and their unfriendliness to man\nwere firmly believed in. The shepherd feared them for his flock, the\nhunter for himself. Similar beasts roamed through the Egyptian Hades and\nthreatened the wayfaring spirits of the dead.\n\nThese fragmentary evidences are important as casting a side-light on the\nparallel superstitions of the Aryan races, amongst which, as we shall\nsee, the belief in wood-demons and tree-spirits was almost universal.\n\nIn Greek and Roman mythology there is a whole gallery of wild creatures\ninhabiting the mountains and woods, and more or less closely associated\nwith vegetable life\u2014centaurs and cyclops, Pans and satyrs, fauns and\nsilvani, nymphs and dryads. Mannhardt has diligently compared these\nmythical beings with the wild people and wood-spirits of European\nfolk-lore, and has clearly demonstrated a remarkable relationship.[121]\nIn their evolution they present a distinctly progressive humanisation.\nThe earliest of them, the centaurs and cyclops, remind us of the\nfabulous monsters of Semitic legend, and their contests with, and\neventual disappearance before the higher powers seem paralleled in the\nsimilar conflict between the gods and demons of Chaldaea. Mannhardt\nadduces many arguments to prove that the centaurs first originated as\nlocal wood and mountain spirits. Their earliest haunt was the thickly\nwooded Pelion; one of them is represented as the son of the dryad\nPhilyra or the linden; another as the son of Melia or the ash. Their\nweapons were uprooted trees. Like the European wild men of the woods\nthey were covered with long shaggy hair. Chiron, the most friendly of\nthem, was skilled in the use of simples and in the hidden powers of\nnature. Lastly, their presence was assumed in the whirlwind and other\nviolent atmospheric phenomena. All these features class the archaic\ncentaurs with the undoubted wood-spirits of a later mythology. The same\nis probably true of the cyclops, whose characteristics\u2014their single eye,\ntheir use of uprooted trees for weapons, and their connection with sheep\nand goats\u2014may be paralleled amongst the legendary wood-spirits of modern\nEurope.\n\nIn later times the place of the extinct centaurs and cyclops was taken\nby a tribe, half men half goats, known as Pan, satyrs, and sileni, who\noriginally were in all probability local wood-spirits, Pan proceeding\nfrom Arcadia, the satyrs from Argos, the sileni from Phrygia. In the\ncase of Pan we seem to see a class of doubtfully amicable wood-spirits\ndeveloping into a more or less benevolent god. The Greek poets of the\nPericlean age speak of a whole tribe of wood-demons known as Panes or\nPanisci, from which eventually an individual, \u201cthe Great Pan,\u201d seems to\nhave emerged. The son of a nymph, Pan is called in the Classics \u201cgod of\nthe wood,\u201d \u201ccompanion of kids,\u201d \u201cgoatherd.\u201d He is represented with horns\nand goat\u2019s legs, standing beside a sacred oak or pine, a fir-wreath on\nhis head, and a branch in his hand. He leads the revels of the satyrs,\npipes and dances amongst the wood-nymphs under the trees, and woos a\npine-tree personified as Pithys. Like other wood-spirits he protects the\nherds, and, as befits a demon on the way to apotheosis, is for the most\npart friendly to man. But he never, apparently, quite lost his original\ncharacter, for he is sometimes classed with incubi and spirits who cause\nevil dreams.\n\nThe satyr was a degraded, or rather unhumanised Pan, more sensual and\nmalicious in character, coarser in feature, and more bestial in form.\nHesiod calls the satyrs \u201ca useless and crafty tribe.\u201d They were\noriginally wood-demons, and men represented as satyrs took part in the\nfestivals of Dionysus, the chief of vegetation spirits. Silenus, like\nPan, the individualised head of a class, was also closely associated\nwith Dionysus. The sileni, in fact, were but Phrygian variants of the\nsatyrs, and are represented in the Homeric hymn to Aphrodite as\nconsorting with the hamadryads. In Art they appear clothed in goatskins.\nIt may be added that the modern Greek peasant still believes in\nmalicious goat-footed demons who inhabit the mountains.[122]\n\nIn Roman mythology the fauns and silvani played the same part as Pan and\nthe satyrs in Greece, and the same confusion existed as to whether they\nwere individual or generic. The fauns seldom appeared to mortal sight,\nbut their presence was made known in the weird noises and the ghostly\nappearances of the dark forest. When seen they had horns and goat\u2019s\nfeet, though in a later rendering they are more human in appearance.\nThey guarded the flocks pasturing in the woods and, like other\nwood-spirits, also protected the cornfield. Silvanus and the silvani, as\ntheir name denotes, were tree-spirits even more emphatically than the\nfauns. According to Virgil the oldest inhabitants of Latium allotted to\nSilvanus a sacred grove and a special festival;[123] in later times he\nwas universally regarded as the patron of the garden and field. At\nharvest time an offering of milk was poured over the roots of his sacred\ntree. In Art, Silvanus is represented as covered with hair (_horridus_)\nand standing under, or growing out of a garlanded tree, a crown of pine\nsprays on his head, a large pine bough in one hand and a sickle in the\nother. An inscription speaks of him as half enclosed in a sacred ash\n(_sacr\u00e2 semiclusus fraxino_). Another account associates the silvani\nwith the fig-tree, and states that they were called by some _fauni\nficarii_. Both fauns and silvani had an evil reputation for their\nsupposed propensity to assault women, to carry off children, and to\ndisturb the dreams of sleepers. The peasants of North Italy and Sicily\nstill believe in wood-spirits, _gente selvatica_, closely resembling the\nold silvani. A Sicilian incantation is addressed to the spirit of the\nfig-tree and the devils of the nut-trees.[124]\n\nTaking the sum of their characteristics, Mannhardt is doubtless right in\nclassing these legendary beings with the wood-spirits met with in the\nfolk-lore of Northern Europe.\n\nIt is, however, in the female counterparts of these woodland creatures\nthat the idea of an actual tree-soul is most clearly exemplified. The\nmost striking instance is the familiar one of the hamadryads, the\ndeep-bosomed nymphs of wooded Ida, to whose care Aphrodite entrusted the\ninfant Aeneas, and whose very name expresses their intimate connection\nwith their trees. To quote the Homeric hymn to Aphrodite, which was\nprobably written under Phrygian influence, \u201cThey belong neither to the\nmortals nor to the immortals: they live long, indeed, enjoying immortal\nfood, and with the immortals they join in the lordly dance. The sileni\nmate with them, and Hermes, too, in the privy recesses of delightful\ngrottoes. With them, when they were born, upon the mountains lofty pines\nand oaks sprang forth from the earth that gives food to man. Yet when at\nlast the fate of death overtakes them, first the beautiful trees wither\nupon the earth, the bark dies around them, their branches fall away, and\ntherewith the souls of the nymphs leave the light of the sun.\u201d[125]\n\nPindar, who would appear to have first given them the name of\nhamadryads, speaks of them as having the same length of life as a\ntree.[126]\n\nBut the case of the hamadryads is by no means an isolated example of the\nGreek belief in spirits whose life was bound up with the life of the\ntree. In the Homeric hymn to Ceres the nymphs rejoice when the oaks are\nin leaf, and weep when their branches become bare.[127] Elsewhere a\nnymph is depicted imploring that the oak wherein she dwelt should not be\nhewn down, and as bringing vengeance on him who ignored her\nentreaty.[128] It was not only the oak and the pine that might be\ninhabited by a spirit. Amongst the names of nymphs that have come down\nto us is Philyra (the linden), Daphne (the laurel), Rhoea (the\npomegranate), and Helike (the willow). In later times an attempt was\nmade in some cases to explain the connection by metamorphosis, a living\nnymph being supposed to have been converted into a tree, but it is\nextremely probable that this was an inversion of the primitive nexus.\n\nThere are many instances closely parallel to these classical myths in\nmediaeval and modern legend. The story of Alexander and the\nflower-maidens, for instance, which was a favourite with the\ntroubadours, and was subsequently popularised by Lamprecht, and later by\nUhland, was presumably founded on a legend current in ancient Greece.\nThe story goes that in a certain wood, when spring came, numbers of\nenormous flower buds appeared out of the ground, from each of which, as\nit opened, there leapt forth a beautiful maiden. Their robes were a part\nof their growth, and in colour they were just like their flowers, red\nand white. They played and danced in the shade, and their singing\nrivalled the birds\u2019. All past heartaches were wiped away, and a life of\njoy and abundance seemed to open to him who saw them. But it was death\nfor a maiden to leave her shady retreat and encounter the scorching sun.\nWhen summer was past, and the flowers withered and the birds were\nsilent, the beautiful creatures died. Alexander and his knights, coming\nupon this magical wood, mated with the flower-maidens, and for more than\nthree months lived in perfect happiness, till one by one the flowers\nfaded, one by one the nymphs died, and the king and his companions had\nsorrowfully to resume their travels.[129]\n\nLegends of this sort no doubt provided Lucian with the motive for that\n\u201ctrue history\u201d of his, wherein he tells of the wonderful vines growing\non the far side of a certain river that ran wine instead of water. These\nvines below had a very thick stem, but above bore maidens\u2019 bodies of\nperfect form. Bunches of grapes grew from their finger-tips, and vine\nleaves and grapes formed their hair. They gave the travellers a friendly\ngreeting, and bade them welcome, most speaking Greek, others Lydian or\nIndian. Whoever accepted their kisses felt a sudden drunken\nbewilderment. They shrieked aloud with pain when one attempted to pluck\ntheir grapes. Two of the travellers who surrendered themselves to their\nembraces could not get free again, but took root and budded forth vine\nleaves.[130]\n\nThe above, of course, was intended as a literary parody, but stories,\nnot a whit less wonderful, are found in the folk-lore of many modern\ncountries, and are no doubt recited and received in good faith. There is\na modern Greek legend, for instance, of a childless wife, to whom\nHeaven, in answer to her prayer for children, sent a golden laurel\nberry. Despising the gift she threw it away. From it there grew a\nlaurel-tree with golden sprays. A prince, following the chase, was so\nstruck by its beauty that he ordered his dinner to be prepared beneath\nit. In the absence of the cook the tree opened and a fair maiden stepped\nforth, and after strewing a handful of salt over his food, withdrew to\nthe tree, which immediately reinclosed her. The following day the prince\nagain found his dinner spoilt, and on the third day he determined to\nkeep watch. The maid came forth and was captured by the prince before\nshe could regain her tree. After a time she escaped, and coming back to\nthe tree called upon it to open and receive her. But it remained closed,\nand she was obliged to return to her prince, with whom, after various\nmischances, she lived happily for ever after.[131]\n\nThe Czekhs have a similar story of a nymph who roamed the forest by day,\nbut at night invariably returned to her willow. She married a mortal and\nbore him a child. One day the willow was cut down and the nymph died. A\ncradle fashioned out of its wood had the power of lulling her child to\nsleep, and when he grew up he was able to hold converse with his mother\nby means of a pipe formed from the twigs which grew about the\nstump.[132]\n\nThat the soul of the nymph was thought actually to inhabit the tree is\nfurther proved by the belief current both in ancient and modern myth,\nthat blood would flow when the tree was injured. It was firmly held in\nprimitive times that the blood was the very life, the soul of an animal,\nand hence in primitive ritual it was the blood of the sacrifice that was\noffered to the god. It is interesting to note that in some cases\nwine\u2014\u201cthe blood of the grape\u201d\u2014and the juices of fruits and vegetables,\n_i.e._ the vehicle of the plant-soul, were used as substitutes for\nblood.[133] In a later chapter we shall see that herbs and flowers were\nfabled to grow from the blood of the dead and so to re-embody his\nspirit, and it will be remembered how Virgil makes the cornel and myrtle\nwhich grew upon the grave of Polydorus at once bleed and speak when torn\nup by the hand of Aeneas.[134] So Ovid, recounting a similar occurrence\nin the case of the dryads\u2019 oak, sacrilegiously felled by Eresicthon, was\nprobably only giving a poetic version of a familiar belief:\u2014\n\n                            He it was\n  Whose impious axe mid Ceres\u2019 sacred grove\n  Dared violate her immemorial shades.\n  Huge with the growth of ages in its midst\n  An ancient oak there stood, itself a grove,\n  With votive tablets hung and grateful gifts\n  For vows accomplished. Underneath its shade\n  The dryads wove their festal dance.\n\nEresicthon, in spite of warnings, refused to stay his hand.\n\n  The trembling tree sent forth an audible groan!\n  From its pale leaves and acorns died the green,\n  Dark oozing sweat from every branch distilled,\n  And as the scoffer smote it, crimson-red\n  Gushed from the wounded bark the sap, as streams\n  When at the altar falls some mighty bull\n  The life-blood from his neck.\n\n                    Then from its heart\n  Issued a voice, \u201cThou strikest in this trunk\n  A nymph whom Ceres loves, and for the deed\n  Dearly shalt pay. With my last voice thy doom\n  I prophesy, and in thy imminent fate\n  Find solace for my own.\u201d[135]\n\nMannhardt quotes several mediaeval and modern instances of the belief in\nbleeding trees.[136] And stories of punishment incurred for destroying a\nspirit-inhabited tree are not uncommon in folk-lore. There is a German\nlegend of an old crone who attempted to uproot the trunk of an ancient\nfir-tree. In the midst of her labours a sudden weakness fell upon her,\ninsomuch that she was scarcely able to walk. While endeavouring to crawl\nhome she met a mysterious stranger, who, hearing her story, at once\npronounced that in her attempts to uproot the tree she had wounded an\nelf inhabiting it. If the elf recovered, he said, so would she; if not,\nshe would die. As the old woman perished that self-same night we are\nleft to infer that the elf died also. From India comes a similar\nrecital. While felling a tree the youthful Satyavant broke out into a\nprofuse sweat, and overcome with sudden weakness, fainted and died upon\nthe spot: he had mortally wounded the indwelling spirit.\n\nSuch stories have no doubt arisen from the dread inspired by\nwood-spirits amongst all people who believe in them. In short, the wild\ninhabitants of the woods have always retained some of the awe with which\ntheir forerunners, the demons, were regarded. Often they are credited\nwith quite a wanton vindictiveness. A Bengal folk-tale tells of a\ncertain banian-tree haunted by spirits who had a habit of wringing the\nnecks of all who ventured to approach the tree by night.[137] In another\nIndian story a tree that grew beside a Brahman\u2019s house was inhabited by\na _sankchinni_, a female spirit of white complexion, who one day seized\nthe Brahman\u2019s wife and thrust her into a hole in the tree.[138]\nSometimes the tree-spirit will be wicked and foolish enough to enter\ninto a human being, and then the exorcist\u2019s services are called in. The\npresence of the spirit is easily discovered. The exorcist has only to\nset fire to a piece of turmeric root, it being of common knowledge that\nno spirit can endure the smell of burning turmeric.\n\nThe Sh\u00e1n\u00e1rs of India believe that disembodied spirits haunt the earth,\ndwelling in trees and taking especial delight in dark forests and\nsolitary places.[139] When a Burman starts upon a journey he hangs a\nbranch of plantains or a spray of the sacred _Eugenia_ on the pole of\nhis buffalo cart, to conciliate any spirit upon whom he may be\nunfortunate enough to intrude. The hunter following his lonely quest in\nthe forest will deposit some rice and a little bundle of leaves at the\nfoot of any more than usually majestic tree, hoping thereby to\npropitiate the _nat_ or spirit dwelling therein.[140]\n\nSomething of the same fear is felt by the peasants for the fairies,\nelves, pixies, and all the tribe of little people familiar to European\nfolk-lore. These, too, are all more or less associated with trees, being\nsupposed to dwell either amongst the branches or in the hollow trunks.\nGerman elves have a partiality for the oak and elder, and the holes in\nthe trunks are the doorways by which they pass in and out. A similar\nidea exists amongst the Hindus. Though, as a rule, these forest-elves\nbear a good character, they are not to be lightly offended, or more will\nbe heard of it. Hence prudent country-folk will never injure trees\ninhabited by fairies, for when aggrieved they have ample means of\navenging themselves by inflicting some malady or causing some ill-luck.\n\nEven in England, especially in Devon and Cornwall, there still exist\npeople who believe that oaks are inhabited by elves\u2014\n\n  Fairy elves, whose midnight revels\n  By a forest side or fountain\n  Some belated peasant sees.\n\nAnd it is not yet quite an obsolete custom to turn the coat for luck\nwhen passing through elf-haunted groves. It was on St. John\u2019s eve that\nthe fairies held their special revels, and in old days many a timorous\nhand might be found attaching to his doorway branches of St. John\u2019s\nwort, gathered at midnight on St. John\u2019s eve, to protect his dwelling\nfrom an invasion of elves. Similarly the peasants living near Mount Etna\nnever sleep beneath trees on St. John\u2019s eve, lest the spirits who then\nissue freely from their leafy dwelling-places should enter into the\nsleeper.[141]\n\nBut it is in Central and North Europe, in the Tyrol and the Vosges, in\nthe German forests, in Russia, Scandinavia, and Finland, that the belief\nin wood-spirits is most deeply rooted and persistent. Mannhardt, who has\ndiligently collected an enormous mass of evidence on the subject, states\nthat traditions concerning the wild people of the woods are current in\nall the more wooded countries of Europe. He sees in these traditions an\namalgamation of the idea of tree-spirits with that of wind-spirits, and\nrejects the hypothesis that they arose out of remembrances of savage\nhalf-bestial aborigines who took to the woods on the advance of more\ncivilised races.[142] He thus summarises the character of the wild\npeople of Germany, Russia, and Scandinavia. They are often of gigantic\nproportions, dwell in woods or mountains, and originally were no doubt\nclosely connected with the spirits of trees, their knowledge of\n\u201csimples\u201d and remedies for sick cattle connecting them with the spirits\nof vegetation. From head to foot they are clothed in moss, or covered\nwith rough shaggy hair, their long locks floating behind them in the\nwind. Occasionally they assume an animal form. They announce their\npresence in the wind and tempest. The male spirits carry as weapons\nuprooted pines or other trees, and in their fights with each other use\ntree trunks and pieces of rock. They are almost invariably of a wanton\ndisposition.[143]\n\nOf all the various spirits of the woods, the moss-woman of Central\nGermany appears to be the most definite example of a tree-spirit. As\nwith the Greek dryad, her life is bound up with that of a tree.[144] The\nmoss-women bear different names and somewhat different characters in\ndifferent localities, but the following description by the author of\n_The Fairy Family_ represents the common tradition:\u2014\n\n  \u201cA moss-woman,\u201d the haymakers cry\n  And over the fields in terror they fly,\n  She is loosely clad from neck to foot\n  In a mantle of moss from the maple\u2019s root,\n  And like lichen gray on its stem that grows\n  Is the hair that over her mantle flows.\n  Her skin like the maple-rind is hard,\n  Brown and ridgy and furrowed and scarred;\n  And each feature flat like the bark we see,\n  When a bough has been lopped from the bole of a tree,\n  When the newer bark has crept healingly round\n  And laps o\u2019er the edge of the open wound;\n  Her knotty, root-like feet are bare,\n  And her height is an ell from heel to hair.\n\nSometimes, however, the moss-women and their relatives the wood-maidens\nare more friendly to man, and will help him industriously in the\nharvest-field; they have even been known to enter his service and bring\nprosperity to all his undertakings.\n\nThe wild women of Tyrol, known locally as Wild-fanggen, are much more\nterrifying individuals. Gigantic in stature, their whole body is covered\nwith hair and bristles, and their face distorted with a mouth that\nstretches from ear to ear. They live together in the woods, with which\ntheir lives are bound up. If their special wood is destroyed they\ndisappear; if the tree from which a fangga takes her name dies or is\nfelled, she passes out of existence.[145]\n\nThe peasants in the Swiss Canton of the Grisons, which by the way has a\n\u201cwild-man\u201d for its heraldic device, believe in wood-spirits of great\nstrength and agility, who are skilled in weather-lore and the recovery\nof strayed cattle.[146] The female spirits, some of whom have been known\nto marry mortals, are clothed in skins; but the males, who are hairy,\ncontent themselves with a crown of oak leaves. They are sometimes\nhelpful to men, but more often mischievous, having a propensity for\nstealing the milk and carrying off the children of the peasants.\n\nThe white and green ladies of Franche Comt\u00e9 and Neufchatel belong to the\nsame family, their special proclivity being to entice men away, to drag\nthem through brake and brier, and leave them stripped of their\npossessions.[147] In Neufchatel there is a rock, \u201cLa roche de la Dame\nVerte,\u201d which young men are especially warned to avoid; and in the Jura,\na wood where beneath an oak the green ladies are wont to light a fire,\nand may be heard singing and dancing around it. The peasants when they\nsee the wild flowers and the young corn waving in the wind, whisper to\neach other that the green lady is passing over them with her companions.\n\nThe Swedish conception of the tree-spirit is very similar. He also\ndelights to lead astray those who intrude upon his forest domain. The\nwell-known tendency of man, after losing himself, to wander round and\nround until he regains his starting-place, is attributed to the\nwood-spirit. He looks like a man when you meet him, but touch him and he\nshoots to the height of the loftiest tree. You cry out in terror, and he\nlaughs \u201cHa, ha!\u201d Hunters seek the friendship of these lords of the\nforest, for he who stands well with them never misses his aim.[148]\n\nThe wood-demon of the Russians, Ljeschi, calls to mind both classical\nand modern traditions. He is of human form, with the horns, ears, and\nfeet of a goat, his fingers are long claws, and he is covered with rough\nhair, often of a green colour. He can assume many forms, and vary his\nstature at will; in the fields he is no higher than the grass, in the\nwoods as tall as the trees. Sometimes he is like a man, clothed in\nsheepskins, and often, like the cyclops, with only one eye. Like other\nwood-demons, he announces his presence in the storm and the wind. He\nsprings from tree to tree, and rocks himself in the branches, screeching\nand laughing, neighing, lowing, and barking. He delights to mislead the\ntraveller and plunge him in difficulties. However unfriendly to man,\nLjeschi is on good terms with animals; all the birds and beasts of the\nwood are under his protection, and the migrations of squirrels,\nfield-mice, and such small deer are carried out under his guidance. The\npeasants are at pains to propitiate him. In the province of Olonitz the\nshepherds offer him a cow every summer, to secure his favour for the\nherd; elsewhere the hunter gives him the first thing he shoots, leaving\nit for him in an oak-wood, or places a piece of bread or pancake strewed\nwith salt upon a tree stump. There are certain ways of conjuring his\npresence and his aid by means of birch-twigs, or by uttering a given\nformula while standing on a tree-stump, from which it would appear that\nhe is thought of as dwelling in these vegetable fragments.[149] The\nRussians also believe in female wood-spirits of terrifying appearance,\nbut they are of less importance than the male.\n\nIn the folk-lore of the Finns the spirits of the woods bear a more\nbenign character. The chief of them, \u201cTapio,\u201d is termed \u201cthe gracious\ngod of the woodlands,\u201d and is represented as very tall and slender, with\na long brown beard, a coat of tree moss, and a high-crowned hat of fir\nleaves. His consort is Mielikki, \u201cthe honey rich mother of the\nwoodland,\u201d \u201cthe hostess of glen and forest.\u201d The neighbouring Esthonians\nhave their \u201cgrass-mother\u201d who, besides presiding over the home-field, is\nalso queen of the woods.\n\nIt is not perhaps singular to find that the traditions with regard to\nwood-spirits current amongst contiguous peoples should exhibit such a\nstrong resemblance to each other, but when almost exactly the same\nconceptions are met with in such distant parts as Japan and South\nAmerica, we can only conclude that the human mind, wherever it exists,\nis similarly constituted, and, granted the same phenomena, falls back\nupon the same ideas to explain them.\n\nThe Tengus of Japanese legend have many of the characteristic marks of\nthe wood-spirit. They dwell in the topmost branches of lofty trees, are\nskilled in the language and lore of animals and plants, and are a terror\nto untruthful children. They have the body of a man, the head of a hawk,\nwith a long proboscis, and powerful claws on their hands; on their feet,\nalso provided with claws, are stilt-like clogs a foot high. They are\nhatched from eggs, and in their youth have feathers and wings.[150]\n\nA traveller in Peru only sixty years ago found the tradition of a living\nwood-ghost, who dwelt in the darkest part of the forest, the haunt of\nnight-birds, and issued forth to decoy the Indians to their\ndestruction.[151] The idea of a wild man of the woods also exists in\nBrazil. The Indians call him Curupira, and attribute to his agency all\nsuch forest sounds as they cannot understand.[152]\n\nSome of the foregoing traditions present a glimpse of the transition\ntowards a later and more highly developed conception, in which the many\nspirits once believed in become generalised into a single \u201cspirit of\nvegetation.\u201d It is not indeed contended that this belief is necessarily\ndestructive of the earlier. Indeed it is possible that in the loosely\nworking mind of the peasant the two conceptions may exist side by side.\nThe many interesting ceremonies and observances which arose out of this\ngeneralised conception will be dealt with in a later chapter.\n\n\n\n\n                               CHAPTER IV\n                 THE TREE IN ITS RELATION TO HUMAN LIFE\n\n\nHaving dealt with the Tree in its connection on the one hand with gods,\nand on the other with spirits of more equivocal attributes, we have now\nto consider a series of myths and traditions wherein it was regarded as\nentering into a still more intimate relationship with man. Sometimes it\nwas represented as the source from which the human race originally\nsprang, sometimes, conversely, as the object into which the soul might\nretreat after death, or into which an individual might be transmuted,\nbody and soul, by some miraculous agency. In other cases the life of a\nparticular tree was held to be bound up with that of an individual or a\ncommunity, and lastly, in a still larger conception, the tree came to be\nvery widely regarded as the embodiment of the spirit of fertility, the\nespecial patron of the field and flock.\n\nTo the modern mind, which claims to have deciphered Nature\u2019s scattered\nhieroglyphs, and finds a genealogical document even in the evanescent\nwrinkles on a baby\u2019s foot, the idea of man taking origin from a tree\nwill seem in the highest degree fantastic, but to the primitive\nintelligence it probably presented no greater difficulty than the\nextraction of the new baby from the parsley bed does to the modern\nchild. The early inquirer may well have found in it the most natural\nanswer to the eternal riddle, \u201cWhence came our first parents?\u201d the most\nplausible solution to the strange problem of man\u2019s separate existence\nupon the globe, supplying the necessary link between him and the great\nmother-earth, which supported and fed him while alive, and received him\nagain into her bosom when dead. Speculation apart, however, the solution\nwould appear to have commended itself to many different inquirers, for\nthe belief that the human race took its first origin from trees is met\nwith in the mythology of the most widely separated races.\n\nThus we read in the Eddas that when heaven and earth had been made, Odin\nand his brothers walking by the sea-shore came upon two trees. These\nthey changed into human beings, male and female. The first brother gave\nthem soul and life; the second endowed them with wit and will to move;\nthe third added face, speech, sight, and hearing. They clothed them also\nand chose their names, Ask for the man\u2019s and Embla for the woman\u2019s. And\nthen they sent them forth to be the parents of the human race.[153]\n\nAgain, according to the Iranian account of the creation the first human\ncouple, Maschia and Maschi\u00e2na, issued from the ground in the form of a\nrhubarb plant (the _Rheum ribes_), which was at first single, but in\nprocess of time became divided into two.[154] Ormuzd imparted to each a\nhuman soul, and they became the parents of mankind.\n\nIn the corresponding legend current amongst the Sioux of the Upper\nMissouri[155] one seems to catch an echo from the Garden of Eden. Here\nthe original parents, like the trees from which they developed, at first\nstood firmly fixed to the earth, until a monster snake gnawed away the\nroots and gave them independent motion, just as in Paradise the serpent\ndestroyed the harmony and mutual trust which united Adam and Eve.\n\nThe classical nations possessed a similar tradition. According to\nHesychius it was believed by the Greeks that the human race was the\nfruit of the ash, and Hesiod relates that it was from the trunks of\nash-trees that Zeus created the third or bronze race of men.[156] The\noak was particularised as the favoured tree in another tradition.\n\u201cWhence art thou?\u201d inquires Penelope of the disguised Ulysses, \u201cfor thou\nare not sprung of oak or rock, as old tales tell.\u201d[157] Virgil, too,\nspeaks of\n\n  Nymphs, and fauns, and savage men, who took\n  Their birth from trunks of trees and stubborn oak.[158]\n\nThe Damaras of South Africa believe that the universal progenitor was a\ntree, out of which came Damaras, Bushmen, oxen and zebras, and\neverything else that lives.[159]\n\nIn other legends human beings are represented as arising from the tree\nas its fruit. The first book of the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2rata_ tells of an enormous\nIndian fig-tree from whose branches hung little devotees in human form;\nand an Italian traveller of the fourteenth century was assured by the\nnatives of Malabar that they knew of trees, which instead of fruit bore\npigmy men and women. So long as the wind blew they remained fresh and\nhealthy, but when it dropped they became withered and dry.[160] A\nsomewhat similar tradition was familiar to the Arab geographers, who\ntell of a talking tree growing at the easternmost point of the habitable\nworld, which bore young women on its branches in place of fruit.[161]\nAnd even to the present day folk-tales of Saxony and Thuringia speak of\nchildren as \u201cgrowing on the tree.\u201d\n\nIn another class of origin-myths _individual_ births are represented as\ntaking place directly from a tree. Adonis came forth at the stroke of a\nsword from the tree into which his mother, the guilty Myrrha, had been\ntransformed in answer to her prayers.[162] The Phrygian Attis, according\nto one version, was fathered by an almond-tree; while, according to\nanother, his body was confined by Cybele in a pine-tree, from which on\nthe return of spring he was born again.[163] The Khatties of Central\nIndia claim to be descended from a certain Khat, \u201cbegotten of wood,\u201d\nwho, at the prayer of Karna, an illegitimate brother of the five sons of\nP\u00e2ndu (heroes of the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2rata_), sprang from the staff he had\nfashioned from the branch of a tree to assist him against his legitimate\nkinsmen.[164]\n\nThe above examples prove how widely the conception prevailed that human\nbeings or man-like spirits might owe their first origin to the tree. In\na later stage these crude myths were rationalised in three directions.\nIn one the tree came to be, not the source, but the scene of a\nmiraculous birth; in another its supposed connection with a human being\nwas explained by a metamorphosis legend; and, thirdly, the tree came to\nbe regarded as the symbol and minister of fecundity.\n\nMany of the gods of Greece were born or brought up, according to\ntradition, at the foot of some tree, whence B\u00f6tticher argues that their\nworship was founded on a pre-existing tree-cult. Rhea gave birth to Zeus\nbeneath a poplar in Crete, and the ruins of her temple in an adjoining\ncypress grove were shown even up to the Augustan age.[165] The people of\nTanagra asserted that the young Hermes was reared amongst them under a\npurslane-tree (_andrachnos_), the remains of which were for long\ntreasured in the temple of the god as a sacred souvenir of the\ninstitution of his worship.[166] Hera was born and brought up under a\nwillow in Samos, described by Pausanias, who saw it still in leaf, as\nthe most ancient of the sacred trees known to the Greeks.[167] Leto gave\nbirth to Apollo and Artemis in the island of Delos while clasping two\ntrees, by some authorities particularised as an olive and a palm, by\nothers, under the idea that Apollo must have been born at the foot of\nhis own tree, as two laurels.[168] Romulus and Remus were found under\nthe _Ficus ruminalis_ by the Tiber, and in later days were worshipped in\nthe Comitium beneath a sapling from that tree. The same idea is met with\nin the mythology of other nations. Vishnu was born beneath the pillared\nshade of the banian; Buddha was born and died under a s\u00e2l-tree.\n\nThe converse of these origin myths is represented in the numerous\nlegends of metamorphosis and transmigration. The well-known story of\nApollo and Daphne seems to supply an instance of the way in which the\nmetamorphosis story arose to explain a more primitive connection, the\nmeaning of which had been lost. It is an established fact that the\nlaurel was held sacred in Greece as connected with earth-oracles before\nthe worship of Apollo was introduced. A sacred laurel grew by the\nprophetic cleft at Delphi in the days when the earth-goddess, Gaia,\nstill presided over the oracle, and according to tradition the goddess\u2019\ndaughter, Daphne, a mountain nymph, was priestess under her.[169] The\nstory which explains the transference of the oracular power from Gaia to\nApollo tells how Daphne, fleeing before the god, entreats her mother,\nEarth, to save her; the ground opens to receive her, and in her place a\nlaurel appears. Apollo, balked of his love, cries: \u201cIf thou may\u2019st not\nbe my wife, thou shalt for ever be my tree,\u201d and henceforward he makes\nthe laurel his sanctuary, and crowns his head and his lyre with its\nleaves. Thus he steps into her mother\u2019s place, and the laws of Zeus\u2014the\nold earth-oracles under a new name\u2014are proclaimed through him.\n\nThe story is one of the many folk-tales concerning the conversion of\nmortals into trees which Ovid has so gracefully elaborated in his\n_Metamorphoses_, and which assume a new importance now that we can trace\nthem back into that old world when tree and man, and indeed all living\nthings, were held to be so near akin. How far they owed their origin to\nthe desire to find a new sanction for the traditional tree-worship by\ninvesting it with a human interest, it is impossible to say. It is\nsufficient for us that they demonstrate the survival of very ancient\nmodes of thought amongst races who had otherwise reached a high degree\nof civilisation. They were amongst the miracles of classical antiquity,\nand like other miracles, if they prove nothing else, they at least\nafford invaluable evidence as to the state of mental culture amongst\nthose who found them credible.\n\nOne of the most interesting of these metamorphosis legends concerns the\nfate of the three daughters of the Sun and Clymene, who were so\nheart-broken at the tragic fate of their brother Pha\u00ebton that they were\nchanged into poplars by the banks of the stream into which he had been\nhurled,\u2014the Eridanus or Po. The tears they shed were preserved in the\nform of amber:\u2014\n\n                        As she bent\n  To kneel, Pha\u00ebthusa, eldest born, her feet\n  Felt stiffen, and Lampeti\u00eb, at her cry\n  Starting, took sudden root, and strove in vain\n  For motion to her aid. The third, her hair\n  In anguish tearing, tore off leaves! And now\n  Their legs grow fixed as trunks, their arms as boughs\n  Extend, and upward round them creeps a bark\n  That gradual folds the form entire, save yet\n  The head and mouth, that to their mother shrieks\n  For help. What help is hers to give? Now here,\n  Now there she rushes, frantic, kissing this\n  Or that while yet she can, and strives to rend\n  Their bodies from the clasping bark, and tears\n  The fresh leaves from their sprouting heads, and sees,\n  Aghast, red drops as from some wound distil.\n  And \u201cAh, forbear!\u201d the sufferer shrieks; \u201cforbear,\n  O mother dear! our bodies in these trees\n  Alone are rent! Farewell!\u201d And o\u2019er the words,\n  Scarce-uttered, closed the bark, and all was still.\n        But yet they weep; and in the sun their tears\n  To amber harden, by the clear stream caught\n  And borne, the gaud and grace of Latian maids.[170]\n\nThe story of Baucis and Philemon\u2014the worthy peasants who so hospitably\nentertained the gods, Zeus and Hermes, disguised as travellers, that\ntheir cottage was changed into a temple and they themselves into its\npriest and priestess\u2014is more familiar. Their prayer that neither should\nwitness the death of the other was fulfilled by the gods, by means of a\ndevice familiar enough to the folk-lore of the time:\u2014\n\n      As one morn upon the hallowed steps,\n  Bowed now with years, they stood, and to a knot\n  Of wondering hearers told the Temple\u2019s tale,\n  Surprised each saw the other\u2019s figure change\n  And sprout with sudden verdure: and, as round\n  Their forms the rapid foliage spread, while yet\n  They could, one mutual fond \u201cFarewell\u201d they took,\n  One kiss, and o\u2019er their faces closed the bark,\n  And both in trees were hidden! Still the boughs\n  That interlacing link the neighbour trunks\n  Tyana\u2019s peasant loves to show:\u2014the tale\n  Her gravest elders\u2014men not like to lie,\n  As wherefore should they lie?\u2014with serious faith\n  Attested to these ears. The honoured boughs\n  Myself have seen with garlands decked, myself\n  One garland added more.[171]\n\nIn many cases metamorphosis legends were attached to particular kinds of\ntrees, thereby no doubt reinforcing the reverence and affection with\nwhich they were regarded. The Greek name for the almond tree, \u201cPhylla,\u201d\nrecalled the fate of Phyllis, the beautiful Thracian, who hanged herself\nin despair when she thought Demophoon had deserted her, and was changed\nby the gods into one of these trees. Shortly afterwards the truant lover\nreturned, heard the sorrowful tidings, visited the tree, and embraced it\nwith tears. Then suddenly its branches, which till then had remained\nbare, burst forth into blossom and verdure, as if to show how joyfully\nconscious they were of the beloved\u2019s return. Melus, priest of Aphrodite,\nfilled with grief at the death of his foster-son Adonis, hanged himself,\nand was changed by the goddess he served into an apple-tree, from which\ntime forward the apple came to be regarded as the most acceptable gift\nthat a lover could offer at her shrine. Lotis, a beautiful nymph,\npursued by Priapus, threw herself on the mercy of the gods, and by them\nwas changed into the lotus-tree.\n\nThe pine-tree, into which Cybele, in a moment of anger, had changed her\nlover and devotee, Attis, owed its perennial verdure to the compassion\nof Zeus for her remorse. The pomegranate was connected in tradition with\na certain maid whom Dionysus loved, and the crown-like form of its\nblossom was accounted for by the story that the god, before he changed\nher into a tree, had promised her that she should one day wear a crown.\nThe frankincense-tree owed its virtue to the nectar and ambrosia\nscattered by Apollo on the tomb of Leucothea, who had secured his love,\nand in consequence had been buried alive at the instance of her rival,\nClytia. The tree grew from her grave, and Clytia, pining away in turn\nfrom grief, was changed into a plant whose blossoms were destined\nhenceforth, like our sunflower, perpetually to confront the sun, her\nfaithless lover.\n\nThe vicarious immortality which the jealous but faithful Clytia thus\nsecured was shared by other fabled personages, many of whom, according\nto that poetical sentiment which is begotten of all that is gentle and\nbeautiful in nature, were changed into flowers. The idea is indeed a\ngraceful one. For a beautiful youth or maiden, dying young and unhappy,\nno better recompense than such a flower-change could be imagined by a\npeople, full indeed of the instinctive craving for immortality, but\nvague in their assurance of a life beyond the grave.\n\nThe nymphs who, hearing of the sad death of the beautiful Narcissus,\nhurried to perform his obsequies, found that he had been changed into a\nflower, the cup of which was filled with the tears that he had shed.\n\u201cBid daffodillies fill their cups with tears,\u201d sings Milton, using the\nold English name for the narcissus. Rhodanthe, the universal praise of\nwhose beauty had aroused the jealous anger of Artemis, was changed by\nApollo into the rose. The pipe of Pan was fashioned from the reeds into\nwhich the nymph, Syrinx, had been transformed by her sister nymphs in\ntheir determination to rescue her from the god\u2019s unwelcome overtures.\n\nThere are many instances in classical mythology wherein flowers were\nbelieved to have arisen from the blood, _i.e._ the very life, of dying\npersons. The violet sprang from the blood of Attis when Cybele changed\nhim into a pine-tree. From the blood of Hyacinthus, killed in anger by\nZephyrus, Apollo caused the hyacinth to grow. Acis, crushed to death by\nPolyphemus, was changed into a stream, but from his blood there sprang\nthe flowering rush. According to the Egyptians the vine arose from the\nblood of the Titans.\n\nIn other cases tear-drops were, so to speak, the seed of the miracle.\nThe anemone grew from the tears that Aphrodite shed at the death of\nAdonis:\u2014\n\n  \u201cWoe, woe for Cytherea, he hath perished, the lovely Adonis.\n  A tear the Paphian sheds for each blood-drop of Adonis,\n  And tears and blood on the earth are turned to flowers.\n  The blood brings forth the rose; the tears, the wind-flower;\n  Woe, woe for Cytherea, he hath perished, the lovely Adonis!\u201d[172]\n\nShakespeare, it will be remembered, gives to the anemone the magical\npower of producing love.[173]\n\nThe legendary lore of the East contains traditions similar to those\nabove mentioned, of which it will be sufficient to cite the\nfollowing:\u2014The Burmese believe that the _Canna Indica_ or Indian shot\nsprang from the sacred blood of the Buddha. His evil-minded\nbrother-in-law, incensed at not being allowed to hold a separate\nassembly of his own, rolled down a rock upon the teacher from a lofty\nhill. A fragment bruised the Buddha\u2019s toe, and drew from it a few drops\nof blood, from which the sacred plant arose.[174]\n\nIn another class of legends, more characteristic of mediaeval than of\nclassical mythology, the _soul_ of the dead person was believed to pass\ninto a tree. They are, in fact, cases rather of metempsychosis than of\nmetamorphosis. A legend current in Cornwall tells how, after the loss of\nher lover, Iseult died broken-hearted, and was buried in the same church\nwith Tristram, but by the king\u2019s decree at some distance from him. Soon\nivy sprang from either grave, and each branch grew and grew until it met\nits fellow at the crown of the vaulted roof, and there clasped it and\nclung to it as only ivy can.[175] In another version the plants that\nsprang from the graves of the lovers were a rose and a vine. The same\nidea is met with in the familiar ballad of Fair Margaret and Sweet\nWilliam.\n\n  Margaret was buried in the lower chanc\u00e8l,\n    And William in the higher;\n  Out of her breast there sprang a rose,\n    And out of his a brier.\n  They grew till they grew into the church top,\n    And then they could grow no higher;\n  And there they tyed in a true lover\u2019s knot,\n    Which made all the people admire.[176]\n\nA story is told in Japan of a faithful couple who, after enjoying long\nyears of happiness, died at last at the same moment; their spirits\nwithdrew into a tall pine-tree of great age, which a god had once\nplanted as he passed that way. On moonlight nights the lovers may be\nseen raking together the pine-needles under the tree, which to this day\nis known as the Pine of the Lovers.[177]\n\nA certain Chinese king had a secretary, Hanpang, for whose young and\nbeautiful wife he conceived a violent passion. Failing in his designs\nupon her, the king threw Hanpang into prison, where he shortly died of\ngrief. His wife, to escape the royal suit, threw herself from a lofty\nterrace, having entreated as a last favour that she might be buried\nbeside her husband. The king in his anger ordered otherwise. But that\nsame night a cedar sprang from each grave, and in ten days they had\nbecome so tall and vigorous in their growth that they were able to\ninterlace both branch and root, and the people called them the Trees of\nFaithful Love.[178]\n\nIn Germany the following story is told to explain why a certain blue\nflower, the endive, which grows by the roadside, is called the\n\u201cWegewarte\u201d or way-watcher. A maiden, eagerly anticipating the return of\nher lover from a long voyage, visited every morning and evening the spot\nwhere they had parted, and anxiously paced the road, awaiting his\ncoming. At last, worn out by her long vigil, she sank down by the\nwayside and expired. On the spot where she breathed her last the flower\nappeared.[179]\n\nThere is a Japanese story in which a mother is represented as hearing\nher dead son\u2019s voice in the sighing of a sacred willow which grew above\nhis grave.[180] Grimm quotes other examples.[181] In the song of\nRoncesvalles, a blackthorn grows above the dead Saracens, a white flower\nabove the dead Christians. In other legends white lilies grow from the\ngraves of persons unjustly executed. From a maiden\u2019s grave grew three\nlilies which none but her lover might pluck.\n\nIn all these legends we have a survival of very primitive ideas about\nthe soul, ideas out of which subsequently arose the formal doctrine of\ntransmigration. The immortality of the soul was accepted, but there was\nalways an inclination to quarter it in some new living thing. The\ninstances above given, in which it was thought to pass into some plant,\nespecially concern us, as illustrating the primitive belief that trees\nand shrubs might contain a spirit in human form.\n\nA further derivative of the assumed kinship between human and vegetable\nlife is the conception of the tree as sympathetically interwoven with\nthe life and fortunes of an individual, a family, or a community. \u201cIn\nfolktales the life of a person is sometimes so bound up with the life of\na plant that the withering of the plant will immediately follow or be\nfollowed by the death of the person. Among the M\u2018Bengas in Western\nAfrica, about the Gaboon, when two children are born on the same day the\npeople plant two trees of the same kind and dance round them. The life\nof each of the children is believed to be bound up with the life of one\nof the trees, and if the tree dies or is thrown down they are sure that\nthe child will soon die. In the Cameroons, also, the life of a person is\nbelieved to be sympathetically bound up with that of the tree. Some of\nthe Papuans unite the life of a new-born child sympathetically with that\nof a tree, by driving a pebble into the bark of the tree. This is\nsupposed to give them complete mastery over the child\u2019s life; if the\ntree is cut down the child will die.\u201d[182] According to the Talmud, the\ndestruction of Bithar, in which four hundred thousand Israelites lost\ntheir lives, originated in the resentment of one of its inhabitants at\nthe wanton destruction of a young cedar-tree, which, according to the\ncustom of the place, he had planted at the birth of his child.[183]\n\nIt was usual amongst the Romans to plant a tree at the birth of a son,\nand from its vigour to forecast the prosperity of the child. It is\nrelated in the life of Virgil, that the poplar planted at his birth\nflourished exceedingly, and far outstripped all its contemporaries. A\nsimilar superstition has persisted even into times that are almost\ncontemporary. Lord Byron, for all his scepticism, had the idea that his\nlife and prosperity depended on the fate of an oak which he had planted\nwhen he first visited Newstead.[184]\n\nThe mystical relationship of man and tree is further illustrated in an\nold German belief quoted by Mannhardt, that a sick child placed in a\nhole made in a tree by sawing off a branch, or by splitting it open with\na wedge, will recover as soon as the tree-wound heals. Should the child\ndie and the tree survive, the human soul will inhabit the tree for the\nrest of its life.[185]\n\nThe family tree and the community tree were merely extensions of this\nconception. The heroic descendants of Pelops regarded the plane-tree as\nespecially sacred to them and bound up with their fortunes, and in later\ntimes we find families taking their names from trees. Mannhardt quotes\nin this connection the German surnames Linde, Holunder, Kirschbaum,\nBirnbaum, etc.[186]\n\nBut more important than the family tree is the community tree. In many\nan old German village there stood a tree, often a May-tree, which the\nvillagers guarded as the apple of their eye. It was looked upon as the\nlife-tree, the tutelary genius, the second \u201cI\u201d of the whole community.\nDevotions were paid to it and gifts offered as to a deity.[187] The\nancient fig-tree in the Comitium at Rome, already alluded to as a\nsupposed descendant of the very tree under which Romulus and Remus were\nfound, is another case in point.[188] It was held to be closely\nconnected with the fortunes of the city, and Tacitus describes the\nterror of the Romans when, in the reign of Nero, it suddenly began to\nflag and wither, and their relief when, upon the Emperor\u2019s death, it was\nfound to have renewed its vigour.[189] Pliny tells of two myrtle-trees,\ncalled the Patrician and Plebeian, which grew before the temple of\nQuirinus at Rome. As sacred to Venus, and hence symbolical of union,\nthese trees were held to represent the amity which existed between the\ntwo orders. At first they had grown with equal vigour, but when the\npatricians began to encroach upon the power of the plebs their tree\noutgrew the other, which languished beneath its baleful shadow. After\nthe Marsian war, however, from which date the power of the Senate began\nto decline, it was noticed that the patrician tree showed signs of age,\nwhile the plebeian sprouted forth with new vigour.[190] Curiously\nenough, there is, or was so recently as 1885, an old tree in Jerusalem,\nopposite Cook\u2019s office, belonging to an old family and protected by the\nSultan\u2019s firman, which the Arabs consider will fall when the Sultan\u2019s\nrule ends. \u201cIt lost a large limb during the Turco-Russian war, and is\nnow (1885) in a decayed state.\u201d[191]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 24.\u2014Imperial coin of Myra in Lycia, showing\ntree-goddess.(Goblet d\u2019Alviella.)]\n\nFrom conceptions such as these the transition is easy to that wider view\nwhich regarded the tree as the material representative of the mysterious\nfeminine reproductive power, the good genius of general prosperity. We\nknow that the Semitic nations worshipped under various names a great\nmother-goddess, the progenitrix of gods and men, and there is evidence\nto show that the tree was widely venerated as her divine symbol. In the\ncoins of Heliopolis (Baalbek), where this great deity was worshipped\nunder the name of Astarte, the figure of the goddess under the peristyle\nof her temple is sometimes replaced by a pyramidal cypress. In a coin of\nMyra, in Lycia, the bust of a goddess is represented in the foliage of a\ntree.[192] The goddess, who is of the veiled archaic type and wears on\nher head the _calathus_, the symbol of fertility, is identified by Mr.\nFarnell with Artemis-Aphrodite, \u201cwho is here clearly conceived as a\ndivinity of vegetation.\u201d[193] The Canaanites, and under their influence\nthe Israelites, worshipped Ashtaroth, the fruitful goddess, under the\nsymbol of an _ash\u00eara_, a tree or pole, decked with fillets, like the\nMay-tree. An ancient Babylonian cylinder represents a decorated tree\nwith a worshipper beside it, who in the inscription invokes the goddess\nas her servant.[194] On other cylinders the tree-symbol sometimes\naccompanies and sometimes replaces the figure of Istar, the great\nprocreative goddess more or less related to the goddess of the\n_ash\u00earim_.[195]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 25.\u2014Sacred tree and worshipper.(Goblet d\u2019Alviella.)]\n\nThe conception of the tree as the symbol of fertility seems to be still\nmore clearly emphasised in the Assyrian cylinders and bas-reliefs, where\nit is conventionally represented as a date-palm between two personages,\nwho approach it from either side bearing in their hands a cone similar\nto the inflorescence of the male date-palm. Mr. Tylor suggests that\nthese personages, variously represented as kings or priests, genii with\nwings and heads of eagles, or mythical animals, may represent the\nfertilising winds or divinities, whose procreative influence was\ntypified by the artificial fecundation of the palm, a procedure which is\nnecessary for its successful culture, and which we know from Herodotus\nto have been familiar to the Babylonians.[196] The design is usually\nsurmounted by the winged disc representing the sun, and the whole is not\nimprobably meant to symbolise the mystery of procreation, in which the\nmale element enshrined in the sun, and the female element inhabiting the\ntree are appropriately represented. The same collocation is met with on\nan altar from the Palmyrene now in Rome, on one of the faces of which is\nthe image of a solar god, and on the other the figure of a cypress with\na child carrying a ram amidst its foliage.[197] In this connection it\nmay be remembered that Apuleius, wishing to paint the son of Venus in\nhis mother\u2019s lap, is related to have depicted him in the midst of a\ncypress-tree.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 26.\u2014The sacred tree as symbol of fertility.(From an\nAssyrian bas-relief. Perrot et Chipiez.)]\n\nThe above facts are important for their bearing on the conception of a\ntree-inhabiting spirit of vegetation or generalised tree-soul, which, as\nMannhardt and Frazer have shown, lies at the root of many otherwise\ninexplicable observances found amongst the peasantry in different\ncountries and at different periods of history. These customs will be\ndealt with more fully in a subsequent chapter. In all of them we find a\ntree, or the branch of a tree, or a human being or puppet dressed to\nrepresent a tree, figuring as the symbol or representative of a spirit\nwho is regarded as more or less friendly to man, and endowed with the\npower of assisting his material prosperity. In more primitive times than\nthe present this prosperity resolved itself into a question of\nfecundity, and the power which could make the fields to bear, the flocks\nto multiply, and women to give increase, naturally held the foremost\nplace in the affections of the people. The rich and the cultured found\nother attributes to worship and other gods to personify them, but the\npeasant clung to the observances by which the spirit of fertility was\npropitiated. Hence the tree, long after it had ceased to be worshipped\nas the home of the great gods, or to be regarded as the parent of\nmankind, still held a firm place in the devotions of the people as the\nembodiment of the all-powerful patron of universal fertility.\n\nOf the innumerable observances founded on this idea the following may be\ntaken as a sample. The sacred chili or cedar of Gilgit, on the\nnorth-western frontier of India, was held to have the power of causing\nthe herds to multiply and women to bear children. At the commencement of\nwheat-sowing three chosen unmarried youths, who had undergone\npurification for three days, started for the mountains where the cedars\ngrew, taking with them wine, oil, and bread, and fruit of every kind.\nHaving found a suitable tree they sprinkled the oil and wine on it,\nwhile they ate the bread and fruit as a sacrificial feast. Then they cut\noff a branch and brought it to the village, where amid general rejoicing\nit was placed on a large stone beside running water. A goat was then\nsacrificed and its blood poured over the cedar branch, while the\nvillagers danced around it. The goat\u2019s flesh was eaten, and every man\nwent to his house bearing a spray of cedar. On his arrival he said to\nhis wife, \u201cIf you want children I have brought them to you; if you want\ncattle I have brought them; whatever you want, I have it.\u201d[198]\n\nThe same idea is no doubt to be traced in the form of survival, in the\ncustom of giving a branch of laurel to a bride which is found, according\nto Mannhardt, at Carnac in Brittany;[199] in the introduction of a\ndecorated pine-bough into the house of the bride, met with in Little\nRussia, as well as in the ceremony of \u201ccarrying the May,\u201d adorned with\nlights, before the bride and bridegroom in Hanoverian weddings.[200]\n\nThe day of these observances is past, but underlying them there was a\nvital and still valid truth. To us as to the ancients the tree is still\nthe patron of fertility, as those have discovered to their cost who have\nbared a country of its forests. To us as to them it is still the thing\nof all things living that is endowed with the most enduring life, the\nmost persistent vigour. Generations come and go, but the tree lives on\nand every spring puts forth new leaves, and every autumn bears new seed,\nand even to its last decrepitude the leaves are as green and the seeds\nas full of life as in the prime of its youth. What changes has not the\noldest tree in England witnessed! In the southern counties there is an\nancient way, once thronged by travellers, but now deserted and broken in\nits continuity; yet to this day, even where parks and pastures have\noverlain it, its course may still be traced by the yew-trees planted at\nits side by pilgrims journeying to the shrine of St. Thomas of\nCanterbury, in the days when their brothers were fighting for the White\nRose or the Red.\n\n\n\n\n                               CHAPTER V\n                           THE TREE AS ORACLE\n\n\nAmongst the innumerable sources from which the nations of antiquity\nprofessed to derive knowledge of futurity and practical guidance in the\naffairs of life the tree held a very prominent place. Tree-oracles\nformed, indeed, the natural corollary of tree-worship, and their number\nand popularity provide additional testimony to the genuineness and\nextent of the ancient belief that certain trees were tenanted by a\nsupernatural essence. For it was as \u201canimated demoniac beings,\u201d to use\nRobertson Smith\u2019s phrase, that trees possessed oracular virtue. It was\nthe god dwelling in them who produced the mysterious rustlings and\nmovements of the branches, from which the responses were interpreted by\nthe attendant priests. But according to the ancient view the tree\nderived a further title to its oracular prestige from its connection by\nmeans of its roots with the under-world, the mysterious abode of\ndeparted spirits, in whom wisdom and knowledge of the future were\nsupposed to be vested. Thus the special prophetic power attributed to\nthe variety of oak (probably the _Quercus esculus_) which grew at Dodona\nwas ascribed by later writers to the fact that its roots pierced the\nearth more deeply than those of other trees, reaching down even to\nTartarus (_tantum radice in Tartara_).[201] It was from this under-world\nthat Saul summoned Samuel, and it was in the hope of obtaining help from\nthe spirit of some dead hero by means of a dream, that men were wont to\npass the night at his tomb or his temple. The modern Arabs who still\nworship certain sacred trees, as the place where angels or _jinni_\ndescend, believe that a sick man who sleeps under such a tree will\nreceive counsel in a dream for the restoration of his health.[202]\n\nOf organised oracles the earliest was no doubt the earth oracle, and the\npart played in the ceremonial by natural fissures, springs, and trees\nprobably grew out of their close connection with the earth. The most\nfamous oracle of antiquity, that of Delphi, was situated at the opening\nof a natural cleft in the rock, believed to be at the very centre of the\nearth, and was originally presided over by the great earth-mother, Gaia,\nthe subordinate part played by the laurel which once grew near the cleft\nbeing expressed by the legend that Daphne was the daughter and priestess\nof Gaia.[203] The procedure at another famous oracle, that of Trophonius\nat Lebadea, near Mount Helicon in Boeotia, was distinctly modelled on\nthe idea of a descent into the under-world,[204] the suppliant obtaining\nhis answer in a cave, where his experiences were so terrible that he\nnever smiled again; whence it came to be said of any particularly\nlugubrious individual that he had consulted the oracle of Trophonius. A\nstill more striking illustration of the antiquity of this conception is\nfound in the account of the initiation of an augur given on a Babylonian\ntablet in the British Museum. The candidate is there made to descend\ninto an artificial imitation of the lower world, where he beholds \u201cthe\naltars amidst the waters, the treasures of Anu, Bel, and Ea, the tablets\nof the gods, the delivering of the oracle of heaven and earth, and the\ncedar-tree, the beloved of the great gods.\u201d[205] Here the earth-oracle\nand the tree-oracle are seen in very early conjunction; but the belief\nin the divine power inherent in the tree can be traced still farther\nback, for in a bilingual text of much earlier date we read of \u201cthe\ncedar-tree, the tree that shatters the power of the incubus, upon whose\ncore is recorded the name of Ea,\u201d _i.e._ the god of wisdom.[206]\n\nThe idea of the tree-oracle was familiar to other branches of the\nSemitic race, and is expressed in their common tradition of a tree of\nknowledge. Several allusions to oracular trees are met with in the Old\nTestament. That Jehovah should speak to Moses out of the burning-bush,\nif not to be regarded as a case in point, was at any rate quite in\nconformity with surrounding tradition, for there is no doubt that the\nbelief in trees as places of divine revelation was very prevalent in\nCanaan. The famous holy tree near Shechem, called the tree of the\nsoothsayers in Judges ix. 37, and the tree or trees of the revealer in\nGenesis xii. 6 and Deuteronomy xi. 30, must have been the seat of a\nCanaanite tree-oracle.[207] The prophetess Deborah gave her responses\nunder a palm near Bethel, which, according to sacred tradition, marked\nthe grave of the nurse of Rachel. And David, when he inquired of the\nLord as to the right moment for attacking the Philistines, received the\nsignal in \u201cthe sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry-trees.\u201d[208]\nThe _ash\u00eara_ or artificial tree in which the deity was supposed to dwell\nalso appears to have been used by the Canaanites for the purposes of\ndivination, a practice probably alluded to in the rebuke of the prophet,\n\u201cMy people ask counsel at their stock, and their staff declareth unto\nthem.\u201d[209]\n\nBut by far the most striking instance of a tree-oracle, and perhaps one\nmay even say the most signal vestige of the primitive tree-worship, was\nthe oracle of the Pelasgic Zeus at Dodona in Epirus. Here in a grove of\noaks there was a very ancient tree, believed to be the actual seat of\nthe deity, whose responses were interpreted from the rustling of its\nbranches, from the murmur of the sacred spring which welled forth at its\nfoot, or from the drawing of the oracle lots kept in an urn beneath it.\nThe origin of the oracle is lost in prehistoric gloom; probably it\nexisted earlier than the worship of Zeus himself. Homer makes Ulysses\nvisit it,[210] and Hesiod states that Zeus dwelt there in the trunk of a\ntree.[211] Herodotus affirms, on the testimony both of the priestesses\nof Dodona and of the Egyptian priests at Thebes, that the oracle was\nintroduced from Egypt, and adds that the manner in which oracles were\ndelivered at Thebes and at Dodona was very similar. The priests at\nThebes told him that two women employed in their temple had been\ncaptured by Phoenicians, and sold the one into Libya, the other to the\nGreeks; the former established the oracle of Zeus Ammon in the Libyan\ndesert, the latter that of Dodona. In the account given him by the\nDodonaean priestesses, it was asserted that the oracles were founded by\ntwo black pigeons from Thebes.[212] We know from other sources that the\noracle of Zeus-Ammon was vested in an ancient tree (\u03b3\u03b5\u03c1\u03ac\u03bd\u03b4\u03c1\u03c5\u03bf\u03bd).[213]\nBut whatever may have been its origin there is no doubt that the oracle\nof Dodona had a long and active career, continuing for close upon two\nthousand years. Silius Italicus, towards the end of the first century\nA.D., reiterates the statement of Hesiod that the deity at Dodona\noccupied a tree;[214] Pausanias a hundred years later found the tree\nstill green and flourishing,[215] and Philostratos about the same time\nsaw it adorned with wreaths and sacred fillets, \u201cbecause, like the\nDelphic tripod, it gave forth oracles.\u201d[216] A later writer states that\nthe oracular voices ceased on the felling of the tree by a certain\nIllyrian bandit,[217] but there is evidence that the tree and the oracle\nwere still in existence in the middle of the fourth century A.D. These\nancient testimonies to the importance of the oracle have been\nmarvellously corroborated by the discovery in the course of recent\nexcavations of a large number of leaden tablets inscribed with the\nquestions addressed to the god by his votaries, and dating from 400 B.C.\nonwards.[218]\n\nAccording to classical mythology, the oracular virtue of the famous oak\nof Dodona was not only transmitted to its offshoots, but even preserved\nin the dead wood after its separation from the tree. Ovid, in relating\nthe story of the plague of Aegina, tells how Aeacus, standing beneath\n\n  A branching oak, the Sire\u2019s own tree, from seed\n  Of old Dodona sprung,\n\ncalls upon Zeus to repeople his stricken kingdom, and fill his desolate\nwalls anew with citizens as numerous as the ants at his feet.\n\n                            Not a breath\n  Was stirring, but the branches shook, the leaves\n  With rustling murmur waved.\n\nAccepting the omen he kisses the sacred tree, falls asleep beneath it,\nand wakes to find that the ants have been miraculously changed into men,\nthe famous Myrmidons.[219] Again, it is related by more than one author\nthat when the good ship _Argo_ was built, Athena introduced into it by\nway of amulet a beam hewn in the grove of Dodona, which in the\nsubsequent voyage constantly gave the Argonauts warning and advice.[220]\n\nAt the famous oracle of Delphi the tree played as intrinsic, if not so\npredominant, a part as at Dodona, its function being shared by the\nfissure in the earth and the sacred spring, which testify to the\nchthonic origin of the oracle, whilst the use of the sacred tripod has\nbeen thought to connect it with the class of fire oracles.[221] There is\nevidence that a laurel-tree grew beside the oracular fissure in Gaia\u2019s\ntime,[222] and, according to tradition, the earliest temple of Apollo\nwas a hut of laurel boughs erected by the god\u2019s own hands.[223] And\nlater on, when the original tree had disappeared and the fissure had\nbeen enclosed in the Adytum, the entrance to the latter, as well as the\ntripod on which the Pythia sat, were hidden in fresh laurel leaves\nwhenever the oracle was given, and the priestess having chewed laurel\nleaves and crowned herself with a wreath of the sacred plant, waved a\nlaurel branch while chanting her ecstatic utterances. Every ninth year,\nmoreover, a bower of laurel branches was erected in the forecourt of the\ntemple. It is uncertain how far Apollo\u2019s close connection with the\nlaurel may have originated from Delphi, but it is a fact that in later\ntimes his oracular function was inseparably bound up with the use of\nthat tree, and the laurel became the recognised instrument of prophecy\n(_per lauros geomantis_). And at Delphi, when the laurel trees had\ndisappeared, the oracle ceased, for the messenger sent by the Emperor\nJulian to reinaugurate it received for answer, \u201cTell the king that the\ncunningly-built chamber has fallen to the ground; Apollo no longer has\nbower, or inspired laurel, or prophetic spring; vanished is the talking\nwater.\u201d[224]\n\nTo pass briefly over other examples of tree-oracle, in Armenia the\nfire-priests were wont to interpret the will of the god from the\nmovements observed in the branches of the holy plane-tree at\nArmavira.[225] The Chaldaeo-Assyrians read the future in the rustling of\nthe leaves of the prophetic trees.[226] At Nejr\u00e2n, in Yemen, the Arabs\nprofessed to obtain oracles from the spirit who inhabited a sacred\ndate-palm.[227]\n\nIn the Sh\u00e1h N\u00e1meh, Firdausi, working no doubt upon an ancient tradition,\ntells how Sikander, or Alexander the Great, consulted a tree-oracle in\nPersia.[228] \u201cFrom thence he proceeded to another city, where he was\nreceived with great homage by the most illustrious of the nation. He\ninquired of them if there were anything wonderful or extraordinary in\ntheir country, that he might go to see it, and they replied that there\nwere two trees in the kingdom, one a male, the other a female, from\nwhich a voice proceeded. The male tree spoke in the day and the female\ntree in the night, and whoever had a wish went thither to have his\ndesires accomplished. Sikander immediately repaired to the spot, and\napproaching it, he hoped in his heart that a considerable part of his\nlife still remained to be enjoyed. When he came under the tree a\nterrible sound arose and rang in his ears, and he asked the people\npresent what it meant. The attendant priest said it implied that\nfourteen years of his life still remained. Sikander at this\ninterpretation of the prophetic sound wept, and the burning tears ran\ndown his cheeks. Again he asked, \u2018Shall I return to R\u00fam and see my\nmother and children before I die?\u2019 and the answer was, \u2018Thou wilt die at\nKash\u00e1n.\u2019\u201d\n\nAmongst the Romans other forms of augury appear to have taken the place\nof the old tree-oracles and reduced them to comparative insignificance.\nThe most important of those that remained was the prophetic ilex grove\nupon the Aventine hill, sacred to Faunus and Picus. Hither the applicant\ncame, fasting and meanly clothed, and having crowned himself with beech\nleaves, sacrificed two sheep to the deities of the grove, and laying\nhimself down upon their pelts, awaited the counsel of the gods in his\ndream.[229] There was another grove oracle of Faunus at Tibur by the\nAlbunean spring,[230] and at the neighbouring Preneste, where the oracle\nof Jupiter was held in great repute, the oracle lots were fashioned from\nthe wood of his sacred oak.[231] At the more sequestered Tiora Matiena\nthe tree-oracle appears to have dwindled into a mere vestige, the\nresponses being given by a woodpecker perched upon an oaken column.[232]\n\nTo tree-omens, as distinguished from tree-oracles, the Romans attached\nmuch importance, and they possessed several treatises dealing with such\nportents. The family and community tree described in the last chapter\nhad a certain oracular character, and foretold in its own fortunes the\nprosperity or adversity of those whom it represented. The withering of\nthe laurel grove of Augustus was held to portend the death of Nero, and\nwith him the extinction of the Augustan house and its adopted members;\nthe fall of Vespasian\u2019s cypress foretold the death of Domitian. If the\nsacred tree attached to a sanctuary were uprooted by the wind, it was a\nclear proof that the deity had withdrawn his protection, and unless the\ntree upreared itself anew, his worship at that spot was discontinued.\nThe Sibylline books contained explicit instructions with regard to these\neventualities and were invariably consulted in every such case.\nInnumerable instances of these tree-omens are given in classical\nliterature.[233]\n\nThe legends of trees which spoke intelligibly belong rather to myth than\nto history, but they were quite in accordance with the ancient belief\nthat any tree which contained a tree-soul, were it the spirit of a god\nor only that of a dryad, might express itself in words. Thus the spirits\ninhabiting the three trees of the Hesperides gave advice to the\nwandering Argonauts. Philostratus relates that at the command of\nApollonius a tree addressed him in a distinct female voice.[234] When\nRome was invaded by the Gauls a voice from out of the grove of Vesta\nwarned the Romans to repair their walls or their city would fall.[235]\nAnd after the battle in which Brutus and Aruns Tarquinius slew each\nother, a powerful voice from the neighbouring grove of Arsia announced\nthat the victory lay with the Romans.[236] A later instance is that of\nthe _gharcad_ tree which spoke to Moslim b. \u2018Ocba in a dream, and\ndesignated him to the command of the army of Yaz\u012bd against Medina.[237]\n\nIt has already been mentioned that the responses at Dodona were\nsometimes interpreted from the oracle lots kept in an urn that stood\nupon a sacred table beneath the tree, and the same form of divination\nwas also apparently in use at Delphi,[238] whilst at Preneste it was the\nsole method employed. Indeed this outgrowth of the tree-oracle was in\ncommon use throughout the ancient world. There is a probable allusion to\nit in Ezekiel xxi. 21. The Scythian soothsayers were wont to divine by\nthe help of a number of willow rods, which they placed upon the ground,\nuttering their predictions as they gathered them up one by one. They\nalso practised divination by means of the bark of the linden-tree.[239]\nAmongst the neighbouring Alani, in Sarmatia, women foretold the future\nby means of straight rods cut with secret enchantments at certain times\nand marked very carefully.[240] The Germans used to divine by means of\nthe fragments of a branch cut from a fruit-tree, which they threw on to\na white cloth.[241] The omen sticks of the Druids, frequently referred\nto in the Bardic poems, were probably rods cut from a fruit-tree and\nmarked with mystical emblems.[242]\n\nIt is not easy to define the exact connection between these oracle-lots\nand that strange survival, the divining-rod, but it may be taken for\ncertain that the belief in the efficacy of the latter is \u201ca superstition\ncognate to the belief in sacred trees,\u201d[243] and that the idea\nunderlying both the oracle-lot and the divining-rod was that they were\nanimated by an indwelling spirit, probably by the spirit of the tree\nfrom which they were cut. We know from Pliny and Pausanias that the\nearliest images of the gods were made of wood, and that the Greeks,\nRomans, and other pre-Christian nations worshipped stakes or peeled rods\nof wood, painted, or dressed, or roughly carved in the semblance of an\nanthropomorphic god, and supposed to be inhabited by a divine essence.\nIt was probably by a similar mode of reasoning that the spear, the\nsceptre, the staff of the general, the standards of the army, the\nherald\u2019s wand, the rods of the flamens, the lituus of the augur, and the\ntruncheon of the constable came to be symbolically representative of\npower and inviolability, the primitive assumption being that they\nretained some of the divine spirit resident in the tree from which they\nwere cut.[244] From a similar parentage sprang the popular custom of\nstriking men, cattle, and plants with a green switch (Lebensrute) at\ncertain seasons of the year in order to make them fruitful, an\nobservance of which so many instances have been collected by Mannhardt.\n\u201cIt was the tree-soul, the spirit of vegetation,\u201d he concludes,\n\u201ccommunicated by means of this switching, which drove away the demons of\nsickness and sterility and evoked fruitfulness and health.\u201d[245] The\ndivining-rod is, if one may say so, first cousin to the \u201clife-rood.\u201d\nEach represents and embodies a different function of the\nsupernatural\u2014the one its procreative, the other its prophetic attribute.\nThe divining-rod is the meagre survival of the once renowned\ntree-oracle.\n\nIt may seem strange that in this positive age there should exist people\ncalling themselves educated, who believe that a stick cut from a hazel\nor thorn-bush may in the hands of a specially endowed person possess a\nmagical power of revealing the secrets of the earth. But so it is. There\nare in this country at the present hour some half-dozen professional\nexperts, who claim the faculty of discovering unsuspected springs of\nwater by means of the divining-rod, and furnish well-attested instances\nof their success. It is not necessary to discuss the credibility of\ntheir assertions or to formulate a theory to account for their success.\nThe subject of the divining-rod concerns us only in so far as it is a\nvestige\u2014a poor and atrophied vestige\u2014of the magic eloquence once\nassociated with the sacred tree. It is impossible to say when the use of\nthe divining-rod first originated. It is mentioned in the Vedas, and is\nwell known to have flourished amongst the Chaldaeans and Egyptians. But\nin those early days the function of the magical rod was not restricted,\nas it was later and is now, to the search for water or buried treasure.\nThe Greeks and Romans found many uses for it. Cicero speaks of providing\nfor one\u2019s wants, _quasi virgul\u00e2 divin\u00e2, ut aiunt_. It was a familiar\ninstrument in the hands of the British Druids, and is still largely\nemployed in China. Mediaeval writers speak of it as being in very common\nuse among the miners of Germany.[246]\n\nAt all times and in all places the act of cutting and preparing the rod\nhas been the subject of much ceremony. It had to be severed at a\nparticular moment, and from a particular kind of tree, the latter\nvarying according to the country. As a rule a fruit-tree, or some other\ntree that was useful and beneficent to man, was chosen. The Chinese\nprefer the peach; the Druids made choice of the apple-tree.[247]\nElsewhere the hazel, the willow, and the black-thorn have been selected,\nand the last-named is still known in Germany as the \u201cwishing-thorn,\u201d as\nit is the tree from which wishing-rods were cut. The time at which the\nrod was cut was equally important. For centuries the Chinese have\nadhered to the first new moon after the winter solstice as the most\nfavourable date for the ceremony. The French custom was to cut it on\nMercury\u2019s day (Wednesday) at the planetary hour of Mercury.[248] In\nSweden divining-rods of mistletoe are cut on midsummer eve.[249] Even in\ncomparatively modern times believers in the divining-rod professed to\nexpect more of a rod which had been cut between sunset and sunrise, upon\nsome holy day or at new moon, from a branch on which the rising sun\nfirst shone.[250]\n\nThese mystic observances smack of a far-distant past, and the modern\nwater-finder appears to have discarded them. His practice is to cut a\nforked branch about eighteen inches in length from any convenient hazel\nor white-thorn bush, and grasping the prongs very firmly between the\nthumb and two first fingers of each hand, the joint being held\ndownwards, he walks over the ground where it is desired to find water.\nIf he approaches a hidden spring, the joint will begin to rise against\nhis will, and when he has reached it, will make a complete half\nrevolution, breaking or bending the twigs held in his hands, until the\njoint is uppermost. The depth of the spring is estimated by the force\nwith which the rod is repelled from it. The mental exhaustion of the\noperator after a successful operation is said to be considerable. In an\nold volume of the _Quarterly Review_ (No. 44) an account is given of a\ncertain Lady Noel who was skilful in the use of the divining-rod. She\nused a thin forked hazel-twig, which immediately bent when she came over\nthe underground spring, its motion being more or less rapid as she\napproached or withdrew from the spot. \u201cWhen just over it the twig turned\nso quick as to snap, breaking near the fingers, which by pressing it\nwere indented and heated and almost blistered. A degree of agitation was\nalso visible in her face.\u201d\n\nMany of the superstitious practices that still survive in remote\nvillages are no doubt of the same ancestry as the divining-rod. In the\nvalley of Lanzo in Piedmont, lovers in doubt whether to marry consult\nthe oracle in the form of a herb called _concordia_, the root of which\nis shaped like two hands, each with its five fingers. If the herb they\nfind has the hands conjoined, the omen is favourable; but unfavourable\nif the hands point different ways.[251]\n\nThe following na\u00efve recital is quoted in Brand\u2019s antiquities:\u2014\u201cLast\nFriday was Valentine\u2019s day, and the night before I got five bay-leaves,\nand pinned four of them to the four corners of my pillow, and the fifth\nto the middle; and then, if I dreamt of my sweetheart, Betty said we\nshould be married before the year was out.\u201d[252] This belief in the\nmagical power of certain leaves is enshrined in many jingles, still\nfound in the rustic formulary, such as\u2014\n\n  The even ash-leaf in my glove\n  The first I meet shall be my love;[253]\n\nor\n\n  Find even ash or four-leaved clover\n  And you\u2019ll see your true love before the day\u2019s over.[254]\n\nIn old days on St. Valentine\u2019s eve many a rustic maid has sprinkled\nbay-leaves with rose-water and laid them across her pillow, and then\nlying down in a clean night-gown, turned wrong side out, has softly\nrecited\u2014\n\n  Good Valentine, be kind to me,\n  In dreams let me my true love see;[255]\n\nor, if she were a Staffordshire lass, she probably preferred St.\nThomas\u2019s eve, and having placed a sprig of evergreen under her pillow,\nsighed\u2014\n\n  Good St. Thomas, stand by my bed\n  And tell me when I shall be wed.[256]\n\nTo those who are new to the subject of comparative mythology these\ndoggrels whispered by foolish country girls under the stress of a\nnatural impulse may seem absurdly irrelevant. But to that science which\nstrives to unravel the beliefs and ideas of long dead people, every\nvestige, every survival is important. The charms above mentioned did not\nspring, fully matured, from the brain of some peculiarly inventive\ndairy-maid. They have a long, long pedigree, and, like the zebra stripe\nwhich will sometimes appear on a purebred horse, they throw us back to\nan age when man believed that the world was controlled by spirits, and\nthat he, like everything else, was but a puppet in their hands.\n\n\n\n\n                               CHAPTER VI\n                           THE UNIVERSE-TREE\n\n\nOne of the most interesting points in connection with tree myths is the\nwide distribution of the conception of the cosmogonic or world-tree, of\nwhich the Scandinavian Yggdrasil is the most familiar example. The idea\nis met with amongst the ancient Chaldaeans, the Egyptians, the Persians,\nthe Hindus, and the Aryan races of Northern Europe, as well as in the\nmythology of China and Japan; and this community of tradition has been\nregarded by some authorities as pointing to a prehistoric intercourse\nbetween these widely-separated races, if not to their common\norigin.[257] But, apart from the fact that the same conception is also\nfound in a rudimentary form amongst the aborigines of New Zealand and\nAmerica, it is not difficult to imagine that it may have occurred\nseparately to more than one inquirer. In short, \u201cthe idea of referring\nto the form of a tree the apparent conformation of the universe is one\nof the most natural methods of reasoning which can occur to the savage\nmind.\u201d[258] The moment he began to concern himself with such questions,\nthe primitive thinker must have asked himself why the heavenly\nfirmament, with its sun and stars and the waters above it, did not fall\nto earth like everything else within his knowledge. His mind naturally\ndemanded some prop or support to antagonise what in his experience was\nthe unrestricted despotism of geocentric gravitation. The Egyptian\nexplained the problem by representing the sky as the star-spangled body\nof the goddess Nu\u0314\u00eet, who had been separated from her husband Sib\u00fb, the\nearth, by the efforts of Sh\u00fb. In the mythology of the Maoris, Rangi, the\nsky, was forcibly separated from his wife, the universal mother, earth,\nby one of their children, Tane Mahuta, father of forests, who planting\nhis head upon the earth, upheld the heavens with his feet.[259]\n\nThe fact that the celestial bodies were observed to revolve around a\nfixed point rendered it a necessity that this assumed support of the\nheaven should be of the nature of a central axis, upholding the sky-roof\nas the pole upholds a tent. To the inhabitants of mountainous countries,\nwho saw the clouds resting upon the peaks, the idea of a\nheaven-supporting mountain no doubt presented itself as the most\nreasonable solution. Thus Aristotle, to quote Lord Bacon, \u201celegantly\nexpoundeth the ancient fable of Atlas (that stood fixed and bare up the\nheaven from falling) to be meant of the poles or axle-tree of heaven.\u201d\nTo plain-dwellers, however, the tree was the loftiest object within\ntheir experience, and it may be conjectured that the idea of a central\nworld-supporting tree was a product of the lowlands. In some cases the\ntwo conceptions were combined and the world-tree was placed on the\nsummit of a world-mountain. It is interesting, however, to note that the\nearliest known version of a world-tree, pure and simple, comes to us\nfrom the fertile alluvial plain on the borders of the Persian Gulf. The\naccount, contained in an old bilingual hymn, and probably of Accadian\norigin, represents the tree as growing in the garden of Edin or Eden,\nplaced by Babylonian tradition in the immediate vicinity of Eridu, a\ncity which flourished at the mouth of the Euphrates between 3000 and\n4000 B.C.\n\n  In Eridu a stalk grew overshadowing; in a holy place did it become\n              green;\n  Its roots were of white crystal, which stretched towards the deep.\n  (Before) Ea was its course in Eridu, teeming with fertility;\n  Its seat was the (central place of the earth);\n  Its foliage (?) was the couch of Zikum the (primaeval) mother.\n  Into the heart of its holy house, which spread its shade like a\n              forest, hath no man entered.\n  (There is the home) of the mighty mother who passes across the sky.\n  In the midst of it was Tammuz.\n  There is the shrine of the two (gods).[260]\n\nOf this glorified tree or stem it is to be observed that it grew at the\ncentre of the earth; that its roots pierced down into the abysmal watery\ndeep, where the amphibious Ea, the god of wisdom, had his seat, and\nwhence he nourished the earth with springs and streams; that its foliage\nsupported Zikum, the primordial heavens, and overshadowed the earth,\nwhich was apparently regarded as a plane placed midway between the\nfirmament above and the deep below. The stem itself was the home of\nDavkina, consort of Ea, the great mother, \u201cthe lady of the Earth,\u201d and\nof her son Tammuz, a temple too sacred for mortals to enter.\n\nEven were it not to be inferred from other evidence, there could be\nlittle doubt that the people amongst whom the above conception arose\nmust have been already familiar with tree-worship. The mighty stem, in\nwhich the great gods dwelt, was but a poetical amplification of the\nsacred, spirit-inhabited tree, and arose out of the same idealising\nprocess as that which gave birth to the nearly related tree of knowledge\nand tree of life.\n\nSide by side with that of a world-tree the conception of a\nworld-mountain is also met with in the primitive cosmogony of the\nChaldaeans, but while the former tradition belonged to Sumir or Southern\nBabylonia, the latter seems to have prevailed in the Northern Accad,\nwhose inhabitants had once been mountain-dwellers.[261] This \u201cmountain\nof the world,\u201d \u201cwhose head rivalled the heaven,\u201d which had the pure deep\nfor its foundation and was the home of the gods, was placed in the\nnorth, and its worship survived in that of the \u201cillustrious mounds\u201d of\nthe Babylonian plain, which were equally regarded as the visible\nhabitation of divine spirits. Isaiah represents the king of Babylon as\nboasting, \u201cI will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the\nstars of God; and I will sit upon the mount of congregation, in the\nuttermost parts of the north.\u201d[262] It seems clear that the prophet is\nalluding to the myth of a Chaldaean Olympus, where the gods held their\nassemblies. In one of the Babylonian hymns this mountain is addressed\nas, \u201cO thou who givest shade, Lord who castest thy shadow over the land,\ngreat mount,\u201d[263] from which it might appear that the idea of the\nworld-mountain was not very strictly dissociated from that of a\nworld-tree.\n\nIn the corresponding cosmogony, which was current five thousand years\nlater amongst the Scandinavians, the two conceptions were unequivocally\ncombined. The Norse Yggdrasil, in spite of the many quaint symbolical\nfancies which have been embroidered on to the main conception,\nrepresents such a remarkable amalgamation of ideas originally Oriental\nthat it is difficult to believe that it can have had a totally\nindependent origin. The world-mountain, the world-tree with the birds in\nits branches, and the connection of the latter with another peculiarly\nEastern idea, that of the food of the gods, are all reproduced in the\ncosmogonic traditions of the Eddas, and it is highly probable that they\nformed part of a primitive folk-lore common to the different races. As\ntheir culture grew the Chaldaeans gave up their earlier conception, and\ncame to regard the earth as a gigantic bowl floating bottom upwards upon\nthe deep, but to the Norse poet the world still remained a flat disc\nsurrounded by a river ocean, and limited by mountain ranges. In its\ncentre Asgard, the mountain of the gods, was pierced by a mighty tree\ntrunk, the branches of which overshadowed the world and supported the\nsky, the stars, and the clouds, whilst its roots stretched downwards\ninto the primordial abyss. The apples stored in Valhal, by eating which\nthe gods preserved their youth, closely correspond to the amrita or soma\nwhich, as we shall see, was a peculiar feature of the Eastern conception\nof the world-tree.\n\n\u201cThe chief and most holy seat of the gods,\u201d say the Eddas, \u201cis by the\nash Yggdrasil. There the gods meet in council every day. It is the\ngreatest and best of all trees, its branches spread over all the world\nand reach above heaven. Three roots sustain the tree and stand wide\napart: one is with the Asa; the second with the Frost-giants; the third\nreaches into Niflheim, and under it is Hvergelmer, where Nidhug gnaws\nthe root from below. But under the second root, which extends to the\nFrost-giants, is the well of Mimer, wherein knowledge and wisdom are\nconcealed. The third root of the ash is in heaven, and beneath it is the\nmost sacred fountain of Urd. Here the gods have their doomstead. The Asa\nride thither every day over Bifrost, which is also called Asa-bridge.\nThere stands a beautiful hall near the fountain beneath the ash. Out of\nit come three maids. These maids shape the lives of men and we call them\nthe Norns. On the boughs of the ash sits an eagle, who knows many\nthings. Between his eyes sits the hawk, called Vedfolner. A squirrel, by\nname Ratat\u00f6sk, springs up and down the tree and bears words of hate\nbetween the eagle and Nidhug. Four stags leap about in the branches of\nthe ash and bite the buds. The Norns that dwell by the fountain of Urd\nevery day take water from the fountain, and clay that lies around the\nfountain, and sprinkle therewith the ash, in order that its branches may\nnot wither or decay.... In Valhal there is a chest, kept by Ithun, in\nwhich are the apples that the gods must bite when they grow old, in\norder to become young again.\u201d[264]\n\nIn the above description the various denizens of the tree have been\nsupposed to symbolise natural phenomena. The stags who bite the buds are\nthe four cardinal winds; the eagle and the hawk represent respectively\nthe air and the wind-still ether; the serpent Nidhug who gnaws the root\nin the subterranean abyss symbolises volcanic forces, and the squirrel,\nwho runs up and down the tree, hail and other atmospheric phenomena.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 27.\u2014Yggdrasil\u2014the Scandinavian world-tree.(From Finn\nMagnusen\u2019s Eddalaeren.)]\n\nA similar if somewhat less detailed symbolism is met with in both the\nIndian and Persian traditions of the world-tree, a symbolism which often\nobscures and overshadows its cosmic function. In both countries the\nmythical tree was venerated rather as a tree of life, the source of the\nimmortalising soma or haoma, than as the supporter of the universe. The\nlatter function was not indeed quite lost sight of, for the Kalpadruma\nof the Vedas was a cloud-tree of colossal size, which grew on a steep\nmountain, and by its shadow produced day and night before the creation\nof the sun and moon; and in the Rig-Veda Brahma himself is described as\nthe vast over-spreading tree of the universe, of which the gods are the\nbranches. Similarly in Persian legend, near the haoma-tree stood the\ntree of all seeds, frequented by two birds, one of which when he settled\non it broke off a thousand branches and caused their seeds to fall,\nwhile the other carried them to a place whence they might be conveyed to\nthe earth with the rain. The same idea, even to the two birds, recurs in\nthe Indian traditions of the mystical soma-tree, which, besides\nproducing the immortalising drink, also bore fruit and seed of every\nkind. It was from this tree that the immortals shaped the heaven and the\nearth: it grew in the third heaven, overshadowing it with its branches.\nBeneath it sat the gods, quaffing the precious soma, whereby they\npreserved their immortality.\n\nAmongst the followers of Buddha this tradition of a supernatural tree\nunderwent a further process of idealisation. Their fancy described it as\ncovered with divine flowers, and gleaming with every kind of precious\nstone. To its smallest leaf it was formed of gems. It grew on a pure and\nlevel sward, resplendent in colour as the peacock\u2019s neck. It received\nthe homage of the gods.[265] It was beneath this tree that Gautama took\nhis seat, resolved not to stir until he had attained to perfect\nknowledge. The tempter M\u00e2ra, with his hosts of demons, assailed him with\nfiery darts, with rain in floods and hurricanes; but the Buddha remained\nunmoved, until the defeated demons fled away. This is probably a\nBuddhist rendering of the Vedic account of the great fight between the\npowers of light and darkness for the clouds and the ambrosia they\ncontained. Gautama also wins the victory, but for him it is knowledge\nand enlightenment that should constitute the true object of human\ndesire.\n\nBriefer references to the cosmic tree are met with in the traditions of\nother races. According to the Phoenicians the universe was framed on the\nmodel of a tent, its axis a revolving cosmic tree, supporting a blue\ncanopy on which the heavenly bodies were embroidered. The Egyptians, in\none of their schemes of the universe, also represented the central axis\nas a colossal tree, on whose branches Bennu the sun god perched. It gave\nforth celestial rain, which descended on the fields of Lower Egypt, and\npenetrated to the under-world to refresh those who are in Amenti. The\nOsirian T\u00e2t-pillar, alluded to in a previous chapter, is thought by\nProfessor Tiele to be derived from the conception of the world-pillar,\nthough M. Maspero regards its cosmic symbolism as a later accretion.\n\n\u201cOn a post on which is graven a human countenance, and which is covered\nwith gay clothing, stands the so-called T\u00e2t-pillar, entirely made up of\nsuperimposed capitals, one of which has a rude face scratched upon it,\nintended no doubt to represent the shining sun. On the top of the pillar\nis placed the complete head-dress of Osiris, the ram\u2019s horns, the sun,\nthe ureus adder, the double feather, all emblems of light and\nsovereignty, which in my judgment must have been intended to represent\nthe highest heaven.\u201d[266]\n\nThe conception of the world-tree is also found in the golden gem-bearing\ntree of the sky, where, according to Egyptian mythology, Nu\u0314\u00eet had her\nabode. \u201cShe is goddess of the heavenly ocean, whose body is decked with\nstars. The pilgrim to the lower world eats of the fruit, and the goddess\nleaning from the tree pours out the water of life.\u201d This was in the west\non the way travelled by the dead. To the east there was another tree,\nwith wide radiating branches bearing jewels, up which the strong morning\nsun, Horus, climbed to the zenith of heaven. It has been suggested that\nthis \u201cSycamore of Emerald\u201d was a mythological rendering of the beautiful\ngreen tints on the horizon at the rising and setting of the sun.[267]\n\nThe tradition of a universe-tree is found also in China and Japan. The\nlegends of the latter country speak of an enormous metal pine which\ngrows in the north at the centre of the world.[268] In Chinese mythology\nseven miraculous trees once flourished on the Kuen L\u00fcn Mountains. One of\nthem, which was of jade, bore fruit that conferred immortality; another,\nnamed Tong, grew on the highest peak, \u201chard by the closed gate of\nheaven.\u201d[269]\n\nIt is interesting to find somewhat similar traditions current in the New\nWorld. According to the cosmogony of the Sia Indians\u2014a small diminished\ntribe inhabiting New Mexico\u2014there was in each of the six regions of the\nworld, North, South, East, West, Zenith, and Nadir, a mountain bearing a\ngiant tree, in a spring at the foot of which dwelt one of the six \u201ccloud\nrulers,\u201d each attended by one of the six primal Sia priestesses, chosen\nby the arch-mother to intercede with the cloud rulers to send rain to\nthe Sia. The six trees were specified as the spruce, pine, aspen, cedar,\nand two varieties of the oak.[270]\n\nThe beautiful conception met with in some of the above traditions, by\nwhich the stars were compared at once to gems and to the fruits of a\nmighty tree, is frequently encountered in ancient literature. The\nArabians represented the zodiac as a tree with twelve branches, of which\nthe stars were the fruit, and a somewhat similar idea appears in the\nApocalyptic tree of life, which \u201cbare twelve manner of fruits, and\nyielded her fruit every month.\u201d[271] The Babylonian hero Gilgames, in\nhis wanderings beyond the gates of ocean, came upon a forest, which\n\n  To the forest of the trees of the gods in appearance was equal;\n                Emeralds it carried as its fruit;\n  The branch refuses not to support a canopy;\n                Crystal they carried as shoots,\n  Fruit they carry and to the sight it is glistening.[272]\n\nThe device of a golden tree hung with jewels, which is common throughout\nthe East in all fine goldsmiths\u2019 work, and a good example of which was\nformerly one of the treasures of the palace of the Great Mogul at\nAgra,[273] was no doubt derived from the conception of a star-bearing\nworld-tree. For it must be remembered that the ancients believed gems to\nbe self-lustrous like the stars. Homer\u2019s palaces emitted a radiance like\nmoonlight, and the columns of gold and emerald seen by Herodotus at Tyre\ngave out light.[274]\n\nWe have no direct instance of gem-bearing trees in Greek mythology,\nthough the golden apples of the Hesperides growing on Mount Atlas, the\nsky-sustaining mountain in the country beyond the north wind, had\nevidently some kinship to the jewelled fruit of Eastern legend.\n\nIn addition to the Norse Yggdrasil, there are other traces of the\ntradition of a world-tree to be met with amongst European nations. The\nRussians have a legend, derived from Byzantium, of an iron-tree, the\nroot of which is the power of God, while its head sustains the three\nworlds, the heavenly ocean of air, the earth, and hell with its burning\nfire and brimstone.[275] Amongst the Saxons the idea of a world-tree\nseems to have persisted even to the time of Charlemagne, who in the\ncourse of his campaign against them in 772 A.D. solemnly destroyed as a\nheathen idol their Irmens\u00fbl or \u201cWorld-pillar,\u201d a lofty tree-trunk, which\nthey worshipped as typifying the universal column that supports all\nthings. Mannhardt, however, regards the Irmens\u00fbl as simply a national\ntree, corresponding to the community trees already mentioned, and\nexplains Charlemagne\u2019s act as a political rather than a religious\none.[276]\n\nIn the Cathedral at Hildesheim there is an ancient stone column known as\nthe Irmens\u00e4ule (though its claim to the name is disputed), which was dug\nup under Louis le D\u00e9bonnaire, and transformed into a candelabrum\nsurmounted by an image of the Virgin,[277] the conception of moral\nsupport thus taking the place of the grosser idea of a material stay.\n\nAs in Eastern legend the universe-tree was venerated as something more\nthan a mere material supporter of the world, being sometimes the giver\nof wisdom and sometimes the conveyer of immortality, so in European myth\nit is found linked with a similar beneficence. In the legends of the\nFinns its branches are represented as conferring \u201ceternal welfare,\u201d and\n\u201cthe delight that never ceases.\u201d The Kalevala, which dates back to an\nunknown antiquity, relates how the last of created trees, the oak,\nsprang from the magic acorn planted by the hero Wainamoinen in the ashes\nof burnt hay which had been mown by the water-maidens:\u2014\n\n  Spreads the oak-tree many branches,\n  Rounds itself a broad corona,\n  Raises it above the storm clouds;\n  Far it stretches out its branches,\n  Stops the white clouds in their courses,\n  With its branches hides the sunlight,\n  With its many leaves the moonbeams,\n  And the starlight dies in heaven.\n\n  Sad the lives of man and hero,\n  Sad the house of ocean-dwellers,\n  If the sun shines not upon them,\n  If the moonlight does not cheer them.\n\nAt the prayer of Wainamoinen, appalled by the monstrous growth, his\nmother, the wind-spirit, sends a tiny water-creature, who, soon turning\ninto a giant, with a mighty swing of his hatchet strikes the tree. With\nthe second stroke he cuts it, and with the third fire springs from its\nhuge bulk and the oak yields, \u201cshaking earth and heaven in falling.\u201d It\nis not till then that its beneficent powers are made manifest:\u2014\n\n  Eastward far the trunk extending,\n  Far to westward flew the tree-tops,\n  To the south the leaves were scattered,\n  To the north its hundred branches.\n  Whosoe\u2019er a branch has taken\n  Has obtained eternal welfare.\n  Who receives himself a tree top\n  He has gained the master-magic.\n  Who the foliage has gathered\n  Has delight that never ceases.[278]\n\nThe corresponding legend amongst the neighbouring Esthonians, as told in\ntheir epic, the Kalevipoeg, contains a quaint medley of the practical\nand the poetic. Here, too, the monstrous oak is felled by a giant who\ngrows from a dwarf; in falling it covers the sea with its branches and\nis quickly turned to use by the people. From the trunk is fashioned a\nbridge with two arms, one stretching to Finland, the other to an\nadjoining island. Ships are built from the crown, and towns from the\nroots, and toy-boats from the chips. What is left over is used to build\nshelters for old men, widows, and orphans, and the last remainder to\nprovide a hut for the minstrel. Therewith he gains \u201cthe master-magic,\u201d\nfor the strangers who cross the bridge now and again, and stop at his\ndoor to ask what city and what splendid palace stand before them,\nreceive for answer that the palace is his poor hut, and all the\nsplendour around is the light of his songs reflected from heaven.[279]\n\nTo return again to the East, it has already been mentioned that in a\ntradition common both to the Persians and the Hindus, and therefore\npresumably of considerable antiquity, the cosmic tree produced the food\nwhereby the gods preserved their immortality. The universe-tree had\nbecome a tree of life. This conception of a mystical life-giving tree\nwas associated with the ritual use of an earthly counterpart of the\nimmortalising drink.\n\nAccording to the Persian tradition the haoma-tree grew beside the tree\nof all seeds in a lake, where it was guarded by two fish against the\nattacks of the lizard sent by Ahriman to destroy the sacred sap\nwherewith the gods were nourished. It was the first of all trees planted\nby Ormuzd in the fountain of life, and was identified with the god\nHaoma, who gave strength and health to the body, and to the soul\nenlightenment and eternal life. This god was regarded as assimilated to\nthe earthly haoma, and as present in it. It is related in the sacred\nwritings that he appeared one day to Zoroaster as he was tending the\nholy fire, and thus addressed him: \u201cI am the divine Haoma, who keeps\ndeath at bay. Call upon me, express my juice that ye may enjoy me;\nworship me with songs of praise.\u201d Zoroaster replied, \u201cHonour to Haoma.\nHe is good, well, and truly born, the giver of welfare and health,\nvictorious and of golden hue; his branches bow down that one may enjoy\nthem. To the soul he is the way to heaven. In the beginning Ormuzd gave\nto Haoma the girdle glittering with stars, wherewith he girded himself\nupon the tops of the mountains.\u201d[280]\n\nThe juice of the terrestrial haoma was obtained from the plant by the\nuse of pestle and mortar, and was taken whenever prayer was offered.\nEvery house in Persia had its haoma-plant and its sacred pestle and\nmortar, which had to be protected from pollution as carefully as the\nholy fire and the sacred myrtle-twigs. The preparation of the\nhaoma-drink had its special liturgy, and in dedicating it the cup was\nheld aloft, not placed on the ground, lest it should be polluted by the\nbreath of the worshipper or other impurity.[281] The Semnion or\nTheombrotion which, according to Pliny, was taken by the Persian kings\nto keep off bodily decay and to produce constancy of mind, was probably\nidentical with the haoma-drink.[282]\n\nThe Parsees of Bombay still continue the ritual use of the haoma-juice,\nderiving it from a plant with a knotted stem and leaves like those of\nthe jasmine, supplies of which are specially obtained from Kirman in\nPersia. They refuse to admit the identity of the Vedic soma with their\nown sacred plant, which they assert is never found in India.[283]\n\nThis fact, if true, would account for the confusion which appears to\nexist as to the exact nature of the plant from which the Vedic soma or\namrita was derived, and indeed it is very probable that in their\nmigrations southward the Hindus made use successively of different\nplants. But there can be little doubt that the soma ritual and the\nconceptions associated with it were originally derived from the same\nsource as that of the haoma, and date back to a period before the Aryan\nraces had become separated. Like the haoma, the soma is not only a plant\nbut also a powerful deity, and in both the Vedas and the Zendavesta \u201cthe\nconceptions of the god and the sacred juice blend wonderfully with each\nother.\u201d[284]\n\nAccording to Professor Roth, the plant which is the source of the\nintoxicating drink offered to the gods in Hindu sacrifices is the\n_Sarcostemma acidum_ or _Asclepias acida_, a leafless herb containing a\nmilky juice, but it is doubtful whether it is identical with the Vedic\nsoma plant.[285] Dr. Haug states distinctly that the plant at present\nused by the sacrificial priests of the Deccan is not the soma of the\nVedas. It grows on the hills near Poona; its sap, which is whitish, is\nbitter and astringent, but not sour; it is a very nasty drink, but has\nsome intoxicating effect. De Gubernatis concludes that as the earthly\ndrink was merely a symbol of the heavenly soma, its source and character\nwere not material. It is not necessary that the drink which the\nworshipper pretends to drink or to offer to Indra at the sacrifice\nshould be really intoxicating. The object of the rite is to induce Indra\nin heaven to drink the water of strength, the true soma, the real\nambrosia, sometimes conceived as hidden in the clouds, sometimes as\ndwelling in the soft light poured forth by the great Soma, Indu, the\nmoon,\u2014the tree whose stem, long, dark, and leafless, resembles that of\nthe earthly plant from which the drink is ordered to be prepared. The\nritual resolves itself, according to De Gubernatis, into a sun-charm.\nSoma, the moon, the god of plants, the lord of the dark forest of night\nor winter, is the good genius who furnishes the miraculous drink\nwherewith Indra, the solar hero, recruits his forces. It is under its\ninfluence, say the Vedas, that Indra performs his great deeds. Soma does\nreally intoxicate the gods in heaven, incessantly renewing the triumph\nof light over its enemies. The sacrifice of the soma on earth is only a\npale, na\u00efve, and grotesque reproduction of that divine miracle.[286]\n\nAccording to the Vedas, however, the soma-drink, which Windischman\ndescribes as \u201cthe holiest offering of the ancient Indian worship,\u201d had a\ngenuinely intoxicating effect. It is described as \u201cstimulating speech,\u201d\n\u201ccalling forth the ardent thought,\u201d \u201cgenerating hymns with the powers of\na poet\u201d; and is invoked as \u201cbestower of good, master of a thousand\nsongs, the leader of sages.\u201d A hymn in the Rig-Veda has been thus\ntranslated:\u2014\n\n  We\u2019ve quaffed the Soma bright\n    And are immortal grown,\n  We\u2019ve entered into light\n    And all the gods have known.\n  What mortal now can harm\n    Or foeman vex us more?\n  Through thee, beyond alarm,\n    Immortal god! we soar.[287]\n\nIn the Hindu worship the fermented juice of the soma-plant was presented\nin ladles to the deities invoked, part sprinkled on the sacrificial\nfire, part on the sacred grass strewed upon the floor, and the remainder\ninvariably drunk by those who conducted the ceremony.[288] In early\ntimes, says Windischman, its use was looked upon as a holy action, and\nas a sacrament by which the union with Brahma was obtained.\n\nThe _ambrosia_ of the Olympian gods, like the word itself, was no doubt\nin its essence identical with the Vedic _amrita_ or _soma_. It contained\nthe principle of immortality, and was hence withheld from mortals. But\nthe word was also applied, like the soma, to a mixture of various fruits\nused in religious rites.[289] A still closer analogy, however, with the\nHindu and Persian conception is to be found in the cult of Dionysus, who\nwas regarded as present in the wine, which was his gift to man. \u201cHe,\nborn a god,\u201d says Euripides, \u201cis poured out in libations to the\ngods.\u201d[290] And again, \u201cThis god is a prophet. For when he forces his\nway into the body, he makes those who rave to foretell the future.\u201d[291]\nThe fact that Dionysus was essentially a tree-god, \u201cthe spiritual form\nof the vine,\u201d[292] renders the analogy still more striking.\n\nTo discuss the genesis of the above conceptions would be to reopen the\nwhole question of the origin of tree-worship. The drinking of vegetable\njuices, fermented or otherwise, was no doubt one of the means by which\nearly races were accustomed to produce dreams and visions, and so, in\ntheir view, to get themselves possessed by or put into communication\nwith a spirit. It was natural, therefore, for them to assume that the\nspirit in question had entered into them with the drug, and was\ntherefore present in it and in the plant from which it was derived. Mr.\nHerbert Spencer, indeed, argues that this particular assumption was one\nof the chief factors in the origin of plant-worship in general, a main\nreason why plants yielding intoxicating agents, and hence other plants,\ncame to be regarded as containing supernatural beings.[293] It would\nprobably, however, be safer to conclude that the sacramental use of the\njuice of plants is merely one amongst many cognate religious usages, and\nlike the ritual employment of wreaths in the service of the gods, the\nattachment of branches to the house, and the smiting with the\n\u201clife-rood,\u201d sprang out of the desire of men to bring nearer to\nthemselves a spirit already believed to exist, and thus to ensure their\nenjoyment of the protection and the benefits presumed to be at his\ndisposal.\n\n\n\n\n                              CHAPTER VII\n                                PARADISE\n\n\nNo account of tree-worship would be complete without a chapter on that\ntradition of a paradise or ideal garden of delight which is met with in\nthe mythology of almost all the nations of antiquity. The form of the\ntradition varies. Paradise was sometimes represented (1) as the seat of\nthe gods; sometimes (2) as the first home of the parents of mankind; and\nin other cases as (3) the abode of the spirits of the blessed.\nOccasionally the different conceptions are combined; but the earlier\ntraditions all concur in connecting paradise with a miraculous tree or\ntrees, or with a more or less legendary mountain, from which it may be\nplausibly inferred that they date back to the days of that primitive\ncosmogony when the heavens were supposed to be upheld by a material\nsupport. Thus in one, at least, of its aspects the tradition of paradise\nmust be regarded as an offshoot of the sacred tree.\n\nIt is not difficult to understand how the various conceptions arose. In\nthe first place, as the idea of a life or spirit more or less bound to\nthe tree became expanded into that of a powerful and wide-ranging god,\nthe idealising process demanded for him some home in heaven\ncorresponding to the tree which was his favourite habitat or embodiment\non earth. The sacred god-haunted tree, to which worship and gifts were\naccorded below, suggested a mystical counterpart above, and the proper\nhome of deity was assumed to be that marvellous tree whose branches were\nthe sky and its fruit the sun and stars, or that lofty mountain whose\nsummit touched and supported the heavens.\n\nIn the second place, the belief, common in primitive mythology, that the\nfirst parents were born from trees, presumably led to the idea that\nthese honoured ancestors, whose innocence was a part of their\nidealisation, lived amongst trees and in a garden equally idealised.\n\nThe third conception of paradise naturally grew out of the earlier\nconceptions, when there arose the belief in a future life of reward or\npunishment; though it has been pointed out that the conception of heaven\nunder the form of a garden prevailed, _par excellence_, amongst settled\nnations, living under kings of whose state a luxurious garden or\npleasaunce formed an essential part.[294]\n\nOf paradise regarded as the abode of the gods, the Indian tradition of\nthe garden of Indra furnishes the best example. It was situated on Mount\nMeru, on the confines of Cashmere, and contained the five wonderful\ntrees which sprang from the waters, after the churning of the cosmic\nocean by the gods and the demons. Under these trees the gods took their\nease, enjoying the ambrosia that fell from them. The garden, watered by\nsprings and rivulets, contained luminous flowers, fruits that conferred\nimmortality, and birds whose song even the gods loved to hear. The chief\nof its five miraculous trees was the paridjata, the flower of which\npreserved its freshness throughout the year, contained in itself every\nscent and flavour, and gave happiness to whoever demanded it. It was,\nmoreover, a test of virtue, losing its splendour in the hands of the\nsinful, and preserving it for him who followed duty. Each person found\nin it his favourite colour and perfume. It served as a torch by night,\nwas a talisman against hunger, thirst, disease, and decrepitude, and\ndiscoursed the sweetest and most varied music.[295] De Gubernatis quotes\nseveral other instances from Indian literature of a legendary celestial\ngarden.[296]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 28.\u2014From a Babylonian seal.(Goblet d\u2019Alviella.)]\n\nOf paradise, as the home of the first parents, the Pentateuch gives the\nmost circumstantial account, though it would appear from Genesis iii. 8\nthat the Biblical paradise was also regarded as a favourite resort of\nJehovah. The sacred books of the Parsis contain a very similar version.\nThe original human pair, Maschia and Maschi\u00e2na, sprang from a tree in\nHeden, a delightful spot where grew hom or haoma, the marvellous tree of\nlife, whose fruit imparted vigour and immortality. The woman, at the\ninstance of Ahriman, the spirit of evil in the guise of a serpent, gave\nher husband fruit to eat and so led to their ruin.[297] The tradition is\nno doubt of very ancient origin, and is supposed to be represented on an\nearly Babylonian seal now in the British Museum. The tree stands in the\nmiddle, from either side two human beings seated stretch forth their\nhands for its fruit; the serpent stands erect behind one of them.[298]\nOn another cylinder in the Museum at the Hague there is represented a\ngarden with trees and birds; in the middle a palm, from which two\npersonages are plucking the fruit; a third with a fruit in his hand\nseems to address them.[299]\n\nThe two mystical trees of the Biblical paradise find their common\ncounterpart in the sacred cedar of the Chaldaeans, which, besides being\nessentially a tree of life, employed in magic rites to restore strength\nand life to the body, was also \u201cthe revealer of the oracles of earth and\nheaven.\u201d Upon its core the name of Ea, the god of wisdom, was supposed\nto be written,[300] just as the name of Ormuzd was first disclosed to\nman by appearing carved in the wood of his sacred cypress. The tree of\nlife also finds a parallel in the divine soma, the giver of eternal\nyouth and immortality, a drink reserved only for the celestial gods or\nthe souls of the blessed.\n\nThe third conception of paradise, as the dwelling-place of the righteous\ndead, is met with in the earliest Greek literature,[301] but there is no\ndefinite trace of it amongst the Semitic nations until much later. It\ndid not, apparently, find recognition amongst the Jews until after the\nexile, but references to it are frequent in their later apocalyptic\nliterature.[302] In the second book of Esdras, the Lord tells His people\nthat He will bring them out of the tombs, and that He has sanctified and\nprepared for them \u201ctwelve trees, laden with divers fruits, and as many\nfountains flowing with milk and honey, and seven mighty mountains,\nwhereupon there grow roses and lilies.\u201d[303] \u201cThey shall have the tree\nof life for an ointment of sweet savour; they shall neither labour nor\nbe weary.\u201d[304]\n\nIn the Rabbinical writings, and still more in the Koran, this conception\nof paradise is embroidered with many fanciful extravagances. The Talmud\neven invents two paradises. \u201cThere is an upper paradise and a lower\nparadise. And between them is fixed a pillar, by which they are joined\ntogether, and which is called \u2018The strength of the Hill of Sion.\u2019 And by\nthis pillar on every Sabbath and festival the souls of the righteous\nascend from the lower to the upper paradise, and there enjoy the light\nof the Divine Majesty till the end of the Sabbath or festival, when they\ndescend and return into the lower paradise.\u201d[305]\n\nThis pillar is no doubt a survival of the old tradition of the\nworld-tree, a tradition still more obviously traceable in the Mahometan\nbelief. According to the Koran paradise is situated in the seventh\nheaven. In the centre of it stands the marvellous tree called _Tooba_,\nwhich is so large that a man mounted on the fleetest horse could not\nride round its branches in a hundred years. This tree not only affords\nthe most grateful shade over the whole extent of the Mussulman paradise,\nbut its boughs, laden with delicious fruits of a size and taste unknown\nto mortals, bend themselves to be plucked at the wish of the happy\ndenizens of that blissful abode. The rivers of paradise take their rise\nfrom the tree, flowing some with water, some with milk, and some with\nhoney; while others are filled with wine, the use of which is not\nforbidden to the blessed.[306]\n\nThe confusion of thought apparent in these ancient traditions of\nparadise was no doubt partly due to the fact that primitive man, with\nhis limited grasp of the possibilities of space, pictured heaven as not\nfar distant from him. It was a happier and a brighter earth, which\noffered material rather than spiritual joys, and where, according to the\nearliest conceptions, the spirits of the departed carried on the same\npursuits, reaped and sowed and hunted, as they had done while in life.\nThus the old Accadian dwellers by the Euphrates pictured the sky as the\ncounterpart of their own fertile plains, and the sun as a ploughman\nyoking his oxen to the glittering plough, with which he tilled the\nheavenly pasture.[307] The same idea is exemplified in the names of the\nzodiacal constellations, which are of extremely ancient origin, the sign\nwe still know as Taurus being called by the Accadians \u201cthe bull who\nguides the year.\u201d So near was heaven that it was not impossible to climb\nup to it, if you could but find the cosmic tree by which it was upheld.\nThe Khasias of India have a legend that the stars are men who have\nclimbed into heaven by a tree.[308] The Mbocobis of Paraguay still\nbelieve that the souls of the dead go up \u201cto the earth on high\u201d by the\ntree which joins us to heaven, and find an entrance by means of the\nholes in the sky-roof through which the rain descends.[309] There is a\nChinese story of a king, who having heard of the glories of paradise,\nset forth in search of it. After long wanderings he came to a mighty\ncolumn, which, he had been told, must be climbed in order to reach the\nwished-for goal. But it was too slippery, and he was compelled to fall\nback upon the alternative route, a steep and rugged mountain path. When\nalmost fainting with fatigue he was assisted by some friendly nymphs,\nand at length arrived at a beautiful garden, with a wondrous tree in its\nmidst, and a fountain of immortality, from which four rivers, flowing to\nthe four corners of the earth, took their rise.[310]\n\nThe same notion of the similarity and propinquity of the heavenly field\nis illustrated by the story of the Etruscan priest, who by his charms\nbrought down to earth a bit of heaven whereon to build his temple. The\nMahometans assert that the Caaba was lowered directly from the celestial\nparadise exactly at the centre of the earth. And the Bedouins of Arabia\nstill believe that the jinni, living near the lowest heaven, can hear\nthe conversation of the angels, and so gain valuable information which\nthey are able to impart to men.[311]\n\nHomer placed the seat of the gods and the court of Zeus upon the summit\nof Olympus,[312] which was supposed to touch heaven, and piercing\nthrough the region of rain and cloud to reach into the calm ether, where\nreigned eternal spring. By later writers, however, Olympus was\nrepresented as an unsubstantial region overhead, with the palace of Zeus\nin its midst. The earlier view of Olympus exactly corresponds with the\nChaldaean \u201cmount of the world,\u201d the mountain of Arallu or Hades, where\nthe gods had their seat, and beneath which was the world of ghosts;[313]\nalso with the Mount of the Assembly spoken of by Isaiah, and with the\nScandinavian Asgard. But there is a clearer reminiscence of the elevated\nparadise of Oriental legend in the beautiful gardens of the\nworld-supporting Atlas, with their delicious fruits, their golden\napples, and their protecting dragon. The third conception of paradise,\nas the abode of the blessed, is also met with in Greek mythology in the\nElysian fields, or islands of the blessed, also placed by some\nauthorities in the neighbourhood of Mount Atlas. Here the souls of the\nvirtuous enjoyed perfect happiness, in bowers for ever green, and\namongst meadows watered by pleasant streams and bestarred with asphodel.\nThe air was pure and serene, the birds warbled in the groves, and the\ninhabitants carried on such avocations as they had delighted in when on\nearth. Later writers, however, substituted for these innocent pleasures\nthe voluptuous indulgences of the Mahometan paradise.\n\nIt was, no doubt, the ancient tradition of an elevated paradise, of a\nparadise seated on the summit of a heaven-touching world-mountain, which\ninfluenced Milton in his celebrated description, for there is nothing in\nthe Biblical account to suggest the excessive altitude that he so\ndeliberately accentuates. Paradise, according to the poet\u2014\n\n          crowns with her enclosure green,\n  As with a rural mound, the champain head\n  Of a steep wilderness, ...\n              and overhead up-grew\n  Insuperable height of loftiest shade,\n  Cedar, and pine, and fir, and branching palm;\n              ... Yet higher than their tops\n  The verdurous wall of paradise up-sprung.\n  * * * * *\n  And higher than that wall a circling row\n  Of goodliest trees, loaden with fairest fruit.[314]\n\nAs man\u2019s conceptions of God have widened with a more extended knowledge\nof His universe and a fuller realisation of his own history on the\nearth, these older conceptions of paradise as the home of deity and the\nabode of the blessed have decayed, until at the present day, however\nmuch our theologians may differ in their descriptions of heaven, they\nagree at least in this, that whatever it is, it is not a garden. But the\nbelief in the existence of an earthly paradise, which formed a part of\nthe traditions of so many ancient nations, lingered on for centuries\nafter \u201cthe Holy City\u201d of the New Testament had displaced the Paradise of\nthe Old.\n\nThe features of this earthly paradise are for the most part similar to\nthose familiar to us in the Biblical description. It contained the\nfountain of immortality, from which sprang the four rivers that flowed\nto the four quarters of the earth. Purling brooks ran with the far-famed\nambrosia. The dwellers therein reposed on flowery lawns, lulled by the\nmelodious warblings of birds and feasting on delicious fruits. Whatever\nthere was of beautiful or sublime in nature there found its more perfect\ncounterpart. Absolute contentment and serenity and the delight that\nnever dies were the boons it offered. There man could cease from toil,\nfor nature, unassisted, produced all that was necessary for his\nsustenance. This garden of delight was often sought after but seldom\nfound, except by semi-divine heroes divinely led. Hercules, directed by\nNereus, the sea-god, succeeded in attaining the gardens of the\nHesperides on the world-supporting Mount Atlas, the Pillar of Heaven, as\nHerodotus calls it. He conquered the protecting dragon and secured the\ngolden sun-fruit from the central tree.[315] The Chaldaean Hercules,\nGilgames, referred to in a previous chapter, found a similar tree with\nmagic fruit upon it when he reached the gates of ocean.\n\nThis idea of an actual paradise upon earth has fascinated the mind of\nman in all ages, and has been one of his most cherished and persistent\ntraditions. It was an idea that no doubt arose out of and corresponded\nto his lifelong craving for a perfect peace and happiness which he never\nfound in the world he knew, and which he has at length realised to be\nincompatible with his own organisation. It has taken him centuries to\ndiscover that if there is no earthly paradise it is he himself and not\nthe world that is at fault. But the tradition was slow to die, and there\nare probably people who still believe, as Sir John Maundeville believed\nin the fourteenth century, that the Garden of Eden exists somewhere upon\nthe earth if it could only be found. This is what the famous traveller\nsays:\u2014\n\n\u201cAnd beyond the land, and isles, and deserts of Prester John\u2019s lordship,\nin going straight towards the East, men find nothing but mountains and\ngreat rocks; and there is the dark region, where no man may see, neither\nby day nor night, as they of the country say. And that desert, and that\nplace of darkness, lasts from this coast unto Terrestrial Paradise,\nwhere Adam, our first father, and Eve were put, who dwelt there but a\nlittle while, and that is towards the east, at the beginning of the\nearth.\n\n\u201cOf Paradise I cannot properly speak, for I was not there. It is far\nbeyond; and I repent not going there, but I was not worthy. But as I\nhave heard say of wise men beyond, I shall tell you with good-will.\nTerrestrial Paradise, as wise men say, is the highest place of the\nearth; and it is so high that it nearly touches the circle of the moon,\nthere as the moon makes her turn. For it is so high that the flood of\nNoah might not come to it, that would have covered all the earth of the\nworld all about, and above and beneath, except Paradise. And this\nParadise is enclosed all about with a wall, and men know not whereof it\nis; for the wall is covered all over with moss, as it seems; and it\nseems not that the wall is natural stone. And that wall stretches from\nthe south to the north; and it has but one entry, which is closed with\nburning fire, so that no man that is mortal dare enter. And in the\nhighest place of Paradise, exactly in the middle, is a well that casts\nout four streams, which run by divers lands, of which the first is\ncalled Pison or Ganges, that runs through India or Emlak, in which river\nare many precious stones, and much lignum alo\u00ebs, and much sand of gold.\nAnd the other river is called Nile or Gyson, which goes through\nEthiopia, and after through Egypt. And the other is called Tigris, which\nruns by Assyria and by Armenia the Great. And the other is called\nEuphrates, which runs through Media, Armenia, and Persia. And men there\nbeyond say that all the sweet waters of the world, above and beneath,\ntake their beginning from the well of Paradise; and out of that well all\nwaters come and go.\u201d[316]\n\nThe paradise in the existence of which the great traveller so firmly\nbelieved is represented in a thirteenth-century map as a circular island\nlying to the east of India, and the cartographer has not forgotten to\nintroduce even the gate from which our first parents were expelled.\n\nA fourteenth-century Icelandic saga describes a voyage undertaken by a\nprince and his chosen friend in search of the Deathless Land. They first\nwent to Constantinople to consult the Emperor, and were told that the\nearthly paradise was slightly to the south of India. Arrived in that\ncountry they continued the journey on horseback, and came at last to a\ndense forest, the gloom of which was so great through the interlacing of\nthe boughs that even by day the stars could be seen. Emerging from it\nthey saw, across a strait, a beautiful land, which was unmistakably\nparadise. The strait was crossed by a stone bridge guarded by a dragon.\nThe prince, in no ways deterred, walked deliberately sword in hand\nagainst the dragon, and the next moment, to his infinite surprise and\ndelight, he found himself in paradise. Here he encountered all the joys\nheart could desire, and exhausted with delight he fell asleep. In his\ndreams his guardian angel appeared to him and promised to lead him home,\nbut to come for him again and take him away for ever at the expiration\nof the tenth year.[317]\n\nMany other mediaeval stories could be quoted, in which the traveller\nclaims to have found paradise. It was a favourite subject with the court\nminstrels, proving that even the envied dwellers around a throne are not\nless open than other men to the fascinating dream of a still more\nperfect happiness.\n\nPlato\u2019s story of the lost Atlantis, supposed to have been related to\nSolon when in Egypt, also belongs to the class of paradise legends. It\nwas situated in the Atlantic, in the neighbourhood of the Pillars of\nHercules. Larger than Libya and Asia together, it was the seat of a\ngreat and wonderful empire, the subjects of which, after many conquests,\nset out to subdue Hellas, but were defeated by the Athenians. Shortly\nafterwards there arose violent earthquakes and floods, and in a single\nday and night the island disappeared beneath the sea. All this happened\n9000 years before the time of Plato.[318] According to other accounts,\nwhen the gods distributed the whole earth amongst themselves Atlantis\nfell to the lot of Poseidon, and the children he had by Cleito, a\nmortal, ruled over the surrounding country. The eldest, Atlas, gave his\nname to the island and to the Atlantic Ocean. This sacred land brought\nforth in abundance the most beautiful and delicious fruits, and\nmagnificent buildings were constructed from the minerals and fragrant\nwoods of the place, notably a holy temple dedicated to Poseidon and\nCleito, which was protected by an enclosure of gold. A wealth of\nfountains and hot and cold springs supplied luxurious baths. The\ngovernment was humane and just, and the people took their due share in\nit. So long as the divine nature lasted in them they were obedient to\nthe laws and well affected to the gods, their kinsmen, evincing\ngentleness and wisdom in the various chances of life and in their\nintercourse with each other, and setting more value on virtue than on\nwealth and luxury. But in the end, as the divine part in them died away,\nthey fell from virtue, and they and their island were submerged for ever\nbeneath the waves.\n\nThis legend, which would appear to combine with the idea of an earthly\nparadise another tradition equally familiar to antiquity, that of a\nretributory deluge, survived into the Middle Ages, and became blended\nwith the legends of the Celtic Church. For the Atlantic paradise is\ndistinctly reproduced in that legendary Isle of Avalon,[319] which St.\nBrandan, an Irish saint of the sixth century, was said to have found in\nthe course of a seven years\u2019 voyage; the isle\u2014\n\n  Where falls not hail or rain or any snow,\n  Nor ever wind blows loudly, but it lies\n  Deep-meadowed, happy, fair, with orchard lawns\n  And bowery hollows.\n\nColumbus, in his third voyage, came upon a spot, the site of which\ncorresponded with the description given of the earthly paradise by \u201choly\nand wise theologians.\u201d But he hesitated to _ascend_ thither and assure\nhimself of the correctness of his conclusion, as no one could succeed in\nsuch an undertaking without the divine permission.[320]\n\nThe Japanese have a legend of an Island of Eternal Youth, which exists\nbeyond the horizon in the shadowy unknown. Some fortunate observers have\nfrom time to time seen a wondrous tree rising high above the waves. It\nis the tree which has stood for all ages on the loftiest peak of Fusan,\nthe Mountain of Immortality. The island has the traditional\ncharacteristics of the earthly paradise,\u2014endless spring, airs ever\nsweet, unclouded skies, unfading flowers, birds that sing of love and\njoy, trees whose celestial dews carry with them the secret of eternity.\nSorrow, pain, and death are unknown, and the elect of the gods, who\npeople that delightful spot, fill their days with music and laughter and\nsong, knowing nothing of the flight of time. The miracle of the spring\nin other lands is due to the whisper of the spirit of the island.[321]\n\nThis Japanese legend preserves the intimate connection between paradise\nand the cosmic tree, which is often found to have dropped out of other\nversions of the tradition. There can be no doubt, however, that\noriginally the mystical tree was the essential feature of paradise, and\nthe garden was merely its precinct or setting\u2014one of the many\nconceptions which grew up around the central idea of the cosmic tree.\nEach nation, according to its stage of culture or its prevailing habit\nof thought, emphasised one feature of it. The monster tree which,\naccording to primitive cosmogony, was believed to support the universe\nby material branches, became in the minds of more cultivated races the\ncentral tree of a dimly-realised paradise, and eventually the symbol of\nan abstract idea. The intellectual Buddhist saw in it the emblem of\nknowledge; the Persian thought of it as the tree of immortality; the\nHebrew, filled with the idea of man\u2019s frailty and with the longing to\nexplain it, made it the tree of temptation.[322]\n\nBut in all these various conceptions we find a central idea, derived no\ndoubt from an antecedent and universal tree-worship, an idea which\nplaces a tree at the root of all philosophy, refers all phenomena to the\nexistence of a central tree, serviceable to man here or hereafter, and\nconcentrating upon itself the reverent devotion which had outgrown its\nearthly counterpart.\n\nThere are many facts to prove the importance attached in ancient times\nto this conception of a glorified tree. Amongst the gorgeous decorations\nof the palaces of Eastern kings a symbolical representation of the tree\nof paradise was frequently found.\n\n  Tall as the cedar of the mountain, here\n  Rose the gold branches, hung with emerald leaves,\n  Blossomed with pearls, and rich with ruby fruit.\n\nSir John Maundeville describes one which he saw in the palace of the\nChan of Cathay. \u201cIt is a vine made of fine gold, which spreads all about\nthe hall, and it has many clusters of grapes, some white, some green,\nsome yellow, some red, and some black, all of precious stones; the white\nare of crystal, beryl, and iris; the yellow of topazes; the red of\nrubies, grenaz, and alabraundines; the green of emeralds and perydoz and\nof chrysolites; and the black of onyx and garnets. And they are all so\nproperly made that it appears a real vine, bearing natural grapes.\u201d[323]\n\nAccording to an Arab writer, quoted by Gibbon,[324] there existed in the\nmagnificent palace of the Caliph of Bagdad, in 917 A.D., amongst other\nspectacles of rare and stupendous luxury, a tree of gold and silver,\nspreading into eighteen large branches, on which and on the lesser\nboughs sat a variety of birds made of the same precious metals. While\nthe machinery effected spontaneous motions the several birds warbled\ntheir natural harmony. The intention was, no doubt, to represent the\ntraditional luxuriance of paradise, and a similar motive is met with in\nEastern design even in the present day.\n\nThe tradition of a king who built a false paradise, like Sheddad in\nSouthey\u2019s _Thalaba_, seems always to have been current in Western Asia.\nThere is in the British Museum a sculpture from Koyunjik representing a\npalace, or may be a temple, constructed in imitation of a paradise. The\nartificial hill, representing the world-mountain on which it stands, is\nplanted with trees and flowers, and watered by a stream that issues from\na hanging garden.\n\n\n\n\n                              CHAPTER VIII\n                            MAY CELEBRATIONS\n\n\nIn these days, when so much is done to equalise the seasons, when in the\nflower-shops spring treads on the heels of autumn, and Christmas windows\nare gay with tropical fruits, when fresh meat is always on the stalls,\nand the earth is tapped of its light and warmth to make up for the\nabsent sun, it is difficult to realise the delight and enthusiasm with\nwhich our forefathers welcomed the yearly miracle of the spring. It\nmeant so much to them,\u2014release from the cold and the darkness that fell\nhardly on all but the rich; a feast of colour to eyes weary of winter\ngrays; luscious, varied, and plentiful food to palates dulled by salt\nmeat and pease-pudding. No wonder that the first hint of the sun\u2019s\nreturn at Christmas, and the fulfilment of the promise of spring at\nMay-day, were welcomed with an abandonment of joy to which our modern\nfestivals offer but a pale parallel. It is doubtful, however, whether,\neven in the far-off days when the ceremonies possessed the highest\nreligious sanction and significance, they were celebrated with a finer\nexuberance than in the comparatively recent times when this country was\nstill \u201cmerrie England.\u201d Fetching in the May or going a-Maying was then a\nmost important festival, in which people of all ranks took part. Henry\nVIII. himself rode a-Maying with Queen Katharine and his Court. Every\nvillage had its May-pole, and the first of May was everywhere \u201cthe\nmaddest, merriest day of all the glad New Year.\u201d The celebration was\nrecognised by the Roman Church, the note for the 30th of April in an old\nCalendar being, \u201cThe boys go out and seek May-trees.\u201d[325] Chaucer\nrepresents the whole Court as going into the fields \u201con May-day when the\nlark begins to rise\u201d\u2014\n\n  To fetch the floures fresh and branch and blome.\n  And namely hawthorne brought both page and grome,\n  With fresh\u00eb garlants party blew and white,\n  And than rejoysen in their great delight.[326]\n\nThe poet makes the whole Court pelt each other with flowers, \u201cthe\nprimerose, the violete and the gold,\u201d but the general custom was to\nbring home the branches and flowers as an adornment for the house. Even\nthe barns and the cow-byres were carefully decorated, long after the\nprimitive intention of the ceremony had been forgotten, and it had\ndegenerated into a licensed opportunity for revelry and love-making.\n\nThe two aspects of the celebration, the decorative and the amatory, are\ncharmingly illustrated in this lyric of Herrick\u2019s:\u2014\n\n  Come, my Corinna, come; and coming mark\n  How each field turns a street, each street a park,\n      Made green and trimmed with trees: see how\n      Devotion gives each house a bough\n      Or branch: each porch, each door ere this\n      An ark, a tabernacle is,\n  Made up of white-thorn neatly interwove,\n  As if here were those cooler shades of love.\n      Can such delights be in the street\n      And open fields and we not see\u2019t?\n      Come, we\u2019ll abroad; and let\u2019s obey\n      The proclamation made for May:\n  And sin no more, as we have done by staying;\n  But, my Corinna, come, let\u2019s go a-Maying.\n\nThe lover of old customs owes little to the Puritans, for they did their\nbest to root them out, but he is certainly indebted to them incidentally\nfor some valuable evidence as to those same customs, not otherwise\nattainable. Stubbs, a Puritan writer of the time of Elizabeth, thus\ndescribes the setting up of the Maypole in his time:\u2014\u201cBut their cheefest\njewell they bring from thence (the woods) in their Maie Poole, whiche\nthey bring home with greate veneration as thus: They have twentie or\nfourtie yoke of oxen, every oxe havyng a sweete nosegaie of flowers tyed\non the tippe of his hornes, and these oxen drawe home this Maie poole\n(this stinckyng idoll rather) which is covered all over with flowers and\nhearbes, bounde rounde aboute with stringes, from top to bottome, and\nsometimes painted with variable colours, with twoo or three hundred men,\nwomen, and children followyng it with greate devotion. And thus beyng\nreared up with handkercheifes and flagges streamyng on the toppe, they\nstrawe the grounde aboute, binde greene boughes about it, sett up\nsommer-haules, bowers, and arbours hard by it. And then fall they to\nbanquet and feast, to leape and daunce aboute it, as the Heathen people\ndid at the dedication of their idolles, whereof this is a perfect\npatterne, or rather the thyng itself.\u201d[327]\n\n\u201cWhat adoe make our yong men at the time of May?\u201d cries another Puritan\nwriter. \u201cDo they not use night-watchings to rob and steale young trees\nout of other men\u2019s grounde, and bring them home into their parishe, with\nminstrels playing before: and when they have set it up they will decke\nit with floures and garlands and daunce rounde (men and women togither,\nmoste unseemley and intolerable, as I have proved before) about the\ntree, like unto the children of Israell that daunced about the golden\ncalfe that they had set up.\u201d[328]\n\nThomas Hall, another author of the same class, was also moved to\neloquence on the subject: \u201cHad this rudeness been acted only in some\nignorant and obscure parts of the land I had been silent; but when I\nperceived that the complaints were general from all parts of the land,\nand that even in Cheapside itself the rude rabble had set up this ensign\nof profaneness, and had put the Lord Mayor to the trouble of seeing it\npulled down, I could not, out of my dearest respects and tender\ncompassion to the land of my nativity, and for the prevention of like\ndisorders (if possible) for the future, but put pen to paper, and\ndiscover the sinful use and vile profaneness that attend such\nmisrule.\u201d[329]\n\nAs every one knows, the Puritans had their will of the May-poles, and\nthe Long Parliament in April 1644 decreed their removal as \u201ca heathenish\nvanity, generally abused to superstition and wickednesse.\u201d They were\nindeed reinstated after the Restoration and the old festivities revived,\nbut the Puritan epoch had left its mark upon the spirit of the people,\nand May-day was never again quite what it had been, so that the\nfollowing lament by a writer of Cromwell\u2019s time was not quite out of\ndate even when King Charles had again come to his own:\u2014\n\n  Happy the age and harmlesse were the dayes\n  (For then true love and amity was found)\n  When every village did a May-pole raise,\n  And Whitsun-ales and May-games did abound,\n  And all the lusty yonkers in a rout\n  With merry lasses daunc\u2019d the rod about.\n  Then Friendship to their banquets bid the guests\n  And poor men far\u2019d the better for their feasts.\n  * * * * *\n  But since the Summer poles were overthrown,\n  And all good sports and merriments decayed,\n  How times and men are chang\u2019d so well is knowne,\n  It were but labour lost if more were said.\n\nIn England the once universal joy-making on the first of May has\ndwindled into a mere eleemosynary device, and every year takes away\nsomething even from this poor survival. We are only reminded of the day\nin London by here and there a peripatetic Jack-in-the-Green with his\nretinue of begging clowns, by the gay ribbons on a few draught horses,\nand by the newspaper reports of the election of Mr. Ruskin\u2019s May-queen\nat Whitelands College. But in many old-world towns and villages\nthroughout the country the children still carry round wands, with\nbunches of flowers tied to them, or garlands, consisting of a little\nbower fashioned out of two crossed hoops, hidden in flowers, with a doll\nseated in the centre. The obvious intention of this pretty custom is the\ncollection of coppers, which no one will grudge. It is, so to say, a\nreligious ceremony, whereof only the collection has survived, as the\nfollowing old rhyme sufficiently illustrates:\u2014\n\n  Gentlemen and ladies!\n  We wish you happy May;\n  We\u2019ve come to show our garlands,\n  Because it is May-day;\n  Come, kiss my face, and smell my mace,\n  And give the lord and lady something.[330]\n\nIn place of the final couplet it was sometimes the custom of one of the\nbearers to say, \u201cPlease to handsel the lord and lady\u2019s purse.\u201d\n\nThe practice once current in the North of England of going into the\nwoods on the first of May, \u201cwhen the day begins to break,\u201d and bringing\nhome \u201cknots of flowers and buds and garlands gay\u201d wherewith to adorn the\nwindows and doors of the houses at sunrise, is illustrated in the\nfollowing doggrel, which used to be sung in the streets of\nNewcastle-on-Tyne:[331]\u2014\n\n  Rise up, maidens, fie for shame!\n  For I\u2019ve been four long miles from hame;\n  I\u2019ve been gathering my garland gay,\n  Rise up, fair maids, and take in your May.\n\nIt now remains to trace back these ceremonies\u2014these survivals\u2014to their\norigin, and to show how once they were the essential outcome of a living\ncreed, and had a serious, and, so to speak, sacramental\nsignificance.[332] The May-day celebrations combined three different\nusages. _First_, the bringing in of the May and the decoration of the\nhomestead. _Secondly_, the planting of the May-pole and the dancing\naround it. _Thirdly_, the selection of some youth or maiden as King or\nQueen of the May.\n\n(1) The custom of going to the woods to fetch in the May is not by any\nmeans peculiar to England. It was until recently very general throughout\nEurope, and still survives in many districts, though sometimes\nWhitsuntide or Midsummer is the date chosen for the ceremony. This wide\ndistribution at once stamps it as an ancient observance, and indeed it\nwas already represented as such so long ago as the thirteenth\ncentury.[333] In some districts the branches that were brought in were\nfastened over the house door or upon the roof, or planted in front of\nthe cattle stalls, a separate bush being attached for each head of\ncattle. Here the acknowledged purpose was to make the cows good milkers.\n\u201cThey fancy,\u201d says a writer on the manners of the Irish, \u201cthat a green\nbough fastened on May-day against the house will produce plenty of milk\nthat summer.\u201d[334] In other districts the May-bushes were decorated with\nnosegays and ribbons and carried in solemn procession from house to\nhouse, the bearers singing a song and collecting their recompense in a\nbasket. In some parts of Sweden on May-day eve boys still go round at\nthe heels of the village fiddler, each with a bunch of freshly-gathered\nbirch-twigs, singing songs in which fine weather, good harvests, and\nother blessings are entreated. At every cottage where they are duly\ncompensated for their pains they adorn the door with one of their\nbirch-sprays. In Stockholm on St. John\u2019s eve miniature May-poles, known\nas Majst\u00e4nger, are sold by the thousand.[335] In Russia the custom of\ndecking the houses with branches at Whitsuntide is universal.[336]\nSimilar instances might be multiplied indefinitely.\n\nMuch light has been thrown on these May-day ceremonies by the study of\nmany cognate observances met with amongst different nations and at\ndifferent periods. In Western Germany and over the greater part of\nFrance it is customary at harvest-time to select a green sapling or\nbranch, adorn it with flowers, ribbons, and coloured paper, and hang it\nwith harvest fruits, eggs, cakes, and sweetmeats, and sometimes even\nwith sausages, rolls of tobacco, rings, needles, etc. Often bottles of\nwine or beer are also suspended to it. It is known as the May,\nharvest-May, _bouquet de la moisson_, and it is frequently set up in the\nfield which is in process of cutting. When the reaping is over it is\nbrought home on the last sheaf or on the last load, or is borne by a\nharvestman seated on the waggon or walking before it. On its arrival at\nthe homestead it is solemnly welcomed by the farmer, and attached to\nsome conspicuous spot on the barn or house. Here it remains for a year\nuntil replaced by its successor. Another feature of the ceremony, which\nis no doubt of the nature of a rain charm, consists in the drenching of\nthe May and its bearers with water, or in the sprinkling of them with\nwine. A variant of this observance is met with in other parts of Europe,\nwhere at some date after harvest the farmer causes a lofty pole, dressed\nwith ribbons and hung with handkerchiefs, articles of clothing, cakes,\nfruit, etc., to be erected in his field. The labourers then climb or\nrace for the prizes.[337]\n\nThere can be no question as to the antiquity of these customs.\nMannhardt, who has carefully studied the subject, finds a most\nremarkable similarity between the harvest festivals of ancient Greece\nand those of modern Europe. The _eiresione_ or harvest-bush of the\nGreeks, which is reproduced \u201cwith almost photographic exactness\u201d in the\nharvest-May above described,[338] was a branch of olive or laurel, bound\nwith red and white wool, and hung with ribbons, the finest\nharvest-fruits, cakes, and jars of honey, oil, and wine. It was carried\nin solemn procession with choral songs, at the Thargelia or feast of\nfirst-fruits in the late spring, and at the Pyanepsia or true\nharvest-festival in the early autumn, its destination at the former\nfestival being the temple of Athena Polias, at the latter that of\nApollo. It was planted before the door of the temple, the contents of\nthe jars attached to it were poured over it, and the following lines\nwere sung: \u201c_Eiresione_ brings figs and plump loaves, and honey in jars,\nand oil wherewith to anoint yourself, and cups of wine unwatered, that\nyou may drink yourself to sleep.\u201d[339] In addition to this official\nceremony each landowner who grew corn and fruit held his own festival,\nthe _eiresione_ in that case being suspended or fastened before his\nhouse-door, or placed inside the house beside the ancestral images.\nThere it remained for a twelve-month, until on the bringing home of the\nnext year\u2019s branch it was taken down and burnt. It was to this private\n_eiresione_ that the familiar passages in Aristophanes allude. Demos\nhearing a noise at his front door, jumps to the conclusion that a street\nbrawl is imminent: \u201cWho\u2019s making that hullaballoo?\u201d he cries; \u201caway from\nmy door. What, will ye tear down my _eiresione_?\u201d[340] His dread is that\nhis harvest-branch will be requisitioned as a weapon of offence, a\npossible application of it also alluded to by the poet in another\npassage.[341] Elsewhere it is jestingly said of a dried-up old woman,\nthat if a spark fell on her, she would burn up like an old\n_eiresione_,[342] a comparison which throws light on the mode of\ndisposing of the last year\u2019s branch.\n\nThe _Oschophoria_, or carrying in procession of the _oschos_, a\nvine-branch with the ripe grapes upon it, was another of the Athenian\nharvest festivals, and is interesting in the present connection from its\nbeing associated, like some modern harvest observances, with a racing\ncompetition.\n\nThese festivals, which were probably of prehistoric origin, were in\nclassical times sanctified for the popular mind by being linked with and\naccounted for by some legendary event which appealed to the patriotic\nsentiment. But in spite of this they would appear in course of time to\nhave undergone something of the same debasement as our own May\nobservances, and degenerated into a begging procession from door to\ndoor. At any rate the word _eiresione_, originally applied to the\nfestival hymn as well as to the branch, became in later times the\ngeneral name for all begging-songs. Initially, however, the _eiresione_\nwas, no doubt, a symbolical representation of the genius of vegetation,\nand as such was addressed as a person.[343]\n\nTraced to its remote origin, there can be little doubt that the ceremony\nof bringing in the May arose from a similar process of reasoning. The\ngods or spirits of those far-off times had their habitation, or at least\nmanifested their activity, in the tree. The gifts of rain and sunshine\nwere in their hands. They made the crops to grow, the herds to multiply,\nand women to give increase. According to Aeneas Sylvius, the Lithuanians\nbelieved that their sacred groves were the house of the god who gave\nthem rain and sunshine.[344] In Circassia the pear-tree is still\nregarded as the protector of cattle, and in the autumn is cut down,\ncarried home, and worshipped as a god.[345] In many countries trees are\nheld to have the power of helping women in childbirth.[346] It was\ntherefore no more unnatural for an ignorant peasantry to believe that\nthe same power and influence existed in the cut branches of trees than\nit is for a modern uncultured Catholic to expect help from sacred\nrelics. In each case the process of thought is the same. Eventually the\nceremony of carrying the branch round the village, the primitive purpose\nof which was to make each house a sharer in the benevolent offices of\nthe tree-spirit, degenerated into a meaningless observance, a pretext\nfor indulging in festivities and levying contributions. But there can be\nno doubt that the securing of fertility and abundance, together with the\nsupply of rain and sunshine necessary thereto, was originally the\nroot-idea of the worldwide spring observances.\n\n(2) The custom of setting up the May-pole on the village green had, no\ndoubt, a similar genesis. It represented for the community what the\nMay-day decoration of the house represented for the family. In parts of\nEurope the pole is sometimes planted in front of the Mayor\u2019s or\nBurgomaster\u2019s house.[347] The intention, evidently, was to bring to the\nvillage as a whole the newly-quickened generative spirit resident in the\nwoods. The custom of cutting down a tree, decorating it with garlands\nand ribbons, re-erecting it, and f\u00eating it with dance and song, has\nprevailed in almost every country in the world. In some instances it is\nfurther dressed as a mortal, or a human image is attached to it, as in\nthe Attis rites, testifying to the anthropomorphic conception of the\ntree-spirit. The doll placed in the centre of the children\u2019s May\ngarlands would seem to be a survival of this custom. The same feature of\nthe celebration is illustrated most clearly in the Greek festival of the\nlittle Daedala, which may be regarded as \u201ca classical equivalent of an\nEnglish May-day in the olden time.\u201d[348] The festival was inaugurated in\nan ancient oak-forest. Cooked meat was placed upon the ground and the\nmovements of the birds which came to feed upon it were carefully\nobserved. The tree upon which a bird was first observed to alight with\nthe meat in its bill was cut down, carved into the image of a woman, and\ndressed as a bride. It was then placed upon a cart and drawn in\nprocession with singing and dancing. It must be added that Mr. Farnell\nregards this festival as a survival from prehistoric times of the\nprocessional ceremony of the \u201csacred marriage\u201d between Zeus and Hera,\nwhich may possibly have been symbolical of the marriage of earth and\nheaven in spring.[349]\n\nIn the case of our own May-pole, it was originally, no doubt, the custom\nto erect a fresh tree every year, in order that the newly-awakened\nenergy of the forest might be communicated to the village, and in many\nparts this feature of the custom appears to have survived, as we may\ngather from the Puritan accounts above quoted. Elsewhere, as the\nintention of the ceremony was lost sight of, a permanent May-pole was\nsubstituted for the annual tree, and was converted on May-day, by means\nof garlands and flowers, into the semblance of a living growth. The\nMay-tree of the German village, for instance, is a permanent\nconstruction, made up of several tall trunks.[350] On May-day, cakes,\nsausages, eggs, and other desirable things are hung upon it, the\nvillagers dance around it, and the young men climb it to secured its\ngifts. In some parts the May-pole is surmounted by a cross, and the\nsymbol of a dead faith is consecrated by that of a living one.\n\nYet the old faith long left its traces in several quaint observances.\nAmongst the Wends of the Elbe the cattle were driven every year round\nthe village tree. The bride imported from another village must dance\naround it and pay it her footing. The wounded villager also gave it\nmoney and got himself healed by rubbing himself against it.[351] Such\nusages are only intelligible on the theory that the tree was once\nseriously believed to be the local habitation of a spirit, who\nconcentrated in himself the marvellous fruitfulness and healing\nbeneficence of nature.\n\nThe custom so often met with on the Continent[352] of attaching a young\nsapling or a branch to the roof of a house newly built, or in process of\nerection, is another survival, descended, no doubt, from the ancient\nbelief in the benign influence of the tree-inhabiting spirit. In some\nplaces it is usual to decorate the bough with flowers, ribbons, and\nstrings of eggs, which last are clearly intended to symbolise the\nlife-giving power assumed to be the spirit\u2019s special attribute.\n\n(3) But the conception which underlay and actuated the May celebrations\nis illustrated still more clearly by their third feature\u2014the choice of a\nyouth or maiden, or both, to personify the reawakened and rejoicing\nnature. A great deal of evidence on this subject has been collected by\nMannhardt and Frazer, which can only be briefly summarised here. In the\ncase of the begging processions with May-trees or May-boughs from door\nto door, it was once really believed that the good genius of growth was\npresent unseen in the bough. But often he was represented in addition by\na man dressed in green leaves and flowers, or by a girl similarly\nadorned, who being looked upon as an actual representative of the spirit\nof vegetation, was supposed to produce the same beneficial effects on\nthe fowls, the fruit-trees, and the crops as the presence of the deity\nhimself. \u201cThe names May, Father May, May Lady, Queen of the May, by\nwhich the anthropomorphic spirit of vegetation is often denoted, show\nthat the conception of the spirit of vegetation is blent with a\npersonification of the season at which his powers are most strikingly\nmanifested.\u201d[353]\n\nIn some cases the human representative of the tree-spirit goes hand in\nhand with his vegetable representative, the tree or branch. The former\nmay be merely a doll or puppet, as in the Lady of the May of our own May\ngarlands, or it may be a chosen youth or girl, who carries a miniature\nMay-tree, or is throned beside the May-pole, or dances around it, clad\nin leafy garments. Sometimes the chief actor in the ceremony is ducked\nin a pond or drenched with water, or, as is still the case in some parts\nof Ireland, carries a pail of water and a mop to distribute its\ncontents, with the idea of ensuring rain by a sort of sympathetic magic.\nIn other cases the tree disappears from the celebration, and the whole\nburden of representing its indwelling spirit falls upon its human\nsubstitute, who in such event is almost always swathed in leaves or\nflowers. The Green George of Carinthia[354] and our own\nJack-in-the-Green are instances of this custom. The pence collected no\ndoubt represent what was once a willing contribution for services\npresumably useful and worthy of reward.\n\nThe custom of electing a King or Queen of the May is very general\nthroughout Europe.[355] The original purpose was, no doubt, to personify\nthe regal character of the spirit who ruled the woods, but in other\ncases the representative is termed a Bridegroom or Bride, emphasising\nanother attribute of the deity. In England the crowning of the May-queen\nclosed the long day\u2019s ceremonies, and the young people who had been up\nbefore sunrise to bring in the May, and had danced all day upon the\nvillage green, ended their pleasant labours at sundown with this\ngraceful observance.\n\nIn some instances _two_ representatives of the spirit of vegetation were\nchosen, under the names of King and Queen, or Prince and Princess, or\nLord and Lady. The King and Queen are mentioned in an English document\nof the thirteenth century, and there is evidence to show that Robin Hood\nand Maid Marian were originally representatives of the vegetation\nspirit, for the former is spoken of in an old book of 1576 as King of\nthe May, while Marian or May-Marian, as she was sometimes called, was\ncertainly a Queen of May, and as such was represented wearing a golden\ncrown and carrying in her hand a red pink, the emblem of summer.[356]\n\nAt the time when we first encounter them in history these celebrations\nhad already lost their religious significance and passed into graceful\nobservances, the excuse for innocent mirth. But if we trace them back\ninto the gloom in which they arose we come upon evidence which seems to\nshow that they were not always so innocent. It is quite probable that in\nvery early times the human representative of the spirit of vegetation\nwas actually sacrificed, in order that the divine spirit incarnate in\nhim might be transferred in unabated vigour to his successor,[357] just\nas the old May-pole was destroyed and a new one set up in its place.\nHerein was typified the annual death and resurrection of the spirit of\nvegetation, a conception which has given rise to many celebrations, not\nalways free from bloodshed, in different parts of the world. The rites\nby which in Egypt and Western Asia the death and resurrection of Osiris,\nAdonis, Tammuz, Attis, and Dionysus were solemnised find their parallels\nnot only in the barbarous usages once current in Mexico, but also in\ncertain spring and summer celebrations of the peasants of Europe.\n\nThe Mexican god of the plant-world was Huitzilopochtli, and at the feast\nof Teteionan, mother of the gods, a woman clothed as the goddess was\nsacrificed, her head cut off, and her skin used to dress a youth, who\nwas then taken to the god\u2019s temple, accompanied by a large crowd of\nworshippers.[358] That is to say, the old embodiment of plant life was\nkilled, and its personality, typified by the skin, was given to a\nyouthful successor, who, doubtless, was sacrificed in his turn when it\nwas considered necessary for the health of the plant-world.\n\nIn some modern European spring observances the actual putting to death\nof the spirit of vegetation survives in symbol. \u201cIn Lower Bavaria, the\nWhitsuntide representative of the tree-spirit\u2014the Pfingstl, as he is\ncalled\u2014was clad from top to toe in leaves and flowers. On his head he\nwore a high pointed cap, the ends of which rested on his shoulders, only\ntwo holes being left for his eyes. The cap was covered with\nwater-flowers and surmounted with a nosegay of peonies. The sleeves of\nhis coat were also made of water-plants, and the rest of his body was\nenveloped in alder and hazel leaves. On each side of him marched a boy,\nholding up one of the Pfingstl\u2019s arms. These two boys carried drawn\nswords, and so did most of the others who formed the procession. They\nstopped at every house where they hoped to receive a present, and the\npeople in hiding soused the leaf-clad boy with water. All rejoiced when\nhe was well drenched. Finally he waded into the brook up to his middle,\nwhereupon one of the boys, standing on the bridge, pretended to cut off\nhis head.\u201d[359]\n\n\u201cAt Wurmlingen in Swabia a score of young fellows dress themselves on\nWhit-Monday in white shirts and white trousers with red scarves round\ntheir waists, and swords hanging from the scarves. They ride on\nhorseback into the wood, led by two trumpeters blowing their trumpets.\nIn the wood they cut down leafy oak branches, in which they envelope\nfrom head to foot him who was the last of their number to ride out of\nthe village. His legs, however, are encased separately, so that he may\nbe able to mount his horse again. Further, they give him a long\nartificial neck, with an artificial head and a false face on the top of\nit. Then a May-tree is cut, generally an aspen or beech about ten feet\nhigh; and being decked with coloured handkerchiefs and ribbons, it is\nentrusted to a special \u2018May-bearer.\u2019 The cavalcade then returns, with\nmusic and song, to the village. Amongst the personages who figure in the\nprocession are a Moorish king with a sooty face and crown on his head, a\nDr. Iron-Beard, a corporal, and an executioner. They halt on the village\ngreen, and each of the characters makes a speech in rhyme. The\nexecutioner announces that the leaf-clad man has been condemned to\ndeath, and cuts off his false head. Then the riders race to the\nMay-tree, which has been set up a little way off. The first man who\nsucceeds in wrenching it from the ground as he gallops past keeps it\nwith all its decorations. The ceremony is observed every second or third\nyear.\u201d[360]\n\nIn Saxony and Thuringia, at Whitsuntide, the Wild Man, a person\ndisguised in branches and moss, was chased through the woods. On being\novertaken he was shot at with blank cartridge and pretended to fall down\ndead. A mock doctor then bled him and he soon came to life again. The\nrejoicing people placed him in a waggon, and led him about in\nprocession, to receive gifts at the houses of the village.[361]\n\nThe common feature in all these apparently senseless observances is the\nsymbolical sacrifice of the human representative of the spirit of\nvegetation, and they drive us to the conclusion that there was a time\nwhen the victim was sacrificed in reality. In the same way the custom\nstill current in Belgium and French Flanders at the summer festival of\ndrawing in procession large wicker figures enclosing living men, recalls\nthe gigantic images of ozier-work, covered with leaves, in which the\nDruids confined the victims destined for their fiery sacrifices.[362]\n\n\n\n\n                               CHAPTER IX\n                         CHRISTMAS OBSERVANCES\n\n\nIn modern times, as the once joyful celebrations of May-day have waned\nthe festivities of Christmas-tide have undergone increase and\ndevelopment. The grosser features of the festival have, no doubt, been\neliminated; the mummers and the lord of misrule have for the most part\ngone the way of the May-king, but all the more graceful and orderly\nobservances of the time have strengthened their hold on the popular\nfavour. The decoration of the house is as usual to-day at Christmas as\nit once was at May-day, and the Christmas-tree has stepped into the\nplace which the May-tree once held in the affections of the young. Yet\nif we trace these Christmas observances back to their origin, we find\nthem as distinctively pagan in their ancestry as the festivities of\nMay-day.\n\nWe owe the survival of many pagan customs largely to the Roman Church,\nwhose settled policy it was to adapt the old festal rites to the\npurposes of the new faith, and to divert its rude converts from the\nriotous festivities of their unconverted friends by offering them the\nmore orderly rejoicings of a Christian holy day. Gregory the Great, when\nhe sent his missionaries to Britain, instructed them to Christianise the\nfestivals and temples of the heathen, \u201craising their stubborn minds\nupwards not by leaps, but step by step.\u201d And Dr. Tille, in his learned\nwork on the German Christmas,[363] has shown what pains were taken by\nthe priesthood to transfer to their own feast the rude rejoicings with\nwhich the unconverted Germans celebrated their great festival at the\nbeginning of winter. The same transference of pre-Christian usages\noccurred in Italy, where the Christmas festival, first definitely fixed\nat the time of the winter solstice by Bishop Liberius, A.D. 354,[364]\ninherited, as expressly stated by Polydore Virgil, several of the\nfeatures of the great Roman festival of the Saturnalia, held about the\nsame time. This festival was an occasion for universal mirth and\nfestivity. Friends visited and feasted each other, and there was a\ngeneral interchange of presents, the objects presented consisting\nusually of branches, wax tapers, and clay dolls. The stalls were laden\nwith gifts, like the Christmas shops of to-day. One of the days of the\nfestival, the _dies juvenalis_, was devoted to children. The solstitial\ncharacter of the festival is shown by the fact that another of its days\nwas dedicated by the Emperor Aurelian to the Persian sun-god, Mithra;\nand Varro states that the clay dolls, which were an important feature of\nthe celebration, represented the infant sacrifices once made to a\nPhoenician Baal who had been introduced to Rome under the name of Saturn\nor Cronos.[365]\n\nHowever this may be, it is clear that some observances familiar to us at\nChristmas\u2014the feasting, the present giving, and the now obsolete\nmumming\u2014have an origin which is lost in antiquity. Other customs, too,\nthough with a different _provenance_, have an equally venerable\nancestry. The use of mistletoe, for instance, is without doubt a direct\nlegacy from the Druids, who were wont at the time of the solstices\nsolemnly to place upon their altars the mysterious branch, into which it\nwas thought that the spirit of the tree retreated when the rest of the\nleaves had fallen. This practice, strangely enough, survived until\nwithin comparatively recent years in a ceremonial practised at York\nMinster and some other northern churches,[366] though as a rule the\nintroduction of the mistletoe into Christian edifices was strongly\nreprobated, on the score that it was a heathen emblem.\n\nThe practice of decorating the house at the New Year with holly and\nother evergreens was also a pagan observance. Dr. Chandler refers to it\nas a Druidic custom, the intention being to provide the sylvan spirits\nwith a shelter to which they might repair, \u201cand remain unnipped with\nfrost and cold winds, until a milder season had renewed the foliage of\ntheir darling abodes.\u201d[367] In early times the Church made a stand\nagainst this use of evergreens as being a pagan custom, but the\ninterdict was not persevered in, and later on we find the decoration of\nthe churches a recognised practice, the note for Christmas eve in the\nold Calendar being, _Templa exornantur_.[368]\n\nThe observance, however, which most concerns us here is that of the\nChristmas-tree, the evolution of which furnishes us with one of the most\ninteresting chapters in the history of religious development. To the\npresent generation the Christmas-tree appears such an essential feature\nof the festival, as celebrated in this country, that many will be\nsurprised to hear how recent an importation it is. But as a matter of\nfact, the Christmas-tree was practically unknown in England until it was\nintroduced by the late Prince Consort.[369] Even in Germany, the land of\nits origin, it was not universally established as an integral part of\nthe festival until the beginning of the present century,[370] and it was\nonly at that date that it came to be known as the \u201cWeihnachtsbaum\u201d and\n\u201cChristbaum.\u201d[371] Goethe in 1774 describes it as adorned with wax\ntapers, sweetmeats, and apples, but calls it simply the \u201cdecorated\ntree.\u201d[372] Schiller in 1789 finds no more distinctive name for it than\nthe \u201cgreen tree.\u201d[373] Since that time, or rather since 1830, its\ndiffusion throughout the world has been so marvellously rapid that there\nis nothing to compare with it in the whole history of popular customs.\n\nIn Germany the Christmas-tree can be traced back more or less in its\npresent form to the beginning of the seventeenth century, when an\nunnamed writer, in some extremely fragmentary notes, tells us that it\nwas the custom at Strasburg to set up fir-trees in the houses at\nChristmas, and to deck them with roses of coloured paper, apples,\netc.[374] The next mention of it occurs half a century later in the\nwritings of Professor Dannhauer, a celebrated theologian, also living in\nStrasburg.[375] \u201cAmongst the other absurdities,\u201d he writes, \u201cwith which\nmen are often more busied at Christmas than with the Word of God, there\nis also the Christmas or fir-tree, which they erect in their houses,\nhang it with dolls and sweetmeats, and then shake it and cause it to\nshed its flowers. I know not the origin of the custom, it is a child\u2019s\ngame.... Far better were it to lead the children to the spiritual cedar,\nChrist Jesus.\u201d The reprobation of the Strasburg preacher was echoed by\nother divines, and to this cause probably the Christmas-tree owed its\nslow diffusion throughout Germany. The theological dislike of it,\nhowever, as it turned out, was ill-advised, for eventually the\nChristmas-tree displaced other popular observances of a far less\ninnocent nature.\n\nSo far we have been treading historical ground, but in tracing the\nChristmas-tree still farther back we have only inference to go upon. The\nsubject, however, has been carefully worked out by Dr. Tille,[376] and\nthe pedigree which he traces for the tree is a most interesting one. His\nargument must here be condensed as closely as possible. The\nChristmas-tree, with its lights, its artificial flowers, and its apples\nand other fruit, is presumably connected with the legend of Christmas\nflowering trees, which was very familiar to the Middle Ages, and of\nwhich the English myth of the Glastonbury thorn is an example. The\norigin of the legend in Germany is thus explained by Dr. Tille:\u2014It is\nnot unusual when the season is mild to find trees blossoming in\nNovember, especially the cherry and the crab-tree. For the old German\npeasant the New Year began with the great slaughtering feast early in\nNovember, when the cattle were brought in from the pastures, and all the\nsuperfluous ones were butchered and feasted on; the winter was thus\ncounted to the New Year, like the eve to a holy day. Hence when trees\nblossomed late, a casual connection was inevitably traced between the\nstrange phenomenon and the New Year feast at which it took place. On the\nintroduction of Christianity the feasts of St. Martin, St. Andrew, and\nSt. Nicholas were substituted for the ancient festivals. The strange\nblossoming power of nature was connected with St. Andrew\u2019s Day, and\nfruit-boughs severed on that day were believed by the people to possess\nparticular virtue.[377] The Mediaeval Church, always eager to enlist\npopular superstitions in its own support, set itself to transfer to\nChristmas the blossoming tree of the November festival, and the legends\nwhich related how celebrated magicians like Albertus Magnus, Paracelsus,\nand Faustus had made for themselves a summer in the heart of winter were\nincorporated by the monks into the lives of certain saints.[378] The\nbelief in trees that blossomed and bore fruit at Christmas was widely\ndistributed and firmly held amongst the people in the later Middle Ages.\nIn the German literature of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries many\ninstances of the miraculous fact are circumstantially recorded.[379] A\nwriter in 1430 relates that \u201cnot far from Nuremburg there stood a\nwonderful tree. Every year, in the coldest season, on the night of\nChrist\u2019s birth this tree put forth blossoms and apples as thick as a\nman\u2019s thumb. This in the midst of deep snow and in the teeth of cold\nwinds.\u201d In a MS. letter of the Bishop of Bamberg, dated 1426, and\npreserved in the Hofbibliothek at Vienna, the actual blossoming of two\napple-trees at Christmas is mentioned as an acknowledged fact, and we\nfind a Protestant preacher giving full credence to the belief nearly a\ncouple of centuries later.\n\nBut the most striking instance of the hold which such legends had taken\non the popular mind is to be found in connection with our own miraculous\ntree, the Glastonbury Thorn\u2014\n\n                            The winter thorn\n  Which blossoms at Christmas, mindful of our Lord.\n\nThis tree, which was the object of such veneration in the later Middle\nAges that the merchants of Bristol are said to have found the export of\nits blossoms extremely remunerative, stood upon an eminence near the\ntown of Glastonbury. The legend ran that Joseph of Arimathea, who,\naccording to monkish teaching, was the first Christian missionary to\nthis country, one Christmas eve planted his staff in the ground. The\nstaff, which years previously had been cut from a hawthorn-tree, at once\ntook root and put forth leaves, and by the next day was in full blossom.\nThe miracle was repeated on every subsequent Christmas-day. Even after\nthe Reformation we find King James I. and his queen and other persons of\nquality giving large sums for cuttings from the tree, which were\nbelieved to have the same miraculous virtue as the parent thorn, and\neven in the following reign it was customary to carry a branch of the\ntree in procession and present it to the king. In the Civil War the\noriginal tree was destroyed, but some of its off-shoots survived, one\nespecially at Quainton in Buckinghamshire, which suddenly sprang into\nfame again when the new style was introduced into the Calendar in 1752,\nand the people, resenting the loss of their eleven days, appealed from\nthe decision of their rulers to the higher wisdom of the miraculous\ntree. According to the _Gentleman\u2019s Magazine_ for 1753, about two\nthousand people on the night of 24th December 1752 came with lanthorns\nand candles to view the thorn-tree, \u201cwhich was remembered (this year\nonly) to be a slip from the Glastonbury thorn.\u201d As the tree remained\nbare the people agreed that 25th December, N.S., could not be the true\nChristmas-day, and refused to celebrate it as such. Their excitement was\nintensified when on 5th January the tree was found to be in full bloom,\nand to pacify them the authorities were driven to decree that the old\nChristmas-day should be celebrated as well as the new. It may be added\nthat two thorn-trees still exist near the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey,\nwhich blossom during the winter, and are identified by Loudoun with a\nvariety of hawthorn, the _Crataegus oxyacantha praecox_, which is\nadmittedly a winter flowerer.[380]\n\nThere is, however, as Mannhardt points out,[381] another way in which a\nfruit-bearing tree became popularly associated with Christmas. The\nancient Church had devoted the day before Christmas-day to the memory of\nAdam and Eve, and it was customary at Christmas in many parts of the\nContinent to give a dramatic representation of the story of the Creation\nand Fall in connection with the drama of the Nativity. Hence arose the\nParadise-plays which were familiar to the Middle Ages from the\nthirteenth century onward. The well-known legend that the cross of\nChrist was fashioned from a tree which had sprung from a slip of the\nTree of Knowledge served as a link between the events celebrated so\nclosely together, the Fall and the Birth of the Redeemer, and gave\nadditional significance to the scenery of the Paradise-play, consisting,\nas it usually did, of trees, or sometimes of a single tree, laden with\napples and decked with ribbons. In some cases the tree was carried on to\nthe stage by one of the actors. In this way the apple-bearing tree\nbecame the recognised scenic symbol of Christmas, and naturally\nconnected itself with, if it did not spring out of, the very early\nlegend of the Church that all nature blossomed at the birth of Christ,\nwho Himself, according to the fanciful symbolism of the time, was the\nvery Tree of Life which had once stood in paradise.\n\nAnother popular custom, which dates back to the time when the belief in\nthe beneficent power of sylvan deities was general, is also probably\nentitled to a place in the pedigree of the Christmas-tree. It was\ncustomary amongst the ancient Germans on one of the sacred nights of the\nwinter festival, when, according to the popular belief, nature was\npermeated with new life, to cut wands from the hedges.[382] These were\nbrought home, put in water or planted in a pot of moist earth, and\nsolemnly placed, some in the open air, some in the stable, and some in\nthe house. A month later each wand would be in full bloom, and it was\nthen the custom to carry it round and lightly strike with it those to\nwhom one wished to impart health, strength, and fruitfulness. Those\nstruck with it rewarded the striker with presents, in recompense for the\nbenefit he was assumed to convey. This custom, which is probably of\nIndian origin, survived in some parts of the Continent as a child\u2019s game\neven in the present century. Under the influence of Christianity the day\nfor cutting the wands was delayed, so that they might bloom at\nChristmas, and in some parts it is still usual to arrange that there\nshall be a flowering branch in the house at that time. In Nordlingen, a\ncentury ago, families used to compete with each other as to which should\nbe able to show the most flourishing branch at Christmas-tide.[383] To\nthis day in Austrian Silesia the peasant women sally forth at midnight\non St. Andrew\u2019s eve to pluck a branch from an apricot-tree. It is put in\nwater and flowers about Christmas time, and is taken by them to Mass on\nChristmas-day.[384]\n\nAmongst people to whom the apple-bearing tree of the Paradise-play was\nfamiliar the substitution for the blooming branch of an evergreen decked\nwith fruits and ribbons and artificial flowers was quite natural. It\nbecame, as it were, a proxy for the deciduous branch, still remaining\nthe occasion for present-giving, though now the tree became the giver\ninstead of the receiver of gifts.\n\nThe custom of hanging lights upon the Christmas-tree is a comparatively\nlate innovation, the well-known print of \u201cChristmas in Luther\u2019s Home,\u201d\nwhere an illuminated fir-tree is represented as the centre of the\nfestivity, being demonstrably an anachronism. The Christmas-tree, when\nwe first definitely meet with it at the beginning of the seventeenth\ncentury, was certainly not illuminated. But the idea of a light-bearing\ntree was familiar to the Middle Ages. An old Icelandic legend relates\nthat once upon a time, at M\u00f6dhrufell, there stood a mountain-ash which\nhad sprung from the blood of two innocent persons who had been executed\nthere.[385] Every Christmas-eve the tree was seen to be covered with\nlights, which the strongest gale could not extinguish. These lights were\nits wonderful blossoms, for in folk-lore lights are often made to\nrepresent flowers and _vice-vers\u00e2_.[386] In the old French legend of\nPerceval, the hero is represented as coming upon a tree illuminated with\na thousand candles, and Durmals le Galois, another hero of mediaeval\nlegend, twice saw a magnificent tree covered with lights from top to\nbottom.[387]\n\nIt has already been mentioned that wax-tapers were given as presents at\nthe Roman Saturnalia, and it may well be that the connection of lighted\ncandles with Christmas time may date back to the ancient solstitial\ncelebrations, in which they were regarded as symbolical of the new birth\nof the sun. The same idea\u2014that of typifying the renewal of life by means\nof lighted tapers\u2014is found in the Netherlands in connection with the\nMay-tree, which there bears lights amongst its other decorations. At\nVenlo on the Maas the maidens light the tapers as the evening comes on\nand then dance around the lighted tree.[388] At L\u00fcneberg, at wedding\nfestivities, it is usual to carry a \u201cMay\u201d adorned with lights before the\nbridal pair, and in the Hartz Mountains the so-called \u201cSt. John\u2019s tree,\u201d\nround which the peasants dance, is a pyramid adorned with wreaths,\nflowers, and lights.\n\nIn all these customs, which are no doubt survivals of the belief in a\ntree-inhabiting deity, we see the collateral relations, if not the\ndirect progenitors of our Christmas-tree. In short, modern as it is in\nits present form, the Christmas-tree epitomises many most ancient ideas;\nis the point to which many streams converge whose source is hidden in a\nfar distant antiquity. It is the meeting-point of the old pagan belief\nin the virtues vested in the tree and of the quaint fancies of the\nMiddle Ages, which loved to see spiritual truths embodied in material\nforms. Christ, the Tree of Life, blossoming on Christmas-eve in Mary\u2019s\nbosom; the fatal tree of paradise whence sprang the cross, the\ninstrument of man\u2019s salvation,\u2014that \u201cfruit-bearing heavenly-nourished\ntree planted in the midst of redeemed man,\u201d so often represented in\nmediaeval art; the miracle of nature, so stirred by the wonder of the\nevent as to break forth into blossom in the midst of winter\u2014all these\nideas, so characteristic of mediaeval thought, became grafted together\nwith observances derived from solstitial worship, upon the stock of the\nsacred tree, laden with offerings and decked with fillets. Indeed the\nChristmas-tree may be said to recapitulate the whole story of\ntree-worship,\u2014the May-tree, the harvest-tree, the Greek _eiresione_, the\ntree as the symbol and embodiment of deity, and last but not least, the\nuniverse-tree, bearing the lights of heaven for its fruit and covering\nthe world with its branches.\n\n\n\n\n                               FOOTNOTES\n\n\n[1]Robertson Smith, _Religion of the Semites_ (Edin. 1889), p. 84.\n\n[2]Goblet d\u2019Alviella, _The Migration of Symbols_ (London, 1894), p. 119.\n\n[3]_Op. cit._ chap. iv.\n\n[4]J. Menant, _Les Pierres grav\u00e9es de la Haute-Asie_ (Paris, 1886), Part\n    II. p. 63.\n\n[5]_Les Origines de l\u2019Histoire_ (Paris, 1888), vol. i. p. 88.\n\n[6]A. H. Sayce, _Religion of the Ancient Babylonians_ (London, 1887),\n    Lect. IV.\n\n[7]Robertson Smith, _op. cit._ p. 169.\n\n[8]Cf. Ex. xxxiv. 13; Deut. vii. 5, xii. 3, xvi. 21; Judges iii. 7, vi.\n    25; 1 Kings xiv. 15; 2 Kings xvii. 16; cf. also Isaiah i. 29, lxv.\n    3, lxvi. 17.\n\n[9]Robertson Smith, _op. cit._ p. 172.\n\n[10]Eusebius, _Praepar. Evang._, lib. i. cap. 10.\n\n[11]Goblet d\u2019Alviella, _op. cit._ p. 125.\n\n[12]Ezek. xli. 18.\n\n[13]1 Kings vi. 29-35.\n\n[14]G. Maspero, _The Dawn of Civilisation_ (London, 1894), p. 122.\n\n[15]Slatin Pasha, _Fire and Sword in the Sudan_ (London, 1896), p. 114.\n\n[16]J. G. Frazer, _The Golden Bough_ (London, 1890), vol. i. p. 60.\n\n[17]Duff Macdonald, _Africana_ (London, 1882), vol. i. p. 60.\n\n[18]Frazer, _op. cit._ vol. i. p. 307.\n\n[19]A. H. Sayce, _op. cit._ p. 238.\n\n[20]_Encyclop. Brit._, 9th edition, vol. xviii. p. 850.\n\n[21]_Isis et Osiris_, 46.\n\n[22]Lajard, _Le Culte du cypr\u00e8s pyramidal_ (1845), p. 148.\n\n[23]Sir. W. Ouseley, _Travels_ (London, 1819), vol. iii. p. 83.\n\n[24]Herodotus, vii. 31.\n\n[25]R. Folkard, _Plant-lore, Legends, and Lyrics_ (London, 1892), p.\n    239.\n\n[26]M. D. Conway, _Demonology and Devil-lore_ (London, 1879), vol. i. p.\n    299.\n\n[27]Quintus Curtius, _De Gestis Alex._ viii. 33.\n\n[28]Folkard, _op. cit._ p. 4.\n\n[29]Goblet d\u2019Alviella, _op. cit._ p. 130.\n\n[30]Murray\u2019s _Handbook for Japan_ (London, 1884), p. 66.\n\n[31]E. B. Tylor, _Primitive Culture_ (London, 1871), vol. ii. pp. 196,\n    198.\n\n[32]Goblet d\u2019Alviella, _op. cit._ p. 131.\n\n[33]M\u00fcller, _Amerikanische Urreligionen_ (Basel, 1855), p. 494.\n\n[34]E. B. Tylor, _Anahuac_ (London, 1861), pp. 215, 265.\n\n[35]Carl B\u00f6tticher, _Der Baumkultus der Hellenen_ (Berlin, 1856).\n\n[36]L. R. Farnell, _The Cults of the Greek States_ (Oxford, 1896), vol.\n    i. p. 14.\n\n[37]Arthur Evans, in the anthropological section of the British\n    Association, _Times_, 23rd Sept. 1896.\n\n[38]Jacob Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_ (G\u00f6ttingen, 1844), vol. i. p. 60.\n\n[39]_Der Baumkultus der Germanen und ihrer Nachbarst\u00e4mme_ (Berlin,\n    1875); _Antike Wald- und Feldkulte_ (Berlin, 1877). These volumes\n    will be referred to as Mannhardt I. and II.\n\n[40]A. Castren, _Ethnologische Vorlesungen_ (St. Petersburg, 1857), p.\n    141.\n\n[41]Boecler, _Der Esthen abergl\u00e4ubische Gebr\u00e4uche_, etc. (St.\n    Petersburg, 1854), quoted in Fergusson\u2019s _Tree and Serpent Worship_.\n\n[42]Lucan, _Pharsalia_, iii. 405.\n\n[43]Jacob Grimm, _op. cit._ vol. i. p. 67.\n\n[44]Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ lib. xvi. 95.\n\n[45]Mannhardt I. p. 70.\n\n[46]Hall\u2019s _Chronicle_ (London, 1809), p. 580.\n\n[47]_Ibid._ pp. 515, 520.\n\n[48]B\u00f6tticher, _op. cit._ p. 534.\n\n[49]E. B. Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, vol. ii. p. 202.\n\n[50]_Op. cit._ Lecture III.\n\n[51]The Attis of Catullus (London, 1892), Excursus II.\n\n[52]Deuteronomy xxxiii. 16.\n\n[53]1 Esdras ii. 5.\n\n[54]Maspero, _op. cit._ p. 84, note 1.\n\n[55]Farnell, _op. cit._ vol. i. chap. iii.\n\n[56]_Ibid._ vol. i. p. 66.\n\n[57]_Ibid._ vol. ii. p. 429.\n\n[58]_Ibid._ vol. ii. p. 432.\n\n[59]Pausanias, 8, 23, 6.\n\n[60]Farnell, _op. cit._ vol. i. p. 185.\n\n[61]_Ibid._ vol. i. p. 212.\n\n[62]_Ibid._ vol. ii. p. 644.\n\n[63]_Ibid._ vol. i. p. 9.\n\n[64]Theocritus, _Idyll._ xviii. 48.\n\n[65]B\u00f6tticher, _op. cit._ pp. 103, 229.\n\n[66]_Ibid._ pp. 217, 220.\n\n[67]Farnell, _op. cit._ vol. i. p. 14.\n\n[68]Wisdom xiii. 11 (Revised Version).\n\n[69]Theocritus, _Epigram._ IV.\n\n[70]Maximus Tyrius, viii. 1.\n\n[71]Apuleius, _Florid._ i. 1.\n\n[72]Maspero, _op. cit._ p. 84, note 3, and p. 130.\n\n[73]Folkard, _op. cit._ p. 467.\n\n[74]De Gubernatis, _Mythologie des Plantes_, vol. ii. p. 26 _et seq._\n\n[75]Farnell, _op. cit._ vol. i. pp. 108-110.\n\n[76]B\u00f6tticher, _op. cit._ p. 345.\n\n[77]Clemens Alex., _Protrepticus_, cap. 1, sect. 10.\n\n[78]Folkard, _op. cit._ p. 407.\n\n[79]B\u00f6tticher, _op. cit._ p. 351.\n\n[80]_Ibid._ p. 445.\n\n[81]Theocritus, _Idyll._ vi. 7.\n\n[82]_Fortnightly Review_, February 1870.\n\n[83]Farnell, _op. cit._ vol. i. p. 292.\n\n[84]Euripides, _Troades_, 795.\n\n[85]Farnell, _op. cit._ vol. i. p. 325.\n\n[86]Pliny, xvi. 60; Servius ad Virgil. _Aen._ iv. 507.\n\n[87]Robertson Smith, _op. cit._ p. 175.\n\n[88]Tiele, _Religion de l\u2019Egypte_, etc. p. 83.\n\n[89]A. Cunningham, _The St\u00fbpa of Bharhut_ (London, 1879), p. 113.\n\n[90]A. Cunningham, _op. cit._ p. 114.\n\n[91]Folkard, _op. cit._ p. 245.\n\n[92]C. F. Keary, _The Vikings of Western Christendom_ (London, 1891),\n    pp. 36, 52, 53.\n\n[93]Frazer, _op. cit._ vol. i. p. 64.\n\n[94]J. Grimm, _op. cit._ vol. i. p. 369.\n\n[95]Robertson Smith, _op. cit._ p. 169.\n\n[96]Sir W. Ouseley, _Travels_, vol. i. p. 369.\n\n[97]Statius, _Theb._ ix. 585.\n\n[98]Apollon. Rhod. _Argonaut._ 2.\n\n[99]Cf. Ovid, _Metamorphoses_, viii. 743.\n\n[100]B\u00f6tticher, _op. cit._ p. 79.\n\n[101]Orelli, No. 1266.\n\n[102]B\u00f6tticher, _op. cit._ p. 88.\n\n[103]_Ibid._ chap. xxi.\n\n[104]_Ibid._ p. 385.\n\n[105]B\u00f6tticher, chap. xxv.\n\n[106]_Ibid._ p. 398.\n\n[107]Sayce, _op. cit._ pp. 536, 539.\n\n[108]Leviticus xxiii. 40.\n\n[109]2 Maccabees xiv. 4.\n\n[110]B\u00f6tticher, _op. cit._ pp. 321, 322.\n\n[111]Pausanias, vii. 2, 4.\n\n[112]Herodotus, vi. 75.\n\n[113]B\u00f6tticher, _op. cit._ p. 35.\n\n[114]Pausanias, ii. 13, 3.\n\n[115]Sayce, _op. cit._ p. 493.\n\n[116]Robertson Smith, _op. cit._ p. 125.\n\n[117]_Nineteenth Century_, October 1895, p. 607.\n\n[118]Isaiah xiii. 21; xxxiv. 14.\n\n[119]Leviticus xvii. 7.\n\n[120]Maspero, _op. cit._ pp. 83, 84.\n\n[121]Mannhardt II. chap. ii.\n\n[122]Mannhardt II. p. 139.\n\n[123]_Aeneid_, viii. 601.\n\n[124]Mannhardt II. p. 31.\n\n[125]Hymn. Homer. Aphrod. 259-273.\n\n[126]Plutarch, _De Defect. Orac._ 11.\n\n[127]Hymn. in Cererem. 41.\n\n[128]Apollonius Rhod., _Argonaut._ i. 471 _et seq._\n\n[129]Mannhardt II. p. 1.\n\n[130]Lucian, _Verae Historiae_, lib. 1.\n\n[131]W. R. S. Ralston, _Contemporary Review_, vol. xxxi. p. 521.\n\n[132]_Ibid._ vol. xxxi. p. 525.\n\n[133]Robertson Smith, _op. cit._ pp. 126, 213, 461.\n\n[134]_Aeneid_, iii. 27-34.\n\n[135]_Metamorphoses_, viii. 741, 774, translated by Henry King (London,\n    1871).\n\n[136]Mannhardt I. pp. 34 _et seq._\n\n[137]Folkard, _op. cit._ p. 79.\n\n[138]_Ibid._ p. 79.\n\n[139]_Ibid._ p. 79.\n\n[140]Folkard, _op. cit._ p. 79.\n\n[141]Folkard, _op. cit._ p. 83.\n\n[142]Mannhardt I. p. 146.\n\n[143]Mannhardt II. p. 39.\n\n[144]_Ibid._ I. p. 75.\n\n[145]Mannhardt I. p. 89.\n\n[146]_Ibid._ I. p. 93.\n\n[147]_Ibid._ I. p. 117.\n\n[148]Mannhardt I. pp. 126 _et seq._\n\n[149]Mannhardt I. pp. 138 _et seq._\n\n[150]F. Rinder, _Old-World Japan_ (London, 1895), p. 137.\n\n[151]Mannhardt I. p. 143.\n\n[152]H. W. Bates, _The Naturalist on the Amazon_ (London, 1863), vol. i.\n    p. 73.\n\n[153]_The Prose or Younger Edda_, translated by G. W. Dasent (Stockholm,\n    1842), p. 10.\n\n[154]Mannhardt I. p. 7.\n\n[155]Catlin, _Letters, etc., on North American Indians_, vol. ii. p.\n    169.\n\n[156]_Works and Days_, v. 143.\n\n[157]_Odyssey_, xix. 162.\n\n[158]_Aeneid_, viii. 315.\n\n[159]F. Galton, _Narrative of an Explorer_, etc. (London, 1853), p. 188.\n\n[160]Folkard, _op. cit._ p. 117.\n\n[161]Alex. v. Humboldt, _Examen Critique_, vol. i. p. 52.\n\n[162]Apollod. iii. 14, 3.\n\n[163]Goblet d\u2019Alviella, _op. cit._ p. 142.\n\n[164]Folkard, _op. cit._ p. 116.\n\n[165]Diodor. v. 66.\n\n[166]Pausanias, ix. 22, 2.\n\n[167]_Ibid._ vii. 4, 4; viii. 23, 4.\n\n[168]Servius ad Virgil. _Aeneid_, iii. 91.\n\n[169]B\u00f6tticher, _op. cit._ p. 338.\n\n[170]_Metamorphoses_, ii. 346-366, translated by Henry King (London,\n    1871).\n\n[171]_Metamorphoses_, viii. 711-724. The story is told by Lelex of\n    Troezene at a feast given to Theseus by Achelous, the river-god.\n\n[172]Bion, _Idyl._ i. 63.\n\n[173]_Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream_, Act ii. Sc. 2.\n\n[174]Folkard, _op. cit._ p. 268.\n\n[175]_Ibid._ p. 389.\n\n[176]Percy\u2019s _Reliques_.\n\n[177]_Old-World Japan_, p. 115.\n\n[178]Folkard, _op. cit._ p. 274.\n\n[179]Folkard, _op. cit._ p. 325.\n\n[180]_Old-World Japan_, p. 127.\n\n[181]_Op. cit._ vol. ii. p. 786.\n\n[182]Frazer, _op. cit._ vol. ii. p. 328.\n\n[183]_Selections from the Talmud_ (London, 1889), p. 318.\n\n[184]Moore\u2019s _Life of Lord Byron_, vol. i. p. 101.\n\n[185]Mannhardt I. p. 32.\n\n[186]_Ibid._ p. 53.\n\n[187]_Ibid._ p. 182.\n\n[188]Pliny, _Hist. Nat._ lib. xvi. 27.\n\n[189]Tacitus, _Annal._ xiii. 58.\n\n[190]Pliny, _op. cit._ lib. xv. 36.\n\n[191]The late General Gordon, in _Times_ for 5th January 1885.\n\n[192]Goblet d\u2019Alviella, _op. cit._ p. 142.\n\n[193]Farnell, _op. cit._ vol. ii. p. 695.\n\n[194]J. Menant, _op. cit._ vol. i. p. 220.\n\n[195]_Ibid._ vol. i. p. 170 _et seq._\n\n[196]Goblet d\u2019Alviella, _op. cit._ p. 145 _et seq._\n\n[197]Lajard, _op. cit._ Pl. i.\n\n[198]Frazer, _op. cit._ vol. i. p. 70.\n\n[199]Mannhardt I. p. 222.\n\n[200]_Ibid._ p. 46.\n\n[201]Virgil, _Georg._ ii. 291; Servius ad Virgil. _Aeneid_, iv. 446.\n\n[202]Robertson Smith, _op. cit._ p. 169.\n\n[203]Pausanias, x. 5, 3.\n\n[204]_Encyclop. Brit._, 9th edition, vol. xvii. p. 808.\n\n[205]Sayce, _op. cit._ p. 241.\n\n[206]_Ibid._ p. 240.\n\n[207]Robertson Smith, _op. cit._ p. 179.\n\n[208]2 Samuel v. 24.\n\n[209]Hosea iv. 12 (R. V.).\n\n[210]_Odyssey_, xiv. 327.\n\n[211]Scholiast on Sophocles, _Trachiniae_ 1169.\n\n[212]Herodotus, ii. 52, 57.\n\n[213]Clem. Alex., _Protrept._ ii. 11.\n\n[214]Silius Ital. vi. 691.\n\n[215]Pausanias, viii. 23, 4; i. 17, 5.\n\n[216]Philostrat. _Imag._ ii. 33.\n\n[217]Servius ad Virgil. _Aen._ iii. 466.\n\n[218]_Encyclop. Brit._, 9th edition, vol. xvii. p. 809. Cf. also\n    Farnell, _op. cit._ vol. i. p. 40.\n\n[219]_Metam._ vii. 622-654.\n\n[220]Apollod. i. 9, 16; Philostrat. _Imag._ ii. 15.\n\n[221]B\u00f6tticher, _op. cit._ p. 341.\n\n[222]Euripides, _Hecuba_, 456.\n\n[223]B\u00f6tticher, _op. cit._ p. 344.\n\n[224]B\u00f6tticher, _op. cit._ p. 344.\n\n[225]Moses Choren, _Hist. Armen._ i. 15, 19.\n\n[226]F. Lenormant, _La Divination chez les Chald\u00e9ens_ (Paris, 1875), p.\n    85.\n\n[227]Sir W. Ouseley, _Travels_, vol. i. p. 369.\n\n[228]The Sh\u00e1h N\u00e1meh, _Chandos Classics_, p. 336.\n\n[229]Ovid, _Fasti_, iii. 294.\n\n[230]_Ibid._ iv. 650; Virgil, _Aeneid_, vii. 81.\n\n[231]Cicero, _De Divinat._ ii. 40.\n\n[232]Dion. Halic. i. 14.\n\n[233]B\u00f6tticher, _op. cit._ chap. xi.\n\n[234]B\u00f6tticher, _op. cit._ p. 164.\n\n[235]Cicero, _De Divinat._ i. 45.\n\n[236]Dion. Halic. v. 16.\n\n[237]Robertson Smith, _op. cit._ p. 126.\n\n[238]B\u00f6tticher, _op. cit._ p. 113, note 22.\n\n[239]Herodotus, iv. 67.\n\n[240]Ammian. Marcell. L. 31.\n\n[241]Tacitus, _Germ._ x.\n\n[242]E. Davies, _Celtic Researches_, p. 812; _British Druids_, p. 43.\n\n[243]R. Smith, _op. cit._ p. 179, note 5.\n\n[244]The whole subject is very fully treated by B\u00f6tticher, _op. cit._\n    chap. xvi.\n\n[245]Mannhardt I. p. 303.\n\n[246]De Vallemont, _Physique occulte_ (1696), p. 10.\n\n[247]Folkard, _op. cit._ p. 113.\n\n[248]John O\u2019Neill, _The Night of the Gods_, vol. i. p. 53.\n\n[249]Frazer, _op. cit._ vol. ii. p. 367.\n\n[250]Folkard, _op. cit._ p. 114.\n\n[251]A. de Gubernatis, _op. cit._ vol. i. p. 99.\n\n[252]J. Brand, _Observations on the Popular Antiquities of Great\n    Britain_ (London, 1849), vol. i. p. 58.\n\n[253]W. Hone, _Year Book_ (1878), p. 588.\n\n[254]W. Henderson, _Folk-lore of the Northern Counties_, pp. 110, 111.\n\n[255]J. O. Halliwell, _Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales_ (1849), pp.\n    219, 220.\n\n[256]C. H. Poole, _Customs, Legends, and Superstitions of\n    Staffordshire_, p. 74.\n\n[257]Goblet d\u2019Alviella, _op. cit._ p. 169.\n\n[258]_Ibid._ p. 171.\n\n[259]Sir G. Grey, _Polynesian Mythology_ (London, 1855), p. 1.\n\n[260]A. H. Sayce, _op. cit._ p. 238.\n\n[261]A. H. Sayce, _op. cit._ p. 362.\n\n[262]Isaiah xiv. 13.\n\n[263]De Gubernatis, _op. cit._ vol. i. p. 45.\n\n[264]_The Prose or Younger Edda_, translated by G. W. Dasent, p. 16.\n\n[265]De Gubernatis, _op. cit._ vol. i. p. 80.\n\n[266]C. P. Tiele, _History of the Egyptian Religion_ (London, 1882), p.\n    46.\n\n[267]Lethaby, _Architecture, Mysticism, and Myth_ (London, 1892), p.\n    120.\n\n[268]_Ibid._ p. 111.\n\n[269]_Babylonian and Oriental Record_ (June 1888), pp. 149-159.\n\n[270]_Eleventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_ (Washington,\n    1894).\n\n[271]Revelation xxii. 2.\n\n[272]Lethaby, _op. cit._ p. 107.\n\n[273]_Ibid._ p. 102.\n\n[274]Herodotus, ii. 44.\n\n[275]De Gubernatis, _op. cit._ vol. i. p. 102.\n\n[276]Mannhardt I. 307.\n\n[277]Goblet d\u2019Alviella, _op. cit._ pp. 107, 113.\n\n[278]_Kalevala_, Second Rune.\n\n[279]W. F. Kirby, _The Hero of Esthonia_ (London, 1895), vol. i. p. 48.\n\n[280]B\u00f6tticher, _op. cit._ p. 516.\n\n[281]_Ibid._ p. 518.\n\n[282]Pliny, xxiv. 102.\n\n[283]Folkard, _op. cit._ p. 378.\n\n[284]Windischman, quoted by Herbert Spencer, _Principles of Sociology_,\n    vol. i. p. 375.\n\n[285]De Gubernatis, _op. cit._ vol. ii. p. 350.\n\n[286]De Gubernatis, _op. cit._ vol. ii. p. 351.\n\n[287]J. Muir, _Metrical Translations from Sanskrit writers_ (London,\n    1879), p. 168.\n\n[288]Folkard, _op. cit._ p. 548.\n\n[289]Athenaeus, 473 C.\n\n[290]_Bacchae_, 284.\n\n[291]_Bacchae_, 297.\n\n[292]W. Pater, _Greek Studies_ (London, 1895), p. 7.\n\n[293]_Principles of Sociology_, vol. i. p. 377.\n\n[294]De Gubernatis, _op. cit._ vol. i. p. 261.\n\n[295]De Gubernatis, vol. i. p. 262.\n\n[296]_Ibid._ p. 182.\n\n[297]Folkard, _op. cit._ p. 9.\n\n[298]G. Smith, _Chaldaean Account of Genesis_, pp. 88, 89.\n\n[299]J. Menant, _op. cit._ vol. i. fig. 121.\n\n[300]Sayce, _op. cit._ p. 240.\n\n[301]Homer, _Odyssey_, iv. 563; Hesiod, _Works and Days_, 166.\n\n[302]_Encyclop. Brit._, 9th edition, vol. viii. p. 536.\n\n[303]2 Esdras ii. 18.\n\n[304]_Ibid._ ii. 12.\n\n[305]Eisenmenger, _Entdecktes Judenthum_ (1700), Bd. II. p. 318.\n\n[306]Folkard, _op. cit._ p. 10.\n\n[307]A. H. Sayce, _op. cit._ p. 48.\n\n[308]Goblet d\u2019Alviella, _op. cit._ p. 171.\n\n[309]E. B. Tylor, _Early History of Mankind_ (London, 1878), p. 358.\n\n[310]W. F. Warren, _Paradise Found_ (London, 1885), p. 144.\n\n[311]J. Theodore Bent, _Nineteenth Century_ (October 1895), p. 607.\n\n[312]_Iliad_, xi. 76.\n\n[313]Sayce, _op. cit._ p. 360.\n\n[314]_Paradise Lost_, Book IV. 133-147.\n\n[315]Hesiod, _Theogn._ 215 _et seq._\n\n[316]_Early Travels in Palestine_ (London, Bohn, 1848), p. 276.\n\n[317]S. Baring-Gould, _Curious Myths of the Middle Ages_ (London, 1866),\n    p. 236.\n\n[318]Plato, _Timaeus_, iii.\n\n[319]W. F. Warren, _op. cit._ p. 12.\n\n[320]_Select Letters of Columbus_ (Hakluyt Society), p. 137.\n\n[321]_Old-World Japan_, p. 79.\n\n[322]Goblet d\u2019Alviella, _op. cit._ p. 176.\n\n[323]Lethaby, _op. cit._ p. 97.\n\n[324]_Decline and Fall_, chap. lii.\n\n[325]Brand\u2019s _Antiquities_, vol. i. p. 217.\n\n[326]Court of Love, vv. 1431-35.\n\n[327]_Anatomie of Abuses_ (1585), p. 94.\n\n[328]J. Northbrooke, _Treatise wherein Dicing, Dauncing, etc., are\n    Reproved_ (1577), p. 140.\n\n[329]Brand\u2019s _Antiquities_, vol. i. p. 244.\n\n[330]_Notes and Queries_, 3rd ser. vol. vii. p. 425.\n\n[331]Brand\u2019s _Antiquities_, vol. i. p. 219.\n\n[332]Mannhardt I. p. 315.\n\n[333]Mannhardt I. p. 160.\n\n[334]Camden, quoted in Brand\u2019s _Antiquities_, vol. i. p. 227.\n\n[335]Frazer, _op. cit._ vol. i. p. 78.\n\n[336]_Ibid._ p. 77.\n\n[337]Mannhardt II. p. 212.\n\n[338]_Ibid._ p. 214.\n\n[339]B\u00f6tticher, _op. cit._ p. 393.\n\n[340]_Knights_, v. 729.\n\n[341]_Wasps_, v. 398.\n\n[342]_Plutus_, v. 1054.\n\n[343]Mannhardt II. p. 257.\n\n[344]Aeneas Sylvius, _Opera_ (Bale, 1571), p. 418.\n\n[345]Frazer, _op. cit._ vol. i. p. 73.\n\n[346]_Ibid._ p. 74.\n\n[347]Mannhardt I. p. 167.\n\n[348]Frazer, _op. cit._ vol. i. p. 100.\n\n[349]Farnell, _op. cit._ vol. i. pp. 185, 189.\n\n[350]Mannhardt I. p. 169.\n\n[351]Mannhardt I. p. 174.\n\n[352]_Ibid._ p. 218.\n\n[353]Mannhardt I. p. 315.\n\n[354]_Ibid._ p. 313.\n\n[355]Mannhardt I. pp. 341 _et seq._\n\n[356]Brand\u2019s _Antiquities_, vol. i. pp. 253-261.\n\n[357]Frazer, _op. cit._ vol. i. p. 240.\n\n[358]Mannhardt I. p. 360.\n\n[359]Frazer, _op. cit._ vol. i. p. 241.\n\n[360]Frazer, _op. cit._ vol. i. p. 242.\n\n[361]_Ibid._ vol. i. p. 243.\n\n[362]Mannhardt I. p. 523.\n\n[363]Alexander Tille, _Die Geschichte der Deutschen Weihnacht_ (Leipzig,\n    1893).\n\n[364]_Ibid._ p. 2.\n\n[365]J. G. Frazer in _Encyclop. Brit._, 9th edition, vol. xxi. p. 321.\n\n[366]W. Stukeley, _Medallic History of Carausius_ (1757-59), vol. ii.\n    pp. 163, 164.\n\n[367]Brand\u2019s _Antiquities_, vol. i. p. 520.\n\n[368]_Ibid._ pp. 519, 521.\n\n[369]Mannhardt I. p. 240.\n\n[370]_Ibid._ p. 238.\n\n[371]Tille, _op. cit._ p. 264.\n\n[372]Goethe, _Die Leiden des jungen Werthers_ (Am 20 December).\n\n[373]Schiller und Lotte (Stuttgart, 1856), p. 574.\n\n[374]Tille, _op. cit._ p. 258.\n\n[375]_Ibid._ p. 259.\n\n[376]Tille, _op. cit._ chap. viii.\n\n[377]Tille, _op. cit._ p. 220.\n\n[378]_Ibid._ p. 221.\n\n[379]_Ibid._ p. 226.\n\n[380]Folkard, _op. cit._ pp. 352, 353.\n\n[381]Mannhardt I. p. 242.\n\n[382]Tille, _op. cit._ p. 244.\n\n[383]Tille, _op. cit._ p. 249.\n\n[384]_Ibid._ p. 250.\n\n[385]Mannhardt I. p. 241.\n\n[386]Mannhardt, _Germanische Mythen_ (Berlin, 1858), p. 470, note.\n\n[387]Tille, _op. cit._ p. 220.\n\n[388]Mannhardt I. p. 244.\n\n\n\n\n                                 INDEX\n\n\n                                   A\n  Acacia, the, 11, 39, 40, 45\n  Accadians, the, 2, 4, 6, 111, 133\n  Acis, metamorphosis of, 81\n  Adonis, 11, 75, 81, 159\n  Aesculapius, laurel sacred to, 37\n  Alexander the Great, and the flower-maidens, 60;\n      and the Persian tree-oracles, 99\n  Ama-ravati, Buddhist sculptures at, 14\n  Ambrosia, 126\n  America, tree-worship in, 16, 17\n  Amrita, 125\n  Aphrodite, 30, 32, 46, 81, 88;\n      apples sacred to, 37;\n      myrtle sacred to, 37\n  Apollo, 47, 76, 98, 99;\n      and Daphne, 77;\n      laurel sacred to, 36, 47, 50, 77\n  Apples, sacred to Aphrodite, 37;\n      of Hesperides, 119\n  Arabia, the _Jinni_ of, 24, 52, 54, 94;\n      tree-oracles in, 99, 102;\n      tree-worship in, 45\n  _Argo_, oracular beam of the, 98\n  Armenia, tree-oracles in, 99;\n      use of branches in, 49\n  Artemis, 49, 76;\n      a vegetation deity, 29, 88;\n      sacred tree of, 45, 49\n  _Ash\u00eara_, the, 8, 88, 96\n  Assyria, tree-worship in, 5, 6, 88\n  Astarte, 8, 30, 87;\n      the cypress sacred to, 40\n  Athena, 152;\n      the olive sacred to, 38\n  Athens, festivals at, 48, 151\n  Atlantis, the lost, 139\n  Atlas, Mount, 110, 119, 135, 136\n  Attis, a tree-god, 11, 75, 80, 81, 154, 159\n  Auxerre, sacred tree of, 20\n  Avalon, the isle of, 140\n\n                                   B\n  Babylonia, tree-worship in, 6;\n      mountain worship in, 112;\n      world-tree of, 111\n  Banian, the, 42, 64, 76\n  Basil, Holy, of India, 43\n  Baucis and Philemon, metamorphosis of, 79\n  Bavaria, Whitsuntide custom in, 159\n  Beech, the sacred, 46\n  Bharhut, Buddhist sculptures at, 15, 40, 42\n  Bo-tree, the, 40, 116\n  Bodhi-trees of the Buddhas, 40\n  Borneo, tree-worship in, 16\n  B\u00f6tticher, general conclusion of, regarding tree-worship, 21\n  Brahma, 14, 43, 115\n  Branches forced into flower at Christmas, 170;\n      religious use of, 13, 36, 37, 38, 47, 48, 91\n  Brittany, use of laurel branch in, 91\n  Buddhas, the Bodhi-trees of the, 40\n  Buddhism, tree-worship and, 14, 40, 110, 116, 142\n  Burma, tree worship in, 16;\n      tree-spirits of, 65\n\n                                   C\n  Canaan, tree-worship in, 3, 8, 88;\n      tree-oracles in, 95\n  Canute forbids tree-worship, 20\n  Carinthia, Green George of, 157\n  Cedar, the sacred, 7, 39, 40, 99, 95\n  Centaurs, the, 55, 56\n  Ceres, sacred grove of, 63\n  Chaldaea, cosmogony of, 113;\n      demons of, 53;\n      divination in, 105;\n      illustrious mounds of, 112;\n      oracles of, 95, 99;\n      tree-worship in, 4, 6;\n      world-tree of, 111\n  Charlemagne destroys the Irmens\u00fbl, 120\n  China, divination in, 105;\n      legends of, 83;\n      paradise legends of, 133;\n      tree-worship in, 15;\n      world-tree of, 118\n  Christmas observances, 162 _et seq._\n  Christmas-tree, introduction into England of, 165;\n      origin in Germany of, 165\n  Churches, decoration of, at Christmas, 164\n  Circassia, pear-tree worshipped in, 153\n  Clymene, the daughters of, 78\n  Clytia, metamorphosis of, 80\n  Columbus and the earthly paradise, 141\n  Cronos, 163;\n      a vegetation deity, 29\n  Cybele, 12, 30, 75, 81\n  Cyclops, the, 55, 56\n  Cypress, the sacred, 5, 13, 17, 39, 40, 51, 89, 131\n\n                                   D\n  Damaras, creation legend of the, 74\n  Daphne, 94;\n      metamorphosis of, 77\n  Daphnephoria, the, 47\n  Delphi, sacred laurel of, 36, 47, 50, 77, 98;\n      oracle of, 36, 50, 77, 94, 98, 102\n  Did\u00fb, the, emblem of Osiris, 34, 117\n  Dionysus, fruit-tree dressed as, 31, 33;\n      sacred tree of, 27;\n      a tree deity, 11, 12, 31, 32, 39, 48, 49, 57, 126, 159\n  Divination in Germany, 102;\n      by leaves, 107;\n      by roots, 106;\n      in Sarmatia, 102;\n      in Scythia, 102;\n      in Sweden, 105\n  Divining rod, the, 103 _et seq._\n  Dodona, oracular oak of, 28, 36, 93, 96, 98, 102\n  Druids, the, 20, 35, 103, 105, 161, 164\n  Dryads, the, 55, 58, 63\n  Dusares and the vine, 40\n\n                                   E\n  Ea, 7, 95, 111;\n      sacred cedar of, 40, 131\n  Eddas, the, account of man\u2019s origin in, 73;\n      description of Yggdrasil in, 112\n  Egypt, sacred sycamores of, 9, 25, 27, 44, 45;\n      tree-demons of, 55;\n      tree-worship in, 9, 10, 25, 45;\n      world-tree of, 110, 117\n  _Eiresione_, the, 48, 151, 173;\n      addressed as a person, 153\n  Elves, 24, 52, 63, 65\n  England, Christmas-tree in, 165;\n      May celebrations in, 144 _et seq._;\n      tree-worship in, 20\n  Esdras, paradise of, 131\n  Esthonia, tree-worship in, 19, 44;\n      world-tree of, 122\n\n                                   F\n  Fairies, the, 65\n  Fauns, the, 55, 58\n  Faunus, grove oracles of, 100\n  Fertility, the tree as genius of, 87, 153\n  _Ficus ruminalis_, the, 76, 86\n  Fig-tree, the, associated with the silvani, 58;\n      carved as Pan, 33;\n      spirit of, 58\n  Finland, tree-spirits of, 70;\n      tree-worship in, 19;\n      world-tree of, 120\n  Flower-maidens, the, 60\n  France, divination in, 105;\n      harvest custom in, 150;\n      tree-worship in, 19\n\n                                   G\n  Gautama, 14, 41, 43, 76, 116;\n      and the Indian shot, 82\n  Germany, autumn festival in, 163, 166, 170;\n      Christmas-tree in, 165;\n      divination in, 102, 105;\n      May customs in, 150, 155;\n      tree-demons of, 19, 66;\n      tree-worship in, 18\n  Gilgames, 119, 137\n  Gilgit, sacred cedar of, 90\n  Glastonbury thorn, the, 166, 168\n  God, the, and the tree, 24 _et seq._\n  Gods, food of the, 113, 114, 122\n  Greece, creation legends of, 74;\n      harvest customs of, 151;\n      paradise legends of, 131;\n      tree-worship in, 12, 17, 28, 46\n  Green ladies, the, 68\n\n                                   H\n  Hamadryads, the, 57, 58\n  Haoma, 13, 123, 130\n  Harvest May, the, 151, 173\n  H\u0101thor, a tree-goddess, 9, 10, 25\n  Helen, sacred tree of, 18, 31\n  Hera, 29, 32, 76, 155\n  Hermes, 79;\n      birth of, 76\n  Hesperides, trees of the, 101, 119, 136\n\n                                   I\n  Iceland, paradise legend of, 138\n  India, paradise legend of, 129;\n      soma ritual of, 124;\n      tree-worship in, 13, 14, 35, 40, 43, 64;\n      world-tree of, 115\n  Indra, the paradise of, 129;\n      and the soma, 125\n  Irmens\u00fbl, the, 120\n  Israelites, tree-worship amongst, 3, 8;\n      use of branches by, 48\n  Istar, 6, 8, 30, 88\n  Italy, modern belief in wood-spirits in, 58;\n      tree-oracles in, 100;\n      tree-worship in, 12, 17, 28, 37, 47\n\n                                   J\n  Jack-in-the-Green, 148, 157\n  Japan, legends of, 83, 84;\n      paradise legend of, 141;\n      tree-demons of, 70;\n      tree-worship in, 15;\n      world-tree of, 118\n  _Jinni_ of Arabia, the, 24, 52, 54, 94\n\n                                   L\n  Laurel, the sacred, 36, 47, 50, 59, 77, 91, 98\n  Life-rood, the (Lebensrute), 103, 127, 170\n  Life, the tree of, 15, 130, 131, 142, 170\n  Life-tree, the, 84, 101\n  Little Daedala, festival of the, 155\n  Ljeschi, 69\n\n                                   M\n  Mahometan paradise, the, 132, 134\n  Maid Marian, 158\n  Maundeville, Sir J., his account of paradise, 137;\n      his description of a tree of paradise, 143\n  May-bride, the, 158\n  May celebrations, 21, 145 _et seq._\n  \u201cMay,\u201d the, 149, 151, 153\n  May-pole, the, 146, 154, 155\n  May queen, the, 146, 156\n  Melcarth, the cypress sacred to, 40\n  Melus, metamorphosis of, 80\n  Metamorphosis into trees, 77 _et seq._\n  Metempsychosis into trees, 82 _et seq._\n  Mexico, human sacrifices in, 159;\n      tree-symbol found in, 16;\n      tree-worship in, 17\n  Milton, his description of paradise, 135\n  Mistletoe, 20, 164\n  Mithra, 13, 40, 163\n  Moss-women, the, 67\n  Myrtle, the sacred, 13, 29, 37, 39, 86\n  Mulberry-tree, the, 96\n\n                                   N\n  Nakhla, sacred acacia of, 45\n  Nantes, tree-worship condemned by Council of, 20\n  Narcissus, metamorphosis of, 81\n  Nejr\u00e2n, sacred palm of, 45, 99\n  New Zealand, cosmogonic legend of, 110\n  Nicaragua, tree-worship in, 17\n  Nu\u0314\u00eet, a tree-goddess, 10, 25, 27, 117;\n      goddess of the sky, 110, 117\n\n                                   O\n  Oak, the sacred, of Ceres, 63;\n      of the Druids, 20;\n      of Esthonia, 122;\n      of Finland, 19, 44, 121;\n      of Pan, 56;\n      of the Roman Capitol, 25;\n      at Romove, 44;\n      of Zeus, 28, 35, 37, 93, 96, 101, 155\n  Olive, the, sacred to Athena, 38;\n      venerated by the Semites, 39, 49\n  Olympus, 134\n  Omens, tree, 101\n  Oracle-lots, 102\n  Oracles, tree, 93 _et seq._\n  Origin-myths, 73\n  Oschophoria, the, 48, 152\n  Osiris, his emblem, the Did\u00fb or T\u00e2t, 34, 117;\n      a tree-god, 11, 40, 159\n\n                                   P\n  Palestine, tree-demons of, 54;\n      tree-worship in, 7, 8\n  Palm-tree, the, 5, 45, 49, 88, 99\n  Pan, a tree-god, 31, 33, 46, 56;\n      the pipe of, 81\n  Paradise, 128 _et seq._;\n      an artificial, 143;\n      the earthly, 136;\n      trees of, 131, 142, 170\n  Paradise-plays, mediaeval, 169, 171\n  Patagonia, tree-worship in, 17\n  Pear-tree, the, worshipped in Circassia, 153\n  Permians, trees worshipped by the, 19\n  Persia, creation legends of, 23, 130;\n      haoma ritual of, 123;\n      tree-oracle in, 99;\n      tree-worship in, 13, 123;\n      use of branches in, 49;\n      world-tree of, 115, 142\n  Peru, wood-ghost of, 71\n  Pfingstl, the, 159\n  Phyllis, metamorphosis of, 79\n  Pine, the sacred, 28, 31, 56, 58, 59, 80;\n      venerated by the Semites, 39\n  Pippala, the, associated with Brahma, 14;\n      with Gautama, 41\n  Plane-tree, the, of Armavira, 99;\n      its connection with Pelops, 86;\n      with Persian kings, 13\n  Poland, tree-worship in, 19\n  Pomegranate, the, 5, 30, 80\n  Poplar, the, sacred to Dis, 39;\n      Zeus born beneath, 76\n  Puritans, denunciation of May-poles by, 21, 146\n\n                                   R\n  Robin Hood, king of the May, 158\n  Rome, grove oracle in, 100;\n      tree-worship in, 17, 28, 47\n  Romove, sacred oak of, 44\n  Russia, tree-demons of, 19, 66, 69;\n      tree-worship in, 19;\n      Whitsuntide custom in, 150\n\n                                   S\n  St. Mark\u2019s, Venice, symbol of sacred tree in, 2, 5, 7\n  S\u00e2nchi, Buddhist sculptures at, 14, 42\n  Sanctuary, the tree as, 49\n  Sarmatia, divination in, 102\n  Saturnalia, the, 163, 172\n  Satyrs, the, 55, 56, 57\n  Scandinavia, world-tree of, 112\n  Scythia, divination in, 102\n  _Se\u012br\u012bm_, \u201cSatyrs\u201d of the Bible, 54\n  Semites, tree-oracles of the, 95;\n      tree-worship amongst the, 7, 39-87\n  Sia Indians, cosmogony of, 118\n  Siam, tree-worship in, 16\n  Sileni, the, 55, 56\n  Silvanus, 28, 57\n  Sioux, creation legend of, 74\n  Soma, 124, 126\n  Sudan, tree-worship in the, 10\n  Sumatra, tree-worship in, 16\n  Swabia, spring observances in, 160\n  Sweden, divination in, 105;\n      May observances in, 150;\n      tree-spirits of, 68\n  Switzerland, tree-demons of, 68\n  Sycamores, the sacred, of Egypt, 9, 25, 27, 44, 45, 118\n\n                                   T\n  Taara, a tree-god, 44\n  Talmud, the, paradise of, 132;\n      life-tree mentioned in, 85\n  Tammuz, 6, 11, 12, 111, 159\n  Tapio, 70\n  T\u00e2t-pillar, the, 34, 117\n  Tengus of Japan, the, 70\n  Travancore, sacred tree in, 14\n  Tree, the, births beneath, 76;\n      Chaldaean symbol of the sacred, 2, 5, 30, 88;\n      dressed or carved as anthropomorphic god, 27, 31, 32, 35, 103;\n      of the community, 86, 154;\n      of the family, 86, 101;\n      of life, 15, 130, 131, 142, 170;\n      lights on, 91, 171;\n      offerings to, 30, 45, 46;\n      of paradise, 131, 169;\n      in relation to human life, 72;\n      as symbol of fertility, 88;\n      of universe, 109 _et seq._, 173\n  Tree-deities, 9, 16, 24 _et seq._\n  Tree-demons, 16, 24, 52, 55 _et seq._\n  Tree-nymphs, 55, 56, 58, 59, 61, 62\n  Tree-oracles, 93 _et seq._\n  Tree-origins, 73 _et seq._\n  Tree-omens, 101\n  Tree-sanctuaries, 49\n  Tree-soul, the generalised, 90;\n      primitive conception of, 1\n  Tree-worship, in Africa, 11;\n      in America, 16, 17;\n      in Arabia, 45;\n      in Assyria, 6;\n      in Borneo, 16;\n      in Burma, 16;\n      in Canaan, 3, 8;\n      in Chaldaea, 4, 6, 111;\n      in China, 15;\n      in Egypt, 9, 10, 25, 45;\n      in England, 20;\n      in Esthonia, 19;\n      in France, 19;\n      in Finland, 19;\n      in Germany, 18;\n      in Greece, 17, 28, 46;\n      in India, 13, 14, 35, 40, 43, 64, 124;\n      in Japan, 15;\n      in Mexico, 17;\n      in Nicaragua, 17;\n      in Palestine, 3, 7, 8;\n      in Patagonia, 17;\n      in Persia, 13, 123;\n      in Phoenicia, 8, 12;\n      in Phrygia, 12;\n      in Poland, 19;\n      in Rome, 17, 46;\n      in Russia, 19;\n      in the Semitic area, 7, 39, 87;\n      in Siam, 16;\n      in the Sudan, 11;\n      in Sumatra, 16;\n      origin of, 22\n  Trees, Christmas flowering, 116;\n      legends of bleeding, 62, 63;\n      legends of speaking, 101\n  Tristram and Iseult, legend of, 82\n  Trophonius, oracle of, 94\n  Tylor, Mr. E. B., on tree-worship, 21\n  Tyrol, wild women of, 67\n\n                                   U\n  Upsala, sacred grove of, 43\n\n                                   V\n  Vine-women of Lucian, the, 60\n  Vine, the, sacred to Dionysus, 39;\n      to Dusares, 40;\n      venerated by the Semites, 39\n  Vishnu, 43, 76\n\n                                   W\n  \u201cWege-warte,\u201d legend of the, 83\n  Wends, the, and the May-pole, 156\n  Wild-fanggen, the, 67\n  Wild men of the woods, 21, 52, 56, 66, 68, 71, 161\n  Willow, the, connected with Artemis, 29;\n      with Hera, 29, 76;\n      inhabited by tree-spirit, 62\n  Woden, 43\n  Wood-maidens, 67\n  World-mountain, the, 110, 112, 118, 134\n  World-tree, the, 109 _et seq._;\n      of Buddhists, 116;\n      of Chaldaea, 111;\n      of Egypt, 110, 117;\n      of Esthonia, 122;\n      of Finland, 120;\n      of India, 115;\n      of Persia, 115;\n      of Scandinavia, 112\n\n                                   Y\n  Yggdrasil, 112 _et seq._\n\n                                   Z\n  Zeus, a tree-god, 18, 28, 29, 35, 46, 155;\n      oracle of, at Dodona, 93, 96\n  Zeus-Ammon, oracle of, 96\n\n\n                                THE END\n\n\n           _Printed by_ R. & R. Clark, Limited, _Edinburgh_.\n\n\n\n\n                          Transcriber\u2019s Notes\n\n\n--Silently corrected a few palpable typos.\n\n--In the text versions only, delimited italicized text in _underscores_.\n\n--In the Latin-1 text version only, the unusual character \u201clatin u with\n  dasia\u201d is represented by \u201cu'\u201d.\n\n--In the Latin-1 text version only, transliterated Greek words are\n  delimited by {brackets}.","title":"The Sacred Tree; or, the tree in religion and myth","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":51468}