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[Illustration: ][Illustration: Sacred tree with its supporters, from St Marks, Venice.]

THE SACRED TREEORTHE TREE IN RELIGION AND MYTHBYMRS. J. H. PHILPOT[Illustration: ]_London_MACMILLAN AND CO., LimitedNEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY1897_All rights reserved_

PREFACEThe reader is requested to bear in mind that this volume lays no claimto scholarship, independent research, or originality of view. Its aimhas been to select and collate, from sources not always easilyaccessible to the general reader, certain facts and conclusions bearingupon a subject of acknowledged interest. In so dealing with one of themany modes of primitive religion, it is perhaps inevitable that thewriter should seem to exaggerate its importance, and in isolating agiven series of data to undervalue the significance of the parallelfacts from which they are severed. It is undeniable that the worship ofthe spirit-inhabited tree has usually, if not always, been linked with,and in many cases overshadowed by other cults; that sun, moon, andstars, sacred springs and stones, holy mountains, and animals of themost diverse kind, have all been approached with singular impartialityby primitive man, as enshrining or symbolising a divine principle. Butno other form of pagan ritual has been so widely distributed, has leftbehind it such persistent traces, or appeals so closely to modernsympathies as the worship of the tree; of none is the study bettercalculated to throw light on the dark ways of primitive thought, or toarouse general interest in a branch of research which is as vigorous andfruitful as it is new. For these reasons, in spite of obviousdisadvantages, its separate treatment has seemed to the writer to becompletely justifiable.

CONTENTSCHAPTER ITREE-WORSHIPITS DISTRIBUTION AND ORIGINPrimitive conception of the tree-spiritIllustrations of the evidencefor tree-worship: from archaeology, from folk-lore, fromliterature, from contemporary anthropologyEarliest record oftree-worship, the cylinders of ChaldaeaThe symbol of the sacredtree; its developmentMeaning of the symbolTree-worship amongstthe SemitesCanaanitish tree-worshipThe _ashra_The decorationof the Temple at JerusalemTree-worship in ancient EgyptThesacred sycamoresSurvival of the worship in the Soudan and inAfrica generallyOsiris, originally a tree-god; compared withother vegetation spiritsTammuz, Adonis, Attis, DionysusThesacred trees of the PersiansTree-worship still existent in India;evidence of its ancient prevalenceIts incorporation inBuddhismOther instances of tree-worship in the EastThe evidencefrom America.Greek and Roman tree-worshipThe German religion of thegrovePersistence of the belief in tree-spirits in Russia, Poland,and FinlandSacred trees in mediaeval FranceThe rites of theDruidsEvidence of tree-worship in Saxon England; its survival inMay-day customsGeneral conclusions as to the ancient prevalenceof tree-worshipIts origin; views of Robertson Smith, HerbertSpencer, and Grant AllenPage 1

CHAPTER IITHE GOD AND THE TREETree-spirits divisible into tree-gods and tree-demonsThe gods ofantiquity subject to physical limitations, and approachable onlythrough their material embodiment or symbolThis embodimentfrequently a treeThe sycamores of Egypt believed to be inhabitedby deitiesDevelopments of this conceptionIn Greece the tree oneof the earliest symbols of the godThe chief Greek gods in theirorigin deities of vegetationThe ritual of the treeThe treedressed or carved to represent an anthropomorphic godLatesurvival of this custom amongst the classical nationsItsprevalence in other countries.The gods own treeZeus and the oakApollo and the laurelAphroditeand the myrtleAthena and the oliveThe association of aparticular god with a particular tree not known amongst theSemitesThe bodhi-trees or trees of wisdom of the BuddhasThesculptures of BharhutBrahma and the golden lotusThe holy basilof IndiaThe grove of Upsala, the home of WodenTaara and theoakThe great oak at Romove.Gifts to the tree: in Arabia, in Egypt, in GreeceDedication of arms,trophies, etc.The use of branches and wreaths in religious ceremoniesThe processionof the sacred bough in Greek festivalsThe ceremonial use ofbranches common throughout the East.The tree as sanctuary and asylum

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CHAPTER IIIWOOD-DEMONS AND TREE-SPIRITSGeneral characteristics of the tree-demonThe fabulous monsters ofChaldaeaThe _jinni_ of ArabiaThe hairy monsters of the BibleThetree-demons of EgyptThe woodland creatures of GreeceCentaurs andCyclopsPan, satyrs, and sileniThe fauns and silvani ofItalyFemale woodland spiritsThe hamadryadsAlexander and theflower-maidensThe vine-women of LucianCorresponding instances inmodern folk-loreThe soul of the nymph actually held to inhabitthe treeThe belief that blood would flow when the tree wasinjuredExamples from Virgil, Ovid, and from modernfolk-loreIndian belief in wood-spirits.The wood-spirits of Central and North EuropeTheir generalcharacteristicsThe moss-womenThe wild women of TyrolThewood-spirits of the GrisonsThe white and green ladiesThe Swedishtree-spiritThe Russian LjeschiThe Finnish TapioThe Tengus ofJapanWood-demons of Peru and Brazil52CHAPTER IVTHE TREE IN ITS RELATION TO HUMAN LIFEThe tree represented as the progenitor of the human race; as relatedin the Eddas; in Iranian mythology; amongst the Sioux IndiansTheclassical viewHuman beings represented as the fruit of a

treeIndividual births from a treeMythical births beneath a tree;Zeus; Hermes; Hera; Apollo and Artemis; Romulus and Remus.MetamorphosesApollo and DaphneMeaning of the legendThe daughters ofClymeneBaucis and PhilemonOther instances of metamorphosisThegrowth of flowers from the blood of the dead, or from the tearsshed over themTransmigration of souls into treesTristram andIseultSweet William and Fair MargaretOther instances.The conception of the tree as sympathetically interwoven with humanlifeThe family treeThe community treeThe fig-tree in the RomanComitiumThe patrician and plebeian myrtle-trees.The tree as the symbol of reproductive energyThe Semiticmother-goddessInterpretation of the Chaldaean sacred tree as thesymbol of fertilityThe tree-inhabiting spirit of vegetation asthe patron of fertilityObservances connected therewith72CHAPTER VTHE TREE AS ORACLEThe oracular power a corollary to the belief in the tree-inhabitinggodConnection of the tree-oracle with the earth-oracleTheoracles of the ChaldaeansCanaanite tree-oraclesThe tree of thesoothsayersThe oracular oak of Zeus at DodonaThe oracle of ZeusAmmonThe prophetic laurel of DelphiOracular trees in Armenia, inArabiaAlexander the Great and the Persian tree-oraclesTheprophetic ilex grove at RomeOther Italian tree-oracles: at Tibur;at PrenesteTree-omensLegends of speaking treesOracle-lotsTheorigin of the divining-rodCut rods believed to retain some of thedivine power resident in the treeThe life-roodThe divining-rod asurvival of the tree-oracleIts modern useDivination by roots andleaves93CHAPTER VITHE UNIVERSE-TREEWide distribution of the conceptionIts plausibility to the primitivemind; especially to the inhabitants of level countriesEarliestversion of the world-tree found in an Accadian hymn of greatantiquityProbably a poetical amplification of the sacredspirit-inhabited treeThe world-tree and the world-mountainThetwo conceptions combined in the Norse Yggdrasil, as described inthe EddasIndian and Persian versions of the world-treeBuddhistdevelopment of the ideaThe cosmogony of the PhoeniciansEgyptianvariants; the Tt-pillar; the golden gem-bearing tree of theskyTraces of the world-tree in Chinese and Japanese mythologyAsimilar tradition amongst North American Indians.The Eastern conception of the stars as fruits of the world-tree, andas jewels hung thereonA motive common in Oriental artThe goldenapples of the HesperidesOther instances of the world-tree inEuropean legendThe monster oak of the KalevalaCorrespondingtradition amongst the Esthonians.The food of the gods, a conception associated with that of theworld-treeThe Persian haoma, a mystical tree, producing animmortalising juiceIts terrestrial counterpart; the haoma

sacramentThe Vedic soma; not only a plant but a powerfuldeityIdentification of the plantDe Gubernatis on the somaritualThe effect of the soma drinkCorresponding conceptionsamongst the GreeksOrigin of the idea

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CHAPTER VIIPARADISEVarieties of the tradition: (1) as the seat of the gods; (2) as thehome of the first parents; (3) as the abode of the blessedAllassociated with the conception of a mystical tree, in itself anidealisation of the spirit-inhabited tree worshipped on earthTheparadise of the gods in Indian tradition; its five miraculoustreesThe paradise of Genesis and of the Persian sacred booksThetree of paradise compared with sacred cedar of Chaldaeaparadiseas the abode of the blessed, a post-exilic tradition amongst theJewsThe paradise of the Talmud; and of the KoranThe confusion inthe ancient traditions of paradise partly due to a limitedconception of space and to a belief in the propinquity ofheavenGreek conceptions of paradiseMiltons descriptioninfluenced by ancient traditions of an elevated paradise.The earthly paradisePersistence of the tradition; Sir JohnMaundevilles versionIcelandic traditionThe lost Atlantis ofPlato a variant of the paradise legendSt. Brandan and the Isle ofAvalonChristopher ColumbusJapanese tradition of an island ofeternal youth, with its marvellous treeDevelopments of the ideaof the tree of paradiseIts representation in art128CHAPTER VIIIMAY CELEBRATIONSTheir ancient religious significanceThe old English May-dayFetchingin the MayPuritan condemnation of the May-polesTheir removal asa heathenish vanityExisting survivals of May customsMay-dayrhymes.Origin of the celebrations: 1. The bringing in of the May-boughWidedistribution of the custom an evidence of its antiquityItsoriginal intentionThe May related to the harvest-bush of Franceand Western Germany, and to the Greek _eiresione_Their commonpurpose, to bring to the house a share of the blessings assumed tobe at the disposal of the tree-inhabiting spirit.2. The May-pole: its primitive intention to bring to the village, asthe May-bough to the family, the newly-quickened generativepotency resident in the woodsWide prevalence of thecustomAssociation of the May-pole with a human image or doll,representing the vegetation spiritThe Greek festival of thelittle DaedalaThe May-pole, originally renewed every year, becamelater a permanent erection, newly dressed on May-dayAssumedbeneficent influence of the May-pole.3. The May Queen, May Lady, or King and Queen of the May: Evidencethat these personages were originally regarded as humanrepresentatives or embodiments of the generalised tree-soulOftenassociated with its vegetable representative, the tree or bough;or clothed in leaves and flowers, _e.g._ the Green George of

Carinthia and our Jack-in-the-GreenThe custom general throughoutEuropeRobin Hood and Maid Marian originally King and Queen of theMayIn primitive times the human representative of the vegetationspirit probably sacrificed, in order that the spirit might pass toa more vigorous successorHuman sacrifice in MexicoSurvival insymbol of this ancient custom in Bavaria, Swabia, Saxony, etc. 144CHAPTER IXCHRISTMAS OBSERVANCESDistinctly pagan in their origin, and adapted to Christian use underthe influence of the ChurchThe Roman SaturnaliaThe use ofmistletoe a direct legacy from the DruidsThe decoration of thehouse with evergreens also a Druidic custom.The Christmas-tree; its introduction into England extremely recent;not universally established in Germany, the land of its origin,until the present centuryReferences to it by Goethe andSchillerEarliest record from Strasburg about 1600A.D.Theological disapprovalTheories as to its originProbablyconnected with the legend of Christmas floweringtreesExamplesThe Glastonbury thornMannhardts view; a decoratedtree the recognised scenic symbol of Christmas in the paradiseplay of the Middle Ages, wherein the story of the Fall wasdramatically associated with that of the NativityAn ancientGerman custom to force into flower boughs cut on a sacred nightduring the great autumn festivalThe date of severance delayedunder priestly influence so that the boughs might flower atChristmasInstances of the survival of this customThe lights onthe Christmas-tree a comparatively recent innovationLegends oflight-bearing treesThe lights possibly derived from ancientsolstitial observancesThe Christmas-tree an illustration of theblending of pagan and mediaeval ideasA point in which the manyphases of tree-worship converge162INDEX

175

ILLUSTRATIONSCHAPTERPAGESacred tree with its supporters, from St. Marks, Venice _Frontispiece_1, Rudimentary and conventionalised forms of the sacred tree

5

2,

5

3.

5

4. Sacred tree with its supporters, surmounted by the winged disc,from an Assyrian cylinder

6

5. Sacred tree, from the Temple of Athena at Pryene

6

6. The same, from a sculptured slab in the Treasury of St. Marks,Venice

7

7. A _Ba_ or soul receiving the lustral water from a tree-goddess

10

8. Sacred tree with worshippers, from eastern gateway at Snchi

15

9. Sacred tree, from a Mexican manuscript

17

10. The goddess Nut in her sacred sycamore bestowing the bread andwater of the next world2611. Sacred tree of Dionysus, with a statue of the god and offerings 2712. Sacred pine of Silvanus, with a bust of the god, and votive gifts2813. Fruit-tree dressed as Dionysus

31

14, Forms of the Tt or Did, the emblem of Osiris

34

15.

34

16. Apollo on his sacred tripod, a laurel branch in his hand

36

17. Coin of Athens, of the age of Pericles or earlier, showing olivespray3818. Coin of Athens, third century B.C.

38

19. The Bodhi-tree of Kanaka Muni

41

20. Wild elephants paying their devotions to the sacred banian ofKsyapa Buddha

42

21. Sacred sycamore, with offerings

44

22. Sacred tree of Artemis, hung with weapons of the chase

45

23. Sacred laurel of Apollo at Delphi, adorned with fillets and votivetablets; beneath it the god appearing to protect Orestes5024. Imperial coin of Myra in Lycia, showing tree-goddess

87

25. Sacred tree and worshipper, from a Chaldaean cylinder

88

26. Sacred tree as symbol of fertility, from an Assyrian bas-relief 8927. Yggdrasil, the Scandinavian world-tree

115

28. From a Babylonian seal

130

CHAPTER ITREE-WORSHIPITS DISTRIBUTION AND ORIGIN

It is the purpose of the present volume to deal as concisely as possiblewith the many religious observances, popular customs, legends,traditions and ideas which have sprung from or are related to theprimitive conception of the tree-spirit. There is little doubt that mostif not all races, at some period of their development, have regarded thetree as the home, haunt, or embodiment of a spiritual essence, capableof more or less independent life and activity, and able to detach itselffrom its material habitat and to appear in human or in animal form. Thisbelief has left innumerable traces in ancient art and literature, haslargely shaped the usages and legends of the peasantry, and impressedits influence on the ritual of almost all the primitive religions ofmankind. There is, indeed, scarcely a country in the world where thetree has not at one time or another been approached with reverence orwith fear, as being closely connected with some spiritual potency.The evidence upon which this assertion is based is overwhelming inamount, and is frequently to be found in quarters where until lately itspresence was unsuspected or its significance ignored. For instance, inthe interior of that fascinating storehouse of antiquity, St. Marks atVenice, there are embedded in the walls, high above ones head, a numberof ancient sculptured slabs, on each of which a conventionalised plant,with foliage most truthfully and lovingly rendered, is set between twofabulous monsters, as fantastic and impossible as any supporters to bemet with in the whole range of heraldry (see Frontispiece). To theordinary observer these strange sculptures say nothing; probably hepasses over them lightly, as the offspring of that quaint mediaevalfancy which was so prolific in monstrous births. But the student ofOriental art at once detects in them a familiar design, a design whosepedigree can be traced back to the day, six thousand years ago, when theChaldaean Semites were taking their culture and religion from the oldAccadians who dwelt on the shores of the Persian Gulf. In the centralplant he recognises the symbol or ideograph of a divine attribute oractivity, if not a representation of the visible embodiment or abode ofa god, and in the raised hand or forepaw of the supporters he discernsthe conventional attitude of adoration. The design, in short, which wasprobably handed on from Assyria to Persia, and from Persia to Byzantium,and so to Venice, is a vestige of that old world religion which regardedthe tree as one of the sacred haunts of deity.Again, the same conception, the record of which is thus strangelypreserved in the very fabric of a Christian edifice, is to be tracedwith equal certainty in the older and scarcely less permanent fabric ofpopular tradition and custom. The folk-lore of the modern Europeanpeasant, and the observances with which Christmas, May-day, and thegathering of the harvest are still celebrated in civilised countries,are all permeated by the primitive idea that there was a spiritualessence embodied in vegetation, that trees, like men, had spirits,passing in and out amongst them, which possessed a mysterious and potentinfluence over human affairs, and which it was therefore wise andnecessary to propitiate.A third example of the less recondite evidence on the subject is to befound in the Book that we all know best. When we once realise how deeplyrooted and time-honoured was the belief that there was a spiritual forceinherent in vegetation, we cease to wonder at the perversity with whichthe less cultured Israelites persisted in planting groves and setting upaltars under every green tree. Read in the light of modern research, theOld Testament presents a drama of surpassing interest, a record ofinternecine struggle between the aspiration of the few towards theworship of a single, omnipresent, unconditioned God and the conservative

adhesion of the many to the primitive ritual and belief common to allthe Semitic tribes. For the backsliding children of Israel were no moreidolaters, in the usual meaning of the word, than were the Canaaniteswhose rites they imitated. Their view of nature was that of theprimitive Semite, if not of the primitive man. All parts of nature, intheir idea, were full of spiritual forces, more or less, but nevercompletely, detached in their movements and action from the materialobjects to which they were supposed properly to belong. In ritual thesacred object was spoken of and treated as the god himself; it was notmerely his symbol, but his embodiment, the permanent centre of hisactivity, in the same sense in which the human body is the permanentcentre of mans activity. The god inhabited the tree or sacred stone notin the sense in which a man inhabits a house, but in the sense in whichhis soul inhabits his body.[1]To the three classes of evidence, derived respectively from archaeology,from folk-lore, and from ancient literature, which have been thusbriefly exemplified, may be added a fourth, equally important andprolific, that namely of contemporary anthropology. Scarcely a book isprinted on the customs of uncivilised races which does not contributesome new fact to the subject. The illustration of an Arab praying to atree, in Slatin Pashas recently published volume, is no surprise to theanthropologist, who has learnt to look for such survivals of primitivecustoms wherever culture still remains primitive.Rudimentary and conventionalised forms of the sacred tree.(From Chaldaean and Assyrian cylinders. Goblet dAlviella.)[Illustration: Fig. 1.][Illustration: Fig. 2.][Illustration: Fig. 3.]Now of all primitive customs and beliefs there is none which has agreater claim upon our interest than the worship of the tree, for thereis none which has had a wider distribution throughout the world, or hasleft a deeper impress on the traditions and observances of mankind. Itsantiquity is undoubted, for when history begins to speak, we find italready firmly established amongst the oldest civilised races. What isprobably its earliest record is met with on the engraved cylinders ofChaldaea, some of which date back to 4000 B.C. Even at that period itwould appear that the Chaldaeans had advanced beyond the stage of crudetree-worship, as found to this day amongst uncivilised races, for thesacred tree had already undergone a process of idealisation. In abilingual hymn, which is of Accadian origin, and probably one of themost ancient specimens of literature in existence, a mystical tree isdescribed as the abode of the gods. And it was probably by a similarprocess of idealisation that a conventional representation of the sacredtree came to be one of the most important symbols of Chaldaean religion.This symbol, which we have already seen in decorative use on the slabsat St. Marks, appears on the oldest Chaldaean cylinders as a stemdivided at the base, surmounted by a fork or a crescent, and cut,midway, by one or more cross bars which sometimes bear a fruit at eachextremity. This rudimentary image frequently changes into the palm, thepomegranate, the cypress, vine, etc.[2] On the Assyrian monuments ofabout 1000 B.C. and later, the figure becomes still more complex andmore artistically conventionalised, and it nearly always stands betweentwo personages facing each other, who are sometimes priests or kings inan attitude of adoration, sometimes monstrous creatures, such as are so

often met with in Assyro-Chaldaean imagery, lions, sphinxes, griffins,unicorns, winged bulls, men or _genii_ with the head of an eagle, and soforth. Above it is frequently suspended the winged circle, personifyingthe supreme deity. In his exhaustive chapter on this ancient design, M.Goblet dAlviella has shown that it obtained a wide disseminationthroughout the world, and is used even to this day in the fictile andtextile art of the East.[3] M. Menant concludes from his exhaustivestudy of the cylinders, that the worship of the sacred tree in Assyriawas intimately associated with that of the supreme deity, its symbolbeing incontestably one of the most sacred emblems of the Assyrianreligion.[4] M. Lenormants view was that the winged circle, inconjunction with the sacred tree, represented the primeval cosmogonicpair, the creative sun and the fertile earth, and was a symbol of thedivine mystery of generation.[5] In Babylonia the sacred tree was nodoubt closely associated with Istar, the divine mother, who wasoriginally not a Semitic, but an Accadian goddess, and whose cult,together with that of her bridegroom Tammuz, was introduced intoChaldaea from Eridu, a city which flourished on the shores of thePersian Gulf between 3000 and 4000 B.C.[6] That the Accadians werefamiliar with the worship of the tree may also be inferred from the factthat their chief god, Ea, was closely associated with the sacred cedar,on whose core his name was supposed to be inscribed.[Illustration: Fig. 4.Sacred tree with its supporters, surmounted bythe winged disc.(From an Assyrian cylinder. Goblet dAlviella.)][Illustration: Fig. 5.Sacred tree, much conventionalised.(From acapital of the Temple of Athena at Pryene. Goblet dAlviella.)][Illustration: Fig. 6.Sacred tree, from a sculptured slab in theTreasury of St. Marks, Venice.]But however much their attitude towards the sacred tree may have beenmodified under Accadian influence, the Chaldaeans in their worship ofthe tree only followed the rule of their Semitic kindred, for theconception of trees as demoniac beings was familiar to all the Semites,and the tree was adored as divine in every part of the Semitic area.[7]Even that stationary Semite, the modern Arab, holds certain treesinviolable as being inhabited by spirits, and honours them withsacrifices and decorations, and to this day the traveller in Palestinesometimes lights upon holy trees hung with tokens of homage.This strange persistence of a primitive religion in the very birthplaceof a most exalted spiritual worship is an additional evidence of itsremarkable vitality. For there is no country in the world where the treewas ever more ardently worshipped than it was in ancient Palestine.Amongst the Canaanites every altar to the god had its sacred tree besideit, and when the Israelites established local sanctuaries under theirinfluence, they set up their altar under a green tree, and plantedbeside it as its indispensable accompaniment an _ashra_, which waseither a living tree or a tree-like post, and not a grove, as renderedin the Authorised Version. This _ashra_ was undoubtedly worshipped as asacred symbol of the deity. Originally it appears to have beenassociated with Ashtoreth or Astarte, the Syrian Istar, the revoltingcharacter of whose worship perhaps explains the excessive bitterness ofthe biblical denunciations.[8] But the _ashra_ was also erected by thealtars of other gods, and in pre-prophetic days even beside that ofJehovah Himself, whence it may be concluded that in early timestree-worship had such a vogue in Canaan, that the sacred tree or thepole, its surrogate, had come to be viewed as a _general_ symbol of

deity.[9] The great antiquity of the cult in Syria was recognised inthe local traditions, for an old Phoenician cosmogony, quoted byEusebius, states that the first men consecrated the plants shooting outof the earth, and judged them gods, and worshipped them, and made meatand drink offerings to them.[10] In addition to the _ashra_, theChaldaean symbol of the sacred tree between its supporters was alsofamiliar to the Phoenicians, and is found wherever their art penetrated,notably in Cyprus and on the archaic pottery of Corinth and Athens.[11]It is highly probable that both these sacred symbols had a commonorigin, but the connection must have been lost sight of in later times,for we find Ezekiel, to whom the prophetic denunciations of the _ashra_must have been familiar, decorating the temple of his vision withdesigns evidently derived from the Chaldaean sacred tree, a palm-treebetween a cherub and a cherub.[12] A similar ornamentation withpalm-trees and cherubim, it will be remembered, had been used in thetemple built by Solomon.[13]Amongst the ancient Egyptians, whose exuberant piety required,according to M. Maspero, an actual rabble of gods to satisfy it, treeswere enthusiastically worshipped, side by side with other objects, asthe homes of various divinities. The splendid green sycamores, whichflourish here and there as though by miracle on the edge of thecultivated land, their rootlets bathed by the leakage of the Nile, wereaccounted divine and earnestly worshipped by Egyptians of every rank, inthe belief that they were animated by spirits, who on occasion couldemerge from them. They were habitually honoured with fruit offerings,and the charitable found an outlet for their benevolence in dailyreplenishing the water-jars placed beneath them for the use of thepasser-by, who in his turn would express his gratitude for the boon byreciting a prayer to the deity of the tree. The most famous of thesesycamoresthe sycamore of the Southwas regarded as the living body ofHthor upon earth; and the tree at Metairieh, commonly called the Treeof the Virgin, is probably the successor of a sacred tree of Heliopolis,in which a goddess, perhaps Hthor, was worshipped.[14] The districtaround Memphis was known as the Land of the Sycamore, and containedseveral trees generally believed to be inhabited by detached doubles ofNut and Hthor. Similar trees are worshipped at the present day bothby Christian and Mussulman fellahn.[Illustration: Fig. 7.A Ba or soul receiving the lustral water from atree-goddess.(From a painting discovered by Prof. Petrie at Thebes.Illustrated London News, 25th July 1896.)]On the outskirts of the province of Darfur the Bedeyat Arabs, thoughsurrounded by Moslem tribes, still adhere to the same primitive cult.Under the wide-spreading branches of an enormous heglik-tree, and on aspot kept beautifully clean and sprinkled with fine sand, they beseechan unknown god to direct them in their undertakings and to protect themfrom danger.[15] They have, in short, retained, in spite of the pressureof Islamism, the old heathen worship which still widely prevails amongstthe uncivilised races of the African continent. Thus on the Guinea Coastalmost every village has its sacred tree, and in some parts offeringsare still made to them. The negroes of the Congo plant a sacred treebefore their houses and set jars of palm-wine under it for thetree-spirit.[16] In Dahomey prayers and gifts are offered to trees intime of sickness. One of the goddesses of the Fantis has her abode inhuge cotton-trees. In the Nyassa country, where the spirits of the deadare worshipped as gods, the ceremonies are conducted and offeringsplaced not at the grave of the dead man, but at the foot of the treewhich grows before his house, or if that be unsuitable, beneath some

especially beautiful tree selected for the purpose.[17]To return to ancient Egypt, there is evidence that the great Osiris wasoriginally a tree-god. According to Egyptian mythology, after he hadbeen murdered his coffin was discovered enclosed in a tree-trunk, and heis spoken of in the inscriptions as the one in the tree, the solitaryone in the acacia. The rites, too, by which his death and burial wereannually celebrated appear to couple him closely with Tammuz, Adonis,Attis, Dionysus, and other gods whose worship was associated with asimilar ritual.[18] Mr. Frazer, following Mannhardt, contends that allthese deities were tree-gods, and that the ceremonial connected withtheir worship was symbolical of the annual death and revival ofvegetation. It is certainly true that in Babylonia, Egypt, Phoenicia,and above all in Phrygia, a peculiarly emotional form of worship, whichsubsequently extended to Cyprus, Crete, Greece, and Italy, arose inconnection with deities who were closely associated with vegetable life.TammuzWhose annual wound in Lebanon alluredThe Syrian damsels to lament his fate,and for whose resuscitation his bride, the goddess Istar, descended intoHadeswas represented as originally dwelling in a tree.[19] Adonis, whowas the beloved of Aphroditethe Syrian Astarteand is Tammuz underanother name, was born from a myrrh-tree. Attis, the favourite ofCybele, who was worshipped with barbarous rites in Phrygia, wasrepresented in the form of a decorated pine-tree, to which his image wasattached. Dionysus, whose death and resurrection were celebrated inCrete and elsewhere, was worshipped throughout Greece as Dionysus ofthe Tree. These facts are sufficient to warrant the inference thattree-worship was very firmly rooted in those regions where the Semiticraces came into contact with the Aryans. In Phrygia it was peculiarlyprominent, as we know from classical references. The archaeologicalevidence is vague and incomplete, but a characteristic device frequentin Phrygian art, in which two animals, usually lions rampant, face oneanother on either side of a pillar, or an archaic representation of themother-goddess Cybele,[20] recalls the sacred tree of Babylonia. Thedevice is familiar in connection with the lion-gate of Mycenae, whichwas probably erected under Phrygian influence.The Persians venerated trees as the dwelling-place of the deity, as thehaunts of good and evil spirits, and as the habitations in which thesouls of heroes and of the virtuous dead continued their existence.According to Plutarch, they assigned some trees and plants to the goodGod, others to the evil demon.[21] The Zend-Avesta ordained that thetrees which Ormuzd had given should be prayed to as pure and holy, andadored with fire and lustral water;[22] and according to tradition, whenZoroaster died, Ormuzd himself translated his soul into a lofty tree,and planted it upon a high mountain. The cypress was regarded by thePersians as especially sacred. It was closely associated withfire-worship, and was revered as a symbol of the pure light of Ormuzd.It is frequently represented on ancient gravestones in conjunction withthe lion, the symbol of the sun-god Mithra.[23] Another venerated treewas the myrtle, a branch of which was used as an essential accompanimentin all religious functions. The observances connected with the Persianworship of the Haoma plant will be dealt with in a later chapter. TheAchaemenian kings regarded the plane as their peculiar tree, and arepresentation of it in gold formed part of their state. A certainplane-tree in Lydia was presented by Xerxes with vessels of gold andcostly apparel, and committed to the guardianship of one of his

immortals.[24]In India, where tree-worship once enjoyed a wide prevalence, it has leftindubitable traces on the religions which displaced it, and it is stillencountered in its crudest form amongst some of the aboriginal hilltribes. The Garrows, for instance, who possess neither temples noraltars, set up a bamboo before their huts, and sacrifice before it totheir deity.[25] On a mountain in Travancore there existed until quiterecently an ancient tree, which was regarded by the natives as theresidence of a powerful deity. Sacrifices were offered to it, andsermons preached before it; it served, indeed, as the cathedral of thedistrict. At length, to the horror of its worshippers, an Englishmissionary had it cut down and used in the construction of a chapel onits site.[26] The ancient prevalence of tree-worship in India isestablished by frequent references to sacred trees in the Vedas, and bythe statement of Q. Curtius that the companions of Alexander the Greatnoticed that the Indians reputed as gods whatever they held inreverence, especially trees, which it was death to injure.[27] Thisancient reverence for the tree was recognised by Buddhism, and adaptedto its more advanced mode of thought. The asvattha or pippala-tree,_Ficus Religiosa_, which had previously been identified with the supremedeity, Brahma, came to be venerated above all others by the specialinjunction of Gautama, as that under which he had achieved perfectknowledge.[28] In his previous incarnations Gautama himself isrepresented as having been a tree-spirit no less than forty-three times.The evidence of the monuments as to the importance attached to the treein early Buddhism is equally definite. The Snchi and Ama-ravatisculptures, some casts of which are in the British Museum, containrepresentations of the sacred tree decorated with garlands andsurrounded by votaries, whilst the worship of the trees identified withthe various Buddhas is repeatedly represented on the Stpa of Bharhut.[Illustration: Fig. 8.Sacred tree with worshippers, from easterngateway of Buddhist Tope at Snchi.(Fergussons Tree and Serpent Worship(1868), Plate xxv.)]There is very little evidence of the existence of tree-worship amongstthe Chinese, but they have a tradition of a Tree of Life, and of a drinkof immortality made from various sacred plants. They also make use ofthe divining-rod, which is an offshoot of tree-worship, and certainTaoist medals, like the talismans worn in Java, bear the familiar symbolof the sacred tree.[29] In Japan certain old trees growing near Shintotemples are regarded as sacred, and bound with a fillet of straw rope,as if they were tenanted by a divine spirit.[30] Japanese mythologytells of holy _sakaki_ trees growing on the Mountain of Heaven, and of aherb of immortality to be gathered on the Island of Eternal Youth.Amongst the semi-civilised races which border upon these ancient statesthe tree is still almost universally regarded as the dwelling-place of aspirit, and as such is protected, venerated, and often presented withofferings. In Sumatra and Borneo certain old trees are held to besacred, and the Dyaks would regard their destruction as an impious act.The Mintira of the Malay Peninsula believe that trees are inhabited byterrible spirits capable of inflicting diseases. The Talein of Burmahnever cut down a tree without a prayer to the indwelling spirit. TheSiamese have such veneration for the takhien-tree that they offer itcakes and rice before felling it; so strong, indeed, is their dread ofdestroying trees of any kind, and thereby offending the gods inhabitingthem, that all necessary tree-felling is relegated to the lowestcriminals. Even at the present day they frequently make offerings to the

tree-dwelling spirits, and hang gifts on any tree whose deity theydesire to propitiate.[31]In the Western Hemisphere, the fact that the drawing of a tree with twoopposed personages or supporters, similar in design to the sacred treeof the Chaldaeans, has been found in an ancient Mexican MS., has beenput forward as an additional argument in favour of the pre-Columbiancolonisation of that continent and its early contact with the Easternworld.[32] Speaking generally, however, the worship of the tree appearsto have flourished less widely in the New World than the Old, thoughtraces of it have been found all over the continent.[33] A largeash-tree is regarded with great veneration by the Indians of LakeSuperior, and in Mexico there was a cypress, the spreading branches ofwhich were loaded by the natives with votive offerings, locks of hair,teeth, and morsels of ribbon; it was many centuries old, and hadprobably had mysterious influence ascribed to it, and been decoratedwith offerings long before the discovery of America.[34] By that date,however, the Mexicans had apparently advanced beyond the earliest stageof religious development, and expanded the idea of individualtree-spirits into the more general conception of a god of vegetation. Itwas in the honour of such a god that their May-Day celebrations wereheld and their human sacrifices offered. In Nicaragua cereals wereworshipped as well as trees. In more primitive Patagonia the cruder formof worship persists, a certain tree standing upon a hill being stillresorted to by numerous worshippers, each of whom brings his offering.[Illustration: Fig. 9.From a Mexican manuscript.(Goblet dAlviella.)]To return nearer home, the worship of the tree has prevailed at one timeor another in every country of Europe. It played a vital part in thereligion of Greece and Rome, and classical literature is full oftraditions and ideas which can have been derived from no other source.The subject has been exhaustively treated by Btticher in his_Baumkultus der Hellenen_.[35] Mr. Farnell, in his recently publishedwork, says that in the earliest period of Greek religion of which wehave any record, the tree was worshipped as the shrine of the divinitythat housed within it; hence the epithet , appli t Z us, ath l g f H l D itis.[36] Discv i s ma i C t a thP lp s withi th p s t y a (1896) s m t shw that th wshipf iti s i aicic shap as st pillas as t s play a g atpat i th ligi f th Myc a a p i abut 1500 B.C.[37] Thp sist t b li f f th G k a Rma p asaty i th xist c apw f th vaius wla spiits is als vitally c ct with thpimitiv i a f th t -sul.I th c t f Eup , cv as it c was with s f st, thv ati f th ttictu all th ligius usag s f thpimitiv ihabitats. I aci t G may, th uiv sal c mial ligi f th p pl ha its ab i th _gv _, a th ali stffts f th Chistia missiai s w i ct twas th stucti f th s v at ws, th i cs cati by th cti withi th m f a Chistia ific .[38] But lg aft th imial cv si th G mas ctiu t p pl v y w withspiits, a th l g s a flk-l f th i m sc ats astill ich i m mi s f this tim -hu sup stiti. Sm f th sw-ihabitig spiits w favuabl t ma, ay t b fi ah lp him i ifficulty; th s w malicius a viictiv . Th whlsubj ct has b stui i G may with chaact istic thugh ss,th staa wk b ig Mahats w ll-kw a fasciatig _Walu F lkult _.[39]

I Pla t s app a t hav b wshipp as lat as th fut thc tuy, a i pats f Russia th pw f th t -spiit v thh s was s fimly h l, that it was lg custmay t ppitiat it byth sacific f a cw. Th P mias, a tib lat t th Fis,wshipp t s, amg th thigs, util th i cv si tChistiaity abut 1380 A.D.[40] I pats f Esthia th p asats v withi th p s t c tuy ga c tai t s as sac , ca fullypt ct th m, hug th m with w aths, a c a y a pu f shbullcks bl abut th i ts, i that th cattl mightthiv .[41] I th mt pats f th Czas mai th b li f it - ms still p sists. Th y a h l t b mus c atu s, whca chag th i statu at will, a whs vic is h a i th clashf th stm as th y spig fm t t t . I Fila th ak isstill call Gs t , a t this ay th bich a thmutai-ash a h l sac by th p asats, a plat b si th icttag s with v y sig f v c .I Fac at Massilia (w Mas ill s) huma sacific s w , ipimitiv tim s, ff t t s.[42] I th futh c tuy f u ath was a famus p a-tat Aux which was hug with tphi s fth chas a pai all th v ati u t a g.[43] I th lif fSt. Amaus m ti is ma f sac gv s a t s wshipp aB auvais, a vaius Chuch cucils i thaly mil ag s uc ths wh v at t s, h l at Nat s i 895 A.D. xp sslyjiig th stucti f t s which w cs cat t ms.Tac s f th aci t wship still suviv h as ls wh i ppulacustm; i th suth f Fac th y hav a gac ful bs vac , i whichth spiit f v g tati is p sifi by a yuth cla i g , whf igig sl p is awak by a mai s kiss.I u w islas, as v y kws, th ak-tplay a sali tpat i th l Duiical wship, a Pliy[44] v iv s th amDui fm, a ak, as sm still c ct it with _aach_, thC ltic w f that t . Th imptat it s with which th mistl twas s v fm th pa t t a icat at th alta fuishvi c f th v ati pai t th spiit f th t , wh,accig t th t achig f th Duis, t at it thpaasit -bugh wh th ak l av s with . Th T uts ubtbught with th m t Bitai th ligi f th sac gv , a wfi Kig Ega c mig th il it s i c cti with th al a th t s, a Caut fifty y as lat fbiig th wshipti ly.[45] Th c mi s c c ct with th wship f th tsuviv i th fm f a pictu squ symblism lg aft th i igiha b fgtt . I 1515, at a Tw lfth-Night pag at h l at hispalac f G wich by f H y III., t -spiits p s t byIII wyl -m , all appaayl i g mss saily cam ut f aplac lyk a w a gag i battl with th yal kights.[46] Itwas als a custm f this kig i th aly y as f his ig t stt th ws with a ichly-appa ll tiu i t f tch May g bws,th spiit f v g tati, whs w vigu wassymblis , ucsciusly ubt, i th g bughs with which thcuti s ck th i caps.[47] May-ay c mi s t c l bat th wlif i th f st ca b tac i Egla as fa back as ththit th c tuy, a th imptac still attach t th m by thp pl as lat as th s v t th c tuy is iicat by th acuwith which th Puitas attack th Maypl , a h ath ish vaityg atly abus t sup stiti a wick ss. Th s a th suvivals will b m fully t at i a lat chapt , a a lym ti h as shwig th aci t p val c f a b li f i

t -spiits, which i is alcustms.

cmp t t t accut f such

I fi , wh has t stui th subj ct ca hav ay i a f thsactity assciat with th tamgst p -Chistia atis. Thg al cclusi which Bttich giv s as th sult f his labat s ach, is that th wship f th twas t ly th ali st fmf ivi itual, but was th last t isapp a b f th sp a fChistiaity; it xist lg b f th cti f t mpl s a statu st th gs, fluish si by si with th m, a p sist lg aft th y ha isapp a .[48] M. Tyl, with g at cauti, cclu sthat _i ct a abslut t -wship_ may li v y wi a p ith aly histy f ligi, but that apat fm this th is a wiag f aimistic cc ptis c ct with t a f st wship.Th t may b th spiits p ch, sh lt , favuit haut; may s v as a scaffl alta, wh ff igs ca b s t ut fsm spiitual b ig; its sh lt may b a plac f wship s t apatby atu , f sm tib s th ly t mpl , f may tib s, p haps, thali st; lastly, it may b m ly a sac bj ct patis by, assciat with, symblisig sm iviity.[49] Th s vai cc ptis, M. Tyl thiks, cfm, i spit f th i cfusi, tth aimistic th lgy i which th y all hav th i ss tialpicipl s.T iscuss th igi f t -wship wul ivlv th csi ati fth whl qu sti f pimitiv cultu , th th y f aimism, a thsubj ct f ac st wship, tg th with a ig ssi th v ybscu pbl m f tt mism. Th last w has t y t b sai th s qu stis, a th tim has c taily t y t cm t say it. Aswill b shw i th xt tw chapt s, th g al cc pti f tht -spiit iclu s at l ast tw iff t s i s f i as, that th ha f th t -g, whs wship b cam gais it a fiit ligi, a th th ha that f th t - ms t -spiits,whs ppitiati was ga it v s abv th l v l fsc y a icatati. T fi th lati b tw th s twcc ptis is xt m ly ifficult, a it has b appach byiff t wit s alg tw iff t li s f thught. Eith th gsw v lp fm th spiitual fc s assum by pimitiv ma t bih t i atu , a gaually iff tiat fm th l ss fi lypw s mbi i th vaius ms, util th y cam t b ga asth kism a pa ts f th i wshipp s; th y w ac stalspiits, at c f a a tust fm th i v y igi by th ikism , whilst all th class f mi spiits a ms w but g at gs th ac stal spiits f mi s. Th fm vi w isput fwa by Pf ss Rb ts Smith, i a chapt that s v smst ca ful stuy, but h amits that it is ifficult t u sta hwth fi ly pw s f atu that haut a istict i which m liv a psp , a w ga as mbi i hly t s a spigs,b cam i tifi with th tibal g f a cmmuity a th pa t f aac .[50] Th is such ifficulty i M. H b t Sp c s th ythat all ligi as fm ac st wship, i M. Gat All ssuppl m tay ct ti that t s a st s cam t b ga assac a t b hu with sacific s b caus th y w igiallyassciat with th ac stal gav , a w h c assum t havb cm th hauts mbim ts f th ac stal spiit.[51] Thislatt vi w, hw v , s t s m t tak suffici t accut f ththusa spiits wh, i th b li f f pimitiv m , thg thws, th mutais, a th spigs, a app a i hibl aimal s mi-huma fm. Pbably th tuth li s b tw th tw th i s,a th pimitiv wship f th t ha m tha t.

CHAPTER IITHE GOD AND THE TREEWh w xami m cls ly th spiitual b igs wh hav b thughtt haut ihabit v g tati, w fi that th y fall m l ssistictly it tw class sit t -gs th ha, a thth it th vaius t - ms, w-spiits, yas, lv s, jis,a fabulus mst s cmm t th mythlgy f all cuti s. Th is, p haps, abslut ly fiit li f macati b tw th twclass s, f pimitiv thught s t al i shap fiitis. Butth ivisi, b si s b ig cv i t f u p s t pups , is avital . F a g is a iiviual spiit wh t s it stat latis with ma, is mstly if t ivaiably ga as aki t hiswshipp s, a is p sumably th i fi , ally, a pt ct.Wh as th m is a i p t a, as a ul , t iiviualis spiit, withut huma kiship, a f th mst pat ufi ly t ma.Th g is t b v , appach a call up by am ; th m,as a ul , t b a a shu . Th p s t chapt will b vt t th b li f i th t -ihabitig g.Th cc pti f a ubiquitus, uciti spiit is ti lyf ig t pimitiv thught. All th gs f atiquity w subj ct tphysical limitatis. Thsv f G c a Rm w by m asi p t f a mat ial vim t. Th was always sm hly plac sactuay, sm gv , t , st , futai, lat smt mpl imag , wh i th g was assum t w ll, a thugh whichh ha t b appach . T Ms s J hvah is H that w lt i thbush,[52] a c tui s lat Cyus, whil amittig that th L fIsa l ha ma him kig f th whl wl, y t sp aks f Him as thL that w ll th i J usal m.[53] y f qu tly, sp cially ialy tim s, this hm haut f th g was a t ; his c mialwship was cuct b ath its shaw, a th ff igs f hiswshipp s w hug up its bach s, plac at its ft, upa tabl by its si , a assum th by t hav ach th g. Thusth sac sycam s f Egypt w b li v t b actually ihabit byHthor, Nut, Selkt, Nt, or some other deity, and were worshipped andpresented with offerings as such. The vignettes in the _Book of theDead_ demonstrate this belief unmistakably. They frequently depict thesoul on its journey to the next world coming to one of these miraculoussycamores on the edge of the terrible desert before it, and receivingfrom the goddess of the tree a supply of bread, fruit, or water, theacceptance of which made it the guest of the deity and prevented it fromretracing its steps without her express permission. O, sycamore of theGoddess Nut, begins one of the chapters in the _Book of the Dead_,let there be given to me the water which is in thee. As a rule in thevignettes the bust of the goddess is represented as appearing fromamidst the sheltering foliage, but sometimes only her arm is seenemerging from the leaves with a libation-bowl in the hand. Theconception is illustrated still more clearly on an ancient sarcophagusin the Marseilles Museum, where the trunk from which the branches spreadis represented as the actual body of the deity.[54][Illustration: Fig. 10.The goddess Nut in her sacred sycamorebestowing the bread and water of the next world.(Maspero, Dawn ofCivilisation.)]

[Illustration: Fig. 11.Sacred tree of Dionysus, with a statue of thegod and offerings.(Btticher, Fig. 24.)]As mans conception of the deity became more definitely anthropomorphicon the one hand and less local on the other, this primitiverepresentation of the god in the tree underwent a change in twocorresponding directions. In the one case an attempt was made to expressmore clearly the manlike form of the god; the tree was dressed or carvedin human semblance, or a mask or statue of the god was hung upon orplaced beside it. In the other case, as the god widened his territory orabsorbed other local gods he became associated with all trees of acertain class, and was assumed to dwell not in a particular tree, but ina particular kind of tree, which thenceforward became sacred to andsymbolical of him. This latter idea received special development in thereligions of Greece and Rome. But in the early history of both thosecountries cases occur in which a god was worshipped in an individualtree. At Dodona, which was perhaps the most ancient of all Greeksanctuaries, Zeus was approached as immanent in his sacred oak, andlegendary afterthought explained the primitive ritual by relating thatthe first oak sprang from the blood of a Titan slain while invading theabode of the god, who thereupon chose it as his own peculiar tree.Again, in ancient Rome, according to Livy, Jupiter was originallyworshipped in the form of a lofty oak-tree which grew upon the Capitol.The same was probably true of other gods at their first appearance.Amongst the Greeks, indeed, the tree was the earliest symbol or of the od, nd s such is frequenty represented on ncient vses,mrbe tbets, siver vesses, nd w-pintins. Indeed, the soitrytree stndin in Attic fieds nd worshipped s the scred hbittion of od ws in probbiity the eriest Greek tempe, the forerunnerof those mrveous edifices which hve roused the dmirtion of everysubsequent e; whist the eborte worship of which those tempesbecme the home ws presumby bsed upon ceremoni oriinyconnected with the worship of the tree.[Iustrtion: Fi. 12.Scred pine of Sivnus, with bust of the od,nd votive ifts represented by be of merchndise nd Mercurysstff.(Btticher, Fi 18.)]Accordin to Mr. Frne, the test writer on the subject, the chiefods of the Greeks were in their oriin deities of veettion, thespeci ttributes which we ssocite with them bein subsequentccretions. The pre-Heenic Cronos ve his nme to n Attichrvest-festiv hed in Juy, nd his ncient embem ws thesicke.[55] Zeus, besides bein the ok-od of Dodon, ws worshipped inAttic s od of ricuture nd honoured with cere offerins.[56]Artemis ws not primriy oddess of chstity, nor moon-oddess, northe twin-sister of Apoo, but n independent divinity, cosey retedto the wood-nymphs, nd connected with wter nd with wid veettionnd forest bests. She ws worshipped in Arcdi s the oddess of thenut-tree nd the cedr, nd in Lconi s the oddess of the ure ndthe myrte. Her ido t Sprt ws sid to hve been found in wiowbrke, bound round with withies. At Teuthe in Ache she ws worshippeds the oddess of the woodnd psture, nd t Cnidus s the nurturer ofthe hycinth.[57] In the eend of the coonistion of Boie she wsrepresented s embodied in hre which suddeny disppered in myrte-tree.[58] But her chrcter s tree-oddess comes out stimore cery in the cut of the hnin Artemis t Kphye inArcdi,[59] which no doubt rew out of the primitive custom ofsuspendin msk or ime of the veettion spirit to the scred tree.

The ssocition of Her with tree-worship is ess pronounced. She wssid to hve been born under wiow-tree t Smos, nd her worship intht isnd ws chrcterised by yery ceremony in which herpriestess secreted her ido in wiow brke, where it ws subsequentyrediscovered nd honoured with n obtion of ckes.[60] In Aros shews worshipped s the deity who ve the fruits of the erth, nd ssuch ws represented with pomernte in her hnd. It is so worthyof note tht the fmiir symbo of conventionised tree between tworiffins ppers on the stephnos or coronet of the oddess on coins ofCroton of the fourth century, nd of certin South Itin cities, swe s on cooss bust now t Venice, which, ike the hed on thecoins, ws presumby copied from the tempe-ime t Croton.[61]Aphrodite ws not primitiveveettive ife is bundntyvrint of the ret OrientIstr, Astrte, Cybee, etc.,veettion.[62]

Greek deity, but her connection withcer. She ws, in fct, but Heenisedoddess, worshipped in different prts swho ws essentiy divinity of

This primitive connection of the ods of Greece with veettive ife wsost siht of in their ter deveopments. Even t the dte of theHomeric poems the more dvnced of the Greeks hd evidenty rrived t hihy deveoped structure of reiious thouht, showin us cer-cutperson divinities with ethic nd spiritu ttributes.[63] But theoder nd cruder ides of the nture of the ods eft persistent trcein the ritu with which they were worshipped, s we s in the desinsof the rtists who refected the popur trditions. Thus the ncientcustom of burnin incense before the tree, deckin it with consecrtedfiets, nd honourin it with burnt offerins, survived on fter thebeief of which it ws the ntur deveopment hd decyed. A scupturepreserved in the Berin Museum represents the hoy pine-tree of Pndorned with wreths nd fiets. An ime of Pn is ner, nd offerinsre bein brouht to n tr pced beneth it. Ain, Theocritusdescribes how t the consecrtion of Heens pne-tree t Sprt, thechoir of Lcedemonin midens hun consecrted wreths of otus fowersupon the tree, nointed it with costy spikenrd, nd ttched to it thededictory pcrd: Honour me, ye tht pss by, for I m Heenstree.[64][Iustrtion: Fi. 13.Fruit-tree dressed s Dionysus.(Btticher, Fi.44.)]The prctice of ivin the tree humn sembnce, by cothin it inrments or crvin its stump in humn form, ws the ntur resut ofthis worship monst n rtistic rce, ropin its wy towrds concrete expression of its ides. It represented the crude strivins of peope who, in their ttempts to crete ods in their own ime,eventuy produced n unsurpssbe ide of humn rce nd beuty.From the rudey crved tree-stump rose in due time the Hermes ofPrxitees. Btticher reproduces sever ncient desins in which thetrunk of tree is dressed s Dionysus. In one of these msk isfstened t the top of the trunk in such wy tht the brnches pperto row from the hed of the od, nd the trunk itsef is cothed with on rment; tbe, or tr, oded with ifts, stnds besideit.[65]In other cses, probby where the worshipped tree hd died, its trunkor brnches were rudey crved into n ime of the od, nd either eft_in situ_, or hewn down nd pced ner the tempe or, ter, in the

very tempe itsef. Both Pusnis nd Piny stte tht the odestimes of the ods were mde of wood, nd sever Ltin uthors refer tothe custom of thus crvin the brnches of uspicious trees (_feiciumrborum_) s prevent in primitive times monst the Greeks.[66] The or embem of Aphrodite, dedicted by Peops, ws wrouht out of fresh verdnt myrte-tree. At Smos bord ws the embem of Her; twowooden stocks joined toether by cross-piece ws the sin of thetwin-brethren t Sprt, nd wooden coumn encirced with ivy wsconsecrted to Dionysus t Thebes.[67]It my be firy ssumed tht in cses such s these the worshippersbeieved tht the ded piece of wood retined some t est of the poweroriiny ttributed to the spirit dwein in the ivin tree. Theiridotry ws but chidish deduction from n ncient nd deepy-rootedtheooy. The sme my be sid for the wood-cutter, derided in theApocryph, who, tkin crooked piece of wood nd fu of knots,crveth it with the diience of his ideness, nd shpeth it by theski of his indoence; then he iveth it the sembnce of the ime of mn, smerin it with vermiion nd with pint coourin it red; ndhvin mde for it chmber worthy of it, he setteth it in w,mkin it fst with iron.[68] Side by side with this fooishwood-cutter, who for ife beseecheth tht which is ded, my be pcedthe Siciin pesnt whom Theocritus represents s offerin scrifice to crved Pn. When thou hst turned yonder ne, otherd, where theok-trees re, thou wit find n ime of fi-tree wood newy crven;three eed it is, the brk sti covers it, nd it is eress with.A riht hoy precinct runs round it, nd ceseess strem tht fethfrom the rocks on every side is reen with ures nd myrtes ndfrrnt cypress. And round the pce tht chid of the rpe, thevine, doth fourish with its tendris, nd the meres in sprin withtheir sweet sons pour forth their woodnotes wid, nd the brownnihtines repy with their compints, pourin from their bis theirhoney sweet son.[69]This crude worship of the od in the nthropomorphised tree inered onmonst the pesntry side by side with the spendid tempe ritu, eveninto dys when the revetion of Deity who fied time nd spce,nd ws worshipped in tempes not mde with hnds, ws rpidyunderminin the pn worship of the cities. Mximus Tyrius, who ivedin the second century A.D., nd counted mon his most diient pupisthe ret Mrcus Aureius, retes how even in his dy t the festivof Dionysus every pesnt seected the most beutifu tree in his rdento convert it into n ime of the od nd to worship it.[70] AndApueius, nother writer of the sme period, bers simir testimony.It is the custom, he sys, of pious trveers, when their wy psses rove or hoy pce, tht they offer up pryer for the fufiment oftheir wishes, offer ifts nd remin there time; so I, when I set footin tht most scred city, thouh in hste, must crve for prdon,offer pryer nd moderte my hste. For never ws trveer morejustified in mkin reiious puse, when he perchnce sh hve comeupon fower-wrethed tr, rotto covered with bouhs, n okdecorted with mny horns, or beech-tree with skins hun to it, itte scred hi fenced round, or _tree trunk hewn s n ime_(_truncus domine effitus_).[71]Forms of the Tt or Did, the embem of Osiris.(Mspero, _op. cit._)[Iustrtion: Fi. 14.]

[Iustrtion: Fi. 15.]This custom of crvin tree into the sembnce of od, ndsubsequenty worshippin it s his snctury or symbo, ws current inmny prts of the word. The chief ido form of Osiris, the Did or Tt,is beieved by Mspero to hve oriinted s simpe tree-trunkdisbrnched nd pnted in the round.[72] Usuy it is representedwith rotesque fce, beneth four superimposed cpits, with neckce round its neck, on robe hidin the bse of the coumn inits fods, nd the whoe surmounted by the fmiir Osirin embems.Ain, it is sid to hve been prctice monst the Druids, when nok died to strip off its brk nd shpe it into pir, pyrmid, orcross, nd continue to worship it s n embem of the od.[73] The crossespeciy ws fvourite form, nd ny ok with two princip brnchesformin cross with the min stem ws consecrted by scredinscription, nd from tht time forwrd rerded with prticurreverence.The sme custom previed in Indi. In the seventeenth century thereexisted ner Surt scred bnin-tree, supposed to be 3000 yers od,which the Hindus woud never cut or touch with stee for fer ofoffendin the od conceed in its foie. They mde pirimes to itnd honoured it with reiious ceremonies. On its trunk t ittedistnce from the round hed hd been rouhy crved, pinted in ycoours, nd furnished with od nd siver eyes. This simucrum wsconstnty dorned with fresh foie nd fowers, the withered eveswhich they repced bein distributed monst the pirims s pioussouvenirs.[74]It ws predominnty, thouh by no mens excusivey, Greekdeveopment to ssocite prticur od with prticur vriety oftree. The ok, excein others in mjestic strenth nd inherentviour, becme the embem nd embodiment of Zeus. The connection rosein probbiity from the primitive worship of the Pesic Zeus inthe ok rove of Dodon, but in cssic times it ws cceptedthrouhout Greece. On coins nd in other works of rt the od isfrequenty represented s crowned with ok eves, or s stndin orsittin beside n ok-tree.[75] To hve prtken of the corns of Zeusws verncur expression for hvin cquired wisdom nd knowede.This especi snctity of the ok s the tree of the fther of the odspssed into Ity, nd Viri speks of it sJoves own treeTht hods the word in wfu sovereinty.[Iustrtion: Fi. 16.Apoo on his scred tripod, ure brnch inhis hnd.(From coin, probby of Dephi.)]More scred even thn the ok to Zeus ws the ure to Apoo. Nosnctury of his ws compete without it; none coud be founded wherethe soi ws unfvourbe to its rowth. No worshipper coud shre inhis rites who hd not crown of ure on his hed or brnch in hishnd. As endowed with the power of the od, who ws t once the prophet,poet, redeemer, nd protector of his peope, the ure ssumed nimportnt nd mny-sided re in ceremoni symboism.[76] The stff ofure in the hnd of the recitin poet ws ssumed to ssist hisinspirtion, in the hnd of the prophet or diviner to hep him to seehidden thins. Thus the use of the ure pyed n essenti prt inthe orcur ceremoni of Dephi. Everywhere, in short, the berin of

the ure bouh ws the surest wy to the ods protection nd fvour.The conception ws sow to die. Cement, writin bout 200 A.D., stifinds the wrnin necessry tht one must not hope to obtinreconciition with God by mens of ure brnches dorned with red ndwhite ribbons.[77]By n esy trnsition the ure becme scred so to Aescupius. Asthe source t once of vube remedy nd dedy poison, it ws hedin hih esteem by Greek physicins. It ws popury beieved thtspirits coud be cst out by its mens, nd it ws usu to ffix ure bouh over the doorwy in cses of serious iness, in order tovert deth nd keep evi spirits t by.[78]The ceremoni use of the ure pssed from Greece into Ity. When theSibyine books were consuted t Rome, the ure of prophecy wysdorned the chir of the priest.[79] Victors were crowned with ure,nd in Romn triumphs the sodiers decked their spers nd hemets withits eves.The tree of Aphrodite ws the myrte.[80] It ws hed to hve the powerboth of cretin nd of perpetutin ove, nd hence from the eriesttimes ws used in mrrie ceremonies. In the Eeusinin mysteries theinitites crowned themseves with the ok eves of Zeus nd the myrteof Aphrodite. The Grces, her ttendnts, were represented s werinmyrte chpets, nd her worshippers crowned themseves with myrtesprys. At Rome Venus ws worshipped under the nme of Myrte in hertempe t the foot of the Aventine. The ppe-tree hed subsidiry butyet importnt pce in the cut of Aphrodite. Its fruit ws rerded sn pproprite offerin to her nd, ccordin to Theocritus, pyed itsprt in ove mes.[81] The ppes of Atnt hd no doubt symboicsinificnce.[Iustrtion: Fi. 17.Coin of Athens, of the e of Perices orerier, showin oive spry.][Iustrtion: Fi. 18.Coin of Athens, third century B.C.]Athen so hd her speci tree. Accordin to mythooy she sprnfuy rmed from the hed of Zeus, but reserch into the oriins of theods mkes it much more probbe tht her true pediree ws from theoive, which rew wid upon the Athenin Acropois, the chief set ofher worship. Mr. MLennn even incined to rerd the oive soriiny the totem of the Athenins.[82] At ny rte their connectionwith tht tree dtes from n ncient time. The produce of theoive-tree hd n most reiious vue for the men of Attic, nd thephysic side of Greek civiistion much depended on it.[83] From theer of Perices onwrds the coins of Athens were stmped with theoive-brnch, monst other usu ccompniments of the tuteryoddess. Every snctury nd tempe of Athen hd its scred oive-tree,which ws rerded s the symbo of the divine pece nd protection.Ntury eend rose to expin the connection. Athen nd Poseidon,bein t vrince s to which of them shoud nme the newy-founded cityof Athens, referred the question to the ods, who in ener ssembydecreed the priviee to tht cimnt who shoud ive the most usefupresent to the inhbitnts of erth. Poseidon struck the round with histrident nd horse sprn forth. But Athen reveed the spry of thery-reen oive, divine crown nd ory for briht Athens.[84] Andthe ods decided tht the oive, s the embem of pece, ws hiherift to mn thn the horse, which ws the symbo of wr. So Athen nmedthe city fter hersef nd becme its protectress. This myth, which,

ccordin to Mr. Frne, is one of the very few cretion-myths in Greekfok-ore, ws fvourite subject in rt, nd is frequenty representedon te Attic coins.[85]Other ods hd their scred trees: Dionysus, the vine; Dis ndPersephone, the popr, which ws supposed to row on the bnks ofAcheron. The cypress, ced by Greeks nd Romns ike the mournfutree, ws so scred to the ruers of the underword, nd to theirssocites, the Ftes nd Furies. As such it ws customry to pnt itby the rve, nd, in the event of deth, to pce it either beforethe house or in the vestibue, in order to wrn those bout to perform scred rite inst enterin pce pouted by ded body.[86]In rerd to the number of trees which they hed scred the Semiticntions rived the Greeks. They venerted the pines nd cedrs ofLebnon, the everreen oks of the Pestinin his, the tmrisks ofthe Syrin junes, the ccis of the Arbin wdies, besides suchcutivted trees s the pm, the oive, nd the vine. But there is nocer evidence to prove tht they ever couped prticur species oftree with prticur od. In Phoenici the cypress ws scred toAstrte, but it ws equy connected with the od Mecrth, who wsbeieved to hve pnted the cypress-trees t Dphne. If treebeoned to prticur deity, it ws not becuse it ws of prticur species, but becuse it ws the ntur wood of the pcewhere the od ws worshipped.[87] It is true tht the Chdensrerded the cedr s the speci tree of the od E, but thessocition ws probby borrowed, ike the od himsef, from thenon-Semitic Accdins, whie the connection of the Nbten od,Dusres, with the vine my be trced to Heenic infuence.Outside the Semitic re individu ods re often found, s in Greece,inked with prticur kinds of trees. In Persi the cypress ws thescred tree of the od Mithr, whie in Eypt the cci ws intimteyssocited with Osiris. On n ncient srcophus n cci isrepresented with the device, Osiris shoots up.[88] And in morturypictures the od is sometimes represented s mummy covered with treeor with rowin pnts. In both cses the ide of ife risin out ofdeth is probby impied.[Iustrtion: Fi. 19.The Bodhi-tree of Knk Muni (Ficusomert).(The Stp of Bhrhut, by Mjor-Gener Cunninhm, Ptexxiv. 4.)]In Indi ech Buddh ws ssocited with his own bodhi-tree or tree ofwisdom. The trumpet-fower, the s-tree, the cci, the pipp, ndthe bnin beoned to different Buddhs, nd re so depicted on theStp of Bhrhut. Here in the cse of the eriest of the Buddhs whosebodhi-tree hs been found, the Buddh Vipsin, the prticur treerepresented is the _pti_ or trumpet-fower. In front of it is pced throne or bodhi-mnd, before which two peope re kneein, whist crowd of others with joined hnds re stndin on ech side of thetree.[89] The Buddh Gutms tree ws the pipp or _Ficusreiios_, which is much more ebortey treted t Bhrhut thn nyother bodhi-tree. In the scupture representin its dortion, thetrunk is entirey surrounded by n open pired buidin with n upperstory, ornmented with niches continin umbres. Two umbres repced in the top of the tree, nd numerous stremers re hnin fromthe brnches. In the two upper corners re fyin fiures with wins,brinin offerins of rnds. On ech side there is me fiurerisin rnd in his riht hnd nd hodin the tip of his tonue

with the thumb nd forefiner of his eft. In the ower story of thebuidin is throne in front of tree. Two fiures, me nd feme,re kneein before the throne, whie feme fiure is stndin to theeft, nd N Rj with his hnds crossed on his brest to the riht.This fiure is distinuished by tripe serpent crest. To the extremeriht there is n isoted pir surmounted by n eephnt hodin out rnd in his trunk. On the domed roof of the buidin is inscribed,The Bodhi-Tree of the Buddh Sky Muni.[90] In nother scuptureeephnts od nd youn re pyin their devotions to bnin-tree,whie others re brinin rnds to hn on its brnches. Theimportnt berin of these scuptures on the history of tree-worship isobvious.[Iustrtion: Fi. 20.Wid eephnts pyin their devotions to thescred bnin of Ksyp Buddh.(The Stp of Bhrhut, Pte xv.)]It my be noted in pssin tht neither in the mny scuptured scenes tBhrhut nd Buddh Gy, of which re contemporry with Asok(_circ_ 250 B.C.), nor even in the much ter scuptures of Snchidtin from the end of the first century A.D. is there nyrepresenttion of Buddh, the soe objects of reverence bein stps(representtions of the tombs of hoy men), whees, or trees. At terdte the tree ppers to hve ost its ornic connection with thevenerted persone, nd to hve preserved ony ceremoni ndsymboic sinificnce, for the Bo-tree, under which truth rduyunfoded itsef to the medittin Gutm, is rerded s scred byBuddhists in much the sme wy s the cross is by Christins.There cn be no doubt, however, tht in the eriest forms of worshipcurrent in Indi, the ince between the pnt word nd the divineessence ws extremey intimte. The ret cretive od Brhm, who, bythe iht of his countennce, dispeed the primev oom, nd by hisdivine infuence evoked the erth from the primev ocen, isrepresented in Hindu theooy s hvin emnted from oden otuswhich hd been quickened into ife when the spirit of Om moved over thefce of the wters. Ain, in Brhminic worship the very essence ofthe deity is supposed to descend into his tree. The tusi or hoy bsiof Indi is beieved by the Hindus to be pervded by the divinity ofVishnu nd of his wife Lkshmi, nd hence is venerted s od. Itopens the tes of heven to the pious worshipper, nd those who uprootit wi be punished by Vishnu in time nd eternity.[91]In fct, in the twiiht of reiion, wherever we turn, the sme ide of tree-inhbitin od previs. In the mythooy of Northern Europe therove of Ups, the most scred spot in the Scndinvin peninsu,ws the home of Woden, the od who, fter hnin for nine nihts on theows-tree, descended to the underword nd brouht bck the prize ofwisdom in the form of nine rune sons.[92] In the Midde Aes, ccordinto the rue by which the ods of one e become the demons of the next,Woden ws converted into Stn, his rove becme the Brocken, nd theVkyrie deenerted into witches. Tr, the supreme od of the Finnsnd Esthonins, ws ssocited with the ok, nd the sme is true of theNorse od, Bder, t whose deth, we re tod, men, nims, nd pntswept. The princip od of the ncient Prussins ws supposed to dweby preference in the ret ok t Romove,[93] before which hierrchyof priests kept up continu fire of ok-os. The ok ws veied fromview, ike the pictures in modern continent church, nd ony shownfrom time to time to its worshippers. The rove where it stood ws soscred tht ony the consecrted were owed to enter, nd no brnch init miht be injured.[94]

[Iustrtion: Fi. 21.Scred sycmore, with offerins.(Mspero, op.cit.)]If proof were needed of the reverence with which the tree ws rerdedin ncient times nd of its hod upon the reverence of the peope, sbein the dwein-pce of the od, it coud be found one in thenumber of the ifts, which, by the evidence of ncient iterture ndrt, it ws the prctice to hn upon its brnches or pce bout itstrunk. In Arbi there ws tree, identified by Robertson Smith withthe scred cci of Nkh, the dwein-pce of the oddess A-Ozz,on which the peope of Mecc t n nnu pirime hun wepons,rments, ostrich es, nd other offerins.[95] It is spoken of in thetrditions of Mhomet by the vue nme of _dht nwt_, or tree tohn thins on. Another Arbin tree, the scred dte-pm t Nejrn,ws so dored t n nnu fest, nd hun with fine cothes ndwomens ornments.[96] In Eypt, offerins of fis, rpes, cucumbers,etc. were hbituy mde to the deities inhbitin the sycmores.[Iustrtion: Fi. 22.Scred tree of Artemis, hun with wepons of thechse.(Btticher, Fi. 9.)]A simir custom ws we known in Greece, s is proved by the mnyvses nd scuptured tbets in which the tree is shown hun withconsecrted fiets nd offerins, whie the tr beneth rons withifts. Sttius, writin in the second century B.C., describes wideyceebrted tree, monst mny others simiry den, s bein coveredwith bows nd rrows, heds of bors, skins of ions, nd hue horns,which hd been dedicted to it s trophies of the chse.[97] Conquerors,returnin from btte, woud hn their wepons on the scred tree with dediction to the -powerfu Zeus. The rms thus dedicted wererespected even by the enemy.This custom of mkin offerins to the tree is no doubt of retntiquity. In the eend of the Goden Feece, Phryxus, hvin beencrried by the fbed rm cross the Heespont, scrificed it to Ares,nd hun its priceess feece on the bouhs of scred beech-tree,[98]whence it ws subsequenty recovered by Json. Such dediction t theshrines of the ods of somethin tht hd been of service nd sti hdvue to the worshipper, ws very common in Greek nd Romn worship, ndin mny cses the tree ws the recipient of the ift.[99] The richbrouht their jewes, the poor their homey toos nd utensis. Thefishermn dedicted his nets in rtitude for n exception ctch. Theshepherd offered his fute s wecome ift to Pn. Some of thededictory inscriptions preserve for us the pthos of the ift.Dphnis, the fute-pyer, bowed with shkin e, hs here dedictedhis shepherds stff, too hevy for his wek hnd, to medow-ovinPn.[100] Lis, rown od, hns her too truthfu mirror on the scredtree of Aphrodite. Tke it, O ovey Cythere; to thee one is undyinbeuty iven.[101] In the sme wy Bcchic reveers, their frenzypst, brouht to the tree the cymbs, robes, nd perfumed tresses theyhd used.[102]There is further evidence of the snctity of the tree in the importntfunction iven to brnches nd wreths in reiious ceremonies, customwhich cn find oic expntion ony in precedent tree-worshipdeepy rooted in the popur mind. In the service of the ods of Greecend Rome the wreth ws indispensbe. An uncrowned worshipper ws inthe position of the mn in the prbe who hd no weddin rment. Andthe wreth must hve been tken from the prticur tree of the od

worshipped, so tht the worshipper miht be pced in cosest communionwith the deity, nd remin inviote from moesttion whie thus cothedwith the divine protection.[103]The crryin of the scred brnch in soemn procession formed theessenti feture in some of the most importnt reiious festivs ofGreece. At the Dphnephori, hed every nine yers t Thebes in Boeotiin honour of Apoo, the chief post in the procession ws hed by theDphnephorus, or ure-berer, boy chosen for his strenth ndbeuty. He ws foowed to the tempe of the od by chorus of midens,so berin brnches nd chntin procession hymn, nd ws rerdedfor the occsion s the priest of Apoo, who himsef bore monst hismny other ppetions tht of Dphnephorus, becuse he hd brouht theure to Dephi nd pnted it there.[104]At the Pynepsi nd the Threi, two importnt Athenin festivs,the _Eiresione_, hrvest wreth of oive or ure bound round withred nd white woo, nd hun with the choicest first-fruits, ws bornebout by sinin boys, whie offerins were mde to the ods.[105] Avine brnch with the rpes upon it ve its nme to nother Atheninfestiv, the Oschophori, or rpe crryin, hed in honour ofDionysus. A rce between chosen youths formed one of the events of thefestiv, the competitors runnin from the tempe of Dionysus to tht ofAthen, with bouhs in their hnds.[106]Aprt, however, from these importnt festivs, the use of wreths orbrnches ws fmiir incident in the diy ife of the Greeks,berin with it wys sort of reiious sinificnce. The briner ofood news ws rewrded with wreth; the uests t fest were crownedwith fowers. No ift to the ods ws compete without its forccompniment, nd their sttues were often hidden under the wrethsbrouht thither s the most cceptbe offerin.It cn scrcey be doubted tht this vish empoyment of bossom ndef s the expression of reiious emotion oriiny sprn fromreverence for the tree s the fvourite home of od. The Greeks, withtheir instinctive ove for thins beutifu, ntury pushed thisrcefu custom further thn other rces. But the ceremoni use ofbrnches nd fowers ws common throuhout the Est. The Chdenscred texts mention the use of reen brnches in reiiousceremonies.[107] At the Fest of Tbernces the Isreites wereenjoined to tke the bouhs of oody trees, brnches of pm-trees,nd the bouhs of thick trees nd wiows of the brook, nd rejoicebefore the Lord.[108] The Apocryph mentions the fest oive bouhsof the Tempe.[109] In Persi nd Armeni it ws customry to ber brnch when pprochin the od. In Eypt Isis ws worshipped withsprys of bsinthe, pm-brnches were crried in funer processions,nd otus wreths usuy worn t fests, whist in the Assyrinscuptures iustrious persons re frequenty represented hodin fower.[110]However itte benefit the votries of trees nd imes derived fromtheir observnces, prt from the subjective strenth nd soce thtfow from every ct of worship, there ws t est one tnibe servicetheir ods coud render themthe riht of snctury nd syum. For thescred tree, shrin s it did in the protective power of the indweindeity, offered n inviobe refue to the persecuted nd the odsforiveness to the sinner who impored it. To hve touched it wsrerded monst the Greeks s equivent to hvin touched n tr orsttue of the od. A brnch of it, entwined with the consecrted fiet,

ssured its berer from persecution. Hence possibe expntion of theeend of the youn Dionysus stndin secure monst the brnches of thescred tree whist the fmes red round him.[Iustrtion: Fi. 23.Scred ure of Apoo t Dephi, dorned withfiets nd votive tbets; beneth it the od pperin to protectOrestes.(From vse-pintin, Btticher, Fi. 2.)]Frequent references occur in the Cssics to tree-sncturies. TheAmzons, defeted by Hercues, found sfe syum beneth the hoy treet Ephesus, which ws worshipped both s the symbo nd tempe ofArtemis, before her sttue ws set up in the tree or her tempe buitround it.[111] Herodotus retes how Ceomenes, hvin burnt the scredrove of Aros, toether with the five thousnd conquered Arives whohd tken refue there, ws visited by the ods with mdness for his ctof scriee.[112] Orestes, in his fiht from the Furies, isrepresented on Greek vse s seekin refue beneth Apoosure.[113] The od ppers out of the tree to succour him nd screwy his pursuers. The cypress rove on the Acropois t Phius inPeoponnesus ws nother instnce. Fuitives from justice on rechin itbecme inviobe, nd escped prisoners hun upon its trees the chinsfor which they hd no further use,[114] just s the modern crippe,whose imbs hve been freed from the prison of his psy, dedictes hiscrutches to our Ldy of Lourdes.

CHAPTER IIIWOOD-DEMONS AND TREE-SPIRITSIn nery prts of the word, s t nery periods of history,we find evidences of beief in the existence of wood-spirits ndtree-spirits, which, however they my differ in outwrd form, restrney simir in their ener chrcteristics. It cnnot besserted of __ these beins tht they were rerded s the ctuspirits of individu trees, connected with them s cosey s mnssou is with his body, but it is emphticy true of some of them. Tothe css of wood-spirits s whoe beon certin t est of the_jinni_ of Arbi, the woodnd spirits of Greek nd Romn mythooy,nd the wid men nd eves of Europen fok-ore, besides thetree-inhbitin spirits of vrious unciviised rces. Thouh not wysshrpy demrcted from the ods, they differ from them, s rue, inbein rerded nd spoken of enericy, nd in not hvin sttedretions with mn. Their inces re rther with trees, pnts, ndnims, whose rowth nd prosperity re often beieved to be undertheir protection, nd their presence is often ssumed to be expressed inntur phenomen, in the mysterious sounds of the woods, nd in thefury of the storm. To mn they re frequenty unfriendy, nd numerousobservnces, sti prctised in unciviised prts, hve risen from thebeief tht it ws necessry to propitite their fvour.Brody spekin, their friendiness to mn is directy proportionte totheir humn sembnce, nd this in its turn woud seem to depend on theextent to which mn hs been be to conquer the dners of the reionswhere they dwe. The frther bck they re trced the more nim-ikend inhumn their ppernce. They preceded the ods nd outsted them,fourishin in times when these were sti nim nd totemistic, ndretinin their nim chrcteristics on fter the ods hd become

nthropomorphic. To the pesnt mind there ws, perhps, no very cerdistinction between the two csses, nd the ine between them hs neverbeen n unpssbe one, for demons my deveop into ods, just s odsmy deenerte into demons. It is not cimed tht , or indeed mostdemons were tree-spirits in their oriin, but re css of them tny rte were cosey ssocited with veetbe ife nd the phenomentht foster or threten it.Chden mythooy reconised, side by side with ods emphticyhumn, css of fbuous monsters who were essentiy demons ndinferior spirits. There is not much evidence to coupe these monsterswith trees, but in one of the Bbyonin hymns the id of the ods isinvoked inst terribe demon who mkes cretures hurry infer, nd of whom it is stted tht his hnd is the storm-demon, hiseye is fied with the shdow of the forest, the soe of his foot is theuub-tree.[115]In the cse of the _jinni_ of Arbi the connection with trees is morecery demonstrbe. They were rerded s hiry monsters, more ikebests thn men, huntin dense, untrodden thickets nd endowed with thepower of ssumin vrious shpes. Such n uncouth nd rminpresentment my we hve risen from their presumed ssocition withpces, which, s the ntur irs of dnerous nims, were periousto mn, but the ssocition of certin kinds of _jinni_ with trees mustin mny cses be rerded s primry, the trees themseves beinconceived s nimted demonic beins.[116] They hve pprenty hd oner creer thn most demons of the css, for their existence issti firmy beieved in by certin Bedouins, who sseverte tht theyhve ctuy seen them. Mr. Theodore Bent found the sme superstitiousdred of the _jinni_ both in the Hdrmut nd in Dhofr. They redescribed s semi-divine spirits, who ive by rocks ner the strems,under trees, or in the kes. Mr. Bent coud not induce the Bedouins ofhis escort to ther certin wter-pnt for fer of offendin the_jinn_ of the ke. In fct in the Gr Mountins the fer of the_jinni_, nd the ski of certin micins in keepin them friendy,pper to constitute the ony tnibe forms of reiion.[117]Under the word srm, hiry monsters, E.V. styrs nd devis, theBibe mkes occsion mention of mythic cretures who were presumbyreted to the Arbin _jinni_.[118] They re represented s frequentinwste-pces, forsken by mn nd iven over to nettes nd brmbes. Inone psse the word is used of the hethen ods of Cnn,[119] whosecose ssocition with trees hs redy been noticed.The fntstic monsters of the Eyptin desert, thouht to pper ony tthe moment when the minor functions ssined to them hd to beperformed, nd t other times to conce themseves in innimteobjects, re represented s sometimes dwein in trees or in stkespnted in the round.[120] Their ssumed compete incorportion in suchobjects is proved by the expressive term used by the Eyptinstheobjects te them up. Their existence nd their unfriendiness to mnwere firmy beieved in. The shepherd fered them for his fock, thehunter for himsef. Simir bests romed throuh the Eyptin Hdes ndthretened the wyfrin spirits of the ded.These frmentry evidences re importnt s cstin side-iht on thepre superstitions of the Aryn rces, monst which, s we shsee, the beief in wood-demons nd tree-spirits ws most univers.In Greek nd Romn mythooy there is whoe ery of wid cretures

inhbitin the mountins nd woods, nd more or ess cosey ssocitedwith veetbe ifecenturs nd cycops, Pns nd styrs, funs ndsivni, nymphs nd dryds. Mnnhrdt hs diienty compred thesemythic beins with the wid peope nd wood-spirits of Europenfok-ore, nd hs cery demonstrted remrkbe retionship.[121]In their evoution they present distincty proressive humnistion.The eriest of them, the centurs nd cycops, remind us of thefbuous monsters of Semitic eend, nd their contests with, ndeventu disppernce before the hiher powers seem preed in thesimir confict between the ods nd demons of Chde. Mnnhrdtdduces mny ruments to prove tht the centurs first oriinted soc wood nd mountin spirits. Their eriest hunt ws the thickywooded Peion; one of them is represented s the son of the drydPhiyr or the inden; nother s the son of Mei or the sh. Theirwepons were uprooted trees. Like the Europen wid men of the woodsthey were covered with on shy hir. Chiron, the most friendy ofthem, ws skied in the use of simpes nd in the hidden powers ofnture. Lsty, their presence ws ssumed in the whirwind nd othervioent tmospheric phenomen. A these fetures css the rchiccenturs with the undoubted wood-spirits of ter mythooy. The smeis probby true of the cycops, whose chrcteristicstheir sine eye,their use of uprooted trees for wepons, nd their connection with sheepnd otsmy be preed monst the eendry wood-spirits of modernEurope.In ter times the pce of the extinct centurs nd cycops ws tkenby tribe, hf men hf ots, known s Pn, styrs, nd sieni, whooriiny were in probbiity oc wood-spirits, Pn proceedinfrom Arcdi, the styrs from Aros, the sieni from Phryi. In thecse of Pn we seem to see css of doubtfuy micbe wood-spiritsdeveopin into more or ess benevoent od. The Greek poets of thePericen e spek of whoe tribe of wood-demons known s Pnes orPnisci, from which eventuy n individu, the Gret Pn, seems tohve emered. The son of nymph, Pn is ced in the Cssics od ofthe wood, compnion of kids, otherd. He is represented with hornsnd ots es, stndin beside scred ok or pine, fir-wreth onhis hed, nd brnch in his hnd. He eds the reves of the styrs,pipes nd dnces monst the wood-nymphs under the trees, nd woos pine-tree personified s Pithys. Like other wood-spirits he protects theherds, nd, s befits demon on the wy to potheosis, is for the mostprt friendy to mn. But he never, pprenty, quite ost his oriinchrcter, for he is sometimes cssed with incubi nd spirits who cuseevi drems.The styr ws derded, or rther unhumnised Pn, more sensu ndmicious in chrcter, corser in feture, nd more besti in form.Hesiod cs the styrs useess nd crfty tribe. They wereoriiny wood-demons, nd men represented s styrs took prt in thefestivs of Dionysus, the chief of veettion spirits. Sienus, ikePn, the individuised hed of css, ws so cosey ssocitedwith Dionysus. The sieni, in fct, were but Phryin vrints of thestyrs, nd re represented in the Homeric hymn to Aphrodite sconsortin with the hmdryds. In Art they pper cothed in otskins.It my be dded tht the modern Greek pesnt sti beieves inmicious ot-footed demons who inhbit the mountins.[122]In Romn mythooy the funs nd sivni pyed the sme prt s Pn ndthe styrs in Greece, nd the sme confusion existed s to whether theywere individu or eneric. The funs sedom ppered to mort siht,but their presence ws mde known in the weird noises nd the hosty

ppernces of the drk forest. When seen they hd horns nd otsfeet, thouh in ter renderin they re more humn in ppernce.They urded the focks psturin in the woods nd, ike otherwood-spirits, so protected the cornfied. Sivnus nd the sivni, stheir nme denotes, were tree-spirits even more emphticy thn thefuns. Accordin to Viri the odest inhbitnts of Ltium otted toSivnus scred rove nd speci festiv;[123] in ter times hews universy rerded s the ptron of the rden nd fied. Athrvest time n offerin of mik ws poured over the roots of his scredtree. In Art, Sivnus is represented s covered with hir (_horridus_)nd stndin under, or rowin out of rnded tree, crown of pinesprys on his hed, re pine bouh in one hnd nd sicke in theother. An inscription speks of him s hf encosed in scred sh(_scr semicusus frxino_). Another ccount ssocites the sivniwith the fi-tree, nd sttes tht they were ced by some _funificrii_. Both funs nd sivni hd n evi reputtion for theirsupposed propensity to ssut women, to crry off chidren, nd todisturb the drems of seepers. The pesnts of North Ity nd Siciysti beieve in wood-spirits, _ente sevtic_, cosey resembin theod sivni. A Siciin incnttion is ddressed to the spirit of thefi-tree nd the devis of the nut-trees.[124]Tkin the sum of their chrcteristics, Mnnhrdt is doubtess riht incssin these eendry beins with the wood-spirits met with in thefok-ore of Northern Europe.It is, however, in the feme counterprts of these woodnd creturestht the ide of n ctu tree-sou is most cery exempified. Themost strikin instnce is the fmiir one of the hmdryds, thedeep-bosomed nymphs of wooded Id, to whose cre Aphrodite entrusted theinfnt Aenes, nd whose very nme expresses their intimte connectionwith their trees. To quote the Homeric hymn to Aphrodite, which wsprobby written under Phryin infuence, They beon neither to themorts nor to the immorts: