Wichita eagle., 1888-08-08
LEGENDS OF TREES.
WHAT is SAID OF THEM IN MYTHO-
LOGICAL STORY.


The Tree of L.ife-The Morse World Tree.
The Famous Soma Tree-Indian Legends.
A Classical TaIe-Groves OF the Gods.
Druids.
The tree figures in the earliest cosmogonies.
Ia the Garden Of Eden stood the tree of life,
whose fruit would have bestowed perpetual
youth upon the first pair, and near it was the
tree of knowledge, fatal TO them and to the
destiny of man According to medieval
legend, the former was transplanted to
Abraham's garden, thousand years after
the fall of man, and an angel came down to
tellflim that upon it the Redeemer would be
sacrificed after having descended from it.
a Scotch tradition assigns to the apple tree
the honor of being the tree of knowledge
In Morse cosnogony, the tree plays a still
more important part. 1t is here the world
treo-Y ggdrasil-whose foliage is the clouds,
the stars its fruit and the Sea its bed. At its
foot bubbles the fountain of life, and from
Its branches fire was brought to man. Under
it sit the three Nornes who weave the events
Of mans life Its roots extend into the highest
heaven and into the deepest he'll This tree
was an ash, and another legend says Odin
created Adam from the ash and Eve from
The elm.
Like this is tho famous soma tree, which
stands on an island in the middle of lake,
guarded by fish. From it is distilled the
soma or anita, the drink Of immortality.
Near it stands ansther tree, called the invio-
late, bearing the seeds Of all plants and
flowers In its branches are perched the
eagles. When one rises thousand branches
break OF, scattering the seed over the earth.
Like the Morse world tree, the intelligent
oak of Dodona had its roots in deepest hell,
and a fountain at its foot gave forth the
oracular sayings Of Jupiter. This evergreen
oak spoke its thoughts, even when cut down,
for of it was the intelligent Prov Of the Argos
made
The stree of life" was not merely figure
of speech III ancient belief Many Greek and
Persian families claimed descent from trees.
Cadnus sprang from tree, the AchameAidB
claimed a similar descent, and even Mars,
according to one legend, was the offspring Of
a tree Pliny says there stood before the
temple of Quirinus, at Rome, two myrtle
treeS-one the patrician, the other the
plebian-and that, as these orders Of society
grew or diminished in Importance, its tree
tourished or pined
Among savage tribes the tree Is often q
god The Ojibways thought certain trees
were deities, and made offerings to them.
The Dacotahs worshiped many trees, espec-
tally medicine wood. Carolina Indians ven
Grated the coupon, or Wild fig tree; the Mayas
recognized divinity in trees; the Tepanecs
wcrshiped them, and Darwin saw Il tribe
which venerated = tree, the home Of deity
called Nallechu. They poured hbations
through n hole bored in it, and around it
Were the bones Of horses that had been sacri-
feed. Indian tribes generally worshiped
trees, and some thought that they sprang
from them. Darien tribes descended from
trees. ana some of the Aztecs claimed their
origin from two trees in a wooded gorge.
As the tree was the origin of life, it was
also thought the home of souls after life was
ended Empedocles says souls of tho highest
virtue passed into trees. The Old classical
tale Of Philemon and Baucis assigned them
final home in trees as reward for charity
shown 10 ZeGs, Another tradition says the
penitent Myrrha became tree, and the
drops which fall from the bark (rnyrrh are
her tears Dante traversed o lcafesS wood,
in the bark Of every tree of which was i'm
prisoned Il suicide, and he spoke TO Pietro-
9elle Vigne. The Greek DryadS were tabled
TO have their abodes in trees Ojibway In
dams thought trees possessed souls, and
never cut them, some fearing to pain them
In many places in Germany trees are thought
10 be the first aboies of infants.
The tree Of knowledge also occurs In popu-
lar lore. In north Germany, when the mas
ter dies, some one must go into the garden
and stand under tree and say: Master is
dead, for, if the tree is not informed, there
VIII be another death. An Ojibway tale
represents tree as whispering tale of love
to a certain maiden who dedicates herself TO
it, dies, and is often seen wandering in the
forest According to Maori myth, heaven
and earth were once joined in an embrace SO
close that their children had no place to
dwell But Taneinahuta, father of trees,
pushed them asunder with MS branches.
These ideas concerning the divinity of trees
led 10 their worship in primitive times.
In the deepest groves abide the gods.
Primitive nations inhabited the forest, and
the tree was their first shelter. The center
OF the early Greek as well as of the Teutonio
dwelling was tree, around which spread
the house. Groves were the first temples,
and the Gothic church is but a grove turned
into stone. II old German dialects temple
and grove are the same word. Tree worship
was the foundation of Gerlnanic and Celtic
religion. Down 70 the introduction of Chris
tianiyy in the north, the dieties were wor-
SHIPPED III sacred groves, aud on the boughs
Of the trees hung the heads of sacrificed ami
mails As hate as the eleventh century trees
were worshiped in many places. The
Druids, as is well known, worshiped and
sacrificed il groves, and the oak was sacred
tree 10 them ). BasSete in Globe-Demo-
eraA