The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1890-11-29
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LEGENDS OE TREES.
Why the Palm, the Oak and the Ash Were
Held to lie Sacred.

Why the Palm, the Oak and tho Ash wer,
Held to BE Sacred.
The palm, the oak and the ash are
according to timely and interesting
article, the three trees which, since
times immemorial, were held to be
sacred trees. The first among them
which figures on the oldest monuments
and pictures of the Egyptians and
Assyrians, is the date palm (Ihgntr doc
h1Uera), which was tho symbol of the
world and of creation, and the fruit oi
which filled the faithful with divine
strength and prepared them for the
pleasures of immortality. Honor,
said Manomet, "thy paternal aunt, the
date palm, for in Paradise it was ere.
ated out of the same dust of the ground, v
Another Mahometan tradition of later
period says that when Adam left Para.
disc he was allowed to take with him
three things-a myrtle, because 1t was
the most lovely and the most scented
| flower OF the earth; a wheat ear, be-
cause 1t had most nourishment; and q
date, because it is the most glorious
fruit of the earth This date from Para.
disc was, in some marvellous way,
W unc lleJdL' lIOul hdNc Souio
all the date-palms in the world, and AL
lah destined it to be the food of all the
true believers who shall conquer every
country where the date-palm grows.
The Jews and the Arabs again looked
upon the same tree as a mystical alle-
CORY of human beings; for, like them,
it dies when its head (the summit) is
cut off, and when limb (branch) is
once cut off it does not grow again.
Those who know can understand the
mysterious language of the branches
on days when there is no wind, when
whispers of present and future events
are communicated by the tree. Abra-
ham Of old, the Rabbis say, understood
the language of the palm.
The oak was always considered a
"holy" tree by our own ancestors, and
above all, by the nations of the north of
Europe. When Winifred, of Devon
shire (6sO-754 A. d., went forth on his
wanderings through Germany to preach
the gospel, one of his first actions was
to cut down the giant oak in Saxony,
which was dedicated to Thor and wor-
SHIPPED by the people from far and near.
But when he had nearly felled the oak,
and when the people were cursing and
threatening the saint, supernatural
storm swept over it, seized the summit,
broke every branch aad dashed it, quasi
Superni m0tuS SdltdtSo, with n tremendous
crash to the ground. The heathens ac-
knowledged the marvel and many of
them were converted there and then.
But the saint built chapel of the wood
of this very oak and dedicated 1t to St
Peter.
But the sacred oaks do not seem to
have always done their duty. Thus,
for instance, famous oak in Ireland
was dedicated to the Irish saint Column
ban, one of tho peculiarities of the
tree being that whoever carried a piece
of its wood in his mouth, would never
be hanged. After time, however, the
holy oak of Kenmare was destroyed in
storm. Nobody dared gather the
wood; except gardener, who tanned
some shoe leather with the bark; but
when he wore the shoes made of this
leather for the first time he became a
leper, and was never cured.
The Celts and Germans and Scandi-
navians, again, worshiped the mountain
ash (Fraxlnus), and it is especially in
the religious myths of the latter that
the "Aslsr Yggdrasil," plays a promi-
nent part. To them it was the holiest
among trees, the world tree" which
eternally young and dewy, represented
heaven, earth, and hell. According
to the Edda, the ash Yggdrasil was an
evergreen tree. A specimen of it (says
Adam of Bremen) grew at Upsala, in
front of the great temple, and another
in Dithmarschen, carefully guarded by
railing, for it was, in a mystical, way
connected with the fate of the country.
When Dithmarschen lost its liberty the
tree withered, but a magpie, one of the
best prophesying birds of the North,
came and built its nest on the withered
tree and Matched five little ones, all per-
fectly white, as a sign that at some fu-
ture time tho country would regain its