St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1896-05-01

Sous, hoiu oheif CouncllS, ana from ltS
wood they made man. 1t has three
roots, the first extending to heaven, the
second to the dwelling place of the giants
mighty in magic, and the third down to
the under world, where the monster Md
hogg who leads mankind into evil
valnly gnaws it, Under these roots are
Urdar, the fountain of life; Miner,
Che we'll in which lie wit and wisdom,
and the spring Hvergelmir. Beside the
first of these waters sit the three fateful
Nornir, who are Urdhr, Verdandi and
Skuld Past, Present and Future) Yg-
drasyl is the symbol of universal life.
The dew that falls from its branches
upon the earth calls all things into ex.
istence and impels all changes Of form
IN inanimate matter.
The legend of the Tibetan tree Fam
pun represents it also as having three
roots-one leading to heaven, a second
to the lower regions, and third keep
ing midway on earth and toward the
east.
Those two are perhaps the oldest leg
endary forms, for the Hindoo Gas.
watha' already shows remodeling and
philosophic refinement. 1t is represent.
ed as growing with its roots upward in
the invisible world Of spirit and its
branches spreading out to fill the visible
cosmical universe below And the pyra-
mids are supposed by some to be a SYM
bolical expression of the same idea, the
origin or root of all things in spirit and
their manifestation by diffuse differ
entiation-as branches spread Or the
pyramids base-on the material planes.
To this day, the Fob chou, or great
teacher of the doctrines of Buddha Fob,
on the mountain Kouin-l long sang, in
southwest China, near the Tibetan line,
sits when producing his greatest mira
cles beneath sacred tree of incalcula-
BILE age, known as the Sung Ming -Shu,
or tree of knowledge and tree of life,
the material symbol of the spiritual
Ygdrasyl or Zampun.
Not only one tree, but whole race
of trees, the Arasa- Mara1n, or banyan
trees, is held scared by the Hindoos, for
the reason that, according to the legend,
Vishnu, in one of his incarnations,
abode beneath the shelter of a banyan
tree, and there taught philosophy and the
sciences. And the DO tree is vener
ated by Buddhists because it sheltered
Gautama Buddha on the night of his H.
Elimination
As the imagination of humanity de-
files as readily as it adores, seeking to re-
fleet itself i'll nature. so evil as we'll as
good appropriates to it's uses certain
among the monarchs of the forest. The
bloody and obscene orgies of the sorcer-
ers among certain African tribes, brutal
debasements Of the 'tree and serpent
worship" are only held under certain
trees supposedly preferred by the evil
spirits whose Precipitation is desired.
And like selection is made in Haiti,
where those rites have been transplanted
under the name of "Obeah. " AS might
be supposed, the trees thus signalized
are such as secrete powerful poisons.
The superstitions concerning trees,
even in civilized countries, are many,
all based on the hypothesis of sympa-
thetic relationship between human and
arboreal life. The belief is widespread
in Europe that persons have been known
to fall sick when trees planted on their
natal days and named after them have
been uprooted, and that they have even
died when life went out of the trees al
together also, it is affirmed that trees
SO planted have withered and died when
death claimed those after whom they
had been named.
In Russia, from time immemorial, on
Trinity day, in the month of May, girls
have practiced form of divination by
setting afloat on running waters wreaths
made by themselves from the branches
of trees. She whose wreath sank quick
ly would soon die, while the lucky one
whose wreath floated would marry and
live. Such at least was the belief, and
certainly some died while others lived.
But the strangest of all stories about
trees is that told by the Able Hue con-
corning that wonderful Tibetan tree
called the Kounbourn," which, ac-
cording to the legend sprang from the
hair of KAPPA, one of the incarnations
of Buddha. He affirms that each of its
leaves bears, when it opens, in ancient
Sanscrit, word or religious sentence.
These inscriptions are exquisitely per-
feet even in the yet unopened leaves.
The bark bears other characters, not
merely upon the surface, but in its sue
cessive lamina, and each layer has its
distinct characters, not like those out
side Or inside it, The history of creation
and the substance of the Buddhistic sa-
cred books are said to be thus displayed
OH and in the tree. Alas, this tree will
live nowhere but in Tibet, and canpot
be multiplied by cutting.
]. H. CONNOLLY.