The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-11-05
MYSTIC TREES,

Persian Eden-The BO-Tree or Bud
 dhism.
 Authorities are convinced now that the "Tree of Llfe,' which figures so commonly on Assyrian sculpture, was the date palm. Formerly they thought 1t a pine, and drew interesting conclu- slons from the errorI For the Assyri- ans borrowed their mystic tree from the Azkads, and if it were a pine the fact would prove that those wonderful people had migrated from the northern hills. But the date, says the London Standard, proves nothing, of course In point of fact, the object so delineat- ed generally resembles a post infested with snakes, which curl outward with a graceful bend at due intervals, giving an effect much like that of the "Greek honeysuckle ornament" When we are told that such 8 device represents a tree the species becomes an absolutely open question. But an Akkadian hymn assures us that "in Eridu palm tree stood, overshadowing. In holy place did 1t become green.' Its root, how ever, was blue as lapis lazuli stretch ing towards the deep. Before the god Ea was it's growth, in Eridu teeming with fertility. Its seat was in the cen- tral place of Earth; it's foliage was the couch of Ziklzim, the Primeval Mother; but the heart of it's holy house, which spreads shade like a forest, hath no man entered. This is the home of the Mighty Mother who passes across the sky. In the midst of it was the god Tammuz."
 Here we have doubtless a portion of the legend preserved in Genesis. The tree, was watched by two Kirubi (cher- ubim, in the Hebrew), winged creatures with heads sometimes of men, some times of eagles. In their hands is an object which Dr. Tyler showed to be a cluster of date blooms for fertilizing the palma process which the Egyp- tian tourist may observe at this day in the season. There was another tree in the Akkadian Paradise even more in- teresting. 'Tt might be described as the Tree of Knowledge" says Profes- sor Sayce, and very striking are the hints we gather about it from frag- ment of the tablets known as the "Cre- ation Series" The morsel begins
 command established in the garden of the god. The Asnan tree they ate, they broke in two. The stalk they destroyed, the moist juice which injures the body. Great is their sin. Themselves they exalted. To Mego- dach, their redeemer, he (the god Lae) appointed their fate" No more can be deciphered, and nothing that bears up- on this episode has yet been found elsewhere. Cuneiform scholars have long been seeking the Akkadian yer rfoy, oP +}a ctOy.y pf +ha Fall
 But the tree of life" takes its place In other antique religions. The Per sians had their Eden, which, curiously enough, the gods enlarged successively to meet the increase of the population. After widening the boundaries there several times, the deities perceived that there was no end to their work so they made, as one may say, select paradise, two miles square, and intro- duced men and women, sheep, oxen and dogs, "the greatest, best and finest on the earth" and the seeds of fire" Then Yima sealed up the gates with a golden ring, and those twice-blessed morta1s lived happy for ever after wards, while the inhabitants of the abandoned Eden were lost apparently among the wicked outsiders" The white homa was the Persian tree of life. Upon it sat the saena bird, whose incessant fluttering caused its seeds to drop But from the summit of the Hara-Berezaita Mountain the precious bird kamros watched the tree, caught the seeds before they touched the earth, flew off with them and scattered them over the world. It would show a mean and cavilling spirit to ask how this use- ful fowl contrived to watch eternaly from the mountain-top and retrieve ob- jects falling without cessation, while at the same time it flew away with them into space.
 But the Hindus also have their Eden and it's tree, or rather two trees, like the Akkads. The former is called Ida yarsha, the Garden of Ida, wife of Ma nu and mother of mankind-Eve, in short. Here is the famous Mount Meru, center of the world and pivot upon which hangs the sky. Four rivers flow from it, and at their common source stand the trees kalpadruma and para jita No one has suggested the species of either though representations of them abound. For the Hindu mythol- ogy is all alive, and Mount Meru, with the trees upon 1t, are carried in process sion at the Hoodee, the feast of the Vernal Equinox. At marriage ceremo- nies also they appear. But there is no vulgar earth or stone In the mountain, nor timber in the trees. Gold and sil- yer are the materials most approved, but colored paper suffices at need. Our own forefathers had their mystic tree, Iggdrasil. The gods. dwelt in Asgard, which rose above Midgard, the abode of Mankind, which, in it's turn overhung Nihheim, the world of the dead. Igg- drasil sprang from the center of Mid- gard, pushed its trunk through Asgard, and spread it's branches over the whole heaven. while one of its three roots de- seemed to Nifheim, where the serpent Nidhog gnawed it without ceasing. In the branches the gods held their coun- cil. An eagle, which "knows many things,' sat upon the "limb;" it bore the hawk Vedrfolnir between Its eyes. The squirrel Ratatosk ran up and down conveying opprobrious messages fraE-l the eagle to the serpent. Under the tree lived the three maidens Nornir, the Fates. We vaguely perceive that Igg- drasil filled more important place in +,o ,o,+bo,, ,,oyfbo1no-v bo would an-