Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1897-01-25

Una grun des Lebens goldner Baum.
 Faust
 The sacred books of the Baddhists provo that in the early days of their i religion a question which deeply agi- tated the minds of the learned was whether or not the trees had souls, says a writer in the Philadelphia Ledger. The controversy ragged strongly, for the belief was widespread that i'll iniuring or mutilating tree proportionato pain was inflicted on it's spirit s nature.
 The same idea ereeps out again and again i'll Greek and Roman mythology, and the folklore of every country and people in Europe is full of it, and at such seasons as Christmas these primi- tive customs arc actually praotieed.
 The numerous German and English songs and offerings to the apple trees are still heard and seen on every Christ mas. Ovid in his Metamorphoses' tells the beautiful story of Erisiothon's i'm. pious attack on the grove of Ceres and how the Greek dryads and hamadryads had Iheir lives linked to a tree, and as "this withera and dies they themselves fall away and cease to be. Any injury to bough or twig is felt as 0 wound, and wholesale heWing down puts an end to them at once. A cry of anguish es- eapea them V hen the cruel ax comes neer. ''
 It was this established belief that produced such lines as:
 Loud through the air resounds the woodman's
 stroke
 When. loi voice BrooRs from tho grooming
 oak,
 Spare, spare my life, trembling virgin sparel Oh, listen to the hanadryads E pfayeTi
 No longer let that fearful ax resound.
 Preserve the tree to which my life is bound. See, from the bark my blood In torrents flows. faint. sink, perish from your blows.
 Accepting, then, this prevalent faith in the actual life end soul of the trees, we must pass on to the subjects on hand tho golden bough or mistletoe-the classic gloomy vale and it's locality, wherein the legend of Balder the Beau tiful and his death by the mistletoe shaft are in touch with the ancient doc trines of tree worship. U ia of5aa stated that Virgil gave this name of tho golden bough to the mtstle- toe. whereas he only compares it with the mistletoe.
 fn the sixth book of the ".Eneid,' he tells us how two doves, guiding Rneas to the gloomy vale, in whose depth grew the golden bough, alighted upon a tree whence ehone | fiokering gleam of gold. As in the woods in winter cold. the mistletoe-a plant not native to it's tree-is green with fresh leaves and oko bolee. Such seemed upon the shady oak the laafy gold, so rustled in the gentle broezo the golden leaf. :" Virgil does not say 1t Is the mistletoe, and yet what else? Its identification is perfect.
 The poet locates tho gloomy vale in the neighborhood of Lake Avernus, but Italian tradition. as recorded by Seryi- Us, points to the grove of Nemi, Arioia, Now the story of this Arician grove is embodied in Maeaulay's lines:
 Tho still, glagsy lake that sleeps Beneath Aricia's trees ! Those trees in whose dim shadow
 The ghaStly priest doth reign,
 The priest who slew the slayer And shall himself be slain.
 In days Of antiquity in this beautiful grove grew wonderful tree, round which proving figure, sword in hand, seemed to be constantly expeetant of an attack from some enemy. Yet he was the priest of the grove, and. by the or l der of his office, he would some day be killed by tho claimant who wished to succeed him. To gain his position he had slain his predecessor, and. ill course of time, must himself be slain. Such is brief context of Strabo's version. The branches of the tree might not be brQ- ken, except by a runaway slave. This bcugh gave him tho right to challenge the priest, and, if successful, to assume the title of liking of tho wood. " Ira dition tells that this was the bough which AEneas pluolzed before he jour. neyed to the lower world.
 In the familiar story from Morse mythology of Balder the Beautiful we recall the facts that he first dreamed and had great foreboding of evil, yet he belonged neither to earth nor heaven. His fellow gods. anxious to protect him, took an oath from fire, cir, earth and water, stones, trees and plants, sick nesses and poison, birds. creeping things aud four footed beasts that they should not injure Balder
 Being thus invulnerable, the gods amused themselves by throwing stones and logs ct him. Then Loki, the mis- chief maker, discovered that east ot Walhalla grew the mistletoe that seemed too young and innocent to swear. !" Pulling it, he placed branch in blind Hodur's hands, who threw and struck Balder dead. Then his body was placed on bis great shtp Ringhor, the funeral pyro was lit, his faithful wife. Nanna-Vhose tears had fallen on the fatal branch and been turned into pearly berries--and his warhorse were burned with him as the ship drlfeeo away toward the northern sky cage,
 How, vhon y7e recall that the sacred sacrjfjciui fires wero kindled periodical 7aI,f=, ISy nnd olpQrlV the