Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1897-06-04
GOLDEN MISTLE1lOE,s
THE WONDERFUL TREE IN A BEAU
 TlFuL GROVE.

Legends of the Gloomy Vale and Death of Balder the Beautiful-Ancients Be. lieved That Trees Could Feel pain-Ro- man and Greek Mythology.
 und gFun dss Lsbens goldner Baum.
 Faust.
 The sacred books of the Buddhists prove that in the early days of their religion question which deeply agl- tated the minds of the learned was whether CT not the trees had souls, says a writer in the Philadelphia Ledger. The controversy ragged strongly, for the belief was widespread that in injuring or mutilating tree proportiouate pain was inflicted on it's spirits nature.
 The same idea creeps out again and again in 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 are actually practiced.
 The numerous German and English songs and offerings to the apple trees are still heard and seen on every Christi mas. Ovid in his Metamorphoses" tells the beautiful story of Erisicthon's i'm. pioua attack on the grove of Ceres and how the Greek dryads and hamadryads had their lives linked to q tree, and as this withors and dies they themselves fall away and cease to be. Any injury to bough or twig is felt as a wound, and wholesale hewing down puts an end to them at once. 4 cry of anguish es- rapes them when the cruel ax comes near. "
 It was this established belief that produced such lines as:
 Loud through the air resounds the woodlands stroke,
 When loi a voice breaks from the grooming Spare, spare my life = trembling virgin sparei Oh, listen to the hamadryad's prayer! No longer let that fearful resound. Preserve the tree to which my life is bound. See, from the bark my blood i'll torrents tlows. faint. sink perish from your blows.
 Accepting, then, this prevalent faith i'll the actual life and soul of the trees, we must pass on to the subjects on hand the golden bopgh or mistletoe-the classic gloomy vale and it's locality, wherein the legend of Balder the Beau tiful and lis death by tho mistletoe shaft are in touch with tho ancient doc trines Of tree worship.
 It is often stat ed that Virgil gave this name of the golden hough to the mistle- toe, whereas he only compares it with the mistletoe
 . fn the sixth beck of tho "Aaneid" ke tells us how two doves, guiding Tncas 10 the gloomy vale, i'll whose depth grew the golden bough. alighted upon a tree whence shone ficlsering gleam of gold. As il tho woods iii winter cold. the mistletoe-..a plant not native to its tree-is green with fresh leaves and twines it's yellow berries about the boles. Such seemed upon the shady oak the leafy gold, so rustled i'll the gentla breeze the golden leaf Virgil does noi say it is the mistletoe, and yet what else? It's Identification is perfect,
 The poet locates the gloomy vale k the neighborhood of Lake Avernus, but Italian tradition, as recorded by Servi- us, points to the grove of Nemi, Aricia. Now the story of this Arician grove is embedded ill Maeaulay's lines: The still, glassy lake that sleeps Beneath Arieia trees Those trees i'll whose dim shadow
 The ghaStly priest doth reign,
 Tho priest who slew the slayer And shall himself be slain
 In days of antiquity in this beautiful grove grew wonderful tree, round which prowling figure, sword in hand, seemed to be constantly expectant of an attack from some enemy. Yet he was the priest of the grove, and. by the or der of his office, he would some day be kiIled by the claimant who wished to Eueeeed him. To gain his position he