ORNAIVIENTALS. 



WHAT IS SAID OF THEM IN MYTHOLOGICAL STORY. 



THE TREE OF LIFE — THE NORSE WORLD TREE — THE FAMOUS SOMA 

 TREE — INDIAN LEGENDS — A CLASSICAL TALE- 

 GROVES OF THE GODS — DRUIDS. 



The tree figures in the earHest cosmogonies. In the Garden of 

 Eden stood the tree of life, whose fruit would have bestowed perpetual 

 youth upon the first pair, and near it was the tree of knowledge, fatal to 

 them and to the destiny of man. According to a mediaeval legend, the 

 former was transplanted to Abraham's garden, a thousand years after 

 the fall of man, and an angel came down to tell him that upon it the 

 Redeemer would be sacrified after having descended from it. A Scotch 

 tradition assigns to the apple tree the honor of being the tree of knowl- 

 edge. 



In Norse cosmogony, the tree plays a still more important part. It is 

 here the world tree — Yggdrasil — whose foliage is the clouds, the stars its 

 fruit and the sea its bed. At its foot bubbles the fountain of life, and 

 from its branches fire was brought to man. Under it sit the three Nornes 

 who weave the events of man's life. Its roots extend into the highest 

 heaven and into the deepest hell. This tree was an ash, and another 

 legend says Odin created Adam, from the ash and Eve from the elm- 



