WHAT OTHERS SAV. 423 



Like this is the famous Soma tree, which stands on an island in the 

 middle of a lake, guarded by fish. From it is distilled the soma or 

 amita, the drink of immortality. Near it stands another tree, called the 

 inviolate, bearing the seeds of all plants and flowers. In its branches 

 are perched the eagles. When one rises a thousand branches break off, 

 scattering the seed over the earth. 



Like the Norse world tree, the intelligent oak of Dodona had its 

 roots in deepest hell, and a fountain at its foot gave forth the oracular 

 sayings of Jupiter. This evergreen oak spoke its thoughts, even when 

 cut down, for of it was the intelligent prow of the Argos made. 



The "tree of life" was not merely a figure of speech in ancient be- 

 belief. Many Greek and Persian families claim descent from trees. Cad- 

 mus sprang from a tree, the Achamenidae claimed a similiar descent, and 

 even Mars, according to one legend, was the offspring of a tree. Pliny 

 says there stood before the temple of Quirinus, at Rome, two myrtle 

 trees — one the patrician, the other the plebeian — and that, as these or- 

 ders of society grew or diminished in importance, its tree flourished or 

 pined. 



Among savage tribes the tree is often a god. The Ojibways thought 

 certain trees were deities, and made offerings to them. The Dacotahs 

 worshipped many trees, especially medicine wood. Carolina Indians 

 venerated the Youpon, or wild fig tree; the Maj^as recognized a divinity 

 in trees; the Tepanecs worshipped them, and Darwin saw a tribe which 

 venerated a tree, the home of a deity called VVallechu. They poured 

 libations through a hole bored in it, and around it were the bones of 

 horses that had been sacrificed. Indian tribes generally worshipped 

 trees, and some thought that they sprang from them. Darien tribes 

 descended from trees, and some of the Aztecs claimed their origin from 

 two trees in a wooded gorge. 



As the tree was the origin of life, it was also thought the home of 

 souls after life was ended. P^mpcdocles says souls of the highest virtue 

 passed into trees. The old classical tale of Philemon and Baucis 

 assigned them a final home in trees as a reward for charity shown to 

 Zeus. Another tradition says the penitent Myrrha became a tree, and 

 the drops which fall from the bark (myrrh) are her tears. Dante 

 traversed a leafless wood, in the bark of every tree of which was impris- 

 oned a suicide, and he spoke to Pietrodelle Vigne. The Greek Dryads 

 were fabled to have tluir abodes in trees. Ojibway Indians thought 

 trees possessed souls, and never cut them, some fearing to pain them. 

 In many places in Germany trees are thought to be the first abodes of 

 infants, 



