CHAPTER XX 



LEGENDS OF FIR AND PINE TREES 



" Ye who love the haunts of Nature, 

 Love the sunshine of the meadow, 

 Love the shadow of the forest, 

 Love the wind among the branches, 

 And the rain-shower and the snow-storm, 

 And the rushing of great rivers 

 Through their palisades of pine-trees. 

 And the thunder in the mountains, 

 Whose innumerable echoes 

 Flap like eagles in their eyries — 

 Listen to these wild traditions." 



Longfellow: T/f)^ Song of Hiawatha. 



Pines and Firs^ sombre sentinels of the woods, are 

 more interwoven with myth and legend than any 

 other tribe of trees, and their stately grandeur has 

 appealed especially to the hearts of men through all 

 the ages. 



In olden days the fir was always called the " Fire- 

 tree," being the most inflammable of all woods, 

 the reason being that it is so full of resin that upon 

 being lighted it will burn like a torch. Tradition 

 tells us that the ancient Egyptians adopted a fir 

 cone as the symbol of their goddess Isis, and in 

 the Northern countries the fir occupies a very 

 respected position: he is the king of the forest 

 trees, and thus in the old folk-lore the genii of the 

 forest are always depicted with an uprooted fir tree 



in their hands. These genii make their dwellings 



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