LEGENDS OF FIR AND PINE TREES 183 



unfortunate. Horace, Virgil, and Ovid all refer to 

 it as a tree both gloomy and funereal. 



But in spite of all this, the cypress has been most 

 highly esteemed as an undying tree, both evergreen 

 and odorous, and a tree of which the wood, like the 

 cedar, is incorruptible, and proverbial for its dura- 

 bility. It was on this account that the people of 

 Athens employed it in making coffins for their heroes, 

 and also statues of their gods. 



The imperishable chests containing Egyptian 

 mummies were made of cypress wood, and also 

 the gates of St. Peter's at Rome, which have lasted 

 for a period of eleven hundred years, during which 

 time they suffered no decay. 



Ovid tells us of the " taper cypress " that it is 

 sacred to Apollo, and was once a fair youth, Cypa- 

 rissus by name. This youth became much attached 

 to a gentle stag, who was his constant companion, 

 and was one day unwittingly pierced to the heart 

 by an arrow from the hand of the unlucky youth. 



Overcome with remorse, Cyparissus would have 

 killed himself but for the intervention of Apollo, 

 who bade him not mourn to such excess. Unable, 

 however, to conquer his grief, he prayed to the gods, 

 who turned him into a cypress tree, that he might 

 mourn for all succeeding time. 



A very ancient legend, contained in the " Gospel 

 of Nicodemus," gives us much interesting informa- 

 tion concerning the cypress. Adam one day fell 

 ill, and he sent his son Seth to the Garden of Eden, 

 to ask the Guardian Angel for some drops of the oil 

 of mercy distilled from the Tree of Life. The 

 angel replied that none could have that till 5,000 

 years had passed, but gave him a slip of the tree, 



