190 



pPant T^ore, Tsegel^Vj cLf^sl "bijrlc/'. 



tation of the living, and the removal of their cogitations from the 

 sphere of vanity and worldliness. This observant writer des- 

 cants upon the predilecftion exhibited by the early inhabitants of 

 the world for burial beneath trees, and points out that the vener- 

 able Deborah was interred under an Oak at Bethel, and that the 

 bones of Saul and his three sons were buried under the Oak at 

 Jabesh-Gilead. He tells us also that one use made by the ancients 

 of sacred groves was to place in their nemorous shades the bodies 

 of their dead : and that he had read of some nations whose people 

 were wont to hang, not only malefa(5tors, but also their departed 

 friends, and those whom they most esteemed, upon trees, as being 

 so much nearer to heaven, and dedicated to God ; believing it far 

 more honourable than to be buried in the earth. He adds that 

 " the same is affirmed of other septentrional people ;" and points 

 out that Propertius seems to allude to some such custom in the 

 following lines : — 



" The gods forbid my bones in the high road 

 Should lie, by every wand'ring vulgar trod ; 

 Thus buried lovers are to scorn expos'd, 

 My tomb in some bye-arbor be inclos'd." 



The ancients were wont to hang their criminals either to 

 barren trees, or to those dedicated to the infernal gods ; and we 

 find that in Maundevile's time the pracftice of hanging corpses on 

 trees existed in the Indies, or, at any rate, on an island which he 

 describes as being called Caffolos. He gives a sketch of a tree, 

 probably a Palm, with a man suspended from it, and remarks that 

 " Men of that Contree, whan here Frendes ben seke, thei hangen 

 hem upon Trees ; and seyn, that it is bettre that briddes, that ben 

 Angeles of God, eten hem, than the foul Wormes of the Erthe." 



CTIjt QTrte of Dcatf). From Maimaevice's Travels. 



