496 pFaat Isore, "begef^/, anS Isi^ric/, 



The Pine was dedicated to Bacchus, and at the Dionysian festivals 

 the votaries sometimes wore garlands of its foliage : its cone is 

 frequently represented surmounting the god's thyrsus, possibly as 

 being symbolic of fecundity and reprodudtion. The connecflion of 

 the Pine with Bacchus is still maintained by the Greeks, who place 

 the cones in their wine vats, to preserve and flavour the wine by 

 means of the resin. The Pine-cone was considered a symbol of 

 the heart of Zagraeus, who was destroyed by the Titans, and whose 



ashes were given to Semele, the mother of Bacchus. We find 



the Pine also dedicated to Pan, because Pitys, one of the many 

 nymphs whom he loved, was changed into that tree, to escape 



the importunities of Boreas. The wood of the Pine was 



employed in the construdtion of the first boats: hence the tree was 



also sacred to the sea-god Neptune. Ovid introduces Pan as 



" crowned with a pointed leaf of Pine-leaf," in reference to the 

 sharpness of its narrow leaves. The length and straightness of 

 its trunk, and freedom from branches, rendered it a suitable walking 

 staff for the giant Polyphemus (^n. iii.) ; and Turnus (from the 

 resinous nature of this tree) is represented as raising a flaming 



brand of Pine-wood to set on fire the ships of the Trojans. • 



In Assyrian monuments, we find the Pine-cone offered to the god 



guarding life. According to a Roman legend, two lovers who 



had died of love and were buried in the same cemetery, were 

 changed, the one into a Pine, the other into a Vine, and were 



thus enabled to continue their fond embraces. Prof. De Guber- 



natis remarks that, despite the legend of St. Martin, written by 

 Sulpicius, who represented the Pine as a diabolic tree, Chris- 

 tianity itself has consecrated it. The town of Augburg, which 

 has for its badge a Pine-cone, is under the protection of St. 

 Afra. In Sicily, they believe that the form of a hand is to 

 be seen in the interior of the fruit — the hand of Jesus blessing 

 the Pine which had saved Him during the flight into Egypt 



by screening Him and His mother from Herod's soldiers. At 



Ahorn, near Coburg, a frightful wind sent by a sorceress had bent 

 the church steeple, which thus became an objecft of derision to the 

 inhabitants of the surrounding villages. A shepherd, to save his 

 village from such a standing reproach, attached a short rope to a 

 Pine, which the inhabitants still pointed out in Nork's time, and 

 by dint of invocations and magical imprecations succeeded in 

 straightening the steeple. Nork adds that in the year 13OO, at 

 Krain, near a convent, a statue of the Madonna, concealed in the 

 trunk of a Pine, miraculously made itself heard by a priest : on that 

 account a church has been ere(5ted in honour of the Virgin, in the 



immediate vicinity. King Croesus threatened the inhabitants of 



Lampsacus that the destrucT:ion of their town should be as complete 

 as a felled Pine, which, once cut down, never sprouts out again. 

 The comparison was particularly apt, inasmuch as the town of 

 Lampsachus was reputed to have been formerly called Pityusa — 



