310 MYTH AND SCIENCE. 



at Eome, and German, Slav, and Celtic traditions 

 abound in similar myths.* Nor are they wanting in 

 the Bible itself, in which we hear of the trees of 

 knowledge and of life, of some celebrated trees in the 

 times of the patriarchs, of the raven and the dove sent 

 out as messengers. The Old Testament speaks of the 

 worship of groves at Ashtaroth in Canaan, of sacri- 

 fices under the green trees, and we know that such 

 worship occurred in the Semitic races of Nuniidia and 

 elsewhere. 



The simultaneous elaboration of myths relating to 

 trees and birds as objects of worship, as beneficent 

 or malign powers, and as the transmitters of oracles, 

 necessarily confirmed and extended the personifica- 

 tions of speech and song, and were fused through 

 many sources into a whole, which represented a 

 supernatural agent, endowed with the power of a 

 mediator, of a good or evil spirit or idol. This 

 ultimately led to a universal conception of the 

 efficacy of sound, considered as the manifestation of 

 occult powers. In this mythically spiritual atmo- 

 sphere, all peoples formerly lived and in great part 

 still continue to live. 



As the innate impulse led to the entification of 

 speech and of the singing of men and animals, so it 

 also led to the mythical personification of dancing and 

 instrumental music, in which nearly all peoples have 



* The intense character of the worship of groves in Italy appears 

 from Quintilianus, who says, in speaking of Eunius : "Eiinium sicut 

 sacros reinstate lucos adoremus." 



