OAK: CHESTNUT: OSTRYA. 59 



acorns ; these cannot be distinguished by their 

 outward appearance from the bitter ones. The acorns 

 of Q. sEgilops are eaten in Syria. Have we here a 

 clue to the fact that the Oak is everywhere a sacred 

 tree?* For what was more sacred to primitive 

 humanity, what is more sacred now, if we but knew 

 it, than that which stands between mankind and 

 famine ? 



The Legend of Celeus tells how corn replaced the 

 Oak as a food-plant and mainstay of life. The goddess 

 Ceres, bereft of her daughter, sets out on her sad 

 pilgrimage, searching the wide world for traces of 

 Persephone. Passing through the land of Attica, she 

 is hospitably entertained by Celeus. His home was 

 Eleusis, where in later days they celebrated the 

 Eleusinian mysteries. He has but simple fare to 

 offer acorns and blackberries ; for wheat and barley 

 are as yet unknown. His infant son, Triptolemus, is 

 ill. The goddess gives a sleeping draught, revealing 

 the virtue of the poppy. Her heart is touched, for 

 Celeus' little daughter has called her mother, childless 

 as she is. What favour can she give in return for 

 such kind hospitality ? The boy shall be made 

 immortal ; he shall never sail in Charon's barque nor 

 cross the hated waters of the Styx. So Ceres lays the 

 infant on the hearth, and begins to heap the burning 

 embers over him. The mother rushes to save her 

 child, snatches him from the fire, and thus in her 

 blind affection robs him of the gift of deathlessness. 

 On parting, the goddess said : " Immortal your infant 

 may not be, but he shall teach mankind to raise from 



As witness the name Gospel Oak given to places in England. T. H. 



