358 THE FIR TRIBE. 



birth of a son, and a Fir at the birth of a daughter. 

 These trees were deemed sacred, and were not cut down 

 till the children were grown up and needed the timber for 

 their household furniture. At the time when Juda?a was 

 subject to the Romans, after the destruction of Jerusalem 

 by Titus, the daughter of the Emperor Hadrian happened 

 to be travelling through that country, when her chariot 

 was injured, and her attendants proceeded, in an over- 

 bearing manner, to cut down one of the sacred trees, to 

 be used in repairing it. The inhabitants of the place 

 rose and massacred the train of the princess, who was so 

 enraged that she forced her father to make war against 

 the Jews, to humble their pride. 



Herodotus tells us, that Miltiades, at the head of the 

 Thracian Dolonci, having made war on the people of 

 Lampsacus, was taken prisoner by an ambuscade. His 

 friend Croesus, having heard of his misfortune, sent a 

 herald to the Lampsaeans, threatening them, that unless 

 they released their prisoner he would cut them down like 

 a Fir-tree. The Lampsaeans were at first perplexed ; but 

 when one of their wise men reminded them that the Fir- 

 tree, if once cut down, never shoots again, they were so 

 terrified that they dismissed their prisoner forthwith. 



The victors at the Isthmian games held at Corinth 

 were crowned with garlands of Pine-branches. The cones 

 were used by the Eomans to flavour their wines, being 

 thrown into the vats, and suffered to float, a custom 

 which is still in existence in Italy. Hence the thyrsus, or 

 wand of Bacchus, terminates in a Fir-cone. The timber 

 was employed by both Greeks and Eomans in naval and 

 domestic architecture ; and the various resinous produc- 

 tions were extracted by a method very similar to those 

 now adopted. The Pine appears to have been held sacred 

 by the Assyrians. Mr. Layard informs us that on the 

 sculptures discovered by him during his excavations at 

 Nimroud, the ancient Nineveh, there are many represen- 

 tations of figures bearing a Fir-cone. 



