2 1 8 S Y L V A BOOK iv 



1 Each tree besprinkled is with human gore. 



Procopius tells us plainly that the Sclavii worshipped 

 trees and whole forests of them : See Jo. Dubravius, 1. 

 i. Hist. Bohem. and that formerly the Gandenses did 

 the like ; (see Surius the Legendary, 6. Feb. reports in 

 the Life of St. Amadus :) So did the Vandals, says 

 Albert Crantz ; and even those of Peru, as I learn 

 from Acosta, 1. 5. c. n. But one of the first idols 

 which procur'd particular veneration in them, was the 

 Sidonian Ashteroth, who took her name a Lucis^ as 

 the Jupiter cVScvSpoe amongst the Rhodians, the Ne- 

 morensis Diana or Arduenna^ a celebrated deity, of this 

 our island, for her patronage of wood and game, 



Diva potens nemorum, terror silvestribus apris, &c. 



as Gildas an ancient bard of ours has it ; so soon had 

 men it seems degenerated into this irrational and stupid 

 devotion, that Arch-fanatic Satan (who began his 

 pranks in a tree) debauching the contemplative use of 

 groves, and other solitudes. Nor were the heathens 

 alone in this crime ; the Basilidians, and other here- 

 ticks, even amongst the Christians, did consecrate to 

 the woods and the trees, their serpent-footed and 

 barbarous ABOPASAS, as it is yet to be seen in some of 

 their mysterious talismans and periapta which they 

 carried about. 



But the Roman madness (like that which the 

 prophet 2 derides in the Jews) was well perstring'd by 

 Sedulius and others, for imploring these stocks to be 

 propitious to them, as we learn in Cato de R. R. c. 

 113. 134, G?c. Nor was it long after, (when they 



1 Omnisque humanis lustrata cruoribus arbos. Lucan, 1. 3. 405. 



2 In opere Paschali. 



