234 SYLVA BOOK iv 



might run and read them. And thus forsaken lovers 

 appeal to pines, beeches, and other trees of the forest : 

 But we have dwelt too long on these trifles ; omitting 

 also what we might relate of feasting, banqueting, 

 and other splendid entertainments under trees, nay 

 sometimes in the very bodies of them : But we will 

 now change the scene as the ^Egyptians did the mirth 

 of their guests, when they served in a scull to make 

 them more serious. For, thus 



1 3. Amongst other uses of groves, I read that some 

 nations were wont to hang, not malefactors only, but 

 their departed friends, and those whom they most 

 esteemed, upon trees, as so much nearer to heaven, 

 and dedicated to God ; believing it far more honour- 

 able than to be buried in the earth ; and that some 

 affected to repose rather in these woody places, 

 Propertius seems to bespeak, 



1 The Gods forbid my bones in the high road 

 Should lie, by every wandring vulgar trod ; 

 Thus buried lovers are to scorn expos'd, 

 My tomb in some by-arbor be inclos'd. 



The same is affirmed of other Septentrional people 

 by Chr. Cilicus de Bello Dithmarsico, 1. i. It was 

 upon the trunk of a knotty and sturdy oak, the 

 ancient heroes were wont to hang the arms and 

 weapons taken from the enemy, as trophies, as appears 

 in the yet remaining stump of Marius at Rome, and 

 the reverses of several medals. Famous for this, 

 was the pregnant oleaster which grew in the forum 

 of Megara, on which the heroes of old left their 



1 Di faciant mea ne terra locet ossa frequent! 



Qua facit assiduo tramite vulgus iter ; 

 Post mortem tumuli sic infamantur amantum, 

 Me tegat arborea devia terra coma. 



