the excuse of ignorance, should have fallen into nearly the 

 same fatal error, and that, too, with respect to the very 

 same tree. The Oak grove at Dodona in Epirus was long 

 resorted to by the inhabitants of the whole of Greece when 

 they wished to inquire the will of their imaginary god, 

 Jupiter ; and we have seen that the Israelites resorted to 

 the Oak-woods of Palestine with a similar object. 



Baal, the false god of the Canaanites, is considered by 

 learned men to be identical with the Roman Saturn, the 

 Celtic Yiaoul, and the British Yule, whose festival was 

 kept at the time when we celebrate Christmas. By one 

 of these nations this name was worshipped as significant 

 of the god of fire ; by another it was identified with the 

 sun ; by a third venerated under the form of an Oak. 

 Its priests, who were called " Druids," professed to main- 

 tain perpetual fire, and once every year all the fires 

 belonging to the people were extinguished, and relighted 

 from the sacred fire of the Druids. This was the origin 

 of the Yule-log, with which, even so lately as the com- 

 mencement of the present century, the Christmas fire in 

 some parts of the country was always kindled, and is 

 even now in Devonshire and Yorkshire ; a fresh log being 

 thrown on and lighted, but taken off before it was con- 

 sumed, and reserved to kindle the Christmas fire of the 

 following year. The Yule-log was generally of Oak, though 

 sometimes of Ash ; and as the ancient Britons believed 

 that it was essential for their hearth-fires to be renewed 

 every year from the sacred fire of the Druids, so their 

 descendants thought that some misfortune would befal 

 them if any accident happened to the Yule-log. The 

 worship of the Druids, we are told, was generally per- 

 formed under an Oak. 



The Mistletoe was held in great reverence, and as it 

 was not commonly found on the Oak, solemn ceremonies 

 attended the search for it. When all was prepared (the 

 Mistletoe having been, no doubt, previously found by some 

 of the assistants), the Druids went forth, clad in white robes, 



