118 THE PAGAN-CHRISTIAN OVERLAP OP THE WISE BIRD. 



species of holy- water, since it was that in which a sacrificial torch 

 had been extinguished. It occupied a vase, or aspersorium, at 

 the entrance of the temples, and into this everyone who entered 

 or passed out of the edifice dipped his fingers. Moreover, light 

 brooms, or aspergilla, were immersed in it by the officiating priest, 

 who scattered the fluid over those present. 



Any particular overlap depends, of course, on points of resem- 

 blance between any two religious systems that happen to grow in 

 contiguity. In Italy Christianity confronted the creeds of ancient 

 Rome, arid the catacombs show us reminiscences of the great god 

 Pan ; for while Christ, as the Good Shepherd, bears a lamb on 

 His shoulders, He carries a syrinx in His hand ; and recollections 

 of Orpheus, for we see Christ striking a lyre. Even in the 

 churches themselves, at that early period, Orpheus, Psyche, 

 Deucalion, Hermes, and Ulysses are represented side by side with 

 Christian effigies and symbols. 



In the north of Europe the first contact of Christianity with 

 paganism took place many centuries after the birth of Christ, and 

 extensive overlapping of the creeds of our forefathers by the new 

 faith occurred not only in Scandinavia but in England. Yggdrasil, 

 the Holy Ash, the Teutonic Tree of Life, on which hung Woden 

 for nine whole nights that he might win for mankind the secrets 

 of wisdom, grew by Weird's Brook. An eagle sat on its branches, 

 a hawk, too, and a raven ; and its roots were gnawed by the 

 serpent Nithhdgg. The eagle knew many things, and its words 

 were carried by a squirrel and told to the serpent below. Here 

 then were all the materials that made an overlap likely to occur, 

 and ample evidence of one can be found. The conception 

 Yggdrasil, the Holy Ash, lingered beneath that of the instrument 

 of crucifixion, the Holy Rood. Some of the earliest representa- 

 tions of the Christian cross in this country give it a distinctly 

 arboreal appearance ; leaves and boughs surround it (fig. 1). At 

 S. Pierre, Monmoxithshire, is a foliated cross of the 13th century. 

 The eagle, hawk, and raven are perched upon it, a squirrel is 

 running up its stem, and a dragon is biting its roots. 



