32 TREES IN NATURE, MYTH & ART 



sean peoples worshipped the living tree, and 

 the column or tree-pillar as a substitute for it ; 

 believing that both were possessed by the 

 numen or spirit of the divinity ; though it was 

 thought that the spirit was more permanently 

 present in the tree with its fruit and foliage 

 than in the stone into which it had to be 

 brought through a special act of ritual invoca- 

 tion. The story of the sculptor Pygmalion 

 praying to Aphrodite that the statue he had 

 made might receive the gift of life, and of his 

 prayer being granted, receives a new meaning 

 in the light of these old beliefs. 



All this may seem very far from us ; but it 

 comes close home to us, takes its place in our 

 own fields and woodlands, when we read in Mr. 

 Evans's book : '* In the Druidical worship of the 

 West, the tree divinity and the Menhir or stone 

 pillar are associated in a very similar manner, 

 and lingering traditions of their relationship 

 are still traceable in modern folklore. To 

 illustrate indeed this sympathetic conjunction 

 of tree and pillar, we have to go no further 

 afield than the borders of Oxfordshire and 

 Warwickshire. Beside the prehistoric stone 

 fence of Rollright the elder-tree still stands 



