TREE-WORSHIP 35 



two functions is that ''the tree is the largest 

 and most powerful member of the vegetable 

 kingdom, and man is familiar with it before he 

 takes to cultivating corn. Hence he naturally 

 places the feebler and, to him, newer plant 

 under the dominion of the older and more 

 powerful." The spirits also make herbs mul- 

 tiply, and influence child-bearing. We shall 

 have more to say about this when we con- 

 sider the origin of our Christmas, May-Day 

 and other customs. 



We are all familiar with evidences of tree- 

 worship in the Old Testament, even if we have 

 not fully recognised their significance. The 

 ashera of the Canaanites was not a grove, 

 as our translation has it, but a tree or post ; 

 and the tree or post appears again and again 

 in connexion with Divine appearances. So 

 Jehovah appeared to Abraham beneath the 

 oak-tree in Mamre, and to Moses in the 

 burning bush. At Shechem Joshua ''took 

 a great stone, and set it up there under an 

 oak, that was by the Sanctuary of the Lord ". 

 Deborah the prophetess "dwelt under the palm- 

 tree of Deborah, between Ramah and Bethel 

 in Mount Ephraim ; and the children of Israel 



