38 TREES IN NATURE, MYTH & ART 



than just to the beliefs that he had transcended. 

 He had learned to believe in one great spirit 

 living and working in all things. Around him 

 were those who believed, not that wood or 

 brass could help them, but that spirits innumer- 

 able could find a home in all living things and 

 in material substances. We need not discuss, 

 however, what is a commonplace of the history 

 of religion — misinterpretation of an alien be- 

 lief. The vivid contemporary description of 

 the beliefs we have been recording is what 

 interests us in the passage. 



The oak of Zeus at Dodona, already referred 

 to, was an oracle. It was the most venerable 

 tree in a grove of oaks, and was believed to be 

 the actual seat of the god, whose oracular 

 answers were given by the rustling of the wind 

 through leaves and branches, by the murmur 

 of the spring that flowed out from among its 

 roots, or by lots drawn from an urn placed 

 beneath it. 



Brazen vessels which, hung in the branches, 

 clashed together when the wind moved them, 

 also played their part in the oracular messages, 

 which were interpreted by priests, and also by 

 aged women, called TreXeiat, or doves, because 



