TREE-WORSHIP 45 



upon the earth, is deeper if less defined than 

 that which these customs expressed in the 

 days that have long gone by. 



We have briefly noted the fabled life and 

 power of real trees ; we must now turn to the 

 trees that only existed in imagination. Such 

 was the tree that was widely believed to bear 

 up the heaven above the earth. This was the 

 Yggdrasil of the Scandinavians. The Baby- 

 lonians placed it near Eridu, an ancient city 

 near the mouth of the Euphrates. Its roots 

 were deep down in the watery abyss where 

 dwelt the amphibious Ea, god of wisdom, who 

 supplied from thence the springs and rivers 

 that fertilised the earth ; and upon its leafage 

 rested Zikum, the primeval mother, the heaven 

 from which all things have come. Earth was 

 midway between the roots of the tree and its 

 topmost branches ; and in its stem dwelt Ea, 

 the earth-mother, her consort, Davkina, and 

 her son Tammuz, the sun-god, to whom was 

 wedded I star, the Astarte of the Syrians, the 

 Aphrodite of the Greeks, the Venus of the 

 Romans. Here are old-world beliefs for us to 

 think about when we see the stars as if entan- 

 gled amid the leaves and branches ©fthrf^rees ! 





