io6 TREES IN NATURE, MYTH & ART 



been suggested : that, in the far past, the dead 

 were buried amid the yew-trees because their 

 great length of life was regarded as a symbol of 

 immortality. It was an old custom to place 

 branches of the yew beneath the body in the 

 grave. Probably the reader will at once have 

 thought of the practices arising out of the 

 imitative magic and the tree-worship detailed 

 in our second chapter. Many churchyard 

 yews are almost certainly older than Chris- 

 tianity, and churches were built on sites already 

 held sacred because the dead were buried, and 

 we must recollect, were believed still to be living, 

 there. The churchyard yew, whatever theory 

 we may adopt, is a link with the prehistoric 

 past. 



If our far-off ancestors did associate the 

 yew-tree with the continuance or revival of 

 life after death, it must have suggested 

 brighter thoughts to them than to us. Yet 

 we think of the use of its strong, flexible wood 

 for the English long-bow exultantly rather 

 than sadly ; though the bow was an instrument 

 of death. We may not care to see formal 

 hedges of yew, or the tree cut into the shape 

 of a peacock or a pigeon-cote. But if we dis- 



