CORNEL TREE. 181 



celebrated in honour of Apollo, at Lacedemo- 

 nia, called Cornus, which was instituted to 

 appease that god, because the Greeks had in- 

 curred the displeasure of Apollo, by cutting 

 the cornel trees which grew in a consecrated 

 thicket, at Mount Ida* 



Sacred woods and consecrated groves were 

 attached to most of the temples of the ancient 

 heathens, and this superstition was preserved a 

 long time after the fall of paganism. In ignorant 

 ages these woods were the terror of the timid, 

 the refuge of the crafty, and the grave of the 

 credulous. In their dreadful ceremonies (for 

 humanity forbids our calling them religious 

 customs), human sacrifices were offered in their 

 horrid worship. The ancient inhabitants of the 

 north had priests who followed this infamous 

 practice, until Christianity happily spread its 

 soft beams over these unhappily deluded 

 people. 



Near the temple of Upsal, in Sweden, there 

 was a wood of this description, called the 

 Forest of Odin, which was generally full of 

 the dead bodies of victims, which at certain 

 seasons were taken down from the trees to be 

 burnt in honour of Thor, or the sun. 



Leonard Rubenus, a German, who became 

 a priest in 1596, having received an order 

 from his superiors to go to Dorpat, a city of 



N 3. 



