RELIGIOUS TREES 171 



green all winter would come too and bestow their 

 blessing on the inmates. Doubtless such also was 

 the origin of the use of the fir tree for winter in- 

 door festivities. This tree by retaining its green- 

 ness all the year was regarded as a special favour- 

 ite of the tree-spirits. 



Why should date and palm leaves appear in 

 Gothic architecture ? They do not grow in the cold 

 latitudes which gave the world that noble style of 

 building, but they were sacred to certain ancient 

 Assyrians and Hebrews. Embodied in their rec- 

 ords, they were taken over by Christianity and 

 made symbols in the walls of northern churches. 



The may-pole dance is a harmless diversion of 

 children, but in its original form it was a heathen 

 orgy to the wood spirits and was believed to in- 

 sure fertility in man and beast. 



To this day, a maiden of Silesia places an apple 

 under her pillow on New Year's Eve and expects 

 to see her future husband in a dream at midnight. 

 Whether she does or not probably depends upon 

 the tranquillity or perversity of her digestion, but 

 even her most enlightened sister of America or Eng- 

 land lapses occasionally into one of the senseless 

 but beautifully romantic tree-superstitions which 

 have come down to us from barbarism. 



Many of the religious and social customs of the 



