46 GARDENS OF THE PLAINS— AGRA 



roots. These same ideas of the sacred mountain 

 and the holy tree with its secret spring and 

 guardian snake are connected with all early 

 conceptions of a Paradise, and in every language 

 the very word Paradise, or garden, means " en- 

 closed." Such was the Eridu of the Assyrians; 

 the Eden of the Jews ; Mount Olympus, the 

 Greek Garden of the Gods ; the Vara or Pairi- 

 daesa of Ancient Persia, where " on the white 

 Homa tree sits the Saena bird and shakes down 

 from it the seeds of life, which, as they fall, are 

 at once seen by the bird Kamros as it watches 

 for them from the top of the heavenly mountain 

 Hara-Berezaiti, and are carried by it, and scat- 

 tered far and wide over the world." The Para- 

 dise of the Hindus was Ida-varsha, the garden of 

 Ida, mother of mankind; there on the sacred slopes 

 of Mount Meru grew the " Tree of Ages " and the 

 fragrant "Tree of Every Perfect Gift." Back 

 and ever backward through the ages this Paradise 

 idea extends until it is lost in the beghming of 

 all human things, the worship of the first wonders 

 and necessities of life, the sky and the mountains, 

 the water and the fruit-bearing trees. And stUl 

 a flicker from the old tradition lingers on and 

 lights our children's Holy Tree at Christmastide. 



