THE MIGHTY OAK 125 



that grew upon the earth. They dedicated it 

 to Jupiter, the king of the gods. In the north 

 it was sacred to Thor, and in the east to Perun, 

 the thunderer, the chief god of heathen Eussia. 

 Always the oak has been the thunderer 's own 

 tree, and hence our grandfathers were wont to 

 warn their children, "Beware of the oak, it 

 draws the stroke." In ancient Greece, one of 

 the most venerated oracles was the prophet oak 

 of Dodona. Its priestess was supposed to be 

 able to read the will of Jupiter, the great 

 wielder of thunderbolts, by the rustling of its 

 leaves. 



The old Eomans crowned their heroes with a 

 chaplet of oak leaves. The Druids offered sao^ 

 rifiees under the shade of the oak, and in Ger- 

 many the fairies made their homes in its roots. 

 The holes sometimes found at the base of the 

 trunks were called "fairy pathways," and the 

 spirits of the trees were supposed to pass in and 

 out as they pleased. The worshipers of Thor 

 would never allow an oak tree to be cut down, 

 for fear their god of thunder would let his 

 hammer descend upon them! (It is really a 

 pity that there were not some disciples of Thor 

 among our early woodmen; for we might then 

 have had some of the ancient oaks preserved, 

 which fell so mercilessly.) The Stuarts chose 



