MYRTr.E AND WILLOW AS -'PALMS". 27 



new fronds develop in complete darkness and thus 

 become as colourless as possible, for on Palm Sunda\' 

 thev are to be not onh- s\'mbols of victor\' but also of 

 heavenly puritv. In the darkness these fronds jrrow 

 long and slender ; thev run to a point and remain tender 

 and supple, so that they can easily be plaited into 

 any desired shape. In the Jewish Palms the older fronds 

 are bound together, but less tightly, so that the light is 

 not completely excluded from the younger ones and the\' 

 can become green: but they remain shorter, stitfer and 

 less pointed. At the Feast of Tabernacles the Jews 

 combine Myrtle and Willow with the Palm-fronds and, 

 while waving these bunches in their right hand, hold 

 "Paradise Apples" in their left. This was originalh' the 

 harvest festival of the Jews ; but during their exile in 

 foreign lands it lost this meaning, retaining onh- the 

 other, also handed down from antiquity, nameh' commem- 

 oration of the Divine protection during the wanderings 

 in the Desert. The most ^'aried s\'mbolical meanings 

 have been attached to the ceremoniaj use of these fom- 

 plants: they ma\' perhaps hav^e been representative of 

 the vegetation of Palestine, but later on the}- fell under 

 the intiuence of rigid ecclesiastical law, which prescribed 

 that the Myrtle and Willow, as also the Palm, should 

 be of a certain delinite shape. Myrtles are specialh' 

 grown for the orthodox Jew. The twig must be about 

 three hand-breadths hicfh and bear its leaves in whorls 

 of three. Should the whorls be lax, and the leaves not 

 attached at the same level, the twig is rejected. It 

 would be better to use sprays on which the leaves were 



