CYPRESS TREE. 191 



latives ; and they are always careful to select 

 the upright variety, as the spreading cypress 

 would, in such situations, be the cause of great 

 sorrow to them, from their belief that when 

 the tree grows with a spiral point towards 

 heaven, it indicates that the soul of their 

 friend is ascended into the regions of bliss. 

 The Armenians are not allowed to plant a 

 cypress tree at the graves of their deceased 

 friends, but they are permitted to plant any 

 branching tree, as the apple, oak, or elm, &c; 

 which, from it's crooked branches, indicates, 

 as the Mahommedans affirm, the impossi- 

 bility of the ascension of Christian souls. 

 When will reason ascend her universal throne ! 

 Lady M. W. Montague mentions a cypress 

 tree in a garden at Kujuk Checkmedji,that was 

 converted to rather a singular use. "The house 

 and garden now belong," says her Ladyship, 

 " to a hogia, or schoolmaster, who teaches boys 

 here. I asked him to show me his own apart- 

 ment, and was surprised to see him point to a 

 tall cypress tree in his garden, on the top of 

 which was a place for a bed for himself, and a 

 little lower one for his wife and two children, 

 who slept there every night. I was so much 

 diverted with the fancy," says Lady Mary, 

 " that I resolved to examine his nest nearer; 

 but going up fifty steps, I found I had still 

 fifty to go up, and then I must climb from 



