OBSERVATIONS ON HIMALAYAN CONIFERS. 



259 



figures of Cybele and Atys. The Thyrsus of Bacchus was a 

 lance, the iron head of which was hidden in a fir cone, (JSlmes,) 

 as may be seen in plate VIII. of Keightley's Mythology. Pliny 

 says, " Pix in Italia ad vasa vino condendo maxime probatur 

 Brutia;" and Loudon, (Arboretum JBritannicum^) " The cones 

 of pines were used by the Romans to flavour their wine, having 

 been thrown by them into the vine vats, where they float on the 

 surface along with the scum that rises up from the bottom, as 

 may be seen in the wine tanks attached to inns and farm-houses 

 in Tuscany and other parts of Italy at the present day. Hence 

 the Thyrsus, which is put into the hands of Bacchus, terminated 

 in a pine cone. Pine cones or pine-apples were in consequence 

 much employed in Roman sculptures, and the latter application, 

 pine-apple, has been transferred to the fruit of the Ananas, from 

 its resemblance in shape to the cone of a pine. * * * * Through- 

 out Attica the wine is preserved from becoming acid by means of 

 the resin (of the Peukas, P. Halepensis, var. maritima), which is 

 employed in the proportion of an oke and a half to twenty okes 

 of wine. * * * * The cones are sometimes put into the wine 

 barrels." A writer in the Westminster Review has shown the 

 lineal descent of the vintner's " Chequers" or sign of the Chess- 

 board, from Osiris the Egyptian Bacchus, represented in England, 

 at the present day, by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and 

 immortalized by the genius of Canning in the Knife-grinder. 



" Only last night, a drinking at the Chequers, 



This poor old hat and breeches," &c. 



Dr. Hoffmeister found the modern Corinthian wine undrink- 

 able from the above mentioned dosing of resin ; but fortunate is 

 the man who gets nothing worse. 



Since the Hindoos, however, do not drink wine, and abhor 

 the calling of the vintner, the sanctity of the Deodar cannot be 

 connected with any such classical use of its cones or resin. In 

 the absence, then, of all records and traditions on this topic, we 

 must consult the genius and the customs of the people; and, 

 guided by this clue, may not inconsistently come to the con- 

 clusion that it originally owed its fame not to its beauty or 

 utility, but wholly to the fact of its being a phallus -bearing 

 tree, the cones being regarded as so many lings ; and for this 

 reason, we always find the tree planted by the temples of Muha- 

 deva and Devi, the patron and patroness of that symbol.* 



* In a rough sketch of Kylas, by Captain H. Strachey, the sacred mount 

 stands out from the average range, with sufficient resemblance to a cedar- 

 cone ; and the name is probably from the same root, kil, to be white, as 

 kilimuh, the Deodar. To this form it is indebted for its fame : being only 

 20,700 feet high, as measured by Lieut. R. Strachey, it yields to Goorla, 



