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THE APPLE. 



Both pagan and Christian mythologies 

 have endowed the Apple with wonderful 

 virtues. It has possessed a symbolism 

 for man in all stages of civilization. 

 Standing for the type of the earthly in its 

 contrast with the spiritual, it represented 

 the idea of that conflict between Or- 

 muzd and Arimanes in which the evil 

 principle is continually victor. The 

 stories of Eve, of Paris, the Hesperides 

 and Atalanta all emphasize this thought, 

 showing the Apple to have been a reward 

 of appetite over conscience. 



The allegorical tree of knowledge bore 

 apples guarded by the serpent, and the 

 golden fruit of the garden of Hesperides 

 was apples protected by the sleepless 

 dragon, which it was one of the triumphs 

 of Hercules to slay. The Assyrian tree 

 Gavkerena, the Persian "Jima's Paradise,'* 

 "Indra's heaven" and the Scandina- 

 vian ash tree Yggdrasil, all prefaced the 

 story of Paris and the apple of discord 

 which Ate brought to the banquet of the 

 gods. In Greece it became the emblem 

 of love, being dedicated to Venus. Aphro- 

 dite bore it in her hand as well as Eve, 

 and it is said that Ulysses longed for it in 

 the garden of Alcinous, while Tantalus 

 vainly grasped for it in hades. The fruit 

 was offered as a prize in the Grecian 

 ^amts given in honor of Apollo. 



Among the heathen gods of the north 

 there were apples fabled to possess the 

 power of conferring immortality, which 

 were carefully watched over by the god- 

 dess 1 china and jealously preserved for 

 the dessert of the gods who experienced 

 the enervation of old age. Azrael ac- 

 complished his mission by holding the 

 apple to the nostrils of his victims, and 

 the Scandinavian genii are said to have 

 possessed the power of turning the fruit 

 into gold. 



The ancients better appreciated the im- 



portance of the apple than do the mod- 

 erns, who treat it chiefly as "the embry- 

 onic condition of cider or as something 

 to be metamorphosed into pies." It is 

 said to be indigenous to every part of the 

 inhabited globe except South America 

 and the islands of the Pacific. It is 

 equally at home in the fierce heat of the 

 equator and among the frosts of Siberia. 

 In olden times, the fig was the index of a 

 native civilization. Later on, the vine 

 was king, but at the present time there 

 are many who maintain that the Apple is 

 the only genuine index of civilized man, 

 and claim that it flourishes best in those 

 regions where man's moral and intellec- 

 tual supremacy is most marked. 



The Athenians made frequent mention 

 of the cultivation of the Apple, and Pliny 

 enumerates twenty varieties that were 

 known in his day. It is generally sup- 

 posed that the Goths and Vandals intro- 

 duced the manufacture and use of cider 

 into the Mediterranean provinces and 

 references to it are made by Tertullian 

 and the African Fathers. The use of ci- 

 der can be traced from Africa into the 

 Biscayan provinces of Spain, and thence 

 to Normandy. It is supposed to have 

 come into England at the time of the con- 

 quest, but the word "cyder" is said to be 

 Anglo-Saxon, and there is reason to be- 

 lieve that it was known in the island as 

 early as the time of Henghist. As the 

 mistletoe grew chiefly on the apple and 

 the oak, the former was regarded with 

 great respect by the ancient Druids of 

 Britain, and even to this day in some 

 parts of England, the antique custom of 

 saluting the apple trees in the orchards, 

 in the hope of obtaining a good crop the 

 next year, still lingers among the farmers 

 of Devonshire and Herefordshire. Dur- 

 ing the middle ages, the fruit was made 

 the pretext for massacring the op- 



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