Oak. 
3i5 
The oaken wreath his hardy temples wore, 
Mark of a citizen preserved he bore.” 
This crown—considered the most honourable of all those 
with which the Romans rewarded famous military deeds—was 
awarded to Cicero for his detection of Catiline’s conspiracy. 
When a similar chaplet was decreed to Scipio Africanus for 
having preserved his father’s life in the battle of Trebia, he 
declined the honour, deeming the act carried with it its own 
reward. Oh, what men those noble Romans were ! 
The civic crown, as this oaken wreath was called, conferred 
many honours upon its possessor: when he entered an assembly, 
every one present, not even excepting the senators themselves, 
were bound to rise ; he was exempt from all kinds of civil 
burdens, and enjoyed many other desirable rights. 
In marriage ceremonies, also, the oak performed its part: 
“With boughs of oak was graced the nuptial train.” 
Much as the Hellenic and Latin races used and admired 
this sturdy tree, however, it is the records of the Teutonic and 
Celtic nations that must be investigated in order to find how 
sacred a character it anciently bore : it was under the semblance 
of the oak that those peoples adored their god Tuet, and the 
ancient Britons (a kindred folk) Tarnawa, their God of Thunder. 
It was likewise under the form of an oak that Baal, the Celtic 
God of Fire, was worshipped : the festival of this deity was 
kept at Yule, the present Christmas, and on the anniversary 
the Druids caused all the fires belonging to the people to be 
extinguished, and then re-lighted them from their own sacred 
fire, which they professed to keep perpetually burning. This 
rite is supposed to have been the origin of the Yule-log, the 
kindling of which at Christmas is still kept up in many parts 
of the country. This log was invariably of oak ; and, as the 
ancient Britons believed that it was essential for their hearth- 
fires to be renewed annually from the Druids’ sacred fire, so 
their descendants firmly believed that some misfortune would 
occur to them if they omitted their ancestors’ custom of burn¬ 
ing the Christmas log. 
It was beneath the shadow of some mighty oak that the 
Druids were wont to perform their worship, and when they 
offered up human sacrifices, their victims were crowned with 
