Cultus Arborum Part 6

Just here, when writing upon the ash tree, it is proper again to allude to that peculiar custom, or superst.i.tion. This tree was long held in great veneration even in our own country for its supposed virtue in removing rickets or healing internal ruptures. Newspapers and old magazines record many instances ill.u.s.trative of the profound faith of many of the country folk in this mode of getting relief, and the method of procedure appears to have been nearly always the same, and akin to the pa.s.sing of a diseased or polluted person through a human image in the eastern parts of the world.

The author of the "Natural History of Selborne" says that in Hampshire a tree was chosen, young and flexible, and its stem being severed longitudinally, the fissure was kept wide open, and the child to be healed, being duly undressed, was pa.s.sed three times through the aperture.

After the operation, the tree was bandaged up and plastered over with loam. It was believed that if the severed parts of the tree united the child and the tree gradually recovered together; if the cleft continued to gape, which could only happen through negligence or want of skill, it was thought that the operation had proved ineffectual.

Another account in a newspaper forty years ago says a poor woman applied to a farmer residing in the same parish for permission to pa.s.s a sick child through one of his ash trees. The object was to cure the child of the rickets. The mode in which the operation was performed was as follows:--A young tree was split from the top to about the height of a person, and laid sufficiently open to pa.s.s the child through. The ceremony took place before three o'clock in the morning, and before the sun rose.

The child had its clothes removed. It was then pa.s.sed through the tree by the woman and received on the other side by some person. This was done three times and on three consecutive mornings; the ash was then carefully bound together.

In the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for June, 1804, a letter from a correspondent says: "On Shorley Heath, Warwickshire, on the left-hand side of the road going from Shorley Street to Hockley House, there stands a young ash tree, close to the cottage of Henry Rowe, whose infant son, Thomas Rowe, was drawn through the trunk or body of it, in the year 1791, to cure him of a rupture, the tree being split open for the purpose of pa.s.sing the child through it. The boy is now thirteen years and six months old. I have this day, June 19th, 1804, seen the ash tree and Thomas Rowe, as well as his father Henry Rowe, from whom I received the above account; and he superst.i.tiously believes that his son Thomas was cured of the rupture by being drawn through the cleft in the said ash tree, and by nothing else."

In the month of October following, another correspondent says: "The ash-tree described by your correspondent grows by the side of Shirley Street, at the edge of Shirley Heath, in Solihull parish. The upper part of the gap formed by the chisel has closed, but the lower part remains open, and the tree is healthy and flourishing. Thomas Chillingworth, son of the owner of an adjoining farm, now about thirty-four, was when an infant about a year old pa.s.sed through a similar tree--now perfectly sound--which he preserves with so much care that he will not suffer a single branch to be touched, for it is believed that the life of the patient depends on the life of the tree, and the moment that it is cut down, be the patient ever so distant, the rupture returns, and mortification ensues and terminates in death, as was the case in a man driving a waggon on the very road in question. Rowe's son was pa.s.sed through the present tree in 1722, at the age of one or two. It is not, however, uncommon for persons to survive for a time the felling of the tree. In one case the rupture returned suddenly and mortification followed. These trees are left to close of themselves or are closed with nails. The woodcutters very frequently meet with the latter. One felled on Bunnan's farm was found full of nails. This belief is so prevalent in this part of the country, that instances of trees that have been employed as a cure are very common. The like notions obtain credit in some parts of Ess.e.x."

With regard to the choice of a particular tree for these superst.i.tious cures, Moor says: "The ash is said to be the tree always selected on these occasions, perhaps because it is more easily cleft than most others, and may more readily recover of such a wound. I have heard of a bramble being subst.i.tuted, but not on ocular authority."

There is no pa.s.sage in the Christian or Hebrew Scriptures on which, as concerning the ash, the Talmudists or Targumists could in such p.r.o.neness build anything mysterious. The ash is but once--Isa xliv. 14--mentioned in the Bible, and this is in a plain non-mystical manner.

It may here be observed that the ash was of old a venerated tree. Hesiod makes it the origin of his brazen men. Among the mysteries of the Scandinavians, the whole human race is of the same origin. From one species of ash the Calabrians gather manna. It exudes in summer from incisions or perforations, which almost necessarily a.s.sume, when made and when healed an Ionic form. Another species of ash is poisonous: again connecting it with Sivaic or Kalaic fable. The mountain ash, a tree differing generically, I believe, from the common ash, shares also in the mysterious repute. In days of greater superst.i.tion than the present, it was used as a counterspell against witchcraft. If its name of mountain ash has been given to it from its supposed love of elevated regions, it will become more and more connected with Kali, in her character of the "mountain-born, mountain-loving Diana;" who, in one of her characters, corresponds with the obstetric Lucina.

A scholar, duly imbued with mysticism, might, haply, trace and connect sundry poetical and widely-spread superst.i.tious allusions to the ash. Moor says: "Only one peculiarity in it occurs to me; this is, that the wood of young ash is as tough, hard, and durable as of old: of seven years as of seventy. This, with a certain cla.s.s might seem a type or symbol of youth and age. In common with the sycamore, the ash tree bears, and is propagated, by a key, as we and certain other nations call the seed." In our volume on Phallism, in the chapter on the _Crux Ansata_ we have seen something of the mysticism connected with that name and form, and it is not necessary to repeat it here. Moor says: "It might be insufferable to hint at the Kalaic sound in the initial of _Clauis_: and that possibly something astronomical may have been fancied in the configuration of the spots on the singularly disposed black peculiarity of the foliage of the sycamore; such leaves moreover in their exterior form being triunical and bifurcated at their base."

"A longitudinal wound in the bark of a tree will primarily a.s.sume the Sivaic form--the erect, obeliscal! like the tree itself, symbolic of the _Linga_. Expanded, for a mysterious purpose--and it is curious what a number of such mysterious purposes seem to have occurred to prurient eyes--it is Ionic. Duplicated, when healing and healed, we find it still of like allusion."

Moor proceeds: "In rural wanderings I have been struck with the uniformities of the wounds in trees--all, be they recent or healed, incisions or perforations, in sound or hollow trees, exhibiting that almost all-pervading form so mystical in the eye of a Saiva, or a Sakti, or an Ioni jah; and perhaps of Brahmans generally. As such they are borne on the foreheads of Hindus of the present day, as they were of old; and as they probably were also among the Egyptians; and, more of individual or official than sectarial distinction perhaps among the Israelites.

"With Hindus, in a word, it is the form of nature's matrix; with Plutonists, or Vulcanists, or Saiva, it is creation--it is heat--it is renovation--it is fire--it is regeneration--it is all in all. So it is with Neptunists, the Vaishnavas: then, of course, of aqueous, in lieu of igneous, reference. "What is the sea," they say, "but the hollow of the hand--the great _argha_--of nature--or matrice of production and reproduction?"

"In the seemingly whimsical operation of the cleft tree, now more immediately under our notice, the all-pervading form and feeling may be recognised. A child issuing head first (by some pract.i.tioners feet first) through such cleft--or a man through a natural or artificial similar fissure or cleft in a rock, or through a like form of metal, down to the ridiculous cut cheese of Oxford--all seem to be indications of obstetricity, and would not fail of reminding a 'twice-born' Brahman of a 'second birth' or regeneration--of which mysterious matter his ceremonial and spiritual books abound.

"The 'new birth' of Christians--let it not be deemed irreverent to mix such subjects--is expressly declared and universally understood to be of grace; spiritual, though it produce no visible fruits. Superst.i.tion, the offspring of ignorance and craft, may occasionally symbolize it into carnality. But such is the p.r.o.neness of Brahmans to general s.e.xualization that although their esoteric dogma of regeneration is said to be sufficiently guarded on that point, it has notwithstanding, from such p.r.o.neness, been degraded into doctrines and ritual ceremonies that we may term mythological, or whimsical, or ridiculous, or worse.

"The invest.i.ture of the 'twice-born'--a common periphrasis for a Brahman--of a mystical triple cord, or rather a thread diversely re-triplicated up to the number ninety-six, is understood to be a purifying rite. This thread has several names. That by which it is mostly called is _Zennaar_. By western writers it has been common to call it the 'sacerdotal thread,' or the 'Brahminical thread,' meaning thereby, probably, to confine it to priests. But it is not confined to priests nor to Brahmans. The two next cla.s.ses wear it and are canonically and ceremonially ent.i.tled. If the reader supposes that Brahman and priest are synonymous he is in error. With Hindus all priests are Brahmans. Through this mystical _zennaar_, or _vinculum_, the sanctified person is pa.s.sed with endless ceremonials. The figurative language common in eastern idioms of 'twice born,' being 'made whole' &c., is with us spirituality. But it is by others misunderstood, and hence those who are not 'broken-hearted,'

not 'broken in spirit,' but broken in body, seek to be 'made whole' by a physical rite; and pa.s.s regeneratively through a _zennaar_, or a tree, or a stone, of a peculiar form or figure."[20]

In Ireland the mountain ash, according to a popular belief, was an antidote to charms, and a protective against witchcraft, the evil-eye and disease. In Scotland, known as the rowan-tree or roun-tree, it was similarly regarded, a branch of it being placed over the door of the cowshed for the safely of the cattle. The saying was:

"Rowan tree and red thread Put the witches to their speed."

Its position in Scandinavian mythology we mention at length in other pages.

Pliny says such is its influence that snakes will not rest in its shadow, shunning it at a distance. From personal knowledge, he says if a serpent be so encompa.s.sed by a fence of ash leaves as that he cannot escape without pa.s.sing through fire, he will prefer the fire rather than come in contact with the leaves.[21]

"The juniper," says De Gubernatis, "is much venerated in Italy, in Germany, and on the sh.o.r.es of the Baltic, by reason of its alleged power to dispel evil influences. In Esthonias, holes and crevices in the walls or dwellings are beaten with a branch of juniper, lest evil spirits bring sickness there. When the wicked spirits draw nigh and see the juniper they take themselves off. At Pistoja the explanation given of a local custom of hanging a branch of juniper over every door is that whenever witches see the juniper they are impelled by an uncontrollable desire to count the leaflets; but these are so numerous that they can never make the number right, and in despair take flight lest they be surprised and detected.

There is an a.n.a.logous belief in Germany. In Waldeck, according to Dr.

Maunhardt when a child falls sick it is customary for the parents to put a lock of wool and a piece of bread in a bunch of juniper, that the evil spirits may find employment in eating and spinning therein, and so forget the child, with whom it is feared, they have been over busy.

'Ye fiends and ministers of h.e.l.l Here bring I wherewithal that ye may spin, And eat likewise; Eat, therefore, and spin, And forget my child.'"[22]

"In Germany a "Frau Wachholder" (Dame Jupiter) personifies the genius of the juniper tree, and is invoked to make robbers give up their spoil. A branch of a juniper bush is bent down to the ground and kept down with a stone, the name of the real or supposed thief being repeated at the same time, with injunctions to bring back the booty. Whenever the desired result comes about the stone is removed and the branch set free. Here seems to be a counterpart of the thief-catching staff or rod of Indian folk-lore, which survives in so many Aryan usages and customs. Like other trees with hispid foliage, the juniper has the special attribute of detaining fugitives; but it sometimes shields them as well. An Italian legend described the Madonna as saved in her flight by a juniper bush, just as in German story the holy Walpurga is hidden from her pursuers by a peasant in a patch of wheat. An aged crone of Signa, in Tuscany, thus relates the legend to De Gubernatis:--Our Lady was flying with the infant Jesus, and Herod's soldiers were in hot pursuit. As they went the broom trees and chick peas rustled, risking betrayal; the flax stood bolt upright and apart; but as the fugitives drew near, a juniper bush parted its branches to receive them in its friendly embrace. Wherefore the Virgin then and there cursed both the broom and the chick pea, which from that day forth have never ceased to rustle. The fragility of the flax she forgave, but she laid her blessing on the juniper; and to this clay at Christmastide, in nearly every Italian stall juniper is hung, as bunches of holly are in England, France, and Switzerland."

"Like the holly, juniper drives away evil influences of every kind from house and fold, and is held to be peculiarly efficacious in protecting horses and cattle from the incorporeal monsters which sometimes haunt and trouble them.

"In a very rare little work, published at Bologna in 1621, the author, Amadeo Castra, makes mention of a Bolognese custom on Christmas Eve of distributing branches of juniper to every house. He adds, that all writers are agreed as to its efficacy against serpents and venomous beasts; that it supplied the wood of the cross; that it covered the flight of Elias; finally arriving at the conclusion that the sanct.i.ty of the juniper equals that of the cedar; that its usage is not a fashion or superst.i.tion, but a holy mystery; and that as its fragrant smoke arises from our hearths we should remember that so should our prayers ascend to the ears of the Deity."[23]

"The ancients regarded the Elm as a funereal tree, it is said, because it bears not fruit; but De Gubernatis supposes because of its longevity and the ease with which it multiplies.

"In Catullus, the elm is the husband and the vine the wife. So, too, the Sanscrit Kalidasa makes the mango the husband of a climbing plant, a species of jasmine. When the charming Sakuntala comes into the presence of the young king Dushyanti, one of the female courtiers murmurs in the king's ear, 'This _navamallika_ (jasmine) that you call the light of the forest is married of her own free will to _sahakara_ (the mango).'

"In the 'Iliad,' Achilles bridges the enchanted streams Xanthus and Simois with the trunks of an elm tree. When Achilles kills the father of Andromache he raised in his honour a tomb, around which the nymphs came to plant elms. At the first note of Orpheus' lyre bewailing the loss, of Eurydice, there sprang up a forest of elms."[24]

"The Apple tree was formerly supposed to be the Tree of Knowledge, the fruit of which was eaten by Eve in Paradise; and it is a curious fact, that the apple tree is also distinguished by legends in the mythologies of the Greeks, the Scandinavians, and the Druids. The pagans believed that the golden fruit of the Hesperides, which it was one of the labours of Hercules to procure, in spite of the fierce dragon that guarded them and never slept, were apples; though modern writers have supposed them oranges. In the _Edda_, we are told that the G.o.ddess Iduna had the care of apples which had the power of conferring immortality; and which were consequently reserved for the G.o.ds, who ate of them when they began to feel themselves growing old. The evil spirit Loke took away Iduna and her apple tree, and hid them in a forest where they could not be found by the G.o.ds. In consequence of this malicious theft, everything went wrong in the world. The G.o.ds became old and infirm; and, enfeebled both in body and mind, no longer paid the same attention to the affairs of the earth; and men having no one to look after them, fell into evil courses, and became the prey of the evil spirit. At length, the G.o.ds finding matters get worse every day, roused their last remains of vigour, and, combining together, forced Loke to restore the tree.

"Hercules was worshipped by the Thebans, under the name of Melius, and apples were offered at his altars. The origin of this custom was the circ.u.mstance of the river Asopus having on one occasion overflowed its banks to such an extent, as to render it impossible to bring a sheep across it which was to be sacrificed to Hercules; when some youths, recollecting that an apple bore the same name as a sheep in Greek, offered an apple, with four little sticks stuck in it to resemble legs, as a subst.i.tute for the sheep; and after that period the pagans always considered the apple as specially devoted to Hercules."[25]

The Pine tree, from a very early date, has been by many races looked upon as sacred. It was consecrated in Greece to Poseidon and Dionysius, and as sacred to Zeus was beloved by the Virgins. In the pastorals of Longus, Chloe is adorned with a _Pinea Corona_ as an emblem of virginity, which Daphne takes from her and puts on her own head.

"Diana, or maids mix its chaplets with the mastic, as a tree of all others most fruitful, but not with the myrtle, which, as sacred to Venus, may not appear in a professed virgin's wreath." (Forlong.)

The position occupied by the tree in a.s.syria may be seen in Mr. Layard's works, he speaks of it as the "sacred tree" along with the "corner stone."

"The corner stone," says Forlong, "is usually considered the princ.i.p.al stone of a building, hence the _principle_ in each religion is called its princ.i.p.al or corner stone, and the fruit of this most sacred tree is the commonest and best gift to the G.o.ds. This is probably why we find the tree everywhere, and why the a.s.syrian priests are usually shown as presenting a pine cone to their G.o.ds and altars. The seed cone seems, however, to be at times the cone of Indian corn, but Mr. Layard thinks that the pine or cypress cone is most used in the 'Cult de Venus.' The Thyrsus of Bacchus, we may remember, has a fir cone, and the Bacchic Pole is usually held to be of pine, as very inflammable and odoriferous--it is remarkably like the insignia of Boodhism and of most other faiths, as the Tri-Sool or three thorns of Siva, the tridents of Neptune, and other deities."

The pine was supposed by some to be inhabited by wind spirits, like Ariel, owing to the whispering noise proceeding from it in the breeze. The legend was that it was the mistress of Boreas and Pan, an idea acceptable to the German mind in consequence of its holes and knots, which were believed to be the means of ingress and egress for the spirits. It is told that a beautiful woman of Smaland, who was really an elf, left her family through a knot-hole in the wooden house-wall. "Frau Fichte," the pine of Silesia, is believed to possess great healing powers, and its boughs are carried about by the children on Mid-Lent Sunday, adorned with coloured papers and spangles; it is also carried with songs and rejoicing to the doors of stables where it is suspended in the belief that it will preserve the animals from harm.

In other parts superst.i.tions equally striking prevail. In Bohemia men think if they eat the kernel of the pine cone from the top of a tree on St. John's Day they will be invulnerable against shot. A writer in "Fraser's Magazine" in 1870, said that he saw sprigs of pine stuck on the railway wagons bearing the German soldiers into France. In some parts of Germany it is quite common for a man subject to gout to climb a pine tree and tie a knot in its highest shoot as a cure for his malady, saying as he does it: "Pine, I bind here the gout that plagues me."

With many nations of antiquity the oak tree was regarded as a special object of religious veneration, such as the Kelts, the Teutonic races, the Druids, the early inhabitants of Palestine, the early Greeks and Hebrews.

Between the Hebrew customs and those of the Druids a very marked resemblance has been traced by various writers of learning and ability. In ancient Jewish history the oak is often mentioned and in a manner which seems to ascribe to it a symbolical meaning. According to Kitto "it was regarded as the emblem of a divine covenant, and indicated the religious appropriation of any stone monument erected beneath it; it was also symbolical of the divine presence, possibly from a.s.sociation."[26]

From the earliest ages the oak has been considered as one of the most important of forest trees. Held sacred alike by Hebrews, Greeks, Romans, Gauls and Britons, "it was the fear of the superst.i.tious for their oracle and at the same time the resort of the hungry for their food." Early history is full of references to this tree. In Genesis xii., 6, 7, mention is made of the plain of Moreh, where it is said G.o.d appeared to Abram, the proper rendering of the word plain being oak. The plain of Mamre also occurs, and wherever it does should be oak or ash groves. Genesis xviii., 1, for instance, where it is recorded that the angels announced to the patriarch the birth of Isaac. This oak, Jewish tradition says was, long after Abraham's time, held as an object of veneration, indeed Bayle in his "Historical and Critical Dictionary," article "Abraham," says:--"This puts me in mind of the oak of Mamre, under which Abraham is said sometimes to have cooled himself. This oak, they tell you, was standing in the reign of Constantine." Loudon mentions that this tree or rather the grove of Mamre, is frequently alluded to in the Old Testament; and in Eusebius's "Life of Constantine" we find the oaks of Mamre expressly mentioned as a place where idolatry was committed by the Israelites, close to the tomb of Abraham, and where Constantine afterwards built a church. Numerous other instances may be found of the mention of the oak in the Scripture not necessary to enter into here.

Turning to cla.s.sic lore, the references are even more numerous. We have the oak groves of Dodona, in Epirus, the most ancient and celebrated of oracles, whose priests sent out their revelations on its leaves.

Pliny says that the oaks in the forest of Hereynia were believed to be as old as the world, also that oaks existed at the tomb of Ilus near Troy, which had been sown when that city was first called Ilium.

Socrates took oath by the oak; also the women of Priene, a maritime city of Ionia, in matters of importance. On Mount Lycaeus, in Arcadia, there was a temple of Jupiter with a fountain, into which the priest threw an oak branch, in times of drought, to produce rain. The Greeks had two remarkable sayings relative to this tree, one of which was the phrase: "I speak to the oak," as a solemn a.s.severation; and the other, "born of an oak," applied to a foundling; because anciently children, when the parents were unable to provide for them, were frequently exposed in the hollow of an oak tree.

So important a position does the oak occupy in the history of the subject we are now discussing, that before dismissing it we feel bound to call attention to some of those mythological allusions to it which have been collected by Loudon for the enrichment of the pages of his admirable "History of the Trees and Shrubs of Britain."

"The oak was dedicated by the ancients to Jupiter, because it was said that an oak tree sheltered that G.o.d at his birth on Mount Lycaeus, in Arcadia; and there is scarcely a Greek or Latin poet or prose author, who does not make some allusion to this tree. Herodotus first mentions the sacred forest of Dodona (ii. c. 57.) and relates the traditions he heard respecting it from the priests of Egypt. Two black doves, he says, took their flight from the city of Thebes, one of which flew to the temple of Jupiter Ammon and the other to Dodona, where, with a human voice, it acquainted the inhabitants that Jupiter had consecrated the ground, which would in future give oracles. All the trees in the grove became endowed with the gift of prophecy; and the sacred oaks not only spoke and delivered oracles while in a living state, but, when some of them were cut down to build the ship 'Argo,' the beams and masts of that ship frequently spoke and warned the Argonauts of approaching calamities. (See Hom. Ody., xiv.; Lucian, vi., 427; Apoll., Book I., &c.) After giving the account above related, Herodotus adds what he calls the explanation of it. He says that some Phnician merchants carried off an Egyptian priestess from Thebes into Greece, where she took up her residence in the forest of Dodona, and erected there, at the foot of an old oak, a small temple in honour of Jupiter, whose priestess she had been at Thebes. The town and temple of Dodona are said by others to have been built by Deucalion immediately after the great flood, when, in grat.i.tude for his preservation, he raised a temple to Jupiter, and consecrated the oak grove to his honour. This grove, or rather forest, extended from Dodona to Chaonia, a mountainous district of Epirus, so called from Chaon, son of Priam, who was accidently killed there by his brother Helenus. The forest was, from this, sometimes called the Chaonian Forest; and Jupiter Chaonian Father. (See Virgil, Ovid, &c.) The oracle of Dodona was not only the most celebrated but the richest in Greece, from the offerings made by those who came to it, to enquire into futurity. The prophecies were first delivered by doves which were always kept in the temple, in memory of the fabulous origin a.s.signed to the oracle; but afterwards the answers were delivered by the priestesses; or, according to Suidas, Homer and others, by the oaks themselves: hollow trees no doubt being chosen, in which a priest might conceal himself. During the Thracian war a deputation of Botians consulting the oracle, the priestess told them that "if they would meet with success, they must be guilty of an impious action:" when in order to fulfil the oracle, they seized her and burnt her alive. After this the Dodonian oracles were always delivered to the Botians by men. The oracular powers of the Dodonian oaks are frequently alluded to, not only by the Greek and Latin poets, but by those of modern times. (See Cowper's Address to the Yardley Oak and Wordsworth's Lines to a Spanish Oak.)

"Milo of Croton was a celebrated athlete, whose strength and voracity were so great that it was said he could carry a bullock on his shoulders, kill it with a blow of his fist, and afterwards eat it up in one day. In his old age, Milo attempted to tear up an old oak tree by the roots; but the trunk split and the cleft part uniting, his hands became locked in the body of the tree; and being unable to extricate himself, he was devoured by wild beasts. (Ovid; Strab; Paus.)

"The oak was considered by the ancients as the emblem of hospitality; because when Jupiter and Mercury were travelling in disguise, and arrived at the cottage of Philemon, who was afterwards changed into an oak tree, they were treated with the greatest kindness. Philemon was a poor old man who lived with his wife Baucis in Phrygia, in a miserable cottage, which Jupiter, to reward his hospitality, changed into a magnificient temple, of which he made the old couple priest and priestess, granting them the only request they made to him, viz., to be permitted to die together.

Accordingly, when both were grown so old as to wish for death, Jove turned Baucis into a lime tree, and Philemon into an oak; the two trees entwining their branches, and shading for more than a century the magnificent portal of the Phrygian temple.

"The civic crown of the Romans was formed of oak; and it was granted for eminent civil services rendered to the state, the greatest of which was considered to be the saving of the life of a Roman citizen.

"Acorns having been the food of man till Ceres introduced corn, boughs of oak were carried in the Eleusinian mysteries.