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of its waters. One day Odin came and begged a draught of water
from the well, which he obtained, but was obliged to leave one of
his eyes as a pledge for it. This myth Finn Magnusen thinks
signifies the descent of the sun every evening into the sea (to learn
wisdom from Mimir during the night); the mead quaffed by Mimir
every morning being the ruddy dawn, that, spreading over the sky,
exhilarates all nature.
J f i n c j u © Y ^ o i 'f i L -U T e e .
The Indian cosmogonic tree is the symbol of vegetation, of
universal life, and of immortality. In the sacred Vedic writings it
receives the special names of Ilpa, Kalpadmma, Kalpaka-taru, and Kal-
pavriksha, on the fruits of which latter tree the first men sustained
and nourished life. In its quality of Tree of Paradise, it is called
Pdrijdta ; and as the ambrosial tree—the tree yielding immortal
food—it is known as Amrita and Soma. This mystic world-tree o f
the Hindus, according to the Rigveda, is supernaturally the God
Brahma himself; and all the gods are considered as branches of
the divine parent stem—the elementary or fragmentary form of
Brahma, the vast overspreading tree of the universe. In the Vedas
this celestial tree is described as the Pippala (Peepul), and is
alluded to as being in turns visited by two beauteous birds—the one
feeding itself on the fruit (typifying probably the moon or twilight) ;
the other simply hovering, with scintillating plumage, and singing
melodiously (typifying perhaps the sun or daybreak).
Under the name of Ilpa (the Jamhoa, or Rose-apple) the cosmogonic
tree is described as growing in the midst of the lake Ara
in Brahma’s world, beyond the river that never grows old, from
whence are procured the waters of eternal youth. Brahma imparts
to it his own perfume, and from it obtains the sap of vitality. To
its branches the dead cling and climb, in order that they may enter
into the regions of immortality.
As the Kalpadmma, Kalpaka-taru, and Kalpavriksha, the Indian
sacred writings describe a cloud-tree, which, by its shadows, produced
day and night before the creation of sun and moon. This
cosmogonic tree, which is of colossal proportions, grows in the
midst of flowers and streamlets on a steep mountain. It fulfils all
desires, imparts untold bliss, and, what in the eyes of Buddhists
constitutes its chief sublimity, it gives knowledge and wisdom to
humanity ; in a word it combines within its mystic branches all
riches and all knowledge.
As the Soma, the world-tree becomes in Indian mysticism a
tree of Paradise, at once the king of all trees and vegetation, and
the god Soma to be adored. It furnishes the divine ambrosia or
essence of immortality, concealed sometimes in the clouds, sometimes
in the billows of the soft and silvery light that proceeds from
the great Soma, the great Indir, the moon. Hence this mystic
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