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We have seen how Acorns formed the earliest food of mankind,
and in ancient Rome the substitution of Corn was attributed to the
bounty of Ceres, who, through the instrumentality of Triptolemus,
taught the inhabitants of the earth its use and cultivation.
“ The Oak, whose Acorns were our food before
That Ceres’ seed of mortal man was known,
Which first Triptoleme taught how to be sown.—Spense7\
To commemorate this gift. Oak was worn in the festivals in
honour of Ceres, as also by the husbandmen in general at the
commencement of harvest. In the Eleusinian mysteries, Oaken
chaplets were worn.
“ Then crowned with Oaken chaplets, marched the priest
Of Eleusinian Ceres, and with boughs
Of Oak were overshadowed in the feast
The teeming basket and the mystic vase.”— T ig k e .
A Roman who saved the life of another was adjudged a crown
of Oak-leaves : thus Lucan writes :—
“ Straight Lælius from amidst the rest stood forth—
An old centurion, of distinguished worth ;
The Oaken wreath his hardy temples wore,
I Mark of a citizen preserved he bore.”
This civic crown of Oak conferred many notable tokens of
honour upon its possessor, who was exempted from all civil burdens,
and enjoyed many rights. At Roman weddings, boughs of
Oak were carried during the ceremonies as emblems of fecundity.
“ With boughs of Oak was graced the nuptial train ;
And Hecate (whose triple form surveys
And guards from rapine the nocturnal path)
Entwined with boughs of Oak her spiral snakes.” — T ig h t .
Like the Greeks and Romans, the Scandinavians, in their
mythology, traced the origin of mankind from either the Ash or
the Oak. B y the Teutons and Celts the Oak was invested with
a mystical sacred characiter, and it was connecited with the
worship of their god Tentâtes. Among the German people, who
consecrated the Oak to the god Thunar, the cultus of the sacred
tree lingered for a long time, even after Boniface, the apostle of
the Germans, at Geismar, on the Weser, had caused the Oak
consecrated to the god of thunder to be uprooted. After the
establishment of Christianity, the Oak was long supposed to be
the abiding-place of the terrible Northern god, and was, consequently,
regarded with superstitious awe. Bishop Otho, of Bamberg,
in the year 1 128, found at Stettin pagan temples, situate near an
Oak and a fountain, which had been objects of worship, and were
still regarded with superstitious awe, as being consecrated to a
god. As the good bishop could not induce the people to cut
down these sacred Oaks, he persuaded them that they were inhabited
by evil spirits and demons ; and, in course of time, the people
p f a n t Isore, I s e g e r ^ /, a n i. l^cjrie/. 4 6 7
who before had prostrated themselves before the trees, shunned
them in superstitious dread and terror.
The ancient Britons dedicated the Oak to Taranis, their god
of thunder; and the Celts, under the form of an Oak, are by some
authorities stated to have worshipped Baal, the god of fire. On
the occasion of an auto-da-fe, we are told that fagots of “ grey ”
Oak were always selected. The festival of Baal was kept at Yule
(Christmas); and on the anniversary, the Druids are said to have
ordained that every fire should be extinguished, and then re-lighted
with the sacred fire, which, in their sacerdotal characiter, they always
kept burning. In this rite, it is supposed, may be traced the origin
of the Yule-log, the kindling of which, at Christmas-time, is still
kept up in England, though in this country the log is often of Ash.
Among the Germans, Czechs, Serbs, and Italians, however, the
Yule-log is always of Oak.
The Mistletoe which grew on an Oak was regarded by the
Druids as the most holy; it was beneath the shad+bf venerated
Oaks that they performed their sacred rites; and when they offered
up human sacrifices, the victims, in grim mockery, were crowned
with Oak-leaves. The baskets in which they were immolated were
composed of Oaken twigs, and the brands with which the sacrificial
fires were kindled were cut from Oak-trees. The priests scattered
branches of the Oak upon the altars, and after the sacrifice
fresh Oak-leaves were cast upon the blood-stained stones.
Alluding to the human sacrifices which polluted the recesses of
the Druidic groves of Oak, and caused them to be regarded
with shuddering terror, Tighe says :—
“ Such groves in night terrific wrapt the gods
Of Gaul, where fostering nymph dared never tread,
Nor sylvan deity; no bird here couched
Her wing; no beast here slumbered in his la i r ;
No zephyr woke the silence of the boughs ;
Alone at eve the trembling Druid sought
The mystic oracle ; alone entranced
Amid the sanctuary stood, whose foul
Expanse in horrors veiled a dreaded god ”
When an Oak died, the Druids stripped off its bark, and
shaped it reverently into the form of a pillar, a pyramid, or a
cross, and still continued to worship it as an emblem of their god.
In Anglesea, the ancient Mona, are still dug up great trunks of
Oak, relics of the Druids’ holy groves. The central Oak was the
peculiar objebt of veneration. The poet relates how men of old,
“ When through the woods the Northern blast
Howled harsh appeased with horrid cries and blood
The Scythian Taranis ; or bowed around
The central Oak of Mona’s dismal shade ”
The Druids it is believed revered the form of the cross. It is
stated to have been their custom to seek studiously for a large and
handsome Oak-tree, growing up with two principal arms in the
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