TREE AND PLANT WORSHIP.
The Celts had their own cult of trees, but they adopted local
cults--Ligurian, Iberian, and others. The _Fagus Deus_ (the divine
beech), the _Sex arbor_ or _Sex arbores_ of Pyrenean inscriptions, and
an anonymous god represented by a conifer on an altar at Toulouse,
probably point to local Ligurian tree cults continued by the Celts into
Roman times.[659] Forests were also personified or ruled by a single
goddess, like _Dea Arduinna_ of the Ardennes and _Dea Abnoba_ of the
Black Forest.[660] But more primitive ideas prevailed, like that which
assigned a whole class of tree-divinities to a forest, e.g. the _Fatæ
Dervones_, spirits of the oak-woods of Northern Italy.[661] Groups of
trees like _Sex arbores_ were venerated, perhaps for their height,
isolation, or some other peculiarity.
The Celts made their sacred places in dark groves, the trees being hung
with offerings or with the heads of victims. Human sacrifices were hung
or impaled on trees, e.g. by the warriors of Boudicca.[662] These, like
the offerings still placed by the folk on sacred trees, were attached to
them because the trees were the abode of spirits or divinities who in
many cases had power over vegetation.
Pliny said of the Celts: "They esteem nothing more sacred than the
mistletoe and the tree on which it grows. But apart from this they
choose oak-woods for their sacred groves, and perform no sacred rite
without using oak branches."[663] Maximus of Tyre also speaks of the
Celtic (? German) image of Zeus as a lofty oak, and an old Irish
glossary gives _daur_, "oak," as an early Irish name for "god," and
glosses it by _dia_, "god."[664] The sacred need-fire may have been
obtained by friction from oak-wood, and it is because of the old
sacredness of the oak that a piece of its wood is still used as a
talisman in Brittany.[665] Other Aryan folk besides the Celts regarded
the oak as the symbol of a high god, of the sun or the sky,[666] but
probably this was not its earliest significance. Oak forests were once
more extensive over Europe than they are now, and the old tradition that
men once lived on acorns has been shown to be well-founded by the
witness of archæological finds, e.g. in Northern Italy.[667] A people
living in an oak region and subsisting in part on acorns might easily
take the oak as a representative of the spirit of vegetation or growth.
It was long-lived, its foliage was a protection, it supplied food, its
wood was used as fuel, and it was thus clearly the friend of man. For
these reasons, and because it was the most abiding and living thing men
knew, it became the embodiment of the spirits of life and growth.
Folk-lore survivals show that the spirit of vegetation in the shape of
his representative was annually slain while yet in full vigour, that his
life might benefit all things and be passed on undiminished to his
successor.[668] Hence the oak or a human being representing the spirit
of vegetation, or both together, were burned in the Midsummer fires.
How, then, did the oak come to symbolise a god equated with Zeus. Though
the equation may be worthless, it is possible that the connection lay in
the fact that Zeus and Juppiter had agricultural functions, or that,
when the equation was made, the earlier spirit of vegetation had become
a divinity with functions resembling those of Zeus. The fires were
kindled to recruit the sun's life; they were fed with oak-wood, and in
them an oak or a human victim representing the spirit embodied in the
oak was burned. Hence it may have been thought that the sun was
strengthened by the fire residing in the sacred oak; it was thus "the
original storehouse or reservoir of the fire which was from time to time
drawn out to feed the sun."[669] The oak thus became the symbol of a
bright god also connected with growth. But, to judge by folk survivals,
the older conception still remained potent, and tree or human victim
affected for good all vegetable growth as well as man's life, while at
the same time the fire strengthened the sun.
Dr. Evans argues that "the original holy object within the central
triliths of Stonehenge was a sacred tree," an oak, image of the Celtic
Zeus. The tree and the stones, once associated with ancestor worship,
had become symbols of "a more celestial Spirit or Spirits than those of
departed human beings."[670] But Stonehenge has now been proved to have
been in existence before the arrival of the Celts, hence such a cult
must have been pre-Celtic, though it may quite well have been adopted by
the Celts. Whether this hypothetical cult was practised by a tribe, a
group of tribes, or by the whole people, must remain obscure, and,
indeed, it may well be questioned whether Stonehenge was ever more than
the scene of some ancestral rites.
Other trees--the yew, the cypress, the alder, and the ash, were
venerated, to judge by what Lucan relates of the sacred grove at
Marseilles. The Irish Druids attributed special virtues to the hazel,
rowan, and yew, the wood of which was used in magical ceremonies
described in Irish texts.[671] Fires of rowan were lit by the Druids of
rival armies, and incantations said over them in order to discomfit the
opposing host,[672] and the wood of all these trees is still believed to
be efficacious against fairies and witches.
The Irish _bile_ was a sacred tree, of great age, growing over a holy
well or fort. Five of them are described in the _Dindsenchas_, and one
was an oak, which not only yielded acorns, but nuts and apples.[673] The
mythic trees of Elysium had the same varied fruitage, and the reason in
both cases is perhaps the fact that when the cultivated apple took the
place of acorns and nuts as a food staple, words signifying "nut" or
"acorn" were transferred to the apple. A myth of trees on which all
these fruits grew might then easily arise. Another Irish _bile_ was a
yew described in a poem as "a firm strong god," while such phrases in
this poem as "word-pure man," "judgment of origin," "spell of
knowledge," may have some reference to the custom of writing divinations
in ogham on rods of yew. The other _bile_ were ash-trees, and from one
of them the _Fir Bile_, "men of the tree," were named--perhaps a
totem-clan.[674] The lives of kings and chiefs appear to have been
connected with these trees, probably as representatives of the spirit of
vegetation embodied in the tree, and under their shadow they were
inaugurated. But as a substitute for the king was slain, so doubtless
these pre-eminent sacred trees were too sacred, too much charged with
supernatural force, to be cut down and burned, and the yearly ritual
would be performed with another tree. But in time of feud one tribe
gloried in destroying the _bile_ of another; and even in the tenth
century, when the _bile maighe Adair_ was destroyed by Maelocohlen the
act was regarded with horror. "But, O reader, this deed did not pass
unpunished."[675] Of another _bile_, that of Borrisokane, it was said
that any house in which a fragment of it was burned would itself be
destroyed by fire.[676]
Tribal and personal names point to belief in descent from tree gods or
spirits and perhaps to totemism. The Eburones were the yew-tree tribe
(_eburos_); the Bituriges perhaps had the mistletoe for their symbol,
and their surname Vivisci implies that they were called "Mistletoe
men."[677] If _bile_ (tree) is connected with the name Bile, that of the
ancestor of the Milesians, this may point to some myth of descent from a
sacred tree, as in the case of the _Fir Bile_, or "men of the
tree."[678] Other names like Guidgen (_Viduo-genos_, "son of the tree"),
Dergen (_Dervo-genos_, "son of the oak"), Guerngen (_Verno-genos_, "son
of the alder"), imply filiation to a tree. Though these names became
conventional, they express what had once been a living belief. Names
borrowed directly from trees are also found---Eburos or Ebur, "yew,"
Derua or Deruacus, "oak," etc.
The veneration of trees growing beside burial mounds or megalithic
monuments was probably a pre-Celtic cult continued by the Celts. The
tree embodied the ghost of the person buried under it, but such a ghost
could then hardly be differentiated from a tree spirit or divinity. Even
now in Celtic districts extreme veneration exists for trees growing in
cemeteries and in other places. It is dangerous to cut them down or to
pluck a leaf or branch from them, while in Breton churchyards the yew is
thought to spread a root to the mouth of each corpse.[679] The story of
the grave of Cyperissa, daughter of a Celtic king in the Danube region,
from which first sprang the "mournful cypress,"[680] is connected with
universal legends of trees growing from the graves of lovers until their
branches intertwine. These embody the belief that the spirit of the dead
is in the tree, which was thus in all likelihood the object of a cult.
Instances of these legends occur in Celtic story. Yew-stakes driven
through the bodies of Naisi and Deirdre to keep them apart, became
yew-trees the tops of which embraced over Armagh Cathedral. A yew sprang
from the grave of Bailé Mac Buain, and an apple-tree from that of his
lover Aillinn, and the top of each had the form of their heads.[681] The
identification of tree and ghost is here complete.
The elder, rowan, and thorn are still planted round houses to keep off
witches, or sprigs of rowan are placed over doorways--a survival from
the time when they were believed to be tenanted by a beneficent spirit
hostile to evil influences. In Ireland and the Isle of Man the thorn is
thought to be the resort of fairies, and they, like the woodland fairies
or "wood men" are probably representatives of the older tree spirits and
gods of groves and forests.[682]
Tree-worship was rooted in the oldest nature worship, and the Church had
the utmost difficulty in suppressing it. Councils fulminated against the
cult of trees, against offerings to them or the placing of lights before
them and before wells or stones, and against the belief that certain
trees were too sacred to be cut down or burned. Heavy fines were levied
against those who practised these rites, yet still they continued.[683]
Amator, Bishop of Auxerre, tried to stop the worship of a large
pear-tree standing in the centre of the town and on which the
semi-Christian inhabitants hung animals' heads with much ribaldry. At
last S. Germanus destroyed it, but at the risk of his life. S. Martin of
Tours was allowed to destroy a temple, but the people would not permit
him to attack a much venerated pine-tree which stood beside it--an
excellent example of the way in which the more official paganism fell
before Christianity, while the older religion of the soil, from which it
sprang, could not be entirely eradicated.[684] The Church often effected
a compromise. Images of the gods affixed to trees were replaced by those
of the Virgin, but with curious results. Legends arose telling how the
faithful had been led to such trees and there discovered the image of
the Madonna miraculously placed among the branches.[685] These are
analogous to the legends of the discovery of images of the Virgin in the
earth, such images being really those of the _Matres_.
Representations of sacred trees are occasionally met with on coins,
altars, and _ex votos_.[686] If the interpretation be correct which sees
a representation of part of the Cúchulainn legend on the Paris and
Trèves altars, the trees figured there would not necessarily be sacred.
But otherwise they may depict sacred trees.
We now turn to Pliny's account of the mistletoe rite. The Druids held
nothing more sacred than this plant and the tree on which it grew,
probably an oak. Of it groves were formed, while branches of the oak
were used in all religious rites. Everything growing on the oak had been
sent from heaven, and the presence of the mistletoe showed that God had
selected the tree for especial favour. Rare as it was, when found the
mistletoe was the object of a careful ritual. On the sixth day of the
moon it was culled. Preparations for a sacrifice and feast were made
beneath the tree, and two white bulls whose horns had never been bound
were brought there. A Druid, clad in white, ascended the tree and cut
the mistletoe with a golden sickle. As it fell it was caught in a white
cloth; the bulls were then sacrificed, and prayer was made that God
would make His gift prosperous to those on whom He had bestowed it. The
mistletoe was called "the universal healer," and a potion made from it
caused barren animals to be fruitful. It was also a remedy against all
poisons.[687] We can hardly believe that such an elaborate ritual merely
led up to the medico-magical use of the mistletoe. Possibly, of course,
the rite was an attenuated survival of something which had once been
more important, but it is more likely that Pliny gives only a few
picturesque details and passes by the _rationale_ of the ritual. He does
not tell us who the "God" of whom he speaks was, perhaps the sun-god or
the god of vegetation. As to the "gift," it was probably in his mind the
mistletoe, but it may quite well have meant the gift of growth in field
and fold. The tree was perhaps cut down and burned; the oxen may have
been incarnations of a god of vegetation, as the tree also may have
been. We need not here repeat the meaning which has been given to the
ritual,[688] but it may be added that if this meaning is correct, the
rite probably took place at the time of the Midsummer festival, a
festival of growth and fertility. Mistletoe is still gathered on
Midsummer eve and used as an antidote to poisons or for the cure of
wounds. Its Druidic name is still preserved in Celtic speech in words
signifying "all-healer," while it is also called _sùgh an daraich_, "sap
of the oak," and _Druidh lus_, "Druid's weed."[689]
Pliny describes other Celtic herbs of grace. _Selago_ was culled without
use of iron after a sacrifice of bread and wine--probably to the spirit
of the plant. The person gathering it wore a white robe, and went with
unshod feet after washing them. According to the Druids, _Selago_
preserved one from accident, and its smoke when burned healed maladies
of the eye.[690] _Samolus_ was placed in drinking troughs as a remedy
against disease in cattle. It was culled by a person fasting, with the
left hand; it must be wholly uprooted, and the gatherer must not look
behind him.[691] _Vervain_ was gathered at sunrise after a sacrifice to
the earth as an expiation--perhaps because its surface was about to be
disturbed. When it was rubbed on the body all wishes were gratified; it
dispelled fevers and other maladies; it was an antidote against
serpents; and it conciliated hearts. A branch of the dried herb used to
asperge a banquet-hall made the guests more convivial[692]
The ritual used in gathering these plants--silence, various tabus,
ritual purity, sacrifice--is found wherever plants are culled whose
virtue lies in this that they are possessed by a spirit. Other plants
are still used as charms by modern Celtic peasants, and, in some cases,
the ritual of gathering them resembles that described by Pliny.[693] In
Irish sagas plants have magical powers. "Fairy herbs" placed in a bath
restored beauty to women bathing therein.[694] During the _Táin_
Cúchulainn's wounds were healed with "balsams and healing herbs of fairy
potency," and Diancecht used similar herbs to restore the dead at the
battle of Mag-tured.[695]
FOOTNOTES:
[659] Sacaze, _Inscr. des Pyren._ 255; Hirschfeld, _Sitzungsberichte_
(Berlin, 1896), 448.
[660] _CIL_ vi. 46; _CIR_ 1654, 1683.
[661] D'Arbois, _Les Celtes_, 52.
[662] Lucan, _Phar._ Usener's ed., 32; Orosius, v. 16. 6; Dio Cass.
lxii. 6.
[663] Pliny, xvi. 44. The Scholiast on Lucan says that the Druids
divined with acorns (Usener, 33).
[664] Max. Tyr. _Diss._ viii. 8; Stokes, _RC_ i. 259.
[665] Le Braz, ii. 18.
[666] Mr. Chadwick (_Jour. Anth. Inst._ xxx. 26) connects this high god
with thunder, and regards the Celtic Zeus (Taranis, in his opinion) as a
thunder-god. The oak was associated with this god because his
worshippers dwelt under oaks.
[667] Helbig, _Die Italiker in der Poebene_, 16 f.
[668] Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_; Frazer, _Golden Bough_{2} iii. 198.
[669] Frazer, _loc. cit._
[670] Evans, _Arch. Rev._ i. 327 f.
[671] Joyce, _SH_ i. 236.
[672] O'Curry, _MC_ i. 213.
[673] _LL_ 199_b_; _Rennes Dindsenchas_, _RC_ xv. 420.
[674] _RC_ xv. 455, xvi. 279; Hennessey, _Chron. Scot._ 76.
[675] Keating, 556; Joyce, _PN_ i. 499.
[676] Wood-Martin, ii. 159.
[677] D'Arbois, _Les Celtes_, 51; Jullian, 41.
[678] Cook, _Folk-Lore_, xvii. 60.
[679] See Sébillot, i. 293; Le Braz, i. 259; _Folk-Lore Journal_, v.
218; _Folk-Lore Record_, 1882.
[680] Val. Probus, _Comm. in Georgica_, ii. 84.
[681] Miss Hull, 53; O'Ourry, _MS. Mat._ 465. Writing tablets, made from
each of the trees when they were cut down, sprang together and could not
be separated.
[682] _Stat. Account_, iii. 27; Moore, 151; Sébillot, i. 262, 270.
[683] Dom Martin, i. 124; _Vita S. Eligii_, ii. 16.
[684] _Acta Sanct._ (Bolland.), July 31; Sulp. Sever. _Vita S. Mart._
457.
[685] Grimm, _Teut. Myth._ 76; Maury, 13, 299. The story of beautiful
women found in trees may be connected with the custom of placing images
in trees, or with the belief that a goddess might be seen emerging from
the tree in which she dwelt.
[686] De la Tour, _Atlas des Monnaies Gaul_, 260, 286; Reinach, _Catal.
Sommaire_, 29.
[687] Pliny, _HN_ xvi. 44.
[688] See p. 162, _supra_.
[689] See Cameron, _Gaelic Names of Plants_, 45. In Gregoire de Rostren,
_Dict. françois-celt._ 1732, mistletoe is translated by _dour-dero_,
"oak-water," and is said to be good for several evils.
[690] Pliny, xxiv. 11.
[691] Ibid.
[692] Ibid. xxv. 9.
[693] See Carmichael, _Carmina Gadelica_; De Nore, _Coutumes ... des
Provinces de France_, 150 f.; Sauvé, _RC_ vi. 67, _CM_ ix. 331.
[694] O'Grady, ii. 126.
[695] Miss Hull, 172; see p. 77, _supra_.