s proved by Grimm, whose opinion is that, "the festal universal
religion of the people had its abode in woods," while the Christmas tree
of present German celebration in all families is "almost undoubtedly a
remnant of the tree-worship of their ancestors."

According to Mr. Fergusson, one of the last and best-known examples of
the veneration of groves and trees by the Germans after their conversion
to Christianity, is that of the "Stock am Eisen" in Vienna, "The sacred
tree into which every apprentice, down to recent times, before setting
out on his "Wanderjahre", drove a nail for luck. It now stands in the
centre of that great capital, the last remaining vestige of the sacred
grove, round which the city has grown up, and in sight of the proud
cathedral, which has superseded and replaced its more venerable shade."

Equally undoubted is the evidence of tree-worship in Greece--particular
trees having been sacred to many of the gods. Thus we have the oak tree
or beech of Jupiter, the laurel of Apollo, the vine of Bacchus. The
olive is the well-known tree of Minerva. The myrtle was sacred to
Aphrodite, and the apple of the Hesperides belonged to Juno.[12] As a
writer too in the _Edinburgh Review_[13] remarks, "The oak grove at
Dodona is sufficiently evident to all classic readers to need no
detailed mention of its oracles, or its highly sacred character. The
sacrifice of Agamemnon in Aulis, as told in the opening of the 'Iliad,'
connects the tree and serpent worship together, and the wood of the
sacred plane tree under which the sacrifice was made was preserved in
the temple of Diana as a holy relic so late, according to Pausanias, as
the second century of the Christian era." The same writer further adds
that in Italy traces of tree-worship, if not so distinct and prominent
as in Greece, are nevertheless existent. Romulus, for instance, is
described as hanging the arms and weapons of Acron, King of Cenina, upon
an oak tree held sacred by the people, which became the site of the
famous temple of Jupiter.

Then, again, turning to Bible history,[14] the denunciations of
tree-worship are very frequent and minute, not only in connection with
the worship of Baal, but as mentioned in 2 Kings ix.: "And they (the
children of Israel) set themselves up images and groves in every high
hill, and under every green tree." These acts, it has been remarked,
"may be attributable more to heretical idolatrous practices into which
the Jews ha