cal, why not
for the superphysical--why, indeed, should not "ghosts" come within the
radius of their magnetism?

The palm and sycamore trees have invariably been associated with the
spiritual, and made use of symbolically, as the tree of life. An
illustration, on a stele in the Berlin Museum, depicts a palm tree from
the stem of which proceeds two arms, one administering to a figure,
kneeling below, the fruit or bread of life; the other, pouring from a
vase the water of life.

On another, a later Egyptian stele, the tree of life is the sycamore.
There is no doubt that the Egyptians and Assyrians regarded these two
trees as susceptible only to good psychic influences, they figure so
frequently in illustrations of the benevolent deities. Nor were the Jews
and Christians behind in their recognition of the extraordinary
properties of these two trees, especially the palm. We find it
symbolically introduced in the decoration of Solomon's Temple--on the
walls, furniture, and vessels; whilst in Christian mosaics it figures as
the tree of life in Paradise (_vide_ Rev. xxii. 1, 2, and in the apsis
of S. Giovanni Laterans). It is even regarded as synonymous with Jesus
Christ, as may be seen in the illuminated frontispiece to an
_Evangelium_ in the library of the British Museum, where the symbols of
the four Evangelists, placed over corresponding columns of lessons from
their gospels, are portrayed looking up to a palm tree, rising from the
earth, on the summit of which is a cross, with the symbolical letters
alpha and omega suspended from its arms.

I am, of course, only speaking from my own experience, but this much I
can vouch for, that I have never heard of a palm tree being haunted by
an evil spirit, whereas I have heard of several cases in which palm
leaves or crosses cut from palms have been used, and apparently with
effect, as preventives of injuries caused by malevolent occult
demonstrations; and were I forced to spend a night in some lonely
forest, I think I should prefer, viewing the situation entirely from the
standpoint of psychical possibilities, that that forest should be
composed partly or wholly of palms.

Before concluding this chapter, I must make a brief allusion to another
type of spirit--the BARROWVIAN--that resembles the vagrarian and pixie,
inasmuch as it delights in lonely places. Whenever I see a barrow,
tumulus or druidical, circle, I scent the probability of
phantasms--phantasms of a peculiar sort.