ive statement of the difficulty of discovering the sibyl's
meaning.[503]

+278+. The passage from the conception of the tree as a divine thing or
person (necessarily anthropomorphic) to the view that it was the abode
of a spirit was gradual, and it is not always easy to distinguish the
two stages one from the other. The tree-spirits, in the nature of the
case very numerous, were not distinguished by individual names, as the
trees were not so distinguished.[504] The spirits resident in the divine
trees invoked in the Vedas are powerful, but have not definite
personality, and it is hard to say whether it is the tree or the spirit
that is worshiped. The Indian tree-spirits called Nagas appear to be
always nameless, and are not mentioned in the list of deities that pay
reverence to the Buddha (in the Maha Samaya).[505] The large number of
trees accounted sacred in Babylonia were doubtless believed to be
inhabited by spirits, but to no one of these is a name given.

+279+. Thus the divine tree with its nameless spirit stands in a class
apart from that of the gods proper. A particular tree, it is true, may
be connected with a particular god, but such a connection is generally,
if not always, to be traced (as in the parallel case of animals[506]) to
an accidental collocation of cults. When a deity has become the numen of
a tribe, his worship will naturally coalesce with the veneration felt
by the tribe for some tree, which will then be conceived of as sacred to
the god. Such, doubtless, was the history of the oak of Dodona, sacred
to Zeus; when Zeus was established as deity of the place, the revered
tree had to be brought into relation with him, and this relation could
only be one of subordination--the tree became the medium by which the
god communicated his will. There was then no need of the spirit of the
tree, which accordingly soon passed away; the tree had lost its
spiritual divine independence. The god who is said to have appeared to
Moses in a burning bush, and is described as dwelling in the bush, is a
local deity, the _numen loci_ later identified with Yahweh, or called an
angel.[507] That a tree is sacred to a god means only that it has a
claim to respect based on its being the property or instrument of a god.

+280+. While the tree-spirit has undoubtedly played a great role in
early religious history, there is not decisive evidence of its ever
having developed into a true god, with name, distinct personality, and