ches of
the mistletoe were then distributed among the faithful, each cherishing
the token as the most sacred emblem of his faith. It is thought that the
Christmas tree is a remnant of this custom.

Although the Christbaum of the Germans, the Yggdrasill of the
Scandinavians, and the Christmas tree of the English speaking nations
are still regarded as belonging exclusively to Christianity, their
birthplace was the far East, and their origin long anterior to our
present era. This subject will be referred to later in these pages. The
palm, which in course of time became the most sacred tree of Egypt, is
said to have put forth a shoot every month during the year. At Christmas
tide, or at the winter solstice, a branch from this tree was used as a
symbol of the renewal of time or of the birth of the New Year.

On the Zodiac of Dendera, preserved in the National Library at Paris,
are two trees, the one representing the East, or India and China, the
other, the West, or Egypt. The former of these trees is putting forth
a pair of leaves and is topped by the emblems of Siva, emblems which
indicate the fructifying powers of Nature, whilst the Egyptian sacred
tree, which is surmounted by the ostrich plume, the emblem of truth,
is indicative of Light, Intelligence, or the life of the soul. In a
discourse delivered by Dr. Stukeley in 1760, attention was directed to
the grove of Abraham as "that famous oak grove of Beersheba, planted
by the illustrious prophet and first Druid--Abraham; and from whom
our celebrated British Druids came, who were of the same patriarchal
reformed religion, and brought the use of sacred groves to Britain."(17)

17) Barlow, Symbolism, p. 98.

The fact has been ascertained that in Arabia, in very ancient times,
there was a goddess named Azra who was worshipped under the form of a
tree called Samurch, and that in Yemen tree-worship still prevails.
To the date is ascribed divine honors. This tree is said to have its
regular priests, services, rites, and festivals, and is as zealously
worshipped as are the gods of any other country. We are not informed as
to whether the Jewish Tree of Life was borrowed from the Chaldeans or
the Egyptians, but, as the significance is the same in all countries,
it is of little consequence which furnished a copy for the writer in
Genesis.

In Dr. Inman's Ancient Faiths, is a drawing from the original, by
Colonel Coombs, of the "Temptation," or of the ancient tree-and-s