OF FOREST-TREES.

S31

•which puts me in mind of what that great traveller Pietro della Valla re- bookivlates, where, speaking of an extraordinary Cyprefs, yet extant, near thetomb of Cyrus, to which at this day many pilgrimages are made, he men-tions a gummy transudation which it yields, that the Turks affirm to turnevery Friday into drops of blood: The tree is hollow within,, adornedwith many lamps, and fitted for an Oratory; and indeed some would de-rive the name Lucus, a Grove, as more particularly to signify such enor-mous and cavernous trees, quodibi liimina accenderentur religionis causa:

But our Author adds, The Ethnics do still repute all great trees to be di-vine, and the habitation of souls departed. Perhaps such a hollow treewas that Asylum, of our Poet’s Hero,, when he fled from his burning•Troy:

—— -juxtaque antiqua Ciiprefsus

Religione Patrum multos servata per annos. jj.

-j-an antient Cyprefs near,

Kept by religious parents many a year.

'For that they were places of protection,, and privileged like churches andaltars, appears out of-Livy, and other good authority. Thus where theyintroduce Romulus encouraging his new colony,

•-ut saxo Lucum circumdedit alto,

Cuilibet hue, inquit, confuge, tutus eris.

So soon as e’er, the Grove he had immur’d,

Haste hither, says he, here you are secur’d.

Such a Sanctuary was the Aricina, and Suburban Diana, called the Nemo-rale Templum, and divers more which we shall reckon up anon. Lucian in his Dea Syria, speaks of these temples and dedications in their Grovesamong the Egyptians : Lucus in urbe fuit, &c. and what follows ? HieTemplum —and fince they could not translate the Grove with the idol,,they * carved out something like it, which the superstitious peoplebought, carried home, and made use of, representing those venerableplaces, in which they had the images of some feigned Deity (suppose itTellus, Baal, or PriapusJ and such was the Jupiter trlivfyos of the Rho-dians , Bacchus of the Boetians, nf-jntwt theSidonian Ashteroth : and thewomen mentioned 2 Reg..xxiii. .7, who are said to weave hangings andcurtains for the Grove, were no other.than makers ofTentories to spreadfrom tree to tree, for the more opportune and. secret perpetration of those

* Luci dicun-tur, non mode-collectio arbo-rum, &c. sedetiam sciagra-phiae sive deli-neationes lu-corum in ta-bella: SeetheAnnotation onIsa. xvii. col-lated with2 Reg. xviii. 4.Criti Sacr. forthey broughtthe Grove outof the temple,and burnt it:which clearly-shows it was-the picture orimage of the-Grove, andnot the treesthemselves.-