Page:Primitive Culture Vol 2.djvu/233
other regions. Thus the sacred palm of Negra in Yemen, whose demon was propitiated by prayer and sacrifice to give oracular response,[1] or the tall oaks inhabited by the gods, where old Slavonic people used to ask questions and hear the answers,[2] have their analogue in the prophetic oak of Dodona, wherein dwelt the deity, 'ναῖεν δ' ἐνὶ πυθμένι φηγοῦ.'[3] The Homeric hymn to Aphrodite tells of the tree-nymphs, long-lived yet not immortal — they grow with their high-topped leafy pines and oaks upon the mountains, but when the lot of death draws nigh, and the lovely trees are sapless, and the bark rots away and the branches fall, then their spirits depart from the light of the sun:—
'Νύμφαι μιν θρέψουσιν ὀρεσκῷοι βαθύκολποι,
αἳ τόδε ναιετάουσιν ὄρος μέγα τε ζάθεών τε·
αἵ ῥ' οὔτε θνητοῖς οὔτ' ἀθανάτοισιν ἕπονται·
δηρὸν μὲν ζώουσι καὶ ἄμβροτον εἶδαρ ἔδοισι,
καί τε μετ' ἀθανάτοισι καλὸν χορὸν ἐρρώσαντο.
τῇσι δὲ Σειληνοί τε καὶ εὔσκοπος Ἀργειφόντης
μίσγοντ' ἐν φιλότητι μυχῷ σπείων ἐροέντων.
τῇσι δ' ἅμ' ἢ ἐλάται ἠὲ δρύες ὑψικάρηνοι
γεινομένῃσιν ἔφυσα: ἐπὶ χθονὶ βωτιανείρῃ,
καλαί, τηλεθάουσαι, ἐν οὔρεσιν ὑψηλοῖσιν·
········
ἀλλ' ὅτε κεν δὴ μοῖρα παρεστήκῃ θανάτοιο,
ἀξάνεται μὲν πρῶτον ἐπὶ χθονὶ δένδρεα καλά,
φλοιὸς δ' ἀμφιπεριφθινύθει, πίπτουσι δ' ἄπ' ὄξοι,
τῶν δὲ θ' ὁμοῦ ψυχὴ λείπει φάος ἠελίοιο.'[4]
The hamadryad's life is bound to her tree, she is hurt when it is wounded, she cries when the axe threatens, she dies with the fallen trunk:— 'Non sine hamadryadis fato cadit arborea trabs.'[5]
How personal a creature the tree-nymph was to the classic mind, is shown in legends like that of Paraibios,