Then, again, turning to Bible history,[14] the denunciations of tree-worship are very frequent and minute, not only in connection with the worship of Baal, but as mentioned in 2 Kings ix.:  “And they (the children of Israel) set themselves up images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree.”  These acts, it has been remarked, “may be attributable more to heretical idolatrous practices into which the Jews had temporarily fallen in imitation of the heathen around them, but at the same time they furnish ample proof of the existence of tree and grove worship by the heathen nations of Syria as one of their most solemn rites.”  But, from the period of King Hezekiah down to the Christian era, Mr. Fergusson finds no traces of tree-worship in Judea.  In Assyria tree-worship was a common form of idolatrous veneration, as proved by Lord Aberdeen’s black-stone, and many of the plates in the works of Layard and Botta.[15] Turning to India, tree-worship probably has always belonged to Aryan Hinduism, and as tree-worship did not belong to the aboriginal races of India, and was not adopted from them, “it must have formed part of the pantheistic worship of the Vedic system which endowed all created things with a spirit and life—­a doctrine which modern Hinduism largely extended[16].”

Thus when food is cooked, an oblation is made by the Hindu to trees, with an appropriate invocation before the food is eaten.  The Bo tree is extensively worshipped in India, and the Toolsee plant (Basil) is held sacred to all gods—­no oblation being considered sacred without its leaves.  Certain of the Chittagong hill tribes worship the bamboo,[17] and Sir John Lubbock, quoting from Thompson’s “Travels in the Himalaya,” tells us that in the Simla hills the Cupressus toridosa is regarded as a sacred tree.  Further instances might be enumerated, so general is this form of religious belief.  In an interesting and valuable paper by a Bengal civilian—­intimately acquainted with the country and people[18]—­the writer says:—­“The contrast between the acknowledged hatred of trees as a rule by the Bygas,[19] and their deep veneration for certain others in particular, is very curious.  I have seen the hillsides swept clear of forests for miles with but here and there a solitary tree left standing.  These remain now the objects of the deepest veneration.  So far from being injured they are carefully preserved, and receive offerings of food, clothes, and flowers from the passing Bygas, who firmly believe that tree to be the home of a spirit.”  To give another illustration[20], it appears that in Beerbhoom once a year the whole capital repairs to a shrine in the jungle, and makes simple offerings to a ghost who dwells in the Bela tree.  The shrine consists of three trees—­a Bela tree on the left, in which the ghost resides, and which is marked at the foot with blood; in the middle is a Kachmula tree, and on the right a Saura tree.  In spite of the trees being at least seventy years old, the common people claim the greatest antiquity for the shrine, and tradition says that the three trees that now mark the spot neither grow thicker nor increase in height, but remain the same for ever.