“These sacred groves were all cut down by the Romans, who waged fierce war against the Druids, and nothing is left of them now but the circles of stones that formed their temples. At a place called Stonehenge, ‘cromlechs,’ or altar-tables, are still standing, and very ancient oaks stood in a circle round these stones for many centuries after the Druids were swept away.”
“Miss Harson,” said Clara when all had expressed their horror of the Druids and rejoiced that they were swept away, “are there any oak trees in the Bible?”
“Look and see,” was the reply; “and first you may find Genesis xxxv. 4.”
Clara read:
“’And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hands, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.’”
“In the eighth verse of the same chapter,” said Miss Harson, “we read that Rebekah’s nurse was buried under an oak at Bethel. We are told in the book of Joshua[2] that ’Joshua took a great stone and set it up there under an oak, that was by the sanctuary of the Lord;’ and in Judges[3], ’There came an angel of the Lord and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah.’—Malcolm, you may read Second Samuel, eighteenth chapter, ninth verse.”
[2] Josh. xxiv. 26.
[3] Judg. vi. II.
Malcolm read:
“’And Absalom met the servants of David. And Absalom rode upon a mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the heaven and the earth; and the mule that was under him went away.’”
“Poor Absalom!” said Edith, softly. “Wasn’t that dreadful?”
“Yes, dear,” replied her governess, “it was dreadful; but it is still more dreadful that Absalom was such a wicked man. In Isaiah[4] we read of the oaks of Bashan, that, like the cedars of Lebanon, were ’high and lifted up,’ and the oaks of Bashan are mentioned again in Zechariah[5]. Several varieties of the oak are found in Palestine.
[4] Isa. ii. 13.
[5] Zech. xi. 2.
[Illustration: ABRAHAM’S OAK, NEAR HEBRON.]
“In his Ride Through Palestine, Dr. Dulles tells of a great oak near Hebron known as ‘Abraham’s oak,’ supposed to occupy the ground where the patriarch pitched his tent under the oaks of Mamre. It is an aged tree, and a grand one. Here is a picture of it, from the Ride[6]. The crests and sides of the hills beyond the Jordan are still clothed, as in ancient times, with magnificent oaks.