Читать книгу Myths of the Rhine - M. Xavier - Страница 31

As recently as 1837 such Todtenbaume or Dead Men’s Trees, well preserved by the peculiar nature of the soil, have been discovered in England, near Solby in Yorkshire, and still more recently, in 1848, on Mount Lupfen in the Grand Duchy of Baden.

In face of such well authenticated evidence of Dead Men’s Trees having been confided to the current of rivers or the bosom of the earth, it seems superfluous to ask for additional proof in support of the fact that cremation was practiced all over ancient Europe. Nor do I consider myself, as a collector of myths, bound to prove everything. I do not mean to speak, therefore, any further of Birthday Trees, of Dead Men’s Trees, and of Fetich Trees—which we shall moreover meet again presently—and hasten on to other myths of far greater importance.

The Druids now appear for the first time in Gaul and in Germany.