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 lifea doctrine which modern Hinduism largely extended.

Among the Hindus, even in the Vedic period, magic wands were in use, and the practice still survives in China, where the peach-tree is in demand.

For while what we roughly call the Egyptian Religion, the Vedic Religion, the Greek Religion, Buddhism, and others of similar fame have been necessarily local and temporary, Pantheism has been, for the most part, a dimly discerned background, an esoteric significance of many or all religions, rather than a "denomination" by itself.

It has been the customary and perhaps inevitable method of writers on Pantheism to trace its main idea back to the dreams of Vedic poets, the musings of Egyptian priests, and the speculations of the Greeks.

His name Hermes, Hermeias, is but a transliteration of the Sanscrit Sarameyas, under which he appears in the Vedic songs, as the son of Sarama, the Dawn.

But the events of the actual human existence of this Lord of Poictesmevery much as the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa has been identified with the wood-demon Barbatos, and the prophet Elijah, "caught up into the chariot of the Vedic Vayu," has become one with the Slavonic Perun,have been inextricably blended with the legends of the Dirghic Manu-Elul, Lord of August.

Thus, even the irregularity in Manuel's eyes is taken by Vanderhoffen, in his Tudor Tales, to be a myth connecting Manuel with the Vedic Rudra and the Russian Magarko and the Servian Vii,"and every beneficent storm-god represented with his eye perpetually winking (like sheet lightning), lest his concentrated look (the thunderbolt) should reduce the universe to ashes....

With Rishis sanctified by Vedic lore and asceticism, and whose souls have been purified by penance, and who are contented with soul-vision, thou art the best of all objects!

On my arrival I found Dwaraka shorn of its splendour, and, O great monarch, there were not sounds of Vedic recitation or sacrificial offering.

And the lake within that forest, ever resounding with Vedic recitations, became sacred like a second region of Brahma.

And the Vedic recitations of the Brahmanas mingling with the twang of bows of the sons of Pritha, produced a union of the Brahmana and Kshatriya customs that was highly beautiful.

Those that perform Vedic sacrifices as also those that perform the meritorious rites of religion obtain other regions.

A rejector of proofs, a slanderer of the interpretation of the Vedic scriptures, a transgressor urged by lust and covetousness, that fool goeth to hell.

Here also, O lord of men, the illustrious Etavarna and Avavarana versed in the Vedas, learned in Vedic lore, and proficient in the knowledge of Vedic rites, performed meritorious sacrifices, O chief of the Bharata race!

Here also, O lord of men, the illustrious Etavarna and Avavarana versed in the Vedas, learned in Vedic lore, and proficient in the knowledge of Vedic rites, performed meritorious sacrifices, O chief of the Bharata race!

And so loud, indeed, was the sound of the Vedic Mantras that nothing else, O Bharata, could be heard there.

And the universe afflicted with the terror of the Kalakeyas, being destitute of Vedic studies and vashats and sacrificial festivals and religious rites, became entirely cheerless.

We are old and we have observed sacred vows and are in possession of energy proceeding from the Vedic lore.

There is a Vedic revelation that two birds live together on a tree as friendsone of these eats the fruits and the other looks at the former.

(That Vedic truth which he had suppressed by false arguments), have I to-day rescued by dint of my intellect.

There, O son of Pandu, is seen the beautiful hermitage of Raivya, where perished Bharadwaja's son, Yavakri, profound in Vedic lore.' "Yudhishthira said, 'How did the mighty sage, Yavakri, son of the ascetic Bharadwaja, acquire profoundity in the Vedas?

O conqueror of Paka, these endeavours of mine have been for Vedic lore.

And the god Indra, slayer of Vala, again came unto that great sage, who was engaged in austere penances; and forbade him, saying, "Thou art striving with the object that Vedic lore may be manifest unto thee as well as unto thy father; but thy exertions can never be successful, nor is this act of thine well-advised."

Aiming at the possession of Indra's place, by the force of austere and Vedic lore, that mighty-minded (demon) had practised austere penances for ten thousand years.

For the man who has once asked the way to the Spirit goes farther than any mere fulfiller of the Vedic rituals.