Another common heathen practice in the time of Al-jahliya was the worship of holy trees. According to Tabari there was a date-palm tree at Nejran. It was adored at an annual feast, when it was hung all around with fine clothes and women’s ornaments. A similar tree to which the people of Mecca resorted annually, and hung upon it weapons, garments, ostriches’ eggs, and other things, is spoken of in the tradition of the prophet under the name of “dhat anwat,” or “tree to hang things on.”[123] The Goddess Al-‘Ozza was believed to reside in a tree. According to Yaḳut (III, 261), the tree at Hadaibiya, mentioned in the Koran (sura XLVIII, 18) was visited by pilgrims who expected to derive a blessing from it, till it was cut down by the Calif Omar lest it should be worshipped like Al-Lat and Al-‘Ozza. It was considered deadly to pluck a twig from such sacred trees. The prevalence of stone-worship is another sign of paganism existing before Islam, and noteworthy is the theory advanced by the Mohammedan writers to account for its origin. According to Ibn Hišam[124] the beginning of this idolatry was that “the Meccans when their land became too narrow for them spread abroad over the country, and all took stones from their sanctuary, the Kaaba, out of reverence for their temple, and they set them up whenever they formed a settlement; and they walked around them as they used to go about the Holy House. This led them at last to worship every stone that pleased their fancy.” It is to be noticed, furthermore, that poly-demonism, _i. e._, the belief in divine powers, in spirits, is the most characteristic feature of the old nomad religions. Many traces of this belief have been preserved in the Old Testament, and also in the popular religion of the Syria and Palestine of to-day. There are many instances in the Old Testament of the belief in divine powers inhabiting springs, trees, stones. We may refer to the sacred wells at ḳadeš (Gen. 14: 7) and at Beeršeba (Gen. 21, 28, 30, 31); to the sacred oracular tree at Shekem (Gen. 12, 6; Deut. 11, 3); to the sacred stone of Bethel, which gave the place its name, as it is called “a house of God” (Gen. 28, 22).[125]