The dew that falls from the tree on the earth men call honey-dew, and it is the food of the bees. The third stem of Yggdrasill takes its rise in the cold and cheerless regions of the north (the land of the Frost Giants), over the source of the ocean, typified by a spring called Mimir’s Well, in which wisdom and wit lie hidden. Mimir, the owner of this spring, is full of wisdom because he drinks of its waters. One day Odin came and begged a draught of water from the well, which he obtained, but was obliged to leave one of his eyes as a pledge for it. This myth Finn Magnusen thinks signifies the descent of the sun every evening into the sea (to learn wisdom from Mimir during the night); the mead quaffed by Mimir every morning being the ruddy dawn, that, spreading over the sky, exhilarates all nature. [Illustration: [TO FACE PAGE 2. Yggdrasill, the Mundane Tree. _From Finn Magnusen’s ‘Eddalæren.’_] The Hindu World-Tree. The Indian cosmogonic tree is the symbol of vegetation, of universal life, and of immortality. In the sacred Vedic writings it receives the special names of _Ilpa_, _Kalpadruma_, _Kalpaka-taru_, and _Kalpavriksha_, on the fruits of which latter tree the first men sustained and nourished life. In its quality of Tree of Paradise, it is called _Pârijâta_; and as the ambrosial tree--the tree yielding immortal food--it is known as _Amrita_ and _Soma_. This mystic world-tree of the Hindus, according to the Rigveda, is supernaturally the God Brahma himself; and all the gods are considered as branches of the divine parent stem--the elementary or fragmentary form of Brahma, the vast overspreading tree of the universe. In the Vedas this celestial tree is described as the _Pippala_ (Peepul), and is alluded to as being in turns visited by two beauteous birds--the one feeding itself on the fruit (typifying probably the moon or twilight); the other simply hovering, with scintillating plumage, and singing melodiously (typifying perhaps the sun or daybreak). Under the name of _Ilpa_ (the _Jamboa_, or Rose-apple) the cosmogonic tree is described as growing in the midst of the lake Ara in Brahma’s world, beyond the river that never grows old, from whence are procured the waters of eternal youth. Brahma imparts to it his own perfume, and from it obtains the sap of vitality. To its branches the dead cling and climb, in order that they may enter into the regions of immortality. As the _Kalpadruma_, _Kalpaka-taru_, and _Kalpavriksha_, the Indian sacred writings describe a cloud-tree, which, by its shadows, produced day and night before the creation of sun and moon. This cosmogonic tree, which is of colossal proportions, grows in the midst of flowers and streamlets on a steep mountain. It fulfils all desires, imparts untold bliss, and, what in the eyes of Buddhists constitutes its chief sublimity, it gives knowledge and wisdom to humanity; in a word it combines within its mystic branches all riches and all knowledge.