The conception of an ubiquitous, unconditioned spirit is entirely foreign to primitive thought. All the gods of antiquity were subject to physical limitations. Those even of Greece and Rome were by no means independent of a material environment. There was always some holy place or sanctuary, some grove, tree, stone, or fountain, or later on some temple or image, wherein the god was assumed to dwell, and through which he had to be approached. To Moses Jehovah is “He that dwelt in the bush,”[52] and centuries later Cyrus, while admitting that the Lord of Israel had made him king of the whole world, yet speaks of Him as “the Lord that dwelleth in Jerusalem.”[53] Very frequently, especially in early times, this home or haunt of the god was a tree; his ceremonial worship was conducted beneath its shadow, and the offerings of his worshippers were hung upon its branches, or placed at its foot, or upon a table by its side, and assumed thereby to have reached the god. Thus the sacred sycamores of Egypt were believed to be actually inhabited by Hāthor, Nu̔ît, Selkît, Nît, or some other deity, and were worshipped and presented with offerings as such. The vignettes in the _Book of the Dead_ demonstrate this belief unmistakably. They frequently depict the soul on its journey to the next world coming to one of these miraculous sycamores on the edge of the terrible desert before it, and receiving from the goddess of the tree a supply of bread, fruit, or water, the acceptance of which made it the guest of the deity and prevented it from retracing its steps without her express permission. “O, sycamore of the Goddess Nu̔ît,” begins one of the chapters in the _Book of the Dead_, “let there be given to me the water which is in thee.” As a rule in the vignettes the bust of the goddess is represented as appearing from amidst the sheltering foliage, but sometimes only her arm is seen emerging from the leaves with a libation-bowl in the hand. The conception is illustrated still more clearly on an ancient sarcophagus in the Marseilles Museum, where the trunk from which the branches spread is represented as the actual body of the deity.[54] [Illustration: Fig. 10.—The goddess Nu̔ît in her sacred sycamore bestowing the bread and water of the next world.(Maspero, Dawn of Civilisation.)] [Illustration: Fig. 11.—Sacred tree of Dionysus, with a statue of the god and offerings.(Bötticher, Fig. 24.)]