“Many a green isle needs must be In the deep, wide sea of Misery, Or the mariner worn and wan Never thus could journey on Day and night, and night and day, Drifting on his weary way, With the solid darkness black Closing round his vessel’s track: Whilst above, the sunless sky Big with clouds hangs heavily; And behind, the tempest fleet, Hurries on with lightning feet, Riving sail, and cord, and plank, Till the ship has almost drank Death from the o’er-brimming deep, And sinks down, down, like that sleep When the dreamer seems to be Weltering through eternity.” Among the ancient Druids of Wales, green was the colour of the robes of the “ovates,” that is, the men who were hoping to become bards or Druids later. The colour green was used by the people of the East with a much deeper significance, however. The Hindoos said that Om, the Sun, drove across the sky in a chariot drawn by a green horse with seven heads, and preceded by Aruna, the Dawn. As we have no green horses in nature, the statement must be highly symbolic. Horses are always a sign of knowledge.[9] In the old Hindoo zodiacs, instead of the constellation Aries or the Ram, we often have a horse. Aries is the sign governing the head or mentality. The horse is used in exactly the same way. The number seven means what is complete in both body and spirit, for it contains the basic four (which is the number of man, who has to perfect his fourfold nature--body, mind, soul, and spirit), and also it contains the three, which is the perfection of the Trinity, for every great religion has contained a Trinity. Thus we see that seven refers to perfection in all things, whether of heaven or of earth. What, then, do we mean by a seven-headed _green_ horse? This--that the knowledge and wisdom of Om are eternal, everlasting, all-enduring, and that they comprehend the whole universe. [9] _Cf._ Sanskrit “harit” = (1) a horse, (2) the light, bright, shining. _Cf._ Pegasus, the winged horse of the Muses, in poetical imagination. In Palestine St George is sometimes called “the everlasting green one,” for the fight between good and evil is never-ending, but to the true St George the victory is ever assured. Time was addressed by the Egyptians as the “everlasting green one,” for the main experiences of life are the same to everyone, whether born now or hundreds of years ago. External circumstances alter, but each person has the same lessons to learn. The Fortunate Isles of the Greeks and the Islands of the Blessed of the North American Indians are said to have been green. Nearly all evergreen plants were considered especially sacred. Edgar Allan Poe addressed his love as “A green isle in the sea.”