festival
of Cybele
was
regularly
hanged or
otherwise
slain upon
the sacred
tree, and
that this
barbarous
custom was
afterwards
mitigated
into the
form in
which it
is known
to us in
later
times,
when the
priest
merely
drew blood
from his
body under
the tree
and
attached
an effigy
instead of
himself to
its trunk.
In the
holy grove
at Upsala
men and
animals
were
sacrificed
by being
hanged
upon the
sacred
trees. The
human
victims
dedicated
to Odin
