CHAPTER XXII.
OF A CERTAIN DESERT THAT CONTINUES FOR EIGHT DAYS’ JOURNEY.
When you depart from this City of Cobinan, you find yourself again in a
Desert of surpassing aridity, which lasts for some eight days; here are
neither fruits nor trees to be seen, and what water there is is bitter
and bad, so that you have to carry both food and water. The cattle
must needs drink the bad water, will they nill they, because of their
great thirst. At the end of those eight days you arrive at a Province
which is called TONOCAIN. It has a good many towns and villages, and
forms the extremity of Persia towards the North.{1} It also contains an
immense plain on which is found the ARBRE SOL, which we Christians call
the _Arbre Sec_; and I will tell you what it is like. It is a tall and
thick tree, having the bark on one side green and the other white; and
it produces a rough husk like that of a chestnut, but without anything
in it. The wood is yellow like box, and very strong, and there are no
other trees near it nor within a hundred miles of it, except on one
side, where you find trees within about ten miles’ distance. And there,
the people of the country tell you, was fought the battle between
Alexander and King Darius.{2}
The towns and villages have great abundance of everything good, for the
climate is extremely temperate, being neither very hot nor very cold.
The natives all worship Mahommet, and are a very fine-looking people,
especially the women, who are surpassingly beautiful.
NOTE 1.—All that region has been described as “a country divided
into deserts that are salt, and deserts that are not salt.”
(_Vigne_, I. 16.) _Tonocain_, as we have seen (ch. xv. note 1), is
the Eastern Kuhistan of Persia, but extended by Polo, it would seem
to include the whole of Persian Khorasan. No city in particular
is indicated as visited by the traveller, but the view I take of
the position of the _Arbre Sec_, as well as his route through
Kuh-Banán, would lead me to suppose that he reached the Province of
TUN-O-KAIN about Tabbas.
[“Marco Polo has been said to have traversed a portion of (the
Dash-i-Kavir, great Salt Desert) on his supposed route from
Tabbas to Damghan, about 1272; although it is more probable that
he marched further to the east, and crossed the northern portion
of the Dash-i-Lut, Great Sand Desert, separating Khorasan in the
south-east from Kermán, and occupying a sorrowful parallelogram
between the towns of Neh and Tabbas on the north, and Kermán and
Yezd on the south.” (Curzon, _Persia_, II. pp. 248 and 251.) Lord
Curzon adds in a note (p. 248): “The Tunogan of the text which was
originally mistaken for Damghan, is correctly explained by Yule
as Tun-o- (_i.e._ and) Káin.” Major Sykes writes (ch. xxiii.): “The
section of the Lut has not hitherto been rediscovered, but I know
that it is desert throughout, and it is practically certain that
Marco ended these unpleasant experiences at Tabas, 150 miles from
Kubenán. To-day the district is known as Tun-o-Tabas, Káin being
independent of it.”—H. C.]
NOTE 2.—This is another subject on which a long and somewhat
discursive note is inevitable.
One of the Bulletins of the Soc. de Géographie (sér. III. tom. iii.
p. 187) contains a perfectly inconclusive endeavour, by M. Roux
de Rochelle, to identify the _Arbre Sec_ or _Arbre Sol_ with a
manna-bearing oak alluded to by Q. Curtius as growing in Hyrcania.
There can be no doubt that the tree described is, as Marsden points
out, a _Chínár_ or Oriental Plane. Mr. Ernst Meyer, in his learned
_Geschichte der Botanik_ (Königsberg, 1854–57, IV. 123), objects
that Polo’s description of the _wood_ does not answer to that
tree. But, with due allowance, compare with his whole account that
which Olearius gives of the Chinar, and say if the same tree be
not meant. “The trees are as tall as the pine, and have very large
leaves, closely resembling those of the vine. The fruit looks like
a chestnut, but has no kernel, so it is not eatable. The wood is of
a very brown colour, and full of veins; the Persians employ it for
doors and window-shutters, and when these are rubbed with oil they
are incomparably handsomer than our walnut-wood joinery.” (I. 526.)
The Chinar-wood is used in Kashmir for gunstocks.
The whole tenor of the passage seems to imply that some eminent
_individual_ Chinar is meant. The appellations given to it vary
in the different texts. In the G. T. it is styled in this passage,
“The _Arbre Seule_ which the Christians call the _Arbre Sec_,”
whilst in ch. cci. of the same (_infra_, Bk. IV. ch. v.) it is
called “_L’Arbre Sol_, which in the Book of Alexander is called
_L’Arbre Seche_.” Pauthier has here “_L’Arbre Solque_, que nous
appelons _L’Arbre Sec_,” and in the later passage “_L’Arbre Seul_,
que le Livre Alexandre appelle _Arbre Sec_;” whilst Ramusio has
here “_L’Albero del Sole_ che si chiama per i Cristiani _L’Albor
Secco_,” and does not contain the later passage. So also I think
all the old Latin and French printed texts, which are more or less
based on Pipino’s version, have “The _Tree of the Sun_, which the
Latins call the _Dry Tree_.”
[G. Capus says (_A travers le roy. de Tamerlan_, p. 296) that he
found at Khodjakent, the remains of an enormous plane-tree or
_Chinar_, which measured no less than 48 metres (52 yards) in
circumference at the base, and 9 metres diameter inside the rotten
trunk; a dozen tourists from Tashkent one day feasted inside, and
were all at ease.—H. C.]
Pauthier, building as usual on the reading of his own text
(_Solque_), endeavours to show that this odd word represents
_Thoulk_, the Arabic name of a tree to which Forskal gave the
title of _Ficus Vasta_, and this Ficus Vasta he will have to be
the same as the Chinar. _Ficus Vasta_ would be a strange name
surely to give to a Plane-tree, but Forskal may be acquitted of
such an eccentricity. The _Tholaḳ_ (for that seems to be the proper
vocalisation) is a tree of Arabia Felix, very different from the
Chinar, for it is the well-known Indian Banyan, or a closely-allied
species, as may be seen in Forskal’s description. The latter
indeed says that the Arab botanists called it _Delb_, and that (or
_Dulb_) is really a synonym for the Chinar. But De Sacy has already
commented upon this supposed application of the name Delb to the
_Tholaḳ_ as erroneous. (See _Flora Aegyptiaco-Arabica_, pp. cxxiv.
and 179; _Abdallatif, Rel. de l’Egypte_, p. 80; _J. R. G. S._ VIII.
275; _Ritter_, VI. 662, 679.)
The fact is that the _Solque_ of M. Pauthier’s text is a mere
copyist’s error in the reduplication of the pronoun _que_. In his
chief MS. which he cites as A (No. 10,260 of Bibl. Nationale, now
_Fr_. 5631) we can even see how this might easily happen, for one
line ends with _Solque_ and the next begins with _que_. The true
reading is, I doubt not, that which this MS. points to, and which
the G. Text gives us in the second passage quoted above, viz.
_Arbre_ SOL, occurring in Ramusio as _Albero del_ SOLE. To make
this easier of acceptation I must premise two remarks: first, that
_Sol_ is “the Sun” in both Venetian and Provençal; and, secondly,
that in the French of that age the prepositional sign is not
_necessary_ to the genitive. Thus, in Pauthier’s own text we find
in one of the passages quoted above, “_Le Livre Alexandre_, _i.e._
Liber Alexandri;” elsewhere, “_Cazan le fils Argon_,” “_à la mère
sa femme_,” “_Le corps Monseigneur Saint Thomas si est en ceste
Province_;” in Joinville, “_le commandemant Mahommet_”, “_ceux de
la_ Haulequa _estoient logiez entour les héberges le soudanc, et
establiz pour le cors le soudanc garder_;” in Baudouin de Sebourc,
“_De l’amour Bauduin esprise et enflambée_.”
Moreover it is the TREE OF THE SUN that is prominent in the
legendary History of Alexander, a fact sufficient in itself to rule
the reading. A character in an old English play says:—
“_Peregrine_. Drake was a didapper to Mandevill:
Candish and Hawkins, Frobisher, all our Voyagers
Went short of Mandevil. But had he reached
To this place—here—yes, here—this wilderness,
And seen the _Trees of the Sun and Moon_, that speak
And told King Alexander of his death;
He then
Had left a passage ope to Travellers
That now is kept and guarded by Wild Beasts.”
(_Broome’s Antipodes_, in _Lamb’s Specimens_.)
The same trees are alluded to in an ancient Low German poem in
honour of St. Anno of Cologne. Speaking of the Four Beasts of
Daniel’s Vision:—
“The third beast was a Libbard;
Four Eagle’s Wings he had;
This signified the Grecian Alexander,
Who with four Hosts went forth to conquer lands
Even to the World’s End,
Known by its Golden Pillars.
In India he the Wilderness broke through
_With Trees twain he there did speak_,” etc.
(In _Schilteri Thesaurus Antiq. Teuton._ tom. i.[1])
These oracular Trees of the Sun and Moon, somewhere on the confines
of India, appear in all the fabulous histories of Alexander, from
the Pseudo-Callisthenes downwards. Thus Alexander is made to
tell the story in a letter to Aristotle: “Then came some of the
towns-people and said, ‘We have to show thee something passing
strange, O King, and worth thy visiting; for we can show thee trees
that talk with human speech.’ So they led me to a certain park, in
the midst of which were the Sun and Moon, and round about them a
guard of priests of the Sun and Moon. And there stood the two trees
of which they had spoken, like unto cypress trees; and round about
them were trees like the myrobolans of Egypt, and with similar
fruit. And I addressed the two trees that were in the midst of the
park, the one which was male in the Masculine gender, and the one
that was female in the Feminine gender. And the name of the Male
Tree was the Sun, and of the female Tree the Moon, names which
were in that language _Muthu_ and _Emaūsae_.[2] And the stems were
clothed with the skins of animals; the male tree with the skins of
he-beasts, and the female tree with the skins of she-beasts.... And
at the setting of the Sun, a voice, speaking in the Indian tongue,
came forth from the (Sun) Tree; and I ordered the Indians who were
with me to interpret it. But they were afraid and would not,” etc.
(_Pseudo-Callisth._ ed. Müller, III. 17.)
The story as related by Firdusi keeps very near to the Greek as
just quoted, but does not use the term “Tree of the Sun.” The
chapter of the Sháh Námeh containing it is entitled _Dídan Sikandar
dirakht-i-goyárá_, “Alexander’s interview with the Speaking Tree.”
(_Livre des Rois_, V. 229.) In the _Chanson d’Alixandre_ of Lambert
le Court and Alex. de Bernay, these trees are introduced as
follows:—
“‘Signor,’ fait Alixandre, ‘je vus voel demander,
Se des merveilles d’Inde me saves rien conter.’
Cil li ont respondu: ‘Se tu vius escouter
Ja te dirons merveilles, s’es poras esprover.
La sus en ces desers pues ii Arbres trover
Qui c pies ont de haut, et de grossor sunt per.
Li Solaus et La Lune les ont fait si serer
Que sevent tous langages et entendre et parler.’”
(Ed. 1861 (Dinan), p. 357.)
Maundevile informs us precisely where these trees are: “A 15
journeys in lengthe, goynge be the Deserts of the tother side of
the Ryvere Beumare,” if one could only tell where that is![3] A
mediæval chronicler also tells us that Ogerus the Dane (_temp.
Caroli Magni_) conquered all the parts beyond sea from Hierusalem
to the Trees of the Sun. In the old Italian romance also of
_Guerino detto il Meschino_, still a chapbook in S. Italy, the Hero
(ch. lxiii.) visits the Trees of the Sun and Moon. But this is mere
imitation of the Alexandrian story, and has nothing of interest.
(_Maundevile_, pp. 297–298; _Fasciculus Temporum_ in _Germ. Script.
Pistorii Nidani_, II.)
It will be observed that the letter ascribed to Alexander describes
the two oracular trees as resembling two cypress-trees. As such the
Trees of the Sun and Moon are represented on several extant ancient
medals, _e.g._ on two struck at Perga in Pamphylia in the time of
Aurelian. And Eastern story tells us of two vast cypress-trees,
sacred among the Magians, which grew in Khorasan, one at Kashmar
near Turshiz, and the other at Farmad near Tuz, and which were said
to have risen from shoots that Zoroaster brought from Paradise. The
former of these was sacrilegiously cut down by the order of the
Khalif Motawakkil, in the 9th century. The trunk was despatched to
Baghdad on rollers at a vast expense, whilst the branches alone
formed a load for 1300 camels. The night that the convoy reached
within one stage of the palace, the Khalif was cut in pieces by his
own guards. This tree was said to be 1450 years old, and to measure
33¾ cubits in girth. The locality of _this_ “Arbor Sol” we see
was in Khorasan, and possibly its fame may have been transferred
to a representative of another species. The plane, as well as the
cypress, was one of the distinctive trees of the Magian Paradise.
In the Peutingerian Tables we find in the N.E. of Asia the rubric
“_Hic Alexander Responsum accepit_,” which looks very like an
allusion to the tale of the Oracular Trees. If so, it is remarkable
as a suggestion of the antiquity of the Alexandrian Legends, though
the rubric may of course be an interpolation. The Trees of the Sun
and Moon appear as located in India Ultima to the east of Persia,
in a map which is found in MSS. (12th century) of the _Floridus_
of _Lambertus_; and they are indicated more or less precisely in
several maps of the succeeding centuries. (_Ouseley’s Travels_, I.
387; _Dabistan_, I. 307–308; _Santarem, H. de la Cosmog._ II. 189,
III. 506–513, etc.)
Nothing could show better how this legend had possessed men in
the Middle Ages than the fact that Vincent of Beauvais discerns
an allusion to these Trees of the Sun and Moon in the blessing of
Moses on Joseph (as it runs in the Vulgate), “_de pomis fructuum
Solis ac Lunae_.” (Deut. xxxiii. 14.)
Marco has mixt up this legend of the Alexandrian Romance, on the
authority, as we shall see reason to believe, of some of the
recompilers of that Romance, with a famous subject of _Christian_
Legend in that age, the ARBRE SEC or Dry Tree, one form of which
is related by Maundevile and by Johan Schiltberger. “A lytille fro
Ebron,” says the former, “is the Mount of Mambre, of the whyche
the Valeye taketh his name. And there is a Tree of Oke that the
Saracens clepen _Dirpe_, that is of Abraham’s Tyme, the which men
clepen THE DRYE TREE.” [Schiltberger adds that the heathen call it
_Kurru Thereck_, _i.e._ (Turkish) _Ḳúrú Dirakht_ = Dry Tree.] “And
theye seye that it hathe ben there sithe the beginnynge of the
World; and was sumtyme grene and bare Leves, unto the Tyme that
Oure Lord dyede on the Cros; and thanne it dryede; and so dyden
alle the Trees that weren thanne in the World. And summe seyn be
hire Prophecyes that a Lord, a Prynce of the West syde of the
World, shalle wynnen the Lond of Promyssioun, _i.e._ the Holy Lond,
withe Helpe of Cristene Men, and he schalle do synge a Masse under
that Drye Tree, and than the Tree shall wexen grene and bere both
Fruyt and Leves. And thorghe that Myracle manye Sarazines and Jewes
schulle ben turned to Cristene Feithe. And, therefore, they dou
gret Worschipe thereto, and kepen it fulle besyly. And alle be it
so that it be drye, natheless yit he berethe great vertue,” etc.
The tradition seems to have altered with circumstances, for a
traveller of nearly two centuries later (Friar Anselmo, 1509)
describes the oak of Abraham at Hebron as a tree of dense and
verdant foliage: “The Saracens make their devotions at it, and
hold it in great veneration, for it has remained thus green from
the days of Abraham until now; and they tie scraps of cloth on its
branches inscribed with some of their writing, and believe that if
any one were to cut a piece off that tree he would die within the
year.” Indeed even before Maundevile’s time Friar Burchard (1283)
had noticed that though the famous old tree was dry, another had
sprung from its roots. And it still has a representative.
As long ago as the time of Constantine a fair was held under the
Terebinth of Mamre, which was the object of many superstitious
rites and excesses. The Emperor ordered these to be put a stop to,
and a church to be erected at the spot. In the time of Arculph (end
of 7th century) the dry trunk still existed under the roof of this
church; just as the immortal Banyan-tree of Prág exists to this day
in a subterranean temple in the Fort of Allahabad.
It is evident that the story of the Dry Tree had got a great vogue
in the 13th century. In the _Jus du Pelerin_, a French drama of
Polo’s age, the Pilgrim says:—
“S’ai puis en maint bon lieu et à maint saint esté,
S’ai esté au _Sec-Arbre_ et dusc’à Duresté.”
And in another play of slightly earlier date (_Le Jus de St.
Nicolas_), the King of Africa, invaded by the Christians, summons
all his allies and feudatories, among whom appear the Admirals of
Coine (_Iconium_) and Orkenie (_Hyrcania_), and the _Amiral d’outre
l’Arbre-Sec_ (as it were of “the Back of Beyond”) in whose country
the only current coin is millstones! Friar Odoric tells us that he
heard at Tabriz that the _Arbor Secco_ existed in a mosque of that
city; and Clavijo relates a confused story about it in the same
locality. Of the _Dürre Baum_ at Tauris there is also a somewhat
pointless legend in a Cologne MS. of the 14th century, professing
to give an account of the East. There are also some curious verses
concerning a mystical _Dürre Bom_ quoted by Fabricius from an old
Low German Poem; and we may just allude to that other mystic _Arbor
Secco_ of Dante—
—“una pianta dispogliata
Di fiori e d’altra fronda in ciascun ramo,”
though the dark symbolism in the latter case seems to have a
different bearing.
(_Maundevile_, p. 68; _Schiltberger_, p. 113; Anselm. in _Canisii
Thesaurus_, IV. 781; _Pereg. Quat._ p. 81; _Niceph. Callist._ VIII.
30; _Théâtre Français au Moyen Age_, pp. 97, 173; _Cathay_, p. 48;
_Clavijo_, p. 90; _Orient und Occident_, Göttingen, 1867, vol.
i.; _Fabricii Vet. Test. Pseud._, etc., I. 1133; _Dante, Purgat._
xxxii. 35.)
But why does Polo bring this _Arbre Sec_ into connection with the
Sun Tree of the Alexandrian Legend? I cannot answer this to my own
entire satisfaction, but I can show that such a connection had been
imagined in his time.
Paulin Paris, in a notice of MS. No. 6985. (_Fonds Ancien_) of
the National Library, containing a version of the _Chansons de
Geste d’Alixandre_, based upon the work of L. Le Court and Alex.
de Bernay, but with additions of later date, notices amongst these
latter the visit of Alexander to the Valley Perilous, where he
sees a variety of wonders, among others the _Arbre des Pucelles_.
Another tree at a great distance from the last is called the ARBRE
SEC, and reveals to Alexander the secret of the fate which attends
him in Babylon. (_Les MSS. Français de la Bibl. du Roi_, III.
105.)[4] Again the English version of _King Alisaundre_, published
in Weber’s Collection, shows clearly enough that in _its_ French
original the term _Arbre Sec_ was applied to the Oracular Trees,
though the word has been miswritten, and misunderstood by Weber.
The King, as in the Greek and French passages already quoted,
meeting two old churls, asks if they know of any marvel in those
parts:—
“‘Ye, par ma fay,’ quoth heo,
‘A great merveille we wol telle the;
That is hennes in even way
The mountas of ten daies journey,
Thou shalt find trowes[5] two:
Seyntes and holy they buth bo;
Higher than in othir countray all.
ARBESET men heom callith.’
* * * * *
‘Sire Kyng,’ quod on, ‘by myn eyghe
Either Trough is an hundrod feet hygh,
They stondith up into the skye;
That on to the _Sonne_, sikirlye;
That othir, we tellith the nowe,
Is sakret in the _Mone_ vertue.’”
(_Weber_, I. 277.)
Weber’s glossary gives “_Arbeset_ = Strawberry Tree, _arbous,
arbousier, arbutus_”; but that is nonsense.
Further, in the French Prose Romance of Alexander, which is
contained in the fine volume in the British Museum known as the
Shrewsbury Book (Reg. XV. e. 6), though we do not find the Arbre
Sec so named, we find it described and pictorially represented.
The Romance (fol. xiiii. v.) describes Alexander and his chief
companions as ascending a certain mountain by 2500 steps which were
attached to a golden chain. At the top they find the golden Temple
of the Sun and an old man asleep within. It goes on:—
“Quant le viellart les vit si leur demanda s’ils vouloient veoir
les Arbres sacrez de la Lune et du Soleil que nous annuncent les
choses qui sont à avenir. Quant Alexandre ouy ce si fut rempli de
mult grant ioye. Si lui respondirent, ‘Ouye sur, nous les voulons
veoir.’ Et cil lui dist, ‘Se tu es nez de prince malle et de
femelle il te convient entrer en celui lieu.’ Et Alexandre lui
respondi, ‘Nous somes nez de compagne malle et de femelle.’ Dont
se leve le viellart du lit ou il gesoit, et leur dist, ‘Hostez
vos vestemens et vos chauces.’ Et Tholomeus et Antigonus et
Perdiacas le suivrent. Lors comencèrent à aler parmy la forest qui
estoit enclose en merveilleux labour. Illec trouvèrent les arbres
semblables à loriers et oliviers. Et estoient de cent pies de
haults, et decouroit d’eulz incens ypobaume[6] à grant quantité.
Après entrèrent plus avant en la forest, et trouvèrent _une arbre
durement hault qui n’avoit ne fueille ne fruit_. Si seoit sur cet
arbre une grant oysel qui avoit en son chief une creste qui estoit
semblable au paon, et les plumes du col resplendissants come fin
or. Et avoit la couleur de rose. Dont lui dist le viellart, ‘Cet
oysel dont vous vous merveillez est appelés Fenis, lequel n’a
nul pareil en tout le monde.’ Dont passèrent outre, et allèrent
aux Arbres du Soleil et de la Lune. Et quant ils y furent venus,
si leur dist le viellart, ‘Regardez en haut, et pensez en votre
coeur ce que vous vouldrez demander, et ne le dites de la bouche.’
Alisandre luy demanda en quel language donnent les Arbres response
aux gens. Et il lui respondit, ‘L’Arbre du Soleil commence à
parler Indien.’ Dont baisa Alexandre les arbres, et comença en son
ceur à penser s’il conquesteroit tout le monde et retourneroit en
Macedonie atout son ost. Dont lui respondit l’Arbre du Soleil,
‘Alexandre tu seras Roy de tout le monde, mais Macedonie tu ne
verras jamais,’” etc.
The appearance of the Arbre Sec in Maps of the 15th century,
such as those of Andrea Bianco (1436) and Fra Mauro (1459), may
be ascribed to the influence of Polo’s own work; but a more
genuine evidence of the prevalence of the legend is found in the
celebrated Hereford Map constructed in the 13th century by Richard
de Haldingham. This, in the vicinity of India and the Terrestrial
Paradise, exhibits a Tree with the rubric “_Albor Balsami est Arbor
Sicca_.”
The legends of the Dry Tree were probably spun out of the words
of the Vulgate in Ezekiel xvii. 24: “_Humiliavi lignum sublime et
exaltavi lignum humile; et siccavi lignum viride_ et frondescere
feci lignum aridum.” Whether the _Rue de l’Arbre Sec_ in Paris
derives its name from the legend I know not. [The name of the
street is taken from an old sign-board; some say it is derived
from the gibbet placed in the vicinity, but this is more than
doubtful.—H. C.]
[Illustration: =Comment les arbres du soleil et De la lune
prophetiserent la mort alixandre.=]
The actual tree to which Polo refers in the text was probably
one of those so frequent in Persia, to which age, position, or
accident has attached a character of sanctity, and which are styled
_Dirakht-i-Fazl_, Trees of Excellence or Grace, and often receive
titles appropriate to Holy Persons. Vows are made before them, and
pieces torn from the clothes of the votaries are hung upon the
branches or nailed to the trunks. To a tree of such a character,
imposing in decay, Lucan compares Pompey:
“Stat magni nominis umbra.
Qualis frugifero quercus sublimis in agro,
_Exuvias veteres populi sacrataque gestans
Dona ducum_ * * * * *
—Quamvis primo nutet casura sub Euro,
Tot circum silvae firmo se robore tollant,
Sola tamen colitur.”
(_Pharsalia_, I. 135.)
The Tree of Mamre was evidently precisely one of this class; and
those who have crossed the Suez Desert before railway days will
remember such a _Dirakht-i-Fazl_, an aged mimosa, a veritable
_Arbre Seul_ (could we accept that reading), that stood just
half-way across the Desert, streaming with the _exuviae veteres_ of
Mecca Pilgrims. The majority of such holy trees in Persia appear
to be Plane-trees. Admiration for the beauty of this tree seems to
have occasionally risen into superstitious veneration from a very
old date. Herodotus relates that the Carians, after their defeat
by the Persians on the Marsyas, rallied in the sacred grove of
Plane-trees at Labranda. And the same historian tells how, some
years later, Xerxes on his march to Greece decorated a beautiful
Chinar with golden ornaments. Mr. Hamilton, in the same region,
came on the remains of a giant of the species, which he thought
might possibly be the very same. Pliny rises to enthusiasm in
speaking of some noble Plane-trees in Lycia and elsewhere. Chardin
describes one grand and sacred specimen, called King Hosain’s
Chinar, and said to be more than 1000 years old, in a suburb of
Ispahan, and another hung with amulets, rags, and tapers in a
garden at Shiraz.[7] One sacred tree mentioned by the Persian
geographer Hamd Allah as distinguishing the grave of a holy man at
Bostam in Khorasan (the species is not named, at least by Ouseley,
from whom I borrow this) comes into striking relation with the
passage in our text. The story went that it had been the staff of
Mahomed; as such it had been transmitted through many generations,
until it was finally deposited in the grave of Abu Abdallah
Dásitáni, where it struck root and put forth branches. And it is
explicitly called _Dirakht-i-Khushk_, _i.e._ literally _L’ARBRE
SEC_.
This last legend belongs to a large class. The staff of Adam,
which was created in the twilight of the approaching Sabbath, was
bestowed on him in Paradise and handed down successively to Enoch
and the line of Patriarchs. After the death of Joseph it was set
in Jethro’s garden, and there grew untouched, till Moses came and
got his rod from it. In another form of the legend it is Seth who
gets a branch of the Tree of Life, and from this Moses afterwards
obtains his rod of power. These Rabbinical stories seem in later
times to have been developed into the Christian legends of the wood
destined to form the Cross, such as they are told in the Golden
Legend or by Godfrey of Viterbo, and elaborated in Calderon’s
_Sibila del Oriente_. Indeed, as a valued friend who has consulted
the latter for me suggests, probably all the Arbre Sec Legends of
Christendom bore mystic reference to the Cross. In Calderon’s play
the Holy Rood, seen in vision, is described as a Tree:—
————“cuyas hojas,
Secas mustias y marchitas,
Desnudo el tronco dejaban
Que, entre mil copas floridas
De los árboles, el solo
Sin pompa y sin bizaria
Era cadáver del prado.”
There are several Dry-Tree stories among the wonders of Buddhism;
one is that of a sacred tree visited by the Chinese pilgrims to
India, which had grown from the twig which Sakya, in Hindu fashion,
had used as a tooth-brush; and I think there is a like story in our
own country of the Glastonbury Thorn having grown from the staff of
Joseph of Arimathea.
[“St Francis’ Church is a large pile, neere which, yet a little
without the Citty, growes a tree which they report in their legend
grew from the Saint’s Staff, which on going to sleepe he fixed
in the ground, and at his waking found it had grown a large tree.
They affirm that the wood of its decoction cures sundry diseases.”
(_Evelyn’s Diary_, October, 1644.)—H. C.]
In the usual form of the mediæval legend, Adam, drawing near his
end, sends Seth to the gate of Paradise, to seek the promised Oil
of Mercy. The Angel allows Seth to put his head in at the gate.
Doing so (as an old English version gives it)—
————“he saw a fair Well,
Of whom all the waters on earth cometh, as the Book us doth tell;
Over the Well stood a Tree, with bowës broad and lere
Ac it _ne bare leaf ne rind, but as it for-olded were_;
A nadder it had beclipt about, all naked withouten skin,
That was the Tree and the Nadder that first made Adam do sin!”
The Adder or Serpent is coiled about the denuded stem; the upper
branches reach to heaven, and bear at the top a new-born wailing
infant, swathed in linen, whilst (here we quote a French version)—
“Les larmes qui de lui issoient
Contreval l’Arbre en avaloient;
Adonc regarda l’enfant Seth
Tout contreval de L’ARBRE SECQ;
Les rachines qui le tenoient
Jusques en Enfer s’en aloient,
Les larmes qui de lui issirent
Jusques dedans Enfer cheïrent.”
The Angel gives Seth three kernels from the fruit of the Tree.
Seth returns home and finds his father dead. He buries him in _the
valley of Hebron_, and places the three grains under his tongue. A
triple shoot springs up of Cedar, Cypress, and Pine, symbolising
the three Persons of the Trinity. The three eventually unite into
one stem, and this tree survives in various forms, and through
various adventures in connection with the Scripture History, till
it is found at the bottom of the Pool of Bethesda, to which it had
imparted healing Virtue, and is taken thence to form the Cross on
which Our Lord suffered.
The English version quoted above is from a MS. of the 14th century
in the Bodleian, published by Dr. Morris in his collection of
_Legends of the Holy Rood_. I have modernised the spelling of the
lines quoted, without altering the words. The French citation is
from a MS. in the Vienna Library, from which extracts are given
by Sign. Adolfo Mussafia in his curious and learned tract (_Sulla
Legenda del Legno della Croce_, Vienna, 1870), which gives a full
account of the fundamental legend and its numerous variations. The
examination of these two works, particularly Sign. Mussafia’s,
gives an astonishing impression of the copiousness with which such
Christian Mythology, as it may fairly be called, was diffused and
multiplied. There are in the paper referred to notices of between
fifty and sixty different _works_ (not MSS. or _copies_ of works
merely) containing this legend in various European languages.
(_Santarem_, III. 380, II. 348; _Ouseley_, I. 359 _seqq._ and
391; _Herodotus_, VII. 31; _Pliny_, XII. 5; _Chardin_, VII.
410, VIII. 44 and 426; _Fabricius_, _Vet. Test. Pseud._ I. 80
_seqq._; _Cathay_, p. 365; _Beal’s Fah-Hian_, 72 and 78; _Pèlerins
Bouddhistes_, II. 292; _Della Valle_, II. 276–277.)
He who injured the holy tree of Bostam, we are told, perished the
same day: a general belief in regard to those _Trees of Grace_, of
which we have already seen instances in regard to the sacred trees
of Zoroaster and the Oak of Hebron. We find the same belief in
Eastern Africa, where certain trees, regarded by the natives with
superstitious reverence, which they express by driving in votive
nails and suspending rags, are known to the European residents
by the vulgar name of _Devil Trees_. Burton relates a case of
the verification of the superstition in the death of an English
merchant who had cut down such a tree, and of four members of his
household. It is the old story which Ovid tells; and the tree which
Erisichthon felled was a _Dirakht-i-Fazl_:
“Vittae mediam, memoresque tabellae
Sertaque cingebant, voti argumenta potentis.”
(_Metamorph._ VIII. 744.)
[Illustration: Chinar, or Oriental Plane.]
Though the coincidence with our text of Hamd Allah’s Dry Tree is
very striking, I am not prepared to lay stress on it as an argument
for the geographical determination of Marco’s _Arbre Sec_. His use
of the title more than once to characterise the whole frontier of
Khorasan can hardly have been a mere whim of his own: and possibly
some explanation of that circumstance will yet be elicited from the
Persian historians or geographers of the Mongol era.
Meanwhile it is in the vicinity of Bostam or Damghan that I
should incline to place this landmark. If no one _very_ cogent
reason points to this, a variety of minor ones do so; such as the
direction of the traveller’s journey from Kermán through Kuh Banán;
the apparent vicinity of a great Ismailite fortress, as will be
noticed in the next chapter; the connection twice indicated (see
_Prologue_, ch. xviii. note 6, and Bk. IV. ch. v.) of the Arbre Sec
with the headquarters of Ghazan Khan in watching the great passes,
of which the principal ones debouche at Bostam, at which place
also buildings erected by Ghazan still exist; and the statement
that the decisive battle between Alexander and Darius was placed
there by local tradition. For though no such battle took place in
that region, we know that Darius was murdered near Hecatompylos.
Some place this city west of Bostam, near Damghan; others east of
it, about Jah Jerm; Ferrier has strongly argued for the vicinity
of Bostam itself. Firdusi indeed places the final battle on the
confines of Kermán, and the death of Darius within that province.
But this could not have been the tradition Polo met with.
I may add that the temperate climate of Bostam is noticed in words
almost identical with Polo’s by both Fraser and Ferrier.
The Chinar abounds in Khorasan (as far as any tree can be said to
_abound_ in Persia), and even in the Oases of Tun-o-Kain wherever
there is water. Travellers quoted by Ritter notice Chinars of great
size and age at Shahrúd, near Bostam, at Meyomid, and at Mehr,
west of Sabzawar, which last are said to date from the time of
Naoshirwan (7th century). There is a town to the N.W. of Meshid
called _Chinárán_, “The Planes.” P. Della Valle, we may note, calls
Tehran “la città dei platani.”
The following note by De Sacy regarding the Chinar has already been
quoted by Marsden, and though it may be doubtful whether the term
Arbre Sec had any relation to the idea expressed, it seems to me
too interesting to be omitted: “Its sterility seems to have become
proverbial among certain people of the East. For in a collection
of sundry moral sentences pertaining to the Sabaeans or Christians
of St. John ... we find the following: ‘The vainglorious man is
like a showy Plane Tree, rich in boughs but producing nothing, and
affording no fruit to its owner.’” The same reproach of sterility
is cast at the Plane by Ovid’s Walnut:—
“At postquam platanis, _sterilem praebentibus umbram_,
Uberior quâvis arbore venit honos;
Nos quoque fructiferae, si nux modo ponor in illis,
Coepimus in patulas luxuriare comas.” (_Nux_, 17–20.)
I conclude with another passage from Khanikoff, though put forward
in special illustration of what I believe to be a mistaken reading
(_Arbre Seul_): “Where the Chinar is of spontaneous growth, or
occupies the centre of a vast and naked plain, this tree is even
in our own day invested with a quite exceptional veneration, and
the locality often comes to be called ‘The Place of the Solitary
Tree.’” (_J. R. G. S._ XXIX. 345; _Ferrier_, 69–76; _Fraser_, 343;
_Ritter_, VIII. 332, XI. 512 _seqq._; _Della Valle_, I. 703; _De
Sacy’s Abdallatif_, p. 81; _Khanikoff_, _Not._ p. 38.)
[See in Fr. Zarncke, _Der Priester Johannes_, II., in the chap.
_Der Baum des Seth_, pp. 127–128, from MS. (14th century) from
Cambridge, this curious passage (p. 128): “Tandem rogaverunt eum,
ut arborem siccam, de qua multum saepe loqui audierant, liceret
videre. Quibus dicebat: ‘Non est appellata arbor sicca recto
nomine, sed arbor Seth, quoniam Seth, filius Adae, primi patris
nostri, eam plantavit.’ Et ad arborem Seth fecit eos ducere,
prohibens eos, ne arborem transmearent, sed [si?] ad patriam suam
redire desiderarent. Et cum appropinquassent, de pulcritudine
arboris mirati sunt; erat enim magnae immensitatis et miri decoris.
Omnium enim colorum varietas inerat arbori, condensitas foliorum
et fructuum diversorum; diversitas avium omnium, quae sub coelo
sunt. Folia vero invicem se repercutientia dulcissimae melodiae
modulamine resonabant, et aves amoenos cantus ultra quam credi
potest promebant; et odor suavissimus profudit eos, ita quod
paradisi amoenitate fuisse. Et cum admirantes tantam pulcritudinem
aspicerent, unus sociorum aliquo eorum maior aetate, cogitans
[cogitavit?] intra se, quod senior esset et, si inde rediret, cito
aliquo casu mori posset. Et cum haec secum cogitasset, coepit
arborem transire, et cum transisset, advocans socios, iussit eos
post se ad locum amoenissimum, quem ante se videbat plenum deliciis
sibi paratum [paratis?] festinare. At illi retrogressi sunt ad
regem, scilicet presbiterum Iohannem. Quos donis amplis ditavit, et
qui cum eo morari voluerunt libenter et honorifice detinuit. Alii
vero ad patriam reversi sunt.”—In common with Marsden and Yule, I
have no doubt that the _Arbre Sec_ is the _Chínár_. Odoric places
it at Tabriz and I have given a very lengthy dissertation on the
subject in my edition of this traveller (pp. 21–29), to which I
must refer the reader, to avoid increasing unnecessarily the size
of the present publication.—H. C.]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] “Daz dritte Dier was ein Lebarte
Vier arin Vederich her havite;
Der beceichnote den Criechiskin Alexanderin,
Der mit vier Herin vür aftir Landin,
Unz her die Werilt einde,
Bi guldinin Siulin bikante.
In India her die Wusti durchbrach,
_Mit zwein Boumin her sich da gesprach_,” etc.
[2] It is odd how near the word _Emaūsae_ comes to the E. African
_Mwezi_; and perhaps more odd that “the elders of U-nya-Mwezi
(‘the Land of the Moon’) declare that their patriarchal ancestor
became after death the first Tree, and afforded shade to his
children and descendants. According to the Arabs the people still
perform pilgrimage to a holy tree, and believe that the penalty
of sacrilege in cutting off a twig would be visited by sudden and
mysterious death.” (_Burton_ in _F. R. G. S._ XXIX. 167–168.)
[3] “The River _Buemar_, in the furthest forests of India,” appears to
come up in one of the versions of Alexander’s Letter to Aristotle,
though I do not find it in Müller’s edition. (See Zacher’s
_Pseudo-Callisthenes_, p. 160.) ’Tis perhaps Ab-i-Ámú!
[4] It is right to notice that there may be some error in the
_reference_ of Paulin Paris; at least I could not trace the _Arbre
Sec_ in the MS. which he cites, nor in the celebrated Bodleian
Alexander, which appears to contain the same version of the story.
[The fact is that Paulin Paris refers to the _Arbre_, but without
the word _sec_, at the top of the first column of fol. 79 _recto_
of the MS. No. _Fr._ 368 (late 6985).—H. C.]
[5] Trees.
[6] Opobalsamum.
[7] A recent traveler in China gives a perfectly similar description of
sacred trees in Shansi. Many bore inscriptions in large letters.
“If you pray, you will certainly be heard.”—_Rev. A. Williamson_,
_Journeys in N. China_, I. 163, where there is a cut of such a
tree near Taiyuanfu. (See this work, I. ch. xvi.) Mr. Williamson
describes such a venerated tree, an ancient acacia, known as the
Acacia of the T’ang, meaning that it existed under that Dynasty
(7th to 10th century). It is renowned for its healing virtues, and
every available spot on its surface was crowded with votive tablets
and inscriptions. (_Ib._ 303.)