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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
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MARCO POLO BOOK I.
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We have no means of fixing the Kala' Atishparastán. It is probable, however, that the story was picked up on the homeward journey, and as it seems to be implied that this castle was reached three days after leaving Sávah, I should look for it between Sávah and Abher. Ruins to which the name Kila' -i-Gabr," Gueber Castle," attaches
are common in Persia.
As regards the Legend itself, which shows such a curious mixture of Christian and Parsi elements, it is related some 35o years earlier by Mas'údi : " In the Province of Fars they tell you of a Well called the Well of Fire, near which there was a temple built. When the Messiah was born the King Koresh sent three messengers to him, the first of whom carried a bag of Incense, the second a bag of Myrrh, and the third a bag of Gold. They set out under the guidance of the Star which the king had described to them, arrived in Syria, and found the Messiah with Mary His Mother. This story of the three messengers is related by the Christians with sundry exaggerations ; it is also found in the Gospel. Thus they say that the Star appeared to Koresh at the moment of Christ's birth ; that it went on when the messengers went on, and stopped when they stopped. More ample particulars will be found in our Historical Annals, where we have given the versions of this legend as current among the Guebers and among the Christians. It will be seen that Mary gave the king's messengers a round loaf, and this, after different adventures, they hid under a rock in the province of Fars. "l he loaf disappeared underground, and there they dug a well, on which they beheld two columns of fire to start up flaming at the surface ; in short, all the details of the legend will be found in our Annals." The Editors say that Mas'údi had carried the story to Fars by mistaking Shíz in Azerbaiján (the Atropatenian Ecbatana of Sir H. Rawlinson) for Shiraz. A rudiment of the same legend is contained in the Arabic Gospel of the Infancy. This says that Mary gave the Magi one of the bands in which the Child was swathed. On their return they cast this into their sacred fire ; though wrapt in the flame it remained unhurt.
We may add that there was a Christian tradition that the Star descended into a well between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Gregory of Tours also relates that in a certain well, at Bethlehem, from which Mary had drawn water, the Star was sometimes seen, by devout pilgrims who looked carefully for it, to pass from one side to the other. But only such as merited the boon could see it.
(See Abbott in J. R. G. S. XXV. 4-6 ; 4ssemani, III. pt. 2) 750 ; Chardin, II. 407 ; N. et Ext. II. 465 ; Dict. de la Perse, 2, 56, 298 ; Cathay, p. 51 ; Mas'udi, IV. 8o ; Greg. Turon. Libri Miraculorur, Paris, 1858, I. 8.)
Several of the fancies that legend has attached to the brief story of the Magi in St. Matthew, such as the royal dignity of the persons ; their location, now in Arabia, now (as here) at Saba in Persia, and again (as in Hayton and the Catalan Map) in Tarsia or Eastern Turkestan ; the notion that one of them was a Negro, and so on, probably grew out of the arbitrary application of passages in the Old Testament, such as : Lenient legati ex Aegypto : AE'rHIOPIA praevenit manus ejus Deo " (Ps. lxviii. 31). This produced the Negro who usually is painted as one of the Three. " Reges THARSIS et Insulae munera efferent : Reges ARABUM et SABA dona adducent " (lxxii. Io). This made the Three into Kings, and fixed them in Tarsia, Arabia, and Sava. "Mundatio Ca?nelorum operiet te, droniedarii Madian et EPHA : omnes de SABA venient aurur et thus deferentes et laudern Domino annunciantes " (Is. lx. 6). Here were Ava and Sava coupled, as well as the gold and frankincense.
One form of the old Church Legend was that the Three were buried at Sessania Adrumetorum (Hadhramaut) in Arabia, whence the Empress Helena had the bodies conveyed to Constantinople, [and later to Milan in the time of the Emperor Manuel Comnenus. After the fall of Milan (1162), Frederic Barbarossa gave them to Archbishop Rainald of Dassel (1159-1167), who carried them to Cologne (23rd July, 1164).
H. C.]
The names given by Polo, Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, have been accepted from an old date by the Roman Church ; but an abundant variety of other names has been assigned to them. Hyde quotes a Syriac writer who calls them Aruphon,
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