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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
134
MARCO POLO BooK I.
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 t 3th 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 : " H161í1 ZlZav2 li Winn sublime et exaltavi 11J null Kunz le ; 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.]
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 Excellence or Grace, and
commente tek bu oreí;~ et ~aa,~utse ~p
tí~`erenb fa tnoxF aCla~ ze
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 çestans
* * * *
Dona ducum *
Quamvis primo nutet casura sub Euro, Tot circum silvae firmo se robore tollant,
Sola tannen colitur." (Pharsalia, I. 135.)
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