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) Kuru 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 Prag 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 a maint saint este,
S'ai este au Sec-Arbre et dusc'a Dureste."
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 Duerre 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 Duerre 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;
Theatre Francais au Moyen Age, pp. 97, 173; Cathay, p. 48; Clavijo,
p. 90; Orient und Occident, Goettingen, 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. Francais 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.
