- "Mire." This was in old French the popular word for a Leech;
the politer word was Physicien. (N. et E. V. 505.)
Chrysostom says that the Gold, Myrrh, and Frankincense were mystic gifts
indicating King, Man, God; and this interpretation was the usual one.
Thus Prudentius: -
"Regem, Deumque adnunciant
Thesaurus et fragrans odor
Thuris Sabaei, at myrrheus
Pulvis sepulchrum praedocet." (Hymnus Epiphanius.)
And the Paris Liturgy: -
"Offert Aurum Caritas,
Et Myrrham Austeritas,
Et Thus Desiderium.
Auro Rex agnoscitur,
Homo Myrrha, colitur
Thure Deus gentium."
And in the "Hymns, Ancient and Modern": -
"Sacred gifts of mystic meaning:
Incense doth their God disclose,
Gold the King of Kings proclaimeth,
Myrrh His sepulchre foreshows."
NOTE 2. - "Feruntque (Magi), si justum est credi, etiam ignem caelitus
iapsum apud se sempiternis foculis custodire, cujus portionem exiguam, ut
faustam praeisse quondam Asiaticis Regibus dicunt." (Ammian. Marcell.
XXIII. 6.)
NOTE 3. - Saba or Sava still exists as SAVAH, about 50 miles S.W. of
Tehran. It is described by Mr. Consul Abbott, who visited it in 1849, as
the most ruinous town he had ever seen, and as containing about 1000
families. The people retain a tradition, mentioned by Hamd Allah Mastaufi,
that the city stood on the shores of a Lake which dried up miraculously at
the birth of Mahomed. Savah is said to have possessed one of the greatest
Libraries in the East, until its destruction by the Mongols on their first
invasion of Persia. Both Savah and Avah (or Abah) are mentioned by
Abulfeda as cities of Jibal. We are told that the two cities were always
at loggerheads, the former being Sunni and the latter Shiya. [We read in
the Travels of Thevenot, a most intelligent traveller, "qu'il n'a rien
erit de l'ancienne ville de Sava qu'il trouva sur son chemin, et ou il a
marque lui-meme que son esprit de curiosite l'abandonna." (Voyages, ed.
1727, vol. v. p. 343. He died a few days after at Miana, in Armenia, 28th
November, 1667). (MS. Note. - H. Y.)]
As regards the position of AVAH, Abbott says that a village still stands
upon the site, about 16 miles S.S.E. of Savah. He did not visit it, but
took a bearing to it. He was told there was a mound there on which
formerly stood a Gueber Castle. At Savah he could find no trace of Marco
Polo's legend. Chardin, in whose time Savah was not quite so far gone to
decay, heard of an alleged tomb of Samuel, at 4 leagues from the city.
This is alluded to by Hamd Allah.
Keith Johnston and Kiepert put Avah some 60 miles W.N.W. of Savah, on the
road between Kazvin and Hamadan. There seems to be some great mistake
here.
Friar Odoric puts the locality of the Magi at Kashan, though one of
the versions of Ramusio and the Palatine MS. (see Cordier's Odoric, pp.
xcv.
