(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 Provencal; 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," "a la mere 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 heberges le
soudanc, et establiz pour le cors le soudanc garder;" in Baudouin de
Sebourc, "De l'amour Bauduin esprise et enflambee."
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:
