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.
