-
"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.
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