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.

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