781; Pereg. Quat. p. 81; Niceph. Callist. VIII. 30;
Theatre Francais au Moyen Age, pp. 97, 173; Cathay, p. 48; Clavijo,
p. 90; Orient und Occident, Goettingen, 1867, vol. i.; Fabricii Vet.
Test. Pseud., etc., I. 1133; Dante, Purgat. xxxii. 35.)
But why does Polo bring this Arbre Sec into connection with the Sun Tree
of the Alexandrian Legend? I cannot answer this to my own entire
satisfaction, but I can show that such a connection had been imagined in
his time.
Paulin Paris, in a notice of MS. No. 6985. (Fonds Ancien) of the
National Library, containing a version of the Chansons de Geste
d'Alixandre, based upon the work of L. Le Court and Alex. de Bernay, but
with additions of later date, notices amongst these latter the visit of
Alexander to the Valley Perilous, where he sees a variety of wonders,
among others the Arbre des Pucelles. Another tree at a great distance
from the last is called the ARBRE SEC, and reveals to Alexander the secret
of the fate which attends him in Babylon. (Les MSS. Francais de la Bibl.
du Roi, III. 105.)[4] Again the English version of King Alisaundre,
published in Weber's Collection, shows clearly enough that in its French
original the term Arbre Sec was applied to the Oracular Trees, though
the word has been miswritten, and misunderstood by Weber. The King, as in
the Greek and French passages already quoted, meeting two old churls, asks
if they know of any marvel in those parts:
