their deity. In various parts of India there is a superstitious belief
that the flowering and seeding of various species of Bamboo is a
sure prognostication of an approaching famine. Europeans have
noticed, as an invariable rule, in Cañara, that when the Bamboos
flower and seed, fever prevails. At the foot of the Ghauts, and
round Yellapur, it has been observed that when the Bamboos
flowered and seeded, fever made its appearance, few persons escaping
it. During blossom, the fever closely resembles hay fever
at home, but the type becomes more severe as the seeds fall. The
poor, homeless fishermen of China, to supply themselves with vegetables,
have invented a system of culture which may move with
them, and they thus transport their gardens wherever they may go.
This they do by construcfiing rafts of Bamboo, which are well
woven with weeds and strong grass, and then launched on the
water and covered with earth. These floating gardens are made
fast to the stern of their junks and boats, and towed after them.
B A N A N A .—The Banana {Musa sapientum) and the Plantain
{M. paradisiaca) are so closely related, as to be generally spoken
of together. The Banana has been well designated the king of
all fruit, and the greatest boon bestowed by Providence on the
inhabitants of hot countries. According to Gerarde, who calls it
in his Herbal, Adam’s Apple Tree, it was supposed in his time by
the Grecians and Christians inhabiting Syria, as well as by the
Jews, to be that tree of whose fruit Adam partook at E v e ’s solicitation—
the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, planted by the
Lord Himself in the midst of the Garden of Eden. It has also
been supposed that the Grapes brought by the Israelites’ spies to
Moses out of the Holy Land, were in reality the fruit of the
Banana-tree. -In the Canary Islands, the Banana is never cut
across with a knife because it then exhibits a representation of the
Crucifixion. Gerarde refers to this mark, remarking that the fruit
“ pleaseth and entiseth a man to eate liberally thereof, by a
certaine entising sweetnesse it yields; in which fruit, if it be cut
according to the length, oblique, transverse, or any other way,
whatsoever, may be seene the shape and forme of a crosse, with
a man fastened thereto. My selfe have seene the fruit, and cut it
in pieces, which was brought me from Aleppo, in pickle: the crosse,
I might perceive, as the form of a spred-Egle in the root of F em e ;
but the man I leave to be sought for by those which have better
eies and judgement than my selfe.” A certain sedt of Brahmans,
called Yogis, place all their food in the leaves of the Plantain, or
Apple of Paradise, and other large leaves; these they use dry,
never green, for they say that the green leaves have a soul in
them; and so it would be sinful.
B A N Y A N T R E E .—The Indian Fig-tree {Ficus Indica), of
which one of the Sanscrit names is Bahupdda, or the Tree of
Many Feet, is one of the sacred trees of India, and is remarkable
iiin
il
for its vast size and the singularity of its growth : it throws out
from its lateral branches shoots which, as soon as they reach the
earth, take root, till, in course of time, a single tree extends itself
to a considerable grove. Pliny described the Banyan with great
ccuracy, and Milton has rendered his description almost literally:
“ Branching so broad along, that in the ground
The bending twigs take root, and daughters grow
About the mother tree ; a pillared shade,
High over arched, with echoing walks between.
There oft the Indian herdsman, shunning heat.
Shelters in cool, and tends his pasturing herds
A t loop-holes cut through thickest shade.”
The Banyan rarely vegetates on the ground, but usually in the
crown of Palms, where the seed has been deposited by birds.
Roots are sent down to the ground, which embrace, and eventually
kill, the Nurse-Palm. Hence, the Hindus have given the Banyan the
name of Vaihddha (the breaker), and invoke it in order that it may
at the same time break the heads of enemies. In the Indian
mythology, the Banyan is often confounded with the Bo-tree, and
hence it is given a place in heaven, where an enormous tree is said
to grow on the summit of the mountain Suparsva, to the south of
the celestial mountain Meru, where it occupies a vast space.
Beneath the pillared shade of the Banyan, the god Vishnu was
born. His mother had sought its shelter, but she was sad and
fearful lest the terrible Kansa should put to death her seventh
babe, Vishnu, as he had already done her first six. Yasoda, to
console the weeping mother, gave up her own infant daughter,
who was at once killed by Kansa’s servants; but Vishnu was saved.
It is, says De Gubernatis, at the foot of a gigantic Banyan, a
Bhdxidira, near Mount Govardhana, that the Buddhist Vishnu plays
with his companions, and, by his presence, illuminates everything
around him. The Banyan of the Vedas is represented as being
peopled with Indian parroquets, who eat its fruit, which, however,
does not exceed a Hazel-nut in size. The Chinese Buddhists
represent that Buddha sits under a Banyan-tree, turned towards
the East, to receive the homage of the god Brahma. Like the
sacred Bo-tree, the Banyan is regarded not only as the Tree of
Knowledge, but also as the tree of Indian seers and ascetic devotees.
Wherever a Bo-tree or a Banyan has stood, the place where it
formerly fiourished is always held sacred. There is in India a
Banyan-tree that is the object of particular veneration. It grows
on the banks of the Nerbudda, not far from Surat, and is the
largest and oldest Banyan in the country. According to tradition,
it was planted by the Seer Kabira, and is supposed to be
three thousand years old. It is said to be the identical tree visited
by Nearchus, one of the officers of Alexander the Great. The
Hindus never cut it or touch it with steel, for fear of offending the
god concealed in its sacred foliage. De Gubernatis quotes the
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