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that from the circumstance that various fruits have been occasionally
carried down the stream, both the Moormen and Singalese believe
that this garden still exists, although now inaccessible, and that its
explorer would never return. Tradition, however, affirms that in
the centre of this Ceylon Paradise grows a large Banana-tree, the
fruit of which when cut transversely exhibits the figure of a man
crucified, and that from the huge leaves of this tree Adam and Eve
made themselves coverings.
Certain commentators are of opinion that the Tree of Knowledge
was a Fig-tree—the Ficus Indica, the Banyan, one of the
sacred trees of the Hindus, under the pillared shade of which the
god Vishnu was fabled to have been born. In this case the Fig-
tree is a tree of ill-omen—a tree watched originally by Satan in the
form of a serpent, and whose fruit gave the knowledge of evil.
After having tempted and caused Adam to fall by means of its
fruit, its leaves were gathered to cover nakedness and shame.
Again, the Fig was the tree which the demons selected as their
refuge, if one may judge from the fauni ficarii, whom St, Jerome
recognised in certain monsters mentioned by the prophets. The
F ig was the only tree accursed by Christ whilst on earth ; and the
wild Fig, according to tradition, was the tree upon which the
traitor Judas hanged himself, and from that time has always been
regarded as under a bane.
The Citron is held by many to have been the forbidden fruit.
Gerarde tells us that this tree was originally called Pomum Assyrium,
but that it was known among the Italian people as Pomum Adami ;
and, writes the old herbalist, “ that came by the opinion of the
common rude people, who thinke it to be the same Apple which
Adam did eate of in Paradise, when he transgressed God’s
commandment ; whereupon also the prints of the biting appeare
therein as they say ; but others say that this is not the Apple, but
that which the Arabians do call Musa or Mosa, whereof Avicen
maketh mention : for divers of the Jewes take this for that through
which by eating Adam offended.”
The Pomegranate, Orange, Corn, and Grapes have all been
identified as the “ forbidden fru it; ” but upon what grounds it is
difficult to surmise.
After their disobedience, Adam and E v e were driven out of
Paradise, and, according to Arabian tradition, Adam took with him
three things—an ear of Wheat, which is the chief of all kinds of
food ; Dates, which are the chief of fruits ; and the Myrtle, which
is the chief of sweet-scented flowers, Maimonides mentions a
legend, cherished by the Nabatheans, that Adam, when he reached
the district about Babylon, had come from India, carrying with
him a golden tree in blossom, a leaf that no fire would burn, two
leaves, each of which would cover a man, and an enormous leaf
plucked from a tree beneath whose branches ten thousand men
could find shelter.
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There is a legend handed down both by Hebrews and Greeks,
that when Adam had attained the ripe age of 900 years, he overtaxed
his strength in uprooting an enormous bush, and that falling
very sick, and feeling the approach of death, he sent his son Seth
to the angel who guarded Paradise, and particularly the way to the
Tree of Life, to ask of him some of its ambrosia, or oil of mercy,
that he might anoint his limbs therewith, and so regain good health.
Seth approached the Tree of Knowledge, of the fruit of which
Adam and E v e had once partaken, A youth, radiant as the sun,
was seated on its summit, and, addressing Seth, told him that He
was the Son of God, that He would one day come down to earth,
to deliver it from sin, and that He would then give the oil of mercy
to Adam.
The angel who was guarding the Tree of Life then handed
to Seth three small seeds, charging him to place them in his
father’s mouth, when he should bury him near Mount Tabor, in the
valley of Hebron. Seth obeyed the angel’s behests. The three
seeds took root, and in a short time appeared above the ground, in
the form of three rods. One of these saplings was a branch of
Olive, the second a Cedar, the third a Cypress. The three rods
did not leave the mouth of Adam, nor was their existence known
until the time of Moses, who received from God the order to cut
them. Moses obeyed, and with these three rods, which exhaled a
perfume of the Promised Land, performed many miracles, cured
the sick, drew water from a rock, &c.
After the death of Moses, the three rods remained unheeded
in the Valley of Hebron until the time of King David, who, warned
by the Holy Ghost, sought and found them there. Hence they
were taken by the King to Jerusalem, where all the leprous, the
dumb, the blind, the paralysed, and other sick people presented
themselves before the King, beseeching him to give them the
salvation of the Cross. King David thereupon touched them with
the three rods, and their infirmities instantly vanished. After this
the King placed the three rods in a cistern, but to his astonishment
upon going the next day for them, he discovered they had all three
firmly taken root, that the roots had become inextricably interlaced,
and that the three rods were in fact reunited in one stem which
had shot up therefrom, and had become a Cedar sapling,—
the tree that was eventually to furnish the wood of the Cross.
This reunion of the three rods was typical of the Trinity. The
young Cedar was subsequently placed in the Temple, but we
hear nothing more of it for thirty years, when Solomon, wishing to
complete the Temple, obtained large supplies of Cedars of Lebanon,
and as being well adapted for his purpose cut down the Cedar of
the Temple. The trunk of this tree, lying with the other timber,
was seen by a woman, who sat down on it, and inspired with the