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(Gen. XXXV. 8). The other was a solitary Palm, known in after
times as the Palm-tree of Deborah. Under this Palm, as Saul
afterwards under the Pomegranate-tree of Migron, as St. Louis
under the Oak/ree of Vincennes, dwelt that mother in Israel,
Deborah, the wife of Lapidoth, to whom the sons of Israel came to
receive her wise answers.”
Since the time when Solomon cut the Cedars of Lebanon for
the purpose of employing them in the erection of the Temple of the
Lord, this renowned forest has been greatly shorn of its glories ;
but a grove of nearly four hundred trees still exists. Twelve of
the most valuable of these trees bear the titles of “ The Friends
of Solomon,” or “ The Twelve Apostles.” Eve ry year the
Maronites, Greeks, and Armenians go up to the Cedars, at the
Feast of the Transfiguration, and celebrate mass on a homely stone
altar erected at their feet.
In Evelyn’s time there existed, near the tomb of Cyrus, an
extraordinary Cypress, which was said to exude drops of blood
every Friday. This tree, according to Pietro della Valla, was
adorned with many lamps, and fitted for an oratory, and was for
ages resorted to by pious pilgrims.
Thevenot and other Eastern travellers mention a tree which
for centuries had been regarded with peculiar reverence. “ At
Matharee,” says Thevenot, “ is a large garden surrounded by
walls, in which are various trees, and among others, a large
Sycamore, or Pharaoh’s Fig, very old, which bears fruit every
year. They say that the Virgin passing that way with her son Jesus,
and being pursued by a number of people, the Fig-tree opened to
receive her ; she entered, and it closed her in, until the people had
passed by, when it re-opened, and that it remained open ever
after to the year 1656, when the part of the trunk that had separated
itself was broken away.”
Near Kennety Church, in the King’s County, Ireland, is an
Ash, the trunk of which is nearly 22 feet round, and 17 feet high,
before the branches break out, which are of enormous bulk. When
a funeml of the lower class passes by, they lay the body down a
few minutes, say a prayer, and then throw a stone to increase
the heap which has been accumulating round the roots.
The Breton nobles were long accustomed to offer up a prayer
beneath the branches of a venerable Yew which grew in the
cloister of Vreton, in Brittany. The tree was regarded with much
veneration, as it was said to have originally sprung from the staff
of St. Martin.
In England, the Glastonbury Thorn was long the object of
pious reverence. This tree was supposed to have sprung from the
staff of Joseph of Arimathea, to whom the original conversion
of this country is attributed in monkish, legends. The story runs
that when Joseph of Arimathea came to convert the heathen
nations he selected Glastonbury as the site for the first Christian
Church, and whilst preaching there on Christmas-day, he struck
his staff into the ground, which immediately burst into bud and
bloom; eventually it grew into a Thorn-bush, which regularly
blossomed every Christmas-day, and became known throughout
Christendom as the Glastonbury Thorn.
“ The winter Thorn, which
Blossoms at Christmas, mindful of our Lord.
Like the Thorn of Glastonbury, an Cak, in the New Forest, called
the Cadenham Cak, produced its buds always on Christmas D a y ;
and was, consequently, regarded by the country people as a tree
of peculiar sanctity. Another miraculous tree is referred to in
Collinson’s ‘ History of Somerset.’ The author, speaking of the
Glastonbury Thorn, says that there grew also in the Abbey
churchyard, on the north side of St. Joseph’s Chapel, a miraculous
Walnut-tree, which never budded forth before the Feast of
St. Barnabas (that is, the n th of June), and on that very day
shot forth leaves, and flourished like its usual species. It is
strange to say how much this tree was sought after by the credulous;
and though not an uncommon Walnut, Queen Anne,
James, and many of the nobility of the realm, even when the
times of monkish superstition had ceased, gave large sums of
money for small cuttings from the original.
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