returns home and finds his father dead. He buries him in _the valley of
Hebron_, and places the three grains under his tongue. A triple shoot
springs up of Cedar, Cypress, and Pine, symbolising the three Persons of
the Trinity. The three eventually unite into one stem, and this tree
survives in various forms, and through various adventures in connection
with the Scripture History, till it is found at the bottom of the Pool of
Bethesda, to which it had imparted healing Virtue, and is taken thence to
form the Cross on which Our Lord suffered.

The English version quoted above is from a MS. of the 14th century in the
Bodleian, published by Dr. Morris in his collection of _Legends of the
Holy Rood_. I have modernised the spelling of the lines quoted, without
altering the words. The French citation is from a MS. in the Vienna
Library, from which extracts are given by Sign. Adolfo Mussafia in his
curious and learned tract (_Sulla Legenda del Legno della Croce_, Vienna,
1870), which gives a full account of the fundamental legend and its
numerous variations. The examination of these two works, particularly
Sign. Mussafia's, gives an astonishing impression of the copiousness with
which such Christian Mythology, as it may fairly be called, was diffused
and multiplied. There are in the paper referred to notices of between
fifty and sixty different _works_ (not MSS. or _copies_ of works merely)
containing this legend in various European languages.

(_Santarem_, III. 380, II. 348; _Ouseley_, I. 359 seqq. and 391;
_Herodotus_, VII. 31; _Pliny_, XII. 5; _Chardin_, VII. 410, VIII. 44 and
426; _Fabricius_, _Vet. Test. Pseud._ I. 80 seqq.; _Cathay_, p. 365;
_Beal's Fah-Hian_, 72 and 78; _Pelerins Bouddhistes_, II. 292; _Della
Valle_, II. 276-277.)

[Illustration: Chinar, or Oriental Plane]

He who injured the holy tree of Bostam, we are told, perished the same
day: a general belief in regard to those _Trees of Grace_, of which we
have already seen instances in regard to the sacred trees of Zoroaster and
the Oak of Hebron. We find the same belief in Eastern Africa, where
certain trees, regarded by the natives with superstitious reverence, which
they express by driving in votive nails and suspending rags, are known to
the European residents by the vulgar name of _Devil Trees_. Burton relates
a case of the verification of the superstition in the death of an English
merchant who had cut down such a tree, and of four members of his
house