an (the Atropatenian Ecbatana of Sir H.
Rawlinson) for _Shiraz_. A rudiment of the same legend is contained in the
Arabic Gospel of the Infancy. This says that Mary gave the Magi one of the
bands in which the Child was swathed. On their return they cast this into
their sacred fire; though wrapt in the flame it remained unhurt.

We may add that there was a Christian tradition that the Star descended
into a well between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Gregory of Tours also relates
that in a certain well, at Bethlehem, from which Mary had drawn water, the
Star was sometimes seen, by devout pilgrims who looked carefully for it,
to pass from one side to the other. But only such as merited the boon
could see it.

(See _Abbott_ in _J. R. G. S._ XXV. 4-6; _Assemani_, III. pt. 2, 750;
_Chardin_, II. 407; _N. et Ext._ II. 465; _Dict. de la Perse_, 2, 56, 298;
_Cathay_, p. 51; _Mas'udi_, IV. 80; _Greg. Turon. Libri Miraculorum_,
Paris, 1858, I. 8.)

Several of the fancies that legend has attached to the brief story of the
Magi in St. Matthew, such as the royal dignity of the persons; their
location, now in Arabia, now (as here) at Saba in Persia, and again (as in
Hayton and the Catalan Map) in Tarsia or Eastern Turkestan; the notion
that one of them was a Negro, and so on, probably grew out of the
arbitrary application of passages in the Old Testament, such as: "_Venient
legati ex Aegypto_: AETHIOPIA _praevenit manus ejus Deo_" (Ps. lxviii.
31). This produced the Negro who usually is painted as one of the Three.
"_Reges_ THARSIS _et Insulae munera offerent: Reges_ ARABUM _et_ SABA
_dona adducent_" (lxxii. 10). This made the Three into Kings, and fixed
them in Tarsia, Arabia, and Sava. "_Mundatio Camelorum operiet te,
dromedarii Madian et_ EPHA: _omnes de_ SABA _venient aurum et thus
deferentes et laudem Domino annunciantes_" (Is. lx. 6). Here were Ava and
Sava coupled, as well as the gold and frankincense.

One form of the old Church Legend was that the Three were buried at
_Sessania Adrumetorum_ (Hadhramaut) in Arabia, whence the Empress Helena
had the bodies conveyed to Constantinople, [and later to Milan in the time
of the Emperor Manuel Comnenus. After the fall of Milan (1162), Frederic
Barbarossa gave them to Archbishop Rainald of Dassel (1159-1167), who
carried them to Cologne (23rd July, 1164).--H. C.]

The names given by Polo, Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, have been
accepted from an old date by the Roman Church; but an abu