Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics / Embracing the Myths, Traditions, Superstitions, and Folk-Lore of the Plant Kingdom

¹ The name of “Tooba” applied to this tree, originated in a misunderstanding of the words Tooba lahum, “it is well with them,” or “blessedness awaits them,” in Koran xiii., 28. Some commentators took Tooba for the name of a tree. [↑]

² Besides the localities already mentioned, Paradise has been located on Mount Ararat; in Persia; in Ethiopia; in the land now covered by the Caspian Sea; in a plain on the summit of Mount Taurus; in Sumatra; in the Canaries; and in the Island of Ceylon, where there is a mountain called the Peak of Adam, underneath which, according to native tradition, lie buried the remains of the first man, and whereon is shown the gigantic impress of his foot. Goropius Becanus places Paradise near the river Acesines, on the confines of India. Tertullian, Bonaventura, and Durandus affirm that it was under the Equinoctial, while another authority contends that it was situated beneath the North Pole. Virgil places the happy land of the Hyperboreans under the North Pole, and the Arctic Regions were long associated with ideas of enchantment and beauty, chiefly because of the mystery that has always enveloped these remote and unexplored regions. Peter Comestor and Moses Barcephas set Paradise in a region separated from our habitable zone by a long tract of land and sea, and elevated so that it reaches to the sphere of the moon. [↑]

³ Treatise on the Legend of the Sacred Wood. Vienna, 1870. [↑]

⁴ Sir John Maundevile, who visited Jerusalem about the middle of the fourteenth century, states that to the north of the Temple stood the Church of St. Anne, “oure Ladyes modre: and there was our Lady conceyved. And before that chirche is a gret tree, that began to growe the same nyght.... And in that chirche is a welle, in manere of a cisterne, that is clept Probatica Piscina, that hath 5 entreez. Into that welle aungeles were wont to come from Hevene, and bathen hem with inne: and what man that first bathed him aftre the mevynge of the watre, was made hool of what maner sykenes that he hadde.” [↑]

⁵ In the rites appertaining to the great sacrifice in honour of the god Vishnu at the end of March, the following plants were employed, and consequently acquired a sacred character in the eyes of the Indians:—Sesamum seed, leaves of the Asvattha, Mango leaves, flowers of the Sami, Kunda flowers, the Lotus flower, Oleander flowers, Nagakesara flowers, powdered Tulasi leaves, powdered Bel leaves, leaves of the Kunda, Barley meal, meal of the Nivara grain (a wild paddy), powder of Sati leaves, Turmeric powder, meal of the Syamaka grain, powdered Ginger, powdered Priyangu seeds, Rice meal, powder of Bel leaves, powder of the leaves of the Amblic Myrobalan, and Kangni seed meal.—An Imperial Assemblage at Delhi Three Thousand Years Ago. [↑]

⁶ ‘Voyage du Jeune Anacharsis en Grèce, vers le milieu du quatrième siècle avant l’ere vulgaire.’ [↑]

⁷ For further details of the rites of St John’s Eve, see Part II., under the heads “Fern,” “Hemp,” and “Moss-Rose.” [↑]

⁸ See legend in Part II., under the head of “Clover.” [↑]

⁹ The legend is given in Part II., under the heading “Laurel.” [↑]

¹⁰ Contemporary Review, Vol. xxxi., p. 520. [↑]

¹¹ ‘The Land of the Veda,’ by Rev. P. Percival. [↑]

¹² Further details will be found in the succeeding chapter. [↑]

¹³ Early Greek writers describe Circe as the daughter of Sol and Perseis, and Medea as her niece. [↑]

¹⁴ The names of certain of these demons will be found in the previous chapter. [↑]

¹⁵ ‘All the Year Round,’ Vol. xiii. [↑]

¹⁶ ‘Plant Symbolism,’ in ‘Natural History Notes,’ Vol. II. [↑]

¹⁷ The garden of Proserpina. [↑]