pfaat Tsore, Tscger^t)/, ani. "bi^ric/, 303 



was changed into the tree bearing his name. Rapin gives the 

 following version of the story: — 



"A lovely fawn there was— Sylvanus' joy, 

 Nor less the fav'rite of the sportive boy, 

 Which on soft grass was in a secret shade, 

 Beneath a tree's thick branches cooly laid; 

 A luckless dart rash Cyparissus threw, 

 And undesignedly the darling slew. 

 But soon he to his grief the error found, 

 Lamenting, when too late, the fatal wound : 

 Nor yet Sylvanus spared the guiltless child, 

 But the mischance with bitter words reviled. 

 This struck so deep in his relenting breast, 

 With grief and shame, and indignation prest. 

 That tired of life he melted down in tears, 

 From whence th' impregnate earth a Cypress rears ; 

 Ensigns of sorrow these at first were born, 

 , Now their fair race the rural scenes adorn." 



In a legend current among the Greeks, the Cypress owes its 

 origin to the datighters of Eteocles, King of Thebes. Carried 

 away by the goddesses in a whirlwind, which kept revolving them in 

 endless circles, they were at length precipitated into a pond, upon 

 which Gaea took compassion on the young girls, and changed them 



into Cypress-trees. Perhaps owing to its funereal and sorrowful 



characfter, the Cypress has been named as the tree which furnished 



the wood of the Saviour's Cross. An ancient legend referred to 



in the ' Gospel of Nicodemus,' Curzon's ' Monasteries of the Levant,' 

 and other works, carries the history of the Cross back as far as 

 the time of Adam. In substance it is as follows: — Adam, one 

 day, fell sick, and sent his son Seth to the Garden of Eden to ask 

 the guardian angel for some drops of the oil of mercy, distilled from 

 the Tree of Life. The angel replied that none could have that till 

 five thousand years had passed, but gave him a slip of the tree, 

 which was afterwards planted on Adam's grave, and grew into a 

 goodly tree with three branches. Another version states that the 

 Angel in Paradise gave Seth three seeds, which he placed under 

 Adam's tongue before burial, from which they grew into the 

 Cypress, the Cedar, and the Pine. These were subsequently car- 

 ried away by Moses, who cut his rod from them, and King David 

 transplanted them near a fountain at Jerusalem, where the three 

 saplings combined and grew into one grand tree. Under its um- 

 brageous shade he composed his Psalms and lamented his sins. 

 His son Solomon afterwards cut it down for a pillar in his Temple, 

 but no one was able to fix it there. Some say it was preserved in 

 the Temple, while others aver that it formed a bridge across a 

 marsh, which the Queen of Sheba refused to pass, being deterred 

 by a vision of its futtire burden. It was afterwards buried in the 

 Pool of Bethesda, thereby accounting for the healing properties 

 possessed by its waters. At the Passion, it floated and was taken 

 for the Cross, or, as some say, for the upright beam. Henry 



