96 OUB, COMMON FETJITS. 



employed as an idol offering that they thus held it in 

 abhorrence. The tree was, indeed, so far identified with 

 their country, that it was looked upon as the symbol of 

 Judea, as is seen in the well-known [Roman coin bearing 

 the inscription " Judea capta" though it is thought that 

 it may not have been thus selected so much on account 

 of its being peculiarly abundant in Syria, as because it 

 was there that it would be first met with by the Greeks 

 and Eomans in proceeding southward.* It holds a place 

 too in barbaric mythology, for it is said that the Taman- 

 aguas of South America have a tradition that the human 

 race sprang again from the fruits of the palm, after the 

 Mexican " Age of Water ; " a story almost reversed in 

 Mahomet's account of its origin, which is, that it was 

 made of the tempered dust which remained after the 

 formation of Adam, and he therefore calls it the uncle of 

 mankind, using it too as an illustration of the virtuous 

 and generous man, w~ho, like it, " stands erect before his 

 Lord, and devotes his whole life to the welfare of his 

 fellow-creatures." The inhabitants of Medina say that 

 at one time the prophet, being asked to testify to the 

 truth of his mission by working some miracle, placed a 

 date-stone in the ground, from which, taking root down- 

 ward and shooting suddenly upward at his bidding, there 

 arose forthwith a lofty tree in the perfection of fruitful 

 maturity. On another occasion, when he happened to 

 pass beneath a date-palm, the conscious tree was so elated 

 at the privilege of overshadowing the messenger of Allah, 

 that it broke forth into a spontaneous shout of gladness, 

 and hailed him with a loud " Salaam Aleikoom" Many 

 Oriental writers, indeed, assert this palm to be no mere 

 vegetating insensible plant, but actually a creature par- 

 taking of the animal nature, adducing, in proof thereof, 

 that it appears to possess an inherent warmth above all 



* The tree was known to the Greeks in the time of Homer, since he makes 

 Ulysses compare the tall graceful Nausicaa to "the palm by Phoebus' altars," 

 and the locality thus assigned to it is explained by the myth, that when 

 Latonawas in travail of Apollo at Delps, the earth suddenly produced a large 

 palm-tree, against which she rested in her labour. It is further said that 

 even in the time of Tully immortality was attributed to this tree, and it was 

 looked on as one of the greatest wonders in creation. 



