THE CEDAR OF LEBANON 93 



' These trees are the most renowned natural monuments in the 

 world : religion, poetry, and history have all equally celebrated 

 them. The Arabs of all sects entertain a traditional veneration for 

 them. They attribute to them not only a vegetative power which 

 enables them to live eternally, but also an intelligence which causes 

 them to manifest signs of wisdom and foresight similar to those of 

 instinct and reason in man. They are said to understand the 

 changes of the seasons ; they stir their vast branches as if they 

 were limbs ; they spread out or contract their boughs, inclining them 

 towards heaven or towards earth, according as the snow prepares 

 to fall or to melt." 



The mountain is covered with snow during a great 

 part of the }^ear ; but on August 5th, the eve of the 

 Feast of the Transfiguration, the Maronites from the 

 surrounding villages have long been in the habit of 

 visiting the mountain, and there celebrating the 

 " Feast of Cedars " with singing and dancing, mass 

 being celebrated on the following day at one of 

 the stone altars which stand beneath several of the 

 larger trees. Most of the Cedars show signs of 

 having been frequently struck by lightning. 



There are naturally many legends connected with 

 so interesting a tree. One of the most remarkable 

 relates that Seth, sent by Adam to Paradise for the 

 oil of mercy, saw, from the gate of the garden which 

 he was not permitted to enter, a leafless Cedar with 

 branches borne high towards heaven, on which was 

 seated a child in glittering raiment. The angel- 

 guardian of the garden gave him three seeds from the 

 tree, which, on his return, he placed in the mouth of 

 his parent, who was then dead. From these seeds 

 there sprang, on the grave of Adam in Hebron, a 

 Cedar, a Pine, and a Cypress, which united into one 

 gigantic tree. After being carefully protected by 



