PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR FRUITS. 281 



home of the species in very early prehistoric times, and 

 how this area has grown larger by different modes of 

 transport. 



It is not by the study of living olive trees that this 

 question can be answered. We must seek in what coun- 

 tries the cultivation began, and how it was propagated. 

 The more ancient it is in any region, the more probable 

 it is that the species has existed wild there from the time 

 of those geological events which took place before the 

 coming of prehistoric man. 



The earliest Hebrew books mention the olive salt, or 

 zeit,^ both wild and cultivated. It was one of the trees 

 promised in the land of Canaan. It is first mentioned in 

 Genesis, where it is said that the dove sent out by Noah 

 should bring back a branch of olive. If we take into 

 account this tradition, which is accompanied by miracu- 

 lous details, it may be added that the discoveries of 

 modern erudition show that the Mount Ararat of the 

 Bible must be to the east of the mountain in Armenia 

 which now bears that name, and which was anciently 

 called Masis. From a study of the text of the Book of 

 Genesis, Fran9ois Lenormand ^ places the mountain in 

 question in the Hindu Kush, and even near the sources 

 of the Indus. This theory supposes it near to the land of 

 the Aryans, yet the olive has no Sanskrit name, not even 

 in that Sanskrit from which the Indian lano-ua^^es ^ are 

 derived. If the olive had then, as now, existed in the 

 Punjab, the eastern Aryans in their migrations towards 

 the south would probably have given it a name, and if it 

 had existed in the Mazanderan, to the south of the Cas- 

 pian Sea, as at the present day, the western Aryans 

 would perhaps have known it. To these negative indi- 

 cations, it can only be objected that the wild olive attracts 

 no considerable attention, and that the idea of extracting 

 oil from it perhaps arose late in this part of Asia. 



* Rosentnuller, Handhuch der Bibl. Alterth., vol. iv. p. 258 ; Hamilton, 

 Bot. de la Bible, p. 80, where the passages are indicated. 



* Fr, Lenormand, Manuel de I'Hist. Auc. de I'Orient., 1869, vol. i. 

 p. 31. 



* Fick, Worterhuch, Piddington, Index, only mentions one Hindu 

 name, jn/pai. 



