680 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



olive leaf, and aflSxing- it to the head with a thread, believed it to be a sove- 

 reign cure for the headache. 



In the apple we have another instance of ignorance on the part of our 

 schoolmen. "When it is said in the Canticles, "Stay me with flagons, com- 

 fort me with apples, for I am sick of love ;" or that " A word fitly spoken 

 is like apples of gold in pictures of silver," and similar expressions. A 

 person aware of what the apples of Palestine really are, cannot but smile 

 at the absurdity of the idea. Imagine a love-sick person deriving comfort 

 from a little hard crab-apple, whose flesh is only surpassed in acerbity by 

 a green persimmon. Imagine a poet, whose eyes with frenzy rolls, using 

 the simile of a little hard green fruit, not much larger than a cherry, to 

 express the idea of soft, mellifluous words. 



The fruit which our translators have rendered apples, is really that of 

 the orange or citron tree, for these trees flourish finely under oriental skies, 

 becoming large and beautiful trees, having a perennial verdure, and filling 

 the air with perfume of exquisite odor. 



Among the Thebans, Hercules was worshipped under the name of Melius, 

 and apples or citrons were offered at his altars. .This custom originated 

 .in this wise : On a certain occasion the river Asopus overflowed its banks 

 to such an extent as to render it impossible to bring a sheep across which 

 was to be sacrificed to Hercules, whereupon the worshippers, calling to 

 mind that the Greek word melon signified an apple as well as a sheep, 

 took an apple and sticking four little pegs in it to represent legs, offered 

 it at the altar instead of the sheep. 



The trees in the garden of the Hesperides were supposed to be apple 

 trees, but modern scholars are inclined to the belief that oranges and not 

 apples were the trees meant in that legend. 



The Orange also flourishes in matchless beauty in lower Eg^'pt, where 

 particularly beautiful specimens shaded the temple of the Sun in Heliopolis, 

 but it appears to have been of comparatively'' recent date in Greece, for 

 Antiphanes in his Boetian speaks of its introduction. 



The Mulljerry, Ovid informs us, was at first of a white color, but became 

 of a red color through the following tragical circumstance, which shows 

 the folly of hard-hearted parents interfering with the heart affairs of their 

 children; instances of which, as you are aware, are of every day occurrence 

 with us, showing that human affairs are ever the same, tender-hearted 

 youth and stony-hearted age, ever in opposition: 



" Pyramus and Thisbe lived in Babylon, he a very proper young man, 

 she, of course, a beautiful angelic creature; they naturally fell in love; 

 their flame was mutual; but their parents would not consent to their mar- 

 riage, so the lovers managed to exchange sentiments through an opening 

 in the wall, which separated their houses — the old story. 



" They agreed to meet at the tomb of Ninus, outside the walls of Baby- 

 lon; this tomb was overshadowed by a white mulberry tree. Thisbe was 

 first there, but a lioness comiiig unexpectedly, as was natural frightened 

 her away. As she fled she dropped her veil, which the lioness found and, 

 in some unexplained way, left covered with blood. Pyramus arrived soon 

 after, and, finding the bloody veil, very hastily concluded that his dear 

 Thisbe had been destroyed by wild beasts, and so without further cere- 



