G8 EADLY NOTICES OF THE BANYAN; [169I. 



La Boulayc Ic Gouz writes/ that this sacred Tree is call'd 

 Kasta, and that the Indians say, 'tis chcrish'd hy the Saints ; 

 because their God Pan diverts himself with phiying upon tlio 

 Fhite, under the shade of its broad Leaves. 



Tlie same Author adds, that no Man dares pull off one of 

 tliose Leaves for fear of dying within the year ; and refers 

 liis Eeader to what Herodotus and Quintus Curtius have said 

 on the same Subject. Tavcrnicr'^ also speaks of it, and tells 

 us the Persians call it Lull, but that the Franhs have giv'n 

 it the Name of the Banians Tree ; because the Penitents of 

 the Faquors and Banians dress their Meat, and pay their 

 I^evotions under this Tree. Mr. de Bochcfort calls it Pare- 



1 Left Voyages ct Observations da Siciir de la Bonlkaje-Lc-Gou.z^ etc., 

 Paris, 1653, "ind ed., 1657. This author, whose tour in Ireland in 

 1644 was edited in English by Crokcr in 1837, was born in the early 

 part of the seventeenth century. He travelled extensively in the East, 

 and died in Persia in 1668. The genuineness and impartiality of his 

 remarks on men and things earned for him the reputation of "a very 

 honest fellow". The passage in his above-mentioned work referring 

 to the banyan-tree is in chapter xvii (pp. 183 seq. of 1st edit.). He 

 figures the tree with a native Indian seated below, a cow and a pagoda, 

 while above is a quaint representation of the sun. He mentions camp- 

 ing several times under its shade while on the journey from Surat to 

 Goa, and remarks that Rama or Brahma taught the Indians to venerate 

 it. The followers of this divinity, however, mingling superstition 

 with their worship, declared that anyone plucking its leaves would die 

 within the year. Milton described it as follows : — 



". ... there soon they chose 

 The fig-tree, not that kind for fruit renown'd, 

 But such as at this day to Indians known 

 In Malabar or Deccan spreads her arms, 

 Branching so broad and long, that in the ground 

 The bended twigs take root and daughters grow 

 About the mother tree, a pillar'd shade 

 High overarch'd, and echoing walls between." 



{Paradise Lost, Book ix.) 



2 Cf. Tavernier's Persian Voyages, Book v, ch. xxiii, 1682 ed., vol. i, 

 p. 614. This traveller also figures the banyan, stating that the Per- 

 sians call it Lid, the Portuguese " arbre de Keys", and the French 

 " I'arbre des Banianes". 



