49 



A crimson cloak round the comely champion, 

 A yellow frock without variety, 

 Grey and close-fitting sandals: 

 Frankincense unto God he freely presented. 



Damascus was the third man of them, 

 Misericors, without dejection, 

 Sincera gratia without restraint, 

 Patifarsat the truly-grand. 



A grizzled man with a crimson, white-spotted cloak: 

 Crimsoned stood he, above all without competition, 

 With soft and yellow sandals, 

 Who presented myrrh to the Great Man. 



These are the names of the Druids 



In Hebrew, in Greek to be quickly spoken, 

 In Latin which runs not rapidly, 

 In the noble language of Arabia. 



The colour of their clothes hear ye, 

 As spoken in each of their countries : 

 Selva, for the performers of heroic deeds, 

 Debdae, Aesae, Escidae.* 



* The descriptive materials of this poem were probably derived from the 

 Excerptiones Patrum, ascribed to Venerable Bede, and printed among his 

 works. "Magi sunt, qui munera Domino dederunt : primus fuisse dicitur 

 Melchior, senex et canus, barba prolixa et capillis : tunica hyacinthina, sa- 

 goque mileno, et calceamentis hyaciuthino et albo mixto opere, pro mitrario 

 varia? compositionis indutus : aurum obtulit regi Domino. Secundus nomine 

 Caspar, juvenis imberbis, rubicundus, milenica tunica, sagorubeo, calceamen- 

 tis hyacinthinis vestitus : thure quasi Deo oblatione digna, Deum honorabat. 

 Tertius fuscus, integre barbatus, Balthasar nomine : habens tunicam rubeam, 

 albo vario, calceamentis milenicis amictus : per myrrham filium hominis mo- 

 riturum professus est. Omnia autem vestimenta eorum Syriaca sunt. Mun- 

 dorum namque est munda contingere." — Opera, vol. iii. col. 649. (Bas. 1563.) 



Zacharias Chrysopolitanus, or Goldsborough, who flourished A. D. 1150, 



gives their names thus : " Nomina trium magorum Hebraice, Apellius, Ame- 



rus, Damascus. Apellius interpretatur firlelis, Amerus humilis, Damascus 



misericors. Grseca lingua vocati sunt Magalath, Galgalath, Saracin : Maga- 



VOL. V. E 



