418 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. 



flint, and used the pith of the Ferula for a match, 

 teaching men how to preserve fire in these stalks." 

 Alluding to this passage, Sir Wm. Hooker says— 

 '•' that is, Prometheus invented the tinder-box.'' Un- 

 poetical as such an explanation is, it undoubtedly 

 comes very near the truth, and reduces a very 

 romantic story to the poor level of an ordinary 

 mechanical invention. 



The transition from Greece and Rome to the early 

 monkish legends associated with the Christian faith 

 is not a very abrupt one, and if in some cases they 

 may seem trivial, they will serve to show how minds 

 but partially relieved from paganism exhibited a ten- 

 dency to revert to the old mythical stories, and invest 

 plain facts or simple precepts with the accessories of 

 a pagan age. Teaching by fable or parable is a 

 privilege which orientals have ever taken advantage 

 of, and against it no just complaint can be made, 

 provided that the fables are taught as fables, and not 

 as absolute fact. This may be illustrated by a legend 

 of the Cedar of Lebanon, which is thus recorded : — 



" When Seth, the son of Adam, was sent by his 

 dying parent to fetch the 'oil of mercy' from Paradise, 

 he saw from the gate of that glorious garden, which 

 an angel opened for him without permitting him to 

 enter, a Cedar of Lebanon, with branches borne high 

 towards Heaven. The tree seemed to typify the 

 great disaster of Adam's early career. It stood there 



