CHAP. CXI II. CONl'FEH-ffi. CK v DItUS. 2409 



of the goddess formed of cedar, which had been formerly taker, from the Island of Zacynthus (now 

 called Zante) by the inhabitants, when they formed the colony of Saguntum. When the inhabitants 

 of the city, after having endured a siege of eight months, destroyed themselves and their city by fire, 

 this temple, standing in a valley beyond the walls, escaped ; and the cedar image of the goddess was 

 found by Hannibal, who would not suffer it to be injured by his soldiers. The books of Numa, which 

 were preserved so many centuries, are said to have been smeared over with the cedria, or juice of 

 cedar. According to Virgil, the ancients used it in their dwelling-houses, as well as for their 

 temples. What proportion of the above history belongs to the cedar of Lebanon, and what belongs 

 to other Conifera?, it is impossible at this distance of time to determine. 



The modern history of the cedar of Lebanon is attended with much greater 

 certainty. It may be said to commence with the revival of literature, 

 as almost every modern traveller who has visited Syria has ascended 

 Mount Lebanon, and recorded his visit. One of the first travellers who has 

 given any particulars of Mount Lebanon is Belon, who travelled in Syria 

 about 1550. About 16 miles from Tripoli, a city in Syria, he says, " at a 

 considerable height up the mountain, the traveller arrives at the Monastery of 

 the Virgin Mary, which is situated in a valley. Thence, proceeding four 

 miles farther up the mountain, he will arrive at the cedars; the Maronites or 

 the monks acting as guides. The cedars stand in a valle}', and not on the top 

 of the mountain ; and they are supposed to amount to 28 in number, though it 

 is difficult to count them, they being distant from each other a few paces. 

 These the Archbishop of Damascus has endeavoured to prove to be the same 

 that Solomon planted with his own hands in the quincunx manner, as they 

 now stand. No other tree grows in the valley in which they are situated ; 

 and it is generally so covered with snow, as to be only accessible in summer." 

 (De Arb., &c, p. 4.) About this period, paying a visit to the cedars of Mount 

 Lebanon seems to have been considered as a kind of pilgrimage ; and, as every 

 visiter took away some of the wood of the trees, to make crosses and tabernacles, 

 the patriarch of the Maronites, fearing that the trees would be destroyed, 

 threatened excommunication to all those who should injure the cedars ; and, 

 at the same time, exhorted all Christians to preserve trees so celebrated in 

 Holy Writ. The Maronites were only allowed to cut even the branches of 

 these trees once a year ; and that was, on the eve of the Transfiguration of 

 our Saviour ; which festival occurs in August, and consequently at a suitable 

 period for visiting the mountain. On this festival, the Maronites and pilgrims 

 repaired to Mount Lebanon, and, passing the night in the wood, regaled 

 themselves on wine made from grapes grown on the mountain, and lighted their 

 fires with branches cut from the cedars. They passed the night in dancing a 

 kind of Pyrrhic dance, and in singing and regaling ; and the following day the 

 festival of the Transfiguration was held on the mountain, and the patriarch 

 celebrated high mass on an altar built under one of the largest and oldest 

 cedars. (Bel. in Arb. Con., &c. ; and Lois, in N. Du Ham., v. p. 300.) Dr. 

 Hunter, in his notes to Evelyn's Sylva, says, — " we are informed, from the 

 Memoirs of the Missionaries in the Levant, that, upon the day of the Transfigu- 

 ration, the patriarch of the Maronites (Christians inhabiting Mount Libanus), 

 attended by a number of bishops, priests, and monks, and followed by five or 

 six thousand of the religious from all parts, repairs to these cedars, and there 

 celebrates the festival which is called ' the Feast of Cedars.' We are also 

 told that the patriarch officiates pontifically on this solemn occasion ; that his 

 followers are particularly mindful of the Blessed Virgin on this day, because 

 the Scripture compares her to the cedars of Lebanon ; and that the same 

 holy father threatens with ecclesiastical censure those who presume to hurt or di- 

 minish the cedars still remaining." (Hunter's Evelyn, ii. p. 5.) La Roque, in his 

 Voyage de Syrie et du Mont Liban, in 1722, mentions this fete ; and adds : — " The 

 Maronites say that the snows no sooner begin to fall, than these cedars, whose 

 boughs are now all so equal in extent that they appear to have been shorn, 

 never fail to change their figure. The branches, which before spread them- 

 selves, rise insensibly, gathering together, it may be said, and turn their points 

 upwards towards heaven, forming altogether a pyramid. It is nature, they say, 

 that inspires this movement, and makes them assume a new shape, without 

 which these trees could never sustain the immense weight of snow remaining for 

 so long a time." (Voy., &c, as quoted in an able article on the cedar, in the 

 Gent. Mag., 2d series, iv. p. 578.) Rauwolf, who visited the cedars in 1574, 



