414 



THE CEDAR OF LEBANON. 



Southey alludes in the following lines to a 

 singular superstitious belief entertained by the 

 Maronites of Mount Lebanon : 



" It was a Cedar-tree 

 Which woke him from that deadly drowsiness ; 

 Its "broad, round-spreading branches, when they felt 

 The snow, rose upward in a point to heaven, 

 And standing in their strength erect, 



Defied the baffled storm. " Thalaba. 



The Maronites say that the snows have no 

 sooner begun to fall, than these Cedars, whose 

 boughs, in their infinite number, are all so equal 

 in height that they appear to have been shorn, 

 and form, as it were, a sort of wheel or parasol — 

 than these Cedars, I say, never fail at that time to 

 change their figure. The branches, which before 

 spread themselves, rise insensibly, gathering to- 

 gether, it may be said, and turn their points 

 upwards towards Heaven, forming altogether a 

 pyramid. It is Nature, they say, who inspires 

 this movement, and makes them assume a new 

 shape, without which these trees never could sus- 

 tain the immense weight of snow remaining for so 

 long a time."* 



The Cedar is a native not only of the mountain 

 from which it derives its name, but of Northern 

 Africa, where it was found in abundance by 

 Mr. Drummond Hay. Of the many accounts 

 that have been published of the famous grove 

 of Cedars on Mount Lebanon, it will be sufficient 

 to quote the following: — These noble trees 

 grow amongst the snow, near the highest part 

 of Libanus; and are remarkable as well for 

 their own age and largeness, as for the frequent 

 allusions made to them in the Word of God. 



* De la Roque, 1772. 



