234 
CEDAR TREE. 
ligious strictness. It is recorded, that upon the 
day of the Transfiguration, the patriarch of the Ma- 
ronites (Christians inhabiting Mount Libanus), at- 
tended 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 cele- 
brates that festival which is called tc The feast of 
cedars.” It appears that the patriarch officiates 
pontifically on this solemn occasion ; that his fol- 
lowers are particularly mindful of the Blessed Vir- 
gin on this day, because the Scriptures compare her 
to the cedars of Lebanon ; and that the same holy 
father threatens with ecclesiastical censure those 
who presume to hurt or diminish the cedars still re- 
maining. 
The peculiar and pleasant smell which cedar 
wood exhales is well known to every one ; but this 
odour is not given the plant merely to gratify our 
senses ; it makes the timber doubly valuable, for 
some purposes, by rendering it obnoxious to insects, 
which will neither pierce the wood nor enter a 
drawer of which it is composed. It is used to wain- 
scot rooms and make staircases ; and on account of 
its great durability, is admirably calculated for the 
use of the ship-builder. Vessels built with this 
wood will last for a great length of time, and may 
be used to advantage in the merchant service ; but 
are not so well calculated for men of war, the wood 
being very brittle, and, of course, liable to splinter 
in every direction. 
Several travellers have noticed the cedars of Le- 
