IV. 
142 HELIOPOLIS. 
CHAP. Joseph and the infant Jesus here rested, in their 
flight from the fury of Herod. We breakfasted 
beneath the shade of a sycamore fig-tree, which 
is said to have opened and to have received 
the fugitives, when closely pursued ' : and upon 
the spot we listened to many other stories of 
the same nature, the repetition of which even 
old Sandys considered to be " an abuse of time, 
and a provocation of his reader ^" However, 
by imitating the conduct of the pilgrims, in 
breaking off and bearing away with us a few 
scions of this venerable tree, (as Sandys says', 
'* all to he hackt for the wood thereof, reputed of 
soveraigne vei'tue,'') we were enabled to gratify 
our botanical friends in England with very rare 
specimens for their herbaries*. The well of 
Matarea is supposed to be represented in the 
(1) See ail Engraving of the ffell; the edifice erected over it; and 
of this tree ; in Bernardino^s Trattato delle Piante et Imniagini de sacri 
Edifizi di Terra Santa, ^c. Firenze, 1620. The representation in- 
cludes the iamous Balsam Gardetioi Cleopatra, which no longer exists. 
Bernardino was in Egypt in 1597. 
(2) »Sajj<7^s' Travels, p. 127. J^nd. 1G37. The reader, who wishes 
tij consult a complete detail of all the Christian superstitions concern- 
ing Cairo and its neighbourhood, may find it in Quaresmlus, Elucid. 
Terr. Sanct. torn. IJ. Aiitu. 1639. His account of the Sanctities of 
Matarea is given in p. 948 of that volume. 
(3) Ibid. 
f4) See Chap. II. p. SO. 
