Marco Polo relate les légendes entourant des merveilles naturelles, tel L'Arbre sec (chap. 39). « Il est grans et gros, et […] vide dedans. Il est jaunes comme bois et moult fort ; et n'a nul arbre près » (Chap. 39). C'est à cet endroit qu'aurait eu lieu la bataille d'Alexandre contre Darius.
English: Identifier: bookofsermarcopo00polo (find matches) Title: The book of Ser Marco Polo : the Venetian concerning the kingdoms and marvels of the East Year: 1903 (1900s) Authors: Polo, Marco, 1254-1323? Cordier, Henri, 1849-1925 Yule, Amy Frances Yule, Henry, Sir, 1820-1889 Subjects: Polo, Marco, 1254-1323? Yule, Henry, Sir, 1820-1889 Genghis Khan, 1162-1227 Polo family Inscriptions, Chinese Early maps Mongols Voyages and travels Publisher: London : John Murray Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University View Book Page: Book Viewer About This Book: Catalog Entry View All Images: All Images From Book Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book. Text Appearing Before Image: gy, as it may fairly be called, was diffused and multiplied. There are in the paper referred to notices of between fifty and sixty different works (not MSS.or copies of works merely) containing this legend in various European languages. (Santarem, III. 380, II. 348 ; Ouseley, I. 359 seqq. and 391 ; Herodotus, VII.31 ; Pliny, XII. 5; Chardin, VII. 410, VIII. 44 and 426; Fabricius, Vet. Test.Pseud. I. 80 seqq. ; Cathay, p. 365; Beats Fah-Hian, 72 and 78; PUerins Bouddhistes, II. 292 ; Della Valle, II. 276-277.) He who injured the holy tree of Bostam, we are told, perished the same day: a general belief in regard to those Trees of Grace, of which we have already seen instances in regard to the sacred trees of Zoroaster and the Oak of Hebron. We find the same belief in Eastern Africa, where certain trees, regarded by the natives with superstitious reverence, which they express by driving in votive nails and suspending rags, are known to the European residents by the vulgar name of Devil Trees. Text Appearing After Image: Chinar, or Oriental Plane. See Chapter XXII, pages 127-139, about The Arbre Sec. Oh *38 MARCO POLO Book I. Burton relates a case of the verification of the superstition in the death of an English merchant who had cut down such a tree, and of four members of his household. Itis the old story which Ovid tells ; and the tree which Erisichthon felled was a Dirakht- i- Fazl: Vittae mediam, memoresque tabellaeSertaque cingebant, voti argumenta potentis. (Metamorph. VIII. 744.) Though the coincidence with our text of Hamd Allah's Dry Tree is very striking, I am not prepared to lay stress on it as an argument for the geographical determination of Marcos Arbre Sec. His use of the title more than once to characterise the whole frontier of Khorasan can hardly have been a mere whim of his own: and possibly some explanation of that circumstance will yet be elicited from the Persian historians or geographers of the Mongol era. Meanwhile it is in the vicinity of Bostam or Damghan that I should incline toplace this landmark. If no one very cogent reason points to this, a variety of minor Note About Images See Marco Polo's Travels; New Editions; His "Arbre Sol" Not "Sun-Tree", but Cypress of Zoroaster. A. Houtum-Schindler. The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. (Jan., 1909), pp. 154-162. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.