The Chinar Abounds In Khorasan (As Far As Any Tree Can Be Said To Abound
In Persia), And Even In
The Oases of Tun-o-Kain wherever there is water.
Travellers quoted by Ritter notice Chinars of great size and
Age at
Shahrud, near Bostam, at Meyomid, and at Mehr, west of Sabzawar, which
last are said to date from the time of Naoshirwan (7th century). There is
a town to the N.W. of Meshid called Chinaran, "The Planes." P. Della
Valle, we may note, calls Tehran "la citta dei platani."
The following note by De Sacy regarding the Chinar has already been quoted
by Marsden, and though it may be doubtful whether the term Arbre Sec had
any relation to the idea expressed, it seems to me too interesting to be
omitted: "Its sterility seems to have become proverbial among certain
people of the East. For in a collection of sundry moral sentences
pertaining to the Sabaeans or Christians of St. John ... we find the
following: 'The vainglorious man is like a showy Plane Tree, rich in
boughs but producing nothing, and affording no fruit to its owner.'" The
same reproach of sterility is cast at the Plane by Ovid's Walnut: -
"At postquam platanis, sterilem praebentibus umbram,
Uberior quavis arbore venit honos;
Nos quoque fructiferae, si nux modo ponor in illis,
Coepimus in patulas luxuriare comas." (Nux, 17-20.)
I conclude with another passage from Khanikoff, though put forward in
special illustration of what I believe to be a mistaken reading (Arbre
Seul): "Where the Chinar is of spontaneous growth, or occupies the centre
of a vast and naked plain, this tree is even in our own day invested with
a quite exceptional veneration, and the locality often comes to be called
'The Place of the Solitary Tree.'" (J. R. G. S. XXIX. 345; Ferrier,
69-76; Fraser, 343; Ritter, VIII. 332, XI. 512 seqq.; Della Valle,
I. 703; De Sacy's Abdallatif, p. 81; Khanikoff, Not. p. 38.)
[See in Fr. Zarncke, Der Priester Johannes, II., in the chap. Der Baum
des Seth, pp. 127-128, from MS. (14th century) from Cambridge, this
curious passage (p. 128): "Tandem rogaverunt eum, ut arborem siccam, de
qua multum saepe loqui audierant, liceret videre. Quibus dicebat: 'Non est
appellata arbor sicca recto nomine, sed arbor Seth, quoniam Seth, filius
Adae, primi patris nostri, eam plantavit.' Et ad arborem Seth fecit eos
ducere, prohibens eos, ne arborem transmearent, sed [si?] ad patriam suam
redire desiderarent. Et cum appropinquassent, de pulcritudine arboris
mirati sunt; erat enim magnae immensitatis et miri decoris. Omnium enim
colorum varietas inerat arbori, condensitas foliorum et fructuum
diversorum; diversitas avium omnium, quae sub coelo sunt. Folia vero
invicem se repercutientia dulcissimae melodiae modulamine resonabant, et
aves amoenos cantus ultra quam credi potest promebant; et odor suavissimus
profudit eos, ita quod paradisi amoenitate fuisse. Et cum admirantes
tantam pulcritudinem aspicerent, unus sociorum aliquo eorum maior aetate,
cogitans [cogitavit?] intra se, quod senior esset et, si inde rediret,
cito aliquo casu mori posset.
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