Main Page

Next

Privious

The C.F.F Site

ìãó äøàùé

ìôø÷ äáà

ìôø÷ ä÷åãí

ìàúø äáéú ùì îñ"ò

 

From Cedar to Hyssop

VI. Sacred Trees and Magical Plants

1. SACRED TREES.

In Artas, as in all parts of Palestine, we find traces of the ancient veneration of trees, people still regarding certain trees as sacred. The sacredness is not always of the same degree or quality, and the differences are interesting to note.

Certain kinds of trees are always holy, in their own right as it were, as, for example, the Cedar Tree which cannot go without mention, although not found in the Palestine of today, the Olive tree (Zeitun) and the Styrax (Abhar) q.v. And of these kinds certain individual trees may be more holy than others, as for example, the Cedars of Bsharri or the Olive Tree of the Prophet near the Dome of the Rock, which grew from an olive stone thrown down by the Prophet when he so miraculously visited Jerusalem and the twigs of which are said to quiver on a certain day in the year, when his soul descends and rests upon it.[1]

Then there are the holy trees so common in many parts of the country, so happily spared by the woodman and most grateful for their shade. Here we notice that these are more often oak or terebinth than any other kind of tree; these two kinds, as we may remember, dispute the honour of having been the Tree of Abraham at Mamre, and both are pictured side by side on the site of Hebron shown on the mosaic map of Palestine at Madeba. These magnificent trees, sometimes in groves but more often singly, no doubt mark some ancient sanctuary; among the people they are spoken of as if inhabited by some saint or 'wely," more or less to be identified with the tree itself. Among holy trees known of and visited by the people of Artas and the neighbourhood one of the most famous is the Oak Tree of the Badariya (q.v.)

Another and minor sanctity is that attributed to trees such as the Meis tree (Celtis australis) and the Pomegranate, fortunate trees, in which no evil spirit can ever dwell and under whose branches it is safe to sleep.

It is a difficult question whether our next and last group of trees should be considered blessed or cursed; they are definitely uncanny, often inhabited by spirits malignant and dangerous to any who should venture to sleep under them. Of such are the (Zizyphus spina Christi), Sidr, the most beneficent of them, and (Ceratonia siliqua) Kharub , the fig, and the Sycomore fig, which are very much to be feared.

 [106]

We will now give some notes on these different kinds of holy trees, except the Olive for that has been dealt with in an earlier section.

 

THE CEDAR OF LEBANON. Cedrus Libani, Barr. Arz. (Frontispiece).

The Cedar has ever been the symbol of majesty and power. We read of "the cedars of God"[2] and that the "trees of the Lord are full of sap, the cedars of Lebanon which he hath planted.[3]

So too, today, the cedar is called by the people of the country, 'arz el Rabb,' " the cedar of the Lord."[4] and the cedars still standing above Bsherri in the desolate mountain wastes once covered with forests owe their preservation to the veneration of Christian and Moslem alike. Was not the wall round the trees built by a Turkish pasha in fulfilment of a vow? And was it not the Maronite Patriarch in the 18th century who threatened with excommunication any of his flock who should break so much as a branch from them?

Once a year the Maronites keep a feast under the trees and mass is said, and all the simple folk round rejoice and come to pray and picnic on the mountain. In the heart of the Grove, too, there is a tiny church. Once, when we were visiting this place, the guardian of the church was asked to which saint the church was dedicated. He replied, "To none." "But all churches have a name—is there no saint here? Or perhaps there is a wely?" A flash of anger came on the man's face. "Neither saint nor wely is here," he cried, "this is the Church of the Lord" (Kenisat el Rabb).

So, today, as of old, none is honoured under His cedars but the Lord alone.

107

Styrax officinale, L. Abhar. Styrax. (Plate 71).

This is a very beautiful small tree, with dark leaves, silvery underneath and sprays of white flowers like orange blossom, only with long yellow stamens. The feeling is strong still that this tree is holy and should never be cut down; it is even unlucky to burn wood from the branches. When a particularly fine tree was cut down during the war between Haifa and Nazareth it was spoken of even as far away as Artas and lamented as a sign of the times. When one asks why the tree is holy one may be told that from this tree the staff of Moses was made, which he had in his hand when he fled from Pharaoh into the desert and which budded .and sprouted when he thrust it into the ground.

Rosaries are made from the seeds of it and some say that therefore the tree is holy. Some say also that in olden days the holy incense was made from the gum resin which exudes from its bark, the stacte of Exodus 30, 34. The gum called storax today is from another tree, Liquidambar orientalis, a native of Turkey, but it is most likely that the Palestinian stacte came from the local tree.[5] It also seems that it was the storax of Gerarde, which he thought evidently sweet, but rather a feminine triviality when he says, "Of the gum there are made sundry excellent perfumes, pomanders, sweet waters, sweet bags and sweet washing balls and divers other sweetelins and bracelets, whereof to write were impertinent to this historie."[6]

 

The Oak Tree of the Badariya or Bedariya. Quercus lusitanica, Lam. Smdian ; Ballota.

In the district of our study there are some groups of trees sacred to the Badariya, between Beit Jala and Jerusalem; the largest of these stands close to the shrine of the Badariya herself. She is a most mysterious female saint suspected, from her Arabic name,[7] of some connection with the moon, some say she is Ashtoreth herself, others that she is a Moslem sheikha who has supplanted her. Her shrine is a small walled enclosure, with her own dark room within it, black with the burning of small oil lamps. The orthodox do not like her cult overmuch and have dedicated another part of her enclosure to El Taiyyar, the Flying Saint, to counterbalane her. In spite of this men should beware how they enter the shrine at all.

Once a man went in at night and he saw the Badariya herself, combing her long hair—his punishment was terrible, never did he have any luck after that. But to women she is most kind and to her they pay their vows and offer of the first and best oil (may be of the beaten oil) of the year to be burnt in her shrine.

[108]

The lamps they use are of baked clay, pinched up into an ancient shape, of which the guardian, an old sheikha, always has a store. The women of Artas have a high idea of her power. She can help the crops, and should be invoked thus, "O Badariya, give water to the plants outside" (Ya Badariya, isqi er zeriy a fi el bariye). Once they tell there was a poor woman in the village who was persecuted by an evil man. Then she went and laid her complaint and much henna at the shrine of the Badariya and before the year was out that evil man died. Christians as well as Moslems visit the shrine in spite of the disapproval of their own leaders; it is in fact forbidden to good Catholics. Still the women will creep there at night and touch the handle of the door if no more, and they say, "Why should we not go into the shrine? The priests do not know as we do, that the Badariya is a relation of the Mother of Jesus."

An even stronger persistence and confusion of cults can be found at Afka in Syria, the ancient Aphaca. There, close to the sacred cave where Adonis and Aphrodite met, and where their sacred stream still gushes forth, grows a fig tree all covered with rags. An old man, an inhabitant of the village near by, was asked why folk tied their troubles to that tree, and he replied, "The women make vows here because this is the place of Our Lady of Afka" "And who is she?" "The shining Queen" (El meleha el Zahim). [That is the Arabic name for Venus herself!] "But what women are they who pay their vows here at this tree, are they Christian or Moslem?" "Christian women come here of course, and so do Moslem women, for they also honour Our Lady of Afka, although it is well known that she was a Christian."

How strange that this should be said on the site of the only pagan shrine that the tolerant Constantine felt it really necessary to destroy on account of the immorality of the worship there.

Yet today "star spangled Aphrodite" is still besought by the women of Afka, although they know that she was a Christian!

 

Celtis australis, L. Meis; Meiseh. Hackberry or Nettle Tree. (Plates I, 72).

The Meis Tree has long pointed leaves very like those of a nettle and berries turning black when ripe; it is cultivated and also grows wild on the coast and in the Jordan valley. No evil spirit can come near this tree, so it is believed, and it is safe to sit under it and enjoy its shade. The wood is also revered and is in much use for charms among the Moslem fellahin and occasionally among the Christians too. The commonest form seen is that hung on children, a tiny piece of the wood prettily carved, tied to a triangular bit of alum and a blue bead. These charms can be bought ready made up in the Suq el 'Attarirn and in the shops where Hebrcn glass is sold near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Similar ones are often seen on horses in a size more suitable to their build, a large blue glass ring, a good chunk of alum and an uncarved meis stick, sometimes with the bark on, being tied up together. If one who does not know the custom calls attention to such a charm, someone present is sure to shout out:

[109]

"O he-goat, don't you see the meis?"

(Ya teis, ma teshuf el meis),

a verse which seems to cause general merriment, 'teis' having the same sense as the English 'donkey' or the German 'Schaf-kopf.'

Houses, too, when newly built are often protected by a bit of meis hung over it with other useful things, such as egg shells, or a bulb of garlic and the inevitable blue bead and piece of alum.

The meis wood to be realIy effective, according to some women, should be cut on a Saturday early in the morning, according to others it should be cut on the 27th of Ramadan in the evening near sunset. It is less effective when it is cut on the Saturday before sunrise and on any other day it is useless.

The old sheikhs say that its power is always the same and the day of its cutting has no significance.[8]

Opinions vary too as to the value of different trees. Some swear by the wood from the great trees in the Haram el Sherif, which are believed to descend from some planted by Solomon.
Others wish only for that from the tree on the road to Bethlehem near Bir Kadismo, the little pool in which it is said the Magi saw the reflection of the Star on its reappearance. And the people of Artas bring their meis from a tree between El Khadr and Beit Izkariye, for they believe that the wood is better for charms when it comes from a tree that does not hear the call to prayer, "Ma besir yisma el adân." Their proverb runs:

"The meis that does not hear the calI to prayer protects against the Envious Soul and against the Eye" (El meisi illi ma betisma' el adân did. el nafs w did el 'Ain).

In other parts of Palestine the charm is also known and used. People will sometimes press the bit of wood to the mouth for a "fadl" (benefit). A Moslem fellah in Jerash told the following story of how the tree obtained such virtue, "There was once war between the 'Frangi' and the Moslems and the Moslems were shut in a desert wady, where there was no water. The Prophet was thirsty and he took a piece of meis wood and sucked it to relieve his thirst. His followers took up sticks and pebbles and did the same. Then the 'Frangi' saw this through their 'Nadara' (spy glasses) and said, 'What is the use of fighting against these people? They eat wood and stones. Let us leave them in their desert.' So they departed and since that time the meis wood is blessed."

In Jerusalem the favourite stories take the blessing for granted and describe how Solomon came to plant them round his Temple. Dr. Canaan gives two versions of the tale and as they differ a good deal we will repeat both. The first is as follows:

"When Solomon had built the Temple, Kings, Angels and animals sent presents for the opening day, but no gift came from the Jinns. Then Solomon asked them what they would send him. Their ruler replied, 'O King and great Lord, the Temple is the most beautiful building that the hands of men have ever built. We think it well to give you something to protect it from the Evil Eye. But a blue bead would be lost in the greatness of the building and in spite of it the Eye might rest upon it. So we have decided that the best thing to do is to plant two rows of meis trees round the Temple.' "

The second version runs: "When King David began to build the Temple his building fell down. He prayed to God for help; then appeared to him a Jinn and told him to give up the work for his son and successor to the Throne alone should build the Temple. When therefore his son, King Solomon, came to the Throne he began the building again, but again it fell down. He prayed God for help and the same Jin appeared to him as had appeared to his father. The Jin said to him, 'The 'evil eye' of envious men injures the unprotected work of building. See! I give thee meis trees which must be planted round the building.' And after the King had planted the trees he was able to go on with the building. And the Temple of Solomon stands to this day, because the meis trees protect it."

Punica granatum. Rumman. Pomegranate.

The pomegranate is as all know a beautiful tree, valued for its fruit and flowers; it is also a fortunate tree, having power against evil spirits, and none need fear to sleep beneath its boughs. Fallen blossoms are often threaded into a necklace and hung round the necks of children, to help them through stomach troubles. Every pomegranate fruit is believed to contain one seed which has come from Paradise. Sick people, children, even babies, are given pomegranate juice to drink. It is delicious and wholesome in itself and besides there is always the hope that the Paradise seed may be squeezed into the lucky one's cup!

[111]

The bride is often compared to a pomegranate for her beauty,

"From whence shall we bring you a bride my son?" (literally, a pomegranate.) (Wen min jib el rumman Min Silwan), or as they say in verses likening her to this and other fruits:

"I love pears and I eat pears

And the girls of Artas are sweet, my Mother.

I love pomegranates and I eat pomegranates

And the girls of Silwan are sweet, my Mother."

 

(Bahebb el injas w akal el injas

W banat Artas helwin. ya ammi

Bahebb el rumman w akal el rumman

W banat Silwan helwin. ya ammi).

 

But the attractiveness of the fruit has its dangers. If an expectant mother desires one her wish should be immediately satisfied; if she is refused, her baby will have the Eastern equivalent for a strawberry mark, a 'pomegranate' mark upon it. O wonder! (Ya tir).

Now because the pomegranate tree had power over evil spirits, in the days when madness was believed to be caused by possession, and beating in vogue as a cure, a beating with pomegranate branches was considered peculiarly efficacious. This appears in the oft told tale of the lunatics who lost their feet.

The poor madmen, let out for the day, went to bathe their feet in a pool and got them so mixed that they could not sort them out. There they sat until evening unable to get up and go home because none of them knew which feet belonged to him. At last a wise old sheikh came by, to whom they told their trouble.

He, bringing a pomegranate rod, then gave each of them a good beating on his feet. Each madman as he felt the pain knew his feet for his own and took them out of the water. Then they all returned home together, praising God and their deliverer and the virtues of the pomegranate tree.[9]

 

Zizyphus Spina Christi. Sidr; Dom: Christ-thorn.

These trees have to be treated with a certain respect; they may be the dwelling place of some wely or less estimable kind of spirit. P. Baldensperger tells of a group of such trecs south of Na'aneh and another north east of 'Aqir, where strange things are to be seen and heard late on a Thursday evening, a sound of music as from some strange instruments and lights moving between the trees. It is the dwellers in these groves who are paying each other visits. Many of these trees grow in the Jordan valley, but most of them are no more than bushes and it is not till a tree has attained some size that it is likely to be dwelt in. Woe to the man who should cut a branch from such a tree; the Wely will ruin him.

[112]

This tree bears little round fruit, called Nabk in some parts, but in the jordan valley, Dom; these are loved by children, and the Beduin collect them and dry them for future use in the winter, making a thick paste to be used as bread. The writer quoted above also tells a most amusing description of a fire in the Jordan valley, which burnt many sidr bushes and passed away leaving abundance of little roast apples on the branches, on which the Beduin children had a great feast.

 

Tamarix sp. Eitl; tarfa. Tamarisk (different varieties).

The Tamarisk has also a measure of holiness, but it is not safe to sleep under it, nor can they be cut down with impunity. When the wind blows through them it is distinctly heard how they call "Allah, Allah," sighing.

 

Ceratonia Siliqua, L. Kharrub, St. John's Bread; Locust Bean. Carob.

It is curious that this tree should have such an ill reputation when it is so useful. It will grow on hillsides and waste places, and produces abundance of pods having a sweet pulp, suitable for cattle food, and not disdained by human beings. Children will eat them raw, but they are generally boiled down into a kind of molasses (dibs). In spite of this the tree is disliked, and it is thought most dangerous to sit underneath it, particularly at night, when it may be infested with evil spirits. Once at the funeral of one loved and respected by all in the village, some Europeans brought wreaths, in which the fine glossy leaves of the carob had been used. The fellahin were struck with horror at the sight and said "Why have you put those leaves there? Do you not see the blood upon them?" In this they alluded to the red marks on the stalks, an ill omened sign to their ideas.

Canaan gives a story illustrative of the dangerous kind of being who may haunt these trees. Once a woodcutter of Ramallah, going out in the morning, was met by a bride all decked with gold, who stepped out of a carob tree. She spoke to him sweetly, promising him great riches if he would but cast down the axe"[10] from his shoulder and follow her. But when he refused to answer her she struck him across the eyes and blinded him.

[113]

 

II. Magical Plants

1. THE MANDRAKE

Mandragora officinarum, L. Mandrake. Tuffah el Majanin.

Madmen's Apple. Beid el Jinn. Eggs of the Jinn. Shija'a.

Early in the spring the Mandrake comes up in all waste places, its purple flowers rich and dark in the midst of bright glossy leaves. The sight of the strange plant or even the mere mention of the name arouses interest at once, so many are the old fables of the Mandrake, giver of sleep, love charm, a peril to the gatherer. Surely one might expect to find in Palestine, in the land where it grows and whence it was of old exported to the credulous Northerners, some folk tales about it, some mem­ories of its use as drug or charm. Its medical use seems clean forgotten, but some of the fables concerning it survive.

As a test we asked a woman of Artas to dig up a root for us.

She returned not long afterwards in an agitated state with the great plant in her hands, with the root broken off just where it had begun to fork.

"That is all I can bring you," she cried, "I will dig no more for that plant. For while I was digging, a man of Artas, my cousin, came to me and said, 'What are you doing, O woman, digging up that root? Do you not know that there is a little black man there and if you pull him up right down to his feet you will fall ill and take to your bed?' And at that, by the mercy of God, the root broke in my hand. Ask me no more to dig for it."

Here we have the survival or the old tale that the Mandrake was human (an idea no doubt suggested by the forked roots) and also of the danger to the gatherer, but the fellaha of Artas did not go on to suggest the usual procedure of antiquity to avert the danger to oneself by tying an animal to the root, and allowing it to give the final deadly pull.

There is an old Jewish legend of the manner in which Reuben obtained the Mandrakes of the story in Genesis 30.

Having thought­lessly tied his donkey to a Mandrake plant while harvesting he returned in the evening to find the poor beast dead, with the fatal root by its side.

Thus he was able to give the Mandrake roots to his mother Leah, who bartered away this coveted fer­tility charm to her sister Rachel, the favoured but childless one.[11]

But the more usual victim of the old tales was a dog. According to the account given by Gerarde, "he who would take up a plant thereof must tie a dog thereto to pull it up, which will give a great shriek at the digging; otherwise if a man should do it he should surely die in short space after."[12]

Stories of such victims, whether dog or donkey, do· not seem to be known at all today among the fellahin, and men near Jerusalem showed no reluctance, though great want of skill in attempting to dig up other roots for us.

It really is a difficult matter to get a root out unbroken, as we found out at a picnic party, whose members went, armed with pick, hoe and knives, to seek for a mandrake in the valley of the Convent of the Cross. It was a nice picnic, in spite of the cold spring weather. But how tame our proceedings compared with those of long ago. Even if we did scorn the cowardly substitution of a dog for our own selves, we might at least have protected life by the charms of Theophrastus.[13]

According to him we should have first drawn three circles round the mandrake with a sword and made the first cut in it with our faces to the west; at the second cutting we should have danced round the plant, saying as many things as possible about the mysteries of love.

Instead we fell to without much talk on any subject, chose the smallest plant we could find and worked with extreme care and diligence for more than two hours. At last we succeeded in getting a root out, though even then it was broken at the tip.

But it was a fine straight tap root, which went down for two feet and more and never forked at all. We learnt afterwards that this is a common feature of the roots of young plants.

Roots of older, larger plants, dug up for us by a fellah and badly broken up, were most fantastic in their shapes, crudely suggestive of human forms, with arms and legs going off at all sorts of impossible angles.

These changes of size in the root, a vast bulbous 'body' giving rise to a pigmy 'arm' or 'leg,' and its brittleness make it very difficult to avoid breaking it.

Stories current in Jerusalem that botanists had offered £40 for an unbroken root began to appear credible as we gazed at the mangled remains produced by half a day's labour. The fellah himself gazed at them quite as disgustedly as we did and relieved his feelings by cursing the mandrakes. "May their houses be burnt! They have roots that go down for metres and then run under the rocks like snakes!"

Now if the small young roots run in a straight 'carrot' shape, and the old ones, which show the strange human like forms, are of such massive dimensions, what are we to make of the stories of the "man root" worn for a charm?

In some of the tales a bit of the root would do,[14] in other cases, as noted by Miss Freer in Jerusalem,[15] the root was hung ,up in the house, but more commonly the little mandrake himself was to be car­ried on the person.

[114]

Imagine carrying about a root a metre long and 25 c. broad (in parts) and all the excrescences and appur­tences thereof! The sight of the great lumpish forms at once gave point to the tales of the faking of mandrakes for export in the past.

There was a famous exposure of the practice in the year 1567 when the fakers who sold the roots in Italy went a little too far in raising a crop of 'natural hairs' on the Mandrake's head by burying grass seeds in a hole on the top and moistening them, –rather like raising mustard and cress on a flannel – and the botanist Matthioli revealed their secret. Apparently he did not stop their lucrative business altogether, for it was still going on as short a time ago as 1891.

Luschan,[16] writing then, says: "To this day there are artists in the East who make a business of carving genuine roots of mandrakes in human form... Antioch in Syria and Mersina in Cilicia particularly excel in the fabrication of the curious talisman. Sometimes the root is just cut and pressed while fresh, sometimes moulded and reburied. When thus treated and dried, traces of manipulation are hard to detect. Skilful artists will turn out most natural looking figures... So popular are the artificial mandrakes in Syria that hardly anyone will look at the natural roots."

He also mentions their reputed virtues; they are valuable love charms, will make the wearer invulnerable and invisible and reveal buried treasure.

We ourselves have come across no modern instance of the use of such charms in Palestine,[17] but we cannot resist repeating an amusing case of survival quoted by Frazer.[18]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


The Mandrake. Illustration from a Herbal showing knowledge of the planet. (See Pl. 10. Paris Bib. Nat. M.S. Grec. 217 9 Dioscorides 9th cent. Fo 105). Drawn from the photograph in "Studies in the History and Method of Science," by kind permission of Dr. C. Singer.  Plate 74.

The Mandrake. A fantastic rendering, far from the land where the plant grew. (See Saxon Herbal, Sloane 1975, folio 49 a. A.D. 1000-1959). Drawn from the photograph in "The Old English Herbals" p. 22, by kind permission of Miss Ronde.  Plate 75.

 

He tells how in Chicago a man among the Oriental Jews was childless, and some friendly Jews of Jerusalem sent him a mandrake with their best wishes. Questioning among the community revealed that the mandrake was believed in still here and there as a talisman to ensure fertility and was sold for prices varying between four and ten dollars. This also was in the year 1891!

[116]

These are but faint echoes of the famous rumours of the past. Why was the plant so renowned both as charm and drug? We have seen good reason far the first in the strange shape of the root, and can understand how by sympathetic magic the "man plant" was believed to have "powers great and strange to cause women to be fruitful and beare children if they shall but carry the same neere their bodies," and no doubt the portability and human shape of the talisman was contrived as diligently by the vendors as they enhanced its value by stupen­dous exaggerations of the difficulty and dangers of obtaining it. These fables no doubt grew as they passed from mouth to mouth from the Southern lands, where the plant grew and was well known, such as Syria, Crete, Spain and Greece, to Northern countries, where only the root was ever seen, and so it is that we get that marvellous series of pictures of Mandrakes in old herbals varying from perfectly naturalistic plants to preposterous little human figures with limbs and faces all complete and leaves growing out of the tops of their heads. (See illustration, p. 117).

When we turn from these fantasies to the stories of its medical value we find ourselves on firmer ground, for the mand­rake really has powerful narcotic qualities. These are present in the fruit, though Palestinian children eat them with delight. The scent of the "love apples," tuffah (apples), as they are called today, is most inviting, but the golden pulp, though sweet, does not quite fulfil its promise. If children eat too much of it, or if they incautiously swallow the seeds their eyes dilate and their heads ache and worse even may befall.

We heard of one child last harvest who was so overcome with the poison of the fruit that he was "as mad for a day and as dead for a day," but he ultimately slept it off and recovered.

But the narcotic principle is much more active in the rest of the plant, particularly in the root. This quality of the plant seems to have been discovered very early in the world's history, and it is therefore natural that it should have been at once both valued and dreaded. Its use goes back to the earliest known herbal, that of the ancient Assyrians, according to Campbell Thomson.[19] He thinks that the word Mandragora itself comes from the Assyrian Nam-Tam-Ira., "Being changed by the mer­chants who brought the word into Europe by a simple inversion of N. and M." The Assyrian word means Plague God Plant (as one might say Devil Plant) and its use was as "an anodyne for toothache" and in "some sickness where sleep is concerned."

In Egypt fruits of the mandrake were found in the Tomb of Tut Ankh Amun, eleven of them being placed at regular inter­vals in the sixth row of his Floral Collarette; as the plant is not a native of that country, it must have been grown in some gar­den, probably introduced from Syria.[20]

[118]

The "Plant of Circe" as they called it was valued by the Greeks, and at one time Mandragoritis was used as an epithet for Aphrodite herself. The plant figures in the list of simples given by Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine in the 5th cen­tury, B.C., and it was classed with the poisons by Dioscorides (second. half of 1st cent. A.D.), who also used mandrake wine in surgical operations when an army surgeon in the service of Nero.

It became the popular pain killer of the Middle Ages; its juice soaked the soporific sponge of Elizabethan writers; formed part of the anaesthetic draught used during operations by the Welsh Physicians of Mydvai, and was an ingredient in Bacon's Cure for Insomnia, "The Sleeping Apple," in the I6th century.

Now this Mandragora, – and other narcotic plants known of old, poppy, henbane, belladonna, – certainly  did deaden pain, but their use had disadvantages; as they were swallowed, not inhaled, the sleep given was not deep enough to prevent the patient waking under operation, and, as it was very difficult to guage their effects, they were extremely dangerous. Still, men were thankful for the mercies of Mandragora and its like before the coming of anaesthetics. Of these past blessings to man, noth­ing is here remembered in Palestine, only the memory of a few fables and its use as a charm remain. These fables we have repeated with mingled amusement and compunction, recalling wise old Gerarde's concluding adjuration on the subject:

"All which dreams and old wives' tales ye shall from henceforth cast out of your book and memory."

 

2. THE ROSE OF JERICHO.

Anastatica hierochuntina L. Kaff el-'Adram: "The Virgin's Hand." Plate 76.

If you pass near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jeru­salem and look into the shops where hang painted candles and blue and red and gold pictures on wood after the Greek manner, you will notice many curious wares spread out to attract the eyes of pilgrims. Incense in several qualities, cakes of white earth from the Milk Grotto at Bethlehem, thorns of Paliurus[21] twisted crownwise in memory of Christ's Crown of Thorns, and baskets full of Roses of Jericho, little dry plants, root and all, with the branches curled round into the form of a ball. Pilgrims and Crusaders no doubt bought them hereabouts all through the Middle Ages and here pilgrims still buy them today and carry them away to their distant homes. If you ask why, you will be told that this is Anastatica, the Resurrection Plant, and that pilgrims value it as a symbol of New Life, because however dead and dry it appears it will unfold and spread out its branches whenever it is immersed in water.

But it is not only pilgrims who buy the plant: there are also some among the dwellers in the land who value it and treasure it up in their houses. The local name for it is Kaff el-'Adra, "The Virgin's Hand," and often one may hear it spoken of as Kfefet el-'Adra in a tone indicative of a diminutive of endear­ment, as if one in the mediaeval spirit were to say "The little hand of Our Lady."

The word Kaff means the palm of the hand, and a reason for the name is seen in the shape of the plant itself: when closed it is like the closed fist; when open, like the open hand. The name also suggests that its value to the simple folk may be of the nature of a charm, for the Kaff or "Hand Charm" is esteemed throughout the country as a protection against the Evil Eye. The human hand itself may be used, as when a fellaha, threat­ened by some evil not of this world, thrusts out her hand, palm foremost, and cries Khams fi wijh el 'aduw ("five in the face of the enemy!"[22] or slaps her henna-daubed hand on a shrine wall to seal her vows. The protective sign, sometimes a mere daub of paint, sometimes carved in stone, may often be seen above the doors of houses. When worn on the person the Kaff is usually made of blue glass from Hebron or of metal.

Its use is the same to all wearers, though the name varies: it is the "Hand of God" to the Jews, "the Hand of Mary" to the Christians, the Hand of Fatma to the Moslems, and some think that it was probably the Hand of Venus to the Pagans before them.[23]

Another old name for it among the Jews was "the Hand of Might." Similar names are used of other plant forms suggestive of a hand; e.g., Kaff sadabie, Hand of Rue, for a sprig of rue with five leaflets, and Kaff Qamh, Hand of Wheat, far the pretty plaited corn baraka because of its sprayed bunch of bearded wheat ears.

All these Kaff charms are openly displayed and hung here and there to catch "the Eye," but the Kaff el-'Adra is never so used. It is very difficult to secure information about it, per­haps, as with many other old customs, its use is almost forgot­ten. Its real use was as a birth-charm, and it is still occasion­ally stared away in houses, to be brought out in time of need. Then it is soaked in water and held towards the woman in travail in the hope that as the plant opens, so may her delivery be hastened.

[120]

Anxiety prevails in the house, for the birth is delayed and none knows why. The women helping are all unnaturally quiet: no voice of anger, no curse, must be heard at this time of crisis; even the children are hushed; even prayers and charms must be muttered under the breath. The women believe that now heaven is opened, el sama maftuh, and the angels are ascending and descending, el malaik tala'u w nazilu, asking, as they approach the open gate, "Which shall we bring, the Mother or the Child?" Then, perhaps, in the hour of stress, some old wise friend brings out the strange charm, soaks the Kaff el-'Adra in water, and says, "Wait now till it opens, then all will go well." One woman said of its use, "The plant preaches patience." Another said, "We hold up the plant for the woman to see, and we say:

"If God can bring life from this dead plant shall he not much more bring life from your life?" – Ruh min ruh, a phrase reminiscent of the old verse charm:

    YiaNabi Nuh:     Itkhalli ruh min ruh

    O Prophet Noah     Separate life from life.

In Jerash (Trans- Jordan) another woman told us that she only knew of the plant as kept and used in one house there, but in Syria, her native land, she had often seen it in her young days. "When birth is at hand and labour hard they put the plant in water and as it opens so will the pain become less. The opening of the plant is a miracle, bi amr Allah. Also drinking the water in which the plant has been soaked may help a speedy delivery. This is Kaff Mariam the Blessed." "But why do you, a Moslem, call it Kaff Mariam? Is not that the name of the Christians, while the Moslems call it Kaff Fatma?" She indignantly replied, "It is Kaff Mariam, not Kaff Fatma! Our Lady Mary helps us just as much as she does you – she belongs to us as much as she does to you. So it is written in the Book."

Again, another much travelled informant said, "I have seen the plants in Mardin, in more than one room, hung up on the walls with crosses in between for a protection against the Eye­ (did el-'Ain). Men, too, will sometimes put them in their poc­kets for the same reason. I have also seen it as far off as Mosul. Sometimes someone going on pilgrimage to Mecca will bring one back with him. In Syria they are kept in houses, but more usually it is the midwives who have them in stock, and this is because of the help women get of the plant by the power of God (Qudret Allah.)"

[121]

Another Syrian friend had seen it in Homs. "There the common use is to soak the plant and give the water to the woman to drink. But if you want information on these matters you should go to Kerak." (She meant Kerak of Moab, which appar­ently is the last home and refuge of all ancient ways of thought.) In Algeria it is called Kaff Lalla Fatma, and in Egypt Kaff Fatma bint el-Nabi, (Hand of Fatma, daughter of the Prophet) and also Kaff Mariam, (Hand of Mary); it is sold in some of the little shops near the Bab el-Zuweyla, in Cairo, where it can be seen hanging in bunches over the door to catch the eye of house­wives going to market. Further south they are to be found at the sellers of drugs and spices in the bazaars of Omdurman and other towns, but not hung up in bundles, for here they are considered rarities and sold for more than the half piastre of Cairo and Jeru­salem. In the Sudan the usual name for it is Kaff Mariam (although those who use it are Moslems) and the manner of its use is identical with that of Palestine, the plant being soaked in water and held up before the woman in childbirth so that she may gaze on the presage of the unfolding plant.

Another name is sometimes used in the Sudan for it, i.e., Shidr el Khalas, which may be translated either "Plant of Deliverance," or "Plant of the Placenta," and some say that the shape of the plant when spread out suggested the latter name. If this is so we may have here a case of sympathetic magic, after the fashion of the Doctrine of Signatures in which the old her­balists believed, for by the icon or image of every herb the ancients at first found out their virtues. Or it may be merely an example of the punning common in the songs and charms of the "'omen, as in one of the birth charms, sung both in Egypt and the Sudan:

Ya halla el hullal

O Deliverer bring delivery

Ya Gabrin khiff kum el yamin               

O Gabriel bare thy right arm (elbow)

Wa Muhammed wa Ali

And Mohammed and Ali

Yeshuf (neshuf) khalasha.                 

They [we] see her delivery (or placenta).

 

When an Egyptian friend was asked about the meaning of khalas here she was content with either translation saying, "It is all the same: it means the end of her trouble, and that is what we want to see."

In any case the name Kaff Mariam is the more common, while in Palestine, so far as we know, the name Shidr el Khalas is not known at all. Curiously enough in Palestine the plant is often said to come from the Sudan, while in the Sudan the women are quite sure that it comes from Palestine and from the vicinity of the Holy City itself, for, they say, "It is well known that it only grows on land that was trodden by the foot of Our Lady Mary and watered by her tears."

[122]

A similar belief is recorded by Ludolph van Suchem, a pilgrim to Palestine in the 14th century.   He says,[24] speaking of the wilderness of Sinai: "From Mount Sinai one journeys on towards Syria across the wilderness in thirteen days... The Virgin Mary crossed this wilderness with the Child Jesus when she fled from before the face of Herod, and all along the road by which she is believed to have passed there grow dry roses which in these parts are called "Roses of Jericho." The Bedouin gather these roses in the wilderness and sell them to pilgrims for bread. Moreover the Saracen women are very glad to have these roses by them. When about to be delivered they drink the water which has been poured over the roses and declare that they are most useful and valuable during pregnancy."

Ludolph's story about Saracen women is exactly like the stories we hear today. Through pilgrims like him the belief in the plant spread to Europe. We hear of it again from John Parkinson (1640), who describes it in a Portentously long sen­tence. He tells how it was called Rosa de Hiericho and Hiericontea and Rosa Marie and says:[25]

"Hoy dry soever the plant is being brought from beyond sea yet if it be set in water for a while, it will dilate and open itself abroad that all the inward parts may be distinctly observed how it groweth and although the leaves are all lost yet the seeds and the vessels remain from whence if it be freshe the seede taken had grown, and will close up again after a while, that it is taken out of the water, not, as the superstitious Monkes falsely fained that it did open miraclously that night our Saviour was borne, and that it would doe so in what house soever it is when the woman with child abiding therein shall be neere the time of her delivery, for with moisture, as I said, it will open and not without it."

So then to the pilgrims of old, the strange "Rose of Mary" was both a symbol of new life and a good omen in the house of birth. There is much in the folk beliefs and tales about this plant that seems very strange to a botanist. "Rose of Jericho" they call it, yet it is not a rose and it does not grow at Jericho. We feel inclined to agree with the old herbalist Gerarde when he says, "The coiner spoiled the name in the mint, for of all plants that have been written of, there is not any more unlike the rose." One can only think that the globed form of the dried plant may have suggested the unsuitable name. In its young form it is a little cress with minute white flowers, a most lowly herb lying prostrate on the ground. It can be found on both eastern and western shores of the Dead Sea, but not near Jericho. Dr. Sukenik found fine specimens growing in abun­dance between Ghor el Safi and the Lisan, together with Asteris­cus, and G. M. Crowfoot found plants near the mouth of the Arnon, also on the east bank.[26]

[123]

It is said also to be found near Masada, on the western shore of the Dead Sea, but it does not appear to be common there, and we think (though we have no very certain information on the point) that most of the speci­mens sold in Jerusalem come from Egypt, for it grows abun­dantly in the desert regions there. It is also found in sandy places in Syria, North Africa and Arabia.[27] The story that it grew at Jericho may have been caused by some confusion between it and a small yellow desert daisy. Astericus pygmaeum,[28] which is occasionally cherished under the same name and which actually does grow at Jericho. This daisy, too, has something of the same affection for water, only in this case it is the dry flower heads that close when dry and open when wet, not the whole plant, as with Anastatica.

The tales and beliefs about the "Rose of Jericho" also seem to be based on a complete misconception that though appar­ently dry and dead, and blown about in the desert, the plant lives on and would revive once more when moistened by the rain. For an extreme example see the following quotation from a little book, written in 1852, whose author solemnly remarks:

"In the neighbourhood of Jericho there grows a kind of rose on the hedges called Jericho Roses, which are very famous... These roses have this wonderful speciality that after they have been picked years ago and are as one would think quite faded, yet, so soon as they are put in water begin again to bloom and spread themselves out afresh and again strike a green root in Mother Earth."[29]

That second blossoming, however, is not for its own sake, but for the sake of the life of its seeds: the little plant itself can strike root no more, it has but one year of life.

[124]

As Dr. Post briefly puts it, Anastatica is a "dwarf, dichotomous, prostrate annual." The real reason for the opening and shutting which has drawn such attention lies in a strange adaptation by means of which it triumphs over its desert environment. When its flowering days are done and the last tiny white petal has fallen, its branches begin to curve inwards until the whole plant is like a ball with the seed pods inside it. Often, when a plant becomes quite dry, the root will pull out from the soil, and ball and roots will be blown about over the sandy wastes. What matter? – the seed pods are tightly shut and guarded by the­ clasping branches, and so they remain through the long dry months until the winter rains set in. When moistened by the showers the "rose" opens, the branches bend back and straighten out, and at the same time the pods open and the seeds can readily be washed out and down into the ground. The plant spreads open when moistened because, owing to the structure of the cell walls, the tissue on the inside of the branches can absorb more water than that on the outside, and the same applies to the seed pods; as this is a property of the cell walls, this closing when dry and opening when moist will go on naturally just as long as they exist. It seems strange to us, because in the ­plants with which we are most familiar the seed vessels do just the opposite and open when they are dry. Indeed it is very rare to find any that open when wet. It is known in some other desert plants, as in the Asteriscus already mentioned, and in the Mesembryanthemums; but Anastatica is, so far as we know, unique in that it is the whole plant that opens and shuts and not the seed vessels alone. So the "Rose of Jericho" is still a cause­ for wonder.

 

3. THE TORTOISE PLANT.

The Plant of the Tortoise. 'Aishbet el Kurka'a.

This plant is wholly magical and mythical, living only in folk lore, where it appears as a plant conferring on him who finds it various powers, some say untold wealth, others the capacity to work wonders, but always with a certain risk attached to the discovery. When some women in Bethlehem were asked to tell what they knew about it they shook their garments, grasp­ing them by the opening at the breast, and said "If we knew the secret of that plant and where it is to be found we would not tell you, for the plant would do much harm." And this they repeated with signs and pantomime of alarm, crying out Fear God, "Khof Allah" and "Forbidden" (Haram). The milk­man, known to be a teller of amusing tales, was next asked, but he also said: "God forbid that we should find it." "But why?" he was asked again, "If a man found it, would not all he touched be turned to gold, as some say? or, as others do, that he would obtain all he desired?" "Look you," said the milk­man, "if a son of a fellah found this plant and just so much as touched with it the hem of the skirt of a king's daughter, truly she would follow him and could refuse him nothing. Why! the world would be turned upside down!"

 

4. THE WHITE FLOWER OF INNOCENCE

Between forty and fifty years ago there lived in El Khadr, near Artas, a girl of happy nature, who would laugh and talk with everyone. Now you must know that in the village such conduct is not thought well of. A woman should walk abroad in seemly fashion, looking down at the ground, with her head veil well pulled down on the forehead and wrapped round over shoulders and breast, and if she has to hold converse with any, she should not smile or show her teeth, O how shocking it is to show the teeth! But this girl went on smiling and showing her teeth, laughing and talking with everyone,

Then her brothers came to her and said, "Why do you do so? We will not have it. You will be punished if you do not behave differently," But she was so merry a girl, she could not change her ways, and the people of the village thought the worst of her for it, Therefore one day, her brothers slew her in their anger and cast her body into the limekiln, saying; "This is for the honour of our family." But they had enemies in the village who brought the matter to the ears of 'Asim Beg and he came to the village making enquiry and saying, "I will beat you all until you tell all." That was the way in those days.

Soon all was told and the people went from the village to the limekiln and there found the body of the girl. The Beg then ordered that she should be buried properly, within the walls by the Pools of Solomon, and this was done.

Very soon afterwards, a white flower grew from her grave as it were the flower of a gourd plant climbing upwards, and some of the people passing by saw it. "Ashka el khabbar – all is now plain" they cried, '''Look at the white flower, what have we done? She is innocent." Then they made haste and called others from the village and all who saw the white flower knew that the girl was innocent.

This is the story told by the women of Artas and they show her grave to this day.[30]

Main Page

Next

Privious

The C.F.F Site

ìãó äøàùé

ìôø÷ äáà

ìôø÷ ä÷åãí

ìàúø äáéú ùì îñ"ò


 

 



[1] Canaan, "Light and Darkness.". J.P.O.S. Vol. II. 1931.

[2] Psalm ixxx. 5.

[3] Psalm civ. 16. Though not now found in Palestine it is possible that cedars once grew on Mt. Herrnon and other heights; experiments are being made to grow them on Mt. Scapus at Jerusalem.

[4] The Indian cedar (Cedrus deodara) is also holy; 'deodar' comes from the Sanskrit devadaru, "the tree of God." It has been suggested that the fruit to be carried at the Feast of Tabernacles, the 'Feast of Yahweh,' was originally the cedar cone and that the citron was substituted for it in later days, when citrons had become plentiful in Palestine and cedar cones hard to come bv from the far mountains. See the article by S. Tolkovsky, J.P.O.S., vol. 7, p. 17, et seq.

[5] This cannot be certain because stacte was of more than one kind.

[6] Gerarde, Herbal, p. 1,526.

[7] Badr is the Full Moon.

[8] Canaan , "Aberglaube."

[9] A version of this favourite old story is given by Stephan, "Lunacy in Palestine Folklore." J.P.O.S. Vol. 6.

[10] The mention of the axe is interesting; the 'cold iron' so hated of fairies.

[11] Ginsberg, "Old Jewish Legends" (quoted by Frazer, "Folklore of the Old Testament.") In Gen. xxx. it is the fruit that is spoken of, not the root.

[12] Gerarde, Herbal.

[13] Theophrastus, "Enquiry into Plants," ix. 8 7-8. Hort. P. 259.

[14] Sibthorp, "Flora Graeca," 3 Lond. 1819, p. 27.

[15] A. Goodrich Freer (Mrs. Hans Spoer) "Folklore," 18. 1907, p. 67.

[16] Luschan (F. von.), "Verhandlungen des Berliner Gesellschaft fur Anthropologie, etm," 1891, pp. 726-728. Quoted by Frazer "Folklore in the Old Testament", vol. II, p. 380.

[17] Stephan, "Modern Parallels to the Song of Songs," p. 24, quotes a verse about the Mandrake from Gaza: The Apple of the Jan gives pregnancy (Tuffah elmajal Bijib el habal).

[18] Frazer, ibid, quoting from F. Starr "Notes on Mandrakes." "Am. Antiquarian and Oriental Journal," 23. Chicago. 1891. p. 267.

[19] Campbell Thomson, "The Assyrian Herbal." Copy in Bodleian.

[20] One thinks here of the 'Queen's Garden' at Karnak with its beautiful reliefs of plants from Syria.

[21] Sometimes these crowns are made of Zizyphus Spina Christi or Poterium spinosum.

[22] Einsler. Mosalk p. 353; Canaan, Aberglaube, pp. 64, 94.

[23] Canaan, "Aberglaube," pp. 64-65. Hand of Fatma is in general use for hand charms, but not for the Rose of Jericho – that, in Palestine, is always "Hand of Mary."

[24] L. von Suchem. 1350 A.D. Palestine Pilgrims Texts, vo1. 12, p. 91.

[25] John Parkinson, "Theatrum Botanicum," ch. 30, p. 1384.

[26] Dalman, op. cit. I., p. 54, saw the plant east of the penisula of the Dead Sea.

[27] See Doughty, "Arabia Deserta" (edition published by Jonathan Cape and Medici Society), p. 303-4. "We removed from thence a little within the high white borders of the Nefud, marching through a sand country full of last year's plants of the "Rose of Jericho." These Bedu call them ch[k]ef Marhab. Kef is the hollow palm, with the fingers clenched upon it. Marhab is in their tradition a Sheykh of the old Jewish Kheybar. We found also the young herb, two velvet green leaves, which has the wholesome smack of cresses, and is good for the nomad cattle."

According to Dragendorff the plant under a similar name is also known in India. He gives the following note: "Anastatica. Aegypten, Westasien. Zu mancherlei aberglaubischen Curen gebraucht. Auch in Indien so verwendet. (Keff i Maryan).

Dragendorff, "Die Heilpflazen der verschiedenen Volker und Zeiten, Stuttgart, 1898.

[28] Syn. Odontospermum pygmaeum.

[29] R. J. Schwarz, tr. from "Das Heilige Land," p. 317.

[30] Similar stories are found in European folklore. There is an English legend, for instance, that the first white lilac grew from the grave of a maid who died of a broken heart. (Skinner, "Myths and Legends of Flowers." p. 157.)