Note 53 — Chapter II · TREE AND SERPENT WORSHIP.

Of the Khair tree Bishop Heber thus writes in his Journal:53 “As I returned home I passed a fine tree of the Mimosa, with leaves at a little distance so much resembling those of the mountain ash, that I was for a moment deceived, and asked if it did not bear fruit. He answered, ‘No; but it was a very noble tree, being called the “Imperial tree,” for its excellent qualities.’ That it slept all night, and was alive all day, withdrawing its leaves if any one attempted to touch them. Above all, however, it was useful as a preservative against magic; a sprig worn in the turban, or suspended over the bed, was a perfect security against all spells, Evil Eye, etc., insomuch that the most formidable wizard would not, if he could help it, approach its shade. One indeed, they said, who was very renowned for his power (like Lorrinite of Kehama) of killing plants and drying up their sap with a look, had come to this very tree and gazed upon it intently; ‘but,’ said the old man, who told me this with an air of triumph, ‘look as he might, he could do the tree no harm,’ a fact of which I made no question. I was amused and surprised to find the superstition, which in England and Scotland attaches to the rowan tree, here applied to a tree of nearly similar form.”