Anecdota Oxoniensia. Semitic series.

44 CHURCHES,,AND MONASTERIES OF EGYPT.

a marble pillar, rising to the height of about seventeen cubits above
the ground, and its diameter is two cubits. It moves on one day of
the year, making one motion.
~ Account of the tree1, which only bears fruit when a man runs
towards it with an axe, as if he wishes to cut it down; and another
man meets him and forbids him to cut it down, and guarantees to
him on behalf of it that it will bear fruit. And in truth in the ensuing
year it bears a quantity of fruit equal to that of two years.
'skilfully constructed, so that if a man pushes it it inclines to the right and to the
left; but the movement is not visible externally except in the shadow of the minaret
in the sunshine.' (.-lusn al-Muhddarah, i. p. t.)
Cf. Ibn Dukmak, who says, in speaking of Abwit:
'In this town there is a wonder, namely, its minaret, which is ascended, and, if it
is pushed, yields to the push, and leans to one side; and the cause of this is
unknown.' (Op. cit., v. p. r.)
Al-AMakrizi tells a similar tale of the minaret of Barzakh, a suburb of Damietta;
see Khitat, i. p. rr.
This is no more than a grossly exaggerated report of the well-known
sensitive properties of the Mzinosa Nilotica, named k" in Arabic.
Al-Makrizi gives the following account in his description of the wonders
of Egypt:
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'Among the wonders of Egypt is this: that in Upper Egypt there is a hamlet
called Dashni, in which there grows a mimosa-tree; and if this mimosa is
threatened with being cut down it withers away and shrinks up and grows
smaller; but when they say to it, "We have forgiven thee, we will spare thee,"
then the tree recovers. It is a well-known thing and true at the present day that
there is a mimosa in Upper Egypt which withers away if the hand is laid upon it,
and recovers when the hand is removed.' (Khi.tat, i. p. rr.)
The fruit of the sant was used in medicine; see 'Abd al-Latif, Mikhkasar
Akhbdr Misr, ed. White, pp. 48, 50.