[4] It is right to notice that there may be some error in the reference
    of Paulin Paris; at least I could not trace the Arbre Sec in the MS.
    which he cites, nor in the celebrated Bodleian Alexander, which
    appears to contain the same version of the story. [The fact is that
    Paulin Paris refers to the Arbre, but without the word sec, at the
    top of the first column of fol. 79 recto of the MS. No. Fr. 368
    (late 6985).—­H.  C.]

[5] Trees.

[6] Opobalsamum.

[7] A recent traveler in China gives a perfectly similar description of
    sacred trees in Shansi.  Many bore inscriptions in large letters.  “If
    you pray, you will certainly be heard.”—­Rev. A. Williamson,
    Journeys in N. China, I. 163, where there is a cut of such a tree
    near Taiyuanfu. (See this work, I. ch. xvi.) Mr. Williamson describes
    such a venerated tree, an ancient acacia, known as the Acacia of the
    T’ang, meaning that it existed under that Dynasty (7th to 10th
    century).  It is renowned for its healing virtues, and every available
    spot on its surface was crowded with votive tablets and inscriptions. 
    (Ib. 303.)

CHAPTER XXIII.

CONCERNING THE OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAIN.

Mulehet is a country in which the Old Man of the Mountain dwelt in former days; and the name means “Place of the Aram.”  I will tell you his whole history as related by Messer Marco Polo, who heard it from several natives of that region.

The Old Man was called in their language ALOADIN.  He had caused a certain valley between two mountains to be enclosed, and had turned it into a garden, the largest and most beautiful that ever was seen, filled with every variety of fruit.  In it were erected pavilions and palaces the most elegant that can be imagined, all covered with gilding and exquisite painting.  And there were runnels too, flowing freely with wine and milk and honey and water; and numbers of ladies and of the most beautiful damsels in the world, who could play on all manner of instruments, and sung most sweetly, and danced in a manner that it was charming to behold.  For the Old Man desired to make his people believe that this was actually Paradise.  So he had fashioned it after the description that Mahommet gave of his Paradise, to wit, that it should be a beautiful garden running with conduits of wine and milk and honey and water, and full of lovely women for the delectation of all its inmates.  And sure enough the Saracens of those parts believed that it was Paradise!