Page:Legends of Old Testament Characters.djvu/76

54 the fruit to have thus brought hope as it also brought death to the eater. Nider, "In Formicario," also relates that this fruit, thus marked with the form of the crucified, grows in Granada.

"At Beyrut, of which S. Nicodemus was the first bishop," writes the Friar, Ignatius von Rheinfelden, "I saw a wonderful fruit which is called by the Arabs, Mauza, and by the Christians Adam's fig. This fruit grows upon a trunk in clusters of fifty or more, and hangs down towards the ground on account of its weight. The fruit is in shape something like a cucumber, and is a span long, yellow, and tasting something like figs. The Christians of those parts say it is the fruit of which Adam and Eve ate in Paradise, and they argue thus: first, there are no apples in those parts; secondly, S. Jerome translated the word in the Bible, Mauza; thirdly, if the fruit be cut, within it is seen the figure of a crucifix, and they conclude thereby that the first parents were showed by this figure how their sin would be atoned; fourthly, the leaves being three ells long and half an ell wide, were admirably adapted to make skirts of, when Adam and Eve were conscious of their nakedness. And Holy Scripture says nothing of apples, but says merely fruit. But whether this was the fruit or not, I leave to others to decide."

Adam is said by the Easterns to have received from Raphael a magic ring, which became his symbol, and which he handed down to his descendants selected to know and read mysteries. This was no other than the 'crux ansata,' or handled cross, so common on Egyptian monuments as the hieroglyph of Life out of death. The circle symbolized the apple, and thus the Carthusian emblem, which bears the motto "Stat crux dum volvitur orbis," is in reality the mystic symbol of Adam. "Which," says the Arabic philosopher, Ibn-ephi, "Mizraim received from Ham, and Ham from Noah, and Noah from Enoch, and Enoch from Seth, and Seth from Adam, and Adam from the angel Raphael. Ham wrought with it great marvels, and Hermes received it from him and placed it amongst the hieroglyphics. But this character signifies the progress and motion of the Spirit of the world, and it was a magic seal, kept secret among their mysteries, and a ring constraining demons."