Note [original edition] : Her pains came upon her near the trunk of a palm-
tree;] The palm to which she fled, that she might lean on it in her travail,
was a withered trunk, without any head or verdure, and this happened in the
winter season; notwithstanding which it miraculously supplied her with fruits
for her refreshment
6;
as is mentioned immediately.
It has been observed, that the
Mohammedan account of the delivery of the
virgin
Mary very much resembles that of
Latona, as described by the poets
1,
not only in this circumstance of their laying hold on a palm-tree
2
(tho’
some say
Latona embraced an olive-tree, or an olive and a palm, or else two
laurels), but also in that of their infants speaking; which
Apollo is fabled
to have done in the womb
3.
-
6
Iidem, Al Zamakh.
-
1
V. Sikii not. in Evang. Infant. p. 9, 21, &c.
-
2
Homer. Hymn. in Apoll. Callimach. Hymn. in Delum.
-
3
Callimach. ibid. See Kor. chap. 3, p. 57.