The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-07-08
MANS FIRST EsCULENT.
Lentils the Earliest Vegetable Used
by the Ancients.

>4~S4
Lentils the Earliest Vegetable Used
i by the Ancients.
From the Chicago chronicie)
The first vegetable that man made use
of was the lentil. IL tradition and history
are not mistaken. In Abraham's day it was
as common as food vegetable as potatoes
are now. Ii was a pottsge of 1entiis
for which Esau sold his birthright. When
India began TO emerge from prehistoric To
historic times the lenttI came along as =.
witness that it had been there" all the
time. and onions, eucumbers. melons, peas,
and nearly all other so-called modern
| vegetable came along with humanity from
! prehistoric TO historic times The Druids. or
Celtic people OF GauI, Britain. and Ger
many, cultivated celery. and. moreover. It
was natiTe OF these countries but It rs-
quired the tender care OF man to bleach its
! stems and dwarf its branches that its
roots might give their juices for making
I food.
I Ages before civilization began to creep
I into northern and western Europe aspara-
gus had resolved itself Into a toothsome
vegetable food. SO that Homer. Plato. othef
Greeks. and the old Romans might have it
10 help on digestion History says Plato
! would never be satisfied with less thai
what could be piled on a large plate. In
TACT. nearly all lle euiDle vegetables OF the
modern garden were known and used as
| food p,arts loEg ages ago. and there are
still wild plants that are capable Of be-
coming food vegetables by cross fertiliza-
ton and cultivation.
Potatoes and tomatoes are the most
modern OF garden truck but the potato did
not have its rise in Virginia. as some sup
pose. When the Spaniards invaded Peru
they found potatoes in a pretty high state
Of cultivation by Indians. monk irtrv
duccd them into Spain and Italy. and some
years later seed was fetched to America by
English co,onists who settled in Virgins
and North Carolina. Columbus found Just
as good sweet potatoes in the West Indies
as grow there now. and they had been a
common food there SO long among the ma
tives that they had to go to tradition to
learn Of their origin.
The egg plant, gourd and their species
have been common so long in Asia. Afri-
Ca and South America that the people be-
lieye them to be coexstent with creation.
The pumpkin. which is so closely asso-
ciated with pies. is about as old as Asia.
There have been mushrooms in the tenn
perate regions ever since the earth was
in condition Tor them. but there are peo-
pie 10 this day who cannot tell the diff
ference between a toadstool and a mush-
room until they have eaten the toadstool,
and then death comes too quick to permit
them to discuss the difference.
The leek delighted the heart Of the Pha-
raobs and the old Romans. Nero was wont
to eat leeks Tor days at a time to clear
his voice and the leek is to the Welsh what
the shamrock is to the Irish to this day.
Il is St. David in plant form. Moreover,
it was the principal diet Of the Hebrews
while in Egyptian bondage and an army
ration in ancient Greece and Rome. The
Cracks 2 to
the leek in conjunction with garlic was a
favorite dish of the Egyptian deities while
the people were taking oaths to do this
or do that. 1t was cucumbers that the Is
raelites craved SO much when they got
tired Of mamma. Beets. carrots, sage. and
rhubarb were used as food in Asia while
Europe was still the home of barbarians
Cabbage was highly priced food BY
the Greeks and it Was cabbage farming
that Cincinnatus preferred to ruling Rome
Chinese have been eating radishes for
thousands Of years. The people Of Cy-
prus claim that their barbarian ancestors
gave the caulifiower to the world. and tho
ancient Slavs discovered the horseradish.
Beans have been one Of the substantial
foods of the Orient for many ages, but
their native lands were Egypt and the
East Indies. Spinach was favorite vege-
table food of Zoroaster. Lettuce was
called ''fcod for the dead" by the ancients
because when AGonis the sweetheart OF
Venus. was mortally wounded by wId
bear Venus laid him upon a bed made of
tender lettuce leaves. so that their mar
cotic qualities and soothing milky Juices
might make death easier to the Young
man. Lettuce was used by many of the
ancients after dinner TO destroy the heat
ing effects of teo much wine
What is known as ''pussly" in the Unit
ed States has been used tor centuries and
centuries in Ini as a salad vegetable. 1t
Is also used in Egypt for the same pur-
pose. Parsley is very ancient: There ia
NEUROLOGICAL story that Hercules pre-
ferred that the people make his head
adornments of parsley. More than 1000
years before Christ the Egyptians import
ed some onion seed from India and for
long thine the vegetable was thought so
much OF that it got place only little
below the gods. The ancient Romans,
Greeks, and Egyptians were very fond of
chicory as salad. Peanuts are as old as
Africa. They were introduced into the
United States by slaves. The yam potato,
a species of the American sweet potato,
gave the older as well as the later dynas-
ties of China food that they enjoyed very
much
Ii would seem in view of these facts that
the various vegetable foods Of today had
their origin, or were brought out OF their
wild state by cultivation. by the ancients.
1t is also true that in the countries where
most of them had their birthplace prac-
tically all the people were vege;arians.
as they are yet for that matter.
But 1t is not surprising that this should
be so. for 1t is the religion Of nearly all
Asiatics to abstain from eating flesh, fish.
or fowl because 1t is sin to kill for food
anything that has instinct. lest 1t be hin
iered on its upward way" besides. accord
ing to the doctrine OF the transmigration
Of souls. one might kill and eat ones
But aside from that. vege-
table food 1t is claimed, makes better
muScle and bone than meat. Anyway. II