(b) The leguminous plants, beans and lentiles, form an important part of the diet of the Western Asiatics. These were probably included in the D'jni zeri'i'im, or pulse of I)n 1'^, which was despised but sufficient nourishment (v.'"- '*) ; in Tlieod. the word is (Ttr/pfrnTa (LXX tairpia, RVm lierbs), which meant any vegetable food ; see the name of the herbseller in Aristopli. Lysist. 457. In 2 S 17" the word pulse is not in the Hebrew.
Lentiles (cv^i, 'itdashim, LXX ^oicrfs), the seeda
of Ervum lens, which is still, as formerly (2 S 23''), cultivated in Palestine, and used as food (Thomson, i. 253 : Burckhardt, Arabia, i. 65). There are two varieties, one pale red the other dark brown, and the pottage made by boiling either of these is savoury (Gn 25**), pleasant to the taste, and red, hence Esau called it ' the red, this red ' (see incident in Diog. Laert. vii. 3). In Egypt lentiles were called arSana (Pap. Anastasi, iv. 15), and in Assyria a'ssu. In Greece they were used as food by the poor (Aristoph. Plutus, 1004-5 ; and I'herecrates,a/). Athen. iv. p. 159). The Komans regarded lentiles as an Egyptian plant (Virg. Ge.org. i. 228 ; and Martial, Epig. xiii. 9), and they were sometimes used as a bread-stuff (Athenoeus, Deipnos, iv. 158 ; Bee also Ezk 4'). An allied species of vicia is used as a camel-food by the Arabs, and called kersenna (Robinson, ii. 83). Lentile Hour is sold in this country under the name ' revalenta.' Lentiles were Drought by Barzillai to David in exile (2 S 17^). Pottage is sometimes made by boiling the lentiles with meat, more commonly a little suet is added to the water when boiling (Kitto).
Beans ('?i3 pol, LXX KvaiMs), the seeds of the common bean, Faba vulgaris, are also used in Palestine for food, especially by the poor. The bean is originally a native of Persia, and was some- times used as a bread-stuff, as it is still in Savoy and other parts of Europe (Ezk 4"; Pliny, xviii. 12); it is sometimes eaten parched or roasted (Theo- critus, Id. 7. 65 ; Robinson, iii. 87). Food of this kind was brought to David in exUe (2 S 17^, but LXX omits tlie parched pulse). More commonly, beans are boiled in oil witli garlic (Shaw, Travels, i. 257) or in water, and made into pottage, with or without meat ; sometimes they are eaten with butter and pepper. Robinson describes raw beans, soaked in water until they sprout, as part of the Lenten fare of the monks at Mount Sinai (i. 259). In Egypt beans were used, and have been found some- times in mummy cases ; they were called kat'a, art, and sometimes pir, but the last was probably the bean of the Nelumbium lotus, and kat'a is tr. by Lieblein the Opuntia fruit. Birch and Eisenlohr tr. khep in the Harris papyrus as ' bean ' ; if so, they formed a part of the ottering to Ptah ; although Herodotus says that they were not eat«n in Egypt, and were accounted impure (ii. 37). For similar prejudices against beans, see Porphyry, de Absti- nentia, i. 26 ; Diog. Laert. viii. 19 ; Clement Alex. Strom, iii. , and other authors. The high priest was forbidden to eat beans and lentUes on the day before the great Day of Atonement (Gemara, Jama, i. § 4), and the Flamen Dialis was forbidden to eat them also, as they were thought to dull the senses and cause disturbing dreams. For other superstitions concerning beans see Pliny, xviii. 12.
Husks («p<iTia) in the parable of the Prodigal Son (Lk 15'°) are the dark purple horn-like pods of Ceratonia siligua, the charrub tree of the Arabs and of the Talmud. This is a large handsome spreading tree common in Mediterranean countries, whose sweet, fleshy pods, the caroba beans of the Italians, are used as food by the poor (Robinson, ii. 250). In Greece and Italy they were used by the Stoics as a disciplinary food for youths (Persius, iii. 55 : Juv. xi. 58), and Horace s reference, Ep. n. i. 123, is well known. In Palestine, where the tree is fairly common, the beans are used as cattle food (Shabbath, xxiv. § 2), and are occasionally mentioned in the Talmud (see Maimon. in Denial, iL § 1, and Buxtorf, *.«.). Pliny refers to their use in feeding swine (xv. 24 ; see Columella, vii. 9), and in Italy they are thouglit to give a sweet taste to the animal's flesh. They are imported into this country, and are sometimes called 'locust-beans' or St. John's bread, from a mistaken notion that they were the ixplSa of Mt 3^ Steeped in water
they are used to make a pleasant, sweetish drink (see Pliny, xiii. 16 and xxiii. 8).
Fitches in Ezk 4' (knssemoth) were cereal grains, probably spelt (see BREAD). The same word in AV of Is 28^"-'' is in Heb. nsi5 kezah, LXX neKaveiov, and signifies the black cummin, which is the seed of a ranunculaceous plant, Nigella saliva, a native of the Eastern Mediterranean countries. These seeds are beaten out of the pod-like follicles with a matteh or stall', and sprinkled on bread as a car- minative, as we use caraway seeds (Pliny, xix. 7). They have a hot but not unpleasant taste. The plant is called kizah by the Arabs and kuzatu in the Assyr. plant list, and in Vulg. is named git. For references to the use of these seeds, see Plautus, Rudens. v. 2, 39 ; Ausonius, 344, 8 j Dioscorides, iii. 83 ; Pliny, xix. 8, xx. 17, etc.