(c) Of cucurbitaceous plants, melons, cucumbers, and gourds are mentioned in the Bible. The two former are fruits much relished in Egypt (Nu 11»).
Cucumbers (d'nb'p kishshu'lm, LXX aUvot.) are the fruit of Cucumis c/iate (the khnta of the Arabs) and C. sativua, tlie common cucumber. Both species grow freely in Egypt (Nu 11') and in Palestine, and, according to Kitto, are eaten by all classes to an extent that would scarcely be credible in this country ; and Forskal says this is the commonest fruit in Egypt (Fl. Mgypt. 168). Finn speaks of Arabs eating cucumbers by the wavside for refreshment (Bijeways in Palestine, 2). Robinson saw fields of them (iii. 344), and Thomson describes a garden of cucumbers with a booth for a watch- man (Is 1*). As birds do not eat them, a scarecrow is useless in such a place (liar 6™). In Assyr. they are called kissu and in Egyptian skhcptu. Hippo- crates speaks of them as eaten when green (de Vict. Ratione, ii.). The fruit of the chati is longer and greener than the common cucumber. They are often eaten with vinegar or bread, or filled with mince-meat and spices. Tristram notes Arab chU- dren bringing to school as their dinner barley-bread and cucumber, which they ate rind and all. Forskil describes the method whereby a delicious drink is made from its juice.
Melons ( d-jibsk 'dbattihtm, LXX viiroves, Nu 11'), called by the Arabs battikh, are grown and used abundantly both in Egypt and Palestine. Both the water-melon (Citrullus vulgaris) and the flesh- melon (Cucumis melo) are cultivated, and both were probably included under this name. The Talmudists distinguish these, calling the former melapepon and the latter '(tbattihim (Maaseroth, i. § 4 ; Terumoth, viii. § 6 ; Chilaim, i. S 2), but in Aruch they are both known by their Heb. name. It is singular that in Coptic they are called by their Greek name.
Wild Gourd (nj;i??), in plural pSkaim, 1 K 6'« 7", or pakkudth, 2 K 4**, tr. in former passage ' knops,' in the latter ' wild gourd,' is the fruit of the vine- like Citrullus colocynthis, which is common in the Jordan Valley. ' To human nature it is of so mortal bitterness that little indeed, and even the leaf, is a most vehement purgative. They say that it will leave a man half dead, and he may only recover his strength by eating flesh meat ' ( Doughty, i. 132). It is very rare in the hUl-country of Epliraim, hence the son of the prophet who gathered it did not know the plant, but mistook it for the non-poisonous Cucumis prophetaru-m or globe cucumber common in Samaria. In an Arabic version of La 3'° the text is rendered ' he hath sated me with colocynth,' so proverbial is its bitter- ness. Its elegant shape suggested its imitation in the ornamenting of the carved panelling of the temple and of the edge of the molten sea. xn AssjT. it is jiikkuti.
Jonah's Gourd (fi'ij'p kikdydn, LXX Ko\oKvrBif)
was supposed from the likeness of the name to the Egyptian kiki (Herod, ii. 94) to be the Bicinus communis, the Palma Christi or castor-oil plant, a rapidly -growing herb which Pliny describes as becoming almost tree -like and capable of afl'ord- ing shade ; even in our gardens its growth under favourable conditions is extraordinarily rapid. It is not quite clear what the kiki of the hieroglyphic texts was, as ricinus is in Coptic called jismis, which represents the ancient form kesmes or kesbet. Maimonides in Shabbath, ii. 1, says, however, the oil of kik is from a plant called by the Arabs kkerua, which is ricinus. Tristram objects to this identification, as the ricinus is not a climbing plant, but the passage in Jon 4' does not describe it as such ; he supposes the plant to have been the roof- gourd or Lagenaria vulgaris of which Pliny states that ' shooting upwards with the greatest rapidity it soon covers the arched roofs of houses and trellises ' (xix. 24). The Vulg. renders it hedera or ivy, and this occasioned a controversy between Jerome and Augustine (see Hieron. in Jon 4* and Epist. 89). In early Christian art the plant is fancifully represented as a trailing melon-like plant covering a trellis-work, as on the sarcophagus m the Lateran from St. Peter's crypt (Parker's Photog. No. 2905; see also Bellorius, de Antiq. Lucernis, pi. iii. fig. 30, for a representation on a lamp). An undetermined species of climbing plant in Assyrian was called kakulla.
{d) i)l alliaceous vegetables there are three mentioned as favourite foods of the Israelites in Egypt — onions, leeks, and garlic (Nu IP). All these are still much cultivated in Bible lands, and are in constant use among Orientals either raw or cooked.
Onions (c'^ya bezdlim, LXX Kpo/iiivof), the bulbs of Allium cepa. These are commonly eaten raw as a relish with bread, or boiled with meal (Robin- Bun, ii. 211), or with lentiles (Terumoth, x. 1; Martial, Epig. iii. 376), or with beef (Apicius, 224). By the Ass3Tians the onion was called sursu, and by the Egyptians het (Copt, mejol). Herodotus tells that on the casing of tlie great pyramid was inscribed the value of the onions, garlic, and radishes eaten by the builders (ii. 25). The later Latin writers say that the onion was deified by the Egj'ptians (Juv. xv. 9 ; Plut. de Iside, 353). Plinv (xix. 6) says that garlic and onions are invoked by thera when taking an oath ; and Lucian (Jup. Trag. 42) says that the inhabitants of Pelusium were especially devoted to this cultus. There is, however, no native evidence for this. Among the Greeks onions were highly esteemed, and Homer speaks of Hecamede giving Patroclus an onion as a relish (/Z. xi. 630) ; but Lucian describes them as food for the poor (Dial. Mer. 14. 2 ; Ep. Sat. 28).