Fistulae, pipes or reeds used in the administration of the wine in the Eucharist from the 8th. century to the 12th. The deacon held the cup in his own hand, a small reed or pipe was introduced into the wine, and the communicant drew up the wine into his mouth through this pipe. The object was to prevent the pos- sibility of spilling any of the wine.
Fitch, Ebenezer, D.D., a Presbyterian minister, ancl president of Williams College, Mass., was born in Norwich Sept. 26, 1756, and graduated in Yale in 1777. After teaching for some time in Hanover, N. Y., he be- came tutor in Yale, and remained there till 1783, when he formed a mercantile connection, which proving dis- astrous, he returned to his former oflSce, to which was added that of lil)rarian. He was licensed to preach in 1787, and in 1791 became preceptor of the academy in Williamstown, Mass., of which, with the title of Wil- liams College, he was appointed president in 1793. He resigned in 1815, and was installed pastor of the Presbyterian church. West Bloomfield, N. Y., which lie resigned in 1828, after a zealous and efficient min- istry. He died March 21, 1833. He published A Bac- calaureate Discourse, 1799. — Sprague, Annals, iii, 511.
Fitches (i. e. Vetches or chick-pea), the incorrect rendering, in the Auth. Vers., of two Heb. words. See Botany.
1- ^^P. (ke'tsach, something strewii), which occurs only in Isa. xxviii, 25, 27, where especial reference is made to the mode of threshing it ; not with " a thresh- ing instmment," S'^i'S, I'^iiri), but "with a staff" (fl^i'a), because the heavy-armed cylinders of the for- mer implement would have crushed it. Although ketsach, in Chaldee NHlip (Buxtorf, Lex. Talm. col. 2101), is always acknowledged to denote some seed, yet interpreters have had great difficulty in determin- ing the particular kind intended, some translating it peas, others, as Luther and the English version, vetch- es, but without any proof. Meibomius considers it to
be the white poppy, and others a Hack seed. This last interpretation has the most numerous, as well as the oldest authorities in its support. Of these a few are in favor of the black poppy-seed, but the majority of a black seed common in Egypt, etc. (Celsius, Ilierohot. ii, 70). The Sept. translates it ^tXc'ivQiov, the Vulg. gith (perhaps from the Heb. 'IS, coriander; see Plau- tus, Rud. V, 8, 39), and Tremellius melanthium, while the Arabic has shunez. All these mean the same tiling, namely, a very black-colored and aromatic seed, '■'■fennel-Jhwer'''' or '■'■ black cumin,''' still cultiva- ted and in daily employment as a condiment in the East. Thus Pliny (xx, 17,71), "GiV^, from the Greeks, others call melanthion, and still others melanspermon. The best is that of the most pungent smell, and black- est." By Dioscorides (iii, 93), or the ancient author who is supposed to have added the sj'nonymes, we are informed that (.uXdvOiov was also called the "wild black poppy," that the seed was black, acrid, and ar- omatic, and that it was added to bread or cakes. Pliny also says, "The seed of the melanthium or melansper- mum makes an excellent confection in the loaves" (xix, 8). Melanthium is universally recognised by botanists to be the Nigella. Thus Bauhin Pinax, " NigcHa, from the black color of the seed, is common- ly called fuXavQiov." The shunez of the Arabs is, moreover, the same plant or seed, which is usually <• called "black cumin." So one kind of cumin is said by Dioscorides to have seeds like those of melanthion or nigella. It was commonly cultivated in Egypt, and P. Alpinus mentions it as "Suneg Egj'ptiis." The Arabs, besides shunez, also call it huh-al-souda, and the Persians seah dana, both words slgnifj'ing black seed. One species, named Nigella Indica by Dr. Rox- burgh, is called kala jlra in India, that is, black zira or cumin, of the family of Ranunculaceaj. " Nigella sativa is alone cultivated in India, as in most Eastern countries, and continues in the present day, as in the most ancient times, to be used both as a condiment and as a medicine" {Illust. Ilimal. But. p. 46). If we consider that this appears to have always been one of the cultivated grains of the East, and compare the character of nigella with the passages in which ketsach is mentioned, we shall find that the former is applica- ble to them all. Indeed, Rabbi Obadias de Bartenora states that the barbarous or vulgar name of the ketsach was nielle, that is, nigella. The Nigella sativa is a gar-
Aigella Sativa.
den plant, which commonly attains the height of an ell, with narrow leaves, like the leaves of Jennel, a blue flower, out of which is formed, on the verj' top of the plant, an oVdong muricate capsule, the interior of which is, b}' means of thin membranes, separated into compartments containing a seed of a very black color not unlike the popp3% but of a pleasant smell, and a sharp taste not unlike pepper. The various specips of nigella are herbaceous (several of them being indig-
FIVE-MILE ACT
584
FLACIUS
enous in Europe, others cultivated in most parts of I Flaccus, Caics Norbanus (Grfccized Faiog Nop Asia), with their leaves cleeplj- cut and linear, their \ fSavot; OXofc/coc, Josephus, Ant. xvi, 6, 6), son of a