Ancient Kyj pt.ai
LENTILES
348
LENTULUS
lentiles for a soup or porridge; liis companion brings a j bundle of fagots for the fire, and the lentiles themselves are seen standing near him in wicker baskets." The lentiles of Palestine have been little noticed by travel- j lers (e. g. Burckhardt, .1 rah. p. 51 ). Nau ( Voi/ar/e Xou- veaii, p. 13) mentions lentiles along with corn and peas, as a principal article of traffic at Tortura ; D'Arvieux (Mim. ii, 237) speaks of a mosque, originally a Chris- tian church, over the patriarchal tomb at Hebron, con- nected with which was a large kitchen where lentile pottage was prepared every day, and distributed freely to strangers and poor people, in memory of the transac- tion between Esau and Jacob, which they (erroneously) believe to have taken place at this spot. When Dr. Kobinson was at Akabah, he saj's: " The commissary in the' castle had also a few stores for sale at enormous prices, but we bought little except a supply of lentiles, or small beans, which are common in Egypt and Syria under the name of acldas (the name in Hebrew and Arabic being alike) — the same from which the pottage was made for which Esau sold his birthright. We found them very palatable, and could well conceive that, to a weary hunter liint with hunger, they might be quite a dainty'' (^Bib. Res. i, 146). Again, when at He- bron, on the '2ith of May, he observes : " The wheat har- vest here in the mountains had not yet arrived, but they were threshing barley, addas or lentiles, and also vetch- es, called by the Arabs kersuma, which are raised chiefly for camels" {Bib. Res. ii, 242).
The lentile (Erviim lens of Linna;us, class xvii, 3) is an annual plant, and the smallest of all the legumino- s;b which are cultivated. It rises with a weak stalk about eighteen inches high, having pinnate leaves at each joint composed of several pairs of narrow leaflets, and terminating in a tendril, which supports it by fas- tening about some other plant. The small flowers,
The Lentile (Ervuni Lena), with enlarged View of the Pod and Seed.
which come out of the sides of the branches on short peduncles, three or four together, are purple, and are suc- ceeded by the short and flat legumes, which contain two or three flat round seeds, slightly curved in the middle (as indicated in the Latin ^(';w,"\vhich optical science has appropriated as a name for circular glasses with spheri- cxl surfaces^ and of a co!<ir varying from tawny red to almost black. The flower appears in May, and the seeds
ripen in July. When ripe, the plants are rooted up if they have l)een sown along with other ])lants, as is sometimes done, l)ut they are cut down when grown by themselves. They are threshed, winnowed, and cleaned like grain. There are three or four kinds of lentiles, all of which are still much esteemed in those countries where they are grown, viz., the south of Europe, Asia, and North Africa. The red lentile is a small kind, the seeds of which, after being decorticated, are commonly sold in the bazaars of India. To the present day a fa- vorite dish among the Portuguese and Spaniards is len- tiles, mixed with their unfailing oil and garlic, and fla- vored with spices and aromatic herbs. In the absence of animal food, it is a great resource in Catholic coun- tries during the season of Lent, and some say that from hence the season derives its name. It is occasionally cultivated in England, but only as fodder for cattle ; it is also imported from Alexandria. From the quantity of gluten the ripe seeds contain, they must be highly nutritious, though they have the character of being heating if taken in large quantities. Under the high- soimding name " Ilevalenta Arabica," we pay a high price for lentile flour, and in various culinary prepara- tions are unawares relocating Jacob's pottage (Playfair, Analysis; Hogg, IV^. A'ln^rfom, p. 275). In Egypt the haulm is used lor packing. — Kitto ; Smith ; Eairbairn.
Leutulus, Epistle of {Epistola Lentuli), is the w^ell-known title of an apocryphal letter on the phys- ical appearance of Christ, which the Komish Church receives as authentic, and as having been written by Publius Lentulus, a Eoman of Palestine, and perhaps of Jerusalem, to Rome. Manuscrijit copies of it are to be found, according to Joh. Albert Fabricius (Cod. apoc- ryp/i. Novi Testamenti, i, 302), in several libraries of England, France, and Italy (viz., in those of the Vatican and of Padua), Germany (at Augsburg and Jena, ^vhere two copies formerly existed, one of which was embel- lished with a fine image of Christ, and had been pre- sented to the elector Frederick the Wise by pope Leo X). A librarian of Jena, Christopher ]Mylius {Memorab. hib- lioth. academ. Jenensis, Jen. 1746, 8vo, p. 301 sq.), states that this copy was written in golden letters upon red paper, very richly bound, and beautifully illustrated. This copy, however, is lost. The work was first printed in the Magdeburg Centuries (q. v.) (Basil. 1559), i, 344; it was then reproduced in Mich. Neandri Apocrypha (Basil. 1567), p. 410 sq., afterwards in Joh. Jac. Grynjei Monunientas.Patrumorfhodox-Offrapha(Tiaisii. 1569, fob). Joh. Reiskius, in Exercitatt. histor. de imaginibus Jes, Chr. rel. (Jen. 1685, 4to), gave a twofold version of it, one after Grynseus, the other a reproduction of that de- scribed by Mylius. This epistle was highly regarded in former times ; the papal legate, Jerome Xavier, trans- lated it into I'ortuguese (in his historj- of Christ, a work fuU of legends and fables), and from this language it was subsequently translated into Persian ; Reiske and Fabricius translated it into German, and published it at Nurenberg and at Erfurt. It is also to be found in a condensed form in the introduction to the works of archbishop Anselm of CanterbiuTi', which, though with- out date or name of place, are, from internal e^•idence, supposed to have been published at Paris towards the close of the 15th or the beginning of the 16th century; in this work it is accompanied by a description of the personal apjiearance of the Virgin Mary. In the earliest ages of the Church the question of the personal appear- ance of Christ while on earth had begun to attract considerable attention. Had there been anything pos- itively known on the subject then, it woidd certainly have been eagerly received. Yet, although the Church fathers Justin, Tertullian, Hegesippus, and Eusebius mention a letter of Pilate to Tiberius, one of Abgarus to Christ, and one of Jesus to Abgarus, they make no mention of any letter of Lentulus concerning Christ. On the contrary, during the first century, while the Christian Church was suffering persecution, the im- pression prevailed, derived from Isa. liii, 2, 3, that the