Wurse (properly "pX, omen', masc., r\.^r]r6q, nutrix, nutritius; fem. T'liz'A, ome'netJi, Ti5r]v6g, nutrix ; from ■^X, to carry [see Isa. Ix, 4] ; usually rjTi'^^, meyne'- keth, fem. part. Hiph., from p'^'', "suck," with Ml-'X, yvvr) rpocptvovaa [Exod. ii, 7]; in the N. T. Tpo(p6c, nutrix [1 Thess. ii, 7]). Moses applied this term to himself in relation to Israel, though only to express his inability to fulfil what it required, or his sense of op- pression under the responsibility involved in it (Numb. xi, 12). But more commonlj- it is applied to women, and much apparently in the same manner and with the same regard that is usual among ourselves. It is clear, both from Scripture and from Greek and Roman writers, that in ancient times the position of the nurse, wherever one ^vas maintained, was one of much honor and im- portance (see Gen. xxiv, 59 ; xxxv, 8 ; 2 Sam. iv, 4 ; 2 Kings xi, 2; 2 Mace, i, 20; comp. Homer, Od. ii, 361; xix, 15, 251, 466; Eurip. Ion, 1357; Hirppol. 267 and foil. ; Virgil, AUn. vii, 1). The same term is applied to a foster father or mother, e. g. Numb, xi, 12 ; Ruth iv, 16 ; Isa. xlix, 23. In great families male servants, prob- ably eunuchs in later times, were intrusted with the charge of the boys (2 Kings i, 5 ; see also Ktiran, iv, 63, Tegg's ed. ; Mrs. Poole, Englw. in Egypt, iii, 201). — Smith ; Fairbairn. See Child.
In Christian times nursing the sick has ever been the special care of pious females, and many have devoted themselves to this work, in hospitals and elsewhere, both in war and peace, with religious earnestness.
NUT
2-14
NUT
Among the Roman Catholics this is one of the special duties of the " Sisters of Charity."
Nut is the rendering of the A. Y. of two Heb. words.
1. Botnim', CiDZpS, occurs only in Gen. xliii, 11, where Jacob, wishing to conciliate the ruler of Egypt, sends by his sons a present, and along with other arti- cles mentions ^'nuts and almonds." Among the various translations of this term Celsius enumerates walnuts, hazel-nuts, pine-nuts, peaches, dates, the fruit of the terebinth-tree, and even almonds; but there is little doubt that pistachio-nuts is the true rendering. From the context it is evident that the articles intended for presents were the produce of Syria, and they were prob- ably less common in Egypt. The Sept. and Vulg. ren- der by terebinth, the Persian version has pusteh, from which it is believed the Arsthic fast iil- is derived, whence the Greek mnTciKia and the Latin pistacia. The Heb. word botnim is very similar to the Arabic batam, which ■we find in Arabian authors, as Rhases, Serapion, and Avicenna. It is sometimes written biit07i, boton, bofin, and albotin. The name is applied specially to the ter- ebinth-tree, or Pistacia tereUnthus of botanists, the rep- fiiv^oi; or npeliti'SroQ of the Greeks. This is the tur- pentine-yielding pistacia, a native of Syria and of the Greek Archipelago. See Oak. The tree yields one of the finest kinds of turpentine, that usually called of Chio or Cyprus, which, employed as a medicine in an- cient times, still holds its place in the British pharma- copoeias. From being produced onl}' in a few places, and from being highly valued, it is usually adidterated with the common kinds of turpentine. In many places, however, where the tree grows well, it does not yield turpentine, which may account for its not being noticed as a product of Palestine ; otherwise we might have in- ferred that the turpentine of this species of pistacia formed one of the articles sent as a present into Egypt. The name batam is applied by the Arabs both to the turpentine and to the tree. It appears, however, to be sometimes used generically, as in some Arabic works it is applied to a tree of which the kernels of the seeds are described as being of a green color. This is the distin- guishing characteristic of another species of pistacia, the P. vera of botanists, of which the fruit is well known to the Arabs by the name of Jisttik. This, no doubt, gave origin to the Greek TriaTctKia, said by Dioscorides to be like pine-nuts. Besides these edible kernels, the pistacia-tree is described in the Arabic works on Ma- teria Medica as yielding another product somewhat similar to the turpentine of the batam, but which is called 'altik al-anbat, a resin of the anbat, as if this were another name for the pistacia-tree. This brings it much nearer the botnim of Scripture. The Botna of the Talmud is considered by annotators to be the pistacia (Celsius, Ilierobot. i, 26). Bochart for this and other reasons considered botnim to be the kernels of the pistacia-tree {Chanaan, i, 10).
The pistachio-nut-tree is well known, extending as it does from Syria to Affghanistan. From the latter country the seeds are carried as an article of com- merce to India, where they are eaten in their un- cooked state, added to sweetmeats, or as a dessert fried with pepper and salt, being much relished by Europeans for the delicacy of their flavor. The pis- tacia-tree is most common in the northern, that is, the cooler parts of Syria, but it is also found wild in Palestine. Syria and Palestine have been long fa- mous for pistacia- trees, see Dioscorides (i, 177) and Pliny (xiii, 5) says, " Syria has several trees that are pecidiar to itself; among the nut-trees there is the well-known pistacia;" in another place (xv, 22) he states that VitcUius introduced this tree into Italy, and that Flaccus Pompeius brought it at the same time into Spain. The district around Aleppo is espe- cially celebrated for the excellence of the pistachio- nuts, see Russell {Hist, of Aleppo, i, 82, 2d cd.) and Galen {Be Flac. A lim. 2, p. 612), who mentions Ber-