Fishes, Flowers, and Fire as Elements and Deities in the Phallic Faiths and Worship Part 2

"The absence of any allusion to the art of catching fish has been used as an argument in support of the authenticity of the poem of Ossian, as well as being corroborative of the statement of Dion Ca.s.sius. Fish-eaters was one of the contemptuous epithets which the Scottish Celt applied to the Saxon and other races that settled in the Lowlands of Scotland, and the remains of the superst.i.tious veneration of fish, or rather abstaining from fish as an article of food, is registered by the author of 'Caledonia' as influencing the more purely Celtic portions of the British population in the early part of the present century.

"Ancient nations that did not eat but wors.h.i.+pped the fish were the Syrians, Phnicians, and Celts. But in Caufiristaun, in the remote parts of the Hindu-Cosh, the Caufirs will not eat fish, although it is not said that they wors.h.i.+p it. They believe in one great G.o.d, but have numerous idols that represent those who were once men and women. A plain stone, about four feet high, represents G.o.d, whose shape they say they do not know. One of their tribes call G.o.d Dagon. The fish-G.o.d and G.o.ddess of the Phnicians were called Dago and Derceto; the wors.h.i.+p of Dagon being more particularly celebrated at Gaza and Ashdod; that of Derceto at Ascalon."[15]

"The old sculptures and gems of Babylon and a.s.syria furnish sufficient proof of the wors.h.i.+p of Fertility, but writers and readers have alike lost the key, or purposely skipped the subject, and this we have a prominent example of in the case of the beautiful a.s.syrian cylinder, exhibiting the wors.h.i.+p of the Fish G.o.d, which Mr. Rawlinson gives us without a comment.

There we see the mitred man-G.o.d with rod and basket adoring the solar Fructifier, hovering over the fruitful tree from which spring thirteen full buds, whilst behind him stands another adoring winged deity backed by a star, a dove, and a yoni. On the opposite side of the Tree of Life is fire, and another man in the act of adoration, probably the Priest of G.o.d, pleading with both hands open, that the requests of the other two figures may be granted."[16]

"I may state that all that the author of Anc. Mons. writes in regard to these old faiths thoroughly supports what I urge, though he is far from looking at their features as I do, for he clearly knows very little of Eastern Phallic faiths and their interpretation. Ashtoreth is Ishtar or woman, the Star in more senses than one; the Phnicians call her Astarte, but the 'present Mendean form is Ashtar,' and the plural Ashtaroth. Bunsen derives this representative name from the very coa.r.s.e, but I fear perfectly correct source, '_the seat of the cow_--_Has_ and _toreth_;' for this is true to the idea of all Hindoos, and shows us that the terms 'male' and 'female' originally meant the _organs pur et simple_, which indeed the writer of Gen. i. 27 expresses in the words _Zakar_ and _Nekabah_. In all African and Arabian dialects, _Nana_ and not Ishtar is the commonest term for Mother, the usual initial being Ma, Ya, Ye, Ni, and rarely Om and On; see the long list of over one hundred names given by Sir John Lubbock as those of the 'non-Aryan nations of Europe and Asia' and of 'East Africa.' There we see Ma and even _Ama_ occasionally used for Father, perhaps because among some tribes the strange custom existed of his going to bed to protect and warm the infant as soon as born. The almost universal initial sounds for the male ancestor are Pa, Fa, Ba, and in a few instances Da and Ad, and once Od and Ta. In Asia Baba, Aba, Apa, and sometimes Ama occur; now what we want to know is the origin of these sounds, but here philology is silent with seemingly no power to advance.

This is not the case, however, in regard to the objective roots of religion; here we work with reasoning creatures, and can see that the child continues, and that all mankind have ever continued to mate, whether in their own kind, or in their G.o.ds, the same A's, P's, F's, D's, to males, and M's, N's, Om's, Y's to females, and we therefore conclude that those were man's earliest symbols and names for the organs of s.e.x, the Omphe or Mamma of the mother, which man had first cognisance of, and the A, Ab or Pa which he noticed as the characteristic of the opposite s.e.x.

The a.s.syrian often represented Ishtar as the upright fish, probably because of the fecundative powers of the fish, and as the creature _par excellence_ of water. The great mythic queen Semiramis, wife of Ninus, the founder of Nineveh or Ninus, was said to have sprung from a fish some twenty-three centuries B.C., and to be representative woman, Eva or Mary.

"The mythic genealogy of Semiramis begins with a fish and ends with Ninyas. Her mother was Dorketo the Fish G.o.ddess of Askalon, in Syria, where she was wors.h.i.+pped as Astarte or Aphrodite. She was famed down to the days of Augustus for her beauty, voluptuousness, virtues and vices.

There seems no doubt but that there was some ruler called Semiramis, who conquered most of Western Asia, Egypt and part of Ethiopia, and who attempted India. Her fish origin is simply due to her being a woman and to her marrying _On_ or _Ones_, or probably _Oanes_ or _Ho-Anes_, the Serpent Fish, or recognised G.o.d of Pa.s.sion, both on the lower Euphrates and the lower Nile. Her conquests may merely signify that the race who had faith in her conquered, or that certain conquerors embraced the wors.h.i.+p of the Sun G.o.ddess. When Kaldia fell to a.s.syria, she was very naturally made to marry Ninus, or the strong Bull-Uan which this name signifies; she was preserved by doves, for these birds were sacred to Aphrodite. Mr.

Rawlinson believes that the origin of the myth lies in Ivaloosh's Queen of the eighth century B.C., who was possibly a Babylonian, and shared in the Government with her Lord, but there is little doubt that there was such a queen or G.o.ddess. Her name, if embracing Sun and fertilizing energies, would naturally be Sivamy or Sami (G.o.d), Rames, Rami, or Ramesi--the G.o.ddess of the Sun, in fact Ishtar, which Wilford calls her, saying these names mean Isis. The a.s.syrian story is, that she sprang from a dove or Yoni, which Capotesi would signify, and this is the Indian manifestation."[17]

CHAPTER III.

_Universal Love of Flowers--Indifference to Flowers--Excessive Love of Flowers leading to Adoration--Myths and Legends connected with Flowers, the Flos Adonis, Narcissus, Myrtle, Silene inflata, Clover--The Hundred-leaved Rose--The Wors.h.i.+p of the Lily Species-- Signification of the Lotos--Hermaphroditic Character of the Lotos-- The Indian Mutiny of 1857, part played by the Lotos during its Instigation._

"Why?" asked a writer some years ago, "why is it that every eye kindles with delight at the sight of beautiful flowers? that in all lands, and amidst all nations, the love of flowers appears to prevail to so great an extent, that no home is considered complete without them--no festival duly honoured unless they decorate the place where it is observed? They are strewn in the path of the bride; they are laid on the bier of the dead; the merry-maker selects from the floral tribes the emblem of his joy; and the mourner the insignia of his grief. Everywhere and under all circ.u.mstances, flowers are eagerly sought after and affectionately cherished; and when the living and growing are not to be obtained, then is their place filled by some subst.i.tute or other, according to the circ.u.mstances or taste of the wearer; but whether that subst.i.tute be a wreath of gorgeous gems for the brow of royalty, or a bunch of coloured cambric for the adornment of a servant girl, it is usually wrought into the form of flowers.

"This taste depends not on wealth or on education, but is given, if not to all individuals, yet to some of every cla.s.s. From the infant's first gleam of intelligence, a flower will suffice to still its cries; and even in old age the mind which has not been perverted from its natural instincts, can find a calm and soothing pleasure in the contemplation of these gems of creation."

A man, reputed wise, was once asked in a garden: "do you like flowers?"

"No," said he; "I seldom find time to descend to the little things." "This man," said an American writer, "betrayed a descent, in his speech, to the pithole of ignorance. Flowers, sweet flowers! he that loves them not should be cla.s.sed with the man that hath not music in his soul, as a dangerous member of the community."

Instead of _not liking_ or _not caring_, leaving out, _not loving_ flowers, the general tendency with humanity has been to run to an opposite extreme and render them not merely estimation, care or love, but veneration and wors.h.i.+p.

The adoration of flowers is one of the most ancient systems of wors.h.i.+p with which we are acquainted. It can be traced back for ages amongst the Hindus, who believing that the human soul is a spark or emanation from the Great Supreme, held that this essence can only be renovated in man by a communion with his works; it is found amongst the Chinese, it occupied a most important position in the mysteries of Egyptian idolatry, it figures prominently on the past and present monuments of Mexico, and to some extent prevailed in Europe. Naturally enough, it arose in the warmer regions of the earth, where the vegetable productions of the tropics are so much more gorgeous in their colouring and n.o.ble in their growth, and in those regions it still lingers, after having been swept away in other lands before the advance of education and a more intellectual religion.

It would be interesting did s.p.a.ce allow to enumerate some of the myths and legends connected with flowers, but as we have another object in view these must be allowed to pa.s.s with a mere cursory allusion. There is the Flos Adonis which perpetuates the memory of Venus's favourite, Adonis, the son of Myrrha, who was herself said to be turned into a tree called myrrh.

Adonis had often been warned by Venus not to hunt wild beasts; but disregarding her advice, he was at last killed by a wild boar and was then changed by his mistress into this flower. There was Narcissus, too, destroying himself in trying to grasp his form when reflected in the water by whose margin he was reclining. Then we have Myrtillus and the Myrtle.

The father of Hippodamia declared that no one should marry his daughter who could not conquer him in a chariot race; and one of the lovers of the young lady bribed Myrtillus, who was an attendant of nomaus, to take out the linchpin from his master's chariot, by which means the master was killed; and Myrtillus, repenting when he saw him dead, cast himself into the sea, and was afterwards changed by Mercury into the myrtle.

A bladder campion (Silene inflata) is another curiosity. Ancient writers say that it was formerly a youth named Campion, whom Minerva employed to catch flies for her owls to eat during the day, when their eyes did not serve them to catch food for themselves; but Campion indulging himself with a nap when he ought to have been busy at his task, the angry G.o.ddess changed him into this flower, which still retains in its form the bladders in which Campion kept his flies, and droops its head at night when owls fly abroad and have their eyes about them.

The common clover which was much used in ancient Greek festivals, was regarded by the Germans as sacred, chiefly in its four leaved variety.

There is indeed, in the vicinity of Altenburg, a superst.i.tion that if a farmer takes home with him a handful of clover taken from each of the four corners of his neighbour's field it will go well with his cattle during the whole year; but the normal belief is that the four-leaved clover, on account of its cross form, is endowed with magical virtues. The general form of the superst.i.tion is that one who carries it about with him will be successful at play, and will be able to detect the proximity of evil spirits. In Bohemia it is said that if the maiden manages to put it into the shoe of her lover without knowledge when he is going on any journey, he will be sure to return to her faithfully and safely. In the Tyrol the lover puts it under the pillow to dream of the beloved. On Christmas Eve, especially, one who has it may see witches. Plucked with a gloved hand and taken into the house of a lunatic without anyone else perceiving it, it is said to cure madness. In Ireland also it is deemed sacred and has been immortalized in Lover's beautiful song as a safeguard against every imaginable kind of sorrow and misfortune.

It was a belief among the Jews, according to Zoroaster says Howitt, that every flower is appropriated to a particular angel, and that the hundred-leaved rose is consecrated to an archangel of the highest order.

The same author relates that the Persian fire-wors.h.i.+ppers believe that Abraham was thrown into a furnace by Nimrod, and the flames forthwith turned into a bed of roses.

In contradistinction to this in sentiment is the belief of the Turk, who holds that this lovely flower springs from the perspiration of Mohammed, and, in accordance with this creed, they never tread upon it or suffer one to lie upon the ground.

"Of shrub or flower wors.h.i.+p, the most important in the east and south has been that of the lily species. The lily of October--the saffron--was very sacred to the Karnean, or horned Apollo--that is, the sun--for horns usually stand for rays of glory, as in the case of the horned Moses of our poets, artists and ecclesiastics, who make him like an Apis of Egypt, because of the text which says, 'his face shone' when he came down from the mountain. All lilies have more or less to do with the female or fecundating energies, and so even in Europe we have many stories of the crocus species, because it is said 'of their irradiating light, having peculiar looking bells, three-headed and crested capillaments, three cells, and reddish seeds,' &c.

"The Lotus is the seat of most deities, but notably so of the creator Brahma, who, thus enthroned, is called the _Kamal-a-yoni_, or the great androgynous G.o.d. The lotus is the womb of all creation. It is said to originate from the great fertiliser, water, alone; and dropping its great leaves on this fertiliser as on a bed, it springs upwards with a slender, elegant stalk, and spreads forth in a lovely flower. Even the grave and mighty Vishnoo delights in the lotus, which is one of the four emblems he holds in his fourfold arms. It is Venus' sacred flower.

"The flower is shaped like a boat, is a representation of divinity, and is shown as springing from the navel of the great G.o.d resting on his milky sea. It always signifies fecundation. Inman, under the head Nabhi, navel, says--'The germ is "Meroo" (the highest pinnacle of the earth), the petals and filaments are the mountains which encircle Meroo, a type of the Yoni,'

and Sanscrit for _mons veneris_. Amongst fourteen kinds of fruit and flowers which must be presented to 'Ananta' (Sanskrit, eternity), the lotus is the only indispensable one, as he (Ananta) is then wors.h.i.+pped in the form of a mighty serpent with seven heads.

"Hindoo and other writers often tell us that the lotus originated the idea of the triangle, which is 'the first of perfect figures, for two lines are an imperfection,' and the lotus also gives us a circle on a triangle which is full of cells and seed, and so is more perfect still. Siva is, as Orientals know, '_the G.o.d of the triangle_,' and hence, in his palace in _Kailasa_ we are told the most precious object 'on his table of nine precious stones is the padma (lotus), carrying in its bosom the triangle, as origin and source of all things;' and that from 'this triangle issues the Lingam, the eternal G.o.d who makes in it his eternal dwelling;' which, however, is not quite correct on the part of M. Guigniant, whom Mr. Barlow quotes. The lotus is an inverted triangle, and is therefore the female sign; the pyramid or triangle on base is Siva, or the _Ray of Light_, the sun-G.o.d.

"Another reason why the lotus is in all lands so sacred is its androgynous or hermaphrodite character, a feature imperative in the case of all the great G.o.ds of man, though this is not very clear if we dive deeply below the surface, either in the case of the Jewish Elohim or the lotus. Brahma, the creator, whilst sitting on the lotus, as all great G.o.ds do, desired, says the 'Hindoo Inspired Word,' to create the universe, and for this purpose, became androgynous, or a breathing-spirit (Ruach?)--prakriti or nature; when creation at once commenced and progressed, much as we have it in the genesis of most faiths. The details of this mystic plant have much exercised all Asiatic and Egyptian minds. In its circular stamina it shows two equilateral triangles placed across each other, which Sanskritists call the _shristi-chakra_, also sixteen petals called the _shoodasa_; and this, it is held, is a revelation from the deity as to the proper age for the representative woman or prakriti, in the Sakti ceremonies. These triangles, with apex upwards and downwards, are _the chapel_ or magic diagram which the pious are told to ponder over, for it has many significations and possesses numerous spells; and hence we see it venerated in all early ages, and still an important article of Freemasonry. The spells go by the name of the _devi-chakrams_, or G.o.desses of circles, no doubt having a solar signification.

"The _Padma_ and _Kamalata_ or _Granter-of-Desires_, or 'Consummator-of-our-Wishes,' are all terms applied to the lotus. It is the symbol of Venus or Lakshmi, or of her incarnation--Krishna's wife, Padha, who is commonly a nude Venus or Sakti. It is also called '_love's creeper_,' the throne and ark of the G.o.ds, and the water-born one. One author writes, that from far Thibet to Ceylon, and over every eastern land and islet, the holy Padma is only a little less sacred than the Queen of Heaven--Juno (I Oni) herself. It is as mysterious as the Yoni--is, like it, the flower of concealment, of night and of silence, and that mysteriousness of generation and reproduction; it is described as a sort of incomprehensible dualism which veils the Almighty One and his mysteries from our minds. Linnaeus tells us it is the _Nelumbo_, but R. Payne Knight is clearer when he writes to this effect. The flowers of the lotus contain a seed vessel shaped like an inverted _cone or bell_, which are very holy symbols with all peoples, and representative male and female. This inverted bell is punctuated on the top with little cavities or cells in which the seeds grow as in a matrix fed by the parent plant till they arrive at such a size as to break open 'the ark boat of life.' They then emerge and float away, taking root wherever they find ground, and throwing down long tentacles or tendrills in quest of it. The idea is expressed by Brahma in his address to the angels, as given in the _Linga-Pooran_, beginning: 'When I sprang into existence, I beheld the mighty Narayana reposing on the abyss of waters;' which reminds us of the Jewish Elohim-G.o.d who it is said generated all things 'by brooding o'er the deep.'"[18]

Those who remember the Indian mutiny of the year 1867 and the long tale of horrors which overwhelmed the British dominions with grief, dismay and indignation, will be interested by the information that the conspiracy was first manifested by the circulation of symbols in the forms of cakes and lotus flowers. Commenting upon this, a writer in "Household Words," of September, 1857, said, after he had given a description and historical account of the flower: I fear I may have indulged in too long an excursion into the realms of botany to suit the reader, who merely wishes to know why the Indian rebels choose lotus flowers as symbols of cospiracy. I am sure I am as innocent of the knowledge as of the rebellion, but I will try to help my readers to a guess. Four-fifths of the human species wors.h.i.+p a G.o.d-woman; and the vestiges of this wors.h.i.+p are found in the most ancient monuments, doc.u.ments and traditions, stretching backwards into the past eternity from millenium to millenium, towards an epoch beyond the records of the Deluge, and almost coeval with the loss of Eden. The Tentyrian planisphere of the ancient Egyptians represents the virgin and child rising out of a lotus flower. The Egyptian hieroglyphics depict the G.o.ddess Asteria, or Justice, issuing out of a lotus, and seating herself upon the centre of the beam of Libra, or the Scales. Pictorial delineations of the judgment of the dead, represent Osiris as Ameuti, swathed in the white garments of the grave, girt with a red girdle, and seated upon a chequered throne of white and black spots, or good and evil.

Before him are the vase of nectar, the table of ambrosia, the great serpent, and the lotus of knowledge--the emblems of Paradise. There are Egyptian altar-pieces upon which the lotus figures as the tree of life.

The Hindu priests say that the lotus rising out of the lakes is the type of the world issuing out of the ocean of time.

Travellers who have observed the wors.h.i.+p of the Hindus and Pa.r.s.ees, tell us that they give religious honours to the lotus. The Budhist priests cultivate it in precious vases, and place it in their temples. The Chinese poets celebrate the sacred bean of India, out of which their G.o.d Amida and her child arose, in the middle of a lake. We can be at no loss to imagine the appearance of the Budhist paG.o.das, for our Gothic cathedrals are just those paG.o.das imitated in stone. Their pillars copy the trunks of the palm-trees and the effects of the creeping plants of the paG.o.das; their heaven piercing spires are the golden spathes of palm flowers, and the stained gla.s.s reproduces, feebly, the many brilliances of the tropical skies. Every pious Buddist, giving himself up to devout meditations, repeats as often as he can, the words "On ma ni bat mo Klom." When many wors.h.i.+ppers are kneeling and repeating the sound, the effect is like counter-ba.s.s or the humming of bees; and profound sighs mingle with the repet.i.tions. The Mongolian priests say these words are endowed with mysterious and supernatural powers; they increase the virtues of the faithful; they bring them nearer to divine protection, and they exempt them from the pains of the future life. When the priests are asked to explain the words, they say volumes would be required to tell all their meanings. Klaproth, however, says that the formula is nothing but a corruption of four Hindu words, "Om man'i padma houm," signifying "Oh!

precious lotus!" Without pretending that the volume of the Hindu fakirs on the signification of the lotus, might not throw more light upon the use of it as a symbol of conspiracy, there are hints enough in the facts I have stated to warrant the conclusion that it serves as a sign of a great and general rising on behalf of Budhism. The flower was circulated to rally the votaries of the G.o.ddess of the lotus.

CHAPTER IV.

_Importance of the Lotos--Varieties of Lotos--Statements by Herodotus, Homer, Theophrastus, Dioscorides, Pliny, Athenaeus and others--The Arborescent Lotos--The Sacred Lotos of the Nile--The Indian Lotos-- Nepaulese Adoration of the Lotos--s.h.i.+ng-moo, the Chinese Holy Mother-- Lakshmi--The Queens of Beauty--The Loves of Krishna and Radha._

The Lotos is a flower of such importance and prominence in the subject before us, and especially in connection with the ancient wors.h.i.+p of the East--notably of that of a _phallic_ character, that we naturally look carefully about us for the best descriptive information we can find respecting it. A writer (M. C. Cooke, M.A.) in the "Popular Science Review" for July, 1871, says:--"The history of sacred plants is always an interesting and instructive study; more so when it extends into a remote antiquity, and is a.s.sociated with such great and advanced nations as those of Egypt and India. Much has been written and speculated concerning the Lotos of old authors; and great confusion has existed in many minds on account of the desire to make all allusions and descriptions to harmonise with one ideal plant--the cla.s.sic Lotos. We must clearly intimate that it is impossible to combine all the fragments of history and description applied to some plant or plants, known by the name of Lotos--and met with in the pages of Herodotus, Homer, Theophrastus, and others--into one harmonising whole, and apply them to a single mythical plant. It is manifest, from the authors themselves, that more than one Lotos is spoken of, and it was never intended to convey the notion that, like immortal Jove, the Lotos was one and indivisible. Starting, then, with the conviction that the one name has been applied to more than one or two very distinct and different plants, we shall have less difficulty than were we to attempt the futile task of reconciling all remarks about the Lotos to a single plant."

"In the first instance, it is perfectly clear that the Lotos of Homer, which Ulysses discovered, and which is alluded to in the ninth book of the 'Odyssey,' is quite distinct from any of the rest. It is the fruit of this tree to which interest attaches, and not to the flower as in some others--this is the arborescent Lotos.

"The second Lotos may be designated as the Sacred Lotos, or Lotos of the Nile. It is the one which figures so conspicuously on the monuments, enters so largely into the decoration, and seems to have been interwoven with the religious faith of the Ancient Egyptians. This Lotos is mentioned by Herodotus, Theophrastus, Dioscorides, Pliny, and Athenaeus as an herbaceous plant of aquatic habits, and from their combined description, it seems evident that some kind of water-lily is intended. Herodotus says:--'When the river is full, and the plains are inundated, there grow in the water numbers of lilies which the Egyptians call Lotos.'

Theophrastus says:--'The Lotos, so called, grows chiefly in the plains when the country is inundated. The flower is white, the petals are narrow, as those of the lily, and numerous, as of a very double flower. When the sun sets they cover the seed-vessel, and as soon as the sun rises the flowers open, and appear above the water; and this is repeated until the seed-vessel is ripe and the petals fall off. It is said that in the Euphrates both the seed-vessel and the petals sink down into the water from the evening until midnight to a great depth, so that the hand cannot reach them; at daybreak they emerge, and as day comes on they rise above the water; at sunrise the flowers open, and when fully expanded they rise up still higher, and present the appearance of a very double flower.'

Dioscorides says:--'The Lotos which grows in Egypt, in the water of the inundated plains, has a stem like that of the Egyptian bean. The flower is small and white like the lily, which is said to expand at sunrise, and to close at sunset. It is also said that the seed-vessel is then entirely hid in the water, and that at sunrise it emerges again.' Athenaeus states that they grow in the lakes in the neighbourhood of Alexandria, and blossom in the heat of summer. He also mentions a rose-coloured and a blue variety.

'I know that in that fine city they have a crown called Antinan, made of the plant which is there named Lotos, which plant grows in the lakes in the heat of summer, and there are two colours of it; one of them is the colour of a rose, of which the Antinan crown is made; the other is called Lotinos, and has a blue flower.'"

After quoting a number of other descriptions from these authors, the writer proceeds:--"From these descriptions it is evident that the Sacred Lotos of the Nile, the Egyptian Lotos of the ancients, was a species of Nympha, common in the waters of that river. Plants, and animals also, submit so much to external circ.u.mstances, that the lapse of centuries may eradicate them from spots on which they were at one time common. It by no means follows that the same plants will be found flouris.h.i.+ng in the Nile now, that were common under the Pharaohs; but, when the French invaded Egypt in 1798, Savigny brought home from the Delta a blue Nympha, which was figured in the 'Annales du Museum,' corresponding very closely in habit to the conventional Lotos so common on the Egyptian monuments.

"It seems to be very probable that the Lotos-flower in the hands of the guests at Egyptian banquets, and those presented as offerings to the deities, were fragrant. The manner in which they are held strengthens this probability, as there is no other reason why they should be brought into such close proximity with the nose.

"There is still a third Lotos mentioned by Dioscorides, Theocritus, and Homer, which may be some species of Medicago or of the modern genus Lotos.

It is herbaceous, sometimes wild, and sometimes cultivated; but always written about as though const.i.tuting herbage, and is on one occasion cropt by the horses of Achilles. We shall not pause to identify this plant, but proceed at once to the last plant it is our design to deal with.

"The Kyamos, or Indian Lotos. This can scarcely claim to be one of the kinds of Lotos mentioned by the ancients, since it is distinctly alluded to by them as the Egyptian bean, or Kyamos. This plant among the Hindus has a sacred character, equal to that of the Lotus among the Egyptians. It was doubtless Asiatic in its origin, but at one time was plentiful in Egypt, whence it has now totally vanished. It is represented on the Egyptian monuments, but far less common than the Sacred Lotos. Some authors declare this to be the veritable 'Sacred Lotos of Egypt,' a t.i.tle to which it has no claim. Herodotus, after describing the Lotos, adds--'There are likewise other lilies, like roses (and these, too, grew in the Nile) whose fructification is produced in a separate seed-vessel, springing like a sucker from the root, in appearance exactly resembling a wasp's nest and containing a number of esculent seeds, about the size of olive-berries. These are also eaten when tender and dry.

"Theophrastus describing this plant, says:--'It is produced in marshes and in stagnant waters; the length of the stem, at the longest, four cubits, and the thickness of a finger, like the smooth jointless reed. The inner texture of the stem is perforated throughout like a honey-comb, and upon the top of it is a poppy-like seed-vessel, in circ.u.mference and appearance like a wasp's nest. In each of the cells there is a bean projecting a little above the surface of the seed-vessel, which usually contains about thirty of these beans or seeds. The flower is twice the size of a poppy, of the colour of a full-blown rose, and elevated above the water; about each flower are produced large leaves of the size of a Thessalian hat, having the same kind of stem as the flower-stem. In each bean when broken may be seen the embryo plant, out of which the leaf grows. So much for the fruit. The root is thicker than the thickest reed, and cellular like the stem; and those who live about the marshes eat it as food, either raw, or boiled, or roasted. These plants are produced spontaneously, but they are cultivated in beds. To make these bean-beds, the beans are sown in the mud, being previously mixed up carefully with chaff, so that they may remain without injury till they take root, after which the plant is safe.

The root is strong, and not unlike that of the reed; the stem is also similar, except that it is full of p.r.i.c.kles, and therefore the crocodiles, which do not see very well, avoid the plant, for fear of running the p.r.i.c.kles into their eyes."

Major Drury observes that the mode of sowing the seeds, is by first enclosing them in b.a.l.l.s of clay, and then throwing them into the water.

Sir James Smith says that in process of time the receptacle separates from the stalk, and, laden with ripe oval nuts, floats down the water. The nuts vegetating, it becomes a cornucopia of young sprouting plants, which at length break loose from their confinement, and take root in the mud.