June 1, 1870.] 



HAEDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



125 



Egyptian antiquity belongs to the Nelumbiacece, 

 or Water-bean family, indicated as Nehmbium spe- 

 ciosum ; a point that may be considered definitely 

 settled from the fact that it is also called Kvanog, 

 the Greek word for bean. It is said not now to be 

 found in the Nile, but is very abundant elsewhere, 

 and furnishes wicks for the lamps of Hindoo tem- 

 ples at festival time. "Water trickles from this 

 plant without penetrating it, presenting an appear- 

 ance " like dewdrops on a lion's mane: " this cir- 

 cumstance has been improved into an Eastern 

 proverb, to the effect that a good man resists 

 temptation, as|.the lotus-leaf resists water. The fruit 

 of N. speciosum is said to have been the Egyptian 

 bean, which the disciples of Pythagoras were for- 

 bidden to eat. Root and fruit are now, however, 

 still eaten in India. 



The following are representations of flowers and 

 plants from Egyptian antiquities, the latter of 



Fig. 123. 





Fig:. 124. 



Let any one compare the upward outline of this 

 figure with T*UT the hieroglyphical equivalent of sh, 



which presents us" with unmistakable evidence of 

 having been the origin of an alphabetical symbol. 



Fig. 125. 



and w, the Hebrew shin. This particular letter has 

 been copied in the Phoenician and Cuneiform alpha- 

 bets ; it originated the old Greek sigma, and may be 

 traced in Zend, Arabic, Coptic, and through upwards 

 of twenty dialects, into the Russian and Maltese of 

 the present day ; uniting, in this one particular, 

 about half a dozen different families of speech. 



2. The Lotus was sacred to Isis, the Egyptian 

 goddess of fecundity ; and as it grew spontaneously 

 on Egyptian soil, when irrigated by the Nile, it may 

 represent life, growth, — what we call vegetation. 



With this idea before us, we shall not go far 

 wrong if we assume that the Greek word Lotophagi 

 represents a people who, in modern parlance, would 

 be called vegetarians. 



The true edible Lotus of antiquity belongs to the 

 Rhamnacece, or Buckthorn family. Among these we 

 have the jujube-trees {Zizyphus Jvjt(ba, Z. Lotas, 

 Z. vulgaris), the fruit, when dried and properly 

 prepared, produces a well-known " sweet," though 

 now adulterated and superseded in general use by 

 animal gelatine. Z. Baclei produces a cake eaten by 

 Africans, with a gingery flavour. In addition to 

 the above, we find mention of Nitraria tridentata, 

 belonging to the Malpighiacece, which grows in the 

 Desert of Soussa, near Tunis ; and, among the TJr- 

 ticacea, or Nettle family, Celtis anstralis, the sugar- 

 berry, has its claims ; it is allied to Cannabis sativa, 

 the hemp plant, which produces an intoxicating 

 drink called bhang, in India; also the gunjah for 

 smoking, and the Arabian haschisch — substitutes for 

 opium. 



The word lotus is also applied to a tribe of Papi- 

 lionacea, a sub-order of Leguminosce ; but any fur- 

 ther reference to them will fail to illustrate our 

 subject. 



I am inclined to think that the root-word of 

 lotus will be found in the idea of lustration, or 

 cleansing, in connection with Isis. In this aspect 

 we have the Latin verb lotor, "to wash," and 

 the Greek Xovrpov, " a bath," allied words, which 



