Mar. 17. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



209 



first edition 1656, the second 1661, and the fifth 

 1681, and in neither of the latter two (both of 

 which are unnoticed by Lowndes) do I find any 

 allusion to Phillips's World of Words. It would 

 therefore appear that it was he who first threw 

 a stone at his contemporary's Ghssographia. 

 Blount's World of Errors I never saw. 



If it should prove acceptable, I will shortly 

 forward you some account of the early editions of 

 Blount. F. Madden. 



[Any communication on such a subject from so com- 

 petent an authority as Sir Frederic Madden, would, 

 we are sure, be as acceptable to all our readers as gratifying 

 to ourselves. — Ed. " K & Q."] 



(Vol. xi., pp. 11. 94.) 



Mb. Pamplin tells us that " it may be inferred 

 that cummin was extensively used for some pur- 

 poses, from the mention of it in Holy Writ, in the 

 old medical classics," and by many other writers, 

 a goodly list of whom he furnishes. I cannot see 

 why it is necessary to draw an inference as to 

 its use generally, or that there is any mystery 

 about the specific purposes to which it was ap- 

 plied. " Rhazes, Serapion, Avicenna, and Aver- 

 rhoes " may lead your correspondent to doubt ; 

 but Pliny, at any rate, is explicit enough on the 

 subject. (Confer Plinil Nat. Hist., lib. xix. 

 cap. 8., and lib. xx. caps. 14, 15.) 



Sir Thomas Browne, in a tract entitled Ob- 

 servations upon several Plants mentioned in Scrip- 

 ture, says that the reason why — 



" We meet so often with cummin-seed in many parts of 

 Scripture in reference unto Judea, a seed so abominable 

 at present unto our palates and nostrils, will not seem 

 strange unto any who consider the frequent use thereof 

 among the ancients, not only in medical but dietetical use 

 and practice : for their dishes were filled thei'ewith, and 

 the noblest festival preparations in Apicius were not 

 without it. And even in the Polenta and parched corn, 

 the old diet of the Romans (as Pliny recordeth), unto 

 every measure they mixed a small proportion of linseed 

 and cummin- seed. 



"And so cummin is justly set down among things of 

 vulgar and common use, when it is said in Matt, xxiii. 23., 

 * You pay tithe of mint, annise, and cummin.' " 



There appear to have been several varieties of 

 this plant cultivated in Asia, Africa, and Southern 

 Europe, though their properties were not dissi- 

 milar. Hippocrates assigns the first place to the 

 Ethiopian cummin, and calls it " royal " (Regium, 

 auctore Plinio). Perhaps a little confusion may 

 have crept into the works of the ancient natural- 

 ists from their well-known want of exactness in 

 description, and distinct plants may in some cases 

 have passed as the same. I may note, as bearing 

 upon this supposition, the statement contained in 



a modern work. Green's Universal Herbal, that ia 

 Malta the cummin is now called Cumin aigora 

 (hot), to distinguish it from the anise, which is 

 known as Cumin dolce (sweet). This, however, is 

 of no particular importance, as far as the present 

 communication is concerned. 



The belief that cummin is most prosperous when 

 sown with curses and maledictions, which your 

 correspondent F. C. B. finds in a work on " hus- 

 bandrie," translated from the German, is of very 

 ancient date ; but how it originated is not even, 

 conjectured by any of the writers who have placed 

 the superstition on record. Theophrastus men- 

 tions it, non abnuente, in his History of Plants; 

 the passage occurs in the 8th book, and runs 

 (^Latine) : 



"Peculiare est quod de eo memorant, ferunt namque 

 imprecationibus et maledictis opus esse, si qui serunt, 

 illud copiosum pulchrumque provenire velint." 



Pliny says that the herb basil (Ocymus) is most 

 prolific when sown after this fashion ; and adds, 

 that those who plant cummin pray that it may 

 never come up : 



" Nihil ocirao fecundius : cum maledictis ac probris. . . 

 . . . Et cuminum qui serunt, precantur ne exeat." — Nat.. 

 Hist., lib. XIX. cap. 36. 



Hence kv/mpov a-n-eipeLu became a proverbial ex- 

 pression, and those who were in the habit of dis- 

 charging, in phrase of to-day, volleys of oaths and 

 execrations, were wittily supposed by the Greeks 

 to be sowing cummin. (Vide Adagia Paulli Ma- 

 nutii, Floren. 1575.) Erasmus also cites this pe- 

 culiar fancy, on the authority of Plutarch, whea 

 commenting on another Greek proverb to which 

 this plant has given rise : 



" Olim serebatur k male precantibus, autore Platarcho, 

 atque ita felicius provenire creditura est." — Adagia. 



To term a man Kvixivoirpiarns (cumini sector) was 

 equivalent to asserting him stingy and avaricious, 

 and in this sense the phrase is used by Aristotle, 

 Theocritus, and Athenaeus : " skin-flint " is the 

 corresponding expression of to-day. Plutarch 

 says that it was usual to call a very parsimonious 

 person Kvjxivov, because, I presume, he receives 

 many maledictions. 



There is no attempt, however, in any of these 

 writers, as I have before said, to assign an origin 

 to this singular superstition ; nor are we likely at 

 the present day to obtain any clue to a solution 

 of the enigma, beyond that which the name of the 

 plant itself may afford to a rigid etymological 

 catechiser. A solution is, I think, not altogether 

 hopeless ; and as " N. & Q." has many correspon- 

 dents erudite in philology, perhaps some of them 

 will summon the delinquent for examination. As 

 bearing upon this point, and for other reasons 

 to be presently mentioned, I shall excerpt the ob- 

 servations upon cummin of Joh. Henricus Ursi- 



