ASSYRIAN MONUMENTS. 



lOI 



Fig. 39 — Altar of " Hapi," the god 

 of the Nile ; No. 8 — British 

 Museum. 



which they hang, I think decide the question regarding 

 what they were meant for ; they are the flozver stalks. 



Mr. G. Nicholson ^ says 

 that " The seeds of NympJioea 

 Lotus, dried and ground, 

 were made into a kind of 

 bread by the ancient Egyp- 

 tians, as were also the roots." 

 It is no wonder, therefore, 

 that the original settlers in 



the Nile valley thought so much of an abundant plant, 

 with its beautiful flowers floating on the water, and its 

 seed-pods containing something they could turn into 

 bread. 



It only requires to have been in India a short time 

 to discover that the natives, and more especially children, 

 eat the most villanous fruits, as long as they are not 

 poisonous — astringent, nasty-flavored things that the 

 European palate shrinks from — yet by habit natives, 

 like birds, must find them palatable, and their digestive 

 powers must extract some sort of nourishment from 

 them. After all, the basis of all living matter is said 

 to be protoplasm. 



So all primitive people can find nourishment in wild 

 plants, which the educated palate would not touch. 

 An abundant plant — beautiful and producing food — was 

 1 Dictionary of Gardening, vol. ii, p. 460. 



