294 pfant "bore, begellt)/, anil T^ijpic/'. 



have incited his subjects to the more zealous cultivation of Corn, 

 by ploughing with his own hands the land surrounding his palace. 



The Chaldeans recognised a god of grain, called Serakh; the 



Assyrians, a god of harvests, named Nirba ; the Romans, a goddess, 

 Segetia or Segesta, who was invoked by husbandmen, that their 

 harvests might be plentiful. Among the Romans, indeed, the 

 growth of Corn was under the special protedlion of different deities ; 

 hence the worship they paid to Seia, who prote(5ted Corn before it 

 sprang up above the earth ; to Occator, the god of harrowing ; to 

 Sarritor, the god of weeding; to Nodotus, the god who watched 

 over the blade when it became knotty; and to Robigus, the god 



who protedled the Corn from blights. In the sepulchres of the 



Egyptian kings, which have of late years been opened, was dis- 

 covered, carefully preserved in closed vessels. Corn, the grains 

 of which retained both their pristine form and colour; when 

 tested, this Corn was found, after several thousand years, still to 

 retain its vitality. The matchless wealth of ancient Egypt was 

 probably in great measure due to its Corn. The Bible history of 

 Joseph, and the narrative of the ten plagues, set forth how famed 

 the land of Egypt was in those days for its Wheat. The mode of 

 culture in that country now is exceedingly simple : when the inun- 

 dations of the Nile have subsided, the grain is thrown upon the 

 mud; and if by chance it should be considered too hard, the seed 

 is lightly ploughed in. No further care is bestowed until the 

 ripening of the produce in the following April. Corn was un- 

 known among the Mexicans when their country was first visited 

 by Europeans ; the foundation of the vast Wheat harvests of Mexico 

 is said to have been three or four grains, which a slave of Cortez 



discovered in 15 30, accidentally mixed with some Rice. Peru 



was indebted for the introducSlion of Corn to a Spanish lady, Maria 

 de Escobar, who conveyed a few grains to Lima, cultivated them, 

 and distributed the seed among the farmers. The first grains of 

 Corn which reached Quito, were conveyed thither by Father Josse 

 Rixi, a Fleming, who sowed them near the Monastery of St. Francis, 

 where the monks still preserve and show, as a precious relic, the 



rude earthen vessel wherein the seeds first reached them. 



Among the Arabs there is a tradition that when Adam was driven 

 out of Paradise he took with him three plants, — an ear of Corn, 

 chief of all kinds of food ; a bunch of Dates, chief of fruits ; and a 



slip of Myrtle, chief of sweet-scented flowers. There is a curious 



custom which still survives in a few distri(5ts of Brittany, by which 

 the good faith of lovers is sought to be proved. On St. John's 

 Eve, the men, wearing branches of green Wheat-ears, the women 

 with Flax-blossoms, come to one of the pillar stones, or dolmens, 

 still standing, dance around it, and then place their wreath upon 

 it : if the wreath remain fresh for some time after, the lover is to be 

 trusted ; but should it shrivel up within a day or two, so will the love 

 wither and fade away. In some parts of Italy, there is a belief 



