II.] AND SORTS OF CORN. 



24 and 25, there is an injunction regarding the 

 conduct of people who may be in want of food, 

 which is expressed in the following words: 

 ^' When thou comest into thy neighbour's vine- 

 " yard, then thou mayest eat grapes thy fill, at thy 

 " own pleasure ^ but thou shalt not put any in thy 

 ^' vessel. When thou comest into the standing 

 " corn of thy neighbour, then thou mayest pluck 

 " the earsivith thine hand; but thou shalt not move 

 " the sickle into thy neighbour's corn.'' This 

 was a business of eating, and the word sickle has 

 been used in the translation, from the ignorance 

 of the translators of the local circumstances. We 

 know very well it must have been the practice to 

 eat grapes, as we know it is the practice in Indian 

 Corn countries for people to pluck off the ears 

 and bite the milky corn from the cobb ; ])ut who 

 would have thought it necessary to lay down a 

 law, for periinitting people to eat green ears of 

 wheat or barley ? 



20. In Leviticus, chap, xxiii. and verse 14, 

 the Israelites are told : " Ye shall eat neither 

 " bread nor parched corn, nor green ears, until 

 ^' the self same day, until you have brought an 

 ^' offering unto your God.'' The parched corn 

 talked of here, means that which is c2i\\td.homany, 

 in Virginia and the Carolinas, and a very 

 fine dish it is ; and, as to the green ears, it must 

 be pretty clear, I think, that it would have been 



