280 ESSAYS ON WHEAT 



Egyptian mummies. It is still currently reported that 

 this mummy wheat, after being sown, has been observed 

 to germinate ; but there is no truth whatever in this story. 

 Careful experiment has demonstrated that all real mummy 

 wheat has entirely lost its vitality. The oldest tombs 

 containing wheat belong to the First Dynasty and are 

 about 6,000 years old. 



The ancients, who knew nothing of the evolution of 

 man and of his slow passage to civilization through the 

 Age of Stone and the Age of Bronze, attributed the origin 

 of wheat to supernatural agency. The Chinese regarded 

 wheat as a direct gift of heaven. The Egyptians believed 

 its introduction to have been due to Osiris, and the Greeks 

 to Demeter and Tryptolemus. 



According to Grecian mythology, Persephone, the 

 daughter of the goddess Demeter, was carried off by 

 Hades; whereupon Demeter visited the earth and sought 

 her child far and wide. On the tenth day of her search, 

 she learned the truth from the all-seeing Sun ; and so angry 

 did she become with Zeus for having permitted the out- 

 rage that, in her wrath, she made the earth barren, so 

 that the mortals living upon it were threatened with de- 

 struction by famine. At last a compromise was effected 

 and it was arranged that Persephone should spend two- 

 thirds of the year with her mother and one-third with her 

 busband. On returning to 01\Tnpus, Demeter left to 

 mankind the gifts of wheat and of agriculture, as a token 

 of her grateful recollection for the generous treatment 

 she had received upon the earth. She then sent Tryptole- 

 mus the Eleusinian round the world in her serpent- 

 drawn chariot to diffuse the knowledge of agriculture and 

 of the blessings which accompany it, such as the settlement 

 of fixed places of abode, civil order, and wedlock. Tem- 

 ples were raised to Demeter who was henceforth regarded 



