SECTION III. 



PULSE. 



THE term Pulse is applied to leguminous plants, or those grains 

 or seeds that grow in pods. In 2 Samuel xvii. 28, the word occurs 

 twice ; once being joined with barley and meal, it is rightly explain- 

 ed in our translation by * parched corn ;' in the other case, following 

 beans and lentils, it is properly understood of 'parched pulse.' 

 Both these still make part of the food of the eastern people. 

 'Roasted ears of wheat,' 'are an ancient dish in the east,' of which 

 mention is made in the Book of Ruth, i. 22. As to the parched 

 pulse of 2 Sam. xvii. 28, Dr. Shaw informs us, that the cicer or chick 

 peas, are in the greatest repute after they are parched in pans or 

 ovens, then assuming the name ofteblebby. This, he adds, seems 

 to be of the greatest antiquity ; for PJaiitus speaks of it as a thing 

 very common in his time. The leblebby of those times may proba- 

 bly be the ' parched pulse,' of the holy Scriptures. 



LENTILS. 



THESE are a sort of pulse which grow plentifully in Egypt, and 

 are much used as food. They were little esteemed by the Romans, 

 who ranked them below that species of grain from which they 

 made a kind of beer, the alica. But Dr. Shaw states, that in Bar- 

 bary, they form, nexf to beans, a part of the principal food of the 

 inhabitants. They are dressed in the same manner with beans, 

 that is, boiled mul shewed with oil and garlic, dissolving easily in- 

 to a mass, and making a pottage of a chocolate color. This, was 

 perhaps the 'red pott;ige,' which Esau, from thence called Edom, 

 exchanged for his birth-right, Gen. xxv. 30, 34. 



BEANS. 



BEANS are enumerated among the provisions brought to David 

 at Mahanaim (2 Samuel xvii. 28), and also among the ingredients 

 with which the prophet Ezekiel was to make his bread, ch. iv. 9. 

 These passages may be illustrated by what Dr. Shaw says about 

 the modern diet of the people of Barbary : 'Beans, after they are 

 boiled and stewed with garlick. are the principal food of persons of 

 all distinctions.' 



