The Fig. 229 



date, and perhaps as the banana. Requiring scarcely any 

 cultivation, it would certainly take precedence of any of 

 the aliments obtained by tillage of the soil : the associa- 

 tions carry us back to the very dawn of civilized human 

 experience upon our planet, to the days that preceded 

 even the myths and the oldest traditions ; it is the fruit of 

 all others that deserves to be called the archaeological. 

 Antiquity so profound would seem to have ensured for 

 the fig some kind of consecration. But of all fruits, with 

 the inconsiderable modern exception of the medlar, it 

 is the one which is referred to least frequently in litera- 

 ture. It is scarcely ever employed in symbolic art; it 

 rarely appears in classical poetry; the place it holds is 

 indifferent at the best; the traditions associated with it 

 are uninviting. Romulus and Remus suckled by the wolf 

 under the shadow of a fig-tree; the conveyance of the asp 

 to Cleopatra in a basket of figs ; the carrying of the fig 

 in procession at the feasts of Bacchus ; the employment 

 of the wood for the manufacture of impure idols, are 

 incidents, true and false, which have nothing in them to 

 excite pleasing emotions. It is left for Scripture to deal 

 pleasantly with the fig. Taking the Old and the New 

 Testament together, this fruit is mentioned in more than 

 thirty different places. The possession of the tree is a 

 mark of joyful opulence ; the appearance of the young 

 fruit is in " the time of the singing of birds ;" in parable 

 and emblematically, the fig is cited again and again. 

 "Whoso keepeth the fig-tree shall eat the fruit thereof; 

 so he that waiteth on his Master shall be honoured." 



