ONION. 



LILIACE^E. Allium Cepa. 



E onion of Egypt and the surrounding countries, though 

 of the same order as that found in our own and other 

 northern lands, is greatly different from it both in re 

 gard to flavor and strength. Very few would recognise 

 in the strong and acrid juice of the onion of Occidental 

 lands any similarity to that of the onion of the Orient, which 

 forms so large a part of the dishes of an Eastern dinner, fried 

 with almonds or pistachio-nuts and mixed with dried fruit. 

 The onion w r as worshipped, as we have already stated, at Pelu- 

 siurn.* The reason seems to have been that the onion, which 

 was supposed to be the squill, and grew on the shore, was con 

 sidered a remedy for the marsh-fevers, and flourished nowhere 

 in such abundance as around Pelusium. This squill had a root 

 similar to the onion, and was called by that name. 



* See LEEKS. 



123 



