VEGA CARPIO 



6042 



VEGETABLES 



dressed. Even- sacrificial act and vessel h 

 own blessing. The Sama-Vcda contains largely 

 the same hymns as the Rig-Veda, set to melo- 

 dies for chanting, while the last of the four, 

 which is undoubtedly the latest, contains not 

 only blessings, but curses, and charms to use 

 nst witchcraft and magic. Since this la>t 

 the Vedas concerns itself with >uper<tition 

 Hither than with religion, it is by some scholars 

 not clashed as a Veda at all. 



Prose treatises, entitled Brahmanu*. accom- 

 pany and explain each of the Vedas. in par- 

 ticular describing the sacrificial rites in con- 

 nection with which the hymns were to be used. 



VEGA CARPIO, va'gah kahr'pyo, LOPE FE- 

 LIX DE (1562-1635), commonly called LOPE 

 DE VEGA, a Spanish dramatist and poet, founder 

 of the Spanish theater, was born and educated 

 at Madrid. He did advanced work at the 

 University of Alcala de Henares, Spain, and 

 while yet a student began a marvelous career 

 as a writer of plays. In 1588 he served with 

 the "Invincible Armada" and during the same 

 year gained considerable notoriety by eloping 

 with the daughter of Phillip II's herald. After 

 the death of this woman and of a second wife, 

 he became a priest about 1612 and passed his 

 days thereafter in self-imposed privation and 

 penance. He had led a rather loose life, and 

 in his old age felt keenly the stings of remorse. 



As a poet and playwright, he had no equal 

 in his day in Spain; he influenced every lit- 

 erary movement in that country during his 

 time; he associated with the nobility on terms 

 of perfect equality; the common people idol- 

 ized him. Pope Urban VIII made him a Knight 

 of Malta, gave him the degree of Doctor of 

 Theology and presented him with the golden 

 cross of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem. 



In all literature there has not been his supe- 

 rior in prolific imagination. He wrote about 

 eighteen hundred comedies, four hundred short 

 religious pieces for the stage, a number of in- 

 terludes or brief dialogues, several prose ro- 

 mances, a great number of lyrics and three 

 epics. For many years there was scarcely a 

 week when he did not produce a play, and he 

 himself declared that in more than a hundred 

 instances he wrote, rehearsed and produced a 

 play in twenty-four hours. About four hun- 

 dred of his works have been published, and in 

 1893 the Spanish Academy began the collection 

 and publication of his writings. Among his 

 best ones are Punishment without Vengeance, 

 The Star of Seville, The Sword oj Madrid, The 

 Captives oj Argel and Strife unto Death. In 



. both comedy and tragedy he presented ideas 

 and characters that influenced the stage of Eu- 

 rope for more than two centuries. 



VEGETABLE IVORY. See IVORY PALM; 

 BUTTON. 



VEGETABLES, vcj'etab'lz. In the usual 

 sense the word vegetables is applied to those 

 plants whose leaves, stalks, roots or tubers are 

 used for food, such as lettuce, asparagus, cab- 

 bage, beets and turnips. Raising vegetables 

 for market constitutes the branch of horticul- 

 ture generally known as "truck farming." The 

 important vegetables are described in these 

 volumes under their respective titles, and t he- 

 best methods of cultivation are discussed in tin- 

 article GARDENING (which see). This article is 

 devoted to the discussion of vegetables as arti- 

 cles of food. 



Animal foods, such as meat, eggs, butter and 

 cheese, are rich in protein and fats, but they 

 contain qply a small proportion of carbohy- 

 drates (see FOOD). What these foods lack vege- 

 table foods supply. Omitting the grains, \v> 

 find that most of the vegetables contain a 

 large proportion of water, ranging from ninety- 

 five parts in the cucumber to eight and one- 

 half parts in dried lentils, and nine parts in 

 dried peas. With the exception of beans, len- 

 tils and peas, vegetables contain less nutriment 

 than animal foods. As a rule, however, they 

 are less difficult to digest, and some of them 

 contain juices and acids highly beneficial to 

 the system. Beans, peas and lentils are rich in 

 protein and are among the most nutritious 

 foods. Ground into meal they form the chief 

 ingredient of soup tablets, and the rations pre- 

 pared for armies in the field. The best diet 

 consists of a variety consisting of animal and 

 vegetable foods. Vegetables should be eaten 

 with meats, milk, butter and cheese. 



The proportion of vegetables in one's diet 

 usually varies with the climate and the season. 

 The natives of the polar regions live almost 

 entirely upon animal food, while the inhabit- 

 ants of the tropics eat but little meat. In 1 1n- 

 temperate regions more vegetables are eaten in 

 summer than in winter. One of the objections 

 raised to an exclusively vegetable diet is that 

 it requifes too much food to secure the neces- 

 sary supply of nutriment, so that the digestive 

 organs are taxed beyond their capacity (see 

 VEGETARIANISM). 



About fifty different vegetables are found in 

 the markets of the United States and Canada, 

 and about fifteen are in daily use by the aver- 

 age American family. It is not necessary for 



