186 OUB, COMMON FETJITS. 



emblem of democracy, and also to its being chosen by 

 Anne of Austria as her especial device, the accompanying 

 motto proudly announcing " My worth is not in my 

 crown ;" while the French in the isle of St. Vincent put 

 their comment upon this fructal diadem in the form of a 

 riddle, asking 



" Quelle est la reine 

 Qui porte sou royaume dans son sein? " 



The tree seems to have been abundant in ancient 

 Egypt, and to have been a favourite delicacy of the 

 immigrant Jews, their complaint against the desert into 

 which Moses led them having comprised the charge that 

 it was " no place of pomegranates," while the answering 

 promise with which Moses sought to soothe them con- 

 veyed an explicit assurance that this fruit would form a 

 part of the delights of the land to which they were jour- 

 neying. In Canaan, indeed, it proved to be one of the 

 commonest fruits ; several places were named after it 

 " B-immon," in consequence of its specially abounding in 

 their vicinity ; and the inspired artists, who made the 

 ministry of the beautiful a part of the service of religion, 

 availed themselves largely of its elegant form, in the 

 ornamentation of priestly vestment and hallowed fane. 

 Nor was it altogether overlooked by the heathen ; for in 

 the isle of Eubcea stood formerly a statue of Juno holding 

 in one hand a sceptre and in the other a pomegranate ; 

 and it was reckoned, too, among the growths of the 

 Elysian Pields, and invested with tender and sacred asso- 

 ciations in the minds of the ancients by the legend which 

 told how the sorrowing Ceres, seeking to win back her 

 beloved Proserpine from the dismal shades whither she 

 had been whirled by the Plutonian " Coelebs in search of 

 a wife," was forced at last to resign her to her grim 

 ravisher because his victim had for one moment so far 

 forgotten her grief as to eat a few grains of this favourite 

 fruit. By the Eomans it was called the " Carthaginian 

 Apple," having been brought to them in the time of Sylla 

 from the neighbourhood of Carthage, where it greatly 

 abounded, and whence, too, it is believed to have derived 



