PLANTS IN SCRIPTURE 125 



the juice thereof; and so they might after give the 

 expressed and less useful part of the cods and remaining 

 pulp unto their swine ; which, being no gustless or 

 unsatisfying offal, might be well desired by the prodigal 

 in his hunger. 



12. No marvel it is that the Israelites, having lived 

 long in a well-watered country, and been acquainted 

 with the noble water of Nilus, should complain for 

 water in the dry and barren wilderness. More remark- 

 able it seems that they should extol and linger after 

 the cucumbers and leeks, onions and garlick of Egypt ; 

 wherein, notwithstanding, lies a pertinent expression of 

 the diet of that country in ancient times, even as high 

 as the building of the pyramids, when Herodotus 

 delivereth, that so many talents were spent in onions 

 and garlick, for the food of labourers and artificers ; 

 and is also answerable unto their present plentiful diet 

 in cucumbers, and the great varieties thereof, as 

 testified by Prosper Alpinus, who spent many years in 



Egypt. 



13. What fruit that was which our first parents 

 tasted in Paradise, from the disputes of learned men, 

 seems yet indeterminable. More clear it is that they 

 covered their nakedness or secret parts with fig leaves ; 

 which, when I read, I cannot but call to mind the 



