92 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



ing close over each other; from that circum- 

 stance we say the cole has cabbaged, the lettuce 

 has cabbaged, or the tailor has cabbaged. 



" Your tailor, instead of shreds, cabbages 

 whole yards of cloth*." 



From thence arose the cant word applied 

 to tailors, who formerly worked at the private 

 houses of their customers, where they were 

 often accused of cabbaging; which means the 

 rolling up pieces of cloth, instead of the list 

 and shreds, which they claim as their due. 



The Greeks held the cabbage in great 

 esteem, and their fables deduce its origin 

 from the father of their gods; for they inform 

 us, that Jupiter labouring to explain two ora- 

 cles which contradicted each other, perspired, 

 and from this divine perspiration the cole- 

 wort sprang. 



The inference to be drawn from this fable 

 is, that they considered it a plant which had 

 been brought to its state of perfection by 

 cultivation and the sweat of the brow. 



The most ancient Greek authors mention 

 three kinds of cole, the crisped or ruffed, 

 which they called Selinas or Selinoides, from its 



# Arbuthnot's History of John Bull. 



