WHEAT. 39] 



Arbuthnot says, "Mankind have found 

 the means to make grain into bread, the 

 lightest and properest aliment for human 

 bodies." Meal was called farina in Latin, 

 from far, wheat. 



The art of making bread appears to have 

 been known very early in the eastern coun- 

 tries ; for Jacob gave Esau bread and pot- 

 tage of lentils. We read also in the sacred 

 volume that Pharaoh cast his chief baker into 

 prison. We have the clearest evidence in the 

 book of Exodus, that the Jews made bread 

 in the time of Moses : " And unleavened 

 bread and cakes, &c. of wheaten flour shalt 

 thou make them." Leavened bread was also 

 made in the time of Moses; but the art was 

 not known by the Romans in the early period 

 of their Republic. Pliny informs us* that 

 the Romans lived for many ages on a kind of 

 batter or gruel made of meal, and not on 

 bread : " this is very evident," he says, " by 

 old records and chronicles ; and on this ac- 

 count, in our sacred and ceremonial feasts 

 which we observe in commemoration of our 

 birth-days, we use furmenty, gruel, fritters, 

 and pancakes." 



Even when bread was known at Rome, it 



* Book xviii. chap. I". 



