316 HISTORY OF FRUITS. 



them, when boiled in their own moisture, viz. without 

 water, an excellent vegetable with meat, having a taste 

 resembling artichokes : with the addition of the peel and 

 juice of lemons, they make an agreeable pudding. 



Pompions are used by the Jews in the Feast of Taber- 

 nacles ; when they form a kind of cradles, into which 

 they put a great number of pompions. 



In Hughes's Natural History of Barbadoes, he says, 

 " Pumpkins make a great part of the food of the poorer 

 sort, in the summer-time, as well in Asia and Africa as in 

 America." He adds, that they are distinguished in Bar- 

 badoes by the names of the White, the Blue, the Marbled, 

 and the Garden Pumpkin. The latter differs from all the 

 rest by having no seed, but is propagated by slips. He 

 says, also, that they are boiled and eaten with flesh meat, 

 and much used by the poorer sort in soups. 



Galiffe tells us that at Venice the poorest class live 

 almost exclusively on pumpkins, of which there are two 

 sorts. " The first and cheapest is that round and insipid 

 kind, which is known all over Europe ; it is called Zucca 

 barucca, and a slice of it costs only one centime, equal to 

 the tenth part of a penny. It is miserable food, but five 

 or six slices of it during the day, are sufficient to keep 

 body and soul together. The other sort is called Zucca 

 Santa; it is more substantial, less insipid, and propor- 

 tionably dearer : and is the favourite and usual food of 

 that portion of the lower classes who are just above beg- 

 ging. Its form is that of a very long pear, its taste is not 

 unlike that of a carrot, and the rind, when fried, forms a 

 sort of resinous substance, which is esteemed a great 

 delicacy by the pumpkin eaters. These pumpkins are 

 sold ready fried, in three or four different moveable stalls 

 in every street ; you cannot go ten paces, without meeting 

 with some. They afford, perhaps, a less savoury, but 

 certainly a more wholesome nourishment, than the greasy 



