so Cyamus lute us. 



cient Greek writers by whom it is described, have attributed to it a sa- 

 cred character, but only speak of it as used by the Egyptians as food. 

 The former distinguishes it by no particular name, but gives both to 

 it and the lotus, the common denomination of lily, a term which ap- 

 pears to have been applied by the Greeks to various plants with large 

 specious flowers. Having observed that a paste is made of the pith 

 of the lotus, and baked into bread, he adds, there are also in the rivers 

 other lilies, resembling a rose, and bearing a fruit very like a wasp's 

 nest, which contains numerous esculent seeds, about the size of the 

 stone of an olive, that are eaten both raw and roasted. According to 

 Dioscorides it was sometimes called the Pontic bean, and is said to be 

 a native not only of Egypt, but also of Asia Proper and Silicia. Theo- 

 phrastus has said before him, that it grew, though it did not attain to 

 its proper perfection, in Syria and Silicia; and had even added, that it 

 completely ripened its fruit in a lake near Torone in Chalcis. But in 

 all these situations some species of Nymphsea must certainly have been 

 mistaken for it. Dr. Smith conjectures, that this plant is the real mys- 

 tical bean of Pythagoras, concerning the prohibition of which to his 

 followers so much has been written and so little determined. He sup- 

 poses that this celebrated philosopher imbibed the notions of its sacred 

 character during his travels in India, if he actually went thither, or else 

 in Egypt at second hand from India, and that afterwards when he pro- 

 pagated his acquired philosophy in Samos, Greece, and Italy, he took 

 as a substitute for it, since it did not grow in his own country, a common 

 seed resembling it, which the common horse-bean does very nearly. 



