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LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 
to secure to him the dominion of the earth. With 
corn and fire, he may dispense with all other 
gifts, or rather, he may acquire them all. With 
corn alone he can feed all the domestic animals, 
which furnish him with subsistence or share his 
labours. Corn is the first bond of society, be¬ 
cause its culture and preparation demand hard 
labour and mutual services. 
An Arab, having lost his way in the desert, 
had been two days without food : death by hun¬ 
ger stared him in the face. At length, coming 
to a well where caravans were accustomed to 
halt, he perceived a small leathern bag lying on 
the sand. He picked it up. “ God be praised !” 
said he—“ ’tis a little flour, I presume.” He 
lost no time in untying it, and, at the sight of its 
contents, he exclaimed : “ Unfortunate creature 
that I am ! it is only gold-dust!” 
A whole straw has been made the emblem of 
union, and a broken straw, of rupture. The 
custom of breaking a straw to express the rup¬ 
ture of a contract may be traced back to an 
early period of French history, and may be 
almost said to have had a royal origin. The 
ancient chroniclers relate that, in 922, Charles 
