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die subject of a future paper, we shall pass it without 
Mrtlier notice at present. 
The sycamore fig is another species of great renown 
in the East. It is a tree of considerably larger growth 
than the common fig, but its fruit is much inferior both 
in size and flavour. Insipid, however, as it is, it forms 
the chief article of food anions; the lower orders in 
Egypt; and, we are told, these poor people “ think 
themselves well regaled when they have a piece of bread, 
a couple of sycamore figs, and a pitcher of water.” This 
species abounds in that country; and as the inhabitants 
depend principally upon it for sustenance, we may 
understand the extent of the calamity, when the 
Almighty, in righteous anger at the obduracy of 
Pharaoh, “destroyed dieir vines with hail, and their 
svcamore-trees with the frost.” It must also have been 
very plentiful in Judea; for it is recorded, that Solomon 
“made cedars to be as the sycamore-trees that are in 
the vale for abundance.” 
It is mentioned again in later times: when our 
Saviour was about to make his triumphant entry into 
Jerusalem, Zaccheus, desirous to witness the procession, 
“ ran before, and climbed up into a sycamore-tree to see 
him; for he was to pass that way.” 
