(Loret, _La Flore Pharaonique_, pp. 17,
40, 42, 43, Nos. 33, 97, 102, 104, 105, 106).

** The bamia, _Hibiscus esculentus_, L., is a plant of the
family of the Malvaceae, having a fruit of five divisions,
covered with prickly hairs, and pontaining round, white,
soft seeds, slightly sweet, but astringent in taste, and
very mucilaginous. It figures on the monuments of
Pharaonic times.

*** The meloukhia, _Corchorus Olitorius_, L., is a plant
belonging to the Tilliacese, which is chopped up and cooked
much the same as endive is with us, but which few Europeans
can eat with pleasure, owing to the mucilage it contains.
Theophrastus says it was celebrated for its bitterness; it
was used as food, however, in the Greek town of Alexandria.

[Illustration: 084.jpg THE EGYPTIAN LOTUS. 4]

4 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from the _Description de
l'Egypte_, Histoire Naturelle, pl. 61.

Two of the species of lotus which grew in the Nile, the white and the
blue, have seed-vessels similar to those of the poppy: the capsules
contain small grains of the size of millet-seed. The fruit of the pink
lotus "grows on a different stalk from that of the flower, and springs
directly from the root; it resembles a honeycomb in form," or, to take
a more prosaic simile, the rose of a watering-pot. The upper part has
twenty or thirty cavities, "each containing a seed as big as an olive
stone, and pleasant to eat either fresh or dried." This is what the
ancients called the bean of Egypt. "The yearly shoots of the papyrus are
also gathered. After pulling them up in the marshes, the points are cut
off and rejected, the part remaining being about a cubit in length. It
is eaten as a delicacy and is sold in the markets, but those who are
fastidious partake of it only after baking." Twenty different kinds of
grain and fruits, prepared by crushing between two stones, are kneaded
and baked to furnish cakes or bread; these are often mentioned in the
texts as cakes of nabeca, date cakes, and cakes of figs. Lily loaves,
made from the roots and seeds of the lotus, were the delight of the
gourmand, and appear on the tables of the kings of the XIXth dynasty.[*]

* _Tiu_, which is the most ancient word for bread, appears
in early times to have been used for every kind of paste,
whether made with fruits or grain; the more modern word aqu
applies specially to bread made