From Cedar to Hyssop
III. Wilds Foods
Introduction
Early in our attempts at making this
study of plants in the life of the people, we found ourselves considering where
in the circle of life we should make our entry. One said, "The first
thought in the mind at the mention of the wild flowers of Palestine is their
beauty – they are famous for it in all the world. Let us begin with
beauty." "Beauty? What does the fellah care for beauty? Does he ever
look at a flower?" said another. The third, who best knew the heart of the
fellah, gave reasons for her faith that a sense of the beauty of the flowers
could be found within it. Note, as evidence, how he speaks of wild flowers. He
has a special name for them – "Hannun." The true meaning of
this name is "a beautiful wild flower"; it is not used for any insignificant
or colourless flowers. Nor is it used for garden flowers. As a test, a seller
of posies was asked "How much for your hannun?" He replied,
rather indignantly, "These are not 'hannun,' they are 'zuhoor.'
" The word hannun probably comes from the root hann,
to be kind, and we hear in village speech "Ya hannunti"
said to a beloved child in the sense of "My sweet one"; variants to hannun
are common, such as dahnun in Trans Jordan and Nablus and dodahan
in parts of Galilee.
[31]
Of all the lovely flowers they honour
with the name, the red anemone is the hannun par excellence, This
is the flower the fellah would regard as more glorious than Solomon with his
"scarlet clad soldiers with gold dust in their hair,"[1] as they
say, and no wonder, for the scarlet mantle spread on the land by the anemones
remains long in the minds of those who visit it, a colour-memory no doubt
invigorated by ranunculi and tulips and prolonged by poppies. Even when the red
cohorts are gone, the land still glows warmly; one might say that, like the
hills in winter which Mary Webb speaks of as "purple with remembrance of
the heather," so the hills round about Jerusalem stand "red with
remembrance of the anemones." ,
But though their beauty is recognized
and not unnamed yet hannun is only a general name; the fellah's feeling
for lovely flowers does not go so far as to provide a special name for each.
"God has made so many hannun," said one woman, "how can
anyone tell all their names?" It is use that bestows a special
name. "What is the name of this plant?" we ask and often the answer
comes, "It has no name. It is not good to eat." Still the list of
edible plants is a long one, and those with medical or other uses of course have
names too. There are also a number of plants with names derived from some
peculiarity, like so many of our English folk names. These are very variable
and local and indeed are being created all the time by children, some to
vanish, some perhaps to become adopted and have a wider range. The names of
edible plants vary a good deal also, those of plants used medicinally are more
stable and cover more country.
It is use as we have said that
gives the name, so we shall begin this section of our study with plants that
have some use as food, the prime necessity, and go on to those of medicinal and
magical repute.
I. Greens
Malva
rotundifolia, L. (Malvaceae) Khubbezi. Common Mallow. (Plate 15).
Among the wild greens that have to be
cooked to be palatable by far the most important is the Khubbezi; it is
abundant everywhere and known to everyone as a wholesome vegetable. It is best
when cooked in layers with rice in between, Khubbezi maklubi, or
Shakhtura as it is called. This way of cooking greens in layers is very like a
recipe given in a 16th century cookery book for 'A Sallet of
Mallows.' "Seethe them tender… over coals with butter and vinegar... and
put in grated bread and sugar between every lay." Mallows indeed have been
esteemed since the days of the Ancient Romans and earlier still, and they were
the commonest pot and salad herb throughout the Middle Ages.
But the Mallow to be really nice
should be eaten young and this she laments in verse to her cousin the bean, for
the bean is allowed to bear flower and fruit while her leaves are cut off
early.
[32]
"O my cousin, O bean pod,
They pulled me up by the root, they will not let me grow
tall"
Ya ibn 'ammi, ya qren el ful (lit. horn of the bean)
Qala'uni
bi shurshi ma khalluni atul.
Yet in famine years, even the old
plants, disdained in time of plenty, are valued, seeing they are able to
support life for a time. Two pictures come to mind, one of a poor old woman up
above Amman, groping half blindly about, cutting off old plants all covered
with dust, flowers, fruit and all, sure of a supper, however unsavoury; and the
other of a woman who might have been her sister in age and poverty, in a bit of
waste land in the heart of Constantinople, near Santa Sophia itself, gathering
equally dusty plants into her kerchief. Such sights were multiplied in
Palestine in the war years, so they tell. As in the book of Job, "For want
and famine they were solitary, fleeing into the wilderness... who cut up
mallows by the bushes for their meat."[2]
No wonder the poor sing to the
mallow:
"O Mallow in the valleys,
Smiling like ladies;
O Mallow. I will raise thee banners
In the years of famine."
(Ya Khubbezi fil wadat
Bitbussim zey el sittat
Ya Khubbezi aqimlik rayat
Fi senat el ghalyat).
Like most Arab poetry even this simple
little verse requires some explanation. One might think that the first lines
praised the smiling faces of the little pink flowers; not so, the allusion is
to the veins on the leaves which look like the wrinkles caused by smiling. The
third line of the verse speaks of the 'raya' to be raised for the Khubbezi. The
raya, or white flag, is a 'banner' of love. Whenever you see one over a house
in a village you may know it as a sign of thanksgiving. There was once a boy at
Artas who fell and injured his hand and it was long in healing; indeed at one
time amputation was feared. But after treatment with salt he recovered and his
parents set up a white flag before the door of the house, saying, "We
raise a banner to our Lord" (Ninqim rayi li Rabbna).
Again, in another case a child was
sick unto death in Bethlehem, lying in the hospital, at a time of feasting. The
people of his Hamule (clan) in Artas would not feast, but waited for news of
the child. Then one day they saw his family returning from the hospital, with
the white flag carried before them and they knew their prayers were heard and
the child saved. Then they hasted and killed the kid and made their feast.
[33]
So in the verse the white flags are
promised to the Khubbezi as a sign of the gratitude of the poor.
Brassica adpressa Boiss (Hirschfeldia incana L.) Luffete.
Hoary Brassica. (Plate 16).
Another plant that perhaps might have
a banner raised to it in Jerusalem, although it is despised elsewhere, is the
Luffete, of early spring. The leaves are cooked as a vegetable, dressed with
oil, lemon or vinegar, and a sprinkle of salt on top. The water in which they
are cooked should not be thrown away, but drunk for health's sake, bitter as it
may be. It is difficult to distinguish between the leaves of this planet and
those of the Black Mustard, Brassica nigra; when the seed pods appear it is
easy because the pod of the Luffete has a seed in its beak, while that of
'Khardal aswad' has none. It would seem that the Arabic name Luffete, the
Jewish Liflaf and the botanical 'adpressa' all note the same thing, the seed
pods close pressed to the flowering stem. But .at the time when the plants are
eatable, flowers and pods are not yet developed and we think that sometimes
customers buy a bit of both without knowing it, although it is certain that
Brassica adpressa is the real Luffete and none other.
Early in March bunches of the leaves
begin to appear in the market in Jerusalem, the girls bringing them in from the
countryside. The girls of Artas may sell at Bethlehem, but not in Jerusalem.
"Artassia" think it is not good to be as the girls of Betir or those
of Walagi, who sit with open face in the suk of the City. It is said that more
than once a good old sheikh passing the girls of Walagi has gone up to one of
them and said: "I will buy all your greens. Go home. Don't you know you
are in danger with so fine a face?" So beautiful are the Walagia!
Salvia hierosolymitana, Boiss. Lisan el Tor. Bull's
Tongue. (Plate 17).
Arum palaestinum, Dhan el Fil. Luf. Elephant's
Ear.
The leaves of the Lisan el Tor are
among the first of the wild spring greens to be seen in the market at
Jerusalem. This plant is a fine tall red sage, not the Red Sage of the
herbalists, for this seems to be merely a darker leaved variety of the Common
Sage, but a Sage with brilliant dark, almost black, red flowers. It is a wonder
that the flowers are ever seen around Jerusalem, so assiduously do the women
gather the young plants. The leaves are used in the same way as vine leaves,
'malfuf' 'stuffed,' that is, wrapped round chopped meats, etc., in little
rolls. In other parts of Palestine we hear of the plants being equally
appreciated. On the day of the Samaritan Passover in April, 1930, as the
visitors climbed Mt. Gerizim in the late afternoon they met parties of women
returning home from the upper pastures with bundles of the leaves, called by
them, "Liseini," "Little Tongues."
[34]
Other plants whose leaves are used in
the same way are the Arums, both Arum hygrophyllum, with its green purple
margined flowers and the big black Arums, A. Palaestinum and A. Dioscoridis as
well. This is rather surprising, as these plants are so poisonous, and indeed a
woman found gathering the Arum leaves in Artas seemed ashamed to be seen with
her sackful. She explained that never would she or any of the people of Artas
eat such nasty things, never, "abadan," but at Beit Safafa the
poor folks had no gardens so could there be any harm in selling the leaves to
them? "Truly the people of Beit Safafa have a way of cooking them that
takes away the poison, for they pour hot water over them many times and throw
the water away. Then they eat them without fear."
Another instance of the use of a
plant commonly regarded as poisonous is that of Tamus communis, Black Bryony,
called jarmou or qarmou. In Jerusalem we have observed it sold as
Halayun. Now Halayun is the Wild Asparagus, known and liked
throughout the country. It is bitter compared to our garden asparagus and so
slender that many young stems have to be found to make a dish, but even so it
is a dish well worth the trouble of hunting among the bushes for it. The
sellers of the Bryony assured us that by hot water the shoots could be made
safe for food and with oil and vinegar would be as good a dish as the true Halayun.
This use of the plant is also mentioned in our old Herbals.[3]
Gerarde says, in his chapter "Of Blacke Brionie or the Wilde Vine,"
"The young and tender sproutings are kept in pickle, and reserved to be
eaten with meat as Dioscorides teacheth. Matthiolus writeth that they are
served at men's tables also in our age in Tuscanie; others report the like to
be done in Andalosia, one of the kingdomes of Granada."
Gundelia Tournefortii L. 'Akkub. (Plate 18).
Anything more unlike a succulent vegetable than this stout
prickly thistle it is hard to imagine, but the flower heads are reputed a
delicacy "more sweet than the artichoke" and worth all the trouble of
gathering and preparation, the freeing from the sharper spines, and the
blackened hands gained in the process. We have eaten it ourselves and found it
quite palatable, especially in a stew. The good cultivator would fain be rid of
it altogether, but the resting and the wild land still provide much for the
gatherers. Heaps of the severed flower heads were seen piled up for sale in the
market at Jerusalem in March, 1929, .and at Amman in April of the same year.
[35]
This is the tale of the 'Akkub (Hathi
haddoutet el 'Akkub):
There was once a merchant who was travelling
through the wilderness with a stranger, and he murdered the stranger for the
sake of his riches. As the wounded man fell he grasped at an 'Akkub
plant that grew by his hand and cried out with his last breath, "This 'Akkub
is my witness that you have murdered me."
But the merchant thought nothing of
that and went away with the stranger's possessions.
Years passed and he travelled again
through the wilderness and passed that place this time with his friend and
partner. The 'Akkub was dead and dry and was whirling about, dancing in
the wind. The merchant smiled as he saw it and his friend said, "Why do
you smile?"
At first he would not say why, but
the friend compelled him. Then he said "I smile, because here I once slew
a stranger ,and before he died he cried, 'This 'Akkub is my witness that
you killed me,' and now the 'Akkub is dead and dances in the wind."
More years passed and one day the
merchant quarrelled with his friend and struck him. The friend in anger cried
out, "Will you slay me as you slew the stranger?" so loud that the
neighbours heard and enquiry was made and at the last the merchant was brought
to justice. The 'Akkub was indeed the witness.
This story is used proverbially to
this day. Villagers will say "The 'Akkub is the witness" (El
'Akkub bestishhad), where we in England might say "Murder will
out," or "A bird of the air will carry the tale."[4]
II. Of Sallets
The antique title at the head of this
chapter is set there to carry the reader back in thought to a bygone time when
salads or 'sallets' were more thought of in England than now. In the 17th
century, for instance, the making of salads was part of a young lady's
education, and no self-respecting housewife would have one served of less than
thirty ingredients with the best of oil and vinegar. Palestinians do not serve
salads with such art, they prefer them 'au naturel,' but they have an
appreciation of the subtle flavour of a great variety of plants. Of these the
Composites are the most popular family, and next, the Crucifers, which can
always be eaten without hesitation, for, as they truly say, "there is
never poison in the flower that bears the Cross."
[36]
One and all are of course preferred
while the leaves are still young and delicate. Newcomers to the land sometimes
watching parties of stooping women in the fields think that they are weeding
diligently and are surprised when they see how carefully the bunches of
'weeds' are carried homewards. The 'weeders' will then often sit them down on
the terrace in front of the house, as in our photo on Plate 8, where a happy
family party is picking over the treasures, nipping off spines and prickles,
and selecting tender morsels for the mid-day meal. Often in the spring time a
mother will give her children a bit of bread for their dinners and say
"There, go and find yourself something to eat with it." Then the
children go running to and fro bringing such leaves as seem attractive to them.
"O my Mother (Ya Ummi) is this good, is that good?" and soon they
learn what to eat and what to avoid.
Silybum Marianum. I. The Milk Thistle. Khurfesh.
(Plate 19).
The khurfesh is a great favourite
among the early salads, for the young leaves are delicious. Later the midribs
will still be eaten, but the leaves only on the compulsion of hunger as when
one day two fellahs were seen sitting on the hillside breakfasting off khurfesh.
"See, we have no bread," they said, "we have only khurfesh."
But they said it gaily and went on tearing up all the possibly edible parts of
the plant and champing them up in large mouthfuls. When the plant is full
grown it becomes positively unpleasant in taste and a synonym for coarseness,
as commented on in the proverb, "The camel can only be satisfied with
khurfesh" (Ma bishba el jemel ille min el khurfesh), i.e., prefers
to eat khurfesh. The sense of this is something like that of our "You
can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear" or "Don't throw pearls
before swine," only in a more kindly and tolerant spirit, as who should
say "Don't waste bananas on such a one, give him dried figs."
The leaves of other thistles are
sometimes eaten also when very young, and some are called khurfesh too,
(Donkey's Khurfesh, Red Kurfesh, etc.),[5] as (Khurfesh
el Hamir, Khurfesh el Ahmar) but the real Khurfesh is the Milk Thistle. It
is easily recognizable because of the white veins on its leaves, which have
suggested its English name. In olden days a legend was told that a drop of the
Virgin's milk once fell on a leaf and marked it for ever, hence it was called
Our Lady's Thistle, and the same idea is still enshrined in the Latin name
"Marianum."
[37]
It is curious to think how popular
this thistle was in the Salad Period in England, so much so that it is still
found wild in many places where it may have escaped from the herb gardens of
long ago. Evelyn in his Acetaria says: "To a salad of the leaves the late
Moroccan Ambassador and his suite were very partial." Recipes are given in
old cookery books, both for the use of the leaves in salad, after cutting off
the prickles, and also for cooking them as a vegetable. Tryon says of it that
it is "very wholesome and exceeds all other greens in taste."[6] No
Palestinian could go further in praise than this!
Sisymbrium irio. L. Hwere or Huwere. Hedge
Mustard.[7]
(Plate 20)
Hwere is a small weed with long slender pods and little
yellow flowers. It is used in Jerusalem to flavour buttermilk and the leaves
can be seen in the old town within dark doors floating on the white expanse in
huge copper pans. When visiting the Monday market at Bethlehem to enjoy the
sight of all the country folk chaffering over their wares, we asked a Taamre
woman for some hwere and were promptly pressed to buy from the
skin bag held up in the photo on Plate 7; it was full of buttermilk and hwere
leaves. Explaining that we wanted the hwere without the
buttermilk, we went from one woman to another till we found one sitting with a
lapful of the young plant and bought a bunch from her. This provided us with a
specimen for our illustration of the flower on Plate 20. These supplies of
young leaves are usually brought in to the market by the half Bedu half fellah
Taamre people, who indeed appreciate the flavour of it themselves. The Fellahin
have a proverb about this, saying:
"Without Hedge Mustard and Spinach
The Bedu would be plucked (bare)."
(Lau el Hwere
w el Qataf
Kan el Bedu nataf).
meaning that without such wild food the Bedouin would be like
a fowl plucked of its feathers – shrunk away to nothing. The Qataf of the desert
is Atriplex halimus, which grows down by the Dead Sea in silvery scurfy bushes
and the leaves of which we suppose, as those of other wild Oraches, are edible
when young. Such a primitive spinach possibly has some of the virtues of our
garden spinach so rich in iron, but neither it, nor, much less, the delicate hwere,
can be reckoned substantial food, so it would seem that the proverb is somewhat
scornful of the hungry Bedu.
[38]
Rumex vesicarius. L. Hummeid. R. roseus. Hummeid
(PI. 22).
Rumex lacerus.
Balb. Humsis. Emex spinosus. L. Sneine; Rukeibe.
Salads made of Sorrels are beloved by
the Arabs more than by the Fellahin. Doughty noticed this and says of the
Humsis: "a herb pleasant to these date eaters for its grateful sourness…
They milked their goats upon sorrel, which milk, meat and wild salads had been
all their sustenance, but I have learned from experience that it may well
suffice in the desert." We have never tasted the Humsis, but Hummeid
is deliciously acid, when young as good as the French garden sorrel. The
fellahin sometimes cook it, putting inside their dough with meat and onions and
baking it altogether, "sambusik" as it is called. For fasting
fare, "Sumi" the sorrel can be baked in the loaf alone. Here
is a rhyme about sorrel:
"Hey ho, thou white one
The root of the sorrel,
O soft fresh cheese
'Which we will eat tonight."
He li li ya
beida
Ya 'erq el hummeida
Ya jibna
tariyye
Nokilha el
ashiyye.[8]
The Sneine was seen used by the Bedu
at Tell el Fara, near Birsheba. The name should indicate a toothsome morsel,
and perhaps it is when very young, when it is pulled up and eaten root and all,
but later it has a most unpleasant taste. As one of the Bedu put it, "when
it is old it is not 'Sneine,' we call it 'Rukeibe.' " It is
so different that it has to he known by a different name.
Cynara syrica, (syriaca ö"ì)
Boiss. Kharshuf. The Wild Artichoke.
This magnificent plant with its tall
stems and large thistle-like heads of blue flowers is the origin of our
cultivated Cardoons and Globe Artichokes. The very name of Artichoke is said to
come from the Arabic El Kharshuf.
So far as we know the wild plant is
not used nowadays by the people as a cooked vegetable, but we have noticed with
amusement the enthusiasm of Palestinian children for the sweet titbits under
the "choke" of this, and indeed, of any wild thistle. These are real
primitive "fonds d'artichaut' and no doubt this is how the value of the
wild artichoke was discovered.
It must have been an early discovery,
for Theophrastus, in a passage generally taken to refer to this plant,[9]
speaks of two kinds, one with stems edible if peeled (i.e., the cardoon) and
the other having a "fruit vessel, which contains the seed in shape like a
thistle head, and when the downy seeds are taken off, this too is edible"
(i.e., the artichoke). So that by the end of the 4th century B.C.
both the cultivated forms of the plant were already in existence.
[39]
It is not surprising then, to find
that before we had such a thing as a vegetable garden in England we had the
artichoke growing among the herbs; in fact, Miss Rohde calls it "one of
the oldest cultivated 'herbs' in the world."[10]
Taraxacum
officillale. Wigg. Salata el Ruhban. "Monks Salad." Dandelion.
Cichorium intybus, L. 'Eliq, 'elik; Hindibe.
"Wild Chicory.
Lactuca cretica. Desf. Khass barri. Wild Lettuce.
Centaurea pallescens, Del. Murrar; Murrer. Yellow Star
'Thistle.
Eryngium Creticum, Lam. Qurs' anni. Snake Root; Field
Eryngium.
The plants named above are all much
used in salads when young, so it is often difficult to make sure what plant is
being gathered when there arc no flowers or fruit to identify it by. We hope
that the drawings of the leaves of the first four on Plate 2I may be some help
in recognizing them; the fifth, Qurs' anni, is figured on Plate 66.
The Salata el Ruhban, the Dandelion,
is more appreciated by townsfolk than by the fellahin, and it is regularly sold
in the market. Formerly it was much used in salads in England, and as a pot
herb too. Dandelion Tea and Dandelion Wine have not yet altogether vanished
from our villages and are reputed excellent for the blood in spring. Their use
in salad was recorded in very early days; John Evelyn says of dandelion,
"'The French country people eat the roots, and 'twas with this homely
sallet the good wife Hecate entertained Theseus."[11]
The Chicory or 'Elik (sometimes
called 'Elitsh) also makes a good salad, though its leaves are very bitter. The
plant must have suffered many changes in cultivation before it turned into the
Garden Endive. It was still used in its wild state in England in the 17th
century, as witness the following recipe given by one of the Master Cooks to
Charles II.
A Sallet of Wild, Green Succory
"Take the leaves of this herb,
cut them small, and put them into fair water and so let them lye two hours,
change your water three or four times, then swing it out very well, and dish it
up on a plate, and garnish it with anything, either white or red."[12]
Like so many of these salad plants it
is not always easy to recognise the leaf when young, but everyone knows the
plant when covered with its exquisite blue flowers. They grow naturally on tall
forking branches, but sometimes on the pastures, when the plants get bitten off
right down to the ground by the goats, they spread out in sheets of blue all
over the short grass, a most lovely sight.
[40]
It is sometimes said in praise of a
blue eyed girl:
"Her eyes are like chicory" (Eyyunha zey el
'elik).
The wild lettuce, L. Cretica, is that
usually eaten at Artas; L. scariola, which is much nearer to the garden
lettuce, is despised and called Khass el Hamar, Donkey's Lettuce,
but in other parts of the country L. Scariola is said to be eaten and so is L.
Saligna. One of us recognised L. Scariola among the bitter herbs put into the
rolls of un1eavened bread given to visitors at the Samaritan Passover of 1930;
Dalman mentions L. Saligna as having been used in the same way on another
occasion,[13] and no
more appropriately bitter salad plants could be chosen for the purpose, except
indeed, the next on our list, the Murrar, the 'Bitter One,' and "its name
is itself" (ismuh jismuh) as they say.
Centaurea pallescens has yellow
flowers and Centaurea iberica has pink ones, so it sounds easy enough to know
which is which, but the forms are so near each other that they slide into each
other, and when young the leaves are almost indistinguishable. Both kinds are
called Murrar and are eaten in salad, and both, as the name implies, are very
bitter; if anything, the Pink Star Thistle, Centurea iberica is the more
nauseous of the two, and in Jerusalem the right kind of Murrar is Centaurea
pallescens, the yellow one.
According to the queer old Jewish
folk called Karayin and also to the Samaritans, the Murriir should always be
one of the bitter herbs (the merorim) of the Passover meal. One can understand
the ritual use if bitterness be the quality desired, but Palestinians will eat
a salad of it for pleasure!
Rabbinic tradition has it that the
number of the bitter herbs used should be five, and three of them are agreed to
be lettuce, endive and chicory. We think that a very good candidate for one of
the missing herbs is the Jerusalem Murrar, the Yellow Star Thistle.
Boucerosia Aaronis Hart. Dghemsi; Dghibsi. (Local) Dawa
Nafli.
Of all the curious "bonnes bouches" of the wild the
Dghemsi is the strangest. It is a succulent plant, with knobby branches, from
the tops of which shoot out purplish brown striped flowers. (See Plate 23).
Both Bedu and villagers think these fleshy branches delicious and eat them
whenever they can find a plant. It grows in clefts of the rocks, and near
Jerusalem is to be found between Artas and the Frank mountain and also in the
valley of the Convent of the Cross, but it is not at all common.
[41]
If a Taamre woman happens to come
into the village with some plants for sale the women will soon flock round her
eagerly, crying, "I am under your protection; how much is it?" (Dahlik,
dahlik, qaddeish), appealing to her as a friend not to ask too high a price
and to let them have a little bit of the treasure hid in the bosom of her
dress. Once obtained they will munch up the stem like a bonbon, smacking the
lips with expressions of pleasure, such as "Yam, yam, tubbit,"
reminiscent of our nonsense words 'Yum, yum' over a tasty morsel. Or perhaps
the fortunate purchasers will restrain themselves and keep the pieces to be
chewed while they are making butter. Butter, as elsewhere in the East, is here
made by rocking milk in a skin bag, and it is the custom to blow vigorously
into the neck of the bag to inflate it before beginning to churn. A careful
butter maker will perfume her breath previously by chewing some sweet scented
flower such as handaqoq[14] or
helba.[15]
Helba is most commonly used. It has a most sweet odour, but ,one also ,of
appalling penetration and persistence, what the French would call "écoeurant" and the Dghemsi is much to be preferred to it because it
is believed to make the breath most fragrant and cause no disgust however long
it is chewed. How this can be we find difficult to imagine. We ate some
ourselves and thought it a very tasteless sappy thing.
In Artas the plant is further
believed to have medicinal value and has a special local name, Dawa Nafli,
the "Medicine of Nafli." The following story is told there. Nafli was
a girl of the Taamre. Her name is one sometimes given by a disappointed mother,
for 'Nafli' is the fig that falls before it is ripe, a thing of little worth.
But this Nafli was far from worthless, as You shall hear. She had one brother
who lay seriously ill and she nursed him with all the arts she knew. Yet to her
grief he grew worse and soon all saw that he was on the point of death. Then
one day Nafli found the Dghemsi on the mountain and gathered it and gave it to
him to eat and he recovered. So Nafli and the plant won fame together.
[42]
III. Roots and Bulbs
Erodium hirtum, Forsk. Tummeir; tummr. Desert
Storksbill.
The Tummeir, or Desert
Storksbill, has grey green leaves and pink flowers, with a purple spat at the base
of each petal; there are many tubers on its branching roots, and they look like
little potatoes. These tubers are eaten by the Bedu round Birsheba; the
specimen for our illustration (Plate 24) came from Tell el Fara near Gaza,
whence also our information about the plant was obtained.
The Tummeir is mentioned by Père Jaussen as eaten by the people of Maan[16] and
is spoken of by Doughty[17] as
follows: "In the wild sandstone upland, Borj Selman... As we went fasting
Zeyd found a few wild leeks and small tubers, thunma or sbeydy, which baked are
not unlike the potato."
This Storksbill must not be confused
with the Geranium tuberosum, whose purple flowers are so commonly seen in
fields; it also has tuberous roots, but so far as we know they are not eaten at
all.
Carum (Bunium) ferulaefolium Desf. Belabos.
Earth Nut or Pig Nut.
Belabos, the Earth nut, is in Palestine, as in England, more
a pleasure to children than their elders. They sing nonsense rhymes about it:
"Belabos cut off your head,
O crocus,
horses' tails"
(Belabos
qatta el ras
Ya shuhhem
dhenab el khel).
which has not even a rhyme, but they seem to find it good fun
to shout it out while they gather the earth nuts for their chewing, to be varied
with other light refreshment, such as the sweet ends of grass stalks or the
buds of a Silene, the Halawan.
The cultivator does not love the
Belabos, if the field is dainty with its umbels of pinkish blossoms he may
mutter: "In belasat Falasat," meaning, "If overgrown with
Belabos the crop fails." In fact he considers it as bad a sign on land as Quddab,
the Knotweed (Palygonum) is a good one, for "Where there grows Quddab
the lentils will be easy to cook" (Matrah ma biyitla. el quddab el
'adas najud).
Crocus hyemalis. Boiss. Shuhhem. (Plates 25, 26).
It is difficult to take the pretty
lilac striped white crocus seriously as an article of diet, but many of its
corms are roasted and eaten round Bethlehem in the month of March. The children
plait the long leaves into wreaths, with the corms hanging from them like
beads, and so sell them in the market. After March the leaves dry up and it is
difficult to find where the plant has been, hence the verse that the children
sing as they cajole their customers. "In March pull up crocus by day and
by night" (Fi Idar –iqla el shuhhem lel u nahar"), warning
them that now is the one and only time to obtain the delicacy. Other bulbs are
occasionally eaten, and we know that the beautiful red tulip does not always
escape the hungry tooth of lads wandering on the hills.
[43]
Allium ampeloprasum. Linn. Tomet el Arab. Arab's Garlic.
This fine wild Allium, with tall
stems bearing a round head of purple flowers, is usually called as above,
Arab's Garlic, but occasionally is dignified by the name of Leek "Kurrat";
indeed botanists approve this and say that it is probably the origin of our
Garden Leek, Allium porrum. It is often eaten and believed to have a measure of
the virtues of the cultivated garlic and onion, both of which are highly
thought of in Palestine, though, on the whole, the onion holds a lesser
position in folklore here than it does in Egypt. The proverbs allude more to
its penetrating taste and smell than to its virtues. "O you who come
between the onion and the garlic, you come into a scent that is disliked,"[18] with
a sense of "You who mix yourself up in other folks' affairs, you'll get
yourself disliked," or again "You are like the onion, tasted in every
mouthful" (Mitl el basal, ille bitkhallet fi kulle ta'am), in fact,
"Mind your own business." Still both onion and garlic are lucky
plants, onions, prevent sickness, particularly fevers, and travellers are
exhorted to fortify themselves against drinking strange waters by first eating
an onion. In dreams onions mean gold and garlic silver. But Garlic has more
renown than the Onion because it is a strong charm against evil spirits and
also against the Evil Eye. Mrs. Einsler describes how once at a wedding she
noticed a strange round glittering knob decorating the bridegroom's buttonhole
and discovered that it was a gilded bulb of garlic![19] This
belief in the magic power of garlic is ancient; Gerarde says of the wild
Mountain Garlic, "Those that work in the mines of Germany affirm that they
find this root very powerful in defending them from the assaults of impure
spirits of divels which oft in such places are troublesome to them." But a
stranger bit of folklore is a tale told of the days of long ago, when the
Garlic was far other than it is now – a tale with a queer flavour as one meets
the Garlic as the Tree af Life. We will give it in the words of an old man who
used to come round selling milk:
[44]
"Once, ladies, long ago the
Garlic grew very tall, so tall that the top of it could not be seen. Whoever
ate of that plant would live for ever. Then this blessing became a curse, for
there were too many people in the world – there was no room in the world for
them all. So God in His Mercy shortened the Garlic and it has been quite small
ever since. But it is still good to eat for health and long life and good, too,
against the 'Eye.'… Those must have been strange days you say, when the Garlic
was tall? Truly, and in those days too, all the plants could speak and tell of
their virtues, Suppose such a one should go out in the morning – the Chamomile
plant would say to him 'I am for the weak stomach, drink of me,' or the
Germander 'I cure fever,' or the Mountain Poley, "take a bit of me back
for the little ones at home.' And if it were not so, and the plants had not been
able to speak, how would anyone have ever known how hey should be used?"
IV. Pulse
Pulse. El
Qatani. (See Plates
27-34).
Valuable as the wild greens and
salads are in the economy of the fellahin, the wild pulses are sometimes more important
still. This is when harvest is not yet and there is scarcity, the time of which
the proverb says, "The mouse goes away disconsolate from the house of the
fellah" (El far beyitla hardan min dar el fellah). Then one can see
people fulfilling the sign of Isaiah, living on "such as groweth of
itself." In those days the wild peas, the protein givers, are of very real
use. A poor fellaha, so the tale is told in Artas, once fled from the
unkindness of her husband and lived out on the mountain for a week or more,
eating only wild peas and salads and professed herself well satisfied. Such
tales take one back in memory to the legends of the saints and hermits of old
who lived in the wilderness on wild pulse, though here not for a matter of
weeks, but years. But these wild peas (Vetches, or Vetchlings, as we should
call most of them) are not only eaten in time of famine, certain of them are
eaten for pleasure every year in their season, when they are green and tender.
We give here the names of those best known in the district round Jerusalem; no
doubt the list could be greatly extended from other parts of the country.
Wild Peas preferred for eating
Vicia hybrida. L. Skek abu leben (The best of all).
Vicia
lutea. L. Skek abu leben. Similar to above.
Vicia seriocarpus. Fenzl. Skek abu leben. Similar to
above.
Tetragonolobus purpureus. Moench. Jelathon (Very
popular).
Lathyrus blepharicarpus, Boiss. S'es'a (Post gives
name of El Julaibineh).
Cicer
pinnatifidum. Jaub et Sp. Hummus barri.
Wild Chick Pea.
Ervum orientale, Boiss. 'Adas barri. Wild Lentil.
Pisum fulvum, S et S. Burreid. Looks like a tiny garden pea.
[45]
Near Jerash in Trans Jardan Pisum elatius, M.B. and Vicia
peregrina, L. are eaten, both under the name Burreid, and the whole pod, and a
very large one too of Astragalus alexandrinus is sometimes appreciated, but
only when quite young.
Wild Peas eaten in time of scarcity.
Vicia angustifolia, Roth. Ksesa.
Lathyrus cicera, L. S'es'a, but sometimes called S'es'a
el Haya, Snake's S'es'a, a sign of dislike.
Vicia
narbonensis, L. Ful barri. Wild Bean.
Plants disliked or considered
unwholesome are generally given some opprobrious name as "of the
snake" or "of the donkey" (ya haya, ya homar). Such
peas are:
Vicia
palaestina, Boiss. Kseksa el Haya. Snake's Kseksa.
Lathyrus
Aphaca, L. Burreid el Haya. Snake's Burreid.
In times of famine the seeds of the
fodder plants are often eaten too, such as the Lupin, Lupinus Termis, Forsk. (Termus),
the Vetchling Lathyrus sativus, L. (Jilban), and the Vetches Vicia
sativa, L. (Baqiyah) and Vicia Ervilia, L. (Kirsene). The latter
plant, Kirsene, is easily recognised by its torulose or 'beaded' pods. The
round seeds within are often thrown on the doorstep at weddings and are said to
cause evil spirits to trip up on them and go away. In the case of a similar
custom seen among Italian peasants in the Abruzzi by Miss Canziani, where
millet was thrown on the doorstep at a wedding the idea was rather to placate
the spirits who haunt thresholds by making this small offering. The seeds are
not nice to eat, only distress would transform them into food still in the
present as in the past, such dire occasions do arise. Gerarde[20] says
of it, quoting from an older writer still, the Roman Galen, "it hath a very
unpleasant taste, and a naughty juice but kine in Asia and in most other
countries do eate thereof, being made sweet by steeping in water,
notwithstanding, men being compelled through necessitie of great famine, as
Hippocrates also hath written do oftentimes feed thereof." The Lupins have
a slightly better name, but it is said that many people in Palestine were
poisoned during the famine years of the War by eating lupins without proper
precautions; the seeds should be boiled more than once and the first waters
thrown away, to make them safe for human consumption. This is an ancient bit of
knowledge, and was commented on by Gerarde thus:[21]
"the same being boiled and afterwards steeped in faire water until such
time as it doth altogether lose his natural bitterness, and lastly being
seasoned with salt... it is eaten..."
[46]
It will be noticed that in our list
of edible wild pulses we have wild counterparts of cultivated plants, peas,
chick peas, beans and lentils, and some of these are so near to their better
grown relations as to suggest the possibility that they are in fact their
origin. Far instance the wild Pisums are very like our Garden Pea in appearance
and taste, especially P. elatius and P. arvense, the Field Pea, wild here, but
often cultivated for fodder in many lands. Botanists are inclined to think that
de Candolle[22] was right
when he suggested that our Garden Pea is "a mere modification effected by
culture of Pisum arvense."
The wild bean, V. narbonense, though
very like a bean to the eye, is not at all like one in taste; it is said to be
eaten in a bad year, especially in Trans Jordan, although its seeds are as
Gerarde remarked of them,[23]
"blacke as pease, of an unpleasant taste and savour." The wild chick
pea, C. pinnatifidum, is a most elegant little replica of its cultivated
relative, C. arietinum (Ĥummus), whose bunches roasted (hamli) when sold
in the streets of Jerusalem or Cairo, will tempt the most aristocratic passerby
to buy one and walk on nibbling the sweet little peas. Again, the wild lentil
is very like the tame at first sight, but what a tiny seed it has compared to
that of the 'Adas so beloved by the poor. "Rice of the fellah"
they call it, "strength of his legs" (Ruz el fellaĥ, Masamir
el rukab).[24]
There is a tale told about the fellah
and his lentils often used proverbially which may come as a relief after so
much botanical matter. It runs as follows:
The Devil and the Fellah made an
agreement to share the produce of a field. The Devil said, "I will take
what is above ground and you what is below." So the fellah planted
radishes. Next year the devil said, "I will take what is below ground and
you what is above. The fellah then planted lentils. Moral: The fellah can beat
the devil at a bargain.
V. Wild Bread
Mesembryanthemum Farskalei, Hochst. Samĥ.
When we asked lore of strange plants
from our fellahin friends, they would often mention a kind of bread eaten by
the Bedu, "not made from grain like our bread, but from the seed of a
small desert plant." One man said of it, "I know the black bread of
the Bedu; I ate of it in Jauf with dates and milk of the she camel and thought
it delicious – but then I was very hungry."
[47]
How like this is to the description
of the description of the samĥ given by Doughty. He says: "I
saw often the sammĥ plant growing, but not abundantly, now a leafless
green wort, a hand high, with flashy stems and branches full of brine like the
samphire. At each finger end is an eye where, the plant drying up in the early
summer, a grain is ripened. In the Sherarat country where the samh grows more
plentifully, their housewives and children gather in the wild harvest, the dry
stalks are steeped in water, they beat out the seed with rods, and of this
small grain their hareem grind flour for their daily mess. I had eaten often of
this wild bread at Maan it was black and bitter, but afterwards I thought it
sweetmeat, in the further desert of Arabia. The sammh porridge is good and the
taste as 'camel milk,' but the best is of the flour kneaded with dates and a
little semn, to be eaten raw, a very pleasant and wholesome diet for
travellers, who in many open passages durst not kindle fire."[25]
This seed comes from a
Mesembryanthemum, with very long fleshy leaves and a small daisy flower; we
ourselves have never been able to go far enough into the desert to see the
plant growing, but we had this account from another more fortunate traveller.
He told us that on a journey to Jebel Tobek he passed through sandy plains
covered as far as the eye could see with plants of the Samh, and all among the
plants were little round threshing floors. These were shallow depressions in
the sand, and in them a most strange kind of threshing was being practised by
the Bedu encamped near by. Water was first poured into them and the harvest of
dry flower heads thrown in. Now these seed vessels, as in certain other desert
plants, have the property of remaining closed when dry and opening when wet, so
after they had lain a time in the threshing pools they opened and the black
seeds fell to the bottom. When the water evaporated, which did not take long in
that fierce sun, the women came and collected the seed at their ease. It was
then pounded into a hard mass, forming a kind of 'bread' which is supposed to
be very nutritious, but which, our informant said, to his taste, was very
nasty.
So before botanists were, the Bedu
had observed the water loving capacity of the seed vessels of the samĥ,
and used their knowledge to lighten the labour of extracting the tiny grain to
make their Wild Bread.[26]
[48]
[1] This must
be an echo of Josephus Ant, Bk. VIII., ch. vii., where, speaking of Solomon's
bowmen, he says they "were clothed in Tyrian purple. They had also dust of
gold every day sprinkled on their hair, so that their heads sparkled with the
reflection of the gold in the sun."
If we only knew at what time of the year our lord spoke, we
could more easily guess at what flowers His eyes might have rested on while out
on the hillside above the Lake of Gali1ee. Failing this knowledge many have
been the suggestions of flowers that would seem to suit His words. The scarlet
anemones would, we think, be chosen today by the fellahin, as they were by
Canon Tristram, and Miss Baldensperger is herself in the goodly company who
favour them; Gerarde in his Herbal delights in praise of the wild tulip, while
yet another interesting idea is that a purple and white iris, such as the iris
of Nazareth, might well be likened to royal and wealthy ones wearing
"purple and fine linen." Dr. Ha Ruvi, the Jewish botanist, has the
beautiful thought that Jesus may have been speaking "as would a poet
revealing an unexpected beauty," choosing a flower "neither red nor
purple," but one modest and delicate, the white daisy. And I myself have
seen the asphodels in ranks on the Mount of Beatitudes glistening white against
the lake, and they are for me the Lilies of the Field. – G.M.C.
[2] Job xxx.
3, 4 (R.V. has "salt wart" instead of mallow.")
[3] Gerarde,
"Herbal," p 872.
[4] A very
similar story is found in German folklore, where the refrain is "The thistle
will betray you." "On the scene of the murder, in Mecklelburg, a
thistle grows where the merchant fell, and it is seen that its buds and
branches resemble human heads, arms and hands." See Skinner, "Myths
and Legends of Flowers," p. 275.
[5] Red
Khurfesh = Notabasis Syriaca.
[6] E. S.
Rohde, "A Garden of Herbs," p. 169.
[7] Note. In
other parts of Palestine this plant is sometimes called despitefully Chicken's Hwere,
Hwere el dujjaj. Dalman gives hwerre as a name for Veronica
syriaca. See "Arbeit und Sitte,"
p. 240.
[8] Given by
Mr. Stephan.
[9] Theophrastus,
'''Enquiry into Plants," vi. 4, II (Hort's Translation).
[10] Garden
of Herbs," p. 30.
[11] John
Evelyn, "Acetaria," 1699.
[12] "A Perfect School of Instruction
for the Officers of the Month," by Giles Rose, one of the Master Cooks to
Charles II. 1682. Quoted by E. Rohde, "A Garden of Herbs," p. 77.
[13] Dalman,
"Palast Jahrbuch," 1912, p. 130.
[14] Melilotus
or Trigonella, see Plate 48.
[15] Trigonella
foenum graecnm. So penetrating is the odour of this plant that it has scented
the whole of one of our collections of Palestine plants. We sympathise with the
convicts of Tura in Egypt who once mutinied because too much helba was put into
their bread.
[16] "Coutumes
des Arabes au pays de Moab."
[17] Doughty,
"Arabia" (I vol ed.), p. 214.
[18] Appendix
A 24.
[19] L.
Einsler, "Mosaik," p. 32.
[20] Gerarde,
"Herbal," p. 1,255, ch. 514. Of the Cich Of true Orobus. t Gerarde,
Herbal," p. 1,218, ch. 509.
[21] "Herbal," p. 1,218, ch. 509.
[22] De
Candolle, "Origin of Cultivated Plants," p. 328.
[23] Gerarde, p. 1,209.
[24] Lit.:
Nails of the Knee.
[25] Doughty,
"Arabia Deserta," p. 312. (Jonathan Cape and Medici Society). This
use of the seed for food is noted by Forskal himself with his description of
the plant under the name Mesembryanthemum geniculiflorum; see Forskal,
"Flora AEgyptiaca," p. 89.
[26] We add
this note fearing that the title Wild Bread may make some reader expectant of
information about the Wild Wheat of Northern Palestine. This wheat, a wild form
of the emmer (T. dicoccum) found by Aaronsohn first on Mount Hermon in I906,
has been regarded as a possible ancestor of ordinary wheat. Against this stand
Sir Roland Biffen's experiments, for he found "that when crossed with
other varieties it produces heads which are so brittle that they are useless
for breeding purposes, for the seeds drop from the heads as soon as they
ripen." Later the suggestion has been made by Prof. Ruggles Gates that
possibly the bread wheats are the results of crossing the Wild Einkorn with
Wild Emmer. Those interested are referred to "Peasants and Potters,"
by H. J. Peake and Fleure, from which we quote.