Our viands

The pedigree of the onion family can be traced back to hoar antiquity — so hoary, indeed, that the first parent is unknown, although supposed to have sprung from Central Asia, whence it spread north, south, east, and west, branching 224 OUR VIANDS off — as aristocratic families, and even plebeian, are apt to do — and assuming new forms under altered circumstances, until all our mo Jern varieties have become developed through the survival of the fittest, and we can now call to our aid the onion proper, in many different sizes and varieties of flavour, from the little pickling onion to the great Spanish bulb weighing half a pound or more ; garlic, with its root conveniently divided into cloves, that our cooks may not spoil the dish by too lavish use of that of which very little suffices ; the eschalot — or, shortly, shalot — not quite so pungent in flavour, but equally useful ; chives, usually eaten green to flavour omelettes, salads, etc.; the leek, so esteemed by the Emperor Nero that his subjects gave him the name of Porrophagus (the Latin name for the leek being Allium porrum\ for he ate them, with oil only, for several days in every month to clear his voice, abstaining from bread on these leek-eating days ; and, lastly, there is a curious tree-onion, which bears the bulbs on the top of the stem instead of seeds, as in the other species — this is supposed to be a variety of the common onion changed by transplantation to Canada, whence we derive it. The Welsh, we are told, plant the bulbs of the tree onion as they drop off the parent stem, and they grow to a considerable size. The French call this Vognon d'Egypte, although it is not supposed to have come originally from that country. The ancient Egyptians (2000 B.C.) venerated — some say worshipped — the common onion, and certainly possessed several of the varieties, for we are told that the Israelites in the desert pined for ' the leeks and the onions and the garlic' they had enjoyed so abundantly in Egypt; and, if we are to believe travellers, the onions of Egypt ROOTS 22$ were, and still are, especially good, being larger, softer, and more delicate in flavour than ours. We have seen how great was the devotion of the Emperor Nero to the leek, although according to Pliny they had not long been introduced in his day, having been brought from Egypt; but onions were largely used by the Romans much earlier, for they gave them to their labourers to strengthen them, and to their soldiers and gamecocks to excite their courage. Alphonse Karr, in that charming book ' A Tour round my Garden,' thus speaks of the yellow garlic, the moly of Homer : c The yellow garlic is more than it appears to be ; the yellow garlic has the power of keeping us safe from enchantments, spells, and evil presages. A crow may fly by you on your left hand, but you need not entertain any fear, if you have only the yellow garlic in your garden. You meet with a spider in the morning, don't be afraid of it ; you spill the salt, the mischance will not fall to you ; a hare crosses your path in the morning, be not on that account apprehensive of the crosses of the world ; the yellow garlic is cherished by you in your garden and watches over you ; the yellow garlic will not allow any of these evil omens to affect you. . . .