Our viands

Greatly as grapes are esteemed and valued, especially by invalids, it would seem possible to have too much of them sometimes, as those know who have been ordered to Meran in the Tyrol, to undergo that celebrated grape-cure, wherein the patient, beginning with a pound or two a day, has to increase the dose to nine or ten pounds, of course eating nothing else. It might be supposed that such a regimen would not only cure the patient of his disease, but would so disgust him with grapes that he would never eat another, but it is said people have been known to return again and again for the grape-cure. Dried raisins bring us naturally to another favourite dessert fruit — dried Turkey figs, as they are called, although they certainly do not all now come from Turkey, whatever may have been the case originally, but the Smyrna brand is still regarded as the best. The fig, quite unlike the grape, is grown only as a fruit, and a very delicious fruit it is, too, when ripened under a good hot sun ; but in England, although the fig will thrive and bear fruit, it always appears to us wanting in flavour and in lusciousness. Singularly enough, the fig tree will flourish and grow to an immense size, even in the dirt and smoke of London. There is one house, close to the Foundling Hospital, which is covered to the very top with a fig tree of most luxuriant growth, but I have never seen any fruit upon it. The fig tree is said to have been first introduced into England by* Cardinal Pole, but it was probably known here long before his day, for there are many historical fig trees, and one is spoken of as an old tree in the time of James I.; it grew in the Dean's garden, Winchester, and bore small red figs, and on the stone wall 1 86 OUR VIANDS near was an inscription to the effect that in 1623 King James I. tasted of the fruit with great pleasure. We, how- ever, certainly do not much relish the ripe fig in this country ; it has, in fact, passed into a term of contempt — ' I don't care a fig for it.' But very different is the estima- tion in which it is held in the East, and in the south of Europe. The constant references to it in the Bible prove how important it was considered by the Israelites, the two or even three crops a-year produced by fig trees in the East, causing it to be looked upon as a staple food, the failure of which meant famine. The first of these crops comes to maturity about June, whilst the second is forming ; it is the second which is dried for export, and then in some climates a third crop appears, which hangs and ripens on the tree after the leaves are shed. The fig entered largely into the food of the Greeks, for, when Lycurgus ordained that the Spartans should dine in a common hall, almost everyone contributed wine, cheese, and figs to the fare. Those who have not studied the origin of words will be surprised to hear that our word sycophant comes from two Greek words signifying 'a fig' and 'to show/ and that in its original meaning it was applied to those who informed against the breakers of an edict made by the Athenians against the export of figs, and, even as used by our older writers, sycophant means a tale bearer. The French still use the word in the sense of liar and impostor, instead of flatterer only.