Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 September 1894 — No Beans for Egyptians. [ARTICLE]

No Beans for Egyptians.

We can no longer wonder at the prohibition of these beans (Cyamus nelumbo) to the Egyptian priests and disciples of Pythagoras. A plant consecrated to religious veneration as an emblem of reproduction and fertility would be very improper for the food, or even the consideration, of persons dedicated to peculiar purity. The Egyptian priests were not even allowed to look upon it. Authors scarcely explain sufficiently whether Pythagoras avoided it from respect or abhorrence. However that may be, we need not, in order to ascertain his motives, have recourse to any of the five reasons supposed by Aristole nor to the conjectures of Cicero. Neither c:m there be any doubt that the prohibition given by Pythagoras was literal, and not merely allegorical, as forbidding his followers to eat this kind of pulse, because the magistrates in some places were chosen by a ballot with black and white beans, thereby giving them to understand that they should not meddle with public affairs. Such farfetched explanations show the ingenuity of commentators rather than their knowledge. As the Pythagorean prohibitions are now obsolete, perhaps these beans, imported from India, might not be unwelcome at our tables.—Smith's Exotic Botany.