Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 July 1891 — Curiosities About Beans. [ARTICLE]

Curiosities About Beans.

Of all edible pods, it is believed that the bean has been the longest known and most 1 widely cultivated, says the St. Louis Republic. It was us*ed as food by the ancient Jews and considered sacred by the Greeks and Romans. A temple dedicated to Kianetes, the god of beans, formerly stood on the sacred road near Eleusis. Kianetes was called the god of beans because he was the first to cultivate them for food. The bean feast, which the Athenians celebrated in honor of Apollo, was characterized by the excessive use of beans. The Egyptians, contrary to the nations above mentioned, considered beans unclean and would not venture to touch them. Pythrgoras admonished his scholars, ‘ i Abstain from beans.” The natives of Egypt and most all Oriental nations look upon the black speck on the wings of the bean flow’er as the written characters of death.