THE ROMANCE OF THE ONION.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XIX, Issue XXI, 13 November 1897, Page 645

THE ROMANCE OF THE ONION.

Undoubtedly, the onion is the oldest vegetable known to mankind. The native plant, the Allium Cepa, the parent of all cultivated onions, is not a native of this country. Cortez, when relating incidents of his brilliant conquest in Mexico, is reported by Humboldt to have said that he saw onions in the market place of the ancient Tenochtitlan, and that the Mexicans called these onions xonacat-. But. careful inquiry shows that the name xonacatl does not apply to our cultivated species of allium. In the seventeenth century only one single allium was reported from Jamaica, and that was our species, and was in a garden with other vegetables from Europe. Aeosta, in his ‘Natural History of the Indies,' says expressly that the onions of Peru were brought from Europe. To Eurbpe, then, we must go on the track of the first onion, and any European will say that onions have always been cultivated here. Shakspere mentioned the onion. In his ‘Midsummer Night's Dream,’ Bottom, the weaver, giving final direction to Quince, the carpenter, Flute, the bellows-mender, Snout, the tinker, and Starveling, the tailor —all humble folks, who were about to present a play before the duke and his party—after telling them to go home and to attend to this and the other, says: ‘And, most dear actors, eat no onions, nor garlie, for we are to utter sweet breath; and I do not doubt but to hear them say it is a sweet comedy.’ When Helena, at close of the ‘All’s Well That Ends Well,’ finds at the same time her husband and mother, the old Lafeu exclaims: ‘Mine eyes smell onions; I shall weep anon.’

In the introduction to the ‘Taming of the Shrew,’ the lord sending instructions to his page to enact the part of wife to the drunkard whom they are to befool, says: ‘Bid him shed tears. . . . And if the boy have not a woman’s gift. To rain a shower of commanded tears. An onion will do well for such a shift.’ Shall we find our first onion in England? No; its very name tells us that it is not a native of Britain. Onion is merely the English way of

pronouncing the French oignon, and by the French, at some time or other, the Onion bulb was brought into England. Chaucer, writing five hundred years ago, mentioned the onion as a well-known domestic vegetable. Another three hundred years takes us back to the Norman Conquest, and 1 think we may take another two hundred and say that a thousand years ago the onion was making its way into England. A thousand years sweeps away the history of England, and leaves a small island, torn with

the strife of its recent Saxon conquerors and harassed with sea pirates; an island almost unknown to the nations on the Continent. Another thousand years and Britain is an island lying far away from civilisation. Two thousand years takes us back to the border-land Ind ween ancient and modern history. Another thousand ami a few years more and we hear the groans of the Hebrews in Egypt as they drag the heavy stones for the massive forts of Raineses and

Pithoin, or make their tale of bricks under the sharp gaze of guards who stand over them with rods. 'Then a successful conspiracy is made, aml the Hebrews under Moses ami Aaron throw oil’ the yoke of Pharaoh ami defeat him on the shores of the Red Sea; and we hear the songs of triumph of those emancipated slaves as they take their first steps in freedom. Unthought of di tlicult ies appear. The jour nr j to the Land of Promise is not one long holiday of pleasure. Some present privations seem harder to bear than the late fearful slavery, ami praising the good old times, they resile Moses ami ask him bitterly, ‘Who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely, the cucumbers and the melons, ami tin' leeks and the onions and the garlic.' Ami these onions whose flavour could be. better remembered than the hardships of tyranny, can they be of the same species as our onions of to-da\ ? Certainly they are. They are grown in Egypt to this day. ami called now by tin* very name used for them by masters and slaves whim Israel was there in bondage. Seven thousand years have passed since the building of the first pyramid. Yet even then Egypt was an old country; its people civilised. Ten thousand years ago the onion was brought into Egypt. and from where? It was brought from India. History can tell us no more. The sacred writings of the Hindoos and the oldest records of the Chinese mention the onion as a cultivated plant, but always cultivated. If we would find our first onion, we must leave history and find some other line of inquiry. We join the botanists and continue our search, ami we find ourselves climbing fhc mountains of Afghanistan and Reloochistan. ami exploring the table-lands behind Hindoo Kush mountains. \nd there, in the birth-place of mankind, wr find our onion the Allium Cepa from which have sprung all the onions grown all over this wide world. On the mountains of Egypt the onion, is called batzel. the namr it goes by in Egypt at tin* present day.