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KNIVES.

species should not be propagated by planting bulbs, may befairly asked.

Theophrastus , in his description, thus expresses himself:ceprc Jissiles, or scissiles, or schistee, are leeks, which, whenthe leaves become yellow, are taken from the earth, andbeing freed from the leaves, are separated from each other,then dried, and in spring, are again put into the ground.If we believe that the ascalonia • caui lie propagated only byseed, we must certainly read Theophrastus piovayap ov a,as Scaliger hath formerly observed.

KNIVES.

That knives were ancient, their necessity must inform us,being useful not only for culinary purposes and variousdomestic uses, but being also indispensable in sacrifices;a care which, in a very peculiar manner, engrossed the atten-tion of the earliest of the human race. The first mentionwe find of this essential utensil, in the sacred record, appearsupon this occasion ; the incident alluded unto, is the sacri-fice which the father of the faithful proposed to make of hisonly son. It occurs in the 6th verse of the 22d chapterof Genesis. “ And Abraham took the wood of the bumt-“ offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the“ fire in his hand, and a knife: and they went both of them“ together.” Although, it must be confessed, that theknives of those patriarchs must have been introduced muchanterior to this; it is the first time we recollect the instru-ment being mentioned by name.

Ilude, indeed, we may presume their instruments to havebeen; for as late as the heroic Grecian days, we perceive adagger sometimes supplied their use: with this instrument,however, Agamemnon sheared the hair from the foreheadof a lamb he was about to oiler.

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“ Drawing his dagger, which was always put“ Close by his sword, Atrides straightway cut,

“ Some hairs from off the lamb’s head.” Potter.

Which custom of using a dagger for a knife we have alsoseen was customary among the ancient Gauls , appearingfrom what is said in a preceding article on Forks ; for whichDr. Potter cites the Iliad y. and Leipnosoph. lib. xiv. Thedagger, we may observe, was called by the Greeks cutinmf,