CULTIVATION AND USE OF THE MALLOW AMONG THE ANCIENTS.—TESTIMONY OF LATIN, GREEK, AND ATTIC WRITERS.
The earliest mention of Mallows is to be found in Job xxx. 4.—Varieties of the Mallow—Cultivation and use of the Mallow—Testimony of ancient authors—Papias and Isidore’s mention of Mallow cloth—Mallow cloth common in the days of Charlemagne—Mallow shawls—Mallow cloths mentioned in the Periplus as exported from India to Barygaza (Baroch)—Calidāsa the Indian dramatist, who lived in the first century B. C.—His testimony—Wallich’s (the Indian botanist) account—Mantles of woven bark, mentioned in the Sacontăla of Calidāsa—Valcălas or Mantles of woven bark, mentioned in the Ramayana, a noted poem of ancient India—Sheets made from trees—Ctesias’ testimony—Strabo’s account—Testimony of Statius Cæcilius and Plautus, who lived 169 B. C. and 184 B. C.—Plautus’s laughable enumeration of the analogy of trades—Beauty of garments of Amorgos mentioned by Eupolis—Clearchus’s testimony—Plato mentions linen shifts—Amorgine garments first manufactured at Athens in the time of Aristophanes.
The earliest mention of mallows is that given in the book of Job, in the following words: “For want and famine they were solitary: fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste. Who cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper-roots for their meat.”—Job xxx. 4.
We find in ancient authors of a more modern date, distinct mention of three species of malvaceous plants, which are still common in the South of Europe. These are, the Common Mallow, Malva Silvestris, Linn.; the Marsh Mallow, Althæa Officinalis, Linn.; and the Hempleaved Mallow, Althæa Cannabina, Linn.
The Common Mallow is called by the Latin writers Malva, by the Greek Μαλάχη, or Μολόχη.
This plant was used for food from the earliest times. Hesiod represents living on Mallows and asphodel as the sign of moderation, contentment, and simplicity of manners.
Νήπιοι, οὐδ’ ἴσασιν ὅσῳ πλέον ἥμισυ παντὸς,
Οὐδ’ ὅσον ἐν μαλάχῃ τε καὶ ἀσφοδέλῳ μέγ’ ὄνειαρ.—Op. et Dies, 41.
Fools! not to know how much more the half is than the whole, and how much benefit there is in mallows and asphodel.
A dish of these vegetables was probably the cheapest of all kinds of food; they grew wild in the meadow and by the wayside, and were gathered and dressed without any labor or trouble.