DOVES DUNG [smith]
Various explanations have been given of the passage in (
2Â Kings 6:25) Bochart has labored to show that it denotes a species of
cicer , "chick-pea," which he says the Arabs call
usnan , and sometimes improperly "dove?s" or "sparrow?s dung." Great quantities of these are sold in Cairo to the pilgrims going to Mecca. Later authorities incline to think it the bulbous root of the
Star of Bethlehem (ornithogalum , i.e. bird-milk), a common root in Palestine, and sometimes eaten. --ED. It can scarcely be believed that even in the worst horrors of a siege a substance so vile as is implied by the literal rendering should have been used for food.
