is mentioned twice in the Old Testament, first in Proverbs, xxv, 20, “As vinegar upon nitre, so is he that singeth songs to a heavy heart.” In the Revised Version soda is given instead of nitre in the margin. The other reference is in Jeremiah, ii, 22, “Though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much sope.” In this passage the Revised Version changes nitre to lye. The Hebrew word is Nether, the natrum of the East, an impure carbonate of sodium which was condensed from certain salt lakes, or obtained from marine plants. Vinegar would cause effervescence with this substance, but not with nitrate of potash. The soap in the same passage in Jeremiah, in Hebrew Borith, was either the soap wort or a salt obtained from the ashes of herbs by lixiviation. MUSTARD SEEDS are mentioned twice by the Saviour as illustrations of something very small: first as the small seed which grows into a tree, and second as the measure of even a minute degree of faith. The weed did in fact grow in Palestine to some ten or twelve feet in height. VINEGAR. Homez in Hebrew, Oxus in Greek, is mentioned five times in the Old Testament, and five times in the New Testament. It was used as a relish by the Jews, the food being dipped into it before eating. The passages where vinegar is mentioned in the accounts of the Crucifixion in the several Gospels are not fully explained by Biblical scholars. The first administration of vinegar to the Saviour was, according to St. Matthew, vinegar mixed with gall; according to St. Mark, vinegar mixed with myrrh. There are linguistic reasons for assuming that the additional ingredient may have been opium, given with a merciful intention. But both evangelists state that Jesus refused it. The second time vinegar was given to him on a sponge, and St. Luke seems to suggest that this was given in mockery. It is supposed that the vinegar was the posca, a sour wine which was largely drunk by the Roman soldiers. ANETHON. All translators agree that dill and not anise was the “anethon” named with mint and cummin in the passage, Matthew, xxiii, 23. Anise was never grown in Palestine. The other herbs were common in gardens, and the allusion to paying tithe on them, and to rue in a similar connection in Luke, xi, 42, appears to refer to the scrupulous observance of the letter of the law by the Pharisees, even down to such an insignificant matter as the tithe on these almost valueless herbs. The law did not, in fact, require tithe to be paid except on productions which yielded income. It was therefore rather to satisfy their own self-righteousness that the Pharisees insisted on paying the contribution on mint and anise and cummin. SAFFRON