Another Palm--the _Sagus_, or, _Cycus revolute_,--which grows naturally in Japan and the East Indian Islands, being also cultivated in English hot-houses, yields by its gummy pith our highly nutritious sago. This when cooked is one of the best and most sustaining foods for children and infirm old persons. The Indians reserve their finest sago for the aged and afflicted. A fecula is washed from the abundant pith, which is chemically a starch, very demulcent, and more digestible than that of rice. It never ferments in the stomach, and is very suitable for hectic persons. By the Arabs the pith of the Date-bearing Palm is eaten in like manner. The simple wholesome virtues of this domestic substance have been told of from childhood in the well-known nursery rhyme, which has been playfully rendered into Latin and French:-- "There was an old man of Iago Whom they kept upon nothing but sago; Oh! how he did jump when the doctor said plump: 'To a roast leg of mutton you may go.'" "Jamdudum senior quidam de rure Tobagus Invito mad das carpserat ore dapes; Sed medicus tandem non injucunda locutus: 'Assoe' dixit 'oves sunt tibi coena, senex.'" "J'ai entendu parler d'un veillard de Tobag Qui ne mangea longtemps que du ris et du sague; Mais enfin le medecin lui dit ces mots: 'Allez vous en, mon ami, au gigot.'" [156] DILL. Cordial waters distilled from the fragrant herb called Dill are, as every mother and monthly nurse well know, a sovereign remedy for wind in the infant; whilst they serve equally well to correct flatulence in the grown up "gourmet." This highly scented plant (_Anethum graveolens_) is of Asiatic origin, growing wild also in some parts of England, and commonly cultivated in our gardens for kitchen or medicinal uses. It "hath a little stalk of a cubit high, round, and joyned, whereupon do grow leaves very finely cut, like to those of Fennel, but much smaller." The herb is of the umbelliferous order, and its fruit chemically furnishes "anethol," a volatile empyreumatic oil similar to that contained in the Anise, and Caraway. Virgil speaks of the Dill in his _Second Eclogue _as the _bene olens anethum_, "a pleasant and fragrant plant." Its seeds were formerly directed to be used by the _Pharmacopoeias_ of London and Edinburgh. Forestus extols them for allaying sickness and hiccough. Gerard says: "Dill stayeth the yeox, or hicquet, as Dioscorides has taught." The name _Anethum _was a radical Greek term (_aitho_--to burn), and the herb is still called Anet in some of our country districts. The pungent essential oil which it yields consists of a hydrocarbon, "carvene," together with an oxygenated oil; It is a "gallant expeller of the wind, and provoker of the terms." "Limbs that are swollen and cold if rubbed with the oil of Dill are much eased; if not cured thereby."