CUMMIN (kfina'nain), (Heb. Irk, kam-mone', preserving; Gr.
/2 (POP, koo'mht-on).
This is an umbelliferous plant, mentioned both in the Old and New Testaments, and which, like the dill and the coriander, continues to be culti vated in modern, as it was in ancient times, in Eastern countries. These are similar to, and used for many of the same purposes as the anise and caraway, which supply their place, and are more common in Europe. All these plants produce fruits, commonly called seeds, which abound in essential oil of a more or less grateful flavor, and warm stimulating nature, hence they were em ployed in ancient as in modern times, both as con diments and as medicines.
Cummin is first mentioned in Isaiah (xxviii : 25) : 'When he (the ploughman) bath made plain the face thereof. cloth he not cast abroad the fitch es, and scatter the cummin ;' showing that it was extensively cultivated, as it is in the present day, in Eastern countries, as far even as India. In the above chapter of Isaiah (verse 27) cummin is again mentioned: For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin, but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cum min with a rod.' This is most applicable to the
fruit of the common cummin, which, when ripe, may be separated from the stalk with the slight est stroke. and would be completely destroyed by the turning round of a wheel, which, bruising the seed, would press out the oil on which its virtues depend.
In the New Testament, cummin is mentioned in Matt. xxiii :23, where our Saviour denounces the scribes and Pharisees, who paid their 'tithe of mint, and anise. and cummin, but neglected the weightier matters of the law. In the Talmudical tract quoted by Celsius (I. p. 519), cum min s mentioned as one of the things regularly tithed. It is still known by its ancient name (kam min) throughout the Arabic world.