KALAMOS (Kcaap,os). [KANEil.] KALI (.4p, This word occurs in several • passages of the O. T., in all of which, in the A. V., it is translated parched corn. The correctness of this translation has not, however, been assented to by all commentators. The Syr. Targ. Onk. and Jon., use the Hebrew word, Lev. xxiii. 14 ; I Sam. xvii. 17 ; xxv. 18 ; 2 SaM. XVii. 28. Arias Montanus and others render kali by the word tastunz, considering it to be derived from r6p, which in the Hebrew signifies tarrere, to toast' or parch.' So in the Arabic kali, signifies anything cooked in a fryin,-p;n, and is applied to the common Indian di6sh which by Europeans is called currie or curry. kalee, and 123 kalla, signify one that fries, or a cook. From the same root is supposed to be derived the word kali or alkali, now so familiarly known as alkali, which is obtained from the ashes of burnt vegetables. But as in the various passages of Scripture where it occurs, kali is without any adjunct, different opinions have been entertained respecting the substance whith is to be understood as having been toasted or parched. By some it is supposed to have been corn in general ; by others, only wheat. Some Hebrew writers maintain tbat flour or meal, a.nd others, that parched meal, is intended, as in the passage of Ruth ii. 14, where the Septuagint translates kali by Aiinrop, and the Vulate by pedenta. A difficulty, however, occurs in the case of 2 Sam. xvii. 28, where the word occurs twice in the same verse. We are told that Shobi and others, on David's arrival at Mahanatm, in the further limit of the tribe of Gad, brought beds, and basins, and earthen vessels, and wheat, and 'barley, and flour, and parched corn (kali), and beans, and lentils, and /arched pidse (kali), and honey, and butter, and sheep, and cheese ol kine, for David and for the people that were with him to eat.' This is a striking representation of what may be seen every day in the East : when a traveller arrives at a village, the common lig,bt beds of the country are brought him, as well as earthen pots, with food of different kinds. The meaning of the above passage is explained by the statement of Hebrew writers, that there are two kinds of kali—one made of parched corn, the other of parched pulse ; see R. Salomon, ex Avada Zarah, fol. xxxviii. 2, as quoted by Celsius (ii. 233) There is no doubt that in the East a little meal, either parched or not, mixcd with a little water, often constitutes the dinner of the natives, espe. cially of those engaged in laborious occupations, as boatmen while drag,ging their vessels up rivers, and unable to make any long delay. Another principal preparation, much and constantly in use in Western Asia, is burgazel, that is, corn firs: boiled, then bruised in the mill to take the tnisk off, and afterwards dried or parched in the sun.
In this state it is preserved for use, and employed for the same purposes as rice (Robinson, B. R., ii. 394 The meal of parched corn is also much used, particularly by travellers, who mix it with honey, butter, and spices, and so eat it or else mix it with water only, and drink it as a 'draught, the refrigerating and satisfying qualities of which they justly extol (Pictorial Bible, p. 537). Parched grain is also, no doubt, very common. Thus, in the bazaars of India, not only may rice be obtained in a parched state, but also the seeds of the Nymphera, and of the Nelumbsium Specie, seem, or bean of Pythagoras, and most abundantly the pulse called gram by the English, on -which their cattle are chiefly fed. This is the Cieer /le-le an:ern of botanists, or chick-pea, which is common even in Egypt and the south of Europe, and may be obtained everywhere in India in a parched state, under the name of thehenne. We know not whether it be the same pulse that is mentioned in the article DOVE'S DUNG, a sort of pulse or pea, which appears to have been very common in Juda. l3elon (Observat., 53) informs us that large quantities of it are parched and dried, and stored in magazines at Cairo and Damascus. It is much used during journeys, and particularly by the great pilgrim caravans to Mecca.
Considering all these points, it does not appear to us by any means certain that kali is correctly translated parched corn' in all the passages of Scripture. Bochart says (Hieraz. part ii. lib. c. 7), Kali ab Hieronymo redditur frixzem cleer ;' and to show that it was the practice among thc ancients to parch the cicer, he quotes Plautus (Bacch. iv. 5. 7) : Tam frictum ego ilium reddatn, quam frictum est cicer ;' also Horace (De Arte Poetica, 1. 249) and others : and shows from the writings of the Rabbins that kali was also applied to some kind of pulse. The name kafi seems, moreover, to have been widely spread through Asiatic countries. Thus in Shakspeare's Hen dee Dietianaey, kalae, from the Sanscrit c=1,-vs a translated pi/se—leguminous seeds in general. The present writer found it applied in the Himalayas to the common field-pea, and has thus mentioned it elsewhere : Pirum arvense. Cultivated in the Himalayas, also in the plains of north-west India, found wild in the Khadie of the Jumna, near Delhi ; the corra muttur of the na tives, called KuIke in the hills' (///ust. of Hima layan Botany, p. 200). Hence we are disposed to consider the pea, or the chick-pea, as more correct than parched corn in some of the above passages of Scripture.—J. F. R.