Fitch

(Isa. 28:25, 27), the rendering of the Hebrew ketsah, "without doubt the Nigella sativa, a small annual of the order Ranunculacece, which grows wild in the Mediterranean countries, and is cultivated in Egypt and Syria for its seed." It is rendered in margin of the Revised Version "black cummin." The seeds are used as a condiment. In Ezek. 4:9 this word is the rendering of the Hebrew kussemeth (incorrectly rendered "rye" in the Authorized Version of Ex. 9:32 and Isa. 28:25, but "spelt" in the Revised Version). The reading "fitches" here is an error; it should be "spelt."

or VETCHES, a kind of tare. There are two words in Hebrew which our translators have rendered _fitches_, קצח and כסמת: the first occurs only in Isaiah xxviii, 25, 27, and must be the name of some kind of seed; but the interpreters differ much in explaining it. Jerom, Maimonides, R. David Kimchi, and the rabbins understand it of the _gith_; and rabbi Obdias de Bartenora expressly says that its barbarous or vulgar name is ניילי. The _gith_ was called by the Greeks μελάνθιον, and by the Latins _nigella_; and is thus described by Ballester: “It is a plant commonly met with in gardens, and grows to a cubit in height, and sometimes more, according to the richness of the soil. The leaves are small like those of fennel, the flower blue, which disappearing, the ovary shows itself on the top, like that of a poppy, furnished with little horns, oblong, divided by membranes into several partitions, or cells, in which are enclosed seeds of a very black colour, not unlike those of the leek, but of a very fragrant smell.” And Ausonius observes, that its pungency is equal to that of pepper:-- _Est inter fruges morsu piper æquiparens git._ Pliny says it is of use in bakehouses, _pistrinis_, and that it affords a grateful seasoning to the bread. The Jewish rabbins also mention the seeds among condiments, and mixed with bread. For this purpose it was probably used in the time of Isaiah; since the inhabitants of those countries, to this day, have a variety of rusks and biscuits, most of which are strewed on the top with the seeds of sesamum, coriander, and wild garden saffron. The other word rendered _fitches_ in our translation of Ezek. iv, 9, is כסמת; but in Exod. ix, 32, and Isaiah xxviii, 25, “rye.” In the latter place the Septuagint has ξέα, and in the two former ὀλύρα; and the Vulgate in Exodus, _far_, and in Isaiah and Ezekiel, _vicia_. Saadias, likewise, took it to be something of the leguminous kind, גלנאן, _cicircula_, (misprinted _circula_ in the Polyglott version,) or, “a chickling.” Aquila has ζέα, and Theodotion, ὀλύρα. Onkelos and Targum have כונהיא and Syriac, כונחא, which are supposed to be the _millet_, or a species of it called _panicum_; Persian, כורכדם, the _spelt_; and this seems to be the most probable meaning of the Hebrew word; at least it has the greatest number of interpreters from Jerom to Celsius. There are not, however, wanting, who think it was rye; among whom R. D. Kimchi, followed by Luther, and our English translators: Dr. Geddes, too, has retained it, though he says that he is inclined to think that the _spelt_ is preferable. Dr. Shaw thinks that this word may signify _rice_. Hasselquist, on the contrary, affirms that rice was brought into cultivation in Egypt under the Caliphs. This, however, may be doubted. One would think from the intercourse of ancient Egypt with Babylon and with India, that this country could not be ignorant of a grain so well suited to its climate.