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Bob (this one)
 
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Default A Carthaginian feast

Gary wrote:
> Andrew,
>
> Silphium became extinct in Roman times, due to over-harvesting, and
> asafoetida was used as a substitute.


Here in the wilds of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, old timers still
talk about their childhoods with parents making them wear little bags of
herbs around their necks to ward off illness. It's pronounced
"assafidity" hereabouts and the one constant observation is that the
bags and therefore the kids smelled bad. One man told me about his
little one-room school "where you couldn't hardly breathe for sinning
against your lungs..."

Pastorio

> You can read more about this foul-smelling resin (it wasn't called
> "divel's dreck" for nothing) at
> http://www.hvinet.com/gallen/Asafoedita.html.
>
> Gary
>
> Andrew Dalby wrote:
>
>>I suppose that by 'assa foetida' (which is the correct
>>French spelling, incidentally) Flaubert means silphium?