The manna of the wilderness provided for the children of Israel on
their journey towards Canaan has no claim to be regarded as a drug,
except that a drug has in modern times usurped its name. When the
Israelites first saw the small round particles “like hoar frost on
the ground” (Exodus, xvi, 14) they said, according to the Authorised
Version, “It is manna; for they wist not what it was.” The Revised
Version makes the sentence read more intelligibly by translating the
Hebrew word Man-hu interrogatively thus:--“What is it? For they wist
not what it was.” This Hebrew interrogation has been widely adopted
as the origin of the name, but it is more probable that the Hebrew
word man, a gift, is the true derivation. Ebers suggested the Egyptian
word “manhu,” food, as a probable explanation. The Arabic word for the
manna of Sinai is still “man.” This is the substance which scientific
investigators have agreed is the manna described in Exodus. It is an
exudation from the Tamarisk mannifera, a shrub which grows in the
valleys of the Sinai peninsula, the manna being yielded from the young
branches after the punctures of certain insects. Another Eastern manna,
a Persian product from a leguminous plant, Alhagi Maurorum, and a manna
yielded by an evergreen oak in Kurdistan, are still sold and used in
some Eastern countries for food and medicine. But in Europe, and to
some extent in the East also, Sicilian manna, the product of an ash
tree, Fraxinus ornus, has displaced the old sorts since the fifteenth
century. The commerce in this article and its history were investigated
by Mr. Daniel Hanbury and described by him in Science Papers and in
Pharmacographia.
The rabbinical legends concerning the manna of the wilderness are many
and strange. One is to the effect that when it lay on the ground all
the kings of the East and of the West could see it from their palace
windows. According to Zabdi ben Levi it was provided in such abundance
that it covered every morning an area of 2,000 cubits square and was
60 cubits in depth. Each day’s fall was sufficient to nourish the camp
for 2,000 years. The Book of Wisdom (xvi, 20, 21) tells us that the
manna so accommodated itself to every taste that it proved palatable
and pleasing to all. “Able to content every man’s delight, and agreeing
to every taste.” The rabbinical legends enlarge this statement and
assure us that to those Israelites who did not murmur the manna became
fish, flesh, fowl at will. This is in a degree based on the words in
Ps. lxxviii, 24, 25, in which it is described as “corn of heaven, bread
of the mighty, and meat to the full.” But the traditions say it could
not acquire the flavours of cucumbers, melons, garlic, or onions, all
of which were Egyptian relishes which were keenly regretted by the
tribes. It is also on record among the legends that the manna was pure
nourishment. All of it was assimilated; so that the grossest office of
the body was not exercised. It was provided expressly for the children
of Israel. If any stranger tried to collect any it slipped from his
grasp.