June 26, 2026
CUCUMBER
In the East, the Cucumber (Cucumis sativa) has been cultivated from the earliest periods. When the Israelites complained to Moses in the wilderness, comparing their old Egyptian luxuries with the Manna of the wilderness, they exclaimed: “We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely, the Cucumbers, and the Melons.” Isaiah, depicting the desolation of Judah, said: “The daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard—as a lodge in a garden of Cucumbers”—in allusion to the practise of cultivating Cucumbers in open fields.
Although, says De Gubernatis, the Buddhists derive the name of Ikshvâku from Ikshi (Sugar-cane), we must not forget that the wife of Sagara, to whom was promised sixty thousand children, first gave birth to an Ikshvâku, that is to say, to a Cucumber. Just as the Cucumber and the Pumpkin or Gourd are gifted with fecundity and the desire to climb, so Trisanku, one of the descendants of Ikshvâku, had the ambition to ascend to heaven, and he obtained that favour by the assistance of the sage Visvamitra.
There was formerly a superstitious belief in England that Cucumbers had the power of killing by their natural coldness. Gerarde says “they yield to the body a cold and moist nourishment, and that very little, and the same not good.”
To dream of Cucumbers denotes recovery to the sick, and that you will speedily fall in love; or if you are in love, that you will marry the object of your affection. It also denotes moderate success in trade; to a sailor a pleasant voyage.
Cucumbers are under the influence of the Moon.