a distance from the sea, and not refreshed by its breezes, the external atmosphere, for many hours in the day, was insupportable, says FORBES; the heavens were as brass, and the earth like heated iron, and we were obliged, he adds, to confine ourselves in dark rooms, cooled by tatties, or screens of matted grass, kept continually watered.

Oriental Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 126.

2753. [Deut. xxviii. 23.]

Then will I to Jove's brazen floored abode,
That I may clasp his knees; and much misdeen
Of my endeavour, or my prayer shall speed.
COWPER. - Iliad. A. ver. 426.

it eats out its oval habitation or pod. - When it is taken out of its habitation, it never attempts to make a new one. It writhes about very much, but can make no progressive motion; and after having overspread the place in which it is with threads of silk, in an irregular manner, it dies at the end of twenty-four hours. See Memoires de Mathemmatiques et de Physiques, presentes a l'Academie Royale de Sciences: Paris 4to. tom. \. pp. 177-190. Histoire d'une Chenille mineuse des Feuilles de Vigne : extraite d'une lettre de Malthe a M. de Reaumur, par Mr. Godheu de Riville, Chev. de Malthe. And BOISGELIN'S Malta, vol. i. pp. 148 —— 153.

2754. [ —24.] In 1538, near a village in Italy called Tripergola, after some shocks of an earthquake, there was seen a shower of stones and dust, which darkened the air for two days; after which they observed that a mountain had risen up in the midst of the Lucrine lake.

MONTFAUCON, Diar. Italic, cap. 11.

The

2755. [ 27. The itch] Dr. A. CLARKE conceives that this was something of the erysipelatons kind. Shingles (Erysipelas Phlyctenodes) is characterized, says Dr. JOHN WANT, by a succession of red patches, preceded and accompanied by considerable heat and soreness, and at length by an eruption of vesicles, closely studded together. The treatment, he adds, almost invariably found successful, is, merely to puncture with a needle or lancet the vesicles, as they arise; and, simple as this recommendation may-appear, it is an undoubted truth, that every distressing symptom is immediately removed by the evacuation of their contents. An aperient medicine, he allows, may be given internally with advantage; but no external application should be employed, he says, with the view of repelling the eruption. Month. Mag. for May, 1815, p. 355.

2756. [

39.] The vine-weevil is a small beautiful beetle, extremely hurtful to the Vines.

The caterpillar, which mines or cuts the leaves of the vine, has no feet; and yet, by a singular expedient, can make a progressive motion in all positions, and even over the smoothest and most polished bodies. It advances its body out of its oval pod (constructed of the two outer skins of a vine leaf), forms a kind of hillock of silk, and, by means of a thread which it attaches to it, draws its pod or case to the hillock. It continually repeats the same operation, and in this (laborious) manner advances progressively. The traces of its progress are marked by hillocks of silk at the distance of half a line from each other. Its food is the parenchyma or pith of the vine-leaf, between the two epidermes of which

2757. [Deut. xxviii. 49-52.] We ought to bear in mind, that, from the time these predictions began to be fulfilled until the second destruction of Jerusalem, the Jews were successively subject, 1. to the Babylonians; 2. to the Persians; 3. to the Greeks; and, 4. to the Romans and to these last indeed so completely, that Judea, on the deposition of Archelaus, was converted into a Roman province. Smith's MICHAELIS, vol. iii. p. 406.

2753. [53.] Among the Arabs, speaking evil of any person is called eating a brother's flesh. Ibid. p. 112, note.

2759. [64.] One of the fundamental principles on which Moses (under GoD) established his polity, was the prevention of idolatry among the Israelites: consequently, at a time when the people of all the neighbouring nations were idolaters, and when the errors of Polytheism were universally tainting the human race, the banishment of an Israelite would necessarily appear a most awful punishment, as directly exposing him to the dreaded contagion of heathenism and idolatry. We need not therefore be surprised, when we are told by JOSEPHUS (Antiq. b. xvi. ch. i. § 1.) that no sooner had Herod ordered those convicted of theft, to be sold for slaves out of the land, than it immediately excited the greatest discontent among the Jews. Ibid. p. 438.

2760. [Deut. xxix. 5.] The Licanians still use a kind of rope-work shoe-sole: of which several sizes have been found at Herculaneum ; some fit for children, others for grown persons. (WINCKELMAN's Herculaneum, p. 67.) — In the country about Tarom in Persia, I noticed, says PIETRO DELLE VALLE, that the shoes or rather sandals worn by the

2763. [ 18.] The word Rosch (Hebr.) as here used, and also in Ps. Ixix. 22, Hos. x. 4, Amos vi. 12, denotes, according to MICHAELIS, Lolium temulentum, the intoxicating durnel, a poisonous plant found frequently in corn-fields; but in other passages, where Rosch-berries, and Rosch-juice are spoken of, he says, he takes Rosch (which in general denotes poison) to mean, not darnel, but the Solanum, or night-shade.

See Smith's Michaelis, vol. iii. p. 357, Where you plant wormwood, it is said, you banish serpents and all venomous creatures.

quantity of acid which enters into their composition. The most transparent oil of turpentine, resembling naptha, may be changed into an oil resembling petroleum, by mixing it with a small portion of the acid of vitriol; with a larger proportion of the acid, the mixture becomes black and tenacious, like Barbadoes tar; and the proportions of ingredients may be so adjusted, that the mixture will acquire a solid consistence, like asphaltom. WATSON'S Chem, Ess. vol. iii. p. 5.

2766. [Deut. xxix. 23.] There are two kinds of salt in Persia, the one on the surface of the ground, the other dug out of the rock there are plains of ten or twelve leagues over, quite covered with salt, as others are with sulphur and alum. (PINKERTON'S Coll. vol. ix. p. 186.) The true cause of the absence of vegetables and animals in the Asphaltic Lake, is the acrid saltuess of its waters, which is infinitely greater than that of the sea. The land surrounding the lake being equally impregnated with that saltuess, refuses to produce plants; the air itself, which is by evaporation loaded with it, and which moreover receives vapors of sulphur and bitumen, cannot suit vegetation: whence the dead appearance which reigns around the lake.

2767.

VOLNEY, Voy. en Syrie, tom. i. p. 282.

Nor any grass groweth therein] Near Rostadt in Norway is a flat and naked field, on which no vegetable will grow. The soil is almost white, with gray` stripes, and has somewhat so peculiarly poisonous in its nature, that though all other animals may safely pass over it, a goat or kid, no sooner sets its foot upon it, than it drops down, stretches out its limbs, and, if it has not immediate assistance, expires.

SMITH'S Wonders.

See, on Rev. viii. 11.

2764. [- — 20.] Here anger is expressed by a word which denotes the breath of the nostrils.

See also Exod. xv. 8. Ps. xviii. 15. Job iv. 9.- Particularly 1 Sam. i. 18.

2768. [Deut. xxx. 19, 20.] Slavery, throughout Scripture, is invariably considered as the greatest curse of the human race.

See No. 1016, 1014, 1017, 1018.

2765. [ 23.] Salt of burning: this is, I presume, what we now call asphaltum, because, being a bitumen, it might be ranged by the Hebrews among salts; as it is by other antient writers: - hence Herodotus speaks of salt burning in a lamp. (Editor of Calmet. Expos. Ind.) — There is a very curious experiment which illustrates the relation that naptha, petroleum, Barbadoes tar, and asphaltum, bear to each other; differing chiefly, it should seem, in the

2769. [Deut. xxxi. 30.] This song is in Hebrew rhyme. We find there are rhyming poems in the Sanscrit and the Chinese. Sir W. Jones says of the Moha Mudgara, that it is composed in the regular anapæstic verses, according to the strictest rules of Greek prosody, but in rhymed couplets. The specimens of the venerated Bedas, given by Colonel Dow before his history of Hindostan, exhibit rhyme. The French missionary to China, who died in 1780, says, the

most antient Chinese verses are rhymed; there are some 40 centuries old. We find rhyme also in Persian poetry. It was also antiently used in Arabia. The Arabian poems in the Hamasa (a collection made by the Abu Temnan, some of which were written before Mahomet's time) exhibit rhyme. Among the antient Hebrews, Martinaceus has traced it here, and in the Lamentations of Jeremiah. I myself, says SHARON TURNER, Esq., have observed much of it in the book of Job. In the sixth chapter, verses 4, 7, 9, 13, 20, 22, and 29, are rhymed. In the seventh chapter, the 8, 10, 11, 13, 15, 19, 20, and 21 verses are rhymed. In the tenth chapter, from the 8th to the 19th verses are rhymed, as also the three first verses of the chapter. In other chapters a similar proportion may be traced, which is too much to have been merely fortuitous. See No. 859.

Archæologia, vol. xiv. pp. 169 — 201.

2770. [Deut. xxxii. 4.] Rab. Moses ben Maymon, in his valuable work, Moreh Nebochim, observes, that the word here rendered rock, signifies origin, fountain, first cause, &c.; and should be translated accordingly: "He is the First Principle, his work is perfect."

See Dr. A. CLARKE, in loco.

2771. [- 5.] It is pleasing, says FORBES, to see the Hindoos every morning perform their ablutions in the sacred lakes, and offer an innocent sacrifice under the solemn grove. After having gone through their religious ceremonies, they are sealed by the officiating Brahmin with the mark either of Vishnoo or Seeva; the followers of whom respectively, form the two great sects among the Hindoos. The mark is impressed on the forehead with a composition of sandal-wood dust and oil, or the ashes of cow-dung and turmeric: this is a holy ceremony, which has been adopted in all ages by the eastern nations, however differing in religious profession.

Oriental Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 15.

2774. [Deut. xxxii. 13. He made him to suck honey out of the rock] In South Africa, the bees deposit their honey in trees and rocks: but as in most parts, trees are scarce, the honey is most frequently found plastered on the outside of the rocks, so that a person sucking the hive would appear to one at a little distance, to be actually sucking from the rock, especially as the outside-covering of the hive very much resembles the rock on which it is found. There is an allusion to the same thing in Ps. lxxxi. 16. He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat; and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.

[

MAUNDRELL, Jour. March 25. See also VIRG. Georg. lib. ii. l. 179.

2776. 14. Butter of kine] This mplies that they might have been fed with vegetable butter. The fruit or shell of the mowah (bassia butyracea), indigenous to many parts of India, contains a pulp of delicate whiteness ; from which is extracted an oily substance like butter, or ghee, which keeps a long time, and for family-use answers all the purposes of those valuable articles. The kernel, or seed of the fruit, contains an oil of inferior quality and more rancid flavor; it does not congeal, and is chiefly used by the poor. (FORBES' Orient. Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 451.) — This Mahwhaw Tree is figured by Forbes, in vol. ii. after page 495.

Maize, the corn of Turkey, is still common in several parts of Asia. Cardamum is the seasoning to rice.

Nat. Delin. vol. ii. p. 193. vol. iv. p. 212.

2778. [- — 32.] Poisonous vines entwine themselves around large trees, and are extremely like the common grape vines. If handled in a morning, when the branches are moist with dew, they infallibly raise blisters on the hands, which are not easily cured.

2779. [

WELD's Trav. through N. America, vol. i. p. 187.

37, 38.] We read in the Ayeen Akbery, "that the Brahmins wash the images of Jaggernaut six

times every day, and dress them each time in fresh clothes. As soon as they are dressed fifty-six Brahmins attend them, and present them with various kinds of food. The quantity of victuals offered to these idols is so very great as to feed twenty thousand persons. (See also FORBES' Oriental Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 6.) --- None could suppose that the idols ate this food: it was so offered or presented, in order to be consecrated or sanctified, as it were, in their presence by the officiating priests, and then returned to those who brought it, either to be eaten at home or in their temples.

See 1 Cor. viii.

2785. [Deut. xxxiii. 14.] From remarks carefully made and repeated for several years by the Academy of Sciences at Paris, and by other most cautious and attentive observers, it would seem, that the moon has neither heat nor any kind of influence whatever on the generation of any terrestrial or aquatic animal, nor on the generation or alteration of any living or vegetative being that exists.

Abbe PLUCHE's Hist. of the Hear. vol. ii. p. 39.

2786. [17. Like the horns of a unicorn] It is certain that some rhinoceroses have but one horn on the nose, and others two; so that some of these animals are not literally unicorns, but more properly bccorns. (BURTON.) — Those with one horn, have it larger and longer than those which have two. There are single horns of three feet and a half, and perhaps of more than four feet in length, by six or seven inches in diameter at the base; there are also double horns which are but two feet in length. Commonly these horns are brown, or olive-coloured; yet some are gray and even white. The white ones are more valued by the Indians than even the elephant's tusk. (BUFFON. See Ps. xcii. 10.) — Mr. BRUCE mentions a third horn, as sometimes found on old males.

There is a manifest difference between the African and East-Indian rhinoceros, the former being without scales, and the latter being covered with them; the one having but one horn on its nose, and the other (the Indian) having one there, a second on its forehead, and a third on its back.

Modern Univer. Hist. vol. xiv. P. 76.

2782. [6.] Let Reuben live, and not die. But let Simeon be few in number.

Alexandrine Manuscript; Complutensian and Aldine Edit. of the Septuagint ; HOUBIGANT; DURELL; DODD.

2783. [12.] The Samaritan separates idid (Hebr.) into yad, yad, a hand, a hand: Thus

The hand, even the hand of Jehovah
Shall abide for safety over him;

Shall cover him all the day,

And he shall dwell between his shoulders.

2784. [14. Productions of the sun- and of the moon] That is, annual and monthly productions. The former require a revolution of the sun, or nearly so, to bring them to maturity; the latter are brought forth almost every month. Dr. GEDDES.

2787. [- 19.] Arrian, describing the commodities exported from the Arabian gulf, specifies, particularly, pearls in great abundance, and of extraordinary beauty, a variety of silk stuffs, rich perfumes, tortoise-shell, different kinds of transparent gems, especially diamonds; and pepper in large quantities, and of the best quality.

2788.

FORBES' Oriental Memoirs, vol. i. p. 306.

Near Ptolemais, a maritime city of Galilee, runs the small river Belus, which forms a bay ever abounding with such sand as glass is made of. When this place has been emptied by the many ships there loaded, it is filled again by the winds, which bring into it, as it were on purpose, that sand which lay remote, and was no more than bare common sand, while this mine presently turns it into glossy sand. And what is to me, says JOSEPHUS, still more wonderful, that glossy sand which is superfluous, and is once removed out of the place, becomes bare common sand again. (Wars, b. ii. ch. x. § 2. vol. v.) This account is confirmed by TACITUS, STRABO, and PLINY.

The largest

an average more than a million pearls in a year. weigh generally from ten to twelve grains. When any are taken of a greater weight, the fishers are directed under great penalties to bring them to the king's exchequer. (Sir JOHN CHARDIN, tom. iii. p. 31.) — In Africa, white shells still pass current as money called Cauris. Of these shells also, the Negro-women make themselves bracelets and necklaces, which give a lively grace to their sable complexions. Nat. Delin. vol. iii. p. 143. Some parts of both the Indies and Africa use shell money at this day.

Dr. LISTER.· Pinkerton's Coll. part xiv. p. 39.

2794. [Deut. xxxiii. 19.] The small sea-cockles of the Maldives serve for common coin in Bengal, and in some other places. The current small money of Ethiopia is salt, which is dug out of the mountains as we do stones from our quarries; and which they break in pieces of several sizes, the largest weighing 80 pounds, the others 40, 20, 10, or 5 pounds. A 20 pounds' piece is in value about one shilling sterling; and at that rate a merchant, when he pleases, can procure gold for this (barter) money from certain established bankers.

BERNIER'S Voy. to the East Indies, in Pinkerton's Coll. part xxxi. p. 135. – part xxxiii. p. 272.

2793.

CARVER'S Trav. in N. America, pp. 19, 93.

It is a common custom among the American savages to wear in their nostrils pendants of different sorts. Sea-shells are so worn by those of the interior parts, and reckoned very ornamental. Such shells are consequently an object of traffic. The shells also of which they form their belts of wampum, are held in as much estimation by the Indians, as gold, silver, or precious stones are by Europeans. (CARVER's Trav. in North America, pp. 145, 235.) In the Persian gulph, the pearl-fishery produces on

2796. [Deut. xxxiv. 1-6.] As Moses went to the place where he was to vanish out of their sight, all the Senate, Eleazar the high-priest, and Joshua their commander, followed after him, weeping to the mountain called Abarim; where, as he was going to embrace Eleazar aud Joshua, and was still discoursing with them, a cloud stood over him on a sudden, and he disappeared in a certain valley, although it is written in the Holy Books that he died, which was done out of fear lest they should venture to say, that because of his extraordinary virtue he went to God.

JOSEPH. Antiq. b, iv. ch. viii. § 49.