3294. [- 19.] The inclemency of the climate of Porto Bello, is sufficiently known all over Europe; not only strangers who come thither are affected by it, but even the natives themselves suffer in various manners. It destroys the vigor of nature, and often untimely cuts the thread of life. Even the animals from other climates, when brought thither, cease to procreate. It is certain, that there are at least no horses nor asses bred there; which tends to confirm the opinion, that this climate checks the generation of creatures produced in a more benign or less noxious air. (ULLOA's Voy. vol. i. p. 93.) — The soil of Sennaar also, is very unfavourable both to man and beast, and particularly adverse , to their propagation. This seems to be owing to some noxious quality of the fat earth with which it is every way surrounded; and nothing may be depended on more surely than the fact, that no mare, or other beast of burden, ever foaled in the town, or in any village within several miles round it.

3299. [- 23.] These children, probably, were disciples of Baal, who were punished, not so much for their disrespect of the prophet, as for their contempt of his God.

3300.

Univer. Hist. vol. iv. 35.

p.

In Hindostan, the public schools for the education of boys, are generally in the open air, on the shady side of the house. The scholars sit on mats, or cow-dung floors, and are taught as much of religion as their caste admits of; also reading, writing, and arithmetic; the two latter by making letters and figures in sand on the floor. Education, like every thing else among the Hindoos, is extremely simple: that of the girls is generally confined to domestic employFORBES' Oriental Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 505.

ments.

3301. [2 Kings iii. 11.] The table being removed, before they rise from the ground, a slave or servant, who stands attending on them with a cup of water to give them drink,

3304. [- -20.] On the 29th of September, 1810, the inhabitants of the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, were surprised with a singular phenomenon. The common pond, situated in a rather elevated part of the town, which, as there had been no rain in their neighbourhood for some weeks, was gradually becoming shallow of water, suddenly filled and ejected from its bottom all the filth and sediment. It continued flowing over and discharging a great quantity of water, for some hours; and since, has continued quiet as usual. The towns-people were struck with considerable alarm at this circumstance, and apprehended intelligence of some earthquake on the Continent, as this pond had a similar emission at the precise instant the dreadful earthquake happened at Lisbon in the year 1775.

Month. Mag. for Nov. 1810, p. 386.

3305. [ 22.] Various authors, both antient and modern, speak of water being coloured and altered in its appearance. We are told by PLINY (Hist. Nat. lib. xxxi. cap. 30), that the water of the lakes near Babylon had a red color for eleven days in summer, and that the Borysthenes, now called the Dnieper, was in summer of a blue color. In 1668 Mr. SMITH (Acta Erudit. 1709) found the water of the Mediterranean to be of a sky-blue color, and when the sun shone upon it this color was changed to red or purple. The missionary FERDINAND CONSAG (Hist. de Californie, tom. iii. Paris 1767) in the year 1746, observed in the open sea, near California, that the water for the extent of half a mile was of a bluish red color. Navigators have often seen the water at the mouth of the river Plata, on the coast of South America, of a blood-red color. In January 1799, Mr. ACHARD had an opportunity to subject the water of a lake at Strautzberg, supposed to be converted into blood, to some experiments, from which he concluded that the colouring matter consisted of some vegetable substance, and floated

in the water but was not properly dissolved in it. And says Professor KLAPROTH (in Scherer's Allgemeines Journal der Chemie, No. 33), "the phenomena I observed in my experiments on this coloured water [of a lake near Lubotin, in South Prussia] exhibited a chemical analogy to those of the colouring matter obtained from the indigo-plant, Indigofera tinctoria; Ind. argentia; Ind. disperma; and from woad, Isatis tinctoria. For though the water appeared of a dark red crimson color, this color was merely an optical illusion, occasioned by the refraction of the rays of light. The real color was a pure blue. This property of indigo-matter to assume an apparent red color I have observed in the solid colouring matter itself, as the best sort of the West Indian indigo, as well as that extracted from woad, exhibits on its smooth surface, when exposed to the light, a cupreous color. The phenomenon also observed in regard to indigo, that when strewed over coals the smoke which rises immediately from it, when viewed against the light, has a beautiful light red color, may be connected with the same causes.' See Phil. Mag. vol. xvii. p. 243.

3306. [2 Kings iii. 25.] When the food of man consisted principally of fruit, it was usual, in times of war, for one party to injure the other by destroying their valuable trees. Thus the Moabites were punished, and thus the Arabs of the Holy Land still make war on each other, burning the corn, cutting down the olive-trees, &c.

HASSELQUIST, Trav. p. 143.

3307. [2 Kings iv. 1. The creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen] This was а case in which the Hebrews had such power over their children, that they might sell them to pay what they owed; and the creditor might force them to it; see Matt. xviii. 25. Huet thinks this custom was transmitted from the Jews to the Athenians, and from these to the Romaus.

3308.

BURDER'S Oriental Customs, vol. ii. p. 158.

When a Negro takes up goods on credit from any of the Europeans on the Coast of Africa, and does not make payment at the time appointed, the European is authorized, by the laws of the country, to seize upon the debtor himself, if he can find him; or if he cannot be found, on any person of his family; or, in the last resort, on any native of the same kingdom. The person thus seized on, is detained while his friends are sent in quest of the debtor. When he is found, a meeting is called of the chief people of the place, and the debtor is compelled to ransom

his friend by fulfilling his engagements. If he is unable to do this, his person is immediately secured, and sent down to the Coast, and the other released. If the debtor cannot be found, the person seized on is obliged to pay double the amount of the debt, or is himself sold into slavery: This part of the law, however, is seldom enforced.

MUNGO PARK's Trav. p. 296.

3309. [2 Kings iv. 8.] Among the Nations of Asia, the sentiment of humanity attracts men to each other in a very affecting manner. If, for example, an Asiatic on a journey stop to enjoy his repast, his servants and camel-driver collect around him, and place themselves at his table. If a stranger happen to pass by, he too sits down with him, and after having made an inclination of the head to the master of the family, and given GOD thanks, he rises and goes on his who he is, way, without being interrogated by any one whence he comes, or whither he is going. This hospitable practice is common to the Armenians, to the Georgians, to the Turks, to the Persians, to the Siamese, to the Blacks of Madagascar, and to the different Nations of Africa and America. In those countries Man is still dear to Man. St. PIERRE's Studies of Nature, vol. iii. p. 179.

3310. [- 10.] Dr. Shaw, in his Travels through the Levant and Barbary, and in his descriptions of the houses there, takes notice, that they have imitated the Eastern manner, by building a private set of apartments, which seem rather annexed, than properly belonging to the rest of the house. This little chamber designed by the Shunamite for Elisha, where he retired at his pleasure, without breaking in upon the private affairs of the family, and without being interrupted in his own devotions, may be conjectured to be one of these separate buildings; as may also the summer parlour of Eglon (Judg. iii. 20), where he was slain by Ehud.

3311.

FORBES' Oriental Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 402.

To most of the houses of better fashion in the East, there is an oliah (Hebr.), a smaller one annexed, which sometimes rises one story higher than the house; at other times it consists of one or two rooms only, and a terrace; whilst others, that are built, as they frequently are, over the porch or gateway, have, if we except the ground floor which they have not, all the conveniences that belong to the house, properly so called. There is a door of communication from them into the gallery of the house, kept open or shut at the discretion of the master of the family; besides another door, which opens immediately from a privy staircase, down into the porch or street, without

the Medes; and that they had been among the first to render earth and water. Ibid. Polymnia, ch. cc xxxiii.

3318. [2 Kings v. 18.] In this thing the Lord pardon thy servant, that when my master went into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaned on my hand, and I bowed myself in the house of Rimmon: the Lord pardon thy servant in this thing, that I bowed myself in the house of Rimmon.

See LUTHER'S German Bible, printed at Weimars, with Notes; and Bib. Research, vol. i. p. 181.

3319. [27.] Was not the Infection in the Garments which Gehazi took? And did not the prophet refuse to accept any thing from Naaman, lest he should thereby receive Infection?

3320. [2 Kings vi. 25.] Menander, the Ephesian, in his life of Ithobal king of Tyre, mentions the drought which caused this famine. See Univer. Hist. pref. p. 27.

3321.

Dove's dung] Chirionim (Hebr.), parched pulse (more probably, raisins); 2 Sam. xvii. 28.

See BOCHART's Hieros, tom. ii. l. i. c. 7. § 7.

The word rendered' dove's dung', as Bochart has fully proved, signifies' vetches', or pulse and accordingly, some late travellers inform us, that at Grand Cairo and Damascus, there are magazines where they constantly fry this kind of grain, which those who go a pilgrimage buy, and take with them as part of the provision for their journey. The Arabs, at present, call this kind of pulse, or vetches, by the name of doves dung'. HEWLETT'S Bible.

3322.

The root of the common star of Bethlehem is a white roundish bulbis eatable when boiled, and much used as food in the Levant. Linneus says, Mant. 364, it is the dove's dung which was sold so dear during the siege of Samaria (2 Kings vi. 25); though Olans Celsius (Hierobot. vol. ii. p. 30) and many other critics take that term in its literal sense. If Linneus is right we obtain a sort of clue to the derivation of Ornithogalum (Bird's milk) which has puzzled all etymologists. May not that denomi

went up to the chamber over the gate, to weep there: This chamber might be the place for private deliberations. Even in the temple of Jerusalem causes were tried at one of the gates, and the judges held their assizes there. After all these examples it is not to be wondered that the Scripture uses the word gate so often, to signify judgment, or the public councils of each city, or the city itself, or the state; and that, in the Gospel, the gates of hell signify the kingdom or power of the devil.

Dr. A. Clarke's Fleury, p. 182.

3328. [2 Kings vii. 1. A measure] Seph (Hebr.), a peck and a pint, English. Gen. xviii. 6.

Essay for a New Translation, part ii. p. 38.

3329. [10.] As soon as the Arabs are apprehensive of an attack, they separate into several small camps, at a great distance from each other, and tie their camels to the tents, so as to be able to move off at a moment's notice.

Memoirs relative to Egypt, p. 300.

especially between the tropies. Violent fevers, called there Nedad, make the principal figure in this fatal list, and generally terminate the third day in death. If the patient survives till the fifth day, he very often recovers, by drinking water only, and throwing a quantity of cold water on him, even in his bed, where he is permitted to lie without any attempt to make him dry, or to change his bed, till another deluge adds to the first. In the last stage of this distemper, the belly swells to an enormous size, or sometimes immediately after death, and the body within an instant smells most insupportably; to prevent which, they begin to bury the corpse immediately after the breath is out, and often finish within the hour. BRUCE'S Trav. vol. iii. p. 33. — iv. p: 22.

3334. [2 Kings viii. 15.] To cure a cold, John Campbell, forester of Harries (in Scotland), walks into the sea up to the middle with his clothes on, and immediately after goes to bed in his wet clothes, and then laying the bed clothes over him, procures a sweat, which removes the distemper. PINKERTON'S Coll. part xii. p. 587.

The winds on the borders of the Persian Gulph are often so scorching, that travellers are suddenly suffocated unless they cover their heads with a wet cloth; if this be too wet they immediately feel an intolerable cold, which would prove fatal if the moisture were not speedily dissipated by the heat. ACCUM's Chem. vol. i. p. 124.

3335. [2 Kings ix. 11. Wherefore came this mad fellow to thee? It is probable, the profane among the Jews applied this title, indiscriminately, to all who presumed to be inspired."They understand nothing of what they say," says Socrates upon his trial, they (the poets) are like Prophets and Divines. They do not carry on their work by the measure of wisdom, or any artful knowledge; but by s sort of enthusiasm." A Poet is at once a light, volatile, and holy thing; he can compose nothing, till he is full of God and out of his senses.