two thousand years older than Mahomet, and of course, no invention of his.

In England the "Defenders of the Poor," as they are called, consider very strong, fattening ale, as what every man ought in justice to have; not considering, says MICHAELIS, that it is quite an artificial drink; that man is naturally a water-drinker, and when he is so, seldom fails to be chearful and healthy; and that his first stage in the descending scale, is to become a drinker of wine. See Smith's Michaelis, vol. iii. vol. iv. p. 215.

p. 123.

no chimneys, says

4131. [Jer. xxxvi. 22.] There are Mons de GUYS, in the Greek houses. A brasier is placed in the middle of the room, that those who are not sufficiently warmed at a distance may more conveniently draw near it. This is a very antient custom all over the East. The Romans had no other, and the Turks adhere to it. This brasier, called Lampter (Grk.), says Hesychius, quoted by Madame D' Acier, was placed in the middle of the chamber, on which they burnt wood to heat the room, and torches to light it. It stood on a tripod as at present.

PARKHURST.

4128. [Jer. xxxv. 6, 7. Ye shall drink no wine,— that ye may live many days] When Frederic, king of Prussia, at the head of 400,000 men, turned his back on Paris, instead of overturning the Revolutionary Government of that day; he openly avowed, as an apology for his failure, that the grapes of France had thinned his ranks more than all the artillery of the enemy.

Public Prints.

4129. [Jer. xxxvi. 6. On the fasting day] Probably on the tenth of the month Tisri, answering to the latter part of our September, which was the great day of expiation; as it does not appear that the Jews, before the captivity, had any other fast towards winter.

See Univer. Hist. vol. iv. p. 103. In the ninth month] Perhaps we should read "on the ninth of the month"; that is, on the day before that of the expiation," they proclaimed," &c.

4130. [

See Judith viii. 6.

18.] The ink of the Antients was not as fluid as ours. Demosthenes reproaches Eschines with labouring in the grinding of ink, as painters do in the grinding of their colors. The substance also, found in an ink-stand at Herculaneum, looks like a thick oil or paint, with which the manuscripts there have been written in a relievo visible in the letters, when you hold a leaf to the light, in a horizontal direction. Such vitriolic ink as has been used on the old parchment manuscripts, would have corroded the delicate leaves of the papyrus, as it has done the skins of the most antient inanuscripts of Virgil and Terence, in the Vatican library: the letters are sunk into the parchment, and some have eaten quite through it, in consequence of the corrosive acid of the vitriolic ink, with which they were written. WINCKELMAN'S Herculaneum, p. 107.

4133.

Papyrus, a reed peculiar to Egypt, was called deltos (Grk.) from the part, where it grew in greatest plenty. Hence daltoth (Hebr.) deltoi (Grk), as here adopted in the sacred Text, signifies the leaves of a papyrus book or roll.

The rind or bark of the Papyrus, was what they used to write ou. When its layers were separated into leaves, those next the pith gave the finest paper; those next the outside, the coarsest. The manuscripts of Herculaneum are composed of such leaves about four fingers in breadth; that is, as broad as a hexameter Greek verse is long.

The breadth of the paper must have been equal to the cir cumference of the stalk; and, as to the length, it must have been in proportion to that of the stalk, which was never limited in the book or manuscript.

The manuscripts found at Herculaneum are, most of them, a palm in height; some two, and others three. When rolled up, they reach as far as four inches in diameter, or thickness: some, indeed, are half a palm.

The wooden or bone tube, around which the volume was rolled, was called the umbilicum or navel of the book; ap pearing outwardly not unlike that part of the human body. WINCKELMAN's Herculaneum, pp. 81, 82, 83,

85, 86, 100.

The bark of the birch-tree consists of an accumulation of ten or twelve sheets, white and thin like paper, the place of which it supplied to the Autients.

Pliny and Plutarch bear testimony, that at Rome were found, four hundred years after the death of Numa, the books written on the bark of the birch tree, which that great king had commanded to be deposited with his body in the tomb. The body was entirely consumed; but the books were in such a state of preservation as to be read before the Senate by Petilius, the Pretor.

St. PIERRE's Studies of Nature, vol. ii. p. 441.

4136. [Jer. xxxviii. 11. Old rotten rags] The long moss, so called, is a singular and surprising vegetable production: it grows from the limbs and twigs of all trees in the southern regions of America, from N. lat. 35 degrees down as far as 28 degrees, and I believe, says BARTRAM, every where within the tropics. It is common to find the spaces between the limbs of large trees almost occupied by this plant it also hangs waving in the wind like streamers, from the lower limbs, to the length of fifteen or twenty feet, and of bulk and weight, more than several men together could carry; and in some places, cart loads of it are lying on the ground, torn off by the violence of the wind. It seeins particularly adapted to the purpose of stuffing mattresses, chairs, saddles, collars, &c.; and for these purposes, nothing yet known equals it. But, to render it useful, it must be thrown into shallow ponds of water, and exposed to the sun, where it soon rots, and the outside furry substance is dissolved. It is then taken out of the water, and spread to dry; when, after a little beating and shaking, it is sufficiently clean, nothing remaining but the interior, hard, black, elastic filament, entangled together, and greatly resembling horse-hair.

Trav. p. 85.

The viscum filamentosum, or fibrous misletoe, is found in abundance in Carolina; the inhabitants make use of it as straw in their beds, and to adorn their houses: the cattle also are very fond of it; it is conveniently employed in packing goods.

See KALM's Trav. in Pinkerton's Coll. part liii. p. 468.

treason.

4137. [Jer. xxxix. 7.] In the East, putting out the eyes is a species of punishment peculiarly used for rebellion or As we approached to Asdrabad, says HANWAY, we met several armed horsemen carrying home the rebellious peasants whose eyes had been put out, the blood yet running down their faces. Sadoc Aga, the traitor, had his beard cut off, his face rubbed with dirt, and his eyes cut out.The soldiers also were dragging an unhappy rebel to have his eyes cut out, while he begged with bitter cries that he might rather suffer death. Trav. pp. 201, 204, 203.

4138.[Jer. xliii. 10.] At the antient castle of Dun-staffnage in the Hebrides, was long preserved the famous stone, the Palladium of North Britain; brought, says Legend, out of Spain, where it was first used as a seat of justice by Gethalus, coeval with Moses. It continued at the castle as the coronation-chair till the reign of Kenneth the Second, who removed it to Scone, in order to secure his reign; for, according to the inscription,

Ni fallat fatum, Scoti, quocunque locatum
Invenient lapidem, regnare tenentur ibidem.

See No. 573.

PINKERTON'S Coll. part x. pp. 286, 352.

4139. [Jer. xlvi. 15.] Maddouaw nistaph abireca (Hebr.), quare ablatus est abir tuus? Which the Septuagint have translated by ho Apis, ho moschos, vitulus; and afterwards explained by ho eklektos sou diati cphugen apo sou ho Apis, ho moschos, ho eklektos sou, what is become of your Apis,' your powerful ox, your favourite god? (Abbe PLUCHE'S Hist. of the Heavens, vol. i. p. 247.) Here Apis is the same as Abir, pronounced the Egyptian way.

Ibid.

French king's menagerie had a rhinoceros, whose horn they were obliged to cut off; to prevent his doing mischief. A similar idea is conveyed by Job's horn being defiled in the dust. See Ps. xcii. 10.

BURTON.

4142. [Jer. xlviii. 28.] In this country the parent pigeons both male and female swallow the grain or other seeds, which they collect for their young, and bring it up mixed with a kind of milk from their stomachs, with their bills inserted into the mouths of the young doves. J. HUNTER's Works.

4145. [Jer. xlix. 7.] Teman, thus noted for the wisdom and counsel of its inhabitants, was, perhaps, the royal seat of Edom.

Its other cities were Dedan; Bozrah, Bosor, or Bazrah; Selah, or Petra; Elath, Eziongeber, Hor, and the Valley of Salt. Univer. Hist. vol. ii. p. 132.

4146. [8.] Always on their guard against tyranny, the Arabs on the least discontent that is given them, pack up their tents, and plunge into the burning sands, whither none can pursue them, and where they alone can dwell. M. SAVARY, tom. ii. p. 8.

4143. [32.] There are some plants in a state of incessant peregrination, that flit round the earth without settling in any fixed abode · Such, among others, is the celebrated lazerpitium of the Romans, the juice of which sold for its weight in silver. It is perhaps at present on the western shores of Africa, whither the easterly winds may have conveyed its seeds; perhaps likewise, by the revolutions of the westerly winds, it may have returned to the place where it was in the days of Augustus; or it may have been conveyed into the plains of Ethiopia, among nations totally unacquainted with its pretended wonderful qualities.

There are also several classes of birds, and of fishes, which do nothing but migrate incessantly over the earth and through the seas; some in a certain revolution of days; others at the end of a certain period of years. Many plants, such as those enumerated by Pliny, which are now unknown to us, may be subjected to a similar destiny. This law extends even to the skies, in which some new star is from time to time making its appearance.

St. PIERRE's Studies of Nature, vol. ii. pp. 373, 374.

4144. [36.] There is now in Rome a most beautiful bas-relievo, a Grecian sculpture of the highest antiquity, of a bagpiper playing on his instrument, exactly like a modern highlander. The Greeks had their Askaules, or instrument composed of a pipe and blown-up skin; which the Romans in all probability borrowed from them, and introduced among their swains The bagpipe, in the unimproved state, is also represented in an antient sculpture, and appears to have had two long pipes or drones, and a single short pipe for the fingers.

See MONTFAUCON, Antiq. Suppl. iii. 188, tab. 73. f. i. Pinkerton's Coll. part x. p. 326.

xvii. 2) said of the drunkenness which took place when nations submitted themselves to the Babylonians. The person who gives the entertainment invites all his acquaintance, and provides chicha (a strong liquor made from Maize) sufficient for the number of his guests, at the rate of a jug for each; and this jug holds about two gallons. After a most plentiful repast, the women present themselves with calabashes full of the chicha, for their husbands; and repeat it till their spirits are raised: then one of then plays on a pipe and tabor whilst others dance. When tired with intemperance, they all lie down together, without minding whether near the wife of another, or their own sister, daughter, or a more distant relation; so shocking are the excesses to which they give themselves up on these solemnities.

ULLOA's Voyage, by Adams; Fourth Edit. vol. i. p. 406.

4151. [Jer. li. 37.] The ruins of the famons Babylon lie about 200 English miles up the river Euphrates from Bassora; and at Bagdad, which is 12 miles below it, the ruins appear to be a mountain, and are the habitation of wild beasts and serpents. It is generally believed that Bagdad was built out of its ruins.

PINKERTON'S Coll. part xxxii. p. 291.

4152. [Jer. li. 41.] See some curious particulars respecting Sheshach in ASSEMBLY'S Annotations on Jer. xxv. 26.

4153. [ 44.] Buildings in the East have always been, and are to this day, made of earth or clay mixed or beat up with straw, to make the parts cohere, and dried only in the sun such is their method of making bricks. The walls of Babylon were thus built of the earth dug out on the spot, and dried on the place; by which means both the ditch and the wall were at once formed, the former furnishing materials for the latter. When a wall of this sort comes lo be out of repair, and is neglected, it is easy to conceive the necessary consequences, namely, that in no long course of ages it must be totally destroyed by the heavy rains, and at length washed away, and reduced to its original earth.

Bp. LoWTH.

4154. [ 62.] The ruins of Babel or Babylon are shewn at some distance from BAGDAD, the capital of the province; which was built in the middle of the eighth century by the Calif Almansor.

Works of Sir. W. JONES, vol. v. p. 567.

W

HEN the city of Antioch had subjected herself to the Roman empire, an edict of her liberties, as sent by Julius Cesar, was openly proclaimed under the following emphatic and illustrating title: At Antioch, the holy, sacred and free city, the METROPOLITAN QUEEN, and PRESIDENT OF THE EAST, Caius Julius Cesar, &c.

See JOANNES Antiochenus MS Chronograph. lib. ix. Or GREGORY's Notes, &c. p. 156. Verse 1. Princess among the provinces] A metropolis, of old, was the proper residence of a Queen-Mother; denominated also, the Grand-Mother, the Queen of women. See Modern Univer. Hist. vol. iv. pp. 411-419.

4156. [Lam. iii. 45.] The finny legions of the Deep lick up the alluvion of the earth, carried down by the fresh water.

St. PIERRE'S Studies of Nature, vol. i. p. 134.

hurt, as it creeps along the rocks and stones; for which cause nature has formed the point of the tongue of the young ones cloven, without which they could not suck.

PINKERTON'S Coll. part xii. p. 595.

At Sandside, in the Parish of Reay, in the County of Caithness (in Scotland), there was seen, about two months ago (i. e. on the twelfth of January, 1809), an animal supposed to be a Mermaid. The head and the chest being all that was visible, exactly resembled those of a full-grown young woman. The mammæ were perfectly formed; the arms longer than in the human body, and the eyes somewhat smaller. When the waves dashed the hair, which was of a sea-green shade, over the face, the hands were immediately employed to replace it. The skin was of a pink color. Though observed by several persons within the distance of 20 yards for about an hour and half, it discovered no symptoms of alarm. It was seen by four or five persons, of unquestionable veracity, at the same time. Something of the same kind was observed in the same neighbourhood, about seven or eight years ago, by a gentleman then residing near the spot. Public Prints.

4157. [Lam. iv. 3.] There is a hole in the skin of the female seal, within which the teats are secured from being

4158. [Lam. v. 10.] JEROME describes an Eastern oven as a round vessel of brass, blackened on the outside by the surrounding fire which heats it within.