tract from the Philosophical Transactions-" In the year 1719, the body of a man was found under water in a coppermine, eighty-two fathoms deep, where he had been accidentally killed by the falling in of a rock, which had crushed both his legs and his right arm; but his face, body, and clothes, were all preserved entire, and free from putrefaction, by means of the vitriol with which the water was impregnated. From the concurring testimonies of an old minor, and a woman to whom the defunct had promised marriage, it appeared that the body had lain under ground forty-nine years; yet not only his clothes and linen, but even his flesh and skin, which were almost as hard as horn, had been preserved from corruption by the vitriolic water."

495.

Month. Mag. for March, 1814, p. 157.

The water of the Dead Sea is bitter and fetid to the last degree, insomuch that neither fish nor any other aquatic animals are able to live in it. (DIODORUS SICULUS, Hist. l. xix. p. 734.)—There is no fish in this sea, by reason of its extraordinary saltness. And when the fish of the river Jordan are carried into it by the rapidity of the stream, they immediately die. The land within three leagues round the lake Asphaltis, is not cultivated, but is white, aud mingled with salt and ashes.

499. [Gen. xix. 31.] And the first-born said to the younger, Our father is old and there is not a man in all the land to come in to us after the manner of all the country; that is, not a descendant of Seth's family, besides their father, who could with propriety, according to the laws or customs of their country, adopt the children of which, it should seem, they were then pregnant, or which at least they wished their father then to adopt as his sons and heirs of the promisc. Abraham, their father's brother, having taken a separate inheritance, could only adopt into his own possess sions in the land of Canaan.

500. [Gen. xix. 36,] According to a custom of the Brahmins in Malabar, the bride must always carry her dowry to the bridegroom. When she has done this and left her father's house, she receives nothing further; and loses her right of inheriting any of the patrimony destined for the female part of the family. BARTOLOMEO, by Johnston, p. 272.

501. [Gen. xix. 34.] He who has no son, may appoint his daughter in this manner to raise up a son to him, saying, "The male child, who shall be born from her in wedlock, shall be mine."-The son of a daughter thus appointed, shall inherit the whole estate of her father, who leaves no son.

Laws of Menu. It appears from Gen. xix. 14, that Lot's daughters were married.

506. [Gen. xx. 2, 12.] And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, she is my sister. She is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother;—that is, she is the spiritual or religious daughter of my father, but not his natural daughter by my mother.-The children of American Indians are always distinguished by the name of the mother: and if a woman marry several husbands, and have issue by each of them, they are all called after her. The reason assigned is this as the offspring are indebted to the father for their souls, the invisible part of their essence; and to the mother for their corporeal and apparent part, it is more rational that they should be distinguished by the name of the latter, from whom they indubitably derive their being, than by that of the father, to whose name a doubt might sometimes arise whether they are justly entitled.

CARVER'S Travels in North America, p. 247.

507. [2 Kings xxiv. 15.] Among the Natches, in America, the supreme authority is hereditary, and descends not only in the female line, but seems to devolve equally on a male and female of that line; the male is called the man chief, and the female the woman chief. The woman chief is not the wife, but the sister, or other nearest relation of the man chief. She is attended by as numerous a retinue, and has the same authority, deference, and respect, as the man chief;-aud we meet with a few anecdotes in their history, which seem to hint that some other females, besides

the great woman chief, have particular privileges and honors conferred on them.

Dr. W. ALEXANDER'S Hist. of Women, vol. i. pp. 180, 181.

508. [1 Kings xv. 13.] In some parts of India, queen is a title always given to the king's oldest sister, as his spouse cannot and dare not become queen.

BARTOLOMEO, by Johnston, p. 114.

509. [Gen. xii. 13.] Cleopatra was equally the wife, as the sister, of Ptolemy Dyonysius, the last king of Egypt. Month. Mag for Feb. 1812, p. 2.

510. [Gen. xx. 5.] Nero and Octavia were not only husband and wife, but brother and sister, Claudius being the father of both. ADDISON, on Medals, p. 102.

511. [Gen. xx. 2.] The Apostles carried their wives about with them, "not as wives," says CLEMENS Alexandrinus (Strom. lib. vii. c. 12.), "but as sisters, who might minister to those that were mistresses of families; that so the doctrine of the Lord might, without reprehension or evil suspicion, enter into the apartments of the women," See 1 Cor. ix. 5.

ABRAHAM OFFERING UP HIS SON ISAAC.

512. [Gen. xxii. 2.] And God said to Abraham, Take now thy son, thine ONLY son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt-offering;-not to kill him but to devote him to the service of the LORD as a Priest.

Accordingly, in Numbers, "The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, Take the Levites from among the children of Israel, and cleanse them. And Aaron shall offer the Levites before the LORD, for an offering of the children of Israel; that they may execute the service of the LORD. And thou shalt set the Levites before Aaron, and before his sons, and offer them for an offering to the LORD. And the Levites were purified :—and Aaron offered them an offering before the LORD. (Chap. viii. 5, 6, 11, 13, 21.)-Again, in Isaiah, "They shall bring all your brethren for an offering to the LORD, out of all nations,-to my holy mountain Jerusalem, saith the LORD, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the LORD. And I will also take of them for priests, and for Levites, saith the LORD. (Chap. Ixvi. 20, 21.) See Rom. xv. 16.-From Numbers vi. 18, we learn how they became a burnt-offering." The Nazarite shall shave the head of his separation at the door of the tabernaele of the congregation; and shall take the hair of the

in a year. (Biblical Researches, vol. i. p. 82.)-As her father had devoted her to God, and to perpetual virginity, those yearly visits were paid her, as compliments of condolence that she, the daughter of an Israelitish judge, could not in her present circumstances give birth to the promised Messiah. (See Univer. Hist. vol. iii. p. 469.)-The daughter of Jephthah was a recluse dedicated (to the sanctuary). (HUTCHINSON'S Sine Principio, p. 9.)-But Samson and Samuel, persons whom their parents devoted as Nazarites for life from their mother's womb, were married :—Judg. xiv. 1. xv. 2. 1 Sam. viii. 1. 1 Chron. vi. 13. (SMITH'S Michaelis, vol. ii. p. 287.)-Their wives, however, were of another sort than what has been generally supposed. See Gen. iii. 16.

And Jephthah vowed a vow to the LORD, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into my hands, then it shall be that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the LORD's, and I will offer it up for a burnt-offering.-And the LORD delivered them into his hands.-And Jephthah came to Mizpeh to his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances; and she was his only child :-And it came to pass when he saw her, that he rent his clothes, and said, Alas, my daughter! thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one of them that trouble me: for I have opened my mouth to the LORD, and I cannot go back; And she said to him, My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth to the LORD, do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth.-And she said to her father, let me alone two months, that I may go up and down on the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my fellows. And he said, Go.-And it came to pass at the end of two months, that she returned to her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed :— :-And it was a custom in Israel, that the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year. Judges xi. 30-40.

JACOB AND ESAU.

[Gen. xxv. 23.] And the LORD said to Rebekah, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.

517. [Gen. xxv. 34.] The right of primogeniture, among the antient patriarchs, entitled the first-born to the priesthood. BINGHAM'S Antiq. vol. i. p. 133.

518. [Gen. xxvii. 19.] Bechor (Hebr.) implies properly the principal or most excellent of every thing, or creature in its kind, whether in a good or bad sense. See Ps. Ixxxix. 27. Job xviii. 13. Isai. xiv. 30. Gen. xlix. 3.-Here we must observe, that the word first-born of the males must not be restrained to the eldest son; for he may be eldest and yet not first-born. Univer. Hist. vol. iii. p. 218.

519. [Gen. xxv. 24.] In the Encyclopædia Britannica, under the article Negro, we find an account of a young negro woman in Virginia, wife to a negro man, who had for the first time a black child, and the second time twins-a boy that was black, and a girl that was a mulatto. The boy as he grew up was a perfect negro: the girl, on the other hand, was tolerably white; had blue eyes, and long black hair, without curl. In short, she had a great resemblance to the overseer of the plantation.-Here we should allow a SUPERFETATION. The boy was a perfect negro; the natural production of the negress and her black husband. The girl was a mulatto; whose father probably was the overseer, or some other white inan, as a mulatto is never produced regularly by two blacks.

See WHITE's Regular Gradation

in Man, p. 122.

520. [Gen. xxv. 23.] Hesiod, the oldest of the Greek Poets, represents the Nine Muses as successively begotten, though born of one mother nearly at the same time"In number equal to the nights of love."

COOKE's Hesiod, the Theogony, l. 92.

Was not Jacob really the elder, being first begotten, though last born? See Gen. xxvii. 19.

521. [Gen. xxvii. 2-4.] And Isaac said to Esau, Behold now, I am old, I know not the day of my death: Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison; and make me savoury meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat; that soul my may bless thee before I die.

This supper of savoury meat was evidently intended for a festival on a sacrifice; and upon the prayers that were frequent at sacrifices Isaac expected, as was then usual in such eminent cases, that a divine impulse would come upon him, in order to the solemn blessing of his son there present. Whence it must be that when Isaac had blessed Jacob, and was afterwards made sensible of his mistake, he did not attempt to alter it; because he knew this blessing came not from himself, but from God; and that an alteration was out of his power.

WHISTON'S Josephus, book i, Note.

This was not merely the blessing of a son, but the making of a High-priest. The sacrament was received on the oocasion, which consisted of corn and wine. See Gen. xxvii. 25, 37.—We learn from the Mosaic law, that the high-priest relinquished his office before his death.

522. [Gen. xxxviii. 18.] Both among the Jews and Hindoos, certain particular acts were necessary before a person of the priestly rank could perform any religious office. Investiture with the sacred string, a girdle and a staff, were necessary to the consecration of a priest.

TENNANT's Indian Recreations, p. 169.

523. [Rev. i. 13.] In the year 1700, there was found, in Staffordshire, a torques (or circulus) of fine gold: the weight of it was three pounds two ounces; it was about four feet (long), curiously twisted, and wreathen with hooks at each end (Exod. xxviii. 14), cut even but not twisted: one of these hooks seemed to have a small notch in it, as if some thing had been worn hanging to it: It was fine metal, very bright and flexible; it would wrap round your arm, your middle, or your hat, and be extended again easily to its shape, which most resembled the bow (Gen. xxvii. 3) of a kettle. This account was communicated by the reverend Mr. SMITH, senior fellow of Brazen-Nose College, Oxford, to Dr. LEIGH; who adds several arguments to prove that this torques

525. [Gen. xxv. 28.] What is rendered venison, is more probably the mountain hyssop; an odoriferous, warm, and bitterish herb, which, boiled up with the expressed "blood of the grape," would prepare it for keeping, and render it savoury meat.-Probably also, it was the expressed juice of the grape boiled up with lentils, which constituted the "red pottage," that Esau, as a priest by birth, could not eat, unsacrificed, from the hand of a laic, without becoming, as the Apostle says, a profane person.

528. [Gen. xxvii. 3.] In the neighbourhood of Philadelphia, says KALM, the corn on the sides of the road was, (Sept. 21st,) almost all mown; and no other grain, besides maize and buck-wheat, was then standing unripe. The former was to be met with near each farm, in greater or less quantities it grew very well and to a great length, the stalks being from six to ten feet high, and covered with fine green leaves. The buck-wheat also was rather abundant, and in some places the people were beginning to reap it. This buck-wheat must be sown in the middle or at the end of July if sown earlier, as in May, or June, it only gives flowers and little or no corn.

See his Trav. in Pinkerton's Coll. part liii. pp. 406, 422.

529. [Gen. xxvii. 28.] The promises made to the patriarchs, were assurances of the "dew of heaven," and the "fat of the earth." The promised land is represented as "flowing with milk and honey, a land of wheat, barley, figs, pomegranates, &c." without the least mention of animal food. The manna, with which the Israelites were fed of God during forty years in the wilderness, did not cease to

fall till they began to eat of the fruits of the land of Canaan. It is observable that whenever God prescribes or directs a regimen, no mention is made of the flesh of any animal.

CHEYNE, on Regimen, &c. p. 62. edit. 1753.

ESAU'S WIVES.

530. [Gen. xxvi 34.] And Esau took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite.

Elon, was a city of Dan. See Josh. xix. 43, and there is a city of the name of Beer, four leagues from Jerusalem, in the way to Shechem, or Naplouse.

MAUNDREL's Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem.

In the ceremony of appointing a ruler or king, the city, district, or province, pledged themselves to their appointed governor through the medium of a woman, who in that sense, but in no other, became his official wife.

As Esau, during the natural life of his father, could be only a subordinate regent over BEER and Elon, he took first, in that capacity, Judith and Bashemath. But after the death of his father Isaac, when he could assume the supreme power, he then, as plenipotentiary, took besides Judith, Aholibamah; and besides Bashemath, Adah.-In the same way, during the life of Ishmael, as heir apparent to his dominion, he received from the hands of that patriarch Mahalath, thus called the daughter of Ishmael, and thus made the pledge of Esau's future inheritance. Such women appear to have been hostages. See Gen, xxviii. 9. xxxvi. 2, 3. N. B. The ducal government was that which prevailed first the Idumeans, or descendants of Esau. See among Gen. xxxvi. 15, &c. After his dukes, Esau had eight kings, who reigned successively over their people, while Israel were in affliction in Egypt.

531. [Gen. xx. 2.] The little kingdom of n'Goio acknowledges its dependence on that of Loango, by giving to the king a princess of the blood.

PROYART'S History of Loango, &c.-
Pinkerton's Coll. lxvii.p.570.

536. [Gen. xxviii. 22.] In Pegu, the noble edifice of Shoemadoo, or the golden supreme, is a pyramidal building composed of bricks and mortar, without excavation or aperture of any sort : octagonal at the base, and spiral at the top. Each side of the base measures one hundred and sixty-two feet. The extreme height of the edifice, from the level of the country, is three hundred and thirty-one feet. Along the whole extent of the northern face of the upper terrace there is a wooden shed for the convenience of devotees, who come from a distant part of the country. There are several low benches near the foot of the temple, on which the person who comes to pray, places his offering, commonly consisting of boiled rice, a plate of sweetmeats, or cocoa nuts fried in oil. See Major SYMES' Embassy to the Kingdom of Ava.