726.

The diet of the Egyptians consists principally of spelt, a kind of corn which some call zea (far, olyra, or bearded wheat). (HERODOT. Euterpe, xxxvi, lxxvii.) -This species of wheat, which grows in Egypt. does actually bear, when perfect, seven ears (Gen. xli. 5) in one stalk, as its natural conformation. It has a solid stem, or at least, a stem full of pith. See a figure of it in Frag. to CALMET'S Dict. no. cxlvii, p. 108.

See No. 615, 292.

727. Seed-time and harvest happen in Egypt otherwise and in other seasons than they generally do in temperate climes. Instead of sowing there in September or October, after having with great toil and pains several times plowed over the lands to be sowed, they were content in Egypt to scatter their corn in November on the mud which the Nile had left on the plains, and to cover it by making a furrow of no great depth with a very small plough. Whereas the corn, in almost every other part of the world, is nine or ten months on the ground, and sometimes eleven, before it is gathered; in Egypt, four or five months are sufficient to get in, comparatively at no expense and without trouble, the most perfect and most plentiful harvest.

DIODORUS, l. 1; and ABBE PLUCHE,
Hist. of the Heavens, vol. i. p. 12.

[Exod. x. 13, 14.] And the LORD brought an east wind upon the land all that day, and all that night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts. And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt.

728. [Rev. ix. 3.] May 16th, 1800, in the evening a flight of locusts passed over Mundium. It extended in length, probably, about three miles; its width was about a hundred

yards, and its height fifty feet. The insects passed from west to east in the direction of the wind, at the rate of six or seven miles an hour. The whole ground and every tree and bush, was covered with them; but each individual halted for a very short time on any one spot. They went in a very close body, and left behind them a very few stragglers. In an hour after the flock had passed, few were to be discovered in the neighbourhood of the town. The stragglers from the grand body did not extend above a hundred yards on each side of it, and were perhaps not more than one to the cubic foot. In the middle of the flock four times that number must

be allowed to the same space. I could not perceive, says BUCHANAN, that in their passage they did the smallest damage to any vegetable; but I was informed, that last year a flock passed, when the crop of iola (Holcus sorghum) was young, and had entirely devoured it. The noise of this immense number of insects somewhat resembled the sound of a cataract. At a distance they appeared like a long, narrow red cloud near the horizon, which was continually varying its shape. The locusts were as large as a man's finger, and of a reddish color. Pinkerton's Coll. part xxxiv. p. 595.

729. [Joel ii. 25.] The bruchus pisi is a noxious insect, that in North America destroys whole fields of peas. There is also in Pensylvania a kind of locusts, which about every seventh year, in the middle of May come out of the ground in incredible numbers, and make, for six weeks together, such a noise in the trees and woods, that two persons who meet in such places, cannot understand each other, unless they speak louder than the locusts can chirp. During that time, they make with the sting in their tails, holes into the soft bark of the small branches or twigs; by which means these branches are ruined. They do no other harm to the trees or plants. In the interval between the years when they are so numerous, they are only seen or heard single in the woods. There is likewise a kind of caterpillars in these provinces, which, innumerable in some years, eat the leaves from the trees so completely, that the woods in the midst of summer are as naked as in winter. In this manner, great forests are periodically ruined.

In other years the grass-worms do great damage in several places, both in the meadows and corn-fields. These have been observed to settle, like great armies, chiefly in a fat soil; where the husbandmen take care to entrap them, by drawing round them narrow channels with almost perpendi cular sides when fallen into these ditches, they cannot reascend. These three sorts of insects, it seems, follow each other pretty closely. KALM was assured by many persons, that the locusts came in the first year, the caterpillars in the second, and the grass-worms in the last. This, he adds, I have found partly true, by my own experience.

See Pinkerton's Coll. of Voy. and
Trav. part liii. p. 505.

[Exod. x. 22.] And there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days.

730. [Exod. x. 23.] We have seen the higher parts of a country, says GEDDES, and the more remote from rivers, perfectly clear when the lower and circumfluvial parts were covered with mist; and we have had almost palpable darkness in London, when there was none at Hampstead.

Critical Remarks, p. 203.

735. [Exod. xii. 8.] The Essenes, according to PHILO, contented themselves with adding only to their bread a little hyssop. Long Livers, p. 121.

PILLAR OF A CLOUD.

THE PASSOVER.

731. [Exod. xii. 8.] And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.

In celebrating the marriages of the Roman Pontiffs, the ceremony consisted in the young couple's eating a cake together, made only of wheat, salt, and water; part of which, along with other sacrifices, was, in a solemn manner, offered religiously by the priests as essential to the rites of marriage.

Dr. W. ALEXANDER's Hist. of Women, vol. ii. p. 251.

In this view, the Passover, as instituted by Moses, and re-established by Jesus Christ, is to be regarded as the true marriage-feast between the Lord God and his church, equally in the Jewish, and in the Christian covenant.-Behold! I (willing to become the Bridegroom) stand at the door (of my beloved), and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me (in the celestial marriage). Rev. iii. 20. Psal. xxiv. 9.

732. [Exod. xii. 42.] Accordingly, in after ages, at the feast of unleavened bread, called the Passover, the priests were accustomed to open the temple gates just after midnight, JOSEPH. Antiq. b. xviii. c, ii. § 2.

733. [Exod. xii. 7.] In Greece, it was customary for a lover to deck the door of the house where his fair one lived with flowers and garlands, to make libations of wine before it, and sprinkle the entrance with the same liquor.

Dr. W. ALEXANDER'S Hist. of Women, vol. ii. p. 152.

734. [Exod. xii. 11.] TECLA, an Abyssinian monk, in an account of the ritual of his church communicated to the Jesuit missionaries, says, that they celebrate monthly love-feasts with leavened bread; and on the Thursday before Easter, celebrate with unleavened bread an annual sacrament, when they communicate in both kinds, and receive the Eucharist standing. This is the closest imitation of the original rite preserved in any Christian church.

Month. Mag. for May, 1814, p. 333.

[Exod. xiii. 21.] And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light.

736. [Exod. xl. 34.] This cloud was not so very deep and thick as is seen in the winter season, nor yet so thin as that men might be able to discern any thing through it; but from it there dropped a sweet dew, and such as shewed the PRESENCE OF GOD to those that desired and believed it.

JOSEPH. Antiq. b. iii. ch. viii. § 5.

737. [Exod. xxxiii. 9, 10.] Was the cloudy pillar, externally considered, of the nature of a water-spout? If so, the following account will be interesting-In Captain Cook's passage from Dusky Bay to Queen Charlotte's Sound, "there appeared, at the distance of two or three miles from the ship, a remarkably large water-spout. Its progressive motion was not in a straight, but in a crooked line, and passed within fifty yards of the stern, without their feeling any of its effects. The diameter of the base of this spout was judged to be about fifty or sixty feet. From this a tube or round body was formed, by which the water, or air, or both, was carried in a spiral stream up to the clouds. Some of the sailors said that, in another water-spout which appeared at the same time, they saw a bird whirled round like the fly of a jack, as it was carried upwards. From the ascending motion of the bird, and several other circumstances, it is very plain, that these spouts are caused by whirlwinds; and that the water in them was violently hurried upwards, and did not descend from the clouds, as is generally supposed. The first appearance of them is by the violent agitation and rising up of the water; and, presently after, you see a round column or tube forming from the clouds above, which apparently descends till it joins the agitated water below. Captain Cook says, apparently, because he believes it not to be so in reality, but that the tube is already formed from the agitated water below, and ascends, though at first it is either too small or too thin to to be seen. When the tube is formed, or becomes visible,

its apparent diameter increases until it is pretty large; after that, it decreases; and, at last, it breaks or becomes invisible towards the lower part, Soon after, the sea below resumes its natural state; and the tube is drawn, by little and little, up to the clouds, where it is dissipated."

X

MAVOR,

741. [Exod. xiv. 19.] We learn from XENOPHON, that while Cyrus and Cyaxares, heading an army of Medes and Persians, lay encamped in the enemy's country, the army of the Babylonians, Lydians, and Egyptians, far superior in number, came up with them unexpectedly. "On this," says he, they did not by night kindle their fires in the centre of the camp, but in the front of it; that, if any of the enemy should move in the night, they might see and not be seen of them, by means of the fire. They also frequently placed the fire in the rear of the camp to deceive the enemy, which occasioned their scouts to fall in with the out-guards; because the fires were behind the camp, whereas they supposed themselves to be at a considerable distance, as believing the fire was in its ordinary place."

Bib. Research. vol. ii. p. 326.

When the people of Egypt travel, by night they rarely make use of tents, but lie in the open air, having large lanterns made like a pocket paper lantern, the bottom and top being of copper tinned over, and instead of paper they are made with linen, which is extended by hoops of wire, so that when it is put together it serves as a candlestick, &c, and they have a contrivance to hang it up abroad by means of three staves.

РОСОСКЕ,

THE DIVIDING OF THE WATERS OF THE RED SEA.

[Exod. xiv. 21.] And the LORD caused the sca to go back by a strong east wind.

742. [Exod. x. 19.] In the Red Sea there is a weed called in the Ethiopic sufo, which grows also in great quantities in India and in divers parts of Asia. From it they prepare

a food like almond-milk; and extract from its flowers a red color, used for dyeing cloth in Ethiopia and India (See Ezek. xxvii. 16). As this weed, its seed, food, flower and color, are all denominated sufo; and as the sea it grows in lies between Ethiopia and Palestine, where sufo and suph or suf respectively signify rubrum, red; it hence appears, that in Jerome's translation this sea is called Mare Rubrum, and in ours the Red Sea, not from any such color appearing in its water, but from the weed suf, which BRUCE (Trav. vol. ii. p. 138) declares to be a coral. Wisdom xix. 7. See the Portuguese Manuscript translated by Sir PETER WYCHE, p. 66.

744. [Exod. xiv. 2.] The entrance into the Red Sea is called by the Arabians the gate of tears, because that part of the ocean is extremely dangerous.

Works of Sir W. JONES, vol. v. p. 583.

745. [Exod. xiv. 21.] An east wind would necessarily drive the waters of the ocean into the Red Sea, through the Straits of Babelmandel, and raise the surface of the water higher than usual. But the Alexandrian and Vatican copies of the SEPTUAGINT agree, that the wind, on that occasion, was a south-wind.

746.

See the Map in Biblical Research. vol. i. p. 16.

Such a wind, sweeping along the eastern coast of Africa and of Arabia Felix, and driving the waters of the ocean back from the mouth of the Strait of Babelinandel towards the Persian Gulph, would naturally, in consequence of the projecting coast of Aden and Cape Guardafui, draw off the waters from the Red Sea, and lower them greatly; especially if that wind co-operated with a strong ebbing of the tide from the coast of Arabia, as was most probably the case. (KING'S Morsels of Criticism, p. 87.)-But would not such a wind also, carry away with it all the hosts of Israel?

747. [Exod. xiv. 28.] In general the tides rise highest and strongest in those seas that are narrowest, At the mouth of the Indus the water rises and falls full 30 feet. The tides are remarkably high on the coast of Malay; in the straits of Sunda; in the Red Sea, along the coasts of China, Japan, &c.

JOYCE's Dialogues, on Astronomy, p. 175.

748.

When the emperor Valens was at Marcinopolis, in his way to Syria, such a tempest happened, and such agitation of the sea, that in some places small ships were driven over the walls of houses, and in others the largest vessels left dry on the sand. The inhabitants of the city, going out to plunder, were overtaken by the returning tide and buried in the waves. (See BRUN's Version of BarHebræus, p. 67.)—And in South America, the waters of the river Plata were, in the month of April 1793, forced by a most impetuous storm of wind to the distance of ten leagues; so that the neighbouring plains were entirely inundated, and the bed of the river left dry. Ships, sunk for more than thirty years, were uncovered, and among others an English vessel cast away in 1762. Several persons walked in the bed of the river without wetting their feet, and returned with silver and other riches long buried under the water. This continued three days, at the end of which the waters returned with great violence to their natural bed.

See No. 85 of the Observer for July 1793.

749. [Exod. xiv. 21.] A remarkable phenomenon occurs in the sea of Azof during violent east winds: the sea retires in so singular a manner, that the people of Tanganrog are able to effect a passage upon dry land to the opposite coast; a distance of 20 versts, equal to fourteen miles: but when the wind changes, and this it sometimes does very suddenly, the waters return with such rapidity to their wonted bed, that many lives are lost. The depth here is five fathoms.

750.

Dr. CLARKE'S Trav. in Russia, &c. part i. p. 324.

Notwithstanding the natural rapidity of the Rhone, its course has been sometimes stopped by a strong westerly wind, such as happened in the winter of 1645, which not only unroofed the houses at Geneva, but laid bare the channel of the river, above the bridge, for the space of an bour, after which it resumed its course. GALLASIUS, in his commentary on Exodus, relates, that a similar accident happened at Geneva, when he was minister there, a southwest wind causing the Rhone to recoil into the lake, and affording a dry passage for an hour together.

SMITH. Also Wonders of Nature and
Art, vol. ii. p. 100, Note.

trembled and shook, when-in the sea-thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron, Psal. Ixxvii. 18, 19, 20.—At Plymouth, about 3 o'clock on Friday morning, May 31st, 1811, the sea suddenly fell to the depth of from four to eight feet, and rose again in the same proportion. This alternation continued at intervals tilf nearly 7 o'clock: during which period the vessels in Catwater, and Sutton Pool, were observed to be greatly agitated; those in the former harbour dragging their anchors and drifting in various directions: two of them lost their bowsprits by running foul of each other during the swell, and others received damage but not to any considerable extent. Those in Sutton Pool were afloat and aground in the short space of five minutes, the water falling and rising full cleven feet in that short period.-A similar bore came into Sutton Pool in 1755, at the time of the earthquake at Lisbon; and also in 1781, previous to the earthquake at Quito in South America. There was also a similar one, when the earthquake took place in Calabria: and it is apprehended that some event of a like nature has occasioned the present phenomenon. Plymouth Chronicle, June 15, 1811.

:

GARNETI'S Tour in Scotland, vol. i. p. 44:

753. [Exod. xiv. 26.] In the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, the bar at the mouth of the Tagus was seen dry from shore to shore; then suddenly the sea, like a mountain, came rolling in and about Bellem castle the water rose 50 feet almost in an instant and had it not been for the great bay opposite to the city, which received and spread the great flux, the low part of it must have been under water.-Suppose earthquakes to have their origin under ground, and we need not go far in search of a cause, whose real existence in nature we have evidence of, and which is capable of producing all the appearances of these extraordinary motions. The cause I mean, says the Rev. JOHN MITCHELL, M. A. is subterraneous fires. These fires, if a large quantity of water should be let out upon them suddenly, may produce a vapor, whose quantity and elastic force may be fully sufficient for that purpose, by raising the roof over the fire, &c. &c. Abridg. Phil. Trans. vol. xi. op. 464-448.

754. [Exod. xiv. 22.] Let no one, says JOSEPHUS, wonder at this account of a way of safety being opened to those old-world innocent folks, even through the sea, whether by the will of God or naturally; since, of later days, the Pamphylion Sea opened a way for Alexander's army, when God, through him, had decrced to overturn the Persian empire. (Antiq. l. ii. c. 16. § 5.)—And in the year 1672, when the English fleet attempted to make a descent on Holland, they were prevented by a singular occurrence :-When they arrived at the Dutch coast it was low water; so they were obliged to wait for the tide. The tide came, but lasted only two or three hours, when it stood still until a new ebb supervened and in the mean time the appearance of admiral Ruyter with the Dutch fleet obliged the English to abandon their enterprise and thus Holland was saved from impending ruin. This, says Burnet, was considered as a miracle. See Dr. GEDDES' Critical Remarks, p. 226.

MANNA.

760. [Exod. xvi. 13.] And it came to pass, that at even the quails came up, and covered the camp; aad in the morning, the dew lay round about the host.

Mahomet, in the Alcoran, speaks of the miracle that God performed in favor of the Israelites, by sending them flesh. He makes use of the same word with Moses. (Moses says selav, and Mahomet says salva.) One of his interpreters, Houssain Vaez, (vide Bibl. Orient. p. 749, col. i.) says, that the word salva does not only signify quails, but also honey. (CALMET'S Dictionary, vol. ii. art. Quails.) -Now, in the morning, as Moses lifted up his hands in prayer to the Lord, the dew fell down about the camp, and sticking to his hands, he supposed that it was also come for food from God to them; he tasted it, and perceiving that the people knew not what it was, and thought it snowed, and that it was what usually fell at that time of the year, he informed them, that this dew did not fall from heaven after the manner they imagined, but came for their preservation and sustenance. So he tasted it, and gave them some of it, that they might be satisfied about what he had told them. They also imitated their conductor, and were pleased with the food. It was like honey in sweetness, and of a pleasant taste; in its body it was like to bdellium, one of the sweet spices, and in bigness equal to coriander seed. Wisdom xvi. 20.

JOSEPH. Antiq. b. iii. c. i. § 6.

761. [Exod. xvi. 31.] This (vegetable) secretion (the miliary sweat), has not the sweet taste like that of the honeydew, but consists of mucilage; which, as the watery part evaporates by heat, remains on the plant in very small round hard globules, like millet seeds, whence their name. I once, says Dr. DARWIN, witnessed a very similar appearance of minute hard round globules on the skin in a miliary fever, which easily