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ground, were the emblems of peace, universally employed | and understood by the numerous and untutored inhabitants of the South Sea islands. The origin of a custom, thus received and religiously observed, by nations dwelling on opposite sides of the globe, who never had the smallest intercourse with one another, must be sought for near the beginning of time, when the inhabitants of our earth, forming but one family, lived under the gentle sway of their common parent. Dr. Chandler, indeed, is of opinion, that the idea of reconciliation and peace was not associated with the olive branch till ages long posterior to the deluge. The olive groves, he argues, are the usual resort of doves, and other birds, that repair to them for food; and thus endeavours to find a natural connexion between the dove of Noah and the olive leaf. The olive might, he thinks, be the only tree which had raised its head above the subsiding waters, near the place where the ark was floating, although it is only of a middling height; but if the dove saw a great number of other trees above the water, the habits of the bird naturally led it to the olive plantation for shelter and food, in preference to all others. But the greater part of this reasoning avowedly rests upon mere assumption; and although the olive grove may be the favourite retreat of the dove, how are we to account for the olive branch being chosen by almost every nation, from the remotest times, for the symbol of reconciliation and peace? It is far more probable, that the dove was directed by the finger of God to prefer the olive leaf, or a sprig of olive leaves, as being the symbol of peace with which Noah was already acquainted, or that it might, in future, be the token of reconciliation between God and his offending creatures, and between one nation and another.-PAXTON.

CHAP. 9. ver. 4. But flesh, with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.

Mr. Bruce has given a very extraordinary account of the practice of eating blood in Abyssinia. This custom, so prevalent in several places, is forbidden in the scriptures. A recital of the narrative will probably suggest to the reader the reasons of the prohibition. Mr. Bruce tells us, that, "not long after our losing sight of the ruins of this ancient capital of Abyssinia, we overtook three travellers driving a cow before them: they had black goatskins upon their shoulders, and lances and shields in their hands; in other respects they were but thinly clothed; they appeared to be soldiers. The cow did not seem to be fattened for killing, and it occurred to us all, that it had been stolen. This, however, was not our business, nor was such an occurrence at all remarkable in a country so long engaged in war. We saw that our attendants attached themselves, in a particular manner, to the three soldiers that were driving the cow, and held a short conversation with them. Soon after, we arrived at the hithermost bank of the river, where I thought we were to pitch our tent: the drivers suddenly tripped up the cow, and gave the poor animal a very rude fall upon the ground, which was but the beginning of her sufferings. One of them sat across her neck, holding down her head by the horns, the other twisted the halter about her fore feet, while the third, who had a knife in his hand, to my very great surprise, in place of taking her by the throat, got astride upon her belly, before her hind legs, and gave her a very deep wound in the upper part of the buttock. From the time I had seen them throw the beast upon the ground, I had rejoiced, thinking that when three people were killing a cow, they must have agreed to sell part of her to us; and I was much disappointed upon hearing the Abyssinians say, that we were to pass the river to the other side, and not encamp where I intended. Upon my proposing they should bargain for part of the cow, my men answered, what they had already learned in conversation, that they were not then to kill her: that she was not wholly theirs, and they could not sell her. This awakened my curiosity; I let my people go forward, and stayed myself, till I saw, with the utmost astonishment, two pieces, thicker and longer than our ordinary beef steaks, cut out of the bigher part of the buttock of the beast: how it was done I cannot positively say, because, judging the cow was to be killed from the moment I saw the knife drawn, I was not anxious to view that catastrophe, which was by no means an object of curiosity: whatever way it was done, it surely was adroitly,

and the two pieces were spread upon the outside of one of their shields. One of them still continued holding the head, while the other two were busy in curing the wound. This, too, was done not in an ordinary manner. The skin, which had covered the flesh that was taken away, was left entire, and flapped over the wound, and was fastened to the corresponding part by two or more small skewers or pins. Whether they had put any thing under the skin, between that and the wounded flesh, I know not; but, at the river-side where they were, they had prepared a cataplasm of clay, with which they covered the wound; they then forced the animal to rise, and drove it on before them, to furnish them with a fuller meal when they should meet their companions in the evening." (Travels, vol. iii. p. 142.) "We have an instance, in the life of Saul, that shows the propensity of the Israelites to this crime: Saul's army, after a battle, flew, that is, fell voraciously upon the cattle they had taken, and threw them upon the ground to cut off their flesh, and eat them raw; so that the army was defiled by eating blood, or living animals. 1 Sam. xiv. 33. To prevent this, Saul caused to be rolled to him a great stone, and ordered those that killed their oxen, to cut their throats upon that stone. This was the only lawful way of killing animals for food; the tying of the ox, and throwing it upon the ground, were not permitted as equivalent. The Israelites did probably, in that case, as the Abyssinians do at this day; they cut a part of its throat, so that blood might be seen on the ground, but nothing mortal to the animal followed from that wound: but, after laying his head upon a large stone, and cutting his throat, the blood fell from on high, or was poured on the ground like water, and sufficient evidence appeared that the creature was dead, before it was attempted to eat it. We have seen that the Abyssinians came from Palestine a very few years after this, and we are not to doubt, that they then carried with them this, with many other Jewish customs, which they have continued to this day." (BRUCE's Travels, vol. iii. p. 299.) To corroborate the account given by Mr. Bruce, in these extracts, may be satisfactory to affix what Mr. Antes has said upon the subject, in his Observations on the Manners and Customs of the Egyptians, p. 17. "When Mr. Bruce returned from Abyssinia, I was at Grand Cairo. I had the pleasure of his company for three months almost every day, and having, at that time, myself an idea of penetrating into Abyssinia, I was very inquisitive about that country, on hearing many things from him which seemed almost incredible to me; I used to ask his Greek servant Michael, (a simple fellow, incapable of any invention,) about the same circumstance, and must say, that he commonly agreed with his master, as to the chief points. The description Mr. Bruce makes concerning the bloody banquet of live oxen among the natives, he happened never to mention to me, else I could have made the same inquiry; but I heard not only this servant, but many eyewitnesses, often speak of the Abyssinians eating raw meat." On the general veracity of Bruce as a traveller, Madden observes, "Whatever have been the petty jealousy and egotism of Bruce, he was an enterprising and intelligent traveller; and his general descriptions are better entitled to credit than those of the travellers who have reviled him. Mr. Coffin has just arrived here after a residence of eighteen years in Abyssinia: this gentleman assures me, that those points in his travels which are most disputed in England, are the points which are most correct: he showed me how the flesh was taken from the glutæi muscles of the living bullock, dissected out without wounding the blood vessels. Mr. Coffin performed this operation here upon the living animal, in presence of Lord Prudhoe, and Mr. Burton, one of our most intelligent travellers."-MADDEN'S TRAVELS.

Ver. 29. And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years: and he died.

In asking the age of a child or a man, the inquiry is not how many years, but, "Days how many?"-In speaking of a man who will die soon-"Ah! in five years his days will be gone. That young man has gray hairs; to him how many days? he has seen twenty-six years."-ROBERTS.

CHAP. 11. ver. 1. And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.

See on ver. 4, and on chap. 2. 20.

18

GENESIS.

Ver. 3. And they said one to another, Go to, let
us make brick, and burn them thoroughly.
And they had brick for stone, and slime had
they for mortar.

In con

The soil of ancient Assyria and Babylonia consists
of a fine clay, mixed with sand, with which, as the waters
of the river retire, the shores are covered. This compost,
when dried by the heat of the sun, becomes a hard and
solid mass, and forms the finest material for the beautiful
bricks for which Babylon was so celebrated. We all
put to the test the adaptation of this mud for pottery, by
taking some of it while wet from the bank of the river, and
then moulding it into any form we pleased. Having been
exposed to the sun for half an hour, it became as hard as
stone. These remarks are important, as the indications of
buildings throughout this region are different from those
of other countries, the universal substitution of brick for
stone being observable in all the numerous ruins we visit-
ed, including those of the great cities of Seleucia, Ctesi-
phon, and of the mighty Babylon herself, for which we
have the authority of Scripture, that her builders "had
brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar.'
sequence of this circumstance, the ruins now before us,
which our guide called Mumliheh, instead of showing
fragments of pillars, or any marks by which we might con-
jecture the order of architecture, exhibit an accumulation
of mounds, which, on a dead flat, soon attract the eye of a
traveller, and have at first sight the appearance of sandy
hillocks. On a nearer inspection they prove to be square
masses of brick, facing the cardinal points, and, though
sometimes much worn by the weather, built with much reg-
ularity; the neighbourhood of these large mounds is
strewed with fragments of tile, broken pottery, and manu-
factured vitreous substances.
proofs of former population, are generally to be found.
Coins, the incontestible
In this place, they are so abundant, that many persons
come from Bagdad in the dry season to search for them.
Aboo Nasir told us, that some time ago he found a pot
full of coins, and Mr. Hart picked up two, with apparently
Cufic inscriptions, but their characters were not very de-
cipherable. Near the place where they were found, was
the fragment of a vessel which had possibly contained
them.-KEPPEL.

Ver. 4. And they said, Go to, let us build us a
city, and a tower, whose top may reach unto
heaven;
and let us make us a name, lest we
be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole
earth.

The words in which they couched their daring resolu-
tion, "Let us build us a city, and a tower, whose top may
reach unto heaven," mean no more than a tower of ex-
traordinary height. Such phrases may be found in every
language; and their meaning can scarcely be misunder-
stood. When the messengers whom Moses employed to
examine the land of Canaan, returned and made their
report, they described the cities which they had visited, as
great and walled up to heaven: and Moses himself, in his
farewell address to the congregation, repeats it; "Hear,
O Israel, thou art to pass over Jordan this day, to go in to
possess nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities
great and fenced up to heaven."
phrases plainly is, that the walls of those cities were un-
The meaning of these
commonly strong and lofty. That the builders of Babel
meant no more, is further evident from the words of Jeho-
vah, recorded by Moses. "Now nothing will be restrained
from them which they have imagined to do." It is here
plainly admitted, that the design was practicable, and had
been accomplished, if God had not thought proper to
interrupt their operations. But to build a tower, the top of
which should actually reach unto heaven, is beyond the
power of mortals. The opinion of Josephus is not much
more reasonable; that their design was to raise a tower
higher far than the summits of the highest mountains, to
defend them from the waters of a second flood, of which
they were afraid. Had this been their design, they would
not have commenced their operations on the level plain,
but on the top of Ararat, where the ark rested. They had
the solemn promise of Jehovah, that he would no more

CHAP. 11.

destroy the earth by water; and beheld the ratification of it in the radiant bow of heaven, placed in the cloud to quiet the fears of guilty mortals. If the Noachida had distrusted the promise and sign of heaven, they had not hope for safety from the strength and height of their tower, descended from the mountains, where only they could into the plains of Babylonia, and fixed their abode between province is exposed. Nor could they be so infatuated as two mighty rivers, to whose frequent inundations that they must have well known, the strong barriers of nature to imagine, that a tower constructed of bricks, whether hardened in the sun, or burnt in the fire, could resist the waters of a general deluge, whose impetuous assault, as could hardly endure. Equally inadmissible is the notion, general conflagration, of which they are supposed to have that they constructed this tower to defend them from the received some obscure and imperfect notices; for in the destruction of the world, who could hope to find safety in the recesses of a tower, or on the summit of the mountains? they would rather seek for refuge from the devouring element, in the profound caverns of the earth.

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But it is vain to indulge in conjectures, when the true reason is clearly stated in the page of inspiration : "Let us build us a city, and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered clearly show, that their object in building the tower was, abroad upon the face of the whole earth." These, words to transmit a name illustrious for sublime conception and bold undertaking, to succeeding generations. In this sens the phrase, to make one's self a name, is used in other parts of Scripture. Thus, "David gat him a name when he returned from smiting of the Syrians in the valley of salt;" and the prophet informs us, that the God of Israel "led them by the right hand of Moses, with his glorious arm dividing the waters before them, to make himself an everlasting name.' They seem also to have intended it as a beacon or rallying point, to their increasing and naturally diverging families, to prevent them from separating in the boundless wilderness into independent and hostile societies. This may be inferred from these words, in which they further explain the motive of their undertaking: "lest we be scattered abroad on the face of the whole earth." They seem to have anticipated the necessity, and dreaded the consequences of dispersion; and, like all who seek to avert evil by unlawful means, they hastened, by the rash and impious measure which they adopted, the very mischief they sought to avoid. To build a city and a tower was certainly no crime; but to do this with a view merely to transmit an illustrious name to posterity, or to thwart the counsels of heaven, was both foolish and wicked, and justly excited the displeasure of the supreme Judge, who requires his rational creatures to acknowledge and to glorify him in all their undertakings.

It is by no means improbable that this tower was also intended for idolatrous purposes. began in a very remote age, and most probably under the The worship of fire direction and among the rebellious followers of Nimrod. This idea receives no small confirmation from the numerous fire towers which in succeeding ages were built in jecture be well founded, it accounts in the most satisfactory Chaldea, where the sacred fire was kept, and the religious rites in honour of the sun were celebrated. If this conbuilders, visibly and strongly marking the first combined act manner, for the sudden and effectual dispersion of the of idolatry after the flood, of which we have any notice, with the displeasure of the true God. Guilty of the same crime boasted, "Is not this great Babylon which I have builded which procured the sudden dispersion of the first settlers at Babel, was the restorer of that great city, when he proudly for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty:" and he was instantly visited with a similar punishment, but proportioned to the greater enormity of his transgression; for the place should have reminded him of the sin and punishment of his forefathers, and taught him to guard against the pride and vanity of his heart. Nebuchadnezzar was, for his wickedness, driven from his throne and kingdom, to dwell with the beasts of the field, and eat grass like times passed over him;" till the sun had seven times passed oxen, "till seven over his appointed circuit, and he had learned "that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will." But his irreligious ancestors were

punished with dispersion, by confounding their language. Till this memorable event, the inspired writer assures us, the whole earth was of one language and one speech. When Jehovah came down to see the tower which the Babylonians were building, he said, " Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language." They formed one great society, and conversed in the tongue which they had learned from those who lived before the flood; and which was the only language spoken on earth from the beginning of the world: for no hint of any confusion of language, or even material diversity of speech, before the building of Babel, is given in the sacred volume. It is exceedingly natural to suppose, that the devout Seth, and his religious descendants, would preserve with care the family tongue in which God conversed with their renowned father; in which the first promise was given to sinners, and many subsequent revelations were made. The language of our fathers is not easily changed, if we were so disposed; but no man is willing to change it; and a religious man will be yet more averse to relinquish a language which contains the only grounds of his hope, and that of the whole human race. We may therefore conclude, that since this language had so many claims on the affectionate care of Seth, he would certainly hand it down, with the gospel it contained, to his children, that they might teach it to succeeding generations, till it was received by his celebrated descendant Noah, the second father of our family. For the same reasons, which were daily receiving additional strength, Shem would preserve with pious care the sacred deposit, till he delivered it into the hands of Abraham, with whom he lived about two hundred years. The line of descent, by which the primitive language might be transmitted from Adam to Abraham, and from this patriarch to Moses, is short and straight; for between Adam and Noah were only eight persons, and the father of Noah was fifty-six years old when Adam died. The only interruption is the confusion of tongues, which happened after the flood. But though God confounded the speech of mankind at Babel, it is not said he extinguished the general language; nor that he confounded the speech of any but the colony at Babel. These only were in the transgression, and, therefore, these only were liable to the punishment. Noah, and the rest of his family, persevering in their dutiful obedience to God, undoubtedly retained their language, together with their ancient habitations. It may be urged that, by the testimony of Moses, the Lord confounded at Babel, "the language of all the earth." But the plain of Shinar could, with no propriety, be called the whole earth; nor could the inhabitants of Shinar, by any figure of speech, be entitled to that name. If mankind were in possession of a great part of the globe when the tower was built, by what rule of justice could they be punished for a crime in which they had no share, and of which multitudes of the distant settlers could not even have heard? "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" The truth of this history depends upon two terms, which admit of different senses. In the first verse of the eleventh chapter of Genesis, the sacred historian says, The whole earth was of one language and of one speech. The word (5) Col, signifies the whole, and also every; by (P) Arets, is often meant the earth, it also signifies a land or province; and occurs frequently in this latter acceptation. In this very chapter, the region of Shinar is called Arets Shinar, the land or province of Shinar; and the land of Canaan, Arets Canaan, the country of Canaan. The psalmist uses both terms in precisely the same sense: Their sound is gone out into every land," Col Arets. The words of Moses, then, ought to be rendered, Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of the whole land. If this view of the text be just, the dispersion was a partial event, and related chiefly to the sons of Cush, whose intention was to found a great, if not a universal empire; but by this judgment their purpose was defeated. The language of the whole country, Mr. Bryant thinks, was confounded, by causing a labíal failure, so that the people could not articulate. It was not an aberration, in words or language, but a failure and incapacity in labial utterance; for God said, "Go to, let us go down and confound, v, their lip, that they may not understand one another's speech." By this, their speech was confounded, but not altered; for, as soon as they separated, they recovered the true tenor of pronunciation; and the language of the earth continued,

for some ages, nearly the same. This appears, from many interviews between the Hebrews, and other nations, in which they spoke without an interpreter. Thus, when Abraham left his native country to sojourn in the land of promise, he conversed with the natives in their own language, without difficulty, though they were the descendants of Canaan, who, for his transgression at Babel, was driven, by the divine judgments, from the chosen residence of his family. The Hebrew language, indeed, seems to have been the vernacular tongue of all the nations in those parts of the world; for the patriarchs, and their descendants, so late as the days of Moses and Joshua, conversed familiarly with the inhabitants of Midian and Canaan, without the help of interpreters.-PAXTON.

CHAP. 13. ver. 3. And he went on his journeys from the south even to Beth-el, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Beth-el and Hai.

Abraham, and the other patriarchs, led a wandering shepherd's life in tents, such as the Arabs, Turcomans, and numerous tribes of eastern Asia, lead to this day in the same countries. Divided into tribes, they traverse immense tracts with their numerous herds, consisting of camels, oxen, and especially sheep and goats; and when the pasture of a district is exhausted, the tents are taken down, and the whole family, or the whole tribe, removes to another spot. "Each of these tribes," says Volney, "of the Bedouin Arabs appropriates to itself a certain tract, which it considers as its property. They differ from agricultural nations only so far, as such tracts must be far more extensive to procure subsistence for their flocks all the year round. One man's camps distributed over such a tract, form a tribe; they traverse the whole in succession, as they have consumed with their flocks the pastures in one place." The following account by PARSONS (Travels from Aleppo to Bagdad, p. 109) of the movement of an Arab horde, is illustrative of the manners of the old patriarchs. It was entertaining enough to see the horde of Arabs decamp, as nothing could be more regular. First went the sheep and goatherds, each with their flocks in divisions, according as the chief of each family directed; then followed the camels and asses, loaded with the tents, furniture, and kitchen utensils; these were followed by the old men, women, boys, and girls, on foot. The children that cannot walk are carried on the backs of the young women, or the boys and girls; and the smallest of the lambs and kids are carried under the arms of the children. To each tent belong many dogs, among which are some greyhounds; some tents have from ten to fourteen dogs, and from twenty, to thirty men, women, and children, belonging to it. The procession is closed by the chief of the tribe, whom they call emir and father, (emir means prince,) mounted on the very best horse, and surrounded by the heads of each family, all on horses, with many servants on foot. Between each family is a division or space of one hundred yards, or more, when they migrate; and such great regularity is observed, that neither camels, asses, sheep, nor dogs, mix, but each keeps to the division to which it belongs, without the least trouble. They had been here eight days, and were going four hours journey to the northwest, to another spring of water. This tribe consisted of about eight hundred and fifty men, women, and children. Their flocks of sheep and goats were about five thousand, besides a great number of camels, horses, and asses. Horses and greyhounds they breed and train up for sale: they neither kill nor sell their ewe lambs. At set times a chapter in the Koran is read by the chief of each family, either in or near each tent, the whole family being gathered round, and very attentive."

The Compte de FERRIERES SAUVEBOEUF describes the manner of an Arab horde moving to a fresh pasturage. "Their wandering life, without ambition, brings to the mind of the traveller that of the ancient patriarchs. Nothing is more interesting than their manner of changing their abode. Numerous flocks, which precede the caravan, express by their bleating, their joy at returning to their old pastures. Some beasts of burden, guided by the young men, bear the little ones just dropped, and not able to travel; then come the camels carrying the baggage, and the

old or sick women. The rest go on foot, carrying their infants on their backs or in their arms; and the men, mounted on the horses, armed with lances, ride round, or bring up the march of the cattle, which loiter behind, browsing too long a time. In this manner the Arabs journey, and find their homes, their hearths, and their country, in every place."-BURDER.

Ver. 7. And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle.

How often have I been reminded of the strife of the herdmen of the scriptures, by seeing, on a distant plain, a number of shepherds or husbandmen struggling together respecting some of the same causes which promoted strife in the patriarchal age. The fields are not, as in England, enclosed by fences; there is simply a ridge which divides one from another. Hence the cattle belonging to one person find no difficulty in straying into the field of another, and the shepherds themselves have so little principle, that they gladly take advantage of it. Nothing is more common than for a man, when the sun has gone down, thus to injure his neighbour. The time when most disputes take place, is when the paddy, or rice, has been newly cut, as the grass left among the stubble is then long and green. The herdmen at that time become very tenacious, and wo to the ox, if within reach of stick or stone, until he shall get into his own field. Then the men of the other party start up on seeing their cattle beaten, and begin to swear and declare how often the others have done the same thing. They now approach each other, vociferating the most opprobrious epithets: the hands swiftly move about in every direction; one pretends to take up a stone, or spits on the ground in token of contempt; and then comes the contest -the long hair is soon dishevelled, and the weaker fall beneath their antagonists. Then begins the beating, biting, and scratching, till in their cruel rage they have nearly destroyed some of the party. The next business is with the magistrate: all are clamorous for justice; and great must be his patience, and great his discernment, to find out the truth.

Another common cause of strife is that which took place between the herdmen of Gerar and those of Isaac. Water is at all times very precious in the East, but especially in the dry season; as the tanks are then nearly exhausted, and what remains is scarcely fit for use. At that time recourse must be had to the wells; which are often made at the expense or labour of five, ten, or twenty people. Here, then, is the cause of contention. One man has numerous herds; he gets there first, and almost exhausts the well; the others come, and, seeing what is done, begin the affray. But the most common cause of quarrel is when the owners of the well have to irrigate their lands from the same source. To prevent these contests, they have generally each an appointed time for watering their lands; or, may be, that those who get there first, shall have the privilege: but where there is so little integrity, it is no wonder there should be so much strife.-ROBERTS.

Ver. 10. And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar.

The Jordan flows from the Lake of Genesareth to the Dead Sea, between two ridges of moderately high mountains, in a valley that may be about twelve miles in breadth. This valley opens at Jericho, and encloses within it the Dead Sea, which is surrounded by a circle of mountains. Before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah there was, however, no lake here; but all this was a valley, which Moses calls the vale of Siddim. It is probable, that even at that time there was a lake under this valley, in which the Jordan discharged itself, which otherwise could have had no vent. This subterráneous lake was covered with a thick coat of earth, on which, besides Sodom and Gomorrah, other cities stood. This being the nature of the ground, it could never be deficient in the requisite moist

ure, and besides it was doubtless watered by canals supplied from the Jordan. In this view Moses compares it with Egypt, which was watered by innumerable canals led from the Nile, and cultivated like a garden.—BURDER. CHAP. 14. ver. 3. All these were joined together in the vale of Siddim, which is the salt sea.

The lake Asphaltites, or the Dead Sea, is enclosed on the east and west with exceeding high mountains; on the north it is bounded with the plain of Jericho, on which side it receives the waters of the Jordan; on the south it is open, and extends beyond the reach of the eye. It is said to be twenty-four leagues long, and six or seven broad; and is fringed with a kind of coppice of bushes and reeds. In the midst of this border, not a furlong from the sea, rises a fountain of brackish water, which was pointed out to Maundrell by his Arab conductor; a sure proof that the soil is not equally impregnated with saline particles. The ground, to the distance of half an hour from the sea, is uneven and broken into hillocks, which Mr. Maundrell compares to ruinous lime-kilns; but whether these might be the pits at which the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah were overthrown by the four kings who invaded their country, he could not determine.-PAXTON.

As it has no outlet, Reland, Pococke, and other trav ellers, have supposed that it must throw off its superfluous waters by some subterraneous channel; but, although it has been calculated that the Jordan daily discharges into it 6,090,000 tons of water, besides what it receives from the Arnon and several smaller streams, it is now known, that the loss by evaporation is adequate to explain the absorption of the waters. Its occasional rise and fall at certain seasons, is doubtless owing to the greater or less volume which the Jordan and the other streams bring down from the mountains.-MODERN TRAVELLER.

The water of the lake is intensely salt, extremely bitter and nauseous, and so heavy, that the most impetuous winds can scarcely ruffle its surface. It is called by common writers the Dead Sea, because it nourishes neither animal nor vegetable life. No verdure is to be seen on its banks, nor fish to be found within its waters; but it is not true that its exhalations are so pestiferous as to kill birds that attempt to fly over it. Mr. Maundrell saw several birds flying about, and skimming the surface of its waters, without any visible harm. The same fact is attested by Volney, who states it as no uncommon thing to see swallows dipping for the water necessary to build their nests. The true cause that deprives it of vegetables and animals, is the extreme saltness of the water, which is vastly stronger than that of the sea. The soil around it, impregnated also with salt, produces no plants; and the air itself, which becomes loaded with saline particles from evaporation, and which receives also the sulphureous and bituminous vapours, cannot be favourable to vegetation: hence the deadly aspect which reigns around this lake. The ground about it, however, is not marshy, and its waters are limpid and incorruptible, as must be the case with a dissolution of salt. Mr. Maundrell questions the truth of the common tradition, which is admitted by Volney in all its extent, that the waters of the Dead Sea are destructive to animal existence, having observed among the pebbles on the shore two or three shells of fish, resembling oyster-shells. [Mr. Madden, however, says, Travels, vol. 2, p. 210, "I found several fresh water shells on the beach, such as I before noticed of the Lake of Tiberias; and also the putrid remains of two small fish, of the size of mullet; which no doubt had been carried down from the Jordan, as well as the shells; for I am well convinced, both from my own observation and from the accounts of the Arabs, that no living creature is to be found in the Dead Sea."] That respectable traveller, willing to make an experiment of its strength, went into it, and found it bore up his body in swimming, with an uncommon force; but the relation of some authors, that men wading in it are buoyed up to the top as soon as the water reaches to the middle, he found upon experiment untrue. Pococke, however, says: "I was much pleased with what I observed of this extraordinary water, and stayed in it near a quarter of an hour. I found I could lay on it in any posture, without motion, and without sinking. It bore me up in such a manner, that, when I struck in swimming, my legs were above the water, and I found it difficult to

recover my feet. I did not care to venture where it was deep, though these effects would probably have been more remarkable farther in. They have a notion that if any one attempted to swim over, it would burn up the body; and they say the same of boats, for there are none on the lake." Van Egmont and Heyman state, that on swimming to some distance from the shore, they found themselves, to their great surprise, lifted up by the water. "When I had swam to some distance, I endeavoured to sink perpendicularly to the bottom, but could not; for the water kept me continually up, and would certainly have thrown me upon my face, had I not put forth all the strength I was master of, to keep myself in a perpendicular posture; so that I walked in the sea as if I had trod on firm ground, without having occasion to make any of the motions necessary in treading fresh water; and when I was swimming, I was obliged to keep my legs the greatest part of the time out of the water. My fellow-traveller was agreeably surprised to find that he could swim here, having never learned. But his case and mine proceeded from the gravity of the water, as this certainly does from the extraordinary quantity of salt in it." -MODERN TRAVELLER.

About six in the morning, says Mr. Madden, I reached the shore, and much against the advice of my excellent guide, I resolved on having a bath. I was desirous of ascertaining the truth of the assertion, that "nothing sinks in the Dead Sea." I swam a considerable distance from the shore; and about four yards from the beach I was beyond my depth: the water was the coldest I ever felt, and the taste of it most detestable; it was that of a solution of nitre, mixed with an infusion of quassia. Its buoyancy I found to be far greater than that of any sea I ever swam in, not excepting the Euxine, which is extremely salt. I could lie like a log of wood on the surface, without stirring hand or foot, as long as I chose; but with a good deal of exertion I could just dive sufficiently deep to cover all my body, but I was again thrown on the surface, in spite of my endeavours to descend lower. On coming out, the wounds in my feet pained me excessively; the poisonous quality of the waters irritated the abraded skin, and ultimately made an ulcer of every wound, which confined me fifteen days in Jerusalem; and became so troublesome in Alexandria, that my medical attendant was apprehensive of gangrene.-MADDEN.

The question of its specific gravity, indeed, has been set to rest by the chymical analysis of the waters made by Dr. Marcet, and published in the London Philosophical Transactions for 1807. In 1778, Messrs. Lavoisier, Macquer, and Le Sage, had concluded, by experiment, that a hundred pounds of the water contain forty-five pounds six ounces of salt; that is, six pounds four ounces of common marine salt, and thirty-eight pounds two ounces of marine salt with an earthy base. But Dr. Marcet's more accurate analysis has determined the specific gravity to be 1,211, (that of the fresh water being 1000,) a degree of density not to be met with in any other natural water; and it holds in solution the following salts, in the stated proportions to 100 grains of the water:

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So that the water of the lake contains about one fourth of its weight of salts, supposed in a state of perfect desiccation; or if they be desiccated at the temperature of 180° on Fahrenheit's scale, they will amount to forty-one per cent. of the water. Its other general properties are, that, 1. As stated by all travellers, it is perfectly transparent. 2. Its taste is extremely bitter, saline, and pungent. 3. Reagents demonstrate in it the presence of the marine and sulphuric acids. 4. It contains no alumine. 5. It is not saturated with common salt. 6. It did not change the colours of the infusions commonly used to ascertain the prevalence of an acid or an alkalí, such as litmus, violet, and tumeric.

Mr. Maundrell neither saw nor heard of the apples of Sodom, so frequently mentioned by the ancients; nor did he discover any tree near the lake, from which a fruit of that kind might be expected. It is a production which exists only in the imagination and song of the poet; and has

perhaps been kept up so long, because it furnished him with a good allusion, or helped him to a beautiful simile. Several travellers, however, claim the honour of having discovered that far-famed apple. Hasselquist says, the apple of Sodom is not the fruit either of a tree or of a shrub, but the production of the solanum melongena of Linnæus. It is found in great abundance round Jericho, in the vales near the Jordan, and in the neighbourhood of the Dead Sea. Its apples are sometimes full of dust; but this appears only when the fruit is attacked by an insect, which converts the whole of the inside into dust, leaving nothing but the rind entire, without causing it, to lose any of its colour. M. Seetzen supposes it is the fruit of a tree which grows on the plain of El Gor, near the southern extremity of the Dead Sea. The tree resembles a fig-tree, and the fruit is like the pomegranate: it struck him, that this fruit, which has no pulp or flesh in the inside, but only a species of cotton resembling silk, and is unknown in the rest of Palestine, might be the celebrated apple of Sodom. Chateaubriand imagines that he has made the interesting discovery. The shrub which bears, in his opinion, the true apple of Sodom, grows two or three leagues from the mouth of the Jordan; it is thorny, and has small taper leaves; its fruit is exactly like the little Egyptian lemon, both in size and colour: before it is ripe, it is filled with a corrosive and saline juice; when dried, it yields a blackish seed, which may be compared to ashes, and which resembles bitter pepper in taste. He gathered half a dozen of these fruits, but has no name for them, either popular or botanical. Next comes Mr. Jolliffe. He found in a thicket of brushwood, about half a mile from the plain of Jericho, a shrub of five or six feet high, on which grew clusters of fruit, about the size of a small apricot, of a bright yellow colour, "which, contrasting with the delicate verdure of the foliage, seemed like the union of gold and emeralds. Possibly, when ripe, they may crumble into dust upon any violent pressure." Those which this gentleman gathered did not crumble, nor even retain the slightest mark of indenture from the touch; they would seem to want, therefore, the most essential characteristic of the fruit in question. But they were not ripe. This shrub is probably the same as that described by Chateaubriand. Lastly, Captains Irby and Mangles have no doubt that they have discovered it in the oskar plant, which they noticed on the shores of the Dead Sea, grown to the stature of a tree; its trunk measuring, in many instances, two feet or more in circumference, and the boughs at least fifteen feet high. The filaments enclosed in the fruit, somewhat resemble the down of a thistle, and are used by the natives as a stuffing for their cushions; "they likewise twist them, like thin rope, into matches for their guns, which, they assured us, required no application of sulphur to render them combustible." This is probably the same tree that M. Seetzen refers to. But still, the correspondence to the ancient description is by no means perfect; there being little resemblance between cotton and thistle-down, and ashes or dust. M. Chateaubriand's golden fruit, full of bitter seed, comes the nearest to what is told us of the deceitful apple. If it be any thing more than a fable, it must have been a production peculiar to this part of Palestine, or it would not have excited such general attention. On this account, the oskar and the solanum seem alike unentitled to the distinction; and for the same reason, the pomegranate must altogether be excluded from consideration. The fruit of the solanum melongena, which belongs to the same genus as the common potato, is white, resembling a large egg, and is said to impart an agreeable acid flavour to soups and sauces, for the sake of which it is cultivated in the south of Europe. This could hardly be what Tacitus and Josephus referred to. It is possible, indeed, that what they describe, may have originated, like the oak-galls in this country, in the work of some insect: for these remarkable productions sometimes acquire a considerable size and beauty of colour. Future travellers will be inexcusable if they leave this question undecided. -MODERN TRAVELLER.

The far-famed fruit of the tree of Sodom, "which tempts the eye and turns to ashes on the lips," is nowhere to be found on the western shore; and Burckhardt appears to favour the opinion of its having only an imaginary existence: but it does exist in the vicinity of El Ghor. I saw one of the apples at Mar Saba; and, perhaps, the only plant in Egypt producing this fruit I discovered at Koum

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