fyftem of his great mafter, beginning with the Mammalia. Among these the leaft known are the MUS JACULUS, and the HIPPOPOTAMUS. The firft of these animals is thus characterized by Linnæus in his Syftema Nature: Mus cauda elongata floccofa palmis pentadactylis, plantis trydactylis, femoribus longiffimis, bractiis breviffimis. This animal, fays our Author, is the fize of a large mouse it fupports itfelf only on its hind-legs, and therefore hops or jumps in its progreffive motion. When it refts it clofes its feet to its belly, and fits on its knees bent. It holds its victuals with its fore-feet, as do the rest of this tribe. It fleeps in the day-time, and wakes at night; eats wheat, wheat-bread, and the feeds of oily grain; is not much afraid of man, yet is not eafily tamed: and for this reafon is always kept in a cage. It is met with in Egypt, or between Egypt and Arabia. The Arabians call it Garbuka; the French who live in Egypt, Rat de Montagne. This animal has been called by fome naturalifts Cuniculus Minor, by others, Lepus Indicus. To the preceding account our Author fubjoins the following fenfible reflection: If one should follow the method of the ancients in defcribing this animal, we might fay, it had a head like a hare; whiskers like a fquirrel; the fnout of a hog; a body, ears, and fore-legs like a moufe; hind-legs like a bird; with the tail of a lion. What a monftrous animal would this feem to be! and had it been delineated 2000 years ago, it would at this day have been accounted a monfter. To this manner of defcribing, do moft monftrous animals owe their origin, as griffins, unicorns,' &c.

The HIPPOPOTAMUS is thus characterized by Linnæus: Dentes primores fuperiores 6, per paria remati; inferiores 4. prominentes, intermediis recta protenfis. Lenarii folitarii, oblique truncati. Pedes margine unguiculati. As this prodigious animal is an inhabitant of upper Egypt, never defcending below the cataracts of the Nile, the Doctor had no opportunity of seeing it himself. The following particulars concerning it were related to him by a perfon of credit who had refided many years in Egypt, viz. Its hide is a load for a camel. It deftroys the crocodile whenever they meet. He is fo voracious, as in a very short time to destroy a whole field of corn; to prevent which, the inhabitants lay a Targe quantity of pease in his way, which having devoured, he becomes violently thirfty, returns to the river and drinks a vaft quantity of water, which, fwelling the peafe in his belly, proves the caule of his immediate death.

Birds make the fecond clafs of animals obferved by our Author in the courfe of his travels. Among these the following are the moft remarkable.

ARDEA IBIS. By Linnæus, thus defcribed; capite lævi, corpore albo, reftro flavefcente apice pedibufque mgris. According to our Author, it is the fize of a raven, it feeds on infects and finall

frogs,

frogs, which abound in Egypt after the inundation of the Nile. I am inclined, fays the Doctor, to believe this bird to be the Ibis of the ancient Egyptians, rather than any other, because it is: 1. very common in Egypt, and almoft peculiar to this country; 2., it cats and deftroys ferpents; 3. the urns found in the fepulchres contain a bird of this fize.'

TETRAO COTURNIX. The quail. It is of the size of a turtle-dove. I have met with it in the wilderness of Palestine, -near the fhores of the Dead Sea and Jordan, and between Jordan and Jerico, and in the defarts of Arabia Petræa. If the food of the Ifraelites in the defarts was a bird, this is certainly it, being fo common in the places through which they paffed."

In fpeaking of the common pigeon, our Author obferves, that the builds her neft in the following manner: The male gathers ftraw, &c. and carries it to the fitting female; but he gives it to her in a very peculiar manner, leaning his neck over her's, fo that the receives the materials from the opposite fide, and lays them under her belly, building a round neft.'.

Among the third class of animals, viz. AMPHIBIA, the first which claims attention is the Lacerta Chameleon. fays the Doctor, the remains, of various infects in its ftomach, I found, viz. tipula, coccionelle and butterflies. I faw part of an entire ear of barley in the excrement, which is very fingular. I could not find the vefica urinaria. This animal is very fubject to the jaundice, especially if it is made angry. It seldom changes, unless it is made angry, from black to yellow, or greenish colour, that of its gall; which laft, being transmitted into its blood, appears very plain, as the mufcles of the Chameleon are very thin, and the fkin pellucid. This lizard, of which the ancients have related fo many true and fabulous ftories, and which is known to all writers of natural hiftory under the compound name of Chamæleo, I procured alive, about the time when the spring had induced it to leave its winter retreat. This elegant creature is frequently found in the neighbourhood of Smyrna here it climbs the trees and runs among the ftones.' After mentioning the common opinions concerning this animal, namely, that it affumes the colour of every object it approaches, and lives entirely upon air, he proceeds thus: I will now reJate what I obferved myfelf, in one I kept alive a confiderable time. I could never obferve that it affumed the colour of any painted object prefented to its view, though I have made many experiments with all kinds of colours, on different things, flowers, cloth, paintings, &c. Its natural colour is irongrey, or black mixed with a little grey. This it fometimes changes, and becomes entirely of a brimstone yellow, which is the colour I have seen it most frequently affume. I have feen it aflume a darker yellow, approaching fomewhat to a green; fometimes

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fometimes a lighter, at which time it rather inclined to a white. I have not obferved it to affume any other colours. It changes colour especially on two occafions, viz. on being exposed to the beams of the fun, and when made angry, which I effected by pointing at it with my finger. When it was changing from black to yellow, the foles of its feet, its head, and the bag under Its throat, began first to change. I faw it feveral times speckled with large black fpots over its whole body, which gave it an elegant appearance. When it was of an iron-grey colour, it extended its fides, or ribs, and hypochondria, which made the skin fit close to the body, and it appeared plump and handsome; but as foon as it turned yellow, it contracted thofe parts, appearing thin, empty, lean and ugly; and the nearer it approached to white, the emptier and uglier it seemed; but it appeared worst in regard to shape, when it was fpeckled.' He farther informs us, that it lived 24 days without food, continuing brisk and lively all the time; but that, at length, it became very feeble, and, being bit by a turtle, expired.

In clafs the fourth, viz. FISHES, we find nothing very remarkable exccpt the Silurus Clarias. Vide Syftema Natura Linnai, N. 15. It lives, fays our Author, in the Nile, and is called Scheilan by the Arabians. If it pricks any one with the bone of the breaft-fin, it is dangerous, being poisonous. I have feen the cook of a Swedish merchant-fhip die of the prick of this fish.'

The fifth clafs confifts of INSECTS. Here the Doctor's obfervations concerning the Gryllys Arabicus, (Arabian Locust) deferve attention. Thofe who are acquainted with fcripture controverfy know that John's feeding upon locufts in the wilderness hath been to many a ftumbling block, locufts being supposed unnatural food; and that, in order to render the story probable, they are of opinion that the angides of John were either fome kind of fruit or fowl. Our Traveller, ever attentive to any thing which might tend to illuftrate or explain the facred writings, determined, during his ftay in Egypt, to learn, if poffible, whether locufts make any part of the food of the present inhabitants of the country where John dwelt. He obferves, that, Arabia being inacceffible to Europeans, all that can be learnt concerning this matter must be gathered from the report of others. Accordingly he enquired of Armenians, Grecians, Coptites, and Syrians, who all anfwered in the affirmative. But, fays the Door, the informations I had from Greeks, who had travelled to Mount Sinai, are those I can moft depend on; for the Grecian church has a noted convent there. The Arabians live in the places adjacent.' From a learned and ingenious Scheck*,

A kind of magiftrate, or chief, or lawyer, among the Arabs.

with whom he was acquainted at Cairo, he obtained the following answers to his question, Whether the Arabs feed on Locusts?

At Mecca, which is furnifhed with corn from Egypt, there, frequently rages a famine, when there is a fcarcity in Egypt. The people here are then obliged, as in all other places of the world, to fupport life with unufual food. Locufts obtain a place then amongst their victuals: they grind them to flower in their hand-mills, or powder them in ftone mortars. They mix this flower with water, to a dough, and make thin cakes of it, which they bake like other bread, on a heated griddle.' I then asked, continues he, whether the Arabs do not ufe Locufts without being driven by neceflity? He answered, that it is not uncommon to fee them eat Locufts when there is no famine; but then they boil them a good while in water, afterwards stew them with butter, and make a fort of fricaffee, which has no bad tafte.' I farther afked, fays the Doctor, Whether the Locufts of the Arabians were different from thofe in Egypt? He anfwered, No.'

After mentioning the common Bee, Apis mellifera, The Egyptian Bee-hives, fays our Author, are very fingular in their kind. They are made of coal-duft and clay, which being well blended together, they form of the mixture a hollow cylinder of a fpan diameter, and as long as they pleafe, from fix to twelve feet: this is dried in the fun, and becomes fo hard that it may be handled at will. I faw fome thousands of thefe hives at a village between Damiata and Manfora; they compofed a wall round a houfe, after having become unferviceable in the use they were firft made for.'

CANCER CURSOR. The Running Crab: This infect is thus diftinguished by Linnæus: Thorace lævi integerrimo, lateribus poftice marginato, antennis fiffilibus, cauda reflexa. It is an inha bitant of the fea-coaft of Egypt and Syria. It generally iffues forth from the fea about fun-fet, and is feen running with great celerity along the fand. It has very fingular appendices to its tail, and its eyes are fixed in the antenna.

The only animals mentioned by Dr. Haffelquift in the fixth clafs, which (according to the Linnæan fyftem) confifts of VERMES, are the Sepia octopodia, the Cuttle-fifh, and the Pinna muricata. The Cuttle-fifh, fays he, is the most inveterate enemy of the latter, rufhing in, and devouring it as foon as it opens the fhell, unless prevented; but there being always one or more of the Cancer pinnatheris in the fhell, which always keep in the mouth of it, and as the enemy advances, he gives notice of the danger, and the Pinna fhuts her fhell. He is permitted to live within the fhell as a recompence for his trouble.'

We come now to the botanical part of this curious work, whence

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whence we shall select the Author's account of those plants which are leaft generally known.

• CORNUCOPIE CUCULATUM. I found this plant the 220 of March, in the neighbourhood of Smyrna, towards Barnaba. It is one of those I was very defirous of feeing. It is a grafs in appearance quite different from all of its tribe. I was the more rejoiced to find it, as it has been seen and described by very few botanists in its natural ftate. It is to be found in the vales round Smyrna, and has not been met with growing wild in any other place; nor has it ever entered any botanical garden.' 'Thofe who are defirous of feeing Linnæus's defcription of this plant, will find it among the Triandria Digynia, No. 72. in the Genera Plantarum, and page 79. in the Species.. This plant was fent many years ago from Smyrna by Dr. Sherard to Mr. Petiver in England, who, in his Gazophylacium, Vol. I. plate 73. has given a good figure of it. He calls it the Smyrna Club rufh, with crooked heads.

MIMOSA NILOTICA. This plant, and not the Mimofa Se negal, produces the Gummi Aralicum. Both fpecies grow together promifcuously: hence it happened that the latter having been by chance brought to Europe, instead of the firft, and Alpinus not having diftinguished one from the other, the Mimofa Senegal was by all writers in Botany and the Materia Medica, believed to be the true plant which produced the above mentioned gum.'

We shall now pafs on to the chapter which treats of plants, animals, &c. mentioned in fcripture.

Luke xvii. ver. 6. σuxaμivos. Chrift certainly meant the Sycamore of the ancients, and Pharaoh's Fig-tree of the Egyptians, which the Arabians call Guimez, when he pointed to a large tree, he faid the difciples might, by faith, remove it into the fea; for fuch there are now in Judea and Galilee, where Christ then was. Luther, therefore, tranflated it very badly in calling it a mulberry-tree, which is neither congruent with fcripture nor natural hiftory.'

Luke xix. ver. 4. σuxoμoupía. The tree on which little Zachæus climbed near Jericho, to fee Christ pass. The Greek text fhews it was a Sycamore; therefore the Roman Catholics, Greeks and Armenians, are led into an error, when they vifit the holy places, for they are fhewn a tree of a different genus.'

Allium cepa. That this was one of the fpecies of onions for which the Ifraelites longed, we may guefs by the quantity to this day used in Egypt, and by their goodness there. Whoever has tafted onions in Egypt, muft allow that none can be had better in any part of the universe.

Leo, The Lion. This is not met with in Syria or Paleftine; but in great numbers at Babylon, now Bagdad. It is not

an