A living writer, who has considered this subject with great attention, gives as the result of his inquiry, that the saphan of the ancient Hebrews, rendered "cony" in the English Bible, is a very different animal; that it has a nearer resemblance to the hedgehog, the bear, the mouse, the jerboa, or the marmot, though it is not any of these. It is the webro of the Arabians, the daman-Israel of Shaw, the ashkoko of Bruce, and clipdass of the Dutch.[198]

The prophet Isaiah, in recording the idolatrous and profane habits of his countrymen, mentions the "eating of swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse." This is supposed to be the jerboa, an animal common in the East, about the size of a rat, and which only uses its hindlegs. There can be little doubt that this is the creature alluded to by the Hebrew legislator when he said, "Whatsoever goeth upon its paws, among all manner of beasts that go on all four, those are unclean unto you." Hasselquist tells us that the jerboa, or leaping-rat, as he calls it, moves only by leaps and jumps. When he stops he brings his feet close under his belly, and rests on the juncture of his leg. He uses, when eating, his fore-paws, like other animals of his kind. He sleeps by day, and is in motion during the night. He eats corn, and grains of sesamum. Though he does not fear man, he is not easily tamed; for which reason he must be kept in a cage.

The porcupine, or kephad, is spoken of in the writings of Isaiah under the denomination of the bittern. "I will make Babylon a possession for the bittern and pools of water." In another chapter, the inspired author associates the kephad with the pelican, with the yanshaph or ardea ibis, and with oreb, or the raven kind; and hence a considerable difficulty has arisen in regard to the class of animals in which it ought to be ranked. Bochart had no doubt that the porcupine was in the mind of the prophet when he wrote the description of the Assyrian capital wasted and abandoned. This creature is a native of the hottest climates of Africa and India, and yet can live and multiply in milder latitudes. It is now found in Spain, and in the Apennines near Rome. Pliny asserts that the porcupine, like the bear, hides itself in winter. In a Memoir on Babylon, by the late Mr. Rich, it is stated that great quantities of porcupine-quills were found on the spot; and that in most of the cavities are numbers of bats and owls.

The mole and the bat are reckoned among the unclean animals forbidden to the Jews by their Divine lawgiver. The latter is distinctly included under the following description: "Every creeping thing that flieth shall be unclean to you; they shall not be eaten." The legs of the bat appear to be absolutely different from those of all other animals, and indeed they are directed, and even formed in a very particular manner. In order to advance, he raises both his front-legs at once, and places them at a small distance forward; at the same time the thumb of each foot points outward, and the creature catches with the claw at any thing which it can lay hold of; then he stretches behind him his two hind-legs, so that the five toes of each foot are also directed backward; he supports himself on the sole of this foot, and secures himself by means of the claws on his toes; then he raises his body on the front-legs, and throws himself forward by folding the upper arm on the fore-arm, which motion is assisted by the extension of the hind-legs, which also push the body forward This gait, though heavy, because the body falls to the ground at every step, is yet sometimes pretty quick, when the feet can readily meet with good holding-places; but when the claw of the front foot meets with any thing loose, the exertion is inefficient.[199]

SECTION IV.—BIRDS.

In the writings of Moses, the winged tribes are divided into three classes, according as they occupy the air, the land, or the water.

BIRDS OF THE AIR.

English Translation. Probable Species. Eagle Eagle. Ossifrage Vulture. Ospray Black Eagle. Vulture Hawk. Kite Kite. Raven Raven.

LAND BIRDS.

Owl Ostrich. Night-hawk Night-owl. Cuckoo Suf-saf. Hawk Ancient Ibis.

WATER BIRDS.

Little Owl Sea-gull. Cormorant Cormorant. Great Owl Ibis Ardea. Swan Wild Goose. Pelican Pelican. Gier Eagle Alcyone. Stork Stork. Heron Long-neck. Lapwing Hoopoe.

These are the unclean birds, according to the Mosaical arrangement and the views of the English translators. But it must not be concealed, that the attainments of the latter in ornithology were not particularly accurate; and, as a proof of this; we may mention a fact obvious to the youngest student of Oriental languages, that the same Hebrew words in Leviticus and Deuteronomy are not always rendered by the same term in our tongue. For example, the vulture of the former book is in the latter called the glede; and there are many similar variations, in different parts of the Old Testament, in regard to the others.

The swan, or tinshemet of the Hebrews, is a very doubtful bird. The Seventy render it by porphyrion, which signifies a purple hen, a water-fowl well known in the East. Dr. Geddes observes that the root or etymon of the term tinshemet denotes breathing or respiring,—a description which is supposed to point to a well-known quality in the swan, that of being able to respire a long time with its bill and neck under water, and even plunged in mud. Parkhurst thinks the conjecture of Michaelis not improbable, namely, "that it is the goose, which every one knows is remarkable for its manner of breathing out or hissing when provoked." The latter writer observes, "what makes me conjecture this is, that the Chaldee interpreters who in Leviticus render it obija, do not use this word in Deuteronomy, but substitute the 'white kak,' which, according to Buxtorf, denotes the goose." Norden mentions a goose of the Nile whose plumage is extremely beautiful. It is of an exquisite aromatic taste, smells of ginger, and has a great deal of flavour. Can this be the Hebrew tinshemet, and the porphyrion of the Seventy?

Again, it is conjectured by modern naturalists that the heron should be included among storks. Commentators, it is true, are quite at a loss in regard to the precise import of the original term anapha, and some of them accordingly leave it altogether untranslated. It is not improbable that the Long-neck mentioned by Dr. Shaw may be the animal alluded to by the sacred lawgiver. This bird, we are told, is of the bittern kind, somewhat less than the lapwing. The neck, the breast, and the belly are of a light yellow colour, while the back and upper part of the wings are jet-black. The tail is short; the feathers of the neck are long, and streaked with white or a pale yellow. The bill, which is three inches long, is green, and in form like that of the stork; and the legs, which are short and slender, are of the same colour. In walking and searching for food, it throws out its neck seven or eight inches; whence the Arabs call it Boo-onk, or Long-neck.[200]

The hoopoe is thought to be pretty well ascertained; yet we might suppose that a bird which frequents water more than the European variety does, would not have been misplaced at the close of the list given above. The accuracy of the inspired writer, however, in treating this part of the subject, has been generally extolled,—an accuracy which, there is no doubt, will hereafter lead to the most satisfactory conclusions in determining the several species he enumerates. All these birds being fish-eaters, no distinction is afforded arising from diversity of food; but the Hebrew naturalist begins with those which inhabit the sea and its rocky cliffs, the gannet and the cormorant; then he proceeds to the marsh birds, the bitterns; then to the river and lake birds, the pelican, the kingfisher, or the shagarag; then the stork, which is a bird of passage, lives on land as well as on water, and feeds on frogs and insects no less than on fish; then to another, which probably is a bird of passage also, because it is mentioned the last in the catalogue. The hoopoe is certainly a migratory bird, feeds less on fish than any of the former kinds, and has, in fact, no great relation to the water.

It was objected by Michaelis that the chasidah of the Hebrews could not be the stork, because the latter bird does not usually roost on trees; and yet it is asserted in the hundred-and-fourth Psalm, that the fir-trees are a dwelling for the stork. But Doubdan, who had no hypothesis to maintain, relates that he saw storks resting on trees between Cana and Nazareth; and Dr. Shaw says expressly, the storks breed plentifully in Barbary; and that the fir-trees, and other trees when these are wanting, are a "dwelling for the stork." It is therefore probable that this bird conforms its manners to circumstances; that wherever it obtains rest, security, and accommodation, there it resides, whether in a ruin or a forest. So that on the whole we need not hesitate, merely because the European stork seldom inhabits trees, to admit that it is the chasidah of the Sacred Scriptures.

We purposely abstain from the description of such birds as are common to Palestine and to the climates of Europe. The ostrich, no doubt, is peculiar to the deserts of Syria and of Arabia, and might therefore demand a more minute delineation than is consistent with our limits. Suffice it to mention, that it is one of the largest and most remarkable of the feathered tribes, and has been celebrated from the most remote antiquity by many fabulous writers, who ascribe to it qualities more wonderful than even those which it actually possesses. Its height is estimated at seven or eight feet, and in swiftness it surpasses every other animal.

That it is gregarious no naturalist any longer doubts, being generally seen in large troops at a great distance from the habitations of man. The egg is about three pounds in weight, and in the warmer countries of the East is usually hatched by the rays of the sun alone; though in less heated regions the bird is observed to practise incubation.

The same remarks might be applied to the pelican, whose solitary life as an inhabitant of the desert is occasionally referred to in the Sacred Writings. It appears, however, that this bird is migratory, whence we may conclude that it is also gregarious, and does not always remain alone. In their motion through the air, the pelicans imitate the procedure of the wild-goose, and form their van into an acute angle. When of full age, the male is superior in size to the swan, weighs twenty-five pounds, and from wing to wing extends not less than fifteen feet. The upper mandible is flat and broad, and hooked at the end; the lower mandible has appended to it a very dilatable bag, reaching eight or nine inches down the neck, and large enough to contain several quarts of water. Its food is fish; in diving for which it sometimes descends from a great height. When it has filled its pouch, it flies to some convenient point of a rock, where it swallows its prey at leisure. The vulgar notion that the female pelican feeds her young with blood from her breast, has arisen from the use of the bag just described, which she opens from time to time to discharge a supply of fish or water for their nourishment.

SECTION V.—AMPHIBIA AND REPTILES.

In the book of Deuteronomy there is an allusion made to a destructive creature in the following terms:—"Their wine is the poison of dragons and the cruel venom of asps." It is thought that the gecko is the animal contemplated in this description, it being acknowledged by all naturalists to contain a mortal poison. Nature, in this instance, says Buffon, appears to act against herself: in a lizard, whose species is but too prolific, she exalts a corrosive liquid to such a degree as to carry death and dissolution into all living substances which it may happen to penetrate. This deadly reptile has some resemblance to the chameleon; his head, almost triangular, is big in proportion to his body; the eyes are very large, the tongue is flat, covered with small scales, and the end is rounded; the teeth are sharp, and so strong that, according to Bontius, they are able to make an impression even on steel. The gecko is almost entirely covered with large warts, more or less rising; the under part of the thigh is furnished with a row of tubercles raised and grooved. The feet are remarkable for oval scales, more or less hollowed in the middle, as large as the under surface of the toes themselves, and regularly disposed over one another, like slates on a roof. The usual colour of this animal is a clear green, spotted with brilliant red. It inhabits the crevices of half-rotten trees as well as humid places; it is sometimes met with in houses, where it occasions great alarm, and where every exertion is made to destroy it speedily. Bontius writes, that the bite is so venomous that, if the part bitten be not cut away or burned, death ensues in a few hours.

Calmet enumerates eleven kinds of serpents as known to the Hebrews, the names of which are as follow:—

1. Ephe, the viper. 2. Chephir, a sort of aspic. 3. Acshub, the aspic. 4. Pethen, a similar reptile. 5. Tzeboa, speckled serpent. 6. Tzimmaon. 7. Tzepho, or Tzephoni, a basilisk. 8. Kippos, the acontias. 9. Shephiphon, the cerastes. 10. Shachal, the black serpent. 11. Saraph, a flying-serpent.

The first of these is remarkable for its quick and penetrating poison; it is about two feet long, and as thick as a man's arm, beautifully spotted with yellow and brown, and sprinkled over with blackish specks, similar to those of the horn-nosed snake. It has a wide mouth, by which it inhales a great quantity of air, and, when fully inflated, ejects it with such violence as to be heard at a considerable distance.

The shachal, or black serpent, is described by Forskall as being wholly of that colour, a cubit in length, and as thick as a finger. Its bite is not incurable, but the wound swells severely; the application of a ligature prevents the venom from spreading; or certain plants, as the caper, may be employed to relieve it. Mr. Jackson describes a black serpent of much more terrific powers. It is about seven or eight feet long, with a small head, which, when about to assail any object, it frequently expands to four times its ordinary size. It is the only one that will attack travellers; in doing which it coils itself up, and darts to a great distance by the elasticity of its body and tail. The wound inflicted by the bite is small, but the surrounding part immediately turns black, which colour soon pervades the whole body, and the sufferer expires.

But, viewed in connexion with Scripture, the most interesting in the list given in the preceding page is that which stands the seventh in order. Speaking of the happy time revealed by the prophetical spirit, Isaiah remarks that "the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den." The editor of Calmet's Dictionary imagines that the naja, or cobra di capello, is the serpent here alluded to by the holy penman, and which is known to possess the most energetic poison. We cannot indeed discover positively, whether it lays eggs; but the evidence for that fact is presumptive, because all serpents issue from eggs; and the only difference between the oviparous and viviparous is, that in the former the eggs are laid before the foetus is mature, in the latter the foetus bursts the egg while yet in the womb of its mother.

If the egg be broken, the little serpent is found rolled up in a spiral form. It appears motionless during some time; but if the term of its exclusion be near, it opens its jaws, inhales at several respirations the air of the atmosphere, its lungs fill, it stretches itself, and moved by this impetus it begins to crawl.

The eggs of this reptile have probably given occasion to a fable, which says that cocks can lay eggs, but that these always produce serpents; and that though the cock does not hatch them, the warmth of the sand and atmosphere answers the purposes of incubation. The eggs of the tzepho, of which she lays eighteen or twenty, are equal to those of a pigeon, while those of the great boa are not more than two or three inches in length. As an instance, that the eggs of poisonous serpents do not always burst in the body of the female, we may mention the cerastes, which, we are assured, lays in the sand at least four or five, resembling in size those of a dove.

On the grounds now explained, we may understand the language of the prophet Isaiah, who says of the wicked that "they hatch cockatrice' eggs; he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh forth into a viper." The reptile here alluded to under the name of cockatrice, is the tzepho or tzephoni; which, we find, lays eggs so similar to those of poultry, as to be mistaken and eaten for them. Labat farther relates that he crushed some eggs of a large serpent, and found several young in each egg; which were no sooner freed from the shell than they coiled themselves into the attitude of attack, and were ready to spring on whatever came in their way.

In the forty-ninth chapter of Genesis we find the remarkable prediction uttered by Jacob in reference to Dan, that he "shall be a serpent in the way, an adder in the path, which biteth the horse's heels." The original term here is shephiphon, and is understood by several authors to denote the cerastes, a very poisonous kind of viper, distinguished by having horns. This animal, we are informed by Mr. Bruce, moves with great rapidity, and in all directions, forward, backward, and sideways. When he wishes to surprise any one who is too far from him, he creeps with his side towards the person, and his head averted, till, judging his distance, he turns round and springs upon him. "I saw one of them at Cairo crawl up the side of a box in which there were many, and there lie still as if hiding himself, till one of the people who brought him to us came near him; and though in a very disadvantageous posture, sticking as it were perpendicularly to the side of the box, he leaped nearly the distance of three feet, and fastened between the man's forefinger and thumb, so as to bring the blood. The fellow showed no signs of either pain or fear; and we kept him with us full four hours, without applying any sort of remedy, or his seeming inclined to do so."

The Arabs name this serpent siff, siphon, or suphon, which seems not very far distant from the root of the Hebrew word siffifon or shephiphon. It is called by the Orientals the lier in wait,—an appellation which agrees with the manners of the cerastes. Pliny says, that it hides its whole body in the sand, leaving only its horns exposed, which, being like grains of barley in appearance, attract birds within its reach, so as to become an easy prey. From these circumstances we see, more distinctly, the propriety of the allusion made by the patriarch to the insidious policy which was to characterize the descendants of Dan in the remoter periods of their history.

There is mention made in Holy Scripture of the fiery flying-serpent, a creature about whose existence and qualities naturalists have entertained a considerable difference of opinion. It is now generally admitted, that, in Guinea, Java, and other countries, where there is at once great heat and a marshy soil, there exists a species of these animals, which have the power of moving in the air, or at least of passing from tree to tree. Niebuhr relates, that at Bazra, also, "there is a sort of serpents, called heie sursurie. They commonly live on dates; and as it would be troublesome to them to come down one high tree and creep up another, they hang by the tail to the branch of one, and, by swinging that about, take advantage of its motion to leap to that of a second. These the modern Arabs call flying-serpents—heie thiare. I do not know whether the ancient Arabs were acquainted with any other kind of flying-serpent."[201]

Near Batavia there are certain flying-snakes, or dragons, as they are sometimes called. They have four legs, a long tail, and their skin speckled with many spots; their wings are not unlike those of a bat, which they move in flying, but otherwise keep them almost unperceived, close to the body. They fly nimbly, but cannot hold out long; so that they only shift from tree to tree at about twenty or thirty yards' distance. On the outside of the throat are two bladders, which, being extended when they fly, serve them instead of a sail.[202]

The scorpion, or okrab of the Hebrews, has also been invested by Oriental naturalists with the power of flying. Lucian tells us that there are two kinds of scorpions, one residing on the ground, large, having claws, and many articulations at the tail; the other flies in the air, and has inferior wings like locusts, beetles, and bats. In tropical climates the scorpion is a foot in length. No animal in the creation seems endowed with such an irascible nature. When caught, they exert their utmost rage against the glass which contains them; will attempt to sting a stick when put near them; will, without provocation, wound other animals confined with them; and are the cruellest enemies to each other. Maupertuis put a hundred of them together in the same glass; instantly they vented their rage in mutual destruction, universal carnage! In a few days only fourteen remained, which had killed and devoured all the others. It is even asserted, that when in extremity or despair the scorpion will destroy itself. Well might Moses mention this animal as one of the dangers of the howling wilderness! They are still very numerous in the desert between Syria and Egypt. Dr. Clarke tells us that one of the privates of the British army, who had received a wound from one of them, lost the upper joint of his forefinger before it could be healed. The author of the Revelation considers them as emblematic of the evils which issue from the bottomless pit. "And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth; and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. And they had tails like unto scorpions; and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months."[203]

We ought not to be surprised that the translators of the English Bible were occasionally at a loss to distinguish the genera and species of the several animals mentioned in the Sacred Writings; for even at the present day, when we possess infinitely higher advantages in point of natural knowledge, we cannot precisely determine even the class or order to which some of them belong. We have an example of this obscurity in the fourth chapter of the book of Lamentations, where it is said that "even the sea-monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones." The original expression, tannin, appears applicable to those amphibious animals that haunt the banks of rivers and the shores of the sea, and was probably used by the prophet with a reference to the seal species, which suckle their young in the manner described in his pathetic elegy.

It is true, that it is used in Genesis in connection with the epithet large, and is therefore not improperly rendered "great whales." Hence it has been concluded, that the word tannin may comprehend the class of lizards from the eft to the crocodile, provided they be amphibious; also the seal, the manati, the morse, and even the whale, if he came ashore; but as whales remain constantly in the deep, they seem to be more correctly ascribed to the class of fishes. Moreover, whether the people of Syria had any knowledge of the whale kinds, strictly so called, is a point which deserves inquiry before it be admitted as certain. At all events, it is manifest that the tannin of the Scripture must have indicated an animal which has many properties common to the seal, for it not only applies the breast to its young, but has the power of exerting its voice in a mournful tone. The prophet Micah says, "I will make a wailing like the tanninim," a phrase which, in our translation, is unhappily rendered "dragons." It has also the faculty of suspending respiration, or of drawing in a quantity of breath and of emitting it with violence. "The wild asses," says Jeremiah, "stand upon the high places; they puff out the breath like the tanninim (here again translated dragons); their eyes fail because there is no grass." On the whole, remarks the editor of Calmet, we may consider the Hebrew tahash as being decidedly a seal; but tannin as including creatures resident both on land and in water, or, in other words, the amphibia.[204]

SECTION VI.—FRUITS AND PLANTS.

It has been remarked that, if the advantages of nature were duly seconded by the efforts of human skill, we might in the space of twenty leagues bring together in Syria the vegetable riches of the most distant countries. Besides wheat, rye, barley, beans, and the cotton-plant, which are cultivated everywhere, there are several objects of utility or pleasure, peculiar to different localities. Palestine, for example, abounds in sesamum, which affords oil; and in dhoura, similar to that of Egypt. Maize thrives in the light soil of Balbec, and rice is cultivated with success along the marsh of Haoul_. Within these twenty-five years sugar-canes have been introduced into the gardens of Saida and Beirout, which are not inferior to those of the Delta. Indigo grows without culture on the banks of the Jordan, and only requires a little care to secure a good quality. The hills of Latakie produce tobacco, which creates a commercial intercourse with Damietta and Cairo. This crop is at present cultivated in all the mountains. The white mulberry forms the riches of the Druses, by the beautiful silks which are obtained from it; and the vine, raised on poles or creeping along the ground, furnishes red and white wines equal to those of Bordeaux. Jaffa boasts of her lemons and watermelons; Gaza possesses both the dates of Mecca and the pomegranates of Algiers. Tripoli has oranges which might vie with those of Malta; Beirout has figs like Marseilles, and bananas like St. Domingo. Aleppo is unequalled for pistachio-nuts; and Damascus possesses all the fruits of Europe; inasmuch as apples, plums, and peaches, grow with equal facility on her rocky soil. Niebuhr is of opinion that the Arabian coffee-shrub might be cultivated in Palestine.[205]

The fig-tree, the palm, and the olive, are characteristic of the Holy Land, and therefore deserve our more particular attention. In regard to the first, the earliest fruit produced, which is usually ripe in June, is called the boccore; the later, or proper fig, being rarely fit to be gathered before the month of August. The name of these last is the kermez, or kermouse. They constitute the article which passes through the hands of the merchant, after being either preserved in the common way or made up into cakes. They continue a long time on the tree before they fall off; whereas the boccore drop as soon as they are ripe, and according to the beautiful allusion of the prophet Nahum, "fall into the mouth of the eater upon being shaken."

The palm must at one time have been common in Palestine, though at present it fails to attract attention either on account of number or of beauty. In several coins of Vespasian, as well as of his son Titus, the land of Judea is typified by a disconsolate woman sitting under one of these trees. Jericho, which was formerly distinguished as the "city of palms," can still boast a few of them, because, besides the advantage of a sandy soil and a warm climate, it commands a plentiful supply of water, an element absolutely indispensable to their growth. At Jerusalem, Shechem, and other places to the northward of the capital, not more than two or three of them are ever seen together; and even these, as their fruit rarely comes to maturity, are of no farther service than, like the palm-tree of Deborah, to shade the council of the sheiks, or to supply the branches, which, as in ancient days, may still be required for religious processions.[206]

The olive no longer holds the place which it once occupied in the estimation of the inhabitants of Palestine. The wretched government under which they exist has rooted out all the seeds of industry, by rendering the absence of wealth the only security against oppression. But in those places where it continues to be cultivated, it affords ample proof to establish the accuracy of the inspired writer, who denominated Palestine a land of oil-olive and honey.

The cedars of Libanus still maintain their ancient reputation for beauty and stature; while they are diversified by a thousand elegant plants, which dispute with them the possession of the lofty summits of the mountain. Here the astragalus tragacanthoides displays its clusters of purple flowers; and the primrose, the amaryllis, the white and the orange lily, mingle their brilliant hues with the verdure of the birch-leaved cherry. Even the snow of the highest peaks is skirted by shrubs possessing the most splendid colours. The coolness, humidity, and good quality of the soil support an uninterrupted vegetation; and the bounties of nature in those elevated regions are still protected by the spirit of liberty.

Hasselquist is of opinion that the wild-grapes mentioned by the prophet Isaiah must be the hoary night-shade, or solanum incanum, because it is common in Egypt, Palestine, and Syria. The Arabs call it wolf-grapes, as, from its shrubby stalk, it has some resemblance to a vine. But the sacred writer could not have found a weed more opposite to the vine than this, or more suitable to the purpose which he had in view, for it is extremely pernicious to that plant, and is rooted out whenever it appears. "Wherefore," exclaims the holy seer, "when I looked that my vineyard should bring forth grapes, brought it forth poisonous night-shade?"[207]

The author just named, describes the "balsam of Aaron" as a very fine oil, which emits no scent or smell, and is very proper for preparing odoriferous ointments. It is obtained from a tree called behen, which grows in Mount Sinai and Upper Egypt, and, it is presumed, in certain parts of the Holy Land. Travellers assert that it is the very perfume with which the ancient high-priest of the Jews, with whose name it is connected, was wont to anoint his beard, and which the Psalmist extols so much on account of its rich odour and mollifying qualities,—the emblem of domestic harmony and brotherly love.

There still exists a thorn in Palestine known among botanists by the name of the "spina Christi," or thorn of Christ, and supposed to be the shrub which afforded the crown worn by our Saviour before his crucifixion. It must have been very fit for the purpose, for it has many small sharp prickles, well adapted to give pain; and as the leaves greatly resemble those of ivy, it is not improbable that the enemies of the Messiah chose it from its similarity to the plant with which emperors and generals were accustomed to be crowned; and hence that there might be calumny, insult, and derision, meditated in the very act of punishment.[208]

THE END.

[1] No. XXIII. of this Family Library.

[2] See Dialogues on Natural and Revealed Religion. By the Rev. Robert Morehead, D.D., p. 241,—an able and interesting work.

[3] Shakspeare, Henry IV. Part I. Act I.

[4] Chateaubriand Itineraire, tome i. p. 48, &c. Sozom. lib. iii. c. i. Euseb. Hist. Eccl. lib. vi. S. Cyril, Cat. xvi.

[5] Deuteronomy viii. 7, 8, 9.

[6] Terra finesque, qua ad Orientem vergunt, Arabia terminantur; a meridie Aegyptus objacet; ab occasu Phoenices et mare; septemtrionem a latere Syriae longe prospectant. Corpora hominum salubria et ferentia laborom: rari imbres, uber solum: fruges nostrum ad morem; preterque eas balsamum et palmae. Hist. lib. v. c. 6.

[7] Belon. Observations de Singularites, p. 140. Hasselquist's Travels, p.56. Korte's Travels in Palestine. Chateaubriand, les Martyrs, vol. iii. p. 99. Schultze's Travels, vol. ii p. 85.

[8] Seetzen, in Annales des Voyages, i. 398; and Correspondance de M. Zach. 425.

[9] Maundrell, p. 60.

[10] Chateaubriand Itinerarie, ii. 123. Malte Brun, vol. ii. 150-160. Edin. Edition.

[11] Judges i. 3.

[12] Joseph. contra Apion. cap. 1. 2 Kings xvii. 24.

[13] Reland, Palestina Illustrata, lib. ii. c. 5. Spanheim, Charta terris Israelis. Lowman on the Civil Government of the Hebrews.

[14] Lev. xxv. 23.

[15] Lev. xxv. 24-28.

[16] Judges xxi. 8-13.

[17] Numbers xxvi. 02.

[18] Joshua vii. 16, 17, 18.

[19] I Chron. ii. 10, 11.

[20] Deut. iv. 1, 2; xii. 32. "Hoc igitur argumento maximo est; juris illius majestatis quod in legibus ferendis est positum, nihil quicquam penes hominem fuisse."—Conringius de Repub. Heb.

[21] Livii. Hist. lib. xxviii. 37; lib. xxx. 7. Bochart, Geog. Sacra, part ii. lib. ii. 24.

[22] Complete History of the Canon, book 1. c. 3.

[23] Deut. xvi. 18, 19. Josephus's Antiquities, book iv. 8.

[24] Reland. Antiq. Sac. Pars, ii. c. 7.

[25] Fleury, Moeurs des Israelites, xxv.

[26] Lewis, Orig. Heb. lib. i. 6.

[27] Michaelis's Commentaries on the Laws of Moses, art. 44; and Joshua xviii. 3.

[28] 1 Samuel xxv. 4-14.

[29] Judges vi. 12. 2 Samuel xiii. 23, 24.

[30] Numbers xxxv. 2, 5, 7.

[31] Joshua xx. 7, 8. Numbers xxxv. 6, 15. Deut. xix. 4, 10.

[32] Michaelis's Commentaries on the Laws of Moses, vol. i. art. 52. Jablonsky Panth. AEgypt. Prolegomena, 21, 41, 43.

[33] Isaiah xl. 13.

[34] 1 Samuel viii. 4, 21.

[35] Deut. xvii. 14-20.

[36] 2 Samuel viii. 1, 2. 1 Chron. xviii. 1, 2; xix. 1-20.

[37] 1 Chron. xxii. 8.

[38] 2 Chron. ii. and ix. throughout.

[39] 1 Kings xi. 1-8.

[40] Maundrell's Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem in 1697.

[41] 2 Kings xvii. 1-7.

[42] 2 Kings xxv. 4-13.

[43] Lamentations i. 1-4.

[44] Heber's Palestine.

[45] History of the Jews (Nos. 1, 2, 3, Family Library), vol. ii. p. 39.

[46] History of the Jews, vol. ii. p. 40.

[47] The effects produced upon the mind of the king by the murder of Mariamne are powerfully described by two poetical writers, the author of the History of the Jews, and the unfortunate Lord Byron. "All the passions," says the former, "which filled the stormy soul of Herod were alike without bound: from violent love and violent resentment he sank into as violent remorse and despair. Everywhere by day he was haunted by the image of the murdered Mariamne; he called upon her name; he perpetually burst into passionate tears. In vain he tried every diversion,—banquets, revels, the excitements of society. A sudden pestilence broke out, to which many of the noblest of his court, and of his own personal friends, fell a sacrifice; he recognized and trembled beneath the hand of the avenging Deity. On pretence of hunting, he sought out the most melancholy solitude, till the disorder of his mind brought on disorder of body, and he was seized with violent inflammation and pains in the back of his head, which led to temporary derangement."—vol. ii. p. 90.

I.

"Oh, Mariamne! now for thee The heart for which thou bled'st is bleeding; Revenge is lost in agony, And wild remorse to rage succeeding. Oh, Mariamne! where art thou? Thou canst not hear my bitter pleading: Ah, couldst thou—thou wouldst pardon now, Though heaven were to my prayer unheeding.

II.

"And is she dead?—and did they dare Obey my phrensy's jealous raving? My wrath but doomed my own despair: The sword that smote her's o'er me waving. But thou art cold, my murder'd love! And this dark heart is vainly craving For her who soars alone above, And leaves my soul unworthy saving.

III.

"She's gone, who shared my diadem; She sunk, with her my joys entombing; I swept that flower from Judah's stem Whose leaves for me alone were blooming; And mine's the guilt, and mine the hell, This bosom's desolation dooming; And I have earned those tortures well, Which unconsumed are still consuming."

Hebrew Melodies.

[48] History of the Jews, vol. ii. p. 96.

[49] Matth. ii. 22, 23. "Among the atrocities which disgraced the later days of Herod, what we called the Massacre of the Innocents (which took place late in the year before, or early in the same year with the death of Herod) passed away unnoticed. The murder of a few children in a village near Jerusalem would excite little sensation among such a succession of dreadful events, except among the immediate sufferers. The jealousy of Herod against any one who should be Born as a king in Judea,—the dread that the high religious spirit of the people might be re-excited by the hope of a real Messiah,—as well as the summary manner in which he endeavoured to rid himself of the object of his fears, are strictly in accordance with the relentlessness and decision of his character." History of the Jews, vol. ii. p. 106.

[50] Acts xii. 21, 22, 23.

[51] 1 Samuel, ix. 5 11.

[52] 1 Kings xxii. 8, 13.

[53] Jer. xxvi. 8, 16.

[54] Deut. xviii. 21, 22.

[55] Deut. xxxi. 9-14.

[56] 2 Chronicles xii. 9.

[57] 2 Kings xxii. 8.

[58] 2 Samuel xi. 18, 22. Commentaries on Laws of Moses, vol. i. p. 257.

[59] Nisan was sometimes called Abib, as descriptive of the state of vegetation in that month,—the earing of the corn and the blooming of the fruit-trees.

[60] 1 Kings iii. 2.

[61] Acts xv. 21.

[62] Deut. xvi. 9-12.

[63] History of the Jews vol. 1. p. 99.

[64] Lev. xiii. 24, 25.

[65] Numbers xxxvi. 1-10.

[66] John x. 22.

[67] Maccab. iv. 30, &c. 2 Macceb. i. 18, 19.

[68] Croxall's Scripture Politics, p. 60, 85. Histoire des Hebreux, par Rabelleau, tom. i. p. 405. Esprit de l'Histoire, tom. i. p. 28.

[69] The sentiment contained in the text is beautifully expressed in the following ode by Lord Byron:

I.

"The harp the monarch minstrel swept, The king of men, the loved of Heaven, Which music hallowed while she wept, O'er tones her heart of hearts had given, Redoubled be her tears, its chords are riven!

"It softened men of iron mould, It gave them virtues not their own; No ear so dull, no soul so cold, That felt not, fired not to the tone, Till David's lyre grew mightier than his throne."

II.

"It told the triumphs of our king, It wafted glory to our God; It made our gladden'd valleys ring, The cedars bow, the mountains nod; Its sound aspired to heaven and there abode! Since then, though heard on earth no more, Devotion and her daughter Love Still bid the bursting spirit soar To sounds that seem as from above, In dreams that day's broad light cannot remove."

[70] Murray's Historical Account of Discoveries and Travels in Asia, vol. iii. p. 130.

[71] Chateaubriand, Itineraire, tom. i. p. 380. Volney's Travels, vol. ii. p. 335.

[72] Itineraire, tom. ii. p. 385.

[73] Travels, vol. iv. p. 289.

[74] The original presents one of the most animated and musical passages in the Gerusalemme Liberata:—

"Ma quando il sol gli aridi campi fiede Con raggi assai fervente, a in alto sorge, Ecco apparir Gerusalem si vede! Ecco additar Gerusalem si scorge! Ecco da mille voci unitamente, Gerusalemme salutar si sente!"—Canto iii. stan. v. 2.

[75] Travels in Egypt and Syria, vol. ii. p. 303.

[76] Notes on Egypt, &c. p. 274.

[77] Travels along the Mediterranean and parts adjacent, vol. ii. p. 285.

[78] Richardson's Travels, vol. ii. p. 301.

[79] Travels of Ali Bey, vol. ii, p. 214.

[80] Richardson's Travels, vol. ii. p. 321.

[81] Travels, vol. ii. p. 325.

[82] Maundrell's Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem, p. 71.

[83] Journey, p. 74.

[84] Journey, p. 76.

[85] Maundrell's Journey, p. 94.

[86] Journey, p. 96.

[87] "Je ne decrirai pas la suite des ceremonies religieuses qui occupent le reste de la semaine sainte; c'est un recit qui peut bien edifier des ames devotes, mais non pas plaire a quelqu'un qui lit un voyage pour s'instruire et s'amuser.

"Il n'en est pas de meme d'une pratique superstitieuse des Grecs schismatiques, dont la bizarrerie ne laissera pas de divertir un moment.

"Cette secte, abusee par ses pretres, croit de bonne foi que Dieu fait annuellement un miracle pour lui envoyer le feu sacre.

"A en croire les pretres Grecs, cette faveur divine, dont on ne peut pas douter, est un preuve insigne de l'excellence de leur communion. Mais ne pourrait-on pas objecter aux Grecs, que les Armeniens et les Cofes, qu'ils traitent d'heretiques, participent a cette meme grace. Ennemis acharnes les uns des autres, les ministres de ces trois sectes se reunissent en apparence pour la ceremonie du feu sacre. Cette reconciliation momentanee n'est due qu'a l'interet de tous; separement ils seraient obliges de payer au gouverneur, pour la permission de faire la miracle, une somme aussi forte que cette qu'ils donnent ensemble.

"Ces pretres portent la fourberie jusqu'a vouloir persuader au peuple que le feu sacre ne brule pas ceux qui sont en etat de grace. Ils se frottent les mains d'une certaine eau, qui les garantit de la brulure a la premiere approche, et par ce moyen ne se font aucun mal en touchant leurs cierges. Leur proselytes sont jaloux de les imiter; mais comme ils n'ont pas leur recette, bien souvent ils se brulent les doigts et le visage: il arrive de la que les pretres, paraissant jouir exclusivement de la grace de Dieu, en sont plus respectes et mieux prayes."—Mariti, Voyages, &c., tom. ii. p. 340.

[88] Richardson, vol. ii. p. 333.

[89] Journey, p. 69.

[90] Travels, vol. iv. p. 315.

[91] Vol. ii. p. 21.

[92] Buckingham's Travels, vol i. p. 384.

[93] Travels in Greece, Palestine, Egypt, &c. vol. ii. p. 22.

[94] The invocation alluded to must be familiar to the youngest reader:

"Sing, heavenly muse, that on the secret top Of Oreb or of Sinai didst inspire That shepherd who first taught the chosen seed, In the beginning, how the heavens and earth Rose out of chaos; or, if Zion hill Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flowed Fast by the oracle of God; I thence Invoke thy aid to my advent'rous song."

Paradise Lost, book i.

[95] Travels by Rae Wilson, vol. i. p. 220.

[96] Travels in Palestine, vol. i. p. 297.

[97] 2 Samuel xviii. 18. Travels in Palestine, vol. i. p. 302.

[98] See Tour of the Holy Land, by the Rev. Robert Morehead, D.D.; in the Appendix to which are extracts from this anonymous manuscript.

[99] "Having so often mentioned Clarke, I must say, that although an animated and interesting writer, and not incorrect in his descriptions, he is more deficient in judgment than any traveller I am acquainted with; and I do not recollect an instance, either here or in Egypt, where he has attempted to speculate, without falling into some very decided error. I mention this the more, as his enthusiasm and conviction of the truth of his own theories led me formerly to place great faith in his authority."—Anonymous Journal.

[100] Buckingham, vol. i. p. 316.—The following words, put into the mouth of Titus by the eloquent author of the "Fall of Jerusalem," will be read with interest in connexion with the view just given. The son of Vespasian stands on the Mount of Olives:—

"It must be— And yet it moves me, Romans! it confounds The counsels of my firm philosophy, That Ruin's merciless ploughshare must pass o'er And barren salt be sown on yon proud city. As on our olive-crowned hill we stand, Where Kedron at our feet its scanty waters Distils from stone to stone with gentle motion, As through a valley sacred to sweet Peace, How boldly doth it front us! how majestically! Like a luxurious vineyard, the hill-side Is hung with marble fabrics, line on line, Terrace o'er terrace, nearer still, and nearer To the blue heavens. Here bright and sumptuous palaces, With cool and verdant gardens interspersed; Here towers of war that frown in massy strength. While over all hangs the rich purple eve, As conscious of its being her last farewell Of light and glory to that fated city. And as our clouds of battle, dust, and smoke Are melted into air, behold the Temple, In undisturbed and lone serenity, Finding itself a solemn sanctuary In the profound of heaven! It stands before us A mount of snow fretted with golden pinnacles! The very sun, as though he worshipped there, Lingers upon the gilded cedar roofs; And down the long and branching porticoes, On every flowery sculptured capital Glitters the homage of his parting beams. By Hercules! the sight might almost win The offended majesty of Rome to mercy."

Old Sandys, a simple and amusing writer, describes Jerusalem as follows:—"This chic, once sacred and glorious, elected by God for his seate, and seated in the midst of nations,—like a diadem crowning the head of the mountaines,—the theatre of mysteries and miracles,—was founded by Melchisedek (who is said to be the son of Noah, and that not unprobably) about the year of the world 2023, and called Salem (by the Gentiles Solyma), which signifyeth Peace: who reigned here fifty years.—This citie is seated on a rockie mountaine; every way to be ascended (except a little on the north) with steep ascents and deep valleys naturally fortified; for the most part environed with other not far removed mountaines, as if placed in the midst of an amphitheatre."—Lib. iii. p. 154.

[101] "Bethlehem soon after came in sight,—a fine village, surrounded with gardens of fig-trees and olives. There is a deep valley below, and half-way down on the top of a hill is a green plain, the only one we have seen in Judea:—I could fancy Boaz's field forming part of it. The convent is a very remarkable building, and well worth seeing. Without, it is a perfect fortress, with heavy buttresses and small grated windows, on entering, we immediately came to a magnificent church, with a double row of ten Corinthian pillars of marble on each side,—forty pillars to all. On the arched roof are the remains of Mosaic, of the Empress Helena's time. One part was very distinct: it represented a city with temples, &c., and over it was written in Greek characters, Laodicea."—Anonymous Journal.

[102] Richardson, Buckingham, Maundrell.

[103] Bethleem nunc nostram, et augustissimum urbis locum de quo Psalmista canit (Ps. lxxxiv. 12). Veritas de terra orta est, lucus inumbrabat Thamus, id est, Adonidis; et in specu ubi quondam Christus parvulus vagiit, Veneris Amasius plangebatur.—Epis. ad Paul.

[104] Pour ce qui est des ornemens de ce saint Temple, il n'en reste que fort peu en comparaison de ce qui y estoit. Car tous les murs estoient autrefois magnifiquement reuestus et couvertes de belles tables de marbre gris onde, comme on en voit encore en quelques endroits que les infidelles n'ont poe avoir. Comme ils ont emporte tout le reste pour en orner leurs Mosquees, et est une chose pitoyable de voir que tous les murs sont remplis de gros clous et crampons de fer qui les tenoient attachez. Au-dessus des colomnes de la nef est un mur tout couvert, et peint de la plus belle et fine Mosaique qu'il est possible de voir, n'estant composee que de petites pierres fines et transparentes comme cristal de toutes les couleurs, qui representent grandes figures et histoires de la Vie, Miracles Mort, et Passion de Nostre Seigneur, si narument faites des couleurs si vives et eclatantes, et le fonds d'un or si luysant, qu'il semble qu'elles sont faites depuis peu, encore qu'il y ait plus de treize cens ans. Entre ces figures sont treize fenestres de chacun coste, qui rendent un grand jour par toute l'eglise: derriere la troisieme et quatrieme colomne de la main droite est un tres-beau et riche base de marbre blanc de forme ronde a six pans de quelques trois pieds de diametre, qui sert de fonds baptismaux.—Doubdan, p. 133.

[105] Maundrell, p. 90.

[106] Relation of a Journey, p. 183.

[107] O ye children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and set up a sign of fire in Beth-haccerem: for evil appeareth out of the north, and great destruction.—Jer. vi. 1.

[108] Modern Traveller, vol. i. p. 183. Joseph. Antiq. lib. xiv e. 13.

[109] Burckhardt's Travels in Syria, Pref, vi. Modern Traveller, vol. i. p. 203. Doubdun, Voyage, p. 322, 326.

[110] Chateaubriand, tom. i. p. 408.

[111] "Haud procul inde campi, quos ferunt olim uberes, magnisque urbibus habitatos, fulminum jactu, arsisse; et manere vestigia, terramque ipsam, specie torridam, vim frugiferam perdidisse."—Tacit. Hist. lib. v. cap. 7.

[112] The Abbe Mariti, who saw little himself, is not willing to allow to others the advantage of having been more fortunate. "Quelques voyageurs ont avance qu'on distinguoit encore les debris de ces villes infortunees, lorsque les eaux de la mer etoient basses et lympides. Il en est meme que disent avoir appercu des restes de colonnes avec leurs chapitaux. Mais, il faut que l'imagination les ait trompes, ou que depuis leur retour, cette mer ait eprouve de nouvelles secousses, car je n'y peux rien voir de semblable, malgre toute ma bonne volonte. Un pere capucin crut aussi reconnoitre sur ces bords les effets frappans de la malediction celeste. Ici, ce sont des traces de feu, la, une surface de cendres, partout des champs arides et maudits. Il croit meme respirer encore un odeur de soufre. Pour moi je suis affecte en sens contraire: rien dans ce lieu ne me rappelle la desolation dont parle la bible. L'air y est pure, le gazon d'un beau vert; en plus d'un endroit mon oeil se refraichit aux eaux argentines qui jaillissant en gerbes du sommet des monts; la sterilite dont une partie de ces campagnes fut frappee des la naissance du monde, rend plus douce par le contraste l'apparence de fertilite que je remarquai dans le sol d'Alvona. Mais d'ou vient donc que deux voyageurs peuvent etre si opposes? C'est que un capucin porte partout les cinq sens de la foi, et que moi je ne suis doue que de deux de la nature."—Tom. ii. p. 334.

[113] "On plutot doit on admettre l'opinion des physiciens Arabes, qui etablissent, non sans quelque fondement, qu'elles se dissipent en evaporation?".—Tom. ii. p. 334.

[114] Mr. Gordon, however, maintains, that persons who have never learned to swim will float on its surface.—Chateaubriand, tom. i. p. 412.

[115] "Le Cardinal de Vitry la nomme la Mer du Diable, et Marinas Sanutus dit qu'elle est tousjours couverte d'une fumee epaisse et de vapeurs noires, comme quelque soupirail ou cheminee d'Enfer. D'autres disent que son eau est noire, gluante, epaisse, grasse, fanguese, et de tres mauvaise odeur; et toutefois j'ay parle a des Religieux qui m'ont asseure y avoir ete, et que cette eau est claire; nette, et liquide: mais tres-amere et salee. Et comme j'ay dit, je n'y ay veu, ny fumee ny brouillards."—Doubdan, Voyage de la Terre Sainte, p. 317.

[116] "As for the apples of Sodom, so much talked of, I neither saw nor heard of any hereabouts; nor was there any tree to be seen near the lake from which one might expect such a fruit. Which induces me to believe that there may be a greater deceit in this fruit than that which is usually reported of it, and that its very being, as well as its beauty, is a fiction, only kept up, as my Lord Bacon observes other false notions are, because it serves for a good allusion and helps the poet to a similitude." Maundrell, p. 85.

[117] The reading in Hasselquist must be eighteen instead of eight, or eight fathoms, instead of feet, for Mr. Maundrell remarks that the breadth of the river "might be about twenty yards over, and in depth it far exceeded my height."—Journey, p. 83.

[118] Deut. xxxiv. 1-7.

[119] 2 Kings ii. 19-23.

[120] Paradise Regained, Book I. v. 295, &c.

[121] Among these he found, with great delight, a very curious new cimex or bug, p. 129.

[122] Journey, p. 80.

[123] Paradise Regained, Book II. v. 281.

[124] A Visit to Egypt, &c. p. 285.

[125] Travels of Ali Bey, vol. ii. p. 251.

[126] The Mussulmans say prayers in all the holy places consecrated to the memory of Jesus Christ and the Virgin except the Tomb of the Holy Sepulchre, which they do not acknowledge. They believe that Jesus Christ did not die, but that he ascended alive into heaven, leaving the likeness of his face to Judas, who was condemned to die for him; and that, in consequence, Judas having been crucified, his body might have been contained in this sepulchre, but not that of Jesus Christ. It is for this reason that the Mussulmans do not perform any acts of devotion at this monument, and that they ridicule the Christians who go to revere it—Ali Bey, vol. ii. p. 237.

[127] Chateaubriand. Itineraire, tom. ii. p. 169.

[128] Journey, p. 76.

[129] Pausanius, describing the Sepulchre of Helena at Jerusalem, mentions this device: "It was so contrived that the door of the sepulchre, which was of stone, and similar in all respects to the sepulchre itself, could never be opened except upon the return of the same day and hour in each succeeding year. It then opened of itself by means of the mechanism alone, and after a short interval closed again. Such was the case at the time stated; had you tried to open it at any other time, you would not have succeeded, but broken it first in the attempt." Paus. in Arcad. cap. xvi.—Clarke's Travels, vol. iv. p. 383.

[130] Journey, p. 63.

[131] Deut. xi. 29, 30.

[132] "Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's Well was there."—John iv. 5, 6.

[133] Travels, vol. iv. p. 264.

[134] Clarke, vol. iv. p. 275.

[135] Clarke, vol. iv. p. 280.

[136] Richardson, vol. ii. p. 415.

[137] Travels in Palestine, &c. by J.S. Buckingham, vol. ii. p. 144.

[138] Travels in Palestine, vol. ii. p. 104.

[139] Num. xxi. 24. Deut. ii.

[140] Buckingham, vol. ii. p. 244.

[141] Travels in Palestine, p. 259.

[142] Buckingham, vol. ii. p. 261.

[143] Travels in Palestine, vol. ii. p. 261.

[144] Joseph, lib. iii. De Bell. Jud. Hasselquist, p.157. Clarke, iv. p.227.

[145] Travels in Palestine, vol. ii. p. 359.—"Quae urbes, quod ipse servator ils praedixerat, hodie in ruinis jacent."—Cluverius, lib. v. cap. 20. "Capernaum was visited in the sixth century by Antoninus the Martyr, an extract from whose Itinerary is preserved by Reland, who speaks of a church erected upon the spot where St. Peter's dwelling once stood."—Clarke's Travels, vol. iv. p. 211.

[146] Buckingham, vol. ii. p. 366.

[147] "Within two hours and a half of Tiberias, we looked down on a fine cultivated plain, quite bare of trees; beyond which, at a much lower level, lay the narrow Valley of the Jordan. This plain was pastured over by horses from the town, for the keepers of which white tents were scattered about in all directions. We now came in sight of the Sea of Galilee: we only saw the northern half, and its size disappointed us; but the dark blue still water, the green hills around covered with bushes, and the high snowy ridge of Djibbel el Sheik made a very delightful landscape. Tiberias, with its high-feudal citadel, its walls and towers, now forms a remarkable feature in the view; and the steep hills, which descend at once to the lake on the east, attract attention from their strangely-channelled sides diversified with dark green bushes and white chalky soil. The lake at the town may be six or eight miles broad. We could see no stream formed by the Jordan through it. Before it was dark we had a very fine view of the lake; at the southero part it is narrow, and the sides bold. The sun threw a deep shade on this side and on the water, while it marked the hills and valleys on the opposite side with strong light and shade. The northern part is much wider and tamer; but the hills are still high and green, and the lofty snowy mountain of Djibbel el Sheik rising over them gives great dignity to the landscape. This mountain was very striking late in the evening, as retaining the sun's rays after every thing around us was in darkness. In all respects it is the greatest ornament of the lake, and I am surprised that travellers have not mentioned it more."—Anonymous Journal.

[148] Buckingham, vol. ii. p. 368.

[149] Dr. Clarke relates, that "the French, during the time their army remained under Bonaparte in the Holy Land, constructed two very large ovens in the earth at Tiberias. Two years had elapsed at the time of our arrival since they had set fire to their granary; and it was considered as a miracle by the inhabitants that the combustion was not yet extinguished. We visited the place, and perceived, that whenever the ashes of the burnt corn were stirred, by thrusting a stick among them, sparks were even seen glowing throughout the heap; and a piece of wood left there became charred."

[150] The following extract from the unpublished journal already so often referred to will amuse the reader:—"We arrived at the foot of Mount Tabor. It is, in its general outline, a round, regular-shaped hill, but is rocky and rough enough when it is to be ascended. It has many trees, mostly Valonia oaks. It stands on the east of the great Plain of Esdraelon, up a recess formed by Mount Hermon on the one side, and the hills towards Nazareth on the other. Its height from the plain I should guess at 1000 feet. We ascended the greater part of the way on mules. On the top of the hill is one of those large cisterns, or granaries, so often alluded to before. There was one also near Jennin, which we observed in coming in. I have since seen them in numerous other places, which puts an end to Dr. Clarke's pagan remains. The whole of the Great Plain is fully cultivated, yet we could hardly see a single village, which adds to the peculiarity of its appearance,—one sheet of cultivation without a rock or tree".

[151] Clarke, vol. iv. p. 260. Doubdan, Voyage de la Terre Sainte, p. 507. Paris, 1661.—It is remarkable that all the descriptions of the view from Mount Tabor appear to be borrowed from this sedulous Frenchman, whose work, in point of topography, is still unequalled.

[152] Journey, p. 112.

[153] Clarke, vol. iv. p. 170.

[154] Vol. iv. p. 174. "Up stairs, above the Chapel of the Incarnation," says Dr. Richardson, "we were shown another grotto, which was called the Virgin Mary's Kitchen, and a black smoked place in the corner which was called the Virgin Mary's Chimney. I believe none of the cinders, fire-irons, or culinary instruments have been preserved; these probably fled with the Santa Casa, or Holy House, to Loretto; and our only astonishment is, that the house should have taken flight and left the chimney and kitchen behind."—vol. ii. p. 440.

[155] Luke iv. 28, 29, 30.

[156] Travels in Palestine, vol. ii. p. 315.

[157] "Traditio continua est, et nunquam interrupta, apud omnes nationes Orientales, hanc petram, dictam Mensa Christi, iliam ipsam esse supra quam Dominus noster Jesus Christus cum suis comedit discipulis ante et post suam resurrectionem a mortuis.

"Et sancta Romana ecclesia INDULGENTIAM concessit septem annorum et totidem quadragenarum, omnibus Christi fldelibus hunc sanctum locum visitantibus, recitando saltem ibi unum Pater, et Ave, dummodo sint in statu gratiae."

"It is a continued and uninterrupted tradition among all the Eastern churches, that this stone, called the Table of Christ, is that very one upon which our Lord Jesus Christ ate with his disciples both before and after his resurrection from the dead.

"And the holy Roman church hath granted an INDULGENCE of seven years, and as many lents, to all the faithful in Christ visiting this sacred place, upon reciting at least one Pater Noster and an Ave, provided they be in a state of grace."

[158] Clarke, vol. iv. p. 167.

[159] "De la nous retournasmes sur nos pas, a l'entree du village par ou nous avions passe, pour aller voir la Fontaine ou on alla puiser l'eau qui servit a ce miracle; mais en allant ces femmes et enfans nous penserent accabler de pierres et d'injures, tant ils sont inhumains et enemies des Chrestiens."—Le Voyage, &c. p. 512.

[160] Clarke, iv. p. 187. "We were afterward conducted into the chapel, in order to see the relics and sacred vestments there preserved. When the poor priest exhibited these, he wept over them with so much sincerity, and lamented the indignities to which the holy places were exposed in forms so affecting, that all our pilgrims wept also. Such were the tears which formerly excited the sympathy and roused the valour of the Crusaders. The sailors of our party caught the kindling zeal, and nothing more was necessary to incite in them a hostile disposition towards every Saracen they might afterward encounter."

[161] Travels, vol. iv. p. 141.

[162] Travels vol. iv. p. 148.

[163] Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem, p. 35.

[164] Buckingham, vol. i. p. 181.

[165] History of the Jews, vol. iii.

[166] Decline and Fall, vol. ii. p. 385.

[167] The reader who wishes to examine the evidence for the miraculous nature of the interruption sustained by the agents of Julian will find an ample discussion in the pages of Basnage, Lardner, Warburton, Gibbon, and of the Author of the History of the Jews.

[168] History of the Jews, vol. iii.

[169] "When the first light brought news of a morning, they on afresh; because they had intercepted a letter tied to the leg of a dove, wherein the Persian emperor promised present succours to the besieged. The Turks cased the outside of their walls with bags of chaff, straw, and such like pliable matter, which conquered the engines of the Christians by yielding unto them. As for one sturdy engine, whose force would not be tamed, they brought two old witches on the walls to enchant it; but the spirit thereof was too strong for their spells, so that both of them were miserably slain in the place.

"We must not think that the world was at a loss for war-tools before the brood of guns was hatched: it had the battering-ramme, first found out by Epeus at the taking of Troy; the balista to discharge great stones, invented by the Phenicians; the catapulta, being a sling of mighty strength, whereof the Syrians were authors; and perchance King Uzziah first made it, for we find him very dexterous and happy in devising such things. And although these bear-whelps were but rude and unshaped at the first, yet art did lick them afterward, and they got more teeth and sharper nails by degrees; so that every age set them forth in a new edition, corrected and amended. But these and many more voluminous engines are now virtually epitomized in the cannon. And though some say that the finding of guns hath been the losing of many men's lives, yet it will appear that battles now are fought with more expedition, and Victory standeth not so long a neuter, before she express herself on one side or other."—Fuller's Holy Warre, p. 41.

[170] Fuller remarks, that "this second massacre was no slip of an extemporary passion, but a studied and premeditated act. Besides, the execution was merciless upon sucking children whose not speaking spake for them; and on women whose weakness is a shield to defend them against a valiant man. To conclude, severity, hot in the fourth degree, is little better than poison, and becometh cruelty itself; and this act seemeth to be of the same nature."—Fuller's Holy Warre, p. 41.

[171] On this interesting subject we refer to the "Itineraire" of Chateaubriand, and his "Genie du Christianisme;" the History of England by Sir James Mackintosh, volume first; and to Mills's History of the Crusades, volume first, chapter sixth. We may add Dr. Robertson's "Historical Disquisition concerning the Knowledge which the Ancients had of India."

[172] Mill's History of the Crusades, vol. ii. p. 48.

[173] Mills's History of the Crusades, vol. ii. p. 129. Michaud, Histoire des Croisades, tom. iii. p. 187.

[174] A cure at Paris, instead of reading the bull from the pulpit in the usual form, said to his parishioners, "You know, my friends, that I am ordered to fulminate an excommunication against Frederick. I know not the motive. All that I know is, that there has been a quarrel between that prince and the pope. God alone knows who is right. I excommunicate him who has injured the other, and I absolve the sufferer." The emperor sent a present to the preacher, but the pope and the king blamed this sally: le mauvais plaisant—the unhappy wit—was obliged to expiate his fault by a canonical penance.—Mills's History, vol. ii. p. 253.

[175] The address of the Pope to the Fourth Council of Lateran, as translated by Michaud, is not a little striking:—"O vous qui passez dans les chemins, disait Jerusalem par la bouche du Pontife, regardez et voyez si jamais il y eut une douleur semblable a la mienne! Accourez donc tous, vous qui me cherissez, pour me delivrer de l'exces de mes miseres! Moi, qui etais la recue de toutes les nations, je suis maintenant asservie au tribut; moi, qui etais remplie de peuple, je suis restee presque seule. Les chemins de Sion sont en deuil, parceque personne ne vient a mes solemnites. Mes ennemis ont ecrase ma tete; tous les lieux saints sont profanes: le saint sepulchre, si rempli d'eclat, est couvert d'opprobre; on adore le fils de la perdition et de l'enfer, la ou nagueres on adorait le fils de Dieu. Les enfants de l'etranger m'accablent d'outrages, et montrant la croix de Jesus, ils me disent:—'Tu as mise toute la confiance dans un bois vil; nous verrons si ce bois te sauvera au jour de danger.'"—Histoire des Croisades, tom. iii. p. 394.

[176] "On se rappelait alors les vertus dont il avait donne l'exemple, et surtout sa bonte, envers les habitants de la Palestine, qu'il avait traites comme ses propres sujets. Les uns exprimaient leur reconnaissance par de vives acclamations, les autres par une morne silence; tout le peuple qu'affligeait son depart, les proclamait le pere des Chretiens, et conjurait le ciel de repandre ses benedictions sur la famille du vertueux monarque et sur la royaume de France. Louis montrait sur son visage, qu'il partageait les regrets des Chretiens de la Terra-Sainte; il leur addressait des paroles consolantes, leur donnait d'utiles conseils, se reprochait de s'avoir fait assez pour leur cause, et temoignait le vif desir qu'un jour Dieu le jugeat digne d'achever l'ouvrage de leur delivrance."—Michaud, Histoire des Croisades, tom. iv. p. 299.

[177] Ibid. p. 302.

[178] It was during the siege of Tunis that Louis died. "Our Edward would needs have had the town beaten down, and all put to the sword; thinking the foulest quarter too fair for them. Their goods (because got by robbery) he would have sacrificed as an anathema to God, and burnt to ashes; his own share he execrated, and caused it to be burnt, forbidding the English to save any thing of it; because that coals stolen out of that fire would sooner burn their houses than warm their hands. It troubled not the consciences of other princes to enrich themselves herewith, but they glutted themselves with the stolen honie which they found in this hive of drones: and, which was worse, now their bellies were full, they would goe to bed, return home, and goe no farther. Yea, the young King of France, called Philip the Bold, was fearful to prosecute his journey to Palestine; whereas Prince Edward struck his breast, and swore, that though all his friends forsook him, yet he would enter Ptolemais though but only with Fowin his horsekeeper. By which speech he incensed the English to go on with him."—Fuller's Holy Warre, p. 217.

[179] "It is storied how Eleanor, his lady, sucked all the poison out of his wounds, without doing any harm to herself. So sovereign a remedy is a woman's tongue anointed with the virtue of loving affection! Pity it is that so pretty a story should not be true (with all the miracles in love's legends), and sure he shall get himself no credit who undertaketh to confute a passage so sounding to the honour of the sex. Yet can it not stand with what others have written."—Fuller's Holy Warre, p. 220.

[180] The motives for the massacre of Jaffa are given by Bourrienne in so impartial a manner, that we are inclined to believe he has given a true transcript of his master's mind. "Bonaparte sent his aids-de-camp, Beauharnais and Crosier, to appease as far as possible the fury of the soldiery, to examine what passed, and to report. They learned that a numerous detachment of the garrison had retired into a strong position, where large buildings surrounded a courtyard. This court they entered, displaying the scarfs which marked their rank. The Albanians and Arnauts, composing nearly the entire of these refugees, cried out from the windows that they wished to surrender, on condition their lives were spared; if not, threatening to fire upon the officers, and to defend themselves to the last extremity. The young men conceived they ought, and had power, to accede to the demand, in opposition to the sentence of death pronounced against the garrison of every place taken by assault. I was walking with General Bonaparte before his tent when these prisoners, in two columns, amounting to about four thousand men, were marched into the camp. When he beheld the mass of men arrive, and before seeing the aids-de-camp, he turned to me with an expression of consternation, 'What would they have me to do with these? Have I provisions to feed them; ships to transport them either to Egypt or France? How the devil could they play me this trick!' The two aids-de-camp, on their arrival and explanations, received the strongest reprimands. To their defence, namely, that they were alone amid numerous enemies, and that he had recommended to them to appease the slaughter, he replied, in the sternest tone, 'Yes, without doubt, the slaughter of women, children, old men, the peaceable inhabitants, but not of armed soldiers; you ought to have braved death, and not brought these to me. What would you have me do with them?' But the evil was done. Four thousand men were there—their fate must be determined. The prisoners were made to sit down, huddled together before the tents, their hands being bound behind them. A gloomy rage was depicted to every lineament. A council was held in the general's tent," &c.

On the third day an order was issued that the prisoners should be shot,—an order which was literally executed on four thousand men. "The atrocious crime," says M. Bourrienne, "makes me yet shudder when I think of it, as when it passed before me. All that can be imagined of fearful on this day of blood would fall short of the reality!"—Memoirs, vol i. p. 156.

[181] Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, vol. i. p. 163.

[182] Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, vol. i. p. 165.

[183] Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, vol. i. p. 168.

[184] Jowett's Christian Researches in Syria and the Holy Land, p. 315.

[185] Weimar, Geographical Ephemerides; and History of the Jews, vol. iii. p. 332.

[186] History of the Jews, vol. iii. p. 338.

[187] See Clarke's Travels, vol. iv. p. 191.

[188] Hasselquist's Voyages and Travels, p. 284.

[189] Clarke's Travels, vol. iv. p. 223 and 307.

[190] Travels or Observations relating to several parts of Barbary and the Levent, vol. ii. p. 153.

[191] Travels or Observations, vol. ii. p. 135.

[192] Travels through Syria and Egypt, vol. i. p. 313.

[193] 1 Kings, iv. 23.

[194] Shaw's Travels, vol. ii. p. 280.

[195] Job xxxix. ver. 9, 10, 11, 12.

[196] Job xxxix. 5, 6, 7, 8.

[197] Appendix to Bruce's Travels, p. 139.

[198] See an article in the sixth volume of the Wernerian Memoirs, by Dr. Scott, of Corstorphine, "On the Animal called Saphan in the Hebrew Scriptures."

[199] Daubenton, Calmet, vol. iv. p. 645. See also Shaw, Hasselquist and Dochart.

[200] Calmet's Dictionary, vol. iv. p. 659.

[201] See Calmet, vol. iv. p. 688.

[202] Churchill's Voyages, vol. ii, p. 296.

[203] Revelation ix. 3, 10.

[204] Calmet's Dictionary, vol. iv. p. 696.

[205] Malte Brun, vol. ii p. 130.

[206] Shaw's Travels, vol. ii p. 152.

[207] Isaiah, v. 4.

[208] Voyages and Travels in the Levant, p. 288.

THE END