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ipsa. Gaudet et riguis totoque anno bibere:" which agrees with the observation of Job in the next verse to that which occasioned this article,

My root was spread out by the waters,

And the dew lay all night upon my branch.

The Phoenix is a fabulous bird, which the ancients described as of the size of an eagle; its eyes sparkling like stars; its head finely crested with a beautiful plumage; its neck covered with feathers of a gold colour; its tail white; and its body purple. One only phoenix, they said, existed at the same time, and this lived in the wilderness for a space of five or six hundred years. When thus advanced in age, it built itself a pile of sweet woods and aromatic gums; in which, fire being obtained from the sun and fanned with the wings of the bird, it voluntarily consumed itself. From the ashes, in process of time, arose a new phoenix.

In the sixth book of the Annals of Tacitus, it is observed, that in the year of Rome 787, the phoenix revisited Egypt, an event which occasioned much speculation among the learned. This creature is sacred to the sun in that country. Of its longevity the accounts are various. The common persuasion is, that it lives five hundred years; but by some the date is extended to 1461. The several eras when the phoenix has been seen are fixed by tradition. The first, we are told, was in the reign of Sesostris; the second in that of Amasis; and in the period when Ptolemy, the third of the Macedonian race, was seated on the throne of Egypt, another phoenix directed its flight towards Heliopolis. When, to these circumstances are added the brilliant appearance of the phoenix, and the tale that it makes frequent excursions with a load on its back, and that it flies to the altar of the sun to be there consumed; it cannot but appear probable, that the learned of Egypt had enveloped under this allegory, the philosophy of comets.

The Septuagint, however, render the Hebrew word " CHOL, by Dow, which is the palm-tree; and Kæmpfer says, that the fruit of the wild palm, or date, is by the Arabians and Persians called nachl, and chalaal; which approach the Hebrew.

PRECIOUS STONES. The following enumeration of the precious stones I extract from an ancient English poet, principally on account of its reference to passages of Scripture.

"'Tis thus rapacious misers swell their store;
To diamonds diamonds add, and ore to ore:
Turquoises next, their weaker minds surprise,
Rich, deeply azured, like Italian skies.
Then are the fiery rubies to be seen 24,

And emeralds tinctured with the rainbow's green 25,

24" Nazarites more ruddy than rubies." Lam. iv. 7.
25A rainbow in sight, like an emerald." Rev. iv. 3.

Translucent beryl 26, flame-eyed chrysolite",

And sardonyx, refresher of the sight 28.

With these the empurpled amethyst combines 29,

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And topaz, vein'd with rivulets, mildly shines." HARTE.

RICE. A plant very much resembling wheat in its shape and colour, and the figure and disposition of its leaves; but it has a thicker and stronger stalk. Its seed is extremely farinaceous. It thrives only in low, damp, and marshy lands, when they are even a little overflowed.

It has been wondered why rice, which, as Dr. Arbuthnot observes, is "the food of two thirds of mankind," should never have been enumerated among the grains of Scripture; especially as it is cultivated in most Eastern countries, and at present so much abounds in Egypt. A passage however in Isai. xxxii. 20, according to Sir John Chardin's manuscript note on the place, exactly answers the manner of planting rice; for they sow it upon the water and before sowing, while the earth is covered with water, they cause the ground to be trodden by oxen, horses, and asses, who go midleg deep; and this is the way of preparing the ground for sowing. As they sow the rice on the water, they transplant it in the water 30. This will explain

Eccles. xi. 1.

Dr. Shaw supposes that the word D CUSSEMETH, translated rye, Exod. ix. 31, should have been rendered rice. The same word is rendered fitches, Ezek. iv. 9. But the LXX Theodotion, and Aquila, render it zea or spelt; and this Parkhurst considers as its true meaning.

SPICES. Herodotus, l. iii. c. 3, observes, that "the Greeks learned the name vaμapov from the Phoenicians;" and it may be remarked, that as all spices came from the East to Greece and Italy, so they have eastern names, not only in Greek and Latin, but generally in English, and the other modern languages. I shall cite some instances from Bochart, V. i. p. 713.

cinnamo-, Xaλbavy, galbanum.
nin, Аλon, aloe.

pop, vvaμaμov, mon, cinnamon. ny's, naoσia, cassia.

П, navva, canna, cane.

12, Mugga, myrrha, myrrh.
, Aavos, libanus, oli-

banum.

77, Nagdos, nardus, nard.
75, KUжgos, cyprus.

51, Νιτωπον.

SUGAR. The inspissated juice of the cane.

We are not

certain that the granulated form of the sap was known. Under the word " cane," we have shown that the knowledge of the plant was as old among the Jews as the time of Moses. It is

26 Dan. x. 6; Rev. xxi. 20.

28 Rev. xxi. 20.

27 Ezek. xxviii.
29 Ex. xxviii. 19.

30 Harmer's ob. i. v. i. p. 280. Lowth's Notes upon Isai. p. 166.

agreed that our sugar is a term borrowed from the Arabic. The Saracens or Arabians propagated the cane in their conquests. ow, as a noun, is used nineteen times, and uniformly translated "strong drink." The etymology may make it not only the "sicera" of the Greeks and Latins, but also the "saccharum." It is uniformly coupled with wine, and used without any separate verb, [See Levit. x. 9; Deut. xiv. 26; xxix. 6; Jud. xiii. 4, 7, 14; 1 Sam. i. 15.] It is mentioned Numb. vi. 3, both with and without wine; but the verse seems to imply, that the repetition of the fermentation is only to render the command more emphatical, as it is in the same manner repeated with respect to the wine. It is possible that they might have a kind of beer made by fermenting the sirup of the cane; but, perhaps more probable that they used it to sweeten their wine, as we put honey into cider to encourage people to drink freely. The texts quoted above will then be rendered "wine and sugar," or sweetened wine.

In Solomon's time, and afterwards, the wine and sweet cordials seem generally to have been used separately, as we may conclude from the phraseology; they having usually their separate verbs. [Compare Prov. xx. 1; xxxi. 4, 6; Isai. v. 11, 22; xxiv. 9; xxviii. 7; xxix. 9; lvi. 12.] The only place after Solomon, in which I find it used simply as joined with wine, is in Micah, ii. 11.

I do not

Strabo speaks of canes from which honey is made. know that "saccharum" is used by any author prior to Pliny and Dioscorides. See Salmas, exercit. Plin. V. ii.

TREES. The Gemara Babylonica, Onkelos in the Chaldee paraphrase, R. Salomon, R. Abahu, Eben Ezra, and several critics imagine that by y ETZ HADAR, rendered "goodly trees," Levit. xxiii. 40, the citron tree is intended: nay y ETZ ABOTH, rendered "thick trees," in the same verse, and in Nehem. viii. 15; and Ezek. xx. 28; according to the Rabbins, the Chaldee paraphrase, the Syriac version, and Deodatus, is the myrtle.

The word N ESHEL, or ASEL, translated "grove" in Gen. xxi. 33, has been variously translated. Parkhurst renders it an oak, and says, that "from this word may be derived the name of the famous asylum, opened by Romulus between two groves of oak at Rome." Dionyss. Hal. 1. ii. c. 16. On the other hand, Celsius, Hierobot. V. i. p. 535, Michaelis, Suppl. Lex. Hebr. and Dr. Geddes render it the Tamarisk, which is a lofty and beautiful tree, which grows abundantly in Egypt and Arabia 28.

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The same word in 1 Sam. xxii. 6; and xxxi. 13, is rendered a tree." It must be noted too, that in the first of these places,

28 Tamaris. Myrica. Arabis Tharse; Athel, incolis. Rauwolf, Flora Orientalis, N. 93, page 35.

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the common version is equally obscure and contradictory, by making ramah a proper name. It signifies hillock or bank. Boothroyd translates it, "now Saul was sitting on a hill in Gibeah, under a tamarisk tree."

TREES THAT PRODUCED PRECIOUS BALSAMS. Of these there was one in particular that long flourished in Judea, having been supposed to have been an object of great attention to Solomon, which was afterwards translated to Matarea in Egypt, where it continued till about two hundred and fifty years ago, according to Maillet, let. iii. p. 111, who gives a description of it, drawn, I suppose, from the Arabian authors, in which he tells, "this shrub had two very differently coloured barks, the one red, the other perfectly green; that they tasted strongly like incense and turpentine, and when bruised between the fingers they smelt very nearly like cardamoms." "This balsam (he tells us), which was extremely precious and celebrated, and was used by the Coptic church in their chrism, was produced by a very low shrub; and it is said, that all those shrubs that produced balsams are every where low, and do not exceed two or three cubits in height."

TURPENTINE. ΤΕΡΕΒΙΝΘΟΣ.

Ecclesiasticus, xxiv. 16, "As the turpentine-tree I stretched out my branches, and my branches are the branches of honour and grace."

The terebinth-tree here spoken of is described under the article "OAK."

ZACCOUN, or ZACCHOM; a tree so called from Zaccheus, is found in the plain of Jericho. It is thus described by Mariti, Trav. v. ii. p. 33: "The branches are covered with prickles four or five inches long; the bark knotty and wrinkled, and green on the tree, but yellow when dry. The wood is of the colour of box-wood. The leaves are like those of the olive; but narrower, sharper, and a more beautiful green. It bears a white odoriferous flower. Its fruit, which is a kind of acorn, without a calyx, and enclosed in a pellicle, yields when squeezed an oil, which for contusions and wounds is preferred even to the balsam of Mecca. That of the best quality is obtained by expression, and an inferior sort by boiling the pumice after it has been pressed."

Perhaps this is the oil mentioned Mark, vi. 15; Luke, x. 33; and James, v. 14.

The tree is probably the Eleagnus, mentioned by Hasselquist, p. 287.

INDEX,

Exhibiting a List of the Articles according to THE ENGLISH
TRANSLATION, followed by THE ORIGINAL NAMES; and then
THE MODERN OR SCIENTIFIC APPELLATION, as nearly as I
have been able to identify the Individuals. For THE PRECIOUS
STONES, however, I have retained the Names as found in THEO-
PHRASTUS or PLINY.

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