the blessing of God, attended the efforts of his chosen people, to return from their captivity to the land of their fathers; and holds out a powerful encouragement to believers in Christ, to persevere in their heavenly course, notwithstanding the numerous and severe trials of this present life; for in due time, they shall certainly enter into the rest which remains for the people of God.

k

But the danger of the husbandman is not over with the seed-time; the Arabians often seize and carry off the corn, and other fruits of the earth, even before they have come to maturity. Egmont and Hayman, in their travels in Galilee, found a large plain bordering on the lake of Tiberias, which was sown with rice; but to which they perceived the Arabs had already paid a visit, although the greater part of the corn was not then ripe. They treat the fruit trees in the same manner; which obliges the inhabitants of those countries to watch their corn-fields and orchards, or gather their fruits before they come to maturity. Maillet ascribes the deterioration of the wines, in some parts of Egypt, to their precipitation in gathering the grapes, to save them from the depredations of the Arabs. These circumstances lead to an easy and beautiful exposition of the promise, "Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that the ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt ;" that is, the days shall come, when the grain shall not be cut, nor the grapes gathered, as they were before, in a state of immaturity, for fear of the Arabian freebooters, or other plundering hordes; but they 1 Let. viii, p. 294, 295.

m

Trav. vol. ii, p. 37.

m Amos ix, 13.

shall be suffered to remain till the time of ploughing, so perfect shall be the security of those times.""

Two bushels and an half of wheat or barley, are sufficient to sow as much ground as a pair of beeves will plough in one day; which is, a little more or less, equal to one of our acres. Dr. Shaw could never learn that Barbary afforded yearly more than one crop; one bushel yielding ordinarily from eight to twelve, though some districts may perhaps afford a much greater increase, for it is common to see one grain produce ten or fifteen stalks. Even some grains of the Murwany wheat, which he brought with him to Oxford, and sowed in the physic garden, threw out each of them fifty. But Muzeratty, one of the kaleefas, or viceroys of the province of Tlemsan, brought once with him to Algiers, a root that yielded fourscore, telling Dr. Shaw and his party, that in consequence of a dispute concerning the respective fruitfulness of Egypt and Barbary, the emir Hadge, or prince of the western pilgrims, sent once to the bashaw of Cairo, one that yielded sixscore. Pliny mentions some that bore three or four hundred. It likewise happens, that one of these stalks will sometimes bear two ears, whilst each of these ears will as often shoot out into a number of lesser ones, affording by that means a most plentiful increase. And may not these large prolific ears, when seven are said to come up upon one stalk, explain what is mentioned of the seven fruitful years in Egypt, that the earth brought them forth by handfuls ?

It is a common practice in the east, to set the dry herbage on fire before the autumnal rains; which, for want of care, often occasions great damage. This was also the practice of Italian farmers, as Virgil attests:

n Harmer's Observ. vol. i, p. 144. • Nat. Hist. lib. xviii, cap. 21.

P Gen. xli, 5.

Shaw, vol. i, p. 252.

"Sæpe etiam steriles incendere proficit agros,

Atque levem stipulam crepitantibus urere flammis."

Geor. lib. i, 1. 84.

As fires of this kind were often very destructive, Moses has provided, by an express law, that reparation shall be made for the damage, whether it was occasioned by malice or neglect. "If fire," says the lawgiver, "break out and catch in thorns, so that the stacks of corn, or the standing corn, or the field be consumed therewith, he that kindled the fire shall surely make restitution."r

The season for consuming the dry herbage and under growth on the mountains, is in the latter end of July, when the clouds begin to appear from the south, and indicate the approach of rain. Chandler, from whose Travels this fact is stated, often saw the fire blazing in the winds, and volumes of smoke rolling along the sides of the hills. The necessity of a law to restrain and regulate this very common and dangerous practice, is verified by an incident to which that writer was an eye witness, Having been employed the latter end of August, in taking a plan of Troas, one day after dinner, a Turk coming to them, emptied the ashes of his pipe, and a spark of fire fell unobserved in the grass, which was long parched by the sun, and inflammable as tinder. A brisk wind soon kindled a blaze, which withered in an instant the leaves of the bushes and trees in its way, seized the branches and roots, and devoured all before it, with prodigious crackling and noise. Chandler and his party were much alarmed, as a general conflagration of the country seemed likely to ensue. After exerting themselves for an hour, they at length extinguished the fire. This incident shews, that the law was not only proper, but also necessary, to

r Exod. xxii, 6.

secure the inhabitants of a scorching climate, where every combustible substance is always near the point of ignition, from utter destruction."

Three months intervened between the seed-time and the first reaping, and a month between this and the full harvest. Barley is in full ear all over the Holy land, in the beginning of April; and about the middle of the same month, it begins to turn yellow, particularly in the southern districts; being as forward near Jericho in the latter end of March, as it is in the plains of Acre a fortnight afterwards. The reaping continues till the middle of Sivan, or till about the end of May or beginning of June, which is the time of wheat harvest, finishes this part of the husbandman's labours.

The heats in the time of harvest, appear to be very oppressive, and if not carefully guarded against, sometimes prove fatal to those that are exposed in the open air. It was on a harvest day, that the Shunamite's son was struck with a sun-beam, and died in a few hours. In Egypt, the harvest commences in the latter end of April, or the first days of May, two months which Maillet represents as extremely hot. Dr. Pococke affirms, that Egypt is favoured with a double seed-time and harvest. Rice and Indian wheat are not sown and reaped at the same time with wheat, barley, and flax. The first are sown in March, before the Nile overflows the lands, and reaped about Oc tober; the wheat and barley are sown in November and December, as soon as the Nile is gone off, and reaped before May." Pococke's account has since been confirmed by Hasselquist, who found the rice at Assotta about three

s Trav. p. 30, 31, 276.

u Trav. vol. i, p. 204.

t

* Let. xi, p. 109, 110.

V

pas

inches high, on the thirtieth of May; and in another sage, mentions the month of October as the time of reaping it; which accords with the statement of Pococke. But Dr. Shaw seems not to have been aware of this; for he supposes that rice was sown at the same time with flax, wheat, and barley; yet it is natural to suppose, that as wheat and barley are sown as soon as the inundation is over, and reaped before it returns, so, in like manner, those sorts of grain that require much water, should be sown before it begins, and reaped just about the time of its termination." Norden accordingly saw a great plain covered with Turkey wheat, nearly ripe, upon the twentieth of November; and upon the twenty-ninth of the same month, the Arabs cutting their harvest in a neighbouring plain. This fact accounts for the safety of the wheat and the rye, when Egypt was desolated by the plague of hail; they were involved in thick darkness, as the word literally signifies; that is, they were concealed, or, as our translators have justly rendered the term, they were not grown up. Parkhurst, following Dr. Shaw, gives a different translation : "But the wheat and the rye were not smitten, for they were (b) aphiloth, hidden, that is, concealed or involved in the hose." To the same purpose, the Seventy render it of, Vulg. serotina, late, backward. This was about the beginning of the month Abib, which answers nearly to our March, O. S.; and accordingly Dr. Shaw, speaking of Egypt, says, "Barley and wheat are usually ripe, the first about the beginning, the latter at the end of April." And again, "Now as wheat and rice are of a slower growth than flax and barley, it usually falls out in the beginning of March that the barley is in the ear, w Trav. vol. ii, p. 265.

▾ Trav. part ii, p. 17, 36.