2901. [Judg. v. 10.] There were three modes of travelling in Judea; and still are common in the East. Men of rank and riches rode on beautiful streaked asses: women were generally carried in counes or large panniers, hung on each side of a camel; and they who could afford neither of these conveyances, were obliged, like the many of every country, to travel a foot. Now, in the days of Shamgar, none of those travellers were safe on the highway; but were under the necessity of pursuing their journeys by devious routes and by-paths, to avoid meeting the bowmen (the noosers) who occupied all the public roads, and more particularly infested the watering places, where travellers used to rest, and bait. 2902. [11.] The archers, the bowmen, the noosers, occupied all the public roads, and more particularly infested the watering places, where travellers used to rest, and bait. Dr. GEDDES. 2903. Dr. SHAW mentions a beautiful rill in Barbary, which is received into a large basin called shrub we krub, drink and away; there being great danger of meeting there with rogues and assassins. Sce Trav. p. 20. 2904. [14.] Sopherim (Hebr.), writers or secretaries; persons in the highest dignities of the Jewish commonwealth, in church, in state, in the army, revenues, &c. -After the return from captivity, when the canon of scripture was revised by Ezra and his inspired associates, it is very probable, the multiplying and propagating, as well as the revising, the copies of it, which were then very scarce, was committed to those sopherim or scribes, who, by a constant converse with those writings, attained to a still greater knowledge of them, and so came at length to set up for teachers and expounders of them, and to the name of scribe had that likewise added of doctor or teacher of the law; Mark xii. 28, Matt. xxii. 35, xxiii. 2. These scribes rejected all oral tradition, and stuck close to the letter of the sacred books. 2910. [Judg. vi. 2.] We find in the History of the Croisades, by the archbishop of Tyre, that Baldwin the First presenting himself with some troops before Ascalon, the citizens were afraid to venture out to fight with him. On this, finding it would be of no advantage to continue there, 2912. [21.] On the 25th of October, 1785, we had, says M. de LAMANON, a very remarkable storm. The sky being all in a blaze, I employed part of the night in observing it, and I had the pleasure of witnessing three ascending thunderbolts. They rose from the sea like an arrow; two of them perpendicularly, and the third at an angle of 75°. The lightning proceeded less in a zig-zag direction than in France, and towards the conclusion of the storm I saw a luminous point on the summit of the conductor, where it continued a quarter of an hour. This is what is called the fire of St. Elmo, which did not make its appearauce on the other masts. La PEROUSE'S Voy. round the World, vol. ii. p. 519. of which he laves or throws up the water into his mouth. The Hottentots have a curious custom resembling the dog, and the three hundred chosen men of Gideon's army. When they come to water, if thirsty, they stoop down; but no farther than is sufficient to allow the right hand to reach the water, by which they throw up the water so dexterously that their hand seldom approaches nearer to the mouth than a foot. On such occasions I never observed any of the water to be spilt so as to wet their breasts. They perform it nearly as quickly as the dog, and satisfy their thirst in half the time taken by another man. J. C.-Evangelical Magazine. 2920. [Judg. ix. 6.] English Councils were formerly held under wide-spreading Oaks. Thus Augustine, the first Archbishop of Canterbury, met the British bishops under an oak in Worcestershire, which was therefore called, as Bede tells us, Augustine's Oak. And Barkshire has its name, as it were, Bare-Oak-shire, from a large dead oak, in the forest of Windsor, where they continued to hold Provincial Councils near its trunk, as had been done more antiently under its exteusive and flourishing branches. See HODY's Eng. Councils, p, 34. Alon muizab asher be-Shechem (Hebr.); at the oakmonument, that in Shechem. See No. 426. Univer. Hist. vol. iii. p. 461. 320 2921. [Judg. ix. 8-15.] In old times, when the inventions of men, and the conclusions deduced from them, were new and uncommon, fables, parables, and similies, of all kinds abounded. Lord BACON's Preface to his WISDOM OF THE ANTIENTS. 2922. [11.] Almost all fruits, and many roots, contain more or less of sugar; grapes abound with it; the more sharp the fruit before its maturity, the sweeter it becomes after. Whence we may conclude, that sugar is nothing more than a true vegetable acid, mixed with a certain quantity of oil, and disguised by the action of heat. WEBB's Selections from Pauw, p. 30. diameter, which they rub one on the other by means of an upright pin infixed as a handle near the edge of the stone. In the operation of grinding, the corn falls down on upper the under stone through a hole in the middle of the upper, which by its circular motion spreads it on the under stone where it is bruised and reduced to flour: this flour working out of the rim of the millstones, lights on a board set on purpose to receive it. (TOURNEFORT, vol. ii. p. 85.) If, as is usual, a woman were working such a mill on the roof of the tower, she would naturally be prompted in defence of herself and people, to run to the battlements with the rider millstone; which, let fall on the head of Abimelech, would inevitably fracture his skull. 2923. [45.] When the soil abounds with rushes and weeds, it is customary in Cheshire, to lay a quantity of rock salt upon it, as it is found utterly to destroy every vegetable. Also, some of the African and Arabian deserts are thought to be barren by their having too much salt in them. But, when applied as a manure, in small quantities, salt is found to be very beneficial; not probably from its entering as an aliment into the substance of vegetables, since there are many experiments tending to prove that no kind of salt cau of itself become the food of plants, but from its efficacy in reducing weeds, dried herbage, dead roots, &c. into a putrid oily mass; the fructifying virtue of oily composts being now generally acknowledged; but when it is used in a larger proportion, by preserving these matters from corruption, and drying up or hardening the fibrous capillaries of the roots, so that they become unfit for sucking in nutriment, the fertility of the ground is diminished, or wholly destroyed. WATSON'S Chem. vol. i. p. 73, &c. 2927. [Judg. x. 6.] Syria, in Hebrew called Aram from Shem's youngest son, lay between the Mediterranean on the west, and the river Euphrates on the east; and between mount Taurus on the north, and Arabia the desert, Palestine, and Phoenice on the south. north to south and 300 from east to west, extends from the This tract, 375 miles from 32d to the 37th degree of north latitude, and from the 36th to the 41st degree of longitude E. from London. - , Univer. Hist. vol. ii. p. 233. 2928. [- 16.] The strange gods' were the Images of the One God exhibited in the spiritual atmospheres of other earths; that is, of Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Mercury, &c. The Image of God in the Jewish heaven which encircles our earth, is the Jehovah who is to-day, was yesterday, and will be to-morrow, over our heads, at the same vertical point nearly. The 'soul' is seated in the brain, and in the nerves and fibres thence proceeding throughout the whole animated frame. The spirit has its subordinate residence in the heart and lungs, and in the veins and arteries thence ramified in a duplicate congeries throughout the body. In Jehovah, this organization of soul and spirit, and the being grieved for the misery of Israel,' consist externally in the Human Spirit of that Divine Image in man, 6 not in the Divine Life-spirit thereof which can neither be organized nor suffer, because not penetrable as body, but penetrating as inmost essence every substance and form in the universe. 2926. [ 53. A piece of a millstone] Recab (Hebr.), the rider, the upper millstone. The Eastern hand-mill cousists of two flat round stones, about two feet in - 2929. [Judg. xi. 3. Tob] This land, on the extremity of the northern part of Manasseh's lot on the other side Jordan, 2933. [Judg. xii. 6.] As the ear of corn, picked up by gleaners, was called in Hebrew Shibboleth, and in Arabic Sibula, the female gleaner was denominated from her employ a Sibyl, or ear-gatherer. In a year of plenty, these gleaners would abound; but when the harvest was scant, they would be proportionably few: in consequence their appearance might be said to foretell a plentiful or scanty ingathering. By an easy metaphor, all such women or priestesses, as undertook to divine themselves, or collect the prophecies of others, were denominated Sibyls. Nat. Delin. vol. i. p. 295. 2931. [36-39.] It is supposed, that the reason why, on such occasions, the Israelitish virgins bewailed their virginity, was, because every woman flattered herself with the hope of being mother to the Messiah, then promised to the descendants of Abraham, but not in Jephthah's days limited to the house of David. Dr. W. ALEXANDER'S Hist. of Women, vol. i. p. 341. But the Israelitish damsels were not the only women of antient or modern times, who reckoned perpetual virginity a misfortune. The antient Persians were of opinion, that matrimony was so essentially necessary to man, that such of either sex as died single must infallibly be unhappy in the next world.Virginity was likewise reckoned a misfortune and disgrace by the Greek women: Sophocles makes Electra bewail bitterly her hard fate in not being married; and Polycrates, tyrant of Samos, being angry with his daughter for dissuading him from going to meet Orates, governor of Sardis, threatens her that, should he return in safety, he would defer giving her in marriage for a long time. But this female dislike to single life, has not been peculiar to any period or people, it has universally prevailed among the sex. In many nations, laws have been promulgated to prompt the men to enter into matrimony; to prompt the women, none have ever been needed. Young Women,' says the celebrated MONTESQUIEU, who are conducted by marriage alone to liberty and pleasure, who have a mind which dares not think, a heart which dares not feel, eyes which dare not see, ears which dare not hear; who appear only to shew themselves silly; condemned without intermission to trifles and precepts; have sufficient inducements to lead them on to marriage: it is the young men that want to be encouraged.' 2932. Ibid. vol. ii. pp. 240, 241. Jephthah, according to his vow, had set apart his daughter for God's special service; and she continued unmarried that she might be more careful of the things which belong to the LORD. See No. 515, 516. Biblical Researches, vol. i. p. 80. to the wife, viz. a couple of oxen yoked together, a horse accoutred, a shield, a javelin, and a sword. The woman on her part too made her husband a present of some arms. By the mutual approbation and acceptance of these gifts in the presence of their parents and relations, they were married. TACITUS de mor. Ger. c. 7 & 18. to 2939. [Judg. xv. 4, 6.] Gunpowder has been known in China, as well as in Hindostan, far beyond all periods of investigation. A passage in Quintus Cartius seems ascertain, that Alexander the Great met with some kind of fire-arms in India. The first species of that kind of weapon is described as having been a kind of dart or arrow tipt with fire, and discharged on the enemy from a bamboo. After it had taken its flight, it divided (as these compound firebrands might do) into several separate darts or streams of flame, each of which took effect; and which, like the Few Gregeois of the Crusades, when once kindled, could not be extinguished. HALHED's Preface to Gentoo Laws, p. 50. suffered (in effigy) the very calamity she sought to avoid by betraying her husband. See Ch. xiv. 15. 2944. [Judg. xv. 8.] The Grand Seignior, wishing to seize the person of the emir, gave orders to the pacha to take him prisoner: he accordingly came in search of him with a new army, in the district of Chouf, which is a part of mount Lebanou, wherein is the village of Gesin, and close to it the rock which served for retreat to the emir. It is named in Arabic Magara Gesin, the cavern of Gesin, by which name it is famous. The pacha pressed the emir so closely, that this unfortunate prince was obliged to shut himself up in the cleft of a great rock, with a small number of his officers. The pacha besieged him here several months; and was going to blow up the rock by a mine, when the emir capitulated. DE LA ROQUE, p. 205. 2940. While the king of Persia was amusing himself abroad in the fields, without Ispahan under tents in harvest time, when the sheaves lay in the grounds piled on heaps; as his majesty greatly delighted in fire-works, some rockets of an extraordinary weight were discharged before him, which not mounting as they should have done, were carried a great way into the fields, where they set the sheaves on fire and burnt the corn together with some houses that stood not far off. The damage was estimated at sixteen thousand pounds. 2941. CHARDIN'S Hist. of the Coronation of Solyman, p. 114. Foxes] Shualim (Hebr.), Shualites; 1 Sam. xiii. 17, Josh. xix. 42, Judg. i. 35, Isai. vii. 4. 2946. [ 19.] In the parched districts of Africa, there is a species of tree called by the Negroes Boa (the Cinnamon tree), the trunk of which, of a prodigious bulk, is naturally hollowed like a cistern. In the rainy season it receives its fill of water, which continues fresh and cool in the greatest heats, by means of the tufted foliage which crowns its suminit. The Herculian club, used by Samson against the Philistines, might have been providentially reft by lightning from a cavernous tree of this, or any other kind (the olive ?). The hollow in its side, thus cloven of Gon, would give forth water from its interior cistern; which Samson might be directed to perceive, and to drink of it till his thirst were quenched. See St. PIERRE's Studies of Nature, vol. ii. p. 444. Jer. i. 13. |