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cities, the chief of which was Sodom, were once destroyed and swallowed up by earthquakes, fire, and an inundation of boiling sulphureous water. (STRA B. Geog. lib. xvi.) Maundrelt visited the lake Asphaltis in the year 1697, and makes the following observations upon it. "Being desirous to see the remains, (if there were any) of those cities anciently situated in this place, and made so dreadful an example of the divine vengeance, I diligently surveyed the waters, as far as my eye could reach; but neither could I discern any heaps of ruins, nor any smoke ascending above the surface of the water, as is usually described in the writings and maps of geographers. But yet I must not omit, what was confidently attested to me by the father guardian, and procurator of Jerusalem, both men in years, and seemingly not destitute either of sense or probity, that they had once actually seen one of these ruins; that it was so near the shore, and the waters so shallow at that time, that they went to it, and found there several pillars, and other fragments of buildings. The cause of our being deprived of this sight was, I suppose, the height of the water." (Travels, p. 85.) The account which Thevenot gives is much to the same purpose. "There is no sort of fish in this sea, by reason of the extraordinary saltness of it; which burns like fire, when one tastes of it. And when the fish of the water Jordan come down so low, they return back again against the stream; and such as are carried into it by the current of the water immediately die. The land within three leagues round it is not cultivated, but is white, and mingled with salt and ashes. In short, we must think that there is a heavy curse of God upon that place, seeing it was heretofore so pleasant a country." (Travels, vol. i. p. 194.)

No. 11.-xxi. 23. Swear unto me here by God.] This kind of oath appears not only to have been gene

rally in use in the time of Abraham, but also to have descended through many generations and ages in the East. When Mr. Bruce was at SHEKH AMMER, he entreated the protection of the governor in prosecuting his journey. Speaking of the people who wese assembled together at this time in the house, he says, (Travels, vol. i. p. 148.) "the great people among them came, and, after joining hands, repeated a kind of prayer, of about two minutes long, by which they declared themselves and their children accursed, if ever they lifted up their hands against me in the tell, or field in the desert; or in case that I, or mine, should fly to them for refuge, if they did not protect us at the risk of their lives, their families, and their fortunes, or, as they emphatically expressed it, to the death of the last male child among them." See also Gen. xxvi. 28, 29.

No. 12.-xxii. 3. Saddled his ass.] There is no ground for supposing that the ancient eastern saddles were like our modern ones. Such were not known

to the Greeks and Romans till many ages after the Hebrew judges. "No nation of antiquity knew the use of either saddles or stirrups;" (GOGUET, Origin of Laws, vol. iii. p. 172. English edit.) and even in our own times Hasselquist, when at Alexandria, says, "I procured an equipage which I had never used before; it was an ass with an Arabian saddle, which consisted only of a cushion, on which I could sit, and a handsome bridle." (Travels, p. 52.) But even the cushion seems an improvement upon the ancient eastern saddles, which were probably nothing more than a kind of rug girded to the beast. PARKHURST's Heb. Lex. p. 213.

No. 13. xxiv. 2, 3. And Abraham said unto his eldest servant of his house, that ruled over all that he had, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and I will make thee swear by

the Lord.] The present mode of swearing among the Mohammedan Arabs, that live in tents as the patriarchs did, according to de la Roque (Voy. dans la Pal. p. 152.) is by laying their hands on the Koran. They cause those who swear to wash their hands before they give them the book; they put their left hand underneath, and the right over it. Whether, among the patriarchs one hand was under, and the other upon the thigh, is not certain; possibly Abraham's servant might swear with one hand under his master's thigh, and the other stretched out to Heaven. As the posterity of the patriarchs are described as coming out of the thigh, it has been supposed, this ceremony had some relation to their believing the promise of God, to bless all the nations of the earth, by means of one that was to descend from Abraham.

HARMER, vol. iv. p. 477.

No. 14. xxvii. 39. Dew of Heaven.] Egypt, says M. Savary, would be uninhabitable, did not the nocturnal dews restore life to vegetables. These dews are so copious, especially in summer, that the earth is deeply soaked with them, so that in the morning one would imagine that rain had fallen during the night. This is the reason why the scripture promises the Israelites, who inhabited a climate pretty similar to that of Egypt, the dew of heaven as a signal favour.

No. 15. xxviii. 17. The gate of heaven.] After having described in what manner caverns were used as sacred temples, and the allegorical design of some parts of their furniture, Mr. Maurice says, "In these caverns they erected a high ladder, which had seven GATES, answering to the number of the planets, through which, according to their theology, the soul gradually ascends to the supreme mansion of felicity. I must here observe that the word GATE, which is a

part of Asiatic palaces by far the most conspicuous and magnificent, and upon adorning of which immense sums are often expended, is an expression, that, throughout the East, is figuratively used for the mansion itself. Indeed it seems to be thus denominated with singular propriety, since it is under those GATES that conversations are holden, that hospitality to the passing traveller is dispensed, and the most important transactions in commerce are frequently carried on. Captain Hamilton (Voyage, vol. i. p. 368) giving an account of Fort St. George, observes, "that the GATE of that town, called the sea-gate, being very spacious, was formerly the common exchange, where merchants of all nations resorted about eleven o'clock, to treat of business or merchandize." Astronomy, deriving its birth in Asia, and exploring nature and language for new symbols, soon seized upon this allegorical expression as highly descriptive of romantic ideas; and the title was transferred from terrestrial houses to the spheres. It may here be remarked, that the expression occurs frequently in holy writ, often in the former sense, and sometimes even in the astronomical allusion of the word. In the former acceptation we read, (Esther ii. 19.) of the Jew, Mordecai, sitting in the king's GATE; in Lamentations v. 14. that the elders have ceased from the GATE; and, in Ruth iii. 11. it is used in a sense remarkably figurative, all the GATE, (that is house) of my people know thou art virtuous. In the second acceptation, the word as well as the attendant symbol itself, to our astonishment occur in the account of Jacob's vision of the LADDER, WHOSE TOP REACHED TO HEAVEN, and in the exclamation, THIS IS THE GATE OF HEAVEN. It is hence manifested to have been an original patriarchal symbol. A similar idea occurs in Isaiah xxxviii. 10. I shall go to the GATES of the grave; and in Matt. xvi. 18. The GATES of hell shall not prevail

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against it. Nor is it impossible but our blessed Lord himself might speak in allusion to the popular notion of the two astronomical GATES, celestial and terrestrial, when in Matt. vii. 13. he said, Enter ye in at the strait GATE; for wide is the GATE, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are which go in thereat; because strait is the GATE, and narrow is the way that leadeth to life, and few there are that find it." Indian Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 241.

No. 16.-xxviii. 18. And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillow, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it.] One of the idols in the pagoda of Jaggernaut is described by Captain Hamilton, as a huge black stone, of a pyramidal form, and the sommona codom among the Siamese is of the same complexion. The ayeen Akbery mentions an octagonal pillar of black stone fifty cubits high. Tavernier observed an idol of black stone in the pagoda of Benares, and that the statue of Creeshna, in his celebrated temple of Mathura, is of black marble. It is very remarkable, that one of the principal ceremonies incumbent upon the priests of these stone deities, according to Tavernier, is to anoint them daily with odoriferous oils: a circumstance which immediately brings to our remembrance the similar practice of Jacob, who, after the famous vision of the celestial ladder, took the stone which he had put for his pillow, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. It is added, that he called the name of that place BETH-EL, that is the house of God. This passage evinces of how great antiquity is the custom of considering stones in a sacred light, as well as the anointing them with consecrated oil. From this conduct of Jacob, and this Hebrew appellative, the learned Bochart, with great ingenuity and reason, insists that the name and

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