ordinary antiquity, the rock of Meribah, which hath continued down to this day, without the least injury from time or accident. It is a block of granite marble, about six yards square, lying tottering as it were, and loose in the middle of the valley, and seems to have formerly belonged to Mount Sinai, which hangs in a variety of precipices all over this plain. The waters which gushed out, and the stream which flowed, (Psalm lxxviii. 20.) have hollowed, across one corner of this rock, a channel about two inches deep and twenty wide, appearing to be encrustated all over, like the inside of a tea kettle that had been long in use. Besides several massy productions that are still preserved by the dew, we see all over this channel a great number of holes, some of them four or five inches deep, and one or two in diameter, the lively and demonstrative tokens of their having been formerly so many fountains. It likewise may be further observed, that art or chance could by no means be concerned in the contrivance, for every circumstance points out to us a miracle, and, in the same manner with the rent in the rock of Mount Calvary, at Jerusalem, never fails to produce a religious surprise in all who see it."

SHAW's Travels, p. 352, 353.

No. 42. xix. 13. He shall surely be stoned.] "To be stoned to death was a most grievous and terrible infliction. When the offender came within four cubits of the place of execution, he was stript naked, only leaving a covering before, and his hands being bound, he was led up to the fatal place, which was an eminence twice a man's height. The first executioners of the sentence were the witnesses, who generally pulled off their clothes for the purpose: one of them threw him down with great violence upon his loins: if he rolled upon his breast, he was turned upon his loins again, and

if he died by the fall there was an end; but if not, the other witness took a great stone, and dashed upon his breast, as he lay upon his back; and then, if he was not dispatched, all the people that stood by threw stones at him till he died."

LEWIS's Origines Hebrææ, vol. i. p. 74.

No. 43.-xxii. 5. If a man shall cause a field or vineyard to be eaten.] Chandler observed, (Travels in Asia Minor, p. 142.) that the tame cattle were very fond of vine leaves, and were permitted to eat them in the autumn. "We remarked," he says, "about Smyrna, the leaves were decayed, or stripped by the camels and herds of goats, which are admitted to browze` after the vintage." If those animals are so fond of vine leaves, it is no wonder that Moses, by an express law, forbad a man's causing another man's vineyard to be eaten by putting in his beast. The turning any of them in before the fruit was gathered, must have occasioned much mischief; and even after it must have been an injury, as it would have been eating up another's feed.

HARMER, vol. iv. p. 130.

No. 44.-xxii. 6. If fire 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.] It is a common management in the East, to set the dry herbage on fire before the autumnal rains, which fires, for want of care, often do great damage. Moses has taken notice of fires of this kind, and by an express law has provided, that reparation shall be made for the damage done by those who either maliciously or negligently occasioned it. Chandler, speaking of the neighbourhood of Smyrna, says, (p. 276.)" In the latter end of July, clouds began to appear from the south; the air was repeatedly cooled by showers which had fallen

elsewhere, and it was easy to foretel the approaching rain. This was the season for consuming the dry herbage and undergrowth on the mountains; and we often saw the fire blazing in the wind, and spreading a thick smoke along their sides." He also relates an incident to which he was an eye witness. Having been employed the latter end of August, in taking a plan at Troas, one day after dinner, says he, a Turk coming to us "emptied the ashes from his pipe, and a spark of fire fell unobserved in the grass, which was long, parched by the sun, and inflammable like 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. We were much alarmed, as a general conflagration of the country seemed likely to ensue." After exerting themselves for an hour, they at length extinguished it. (p. 30.) It is an impropriety worth correcting in this passage, where the word stacks of corn is used rather than shocks, which is more conformable to custom, as the heaps of the East are only the disposing the corn into a proper form to be immediately trodden out.

HARMER, vol. iv. p. 145.

No. 45.-xxiii. 19. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.] CUDWORTH (on the Lord's Supper, p. 14.) gives a very curious relation of the superstition, on account of which he conceives the seething of a kid in its dam's milk to have been prohibited. "It was a custom of the ancient heathens, when they had gathered in all their fruits, to take a kid, and boil it in the dam's milk, and then, in a magical way, to go about and besprinkle with it all their trees, and fields, and gardens, and orchards, thinking by this means they should make them fructify, and bring forth fruit again more abundantly the following year. Wherefore God forbad his

people, the Jews, at the time of their in-gathering, to use any such superstitious or idolatrous rite."

No. 46.-xxviii. 33. Bells.] "The bell seems to have been a sacred utensil of very ancient use in Asia. Golden bells formed a part of the ornaments of the pontifical robe of the Jewish high priest, with which he invested himself upon those grand and peculiar festivals, when he entered into the sanctuary. That robe was very magnificent, it was ordained to be of sky-blue, and the border of it, at the bottom, was adorned with pomegranates and gold bells intermixed equally, and at equal distances. The use and intent of these bells is evident from these words: And it shall be upon Aaron to minister, and his sound shall be heard when he goeth in unto the holy place before the Lord, and when he cometh out, that he die not. The sound of the numerous bells that covered the hem of his garment, gave notice to the assembled people that the most awful ceremony of their religion had commenced. When arrayed in this garb, he bore into the sanctuary the vessel of incense; it was the signal to prostrate themselves before the Deity, and to commence those fervent ejaculations which were to ascend with the column of that incense to the throne of heaven." "One indispensable ceremony in the Indian Pooja is the ringing of a small bell by the officiating brahmin. The women of the idol, or dancing girls of the pagoda, have little golden bells fastened to their feet, the soft harmonious tinkling of which vibrates in unison with the exquisite melody of their voices." (MAURICE's Indian Antiquities, vol. v. p. 137.) " The ancient kings of Persia, who, in fact, united in their own persons the regal and sacerdotal office, were accustomed to have the fringes of their robes adorned with pomegranates and golden bells. The Arabian courtesans, like the Indian women, have little golden bells fastened round their legs, neck, and

elbows, to the sound of which they dance before the king. The Arabian princesses wear golden rings on their fingers, to which little bells are suspended, as well as in the flowing tresses of their hair, that their superior rank may be known, and they themselves, in passing, receive the homage due to their exalted station."

CALMET'S Dictionary, article BELL.

No. 47.-xxix. 22. The rump ;] Or the large tail of one species of the eastern sheep. RUSSELL (Hist. of Aleppo, p. 51.) after observing that they are in that country much more numerous than those with smaller tails, adds, “this tail is very broad and large, terminating in a small appendix that turns back upon it. It is of a substance between fat and marrow, and is not eaten separately, but mixed with the lean meat in many of their dishes, and also often used instead of butter. A common sheep of this sort, without the head, feet, skin, and entrails, weighs about twelve or fourteen Aleppo rotoloes, of which the tail is usually three rotoloes or upwards; but such as are of the largest breed, and have been fattened, will sometimes weigh above thirty rotoloes, and the tail of these ten. These very large sheep being about Aleppo kept up in yards, are in no danger of injuring their tails: but in some other places, where they feed in the fields, the shepherds are obliged to fix a piece of thin board to the under part of their tail, to prevent its being torn by bushes and thistles, as it is not covered underneath with thick wool like the upper part. Some have small wheels to facilitate the dragging of this board after them." A rotoloe of Aleppo is five pounds. See also Herodotus, lib. iii. cap. 115. With this agrees the account given by the Abbé Mariti, (Travels through Cyprus, vol. i. p. 36.) "The mutton is juicy and tender. The tails of some of the sheep, which are remarkably fine, weigh upwards of fifty pounds." This shews.