This account is very different from the notion of Mr. HARMER, vol. ii. p. 151. May these tablets of lead enable us to conceive of the tablets of stone mentioned in Scripture?—i. e. as very thin, light, and portable.

No. LXXV. DIALECTICAL PRONUNCIATION.

SOME of our counties have phrases so different from what are used in others, that occasionally the natives of one are hardly to be understood by those of another, though subjects of the same kingdom: but it should seem, that in Arabia this difference is much greater than among ourselves. We find, Judges xii. 6, the word shibboleth employed as a test of the pronunciation of a district; and that, in this pronunciation, it signified a different thing from what it did when pronounced sibboleth.-Somewhat like this, is a story told by NIEBUHR (p. 72, Fr. edit.): "The king of the Hamjares, at Dhafar, said to an Arab, a stranger, theb, meaning to say, sit down; but, as this same word in the dialect of the stranger signified leap, he leaped from a high place, and hurt himself; when this mistake was explained to the king, he said, Let the Arab who comes to Dhafar, first learn the Hamjare dialect."-" Not only," says NIEBUHR, “ do they speak quite differently in the mountains of the small district which is governed by the Imam of Yemen, from what they do in the flat country, but persons of a superior rank have a different pronunciation, and different names for things, from those of the peasants. The pronunciation of certain letters also differs; those which the Arabs of the north and west pronounce as K, or Q; at Maskat, are pronounced TSCH-So that Bukkra, Kiab, is, by some, called Butscher, Tschiab," &c." Surely thou art a Galilean, and thy speech betrayeth thee!" say the soldiers to Peter-thou canst not conceal thy provincial pronunciation.

No. LXXVI. IDEAS CONNECTED WITH SPITTING.

PROFESSOR MICHAELIS, in his "Questions to the Danish Voyagers" (No. 58,) enquires, whether to spit IN the face, be a custom among the Arabs? He inclines to think the expression (Deut. xxv. 9.) "The brother's wife shall spit in his face," means, to abuse and insult by words: he enquires, also, whether there be any custom among the Arabs, of fathers spitting in the face of their children, as seems to be suggested, Numb. xii. 14: "If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days?" To this question NIEBUHR returns the following answer, which is perfectly conformable to the accounts given by the Jews:

“When a man, in a passion, spits upon the earth close to another, he who is thus offended, behaves as might be the case among ourselves; he takes the insult patiently, if he be unable to avenge himself; but if he be able, his resentment certainly bursts forth. "An Arab would much less suffer that any one should spit in his face; or, as they phrase it, upon his beard; especially, if he thinks himself equal in power to the aggresI remember to have seen in a caravan, that some one, spitting sideways, defiled a little the beard of a Mahometan, who was cruelly offended by it. The offender instantly asked pardon, and kissed his beard, [vide p. 173], by which submission the former was appeased." NIEBUHR, p. 26, Fr. edit.

sor.

These accounts evince how highly the action of spitting, in a way of injury, is resented in the East. It may be sufficient, therefore, to say, that in the case of the brother's widow, the complainant did spit on the ground, not on the person of her brother-inlaw. And the passage in Numbers may be explained by saying, "had there been a quarrel and anger between a father and his daughter, so that he had spit at her, i. e. towards her, such an affront, such a misunderstanding, could not be instantly made

up and forgot; it must have had some time to cool in: during some few days, at least, there would be a reluctance in the parties to renew their former cordiality and freedom :-on a like principle, let Miriam be excluded from the camp seven days." But, it should seem, that his enemies did actually spit at, i. e. upon the person of Christ (Matt. xxvi. 67); did spit in his face, &c. as the greater indignity and degradation of à character regarded by them as assumedly divine. Vide No. cI.

No. LXXVII. MANNERS OF THE BEDOWEEN ARABS.

TO us, who inhabit towns, and have fixed residences, the wandering and migratory lives of the patriarchs have a peculiar, and somewhat strange appearance; but, in the East, that very kind of life is customary at this day. In Egypt, for instance, "The Bedoween Arabs are distributed into little companies, each with a chief, whom they call scheich; they dwell always under tents, and each platoon forms a little camp. As they have no land belonging to them, they change their abode as often as they please. When they fix themselves any where, for a certain time, they make an agreement with the Bey, the Cacheff, or the Caïmakan, and purchase for a whole year, the permission of cultivating a certain portion of land, or of feeding their flocks there, during the time they agree for. They continue there, then, very peaceably, go forwards and backwards into the villages, or neighbouring towns; sell and purchase what they please, and enjoy all the liberty they can desire;" but, "they often establish themselves on the land they occupy, separating from the jurisdiction of the government, the land they have seized on, and taking possession of it, without paying the tax. This is a loss for the government, which is, by this means, deprived of the revenue of those lands." NORDEN'S Travels in Egypt, p. 96.

This may remind us of the mode of life of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: and so we find Abimelech jealous of Isaac's greatness, "Go from us, for thou art much mightier than we;" and if we let thee stay a little longer, thou wilt seize the land as thy property, and we shall lose the revenue of it."

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They go into the villages, or neighbouring towns;" so "Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land ;”—i. e. into the town of Shechem, as the story proves. This may, also, remind us of the injunctions of Jonadab, son of Rechab, on his posterity (Jerem. xxxv. 6): " Ye shall not build a house, but dwell in tents all your days:" nevertheless, they fled for shelter, from the army of the Chaldeans, to Jerusalem; though even there, no doubt, they continued to abide in their tents; and this singularity distinguished them not to the prophet only, but to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

Col CAPPER, in his "Observations on the Passage to India" (1778) thus describes an Arab encampment :-" From this hill, we could plainly perceive, at the distance of about three miles, an immense body of Arabs, which, as they had their families and flocks with them, looked like an encampment of the Patriarchs: they first sent out a detachment of about four hundred men towards us, but, finding we were drawn up to receive them, five men only advanced from their main body, seemingly with an intention to treat on seeing which, we also sent five of our people on foot to meet them. A short conference ensued; and then both parties came to our camp, and were received with great ceremony by our Scheik: they proved to be Bedoweens, under the command of Schiek Fadil, amounting together to nearly twenty thousand, including women and children. After much negociation, our Scheik agreed to pay a tribute of one chequin for every camel carrying merchandise; but he refused to pay for those carrying tents,

baggage, or provisions:-they promised to send a refeek [a protecting companion of their own party] with us, till we were past all danger of being molested by any of their detached parties," p. 63.

Is the coincidence of the number of men (four hundred) sent forward, by these Arabs, with that of Esau (Gen. xxxii. 6,) merely accidental, or is it a usual number thus employed? May this extract give us an idea of the Israelites' encampment in the wilderness, under Moses? Here, we find 20,000 persons, women and children included. How heavy was the burden of Babylon! (Isaiah xiii. 20.) " It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in, from generation to generation; neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make a fold there:- wander where they will, they shall keep aloof from Babylon.

To the same purpose speaks NIEBUHR :-" Their way of living is nearly the same as that of the other wandering Arabs, of the Kurds, and of the Turcomans. They lodge in tents made of coarse stuff, either black, or striped black and white; which is manufactured by the women, of goats' hair. The tent consists of three apartments, of which one is for the men, another for the women, and the third for the cattle. Those who are too poor to have a tent, contrive, however, to shelter themselves from the inclemencies of the weather, either with a piece of cloth stretched upon poles, or by retiring to the cavities of the rocks. As the shade of trees is exceedingly agreeable in such torrid regions, the Bedoweens are at great pains in seeking out shaded situations to encamp in." NIEBUHR's Travels, vol. i. p. 208.

"I am black but comely, says the spouse," Cant. i. 5: Black, as the tents of Kedar, comely, as the tent-curtains of Solomon. It should be remembered, however, that those who are able, have distinct tents, not apartments only, for the men, the women, and the cattle. Vide No. ccvi.

No. LXXVIII. KIKIUN, JONAH'S GOURD.

"I SAW for the first time, at Basra, the plant el-kheroa, mentioned in M. MIQuestions," No. 87. It has the form of a tree: the trunk appeared to me rather to resemble leaves, than wood; nevertheless, it is harder than that which bears the Adam's fig. Each branch of the kheroa has but one large leaf, with six or seven foldings in it. This plant was near to a rivulet, which watered it amply. At the end of October, 1765, it had risen, in five months' time, above EIGHT feet, and bore at once, flowers and fruit, ripe and unripe. Another tree of this species, which had not had so much water, had not grown more in a whole year. The flowers and leaves of it which I gathered, withered in a few minutes: as do all plants of a rapid growth. This tree is called at Aleppo, Palma Christi: an oil is made from it, called oleum de keroa; oleum CICINUM; oleum ficus infernalis. The Christians and Jews of Mosul [Nineveh] say, it was not the kheroa, whose shadow refreshed Jonah, but a sort of gourd, el-kerra, which has very large leaves, very large fruit, and lasts about four months." NIEBUHR, Descrip. Arab. p. 180, Fr. edit.

In order to state the question fairly, we transcribe VOLNEY'S account of el-kerra. "It is, no doubt, this [salt] property of the air, and the earth [of Egypt] which, added to the heat, gives vegetation an activity almost incredible in our cold climates. Wherever plants have water, the rapidity of their growth is prodigious. Whoever has travelled to Cairo, or Rosetta, knows that the species of gourd called kerra, will in twenty-four hours, send out shoots near four inches long." VOLNEY's Travels, vol. i. page 71.

We could have wished that these authors had observed, whether the cool [and the

dews?] of night is noticeably favourable to the growth of the plant described; in order to settle the import of the Hebrew phrase, in the history of Jonah, " which a son of night was, and, as a son of night, died." Does it mean, that the plant grew chiefly by night; or, that it grew in one single night; or that it cast so much shade, as to occasion a kind of night? Let not this startle the reader; we shall see that names of relation-father, son, mother, daughter, &c. have often a less expressive connection with their subject than this has.

Neither are we bound to take the expression" on the morrow" (S LEMECHERET) as strictly importing the very next day; since the word has reference to much more distant time, Exod. xiii. 14.; Deut. vi. 20.; Josh. iv. 6. Heb. It might be simply taken as "afterwards."

We may easily determine, that the Gourd, called kerra, is related to Jonah's Kikiun only by its resemblance in name to the kheroa: for, though it be of rapid growth, yet it does not appear to be proper for rising, to come up over Jonah, probably, too, over his booth, "to spread a shadow over his head, to deliver him from grief." Whereas el-kheroa rises eight feet high, and, consequently, may very well cast a shadow on the head of a man: or contribute to fill up the intervals in a hut, or hovel. Observe, also, that, as a great quantity of water favours the growth of this plant, it is likely the plant of Jonah grew by the side of the river Tigris, where it might have plenty of water, where Jonah might sit on the east side of the city, i. e. on the opposite shore of the Tigris (and not on a rising ground: Vide No. III.) to see what would become of the city.

The circumstance of the speedy withering of the flowers and leaves of the kheroa, should not be lightly passed over: nor that of its present name, cicinum, which is sufficiently near to the Kikiun of Jonah.

As the history in Jonah expressly says, "the Lord prepared" this plant, no doubt but it was an extraordinary one of its kind, remarkably rapid in growth, remarkably hard in its stem, remarkably vigorous in its branches, and remarkable for the extensive spread of its leaves, with the deep gloom of their shadow: and, after a certain duration, remarkable for a sudden withering, and a total uselessness to the impatient prophet.

As the "Questions" of MICHAELIS are not in every body's hands, we translate part of his remarks on this subject :-" Celsius appears to me, to have proved, that it [the Kikiun] is the kiki of the Egyptians: he refers it to the class of the Ricinus (the great Catapucus)." Job vii. 7-10, offers the description of another vegetable, whose growth is equally rapid, its duration equally short: this vegetable is withered by heat; -it cannot, therefore, be the kheroa, which shadowed Jonah from the burning sky: it must be a plant, which covers a space of ground, a garden, in a little time; which shoots its roots into heaps of stones; and eats into stone walls. The passage should be translated thus: he is green before the sun-shoots his burning rays upon him, and, accompanied perhaps by the east wind, dries him up; he spreads himself over the gardens; his twisted roots entwine in the heaps of stones; he fixes himself on the wall of stone; but when--whether the sun, the east wind, or something else-strikes him, and makes him disappear from his place, that place says, I knew him not."

The former part of this description might incline one to think, that some gourd, like the kerra of Egypt, should be meant; but this gourd bears the sun: yet, perhaps, where it is exposed to the east wind, the simoom, it may be withered by it; or, some of its kind growing on the hills of Yemen may thus suffer, when exposed to a very violent sun; for the mountains of Arabia are much cooler than the plains: however, nothing in the text forbids the east wind from being the agent in this decay.

No. LXXIX. EXTREME USURY.

SINCE the publication of FRAGMENTS, NO. XLVI. an intelligent friend has favoured me, by pointing out the following particulars on the subject of Interest, from the Gentoo "Code of Laws;" which leave no room to doubt whether Interest may not be sufficiently biting, without being compound :

"If a loan be granted upon a pledge to a man of the Bramin cast, the monthly interest shall be one part in eighty, upon the principal; at this rate, if the principal be eighty rupees, the Interest shall be one rupee per month. [This would make about fifteen per cent. per annum.]

"If a loan be granted to a Bramin without pledge or security, the monthly Interest shall be two per cent. [Twenty four per cent. per annum.]

"If a loan be granted to a man of the Chehteree cast, in that case, where a Bramin pays Interest two rupees, the Chehteree shall give three. [Thirty-six per cent. per annum.]

"A man of the Bice cast, shall be charged double the Interest of a Bramin. [Fortyeight per cent. per annum.]

"A man of the Sooder cast, instead of two rupees, he shall be charged five. [Sixty per cent. per annum.]

"It is allowed the tribe of Bice to charge Interest, at the rates herein already specified, in times either of public calamity, or public prosperity. Also, it is allowed the Bramin, the Chehteree and the Sooder, in times of calamity, to demand the above Interest. But, in times of prosperity, it is criminal in the Bramin, the Chehteree, and the Sonder, to charge interest at these rates." Gentoo Code of Laws, chap. of Interest. Mr. HALHED's Translation.

Has not Deut. xxiii. 20, a distinction somewhat analogous to the spirit of these laws, though different from their provisions?"Unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon Usury; but unto thy brother thou shalt not lend upon Usury." The natural effect of such biting interest seems to be strongly alluded to, in the exclamation of Jeremiah, chap. xv. 10. "Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me! A man of strife, and a man of contention to the whole earth: I have neither lent on Usury, nor have men lent to me on Usury; yet EVERY ONE DOTH CURSE ME!"

No. LXXX. HIDDEN EVIDENCES.

LAND-MARKS.

MR. HARMER (vol. ii. p. 276.) has some remarks on the double evidences of Jeremiah's purchase, (chap. xxxii.) which passage he supposes he has illustrated, by an extract from CHARDIN. His Words are these: "Both the writings were in the hands of Jeremiah, and at his disposal (ver. 14); for what purpose then were duplicates made? To those unacquainted with Eastern usages, it must appear a question of some difficulty. 'The open, or unsealed writing,' says an eminent commentator, "was either a copy of the sealed deed; or else a certificate of the witnesses, in whose presence the deed or purchase was signed and sealed.' But it still recurs, of what use was a copy that was to be buried in the same earthen vessel, and run exactly the same risk with the original?—Why were they separate writings, and why was one sealed, and not the other?" Mr. H. then quotes from Chardin: "after a contract is made, it is kept by the party himself, not the notary; and they cause a copy to be made, signed by the notary alone, which is shown on proper occasions; and never exhibit the other."

This illustration certainly leaves much to be wished for; it appears by quoting the passage: "I bought the field, subscribed the Evidence, sealed it, took witnesses, and VOL. III.

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