Diving for pearls was (and is) practised in the East: and, that diving is practised as one way of taking fish, is strongly implied in the subsequent quotation from Niebuhr.

Is this the allusion of the prophet Ezekiel, chap. xlvii. 10? "And fishers shall stand upon it, from En-gedi to En-eglaim; they shall be a place to spread forth nets." Such is our translation; but, reading with the keri ( OMERU) shall gather, instead of (1 OMEDU) shall stand, the words may be rendered thus: "And divers shall gather upon its banks; and from the kids' fountain to the calves' fountain, shall be the extent of separations." Does this mean, "They shall gather into heaps (the word signifies to compress close together), as pearl oysters are gathered into distinct hillocks; and the ground appointed for such separate heaps shall be from En-gedi, the kids' fountain, to En-eglaim, the calves' fountain?" The prophet goes on to say, this river shall also have all other kinds of fish, in the same number and variety as the ocean itself. If this be the import of the place, then diving as one branch of fishing is uniformly included in the derivatives from the word Dag: and this idea increases the symbolical riches of these prophetic waters.

Attaching the idea of diving to this word, gives a decided import to a noun used, Amos iv. 2: "The Lord God hath sworn that the days come . . . . that he will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fish-hooks." Mr. Harmer, (Obs. vol. iv. p. 199), enters somewhat at large into the rendering of this passage; but Mr. Parkhurst denies his inference; and thinks the words (277 D SIRUT DUGEH) signify fishing-BOATS.

We would render thus: "The Lord shall take "The Lord shall take you (yourselves) away with, or among, or being beat forward by, prickles; but those whom you leave behind you shall be driven away by a diver's weapon; an instrument equally sharp, and with points as numerous and piercing as those used by divers to strike at the fish which they pursue.-By this rendering, the idea of driving forward cattle is preserved throughout the passage: and the change of metaphor, by allusion to fishing (i. e. angling), is avoided.

N. B. The general form of such an instrument, having several forks, or prongs, might resemble the trident usually appropriated to Neptune; but the forks more in number; and these forks might be moveable round the centre: this is one idea of the word used, which signifies to decline, to turn aside, to shoot irregularly; or they might shoot off obliquely (the exact import of the word) from the central stem; in which case they would resemble those used by the native New-Zealanders, as depicted in Governor Phillips's Voyage to Botany Bay. [But perhaps this word is best understood of "BOAT-HOOKS"-those poles with iron hooks at the end, which are used for pushing, and for pulling, boats on the water: as much greater severity toward (and sufferings also, of) the latter party than the former, is implied in the prophet's threat: and this seems to be maintained by such an enlarged acceptation of the word.]

"Of all the creatures which live in the water, the Mahometans eat only fish, and not all sorts of them. Those which are considered as pure and edible, according to the books of the old Mahometan theologists, ought to have been taken in nets, or WITH THE HAND, while alive; when the water being ebbed away, leaves the shores dry. Nevertheless, they take them, at least in the Euphrates, with the hook, or with a grain which intoxicates them. The most learned literati among them are not always agreed on the qualities of the fish which are allowed: for Schafei and Maleki admit the eating of fishes found dead, but not corrupted: Hanesi and Hanbali forbid this. Some have questioned whether a piece of fish, which swims on the water, may be eaten? and it is decided, that it is lawful when there appears some mark that the fish was killed by a knife, or by a sabre; because then, it is presumed, that the words bism alla akbar were

pronounced over it. I do not remember to have seen fishes alive among the Mahometan fishermen. Those of Djidda and Loheia only brought ashore such as were dead: without a doubt they had cut their throats, lest they should die of themselves, and so become impure.' Niebuhr, Descrip. Arabie, p. 150. Fr. edit.

We see in this extract that fish are taken by the hand; they are also killed by sharp weapons, as a knife, or a sabre; and therefore other sharp and piercing instruments, better adapted to the purpose than knives or sabres, could hardly fail of being employed by fishermen. Our translation mentions fish-spears (Job xli. 1.), but that in the original is another word: also, we see in our Plate of BEHEMOTH, that those who chase him, strike at him with long (single) spears; but we rather guess that the word in Amos means a composition of spears, or points: several issuing from one handle.

These are the chief, if not the only places, where derivatives from Dag occur. Query-Was there any similar ambiguity of allusion to preservation, as we have supposed the word Dag to include, in the Syriac words used by our Lord, when he called the fishermen Andrew and Peter to be his apostles? "I will make you fishers of men"-not for their destruction, but for their preservation. It seems as if such a reference might be intimated, Luke v. 10. "from henceforth thou shalt catch-con Swypwv-thou shalt be the taker alive, i. e. for their preservation-of men.

No. CXLVII. EMBLEMS, VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL.

WE have seen the figurative style of writing and speaking indulge itself in the use of hyperbolical expressions, the prototypes of which are not in Nature: but by the ingenuity of the human mind, by selection and association, they have been combined into significant phrases; phrases indeed so significant, that plain common speech is utterly inadequate to their import. By the same license, the figurative style of representation to the eye, i. e. of Emblems, and allegory, has ever claimed a prescriptive right, to combine forms and figures, of whose originals Nature is ignorant, but which art and genius have rendered expressive. We shall see this position strongly illustrated on the subject of the CHERUBIM; at present, we assume it as admitted. But the design of this article is, to suggest, that although the sacred writers, in using allegorical representations, have frequently availed themselves of this privilege, yet they have not always employed so great an extent of unnatural composition as we, in this country, have supposed. We mean to say, that their Emblems have originals in Nature, more fre quently and more nearly similar than we are aware of.

A remarkable Emblem, that appears to us an unusual and monstrous production, is the wheat in Pharaoh's dream (Gen. xli. 5.), which had seven ears, full and good, on one stalk. This has always been considered as a liberty taken with nature by way of furnishing a symbol; whereas, the fact is, that a species of wheat, which grows in Egypt, does actually bear, when perfect, this number of ears on one stalk, as its natural conformation. This wheat differs from our own, by having a solid stem, or at least, a stem full of pith; in order to yield sufficient nourishment and support, to so great a weight as the ears it bears; which demand a proportionate quantity of nutritive juices: whereas the stem of our own wheat is a mere hollow straw.

By the favour of a kind friend to this work, we are enabled to offer our readers the annexed engraving of this peculiar plant. The specimen here represented was grown in England, on the island of Foulness, in Essex, by Mr. Henry Fisher, in the year 1797. Not being in its native soil, it has degenerated from its proper fulness; nevertheless, it has produced spread enough to justify the number of its ears of corn; and to demonstrate, that, when complete, it was a very expressive symbol of plenty.

"The produce of this wheat is still greater per acre than that of any other wheat, though much inferior to what it was some few years ago, when first imported, and before it had degenerated so far from the parent plant; in another year or two, there will probably be only one ear on a stalk, and then it will be no longer worth while to cultivate it; as the wheat, though fine of its sort, is of a particular species, called Rivet Wheat, which does not sell so well in the London market as the common sorts."

Those parts of this specimen which were perfect are strongly shaded on the plate: those inserted by inference, and in conformity to the description of gentlemen who have seen the general body of it in a state nearer perfection, are lighted. To shew the number of ears distinctly, they are spread somewhat more than in nature.

A little indulgence of imagination might fancy that a thin blasted ear, not unlike to, or even smaller than the dimensions of our English degenerated specimen, was such a plant as Pharaoh saw in his dream: while the full ear, significant of plenty, surpassed the magnitude of the plant represented on our plate.

Query, Was this the kind of corn which Isaac sowed, and reaped in one year a hundred fold? Gen. xxvi. 12. If it was the dorra which sometimes yields three hundred for one (vide FRAGMENTS, No. v.) why is it recorded as extraordinary?

Having thus restored to its due station, as a production of nature, a vegetable which nas hitherto been considered as an emanation of fancy, only; we shall attempt, also, to restore to their proper rank some of those animal Emblems, whose composition seems to disfigure the prophetic allusions.

Among the most remarkable conformations of symbolical animals, are those of the prophet Daniel, who by describing creatures with horns to the number of ten (chap. vii. 7.), seems to us to have imagined so many monsters: however, this is not altogether the fact; and it is well to know, that there are in the East races of goats, sheep, &c. which differ in the number of their horns from those of our own country. Our plate affords several examples. Vide Plate, No. 5.

No. 1. is copied from Mr. Pennant's Synopsis, who gives it under the name of "the Iceland sheep;" this has three horns: the middle one rising very strongly, those on each side of it depressed, curvated, &c.

No. 2. from the same work, has four horns: "a kind from Spain; with two upright and two lateral horns; body covered with wool: fore part of the neck with yellowish hairs, fourteen inches long: was alive in London about 1769; very mischievous, and pugnacious."

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The Persian sheep are, also, of the many-horned kinds; and we suppose, too, are very mischievous and pugnacious;" so that in describing a goat, &c. with numerous horns, the prophet Daniel added little to his allegorical animal, beyond what was in daily observation around him, among the natural animals of the country where he wrote. This applies, in part, to other allegorical beasts; as in the book of Revelation. No. 1. shews a great horn, rising from between the eyes of this subject; and two horns, one on each side of it: this will remind the reader of the description in Daniel viii. 21: "The rough goat is the king of Grecia, and the GREAT HORN between his eyes is the first king. Now that being broken"-four others may easily be conceived of, as springing up from its roots, pretty much as the two horns do in our figure.

No. 2. may shew the two horns of the emblematical ram, of the same chapter of Daniel; which two horns were no match for the powerful single horn of the Grecian goat; while, at the same time, it confirms the conjecture, in what manner many minor horns might originate, around a great one (or several great ones) as a centre to them. Vide Plates, Nos. 104; 114.

No. CXLVIII. SYRIAN SHEEP AND GOATS.

WE have taken the opportunity of the Plate which contains the many-horned Goats, (No. 5.) to represent the broad-tailed Sheep, and the long-eared Goats; they being likewise subjects of Scripture Natural History, with which it is necessary to be acquainted.

As Mr. Harmer (Obs. cxlviii. vol. iv. p. 161.) has already treated this subject, we shall not affect to decline his assistance: but hope it will be admitted, that these figures are a great addition to that learned author's observations.

No. 3. on the Plate of Syrian Animals, shews a peculiar formation of Goats' horns; but is given principally to shew the length of the ears, which in this animal may be not less than ten or twelve inches.

No. 4. shews ears of a prodigious length; two feet at least. By this and the former number, we reconcile the accounts of travellers; some of which describe these ears as one foot long, others at two feet: i. e. different breeds have these different lengths.

No. 5. is a representation of the broad-tailed Sheep.

No. 6. is the same Sheep, seen behind, for the sake of shewing its tail. We have seen a tail of this kind, hanging up at a butcher's shop in London. It appeared to be a mass of hard fat, and might weigh, we suppose, ten or twelve pounds.

"Dr. Russell observed two sorts of Goats about Aleppo one that differed little from the common sort in Britain; the other remarkable for the length of its ears. The size of the animal, he tells us, is somewhat larger than ours, but their ears are often a foot long, and broad in proportion. That they were kept chiefly for their milk, of which they yielded no inconsiderable quantity, p. 52. The present race of Goats in the vicinity of Jerusalem are, it seems, of this broad-eared species, as I have been assured by a gentleman that lately visited the Holy Land (in 1774), who was struck with the dif ference between the Goats there, and those that he saw in countries not far distant from Jerusalem. They are, he says, black, black-and-white, and some grey, with remarkable long ears, rather larger and longer than our Welch Gouts. This kind of animul, he observed, in some neighbouring places, differed greatly from the above description, those of Balbec in particular, which were generally, if not always, so far as he observed, of the other species. These last, I presume, are of the sort common in Great Britain, as those about Jerusalem are mostly of the long-eared kind; and it should seem they were of the same long-eared kind that were kept anciently in Judea, from the words of the prophet, "As the shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the lion, two legs, or a piece of an ear; so shall the children of Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria... and in Damascus," Amos iii. 12.

"Though it is indeed the intention of the prophet to express the smallness of that part of Israel that escaped from destruction, and were seated in foreign countries; yet it would have been hardly natural, to have supposed a shepherd would exert himself, to make a lion quit a piece only of an ear of a common Goat: it must be supposed, I should think, to refer to the large-eared kind.

"It is rather amusing to the imagination, and a subject of speculation, that the same species of Goats should chiefly prevail about Jerusalem, and the other at Balbec; and that what are now chiefly kept in the Holy Land, should have been the same species that were reared there two thousand five hundred years ago. Is it the nature of the country, or the quality of the feed of it, that is the occasion of the continuance of this breed, without deviation, from very remote times?

"Rauwolff observed Goats about Jerusalem with hanging ears, almost two feet long (p. 234); but he neither mentions their being all, or mostly, of that species, nor that it is another species that is most commonly kept in some of the neighbouring countries. "Whether the kids of the two species are equally delicious, travellers have not informed us; but it appears from the Hariri, a celebrated writer of Mesopotamia, that some kinds at least are considered as a delicacy; for, describing a person's breaking in upon a great pretender to mortification, he found him with one of his disciples entertaining themselves in much satisfaction with bread made of the finest of flour, with a roasted kid, and a vessel of wine before them. [Hariri, translated by Chappelow, Arabic Prof. at Cambridge, 1st Assembly, p. 7.] This last is an indulgence forbidden by the Mahometans, and with bread of the finest flour, proves that a roasted kid is looked upon as a very great delicacy.

"This shews in what light we are to consider the gratification proposed to be sent to Tamar (Gen. xxxviii. 16, 17.); the present made by Samson to his intended bride (Judg. xv. 1.); and what was the complaint made by the elder brother of the prodigal son, that his father had never given him a kid to entertain his friends with: he might have enabled him to give them some slight repast; but never qualified him to treat them with such a delicacy, Luke xv. 29.

“In the like manner, Dr. Russell (p. 51, 52) observes, there are two kinds of Sheep about Aleppo: the Beduian Sheep, which differ in no respect from the larger kinds of Sheep in Britain, except that their tails are somewhat longer and thicker; the other a sort often mentioned by travellers on account of their extraordinary tails, which are very broad and large, terminating in a small appendix that turns back upon it. These tails, Russell informs us, are 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. That a common Sheep of this kind (without the head, feet, skin, and entrails) weighs sixty or seventy English pounds, of which the tail usually weighs fifteen pounds, and upwards. This species, he observes, are by much the most numerous. But such, he tells us in the same paragraph, as are of the largest breed, and have been fattened, will sometimes weigh about one hundred and fifty pounds, and the tails of them fifty, a thing to some scarcely credible.

"It might then be thought very probable, that this species too may be most numerous about Jerusalem; we are not, however, left to conjecture: for the same ingenious and obliging gentleman, that gave me the account of the Goats in the vicinity of Jerusalem, informed me at the same time, that the Sheep of that country are, in general, white, with large tails, resembling those of Syria, and the plain of Damascus.

"After this account of the kinds of Sheep that are found near Jerusalem, and Dr. Russell's account of the largeness and delicacy of their tails, we shall not at all wonder, that, since fat was reserved as sacred to God, by the Mosaic law, Moses, among other things, should order, that when a sacrifice of peace offerings should be made by fire to the Lord, the fat thereof, and particularly the whole rump, or tail taken off hard by the back-bone, &c. should be burnt on the altar.

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Though the ordering in particular, and by express words, that the tail of a British Sheep should be presented in sacrifice to God might surprise us, the wonder ceases when we are told of these broad-tailed Eastern Sheep, and the extreme delicacy of that part, and withal are informed that the Sheep about Jerusalem are of that species."

[Though Nature furnishes instances of numerous parts which may be termed excrementitious, such as horns, yet we know of no animal having more than one head; the great Dragon in the Revelations, therefore, which is described as having seven heads, must continue placed among allegorical creatures of which we have no prototypes in Nature.]