country, that if they took not that course with the palm-trees, they would not bear good fruit."

This kind of manure appears to be of greater consequence than we are aware of, especially to the perfection of the fruits which it nourishes; and as only the rich could afford to purchase it, in Samaria, it shews that the stores were nearly exhausted; yet that there were in that city persons who would procure this gratification under their then situation, however dearly they paid for the material necessary to effect their purpose. [But vide DovE'S DUNG, and PULSE, in the Dictionary.]

De Vitriaco, however, tells us, that some of the more delicate Egyptians pined to death, when Damiata was besieged (A. D. 1218), though they had a sufficiency of corn, for want of the kinds of food they had been used to-pompions, garlic, onions, fish, birds, fruits, herbs, &c. It is possible, that in Samaria too, there might be those who equally pined for their accustomed cooling delicacies; and this agrees with allusions in the prophets to the extravagance of the Samaritan females, their sloth, pride, luxury, and arrogance. Comp. Ezek. xxiii.; Amos iv. 1.

We add, the following from Tavernier (p. 146.): "There are above three thousand Pigeon-houses in Ispahan; for every man may build a Pigeon house upon his own farm, which yet is very rarely done. All the other Pigeon-houses belong to the King; who draws a greater revenue from the Dung than from the Pigeons; which Dung, as they prepare it, serves to cultivate their melons."

M. Morier observes the same: he says, “The Pigeon-houses are large round towers, erected for the sole purpose of collecting Pigeons' Dung for manure. Their interior resembles a honey comb, pierced with a thousand holes, each of which forms a snug retreat for a nest. . . . The Dung of Pigeons is the dearest manure the Persians use; they apply it almost entirely to the rearing of melons. . . . . The revenue of a Pigeon-house is about 100 tomauns per annum.” Second Journey to Persia, p. 141.

N. B. If Pigeons were kept only for their Dung, anciently in Judea, how reasonable was the offering in favour of the poor, of a pair of Turtle-Doves, or two young Pigeons !

No. CCCCLXXXVII. ROYAL FAMILY SHUT UP IN THE EAST. ' WE find Divine anger threatening to "cut off from Jeroboam him who is shut up and left in Israel," 1 Kings xiv. 10. In chap. xxi. 21. the same threat is made against Ahab; vide also 2 Kings ix. 8 This shutting up of the Royal Family appears sufficiently strange to us; and the rather as we perceive that the sons of David the King enjoyed liberty sufficient, and more than sufficient.

The following extracts will throw some light on this subject :-In one of them we find the Royal Family dwelling together on a mountain, which, though a place of confinement, yet had some extent. In the other we find them in a palace, which only in name differed from a prison.

"The crown being hereditary in one Family, but elective in the person, and polygamy being permitted, must have multiplied these heirs very much, and produced constant disputes; so that it was found necessary to provide a remedy for the anarchy, and effusion of royal blood, which was otherwise inevitably to follow. The remedy was a humane and gentle one; they were confined in a good climate upon a high mountain, and maintained there at the public expense. They are there taught to read and write, but nothing else; 750 cloths for wrapping round therm; 3000 ounces of gold, which is 30,000 dollars, or crowns, are allowed by the state for

their maintenance. These princes are hardly used, and, in troublous times, often put to death upon the smallest misinformation. While I was at Abyssinia, their revenue was so grossly misapplied, that some of them were said to have died with hunger and of cold, by the avarice and hard-heartedness of Michael neglecting to furnish them necessaries. Nor had the King, as far as I could discern, that fellowfeeling one would have expected from a prince rescued from that very situation himself. Perhaps this was owing to his fear of Ras Michael.

"However that be, and however distressing the situation of those princes, we cannot but be satisfied with it, when we look to the neighbouring kingdom of Sennaar or Nubia. There no mountain is trusted with the confinement of their princes, but, as soon as the father dies, the throats of all the collaterals, and all their descendants that can be laid hold of, are cut; and this is the case with all the black states in the desert west of Sennaar, Dar Four, Sele, and Bagirma," Bruce, vol. iii. p. 308.

"Though more than thirty years had elapsed since the death of Sultan Achmet, father of the new Emperor, he had not, in that interval, acquired any great information or improvement. SHUT UP, during this long interval, in the apartments assigned him, with some eunuchs to wait on him, and women to amuse him, the equality of his age with that of the prince's, who had a right to precede him, allowed him but little hope of reigning in his turn; and he had, besides, well grounded reasons for a more serious uneasiness." Baron du Tott, vol. i. p. 115.

We see now how Athaliah might destroy, not merely an individual, but all the seed royal (2 Kings xi. 1.); because, if she found access to the palace to accomplish the slaughter of any one, she might easily cut off the whole. This also renders credible the slaughter of Ahab's sons, seventy young persons at one time. They were kept shut up, it seems, in Samaria, where their keepers became their destroyers. How far the same confinement might take place in the instance of the sons of Gideon (Judges ix. 2, 5.), we cannot determine; but it should appear, that at least they were kept in one place of abode, whether that place were the mansion or the tower of their father.

This Number is properly an appendix to No. LIX.

No. CCCCLXXXVIII. SEPULCHRES, FAMILY AND HONORARY.

THE importance attached to the possession of the Sepulchre belonging to the ancestors of a family, with the anxiety shewn by heads of families, to transmit this portion of their property to their descendants, is very conspicuous in many places of Scripture. From the days of Abraham, who procured such a depositary for himself and his, at a considerable expense, down to the Gospel instance of the honourable Joseph, who cut, during life, his Sepulchre in a rock, which was dignified by becoming the dormitory of the Lord of Life, this principle seems to have maintained its full energy. The sacredness, too, of the House appointed for all living is more impressively felt in the East than among ourselves; for though among ourselves no person of decency would wilfully disturb the remains of the departed, yet we know that some studies make pretty free with the tomb and its contents.

The following inscriptions shew the property of these residences strongly claimed ; and many a threatening fulmination against the unprincipled disturber of perpetual repose, is extant on marbles which preserve the memory of the original purchase and purchaser.

"The marble, whose inscription we shall give here, was originally brought from the Levant, by the Chevalier de Camilli. The sense of the Greek inscription is thus: "This is the monument of Publius Ælius Tertius, of Smyrna, senator, pædotriba (or trainer up of youth). The place where he is laid belongs to me. My heirs and my freedmen, who also have a right of being buried here, should take care to preserve it, and to see that performed which I have ordered, by the inscription on my Tomb. They shall not lay any dead body in the coffin where I am put; nor shall they put any other coffin in this Tomb. If they shall fail in this, or shall give room for any other, contrary to my order, they shall pay a fine to the lords the emperors, of five thousand deniers;" about 100%.

It is plain, then, that at Smyrna, whence this monument was taken, they had power to inscribe on their Tombs what they would have done, and to lay penalties and fines on those who should act contrary to their wills, expressed in these inscriptions: and, for the greater security, copies of these conditions were deposited in the archives. This was the custom at Smyrna, at least. We shall give here other instances, taken from the marbles at Oxford. "Alce, the wife of Timocrates, son of Apelles, jointly with Docimus, the son of Docimus, and Tryphon, another son of Docimus, with whom she was brought up, hath bought this vaulted room, together with the little chamber joining to it, and the places for laying coffins. She hath laid there a coffin of Proconessian marble, wherein she hath laid the bodies of those two men with whom she was brought up. And while now living, she hath prepared this place of sepulture for herself, for her daughter Alexandra, by her husband Timocrates, for her freedmen, and for the two men above named, who are gone into another life, and for their heir, Cudio."

"We see these places for sepulture were bought and sold, which is plain from other inscriptions, as from the next, the beginning of which is lost. . . . ." Artemidorus, with the consent of his sons and grandsons, hath granted to him the use of the thoraceum, or vaulted chamber, which hath over it another chamber, and also the use of the monument, and of the coffins, together with their places, no one being able to give him any molestation. But as for any thing pertaining to the first thoraceum, or chamber above it, and the coffins, and places for coffins there, it is not allowed to sell any of the said things for whatsoever price, or to alienate them, on any pretence whatsoever. And if any one shall presume to alienate any of the above named things, both he who sells, and the purchaser, or person in favour of whom the alienation is made, shall pay to the venerable senate of Smyrna 2500 deniers (about 50l.). The copy of this inscription hath been placed in the archives. Montfaucon, Antiq. Expl. vol. iii. p. 494.

Here we have, 1. A Double Sepulchre, or thoraceum, which has over it another chamber. We have seen, in No. ccxI. chamber behind chamber, in Tombs. Now the Cave of Machpelah (Gen. xxiii. 9.) was a double cave, as the word implies; but was it chamber over chamber, or chamber beyond chamber? we should think it was cut in a rock, and as likely to be the former as the latter. We see, 2. That strangers, or others not of the family, were sometimes admitted (no doubt by way of honour, or favour) to interment in the Sepulchres of natives. The Hethites, then, were not undutiful to their friends departed, when they said to Abraham, "In the choice of our Sepulchres, bury thy dead." 3. These sales were recorded in the archives of cities: so was, certainly, the purchase of Abraham enregistered in the archives of the city of Heth. N. B. This practice has its inference on the subject of the antiquity of writing. 4. That the freedmen partook of the family Sepulchre. Observe also, the word

Pædotriba, or trainer up of youth; this was no doubt an honourable office, as the party was a senator.-It was not therefore for want of another word the apostle uses the less honourable appellation, pedagogue, to express the office of the law, Ġal. iii. 24.

No. CCCCLXXXIX. SEPULCHRAL APPELLATIONS.

WE find in Scripture various Appellations given to the Sepulchre: among others, that of the house appointed for all living-the long home of man-and the everlasting habitation. We think these are capable of much illustration from antiquity. The following are from Montfaucon :

"We observed, in the fifth volume of our Antiquity, a Tomb, styled there, as here Quietorium, a Resting-place. There it is styled Clymenis Quietorium. Quiescere, to rest, is often said of the dead, in epitaphs. Thus we find, in an ancient writer, a man speaking of his master, who had been long dead and buried: Cujus ossa bene quiescant: May his bones rest in peace! We have an instance of the like kind in an inscription in Gruter (p. 696.); and in another (p. 954.), Fecit sibi requietorium; He made himself a RESTING-PLACE. [Vide Job iii. 13. 17, 18; xvii. 16.]

"This resting-place is called frequently, too, AN ETERNAL HOUSE. In his life-time he built himself AN ETERNAL HOUSE,' says one epitaph, He made himself an ETERNAL HOUSE with his patrimony,' says another. He thought it better (says another epitaph) to build himself AN ETERNAL HOUSE, than to desire his heirs to do it; and another, 'He put an inscription upon HIS ETERNAL HOUSE.' And another, ' He made a PERPETUAL HOUSE for his good and amiable companion.'-They thought it a misfortune, when the bones and ashes of the dead were removed from their place, as imagining the dead suffered something by the removal of their bones. This notion occasioned all those precautions used for the safety of their Tombs; and the curses they laid on those who removed them."

We wish farther to illustrate this, by reference to those inscriptions on the Tombs at Palmyra, which have been explained by Mr. Swinton (Phil. Trans. vol. liii. p. 276, &c.); and the rather, because the Palmyrenians, as we have formerly observed, were so strongly assimilated to the Jewish nation as to be all but Jews in many of their peculiarities, as they really were Jews in some of them.

Solomon (Eccl. xii. 5.) calls the Tomb (by bith olam) the house of ages, or of long duration; and Mr. Swinton reads the beginning of a Punic inscription, found in the island of Malta, thus (by n, cheder beth olam): the Chamber of long home. [This] "Chamber of the House of Ages [or the long home] is the Sepulchre of an upright man deposited [here] in a most sound [dead] sleep.-The people, having a great affection for him, were vastly concerned when Hannibal, the son of Barmelec, was interred."

Observe, this is the very expression of Solomon, and justifies the sense of the words, as used in our version. Observe, also, the figure to denote death-a deep sleep; a sound sleep. In this sense our Lord spake, "Our friend Lazarus [soundly] sleepeth: I go to awake him out of sleep (and this gives the spirit of the disciples' answer, "Lord, if he soundly sleep, he shall do well;" sound sleep being a favourable symptom in sick persons)." The maid is not dead, but sleepeth," &c. The word sleep, we suppose, was capable of so much ambiguity, as not instantly, or infallibly, to strike our Lord's hearers in the sense he intended by it.

We find also the description of "eternal house." May this be the same as our Lord means, by "everlasting habitations”—aivious oκnvas, Luke xvi. 9. If it may, and if these words denote the Tomb, then we have hitherto erred in our comments on this passage: we usually understand it to signify, "make to yourselves friends

among persons of piety, that, when they die, they may receive you into heaven." But if, instead of heaven, we render the tomb, then we ought, perhaps, to seek another sense of the words. Shail we read them with an interrogation? "What! do you, [as this unjust steward did] make to yourselves friends by the Mammon of unrighteousness, -wealth acquired by injustice that, when ye die, they who have been your accomplices, may receive you in the everlasting houses (the tomb; hades)? O, by no means act so unwisely; for their dwellings must needs be in punishment." We presume not to say, that this rendering meets the whole sense, or the difficulty of the passage; but there seems, at least, to be no harm in considering these "everlasting habitations" as simply importing hades, or the unseen state; not determinately either Heaven or Hell. Otherwise, reading as usual, " make friends, who may receive you with honour when you retire from this world to that which is unseen." Vide HELL; and Isaiah xiv. 9; Ezek. xxxi. 15; 2 Peter ii. 4. Comp. Nos. ccx. CCXI. GATES OF HADES.

No. CCCCXC. SEPULCHRAL INSCRIPTIONS.

WE wish to remark a custom (as it appears to be, from its frequency) among the Palinyrenians, on whose marbles we find the Inscriptions, "To the blessed NAME be fear for ever." "To the blessed NAME, for ever good and merciful, be fear." "To the blessed NAME for ever be fear," &c. Now this is precisely similar to the passage, Lev. xxiv. 11: "And the Israelitish woman's son blasphemed the NAME, and cursed." See also ver. 16. We observe that the name of the Deity is not expressed; but, at Palmyra, Baal, perhaps, was the name most venerated (as the stones which contain these Inscriptions are guessed to have been altars: but, if the parties to whom they refer were Jews, then these instances are so much the more applicable to our purpose); as in Israel Jehovah was the sacred name; yet in neither instance is it inserted, but is suggested by allusion and inference. Might the custom of not writing the name Jehovah, as maintained among the modern Jews, originate from some such usage of antiquity? As to the ascription of fear to the sacred name, it needs no explanation. Exod. xxiii. 21; Mal. i. 11; iv. 2. See 1 Kings xiv. 21. God chose to put his Name in Jerusalem, 2 Chron. xii. 13; Ezra vi. 12; Psalm xx. 1; xcix. 3; Isaiah lvii. 14; Micah iv. 5. We shall give one of these Palmyrene Inscriptions at length :

"To the blessed Name for ever be fear: Salmon, son of Nasa, son of Hiza, dedicated this city on account of his own safety, and that of his children, in the month Nisan: the year 447." So we find Job offering sacrifices for himself and for his children (ch. i. 5.), for himself and for his friends, chap. xlii. 8, 10.

We may notice on these Palmyrene Inscriptions the months Tebeth, Tisri, Nisan, and Elul; also Pellul and Shebeth: which we also find in Scripture.

We have formerly considered Moses as Caravan-Bachi of Israel; but we are told no monument was erected over his place of burial, because it was absolutely concealed: that such an honourable erection might otherwise have taken place appears probable, from one at Palmyra, which commemorates a Caravan-Bachi, who certainly did not equal Moses in dignity. "This is the lot (or portion) of Julias Aurelius Salmalath, son of Mala, a Jew, chief of the caravan, which the senate and people have decreed to him, because he conducted home the caravan, and supported it at his own expense, in the year 569." This Jew is called in the Inscription Rab Shiritah. The word Rab the reader has seen in composition in many Scripture names; and the word Shiritah is, in the Hebrew, descriptive of that caravan, or company of Ishmaelites, which carried off Joseph, Gen. xxxvii. 25. [Vide DANIEL ad fin. Dictionary.]

It may not be amiss to add Mr. Swinton's translation from the Palmyrene, of the