same form, in the ancient pedestal of the famous statue of the Nile, at Rome; and in various other instances.

No. 12. Shews a party of these pigmy gentry, enjoying themselves under a shady bower: notwithstanding their diminutive size, they seem very sociable and happy: the adjacent buildings, too, are well constructed. Antiq. Hercul.

Such were the ideas of the ancients respecting the Pygmies: a race diminutive in stature, deprived of the full proportions of their limbs, &c. yet not the less enjoying life, not the less warlike, or turbulent among themselves, and terrific to their neighbours : exactly answering the prophet's description of those to whom he directs his Message.

If this Article has answered our endeavours, there is hardly a word in the chapter which has not been adequately accounted for and clearly applied. Nevertheless, as those local particulars, which have hitherto been embarrassing, are capable of farther illustration, we shall enlarge on some of them. The subject of the Egyptian Cneph is too copious for present consideration. It occurs in Persia eastward, and in Rome westward.

No. CCCXXIII. LAND WASTED BY RIVERS.

IN that prophecy of Isaiah, which we have been considering in the foregoing Article, the words "whose Lands the Rivers have spoiled," have been by many persons directed to a metaphorical sense, in allusion to armies over-running a country; and more readily, as this prophet certainly uses such a metaphor in some places. But it rather appears, as has been suggested, that the prophet inserts this particular for the purpose of affording a decisive geographical mark of the country he means to denote: that, having given other notices, at that time probably well-known descriptions of the people and country along the Rivers of Cush, he adds this also, that these Rivers, in their courses, despoiled the Lands where they flowed. Not having met with any traveller who has reached so far south as Nubia, and has seen the streams of the Nile during their inundation, whereby to authenticate this fact-a fact that can be only local, and to which eye-witness only is competent, we shall offer an instance of what spoil the Nile (the River of Cush) in its course northward is accustomed to commit:-something like this, and perhaps much more destructive, we can easily imagine the River may effect in earlier parts of the streams which compose it.

"At Kaffr Essaïad [in Upper Egypt] we saw descending a flotilla of rafts formed of earthen ware, which they were conveying to Cairo."

"Below this island, the Nile forms a large sinuosity; the current undermines the western shore, which is steep in this broad angle, and detaches from it enormous masses of marshy earth. The frequent fall of such masses as these renders the passage of this place very dangerous for boats, which run the risk of being sunk by them. We had got clear of it without any accident, although every instant, both before and behind us, several large pieces fell, separated from the shore; I congratulated myself on having escaped a danger, against which we had not to struggle; but we found ourselves exposed anew, and in a very disagreeable manner, owing to the improvidence of the boat's crew."

We

"The Reis and the sailors were asleep upon the beach; I had passed half of the night watching, and I composed myself to sleep, after giving the watch to two of my, companions, but they too had sunk into slumber. The kanja, badly fastened against the shore, broke loose, and the current carried it away with the utmost rapidity. were all asleep; not one of us, not even the boatmen, stretched upon the sand, perceived our manner of sailing down at the mercy of the current. After having floated with the stream for the space of a good league, the boat, hurried along with violence,

struck with a terrible crash against the shore, precisely a little below the place from whence the greatest part of the loosened earth fell down.

"Awakened by this furious shock, we were not slow in perceiving the critical situation into which we were thrown. The kanja, repelled by the land, which was cut perpendicularly, and driven towards it again by the violence of the current, turned round in every direction, and dashed against the shore in such a manner as excited an apprehension that it would be broke to pieces. The darkness of the night, the frightful noise which the masses, separated from the shore, spread far and wide as they fell into a deep water; the bubbling which they excited, the agitation of which communicated itself to the boat, rendered our awakening a very melancholy one.

"There was no time to be lost; I made my companions take the oars, which the darkness prevented us from finding so soon as we could have wished; I sprung to the helm, and, encouraging my new and very inexperienced sailors, we succeeded in making our escape from a repetition of shocks, by which we must all, at length, have inevitably perished; for scarcely had we gained, after several efforts, the middle of the River, than a piece of hardened mud, of an enormous size, tumbled down at the very spot we had just quitted, and which must, had we been but a few minutes later, have carried us to the bottom." Sonnini's Travels in Egypt, vol. iii. p. 148-150.

That accidents of a similar kind happen on other Rivers, occasioned by the violence of their streams, is notorious; and is in America an abundant source of litigation, as it often happens that a flood transfers a field, or &c. from one side of a River to the other, by forcing a passage over it. An instance of such a change on the Wolga may confirm our suggestions.

"Some nine years before the great Duke had given order for building the citie of Tzornogar, which lies 200 worstes from Zariza, some half a league lower than it is now; but the great Floods having washed away the earth along the shore, in such great quantities, that the course of the River seemed to be thereby diverted, and that it would be ill coming ashore there, they translated the citie to the place where it is now." Ambassador's Travels, p. 167. [The Ganges produces similar effects in India.]

No. CCCXXIV. ETHIOPIAN, OR CUSHITE, LANDS SPOILED BY

INUNDATION.

IF it be objected to the former Fragment, that it refers to a constant and continual occurrence, whereas the prophet Isaiah seems rather to refer to some one extraordinary, and unusual deluge, then we beg leave to offer, by way of answer, the following extracts from Mr. Bruce.

"The Chronicle of Axum, the most ancient repository of the antiquities of that country, a book esteemed, I shall not say how properly, as the first in authority after the Holy Scriptures, says, that between the creation of the world and the birth of our Saviour there were 5500 years; [eight years less than the Greeks, and other followers of the Septuagint] that Abyssinia had never been inhabited till 1808 years before Christ, and 200 years after that, which was in the 1600, it was laid waste by a Flood, the face of the country much changed and deformed, so that it was called at that time Oure Midre, or the Country laid Waste, or, as it is called in Scripture itself, a Land which the Waters, or Floods, had spoiled (Isaiah xviii. 2.); that about the year 1400 before Christ, it was taken possession of by a variety of people speaking different languages, who, as they were in friendship with the Agaazi, or shepherds, possessing the high country of Tigré, came and sat down beside them in a peaceable manner, each occupying the Lands that were before him. This settlement is what the Chronicle of Axum calls Angaba, the entry and establishment of these nations, which finished the peopling of Abyssinia.

"Tradition further says, that they came from Palestine. All this seems to me to wear the face of truth. Some time after the year 1500, we know there happened a Flood which occasioned great devastation. Pausanias says, that this Flood happened in Ethiopia, in the reign of Cecrops; and, about the year 1490 before Christ, the Israelites entered the land of promise under Caleb and Joshua."

As to the present state of the country, accept the following information, from the same authority.

"In the Kolla, or low valley of Abyssinia, are large spreading shady trees, near the clearest and deepest rivers, or the largest stagnant pools of the purest water." Bruce, v. 82.

"This country is liable to a Deluge of SEVERAL MONTHS, p. 86. No country but that of the Shangalla, deluged with SIX MONTHS rains, full of large and deep basons. or watered by large and deep rivers-can maintain the Rhinoceros, who lives in wet and marshy places." p. 99.

Moreover, that the Message sent by this prophet was not so singular as it may seem at first sight, will appear from a similar procedure in the prophet Ezekiel (xxx. 9.), "In that day shall messengers go forth from me in ships to make the careless Ethiopians afraid, and great pain shall come upon them."-If the reader will peruse the whole of that chapter, he will see its application to the several nations of this country. We only observe here that these "messengers were to go forth IN SHIPS," surely up the Nile, as we have supposed :-they were to reach the Ethiopians-the Cushites :-the careless, rather the bold, the undaunted, Cushites, shall be afraid, and suffer pain, &c. The ideas are very similar to those we have been attempting to illustrate in the inusitata verba, the uncommon language, and figurative expressions, of the prophet Isaiah.

66

Mr. Bruce says, vol. v. p. 6. that the boats of Abyssinia are made of papyrus, a piece of the Acacia tree being put in the bottom to serve as a keel, to which the plants were joined, being first sewed together, then gathered up at stem and stern, and the ends of the plants tied fast there. This is the only boat they still have in Abyssinia, which they call Tancoa, and from the use of these it is that Isaiah describes the nations, probably the Egyptians, upon whom the vengeance of God was speedily to fall." [Mr. Bruce certainly refers to Isaiah, chap. xviii. but has mistaken the persons who deliver the Message, for those who receive it: nevertheless, his opinion and reference merit attention.]

No. CCCXXV. ABYSSINIANS: MINGLED PEOPLE.

MR. BRUCE has a remark, on the Name given to the Abyssinians in Scripture, which may properly be offered, while a subject connected in some degree with this People is under consideration. We say in some degree, because it has been already hinted, that Abyssinia, properly taken as the country around the head of the Nile, is probably too far south, to be the People intended by the prophet Isaiah: it is far distant from Upper Egypt; and we believe it is hardly, if at all, possible, to visit it by navigation; certainly, therefore, not at a little expense and trouble, which circumstances are, undoubtedly, implied in the commission given by the prophet. For the present it is merely suggested, that if Mr. Bruce be correct, the word " associated" -or, consociated, might be advantageously substituted for the present expression "mingled," which, certainly, indicates no small degree of intimacy and one-ness. extract is from Bruce's Travels, vol. ii. p. 404.

The

"These Convence [in Latin], as we have observed, were called Habesh-a number

of distinct nations meeting in one place. Scripture has given them a name, which, though it has been ill translated, is precisely Convence, both in the Ethiopic and the Hebrew. Our English translation calls them the Mingled People (Jerem. xx. 20, 24; Ezek. xxx. 5.), whereas it should be the separate nations, who, though met and settled together, did not mingle, which is strictly Convence. The inhabitants, then, who possessed Abyssinia, from its southern boundary to the tropic of Cancer, or frontiers of Egypt, were the Cushites, or polished people living in towns, first Troglodytes, having their habitations in caves. The next were the shepherds; after these were the nations who, as we apprehend, came from Palestine-Amhara, Agow of Damot, Agow of Tehera, and Gafat."

"Jeremiah (xxv. 24.) speaks of the chiefs of the Mingled People that dwell in the deserts. And Ezekiel (xxx. 5.) also mentions them independent of all the others, whether shepherds, or Cushites, or Libyans, their neighbours, by the Mingled People. Isaiah (xviii. 2.) calls them " a nation scattered and peeled: a People terrible from the beginning hitherto ; a nation melted out and trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled:" which is a sufficient description of them, as having been expelled their own country, and settled in one that had suffered greatly by a deluge a short time before."

No. CCCXXVI. OF ROYALTY IN THE EAST.

THE respect paid to Kings in the East, with the manner of shewing that respect, differs much from the same among ourselves: it may therefore be of use to transcribe what information travellers have communicated on the subject.

"No Prince ever lost his life in battle till the coming of the Europeans into Abyssinia, when both the excommunicating and murdering their sovereigns seem to have been introduced at the same time. The reader will see in the course of this history, two instances of this respect being still kept up; the one at the battle of Limjour, where Fasil, pretending that he was immediately to attack Ras Michael, desired that the King might be dressed in his insignia, lest not being known he might be slain by the stranger Galla. The next was after the battle of Serbraxos, where the King was thrice in one day engaged with the Begemder troops for a considerable space of time. These insignia, or marks of Royalty, are a white horse, with small silver bells at his head, a shield of silver, and a white fillet of fine silk or muslin, but generally the latter, some inches broad, which is tied round the upper part of the hair, with a large double or bow knot behind, the ends hanging down to the small of his back, or flying in the air." Bruce, vol. iii. p. 267. [Comp. No. CCCLXXXII. on SOLOMON'S SONG, with the PLATE.] This extract will remind the reader of the story of Ahab and Jehoshaphat, 1 Kings xxii. 30. Ahab laid aside his robes, or Royal Insignia, and thereby "disguised himself; wearing only the dress of a common soldier, or perhaps of an inferior officer and thus disguised he was slain; but Jehoshaphat, according to Ahab's advice, retained the marks of his dignity; he was indeed attacked by the enemy, but when they discovered it was not the King of Israel, but of Judah, they desisted from pursuing him. We see by Mr. Bruce, what are the Abyssinian Insignia of Royalty; but probably the Jewish Kings added to these an ample robe, or a robe of a peculiar colour, such as purple. [Did not Goliath take state upon him, by having "a shield borne before him?"

Was Ahab previously informed of the orders given by the King of Syria to his captains, to fight with the King of Israel only? Did he hope to avoid the effects of this order, by disguising himself?-yet he met his death notwithstanding his disguise:

while Jehoshaphat, whom he intended should be treated as his substitute (as indeed he was, for a time) escaped the snare which the crafty Arab had laid for him?

"The King goes to church regularly, his guards taking possession of every avenue and door through which he is to pass, and no body is allowed to enter with him, because he is then on foot, excepting two officers of his bed-chamber who support him. He kisses the threshold and side-posts of the church-door, the steps before the altar, and then returns home: sometimes there is service in the church, sometimes there is not; but he takes no notice of the difference. He rides up stairs into the presence chamber on a mule, and alights immediately on the carpet before his throne; and I have sometimes seen great indecencies committed by the said mule in the presencechamber, upon a Persian carpet."

"An officer, called Serach Massery, with a long whip, begins cracking and making a noise worse than twenty French postillions, at the door of the palace before the dawn of day. This chases away the hyænas, and other wild beasts: this, too, is the signal for the King's rising, who sits in judgment every morning fasting, and after that, about eight o'clock, he goes to breakfast." [Vide 2 Kings v. 18; Zeph. ii. 15; Isaiah xxxiv. 14; Jer. 1. 39.]

According to this representation of the Abyssinian King, we find David had his mule, as a mark of royalty; for so he directs (1 Kings i. 33.): “Cause Solomon, my son, to ride on my own mule; and bring him down to Gihon"-" and they caused Solomon to ride upon King David's mule" (verse 38.), and great stress seems to be laid on this by the reporter to Adonijah, who mentions this incident first of all, (verse 44.) "and they have caused him to ride on the King's mule."

Persia was a land of horses, not of mules, nevertheless, as the horse which the King rode acquired a kind of sacredness from that circumstance, we see what high honour Haman proposed to himself (Esther vi. 8.), which he afterwards was obliged to confer on Mordecai. By referring also to the foregoing description of the Royal Insignia, we see what that Royal Apparel was which Haman intended to wear, that is, he meant to be a personification of the king his master.

Much more is attributed to the appendages of royalty, or of command, in the East, than we can easily imagine; we shall add an instance of great respect paid to a horse, even when distant from his master, as it may lead to a reflection or two: and we need not doubt, that if the horse of a general were so greatly respected, as we find this was, that the horse of a king was proportionately, in a still greater degree, an object of veneration.

"Take this horse," says Fasil," as a present from me; it is not so good as your own; but, depend on it, it is not of the kind that rascal gave you this morning, it is the horse I rode on yesterday, when I came here to encamp: do not mount it yourself, but drive it before you saddled and bridled as it is; no man of Maitsha will touch you when he sees that horse; it is the people of Maitsha, whose houses Michael has burnt, that you have to fear, and not your friends the Galla.

I

"I then took the most humble and respectful leave of him possible, and also of my new acquired brethren the Galla, praying inwardly I might never see them again. recommended myself familiarly and affectionately to the remembrance of Welleta Michael, the Ras's nephew, as well as Guebra Ehud; and turning to Fasil, according to the custom of the country to superiors, asked him leave to mount on horseback before him, and was speedily out of sight. Shalaka Woldo (the name of my guide) did not set out with me, being employed about some affairs of his own, but he presently after followed, driving Fasil's horse before him.

"Although the Lamb and the other Galla, his soldiers, paid very little attention, as VOL. III.

4 I