ton says of it, "On one side we discover Atergatis, Adergatis, or Dercelo, taken by several learned men, for the Dagon of Scripture, nearly as we find that pagan divinity described by Diodorus Siculus, Bib. lib. ii. and Lucian, with a pigeon before her [on her thigh, or knee] and a fish in her right hand. On the other side, we perceive a galley, or small vessel, on the sea, with rowers in it; under which appears a sea horse, or rather sea monster, of a very particular form. That this silver medal must have been anterior to the dissolution of the Persian empire, we may fairly collect," &c. "That this was struck at Askelon, there is, I think, little reason to doubt." In the next medal, No. 5, "brought from Syria, Atergatis or Derceto, holds a concha marina, or sea shell, in her left hand" which indeed is the same shell as Vishnuh holds in his hand in the Indian representation. Vide No. 2.

The Egyptian zodiac shewed us Dagon placed among the signs, by way no doubt of perpetuating his memorial, and the memorial of Dagon is really perpetuated, if not now in Egypt, yet in Asia; for we find among the Burmah constellations, published by Dr. Buchanan, Asiatic Researches, vol. vi. p. 196, No. 35. Copied on our Plate, No. 6. a gallant vessel, of considerable size, rising at each end almost to the form of a crescent, with a house, or dwelling, occupying great part, i.e. the centre of it. The explanation of this ship in the Burmah language is, "The Brahmen's Buchia has a boat's picture, and [refers to] the Dagoun country." Dr. Buchanan adds, Dagoun is the great temple near Rangoun." Rangoun is one of the capital cities of the Burmah empire; and this great temple is called Shoe Dagoun, or the golden temple of Dagoun, great part of its surface being gilt. From this incident I think it possible, that the name as well as worship of Dagoon is preserved in the East. The attributing a ship to Dagoon, and the reference to the Brahmen, looks at least as if there was some known connection between them. Fig. 7. on our Plate, is copied from an ancient Indian zodiac, in Phil. Trans. for 1772, p. 353. it represents two animals, a goat and a fish; which association is remarkable; because, it is precisely a swordfish; and this we distinguish, because we formerly hinted at "a class of ships, which had long beaks, called by the Greeks galia, from galeopis, the swordfish they were rowing vessels, of considerable swiftness, and the origin of the modern gallies." Vide FRAGMENT, No. 215. This fish is that which was venerated by the Egyptians under the name of Oxyrincus, as Plutarch observes, acuto rostro; they considered him as the sign of floods and inundations. This then is at least a proof of the duplicity of language; as the same word may denote the long beaked swordfish, or the long beaked galley; but per

haps it may imply somewhat more, for how came the idea of this fish to be associated with that of a ship, was it only by the coincidence of the beak? In this zodiac this swordfish and goat compose the sign Capricorn; but in another Indian zodiac, given in the Asiatic Researches, vol. iii. p. 303. Calcutta edition, copied in fig. 8. we have a fish discharging a goat; a very singular combination! the goat is evidently not going into the fish, but coming out of him, for he comes head foremost, holding his head and his horns erect, and seeming to suffer no pain, or distress, on this occasion: indeed, lest we should suppose there was any terror in this incident, the painter has added a couple of ducks, or other water fowl, reposing in full security close by. This is evidently a large fish; what can it import? has it been the mean of safety to this goat, during a tempest? and now, the tempest being over, and all calm again, it discharges what it had preserved? If this be the interpretation, this fish also is, though metaphorically, a ship; this is the ark of preservation: and this is the renewal of life; of animal life; a reviviscence, after a state of disappearance and death. N.B. In our present manner of delineating Capricorn on our globes, &c. we omit the mouth of the fish; which totally destroys the original idea.

No. 8. The idea suggested at the close of No. 7. is not enfeebled by this figure, which is taken from the same Egyptian zodiac as No. 3. It represents the god Pan, whose name is inscribed below it, leading the goat, out of what should be the mouth of the fish. "Pan curat oves oviumque magistros," says Virgil. To speak my conjecture at once; perhaps this sign may mark that month when the animals, after the deluge, quitted the ark; under, no doubt, the direction of Noah. It is well known that the stars which compose the signs in the heavens, do by no means answer to those signs which refer to them on our globes: but, in order to make the place of the sun correspond to its ancient situation when the signs of the zodiac were first established, not merely many degrees, but considerably more than two whole signs, must be calculated backward; and this would reduce Capricorn from answering to January and December, to answer to November and October, in which month, October 27, according to Mr. Basnage's calendar of the year of the deluge, Noah with his family quitted the ark.

These reasonings are to be added to those formerly given, in proof that Noah was "the sovereign prince preserved in the belly of the fish," i.e. the ark.

This subject is now left to the reflection of the reader: without designing to influence his opinion unjustly, we conclude by observing, that perhaps more than could formerly have been expected has been produced in proof that the Dag of Dag-aun, though symbolically a fish, yet referred primarily to a vessel;

N°1.

HK

No 8. TE

B.NEAKO PAN

and so much as goes to this proof, goes also to prove that a secondary sense of the Hebrew word Dag, and Dagah, is that of vessel, or ship: which, as we

formerly observed, has its aspect not merely on the Dag of Aun, i.e. Noah, but on the Dag of Jonah also, and on his miraculous preservation by it.

ON Isaiah, chap xxi. 7. the reader may see descriptions of some of those vehicles for riding in, which our translation renders chariots; to which article we beg leave to refer.

The history of conveyance by means of vehicles, carried or drawn, is too extensive a subject for us to undertake to treat of fully. There can be no doubt, that after man had accustomed cattle to submit to the conduct of a rider, and to support the incumbent weight of a person, or persons, whether the subject were ox, camel, or horse, that the next step was to load such a creature, properly trained, with a litter, or portable conveyance; this might be long before the mechanism of the wheel was employed. Nevertheless, we find that wheeled carriages are of great antiquity: for we read of them so early as Exod. xiv. 25. "The Lord took off the chariot wheels of the Egyptians ;" and as these were military chariots, and the strength of Egypt, this account agrees with those ancient writers, who tell us, that Egypt was not, in its early state, intersected by canals, as it was in later ages; after the formation of which, wheeled carriages were laid aside, and little used, if at all.

The first mention of chariots, I believe, occurs Gen. xli. 43. "Pharaoh caused Joseph to ride, recab, in the second chariot, maricabeh, that belonged to him." This, I suppose, was a chariot of state; not a despicable, but a handsome equipage; an equipage appropriate to the representative of the monarch's person and power.

We find also, in chap. xlv. 19. that Egypt had another kind of wheel carriages, more adapted to the conveyance of burdens; "take out of the land of Egypt, may ogeluth, waggons, wheeled carriages, for your little ones, and your women," to be conveyed in; so then, these ogeluth were not military, but family vehicles, for the use of the feeble; including, if need be, Jacob himself; accordingly, we read, verse 27. of the waggons which Joseph had sent to carry him, Jacob, and which perhaps Jacob knew by their construction to be Egypt built; for, so soon as he sees them, he believes the reports from that country, though he had doubted of them before, when delivered to him by his sons.

This kind of chariot will engage our attention, as we find it afterward employed on various occasions in Scripture, of which we shall notice the following; first, it was intended by the princes of Israel for carrying parts of the sacred utensils; Numb. vii. 3. "They brought their offering six covered "waggons, ogeluth, and twelve oxen :" here these waggons are

expressly said to be covered; and I suppose they were always capable of being covered; as we may be sure those sent by Joseph for the women of Jacob's family were; among other purposes for that of seclusion. Perhaps, even this may be a radical idea in their name; as gal signifies a circle, and these waggons might be covered by circular headings, spread on hoops, like those of our own waggons; which kind of coverings we call tilts.

This statement has considerable importance in the history of the curiosity of the men of Bethshemesh, 1 Sam. vi. 7. where we read, that the Philistines advised to make a new covered waggon or cart, ogeleh: this was done accordingly: and the ark of the Lord was put into it, and no doubt carefully covered over by those who sent it; it came to Bethshemesh; and the men of that town, who were reaping in the fields, perceiving the cart coming, went and examined what it contained: "and they saw the very n, ark, and were joyful in seeing it." Those who first examined it, instead of carefully covering it up again, as a sacred utensil, suffered it to be open to common inspection, which they encouraged, in order to triumph in the votive offerings it had acquired, and to gratify profane curiosity; the Lord therefore punished the people, verse 19. "because they had inspected, pried INTO, 1, the ark." Here then, we have a clear view of the transgression of these Israelites; who had treated the ark with less reverence than the Philistines themselves, who, at least, had behaved to Jehovah as they did to their own deities, and being accustomed to carry them in covered waggons for privacy, they maintained the same privacy as a mark of respect to the God of Israel. The Levites seem to have been still more culpable than the common people; as they ought to have known the law, and not to have suffered their triumph on this victorious occasion to mislead them.

That this ogeleh implies a covered waggon, appears by a third instance, that of Uzzah, 2 Sam. vi. 3. for we cannot suppose, that David would have so far forgot the dignity of the ark of the covenant, as to suffer it to be carried, exposed, in a public procession, to the eyes of all Israel, especially after the punishment of the Bethshemites. "They carried the ark of God on a new ogeleh, covered cart," and Uzzah put forth [his hand, or some catching instrument] to the ark of God, and laid hold of it, to stop its advancing any further, but the oxen harnessed to the cart, going on, they draw the cart away from the ark, and the whole weight of the ark falling out of the

cart, unexpectedly on Uzzah, crushed him to death, "and he died on the spot, with the ark of God" upon him. And David called the place "the breach of Uzzah," i.e. where Uzzah was broken, crushed to death.

See now the proportionate severity of the punishments attending profanation of the ark. 1st, The Philistines suffered by diseases from which they were relieved after their oblations; 2dly, the Bethshemites also suffered, but not fatally, by diseases of a different nature, which after a time passed off. These were inadvertencies: but, 3dly, Uzzah, who ought to have known better, who conducted the procession, who was himself a Levite; he was punished fatally for his disobedience, his inattention to the law, which expressly directed, that the ark should be carried on the shoulders of the priests, the Kohathites, Numb. iv. 4, 19, 20. distinct from those things carried in ogeluth, chap. vii. 9.

That this kind of waggon was used for carrying considerable weights, and even cumbersome goods, therefore fairly analogous to our own waggons, tilted waggons, we learn from the expression of the Psalmist, xlvi. 9.

He maketh wars to cease to the end of the earth; The bow he breaketh; and cutteth asunder the spear; The chariot, ogeluth, he burneth in the fire. The writer is mentioning the instruments of war, the bow, the spear; then, he says, the waggons, for the word is plural, which are used to return home loaded with plunder, these share the fate of their fellows, the bow and spear, and these are burned in the fire; the very idea of the classic allegory, Peace burning the implements of war! And introduced here with the happiest effect: not the generals marecabeh; but the plundering waggons. This is still more expressive if these waggons carried captives; which we know they did in other instances; women and children. "The captive carrying waggon is burnt." There can be no stronger description of the effect of peace, and it closes the period with emphasis.

Having thus shewn the antiquity and use of covered waggons, which in most of the instances we have considered were drawn by oxen, perhaps indeed in all: we shall proceed to notice those chariots whose antiquity is equal, but whose use is different; and which appear to have been drawn by horses. It is desirable to establish a distinction among these, as we find two names employed to describe them: 1st, the recab; 2dly, the marecabeh evidently a derivative from the former. The first I shall suppose to be the inferior, and drawn by two horses only; the second the superior, and drawn by four horses.

We have already observed, that Joseph rode in the second state chariot, marecabeh, of Pharaoh's kingdom that this was a handsome equipage, need

not be doubted; that it was a public vehicle, appears from the proclamation, &c. attending the officer who rode in it. Joseph also, when going to meet his father, rode as vizier, and used his marecabeh. We find also that Sisera, when expected to make his triumphant entry, was equally expected to ride in such a chariot ; for his mother says, "why tarry the wheels of his marecabeh," Judg. v. 28. which he had also used in battle, verse 15.

Perhaps this idea may add a spirit to the history of Naaman, 2 Kings, v. 9. Naaman came to the prophet Elisha, with his horse and attendants, a great retinue; but being in a state of disease, he was himself in a humble recab; being a leper he was secluded; not so when he went away healed; then in a state of triumph, he rode in his marecabeh: for so says verse 21. he alighted from his marecabeh to meet Gehazi, vide also verse 26. This kind of chariot was not forgotten by the ambitious Absalom, 2 Sam. xv. 1. among his preparations for assuming the state of royalty: and that the marecabeh were chariots of triumph, or of magnificence, is decided by a passage of the prophet Isaiah, with which I conclude this division of the subject, chap. xxii. 18. "the chariots, marecabeh, OF THY GLORY shall be the shame of thy Lord's house." See also 1 Kings, xx. 33; 2 Kings, ix. 27; xii. 18.

We have further to observe, that these marecabuths were used in battle, by kings, and by general officers; so we read, 2 Chron. xxxv. 24. that king Josiah was mortally wounded in battle; his servants therefore took him out of that marecabeh which he had used as commander against Pharaoh Necho, and put him into a second recab which belonged to him, to convey him to Jerusalem. The same is related of Ahab, 1 Kings, xxii. 35. And the king, who was disguised as an officer, was stayed up in his marecabeh against Syria; but died in the evening. And the blood from his wound ran into the bosom-bed of his recab. That is to say, Ahab had been removed, like Josiah, from a chariot of dignity to a common litter; for such I suppose was the recab, here; for the more easy and private carriage of his body now dead, and the blood from his wound ran into this vehicle; which therefore was washed in the pool of Samaria, verse 38.

That the marecabeh was drawn by four horses, I think evident from the calculation, 1 Řings, x. 28. a chariot, meaning a chariot set of horses, came up out of Egypt, for six hundred shekels; being one hundred and fifty shekels for each horse; four: and that the word chariot means the horses that drew the vehicle, appears from 2 Sam. viii. 4. "and David houghed all the chariot horses; but reserved to himself an hundred chariot horses :" here the horses must be the subjects of this operation, not the chariots; and so the passage is always understood, though the word chariot only is used.