people often are disappointed in digging after them, they have this proverb, "To buy a hole instead of a jerboa."

"Animals of this genus were certainly the two-footed mice, and the Egyptian mice, of the ancients, which were said to walk on their hind legs, and use the fore instead of hands. These, with the plant silphium, were used to denote the country of Cyrene, where both were found, as appears from the figures on a beautiful gold coin preserved by Mr. Haym, Tesoro Brit. ii. 124. and which I have caused to be copied above the animal, in the Plate."

The reader will now judge on the reasons of these gentlemen respectively. If we admit with Mr. Bruce's "no doubts," that the akbar is the ashkoko, we may ask, how comes it that the prophet Isaiah uses this word to denote the saphan? why does he not call that animal by its usual appellation? On the other hand, he admits, that akbar signifies the largest of the kind of mountain mice, including the jerboa, and this seems to coincide with the opinion of Bochart. Besides this, the word akbar is used Levit. xi. 29; 1 Sam. vi. 4, 5, 11, 18. as well as Isai. lxvi. 17. Now it is hardly likely that in all these places it means the saphan, and in some of them it clearly does not.

As the length of tail assimilates the jerboa to the mouse, so the absence of tail in the ashkoko assimilates that animal to the rabbit kind, and therefore I incline to think, that the upper figure on our Plate is that of the saphan, rendered by our translators "coney" and the lower figure, the smaller, is the akbar of Scripture, rendered by our translators "mouse.' I am afraid Mr. Pennant, in appealing to the testimony of Dr. Shaw, has not wholly understood the doctor's words, as I think his expressions, "of the same size and quality with the rabbit," &c. can hardly describe the jerboa; nor is the name of daman Israel, "Israel's lamb," likely to be given to that animal. The following is Dr. Shaw's account, Travels, p. 376. folio edit.

"The daman Israel is an animal likewise of mount Libanus, though common in other places of this country. It is a harmless creature, of the same size and quality with the rabbit, having the like incurvating posture and disposition of the fore teeth. But it is of a browner colour, with smaller eyes, and a head more pointed. The fore feet likewise are short, and the hinder near as long in proportion, as those of the jerboa. Though it is known to burrow sometimes in the ground; yet, as the usual refuge of it is in the holes and clefts of the rocks, we have so far a more presumptive proof that this creature is the saphan of the Scriptures than the jerboa. None of the inhabitants, whom I conversed with, could inform me why it was called daman Israel, i.e. Israel's lamb, according to their interpretation." This gentleman certainly distinguishes the daman Israel from the

jerboa, to which he compares it: and his expression "far more presumptive proof that this creature is the saphan," agrees with Mr. Bruce against the jerboa.

I must own I cannot account for its appellation, from the Arabic, in which daman signifies constant, stable, firm, unmoveable; unless it refers to the rocky habitation of this animal, which is certainly constant, and unmoveable. I partly incline to derive this name from the Hebrew dameh, quiet, silent, tranquil, such being the character of a lamb, which "before its shearers, is dumb, and openeth not its mouth;" nor even when being slain: but this is a direct opposition to the active character of the jerboa; to which no one could ever think of applying the term tranquil, or patient, or STILL.

The following is Hasselquist's description of the jerboa: translated from his travels in the Levant. Mus jaculus, leaping rat. This animal is the size of a large rat. He only uses his hind legs; for which reason he moves only by leaps and jumps. When he stops, he brings his feet close under his belly, and rests on the juncture of his leg. He uses when eating, his fore paws, like other animals of his kind. He sleeps by day, and is in motion during night. He eats corn, bread made of corn, and grains of sesamum. Though he does not fear man, yet he is not easily tamed, for which reason he must be kept in a cage. I saw one at Cairo, which had been so kept during several months. He is found in Egypt, and between Egypt and Arabia. The Arabs call him garbuka; the French who are settled in Egypt, call him mountain rat."

I shall further assume that the achbar of Isai. Ixvi. 17. is the jerboa, and then we see that the eating of this creature is properly connected with the guilt of eating swine's flesh, and is in direct opposition to a positive precept; Levit. xi. 27. "Whatsoever goeth upon ITS PAWS, among all manner of beasts that go on ALL FOUR, those are unclean to you,” &c. It is strange at first sight, how a creature going on all four, can be said to go on its paws, i.e. on two feet only; but the jerboa answers this description precisely; and though it is with propriety reckoned among quadrupeds, yet by its mode of going on its hind feet only, it has been, and still is, called a biped: Mus di8s, Theophr. Opusc. 295; Elian, Hist. An. lib. xv. cap. 26; Mus bipes, Pliny, lib. x. cap. 65.

[There is just such another perplexity a few verses earlier in the same chapter: "all fowls, English Tr. but rather, all flying creatures, that creep, going on all four," what a confusion of natures! fowls, creeping, all four!! yet this is not only correct, but even technically accurate, so far as we can ascertain the ancient terms.]

The reader will observe, that the uncleanness contracted by touching the carcasses of these animals, required washing of clothes, and lasted till evening :

nor can he fail of remarking how effectually difficulties, uncouthnesses, of phraseology and language are dispersed, when the proper object of which they are descriptive is submitted to our observation and inspection.

We conclude these remarks by observing,

1st, That the rat, i.e. the European rat, is not known in Scripture; at least, I am ignorant of any passage where it occurs.

2dly, That we may safely take the Hebrew word akbar to import the whole of the jerboa kind; which, though forbid to the Israelites, apparently on account of its peculiarity of conformation, yet was formerly, and still is, eaten by the Arabs as delicious food. The Arabic version of Isai. lxvi. 17. renders the word akbar by jerboa; which shows the opinion of that translator; and Jonathan, in his paraphrase of Levit. xi. 29. certainly understood the word in the same sense, as he speaks of "rats which are black, and red and white." It should seem moreover, that the mouse was also unknown; but this animal being found wherever mankind has fixed habitations, the inference is not unattended with difficulty. However, if it were just, it would give a very different aspect to the history of the [mice] jerboas which "mar

red the land" of the Philistines, 1 Sam. vi. 5. and would require a knowledge of the manner in which the jerboa could effect those ravages to which the Philistines allude: but whether as an immediate visitation resulting from the presence of the sacred ark, or from other causes, is not, that I perceive, clearly specified. It is true indeed, that the Alexandrian and Vatican copies of the LXX mention these mice, in verse 1. but whether these are not rather notes, as they do not agree in expression, may be doubted; the edition of Alcala wholly omits them; yet Josephus inserts the mention of these destructive animals, as being sent by Divine anger. Whatever might be the fact in that instance, we are convinced that the jerboa, no less than the mouse, was competent to inflict whatever penalties it had in commission from Omnipotent wisdom. Nevertheless, this action of "marring the lund," seems to be much fitter for the jerboa, a creature which digs its habitation in the sand, &c. than for the ashkoko, which cannot dig, but which inhabits rocks only; and which, on the whole, we consider as most likely to be the saphan of Holy Writ.

N.B. Dr. Shaw observes, with Mr. Bruce, that he never saw the jerboa among rocks.

THE subject before us has been enveloped in obscurity, occasioned by those difficulties which attend whatever is known to us through the medium of a dead language, and imperfect information: but as it is natural to desire a further knowledge of what interests us, this article has often been canvassed as well anciently as in later times. The plant which produces the spikenard, has recently been the subject of inquiry by two learned men, whose sentiments we shall offer to the reader.

AN ACCOUNT OF THE NARDUS INDICA, OR SPIKENARD, BY GILBERT BLANE, M.D. F.R.S.

After some introductory observations, the doctor says, "I have been led to these reflections by an account, sent me sometime ago by my brother in India, of the spikenard, or nardus indica, a name familiar in the works of the ancient physicians, naturalists, and poets: but the identity of which has not hitherto been satisfactorily ascertained. He says, in a letter dated Lucknow, December 1786, that, "travelling with the Nabob vizier, upon one of his hunting excursions toward the northern mountains, I was surprised one day, after crossing the river Rapty, about twenty miles from the foot of the hills, to perceive the air perfumed with an aromatic smell; and upon asking the cause, I was told it proceeded from the roots of the grass that were bruised or trodden out of the ground

by the feet of the elephants and horses of the Nabob's retinue. The country was wild and uncultivated, and this was the common grass which covered the surface of it, growing in large tufts close to each other, very rank, and in general from three to four feet in length. As it was the winter season, there was none of it in flower. Indeed, the greatest part of it had been burnt down on the road we went, in order that it might be no impediment to the Nabob's encampments.

"I collected a quantity of the roots to be dried for use, and carefully dug up some of it, which I sent to be planted in my garden at Lucknow. It there throve exceedingly, and in the rainy reason it shot up spikes about six feet high. Accompanying this, I send you a drawing of the plant in flower, and of the dried roots, in which the natural appearance is tolerably preserved. [Vide Nos. 1, 2, on the Plate.]

"It is called by the natives terankus, which means literally, in the Hindoo language, fever restrainer, from the virtues they attribute to it in that disease. They infuse about a dram of it in half a pint of hot water, with a small quantity of black pepper. This infusion serves for one dose, and is repeated three times a day. It is esteemed a powerful medicine in all kinds of fevers, whether continued or intermittent.

"The whole plant has a strong aromatic colour; but both the smell and the virtues reside principally in the husky roots, which in chewing have a bitter,

warm, pungent taste, accompanied with some degree of that kind of glow in the mouth which cardamoms occasion."

"Besides the drawing, a dried specimen has been sent, which was in such good preservation as to enable sir Joseph Banks, P.R.S. to ascertain it by the botanical characters to be a species of andropogon. "There is great reason, however, to think, that it is the true nardus indica of the ancients; for, first, the circumstance, in the account above recited, of its being discovered in an unfrequented country from the odour it exhaled by being trod upon by the elephants and horses, corresponds, in a striking manner, with an occurrence related by Arrian, in his history of the expedition of Alexander the Great into India. It is there mentioned, lib. vi. cap. 22. that, during his march through the deserts of Gadrosia, the air was perfumed by the spikenard, which was trampled under foot by the army; and that the Phenicians, who accompanied the expedition, collected large quantities of it, as well as of myrrh, in order to carry them to their own country, as articles of merchandise. This last circumstance seems further to ascertain it to have been the true nardus; for the Phenicians, who, even in war, appear to have retained their genius for commerce, could no doubt distinguish the proper quality of this commodity.

"Secondly, though the accounts of the ancients concerning this plant are obscure and defective, it is evident, it was a plant of the order of gramina; for the term arista, so often applied to it, was appropriated by them to the fructification of grains and grasses, and seems to be a word of Greek original to denote the most excellent portion of these plants, which are the most useful in the vegetable creation for the sustenance of animal life, and nature has also kindly made them the most abundant in all parts of the habitable earth. The term spica is applied to plants of the natural order verticillata, in which there are many species of fragrant plants, and the lavender, which being an indigenous one, affording a grateful perfume, was called nardus italica by the Romans; but we never find the term arista applied to these. The poets, as well as the naturalists, constantly apply this latter term to the true nardus. Statius calls the spikenard odorata arista. Ovid, in mentioning it as one of the materials of the Phenix's nest, calls it nardi levis arista; and a poem, ascribed to Lactantius, on the same subject, says, his addit teneras Nardi pubentis aristas, where the epithet pubentis seems even to point out that it belonged to the genus andropogon, a name given to it by Linnæus from this circumstance. Galen says, that though there are various sorts of nardus, the term Napdo-caxus, or spikenard, should not be applied to any but the nardus indica. It would appear that the nardus celtica was a plant of a quite different habit, and is supposed to be a species of valeriana. The description of the

nardus indica by Pliny does not indeed correspond with the appearance of our specimen; for he says it is frutex radice pingui et crassa; whereas ours has small fibrous roots. But as Italy is very remote from the native country of this plant, it is reasonable to suppose that others, more easily procurable, used to be substituted for it; and the same author says, that there were nine different plants by which it could be imitated and adulterated. There would be strong temptations to do this from the great demand for it, and the expense and difficulty of distant inland carriage; and as it was much used as a perfume, being brought into Greece and Italy in the form of an unguent manufactured in Laodicea, Tarsus, and other towns of Syria and Asia Minor, it is probable, that any grateful aromatic resembling it was allowed to pass for it. It is probable, that the nardus of Pliny, and great part of what it now imported from the Levant, and found under that name in the shops, is a plant growing in the countries on the Euphrates, or in Syria, where the great emporiums of the eastern and western commerce were situated. There is a nardus Assyria mentioned by Horace ; and Dioscorides mentions the nardus Syriaca, as a species different from the indica, which certainly was brought from some of the remote parts of India; for both Dioscorides and Galen, by way of fixing more precisely the country from whence it comes, call it also nardus Gangites. "With regard to the virtues of this plant, it was highly valued anciently as an article of luxury as well as a medicine. The favourite perfume which was used at the ancient baths and feasts was the unguentum nardinum; and it appears, from a passage in Horace, that it was so valuable, that as much of it as could be contained in a small box of precious stone was considered as a sort of equivalent for a large vessel of wine, and a handsome quota for a guest to contribute at an entertainment, according to the custom of antiquity:

-Nardo vinum merebere

Nardi parvus onyx eliciet cadum.

"The fragrance and aromatic warmth of the nardus depend on a fixed principle like that of cardamoms, ginger, and some other spices. I tried to extract the virtues of the nardus by boiling water, by maceration in wine and in proof spirits, but it yielded them sparingly and with difficulty to all these menstrua." So far Dr. Blane, Phil. Trans. vol. lxxx. p. 284.

Much about the time when this was published in England, the attention of sir William Jones, in India, was occupied on this very article, and his inquiries led him to a totally different plant. The following is his account:

"Ignorance is to the mind what extreme darkness is to the nerves: both cause an uneasy sensation ; and we naturally love knowledge, as we love light, even when we have no design of applying either to a pur