appear to have apprehended. They must be joined, I imagine, to have a complete view of either. St. John saw an angel with the seal of the living God, and therewith multitudes were sealed in their foreheads; but to understand what sort of mark was made there, you must have recourse to the inkhorn of Ezekiel. On the other hand, Ezekiel saw a person equipped with an inkhorn, who was to mark the servants of God on their foreheads, with ink that is, but how the ink was to be applied is not expressed; nor was there any need that it should, if in those times ink was applied with a seal: a seal being in the one case plainly supposed: as in the apocalypse, the mention of a seal made it needless to take any notice of an inkhorn by his side. "This position of the inkhorn of Ezekiel's writer may appear somewhat odd to an European reader, but the custom of placing it by the side continues in the East to this day. Olearius, who takes notice, Voy. en Moscovie, &c. p. 857. of a way that they have of thickening their ink with a sort of paste they make, or with sticks of Indian ink, which is the best paste of all, a circumstance favourable to their sealing with ink, observes, p. 817. [Dr. Shaw also speaks of their writers suspending their inkhorns by their side. I should not therefore have taken any notice of this circumstance, had not the account of Olearius led us to something further.] that the Persians carry about with them, by means of their girdles, a dagger, a knife, an handkerchief, and their money and those that follow the profession of writing out books, their inkhorn, their penknife, their whetstone to sharpen it, their letters, and every thing the Moscovites were wont in his time to put in their boots, which served them instead of pockets. The Persians, in carrying : their inkhorn after this manner, seem to have retained a custom as ancient as the days of Ezekiel; while the Moscovites, whose garb was very much in the Eastern taste in the days of Olearius, and who had many Oriental customs among them, carried their inkhorns and their papers in a very different manner. Whether some such variation might cause the Egyptian translators of the Septuagint version to render the words, a girdle of sapphire, or embroidery on the loins, I will not take upon me to affirm but I do not imagine our Dr. Castell would have adopted this sentiment in his Lexicon, see Lowth upon the place, had he been aware of this Eastern custom: for with great propriety is the word keseth mentioned in this chapter three times, if it signified an inkhorn, the requisite instrument for sealing those devout mourners; but no account can be given why this keseth should be mentioned so often, if it only signified an embroidered girdle." It should be recollected also, that in the East, the artisans carry most of the implements of their professions in their girdles; the soldier carries his sword the butcher his knife; and the carpenter carries even his hammer, and his saw. EXPLANATION OF THE FIGURES. L. is the inkhorn; its cover lifted up: it seems to resemble those among ourselves, which are made of leather; and which I think are known by the name of "Edinburgh inkhorns." M. The knife usually carried in the handle of the inkhorn: but in this instance, I presume it is too long for that purpose: as I do not perceive that it is capable of being divided. PLACE OF FIRE, OR FURNACE. DANIEL III. "THIS dike was on the north side of the serpent fountain and just on the other side of it we espied another antiquity, which took up our next observation. There was a court of fifty-five yards square, cut in the natural rock; the sides of the rock standing round it, about three yards high, supplied the place of walls. On three sides it was thus encompassed; but to the northward it lay open. In the centre of this area was a square part of the rock left standing; being three yards high, and five yards and a half square. This served for a pedestal to a throne erected upon it. The throne was composed of four large stones, two at the sides, one at the back, another hanging over all at top, in the manner of a canopy. The whole structure was about twenty feet high, fronting toward that side where the court was open. The stone that made the canopy was five yards and three quarters square, and carved round with a handsome cornish. What all this might be designed for, we could not imagine; unless perhaps the court may pass for an idol temple, and the pile in the middle for the throne of the idol: which seems the more probable, in regard that Hercules, i.e. the sun, the great abomination of the Phenicians, was wont to be ADORED IN AN OPEN TEMPLE. At the two innermost angles of the court, and likewise on the open side were left pillars of the natural rock; three at each of the former and two at the latter." The conjecture of Mr. Maundrell is every way ingenious, and probable, that the scene before us is a temple of the sun; now, we know that besides Hercules, Bel or Baal was another name of the sun, and that in the East, especially, this name prevailed, and was general, and that the element fire was its object. Without further introduction, I beg the reader to grant me that the golden image erected by Nebuchadnezzar, Dan. iii. was that of Bel, [we have examined its proportions, &c. in FRAGMENT, No. 150,] that it stood in an open temple, or court, in form somewhat like that in our print: that the king ordered the execution of the three Hebrews to take place in the presence of this image, in its very court. I shall not conceal, that this last concession would give a very different aspect to the history of the deliverance of these Jewish worthies, from what is usually understood at present: but whether a different understanding may not lead to a better, is what, I hope, may be indulged as a query at least. Observe, 1st, The Chaldee word used to denote what is rendered "burning fiery furnace," [ps atun, emphatically atuna] signifies simply "a place of fire;" without determining its form, construction, or use. To suppose therefore that it was a close, confined, as it were, solid building, is to limit the import of the original term unwarrantably. Mount Etna, ETUNA, in Sicily, seems to have derived its name from this word, as a place of fire, a volcano, which had several flaming mouths, each of which mouths was a furnace ; as Virgil calls them, Eneid iii. 571.582; Georg. i. 471. Vide Lucret. vi. 681; Ovid, Metam. xv. 340. and this idea of a volcano, is perfectly applicable to the use of this word in the Targum; for we know that Sodom, &c. was destroyed by a volcano," and the smoke of the city went up as the smoke of a furnace," which the Targum renders "the smoke of an aluna;" i.e. a place of fire, Gen. xix. 28. Now, the smoke arising from an extent of country, the smoke from a volcano, is by no means to be limited by the idea of a building, a furnace, a kiln; but is much more open, spacious, and broad. The account of the apocryphal writer of the history of this miracle, says, that "the angel of the Lord descended, and smote the flame of fire out of the furnace, or place of fire, and made the middle of the furnace, as if a moist, dewy, whistling, wind" was passing over it. Now, if it was exposed to the passage of wind over it, it could not be a closed building. This seems to be finally determined, by the recollection that Nebuchadnezzar saw what was passing passing within this place of fire; which he could not possibly do, if it was closed like our tile kilns; but if it was open, like the place of fire in our print, he might very easily be a spectator of every occurrence. We are now to consider the propriety of supposing that Nebuchadnezzar had erected his image in the plains, levels, observe, of Dura; and that, before it was an open court, around which stood the worshippers; but that on the refusal of the Hebrews to worship it a fire was kindled in this court, like those used in burning victims to Moloch; like those used in India, for the burning of Indian women; like those formerly used in burning the martyrs, &c. in Smithfield; and that the king (as on one occasion a lord mayor of London, in Smithfield) commanded in person, justice to be done on the delinquents. This notion of an open furnace, or place of fire, appears to me of consequence to be understood and to be adopted, instead of that closed structure of brick, which has usually been represented: as it appears to be more congenial to the customs of the country, to the idolatry of the people, and to the supposed dignity of the occasion. It leads us also to infer, that this transaction passed in the very sight, so to speak, of this golden image; in defiance of its influence, and power, which certainly must be admitted as most vigorous, most concentrated, within the sacred precincts of its own divine residence: yet here, where most competent to exertion, it was baffied, counteracted, and defeated. I see no just reason for doubting but that the open temple, mentioned by Mr. Maundrell, being in the country of Tyre and Sidon, was used for the worship of the Tyrian Hercules; who was, as hinted, the Baal of the East, i.e. the sun; whose representative on earth was the element fire. This element we know was worshipped in Chaldea, and the Chaldeans boasted of their deity as superior to all others, because he was able to consume their representations, whether of wood, stone, metal, &c. The same notion of the identity of these deities was entertained by the Tyrians; and hence we read, that to prevent his desertion from their city, they chained the statue of Hercules to the altar of Apollo. If then the deity of the Tyrians was the same as the deity of the Chaldeans, we may infer that the rites of his worship were much the same in both countries, and since we find an open court in Syria, still remaining, it takes off the difficulty, if any were supposed, in considering an open court as the scene of the religious rites of the same deity in Chaldea; and we ought to recollect that the pagan rites of worship were generally performed in open courts, before a temple, and rarely within the temple itself. On a former occasion, in reference to this subject, I wished for further information, to guide our conclusions on some of its circumstances. I am of opinion still, that the history is much more intelligible in the East than among ourselves, that the publicity of this execution would there be better understood, that the contest between Baal, the deity fire, and Jehovah, would there excite not merely the liveliest interest throughout the nation, but that the result of it would produce the most general confusion on one side, and the most vehement joy on the other; and that, when the Chaldeans saw their national deity vanquished, not by another element, as water, [of which we have a history] but by a protecting, preserving power, infinitely its superior, their perplexity would be extreme; and they would feel their embarrassment with all the tenderness of Eastern conception, and with all the exquisite sensibility of Eastern imagination. We are I think beholden to Mr. Maundrell for the confirmation of our former suggestions, by rendering very credible the notion of an open furnace, and by furnishing an instance in which such a construction of a sacred edifice was used in similar worship; and might have been used to all the purposes attributed to the atuna, place of fire, in the history recorded in Daniel. I might further allude to traditions among the Eastern people of a similar trial of Abraham by Nimrod, and a similar deliverance: I might also describe the annual "festival of fire" in the East, and the passing of the devotees over burning coals: with the means used to render the flame more vehement, when a devotee is about to consume himself; but I wave all these considerations, and for the present draw no other conclusion, than that of the open construction of the Chaldean atuna, and that the whole was transacted as a kind of sacrifice to the deity, and consequently in the immediate presence of his consecrated image. Mr. King, in his Munimenta Antiqua, vol. i. p. 226. has paid considerable attention to this structure, described by Maundrell, and has compared it with the cromlehs of Britain, which he supposes to have been altars used for human sacrifices: "that we know," says he, "were introduced in the earliest ages, among the detestable superstitions of the Tyrians, and Si donians." But that gentleman supposes what Maundrell describes as the throne, to have been the altar, whereon the victim was slain, and he gives what he conceives to be a more correct delineation of this court, and structure, than that given by Maundrell himself. For our own parts, we have thought it a duty to copy faithfully the representations of travel. lers; and this subject, as well as others; since in our opinion, there is no difference between re-writing a passage in an author, instead of giving it in the author's own language, verbatim et literatim, and redelineating a delineation, which the original author has thought proper to offer to his readers. OF THE LOCUST. THE locust is a creature so little known among us, either by its distinctions, or its depredations, that we are by no means able to estimate that importance which is attached to its visitation, and that anxiety which, where it abounds, is employed to watch its motions. As there are several allusions to this insect in Scripture, I have thought it might be desirable to combine such parts of its history, as are calculated to justify what remarks it has already received, or may hereafter receive. Our Plate contains figures of the common migratory locust, from Dr. Shaw the naturalist, Nos. 1, 2. No. 4. is copied from the Gentleman's Magazine, 1748, at which time this locust, with many others, was picked up in St. James's park. Great anxiety was caused by them throughout England at that period, and they became the occasion of collecting various information: a part of which we shall set before the reader, as inserted in that magazine at the time. "A swarm of locusts lately fell near Bristol, much resembling those that fell sometime ago in Transylvania, some of them are kept in spirits by the curious. A sort of locust also has done great damage in Shropshire and Staffordshire, by eating the blossoms of the apple and crab-trees, but especially the leaves of oaks, which look as bare as at Christmas; the rooks devour these locusts in prodigious numbers, Gent. Mag. July, 1748, p. 331. "Col. Needham, who had lived some time in Teneriffe, told sir Hans Sloane, that in 1649, locusts destroyed all the product of that island: they saw them come off from the coast of Barbary, the wind being a Levant from thence; they flew as far as they could, then one alighted in the sea, and another on it, so that one after another they made a heap as big as the greatest ship above water, and were esteemed almost as many under. Those above water, next day, after the sun's refreshing them, took flight again, and came in clouds to the island, from whence they had perceived them in the air, and had gathered all the soldiers of the island and of Laguna together, being 7 or 8,000 men, who laying aside their arms, some took bags, some spades, and having notice by their scouts from the hills where they alighted, they went strait thither, made trenches, and brought their bags full, and covered them with mould. This did not do, for some of the locusts escaped, or being cast on the shore, were revived by the sun, and flew about and destroyed all the vineyards and trees. They ate the leaves, and even the bark of the vines where they alighted. But all would not do the locusts staid there four months; cattle ate them and died, and so did several men, and others struck out in blotches. The other Canary islands were so troubled also, that they were forced to bury their provisions, Gent. Mag. 1748, p. 362. 66 They destroy the ground not only for the time, but burn trees for two years after; so that the people in Ethiopia are forced to sell themselves and children for sustenance. Jo. dos Sanctos. [Compare Gen. ix. 20. EXPOSITORY INDEX.] "I cannot better represent their flight to you, than by comparing it to the flakes of snow in cloudy weather, driven about by the wind; and when they alight upon the ground to feed, the plains are all covered, and they make a murmuring noise as they eat, and in less than two hours they devour all close to the ground then rising, they suffer themselves to be carried away by the wind; and when they fly, though the sun shines ever so bright, it is no lighter than when most clouded. The air was so full of them, that I could not eat in my chamber without a candle, all the houses being full of them, even the stables, barns, chambers, garrets, and cellars. I caused cannon powder and sulphur to be burnt to expel them, but all to no purpose; for when the door was opened, an infinite number came in, and the others went out, fluttering about; and it was a troublesome thing when a man went abroad to be hit on the face by those creatures, sometimes on the nose, sometimes the eyes, and sometimes the cheeks, so that there was no opening one's mouth but some would get in. Yet all this was |