(floating) palaces about the king's were all illuminated, for four or five leagues round, more than twenty thousand boats being assembled, particularly in the time that the Nile was upon the increase1.

But as Thevenot speaks only of the three nights after the opening of the Khalis, there is reason to believe, that in the time in which the fon of Sirach lived, that was then the principal time for water-illuminations, and that therefore that ancient Jewish writer speaks of the light of Geon at that time only. The proceffions which are reprefented on the swathing of fome of the mummies, which Maillet mentions, p. 75, may as well be understood of thofe of the time when the Nile had attained it's defired height, as of the fuperftitious proceffions of other months.

OBSERVATION CLXXXIII.

The translation the Septuagint has given of Prov. x. 5, differs from the Hebrew, and is by no means fo natural, confidered as a proverbial faying; but gives us fome information concerning the weather of one particular part of the year, but whether of the weather as it is, in common, in Judæa, or whether only as it is in Egypt, may juftly be queftioned.

* P. 80, 81.

That

That tranflation is, "A wife fon is faved "from the heat; but a fon that obferves not "rules in harvest is ftruck with a corrupting (or deftroying) wind.”

This fuppofes that the time of harvest was a time of great heat; that this heat, if not guarded against by obferving the rules of prudence, might be deadly; that the heat was occafioned by a destructive wind, which produced at least fimilar effects to those of the Sumyel, which is fo fatal in the Eastern deferts, for it was of the corrupting kind.

This agrees very well with the weather in Egypt, for Maillet in one place tells us, the harveft there is in the latter end of April, or the first days of May'; and in another letter he defcribes the two months of April and May as extremely hot, which induces the people of Egypt in those months to eat no meat, but to live on fish, which averfion to flesh-meats is owing to the winds from the fouth, he makes no doubt, which winds never fail to blow when the Nile begins to rife, which he tells us, begins ordinarily to rife the last days of the month of April, and the beginning of May, confequently in the time of harvest in that country.

That the heat in harveft is fometimes deadly in Judæa, we are informed in the Scriptures*; an apocryphal writer fuppofes the fame thing':

Let. 9, P. 7. 2 Let. 11, p. 109, 110.

p. 56.

4

2 Kings 4. 18-20.

3 Let. 2,

' Judith 8. 3.

but

but whether this heat in harvest is brought by a foutherly wind, and whether it happens as generally as in Ægypt, is a matter not yet, that I know of, afcertained. Nor are we informed, as to either countries, how far the fame fymptoms appear, in those that perish through the heat there, that are found in those that are killed by the Sumyel, the hot peftilential wind in the deferts. We are alfo left to guess at the precautions used by those that gathered in the harvest in inhabited countries; I fay inhabited countries, for we have fome account of the methods made ufe of in the deferts, to guard against being ftruck by thofe deadly winds, and to recover those that are injured by them, but not so as to be irrecoverably lost 1.

OBSERVATION CLXXXIV.

Commentators have fuppofed, that the fire of Jehovah that burned among the Ifraelites in the Wilderness, of which we have an account, in Numb. xi. 1, meant their being destroyed by lightning; or a miraculous breaking forth of fire from the cloud, which marked out the prefence of God among them': but perhaps it may be as natural to explain it, of the deadly fiery wind which fometimes appears in those Eastern deserts.

It is faid to appear in the deserts which border on the Tigris'; in the great defert between Buffora and Aleppo"; and on the borders of the Perfian gulf': but Maillet mentions it's being felt alfo in the desert between Egypt and Mecca, in part of which Ifrael wandered forty years.

For fpeaking of the caravan of pilgrims that goes annually from Ægypt to Mecca*, he fays, "During the whole fummer, a very "fresh northerly wind reigns in this climate, "which very much tempers the heat there. "To take the advantage of it, they raise up "the fide of the tent which is expofed to "this wind much higher than the oppofite "fide, fo that being engulphed, and paffing

through the tent with quicknefs, it not "only refreshes the people that repose them"themselves there, but alfo certain veffels "which are fufpended in the tents, and filled "with water, which in an inftant, by being "treated in this manner, contract an agree"able freshness. But if the north wind hap

pens to fail, and that from the fouth comes "in it's place, which however is rather un"common, then the whole caravan is fo

fickly and exhaufted, that 3 or 400 per"fons are wont, in common, to lofe their lives. Even greater numbers, as far as 1500, of whom the greatest part are

An. Reg. 1766, part 2, p. 121. Defcript. de l'Arabie, p. 7, 8.

P. 9.

4. Let. 14, p. 232.

2 Niebuhr, 3 Chardin, tome 2,

"ftifled

46

"ftifled on the fpot, by the fire and duft of " which this fatal wind feems to be compofed'.

Sir John Chardin defcribes this wind as making a great biffing noife, fays that it appears red and fiery, and kills thofe it "ftrikes by a kind of ftifling them, especially "when it happen in the day-time."

If a wind of this description killed any number of the Ifraelites, would it be any wonder that it fhould have been called the fire of the Lord? and the place, from fuch an event, have been named Taberah, or a burning? And would not the account that this fort of fire was quenched, or, as it is tranf lated in the margin, funk, better agree with fuch a wind than with lightning?

I have, in a preceding volume, taken notice of the heat the fouth wind occafions in Judæa, but the Sumyel doth not appear to have been felt there, any more than at Aleppo, unless we suppose the deftruction of Sennacherib's army was by such a wind, directed by an angel,

Who, glad the Almighty's orders to perform,
Rode in the whirlwind. -

But this paffage in Numbers, relating to Ifrael in the Wilderness, may be thought more plainly to point out this deadly wind.

Out of perhaps 40 or 50,000 people that compofe the caravan, p. 228. 2 Rouge & enflammé.

3 Tome 2, p. 9.

OBSER