fifty fold. An hundred fold is promised to Jacob,* and the Greek and Latin writers speak of crops still more productive. The region about Babylon, especially, is spoken of by Herodotus, as far the best for grain. For it is so fertile as to produce sometimes two hundred fold, and in the very best parts it has yielded even three hundred fold.

DJ is generally considered as an adjective belonging to y, and is translated appointed barley, which ought to be translated the best. Then it is derived from Do, which, among the Chaldees and Rabbins, signifies. he hath marked; whence D'D a mark, in the place of which the Bible employs . Which explication I appears plainly to arise,

think entirely false; for from the Greek word nusov and to have been received by the Rabbins and inserted in their language, whence it is a new word. For Alexander making an expedition into the East, and reducing it under his dominion, many Greek words were adopted by the Orientals, of which number this is one. But these are by no means suitable words by which to explain the Scriptures. Other interpreters translate it rich barley, deriving the word from 1, which in the Arabic signifies to be rich; but that this is contrary to the analogy of all those languages, every scholar who is moderately acquainted with them will see for in the Hebrew, according to the rule already given, it ought to be Shin moreover from this application a gross grammatical error arises, for is of this feminine gender, but

DD of the masculine, which none of these interpreters have observed. But that the word is a substantive, and that some plant is intended by it I have but little doubt, although no plant of this name can be found in Celsius. The Seventy, the Vulgate, Acquila and Theodotion translate it by the word millet. But then I think it should be read D, and this I take to be the true readings

* Gen. xxvi. 13. Conf. Lundii Jüdische Heiligthümer iv. 35.

from the root 0, which signifies to be rough: so it is explained by Castell in his Léxicon, and it has the same signification in the Armenian language. From the millet, according to Columella and Pliny, a very sweet bread is made, which, whilst warm, is very pleasant." The Indian millet introduced into Italy in the time of Nero, was of a black colour, the grain was large, and the stock resembling that of a reed. It grows seven feet high, and has a very large stock; its productiveness surpasses that of all other kinds of corn, a single grain producing four or five pints. At the present time it is cultivated every where amongst us in the gardens as a curiosity; its grain is black and of the size of a pea; its straw resembles a reed; it grows five feet high and is called the Saracen corn. There are four kinds of the Indian millet; one kind produces yellow grains, another purple, and some is of a whitish colour. There is also a diversity in the ears; some have white, some purple and some yellow flowers, according as the grains are coloured. With respect to their shape there is no difference. The Ethiopeans have no other corn but millet and barley. The Campanians make great use of millet. The Salmatians live chiefly on food of which millet is an ingredient, together with raw flesh, and mare's milk or the blood taken from the veins of the leg. The use of the millet for food is very common amongst the Germans, and many of the poor live on it almost entirely, according to Rivius.† in this place, the Vulgate translates Vetch, which Luther follows, though improperly. But others, the Seventy, the Chaldee and the Syriac versions rightly render it-Gr. 2sa; Lat. Spelta; Germ. Speltz s. Dinkel. It is a kind of grain, very like to wheat, and superior to it in taste. It does not grow every

Conf. Galenum de aliment. facultat., lib. i. cap. 15. p. 322.

+ Rivii notae in Dioscoridem lib. cap. 89. On the Indian millet of great size vide Philostratum de vita Apollonii lib. iii. cap. 2. page 111.

where, and is found in our country, but it is peculiar to Egypt, Palestine, Cilicia, Asia and Greece. Herodotus* says, many live on corn and barley, but in Egypt it is not esteemed respectable to live on them, they use a kind of food made of what they call Zea. Zea is of two kinds, according to Dioscorides,† one simple, the other bears two grains in a double shell, and on that account is called dicocci. It has more nourishment than barley in making bread it is not so light as wheat. The siligo, (a kind of corn) and oats are not found in Palestine, although many are of a contrary opinion. As to the siligo, I think Palestine is by no means its natural soil: for I do not discover that it was in the eastern countries, and all travellers visiting that land are silent about it. In the Talmud, indeed, I have found some places which make mention of it, by which many translators have been led into an error, being evidently ignorant of the natural productions of Palestine, and thinking that all kinds of corn which our land produces, grow there also. The places of Sacred Scripture which the translators render siligo, are to be differently explained in my opinion, and the mention of it in the Talmud, results from the trifles and fables of the Rabbins. Neither can you find the oats in the East: in our country it is the common food of horses, but with them barley is used in its place. Consequently their beasts of burden are badly kept; for being without oats, and also without hay, at least at this day, they feed them on cut straw, mixed with a few grains of barley. When the year is particularly fruitful, they increase the quantity of barley, and also add vetches and beans to the cut straw.‡

Histor. lib. ii. cap. 36.

+ De medicinali materia, lib. ii. cap. 81. Conf. Celsii Hierobot. T. II. p. 48. Uraini Herbar. Bibl. lib. ii. cap. 3.

You can see more in Shaw's Travels and Observations in several parts of the Levant, page 123; and Niebuhr's Beschreib. von Arabien, p. 151. Thevenot, T. II. lib. i. c. 5. Bocharti Hierozoicon. p. 1. lib. ii. c. 9. Maillet's deseription d'Egypte, Lettre ix. p. 8. 13.

I have already said that hay, at least at the present day, is unknown in Palestine and also in the other Oriental countries, and I assert it from this ground, that all who have visited those regions at the present day, without an exception, have made no mention of hay. However I think hay was in use there in the early times, and this appears from reading Isa. xxxiii. 11, where I translate on dry grass, that is hay. The root is found in the Arabic where it signifies to be dry. Moreover in the same language wwn is opposed to growing. That

which signifies, young grass in Isa. v. 24, signifies dry grass, appears evident, for green and fresh grass cannot take fire. I do not understand, that hay, which is generally kept by us in barns, and which is less exposed to fire, but rather the hay lying in the field, as is the custom in the Fast, which can easily take fire, both on account of the more ardent heat of the sun, and the imprudence of the inhabitants. Of which thing, there are not wanting examples. Therefore in this place, it is entirely an Oriental figure, and although none of the travellers make mention of hay, this by no means proves, as I think, that the ancient Hebrews were without the use of it. For the old Orientals far surpassed the modern in economy, and living more compactly than at this day, they were compelled to exert themselves more to find provision for their cattle.

§ X. Not Egypt but Palestine, abounds in vines.

If we compare the testimonies of ancient and modern authors, respecting the cultivation of the vine in Egypt, we will find that they differ: the former represent Egypt as abounding in vineyards, and the latter as having scarcely any. The representations of the Bible are between both. These contradictions, and the testimony of one part appear to be false but they are not; each of them is most true,

if we only distinguish between the different ages of Egypt. In their early history, there appears to have been only a moderate cultivation of the vine in Egypt: but afterwards, under the successors of Alexander, very great attention was paid to it, which the Greek and Roman authors describe; finally under the Mohammedans, the vineyards were neglected and destroyed. However, vineyards are yet found in a very few places, and especially about Alexandria, and the region of Fium, where the canal of Joseph is, which makes the earth fertile. This canal is sometimes called the river of Fium, but generally the canal of Joseph so it is called by Paul Lucas* and Sicardus.t For every great and stupendous work in Egypt is attributed to Joseph, who is said to have made this canal, and by it, to have rendered the region of Fium fertile ;§ but this is incredible. The Mareotic wine is praised by Strabo. || The lake Mareotis situated in Egypt, is about one hundred stadia broad, and three hundred long it contains eight islands, and the places in the vicinity are very populous, and they make great quantities of wine. Horace¶ extols the Mareotic wine, as second only to that of Cæcubum,

Vid. Ps.

*In a voyage made 1714, through Turkey, &c. T. II. p. 205. T. III. p. 53. Examine the annexed table, where this canal is represented. lxxviii. 47. Gen. xl. 9. 10. Num. xx. 5.

+ Memoires des Missions, Tom. II. page 261. The canal of Joseph made from Saon to Fium, cut through a mountain, communicates immediately with the Nile, by a bridge or cataract, and flows through the middle of Fium. Conf. Abulfeda in descriptione Egypti p. 10, where he says, the river of Fium commences (from the Nile,) at Daruth Darban, and flows northwardly towards Bahanesa, thence to a place called Sohon; afterwards it turns to the west, and enters Fium. The country of Fium has always been the most fertile part of Egypt. Strabo lib. xvii. Plinii Hist. Nat. lib. xviii. c. 15. Maillet's Description of Egypt, page 293, &c. Wansleben's voyage in Egypt, p. 245—255. Maillet, p. 211, 212.

Golii Not. in Alfragan, p. 175. Kircheri Oedipus Egypt. T. I. p. 8.
Geog. lib. xvii. p. 799, Edit. Paris.

¶ Lib. i. Od. 37. There is a particular species of the wine of Mareotis, whence Virgil, Georg. lib. i, says, Sunt Thasiae vites, sunt et Mareotides alba.