still are used as beasts of burden in the East, and they do it well in their own quiet and deliberative way. In Western Asia they are often rode by women, children, and old

people of the poorer classes, and in Eastern Asia they are more extensively used for that purpose. The employment of them in agriculture is too well known to require notice.

PALMER-WORM, a kind of locust, probably the caterpillar, furnished with sharp teeth. It generally begins its ravages before the real locust, as is indicated by the Prophet Joel (i. 4).

PALM-TREE, or DATE-TREE, tamar, so called from its straight and upright growth, for which it is more remarkable than any other tree, often rising to the height of one hundred feet, is one of the noblest trees that adorn the solitary waste, and the most useful which has been converted to the purposes of nutriment and comfort. The presence of the palm in the Desert is also an invariable sign of water, and its appearance excites no ordinary emotions of joy. In the forest the palm-tree is at once recognised amid the confusion of varied tints and forms of the surrounding vegetable creation. Hence the appropriateness of the analogy employed by the Psalmist " The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree."

The palm is one of the most beautiful trees in the vegetable world. Its trunk is not solid like those of other trees, but its centre is filled with pith, round which is a tough bark full of strong fibres when young, and this hardens as the tree grows old. The leaves are closely joined to this bark. They rise erect in the centre, and after they advance above the vagina which surrounds them they expand wide on every side of the stem, while the older leaves decay as the stalk advances in height. When the tree has grown to a size for bearing fruit, the leaves are from six to eight feet long, are broad when spread out, and are often used for various mechanical purposes. "From the date-tree," says Dr Wittman, the inhabitants of Cairo derive many advantages, by converting almost every part of it to some useful purpose, in the fabrication of ropes, fences, brooms, fans, hats, mats for the table, &c. The stems of the leaves are wrought into bedsteads, well adapted to the climate, and sold at a very moderate price."

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Dr Shaw informs us that palm-trees ate propagated chiefly from the roots of full grown trees, which, if well transplanted and attended, will produce fruit in the sixth and seventh year, while those raised from kernels will not bear till the sixteenth year. These trees are said to be male and female, and the fruit of the latter is said to be dry and insipid without a communication with the former. In March or April, when the sheaths which respectively enclose the young clusters of the male flowers and the female fruit begin to open—at which time the latter are formed and the male fruit is mealy a few sprigs of the male cluster are inserted into the sheath of the female, or the meal cluster of the male tree is sprinkled over several clusters of the female. This latter practice is common in Egypt; the former is said to prevail in Barbary. The palm-tree arrives at its greatest vigour about thirty years after transplantation, and continues so seventy years afterwards, bearing annually fifteen or twenty clusters of dates, each weighing from fifteen to twenty pounds. After this period it begins to decline, and usually falls about the end of the second century. Its root produces numerous suckers, which, spreading upward, often form one continued forest.

The fruit of the palm-tree is the date which grows below the leaves in clusters. A considerable proportion of the Egyptians, Arabs, and Persians, subsist almost entirely on this fruit, and their camels eat the date stone. The Arabs often eat it even in an unripe state, when it must be of difficult digestion. When perfectly ripe, the common sort is soft and pulpy, and very sweet; but those which are intended to be dried are not allowed to attain this soft condition; and when first gathered it is hard, and of a reddish colour, which it loses when kept for a little time, when it ripens, and becomes fit for use. Great quantities are also dried; they then become hard, of a shrivelled appearance, are of service as a standing article

of food, and are valuable to persons on a journey. In the date or palm-tree countries so much of human subsistence depends upon this fruit, that the season for gathering it is watched with the greatest anxiety, and celebrated with joy by the inhabitants. The countless numbers of date-trees," says Mr Jowett, "which form even forests about some of the villages (in Egypt), furnish a great source of subsistence to the people. To cut these down, as it is said the French were proceeding to do, and would have done, but that the people surrendered at the prospect of this utter ruin, would be to cut off the support of the present and the hopes of a future generation. Nothing could be more terrible than the denunciation against Egypt-They shall march with an army, and come against her with axes, as hewers of wood; they shall cut down her forests, saith the Lord, though it cannot be searched; because they are more than the grasshoppers, and are innumerable."

PARTRIDGE, kore, a well known bird, a species of which, called the Barbary partridge, found in the north of Africa and the corresponding latitudes of Asia, is probably the particular bird intended by the sacred writers in the only two instances in which it is mentioned, 1 Sam. xxvi. 20; Jer. xvii. 11. Dr Wittman shot a female partridge out of a covey of them, which he says was smaller than an English one. "The plumage was very delicate; the head and neck, which were of a dark tawn colour, were small, like those of a dove; the wings were long, with alternate black and white feathers, and the body of a fawn colour, with white and black rings on the breast." The black-breasted partridge abounds in Persia. "It has," says Mr Morier, "a warty skin round the eye, the feet bare, the inside of the toes rough, and a small spur on the foot of both the male and female. It has a strong convex bill, with the nostrils under the feathers. The feet are black, and the fore part of the leg, which is very strong, is covered with very short ferruginous feathers. The male is brown, spotted with black; the female of a dirty yellow and brown intermixed. Round the fore part of the trunk or the breast is a horse-shoe of black feathers more strongly marked in the female than the male. All the lower part of the trunk is black. They fly in flocks, have a soft note when on the wing, inhabit the plains, and do not run till they are once settled. They are

always in pairs in the spring. The flesh is of two colours, black near the bone, and white on the exterior, and is good eating." Mr Morier also notices a species of redlegged partridge, with which the hills are covered in some districts of Persia.

PEACOCK, a bird mentioned as having been brought to Solomon by the HebrewPhoenician fleet, but it is a matter of doubt whether the Hebrew word (thukijim, rendered peacocks) actually indicates the peacock, commonly so called. Some contend for parrots, others for pheasants, or sun birds, and others argue for a species of monkey. The general opinion, however, is in favour of the peacock, but whether the fleet brought it from the country called Ophir, or from any other place at which they might touch on their return, is uncertain. The peacock is a tame bird, remarkable for the beauty of its plumage. Its tail is very long, diversified with several colours, and adorned with marks at equal distances resembling eyes. It has a little tuft or crown of gold upon its head, and its wings are mixed with azure and gold colour. The cry of the peacock is very harsh and disagreeable, and this, in connection with its external appearance, has originated the saying that it has the head of a serpent, the train of an angel, and the cry of a devil.

PEARLS are valuable gems found in testaceous fish, of which the finest are procured in the Persian Gulf, and on the coast of Bahrein bordering en Arabia. They are found in many other places, and even in the common oyster. The Oriental ladies wear head-dresses consisting of two or three rows of pearls, which begin at the forehead, and descend down the cheeks and under the chin, so that their faces seem to be set in pearls. It is a vulgar and exploded error that pearls are formed of the dew, and that they are soft in the sea.

PELICAN, a bird so rendered from the Hebrew word kaath, which is declared unclean in the Levitical Law. It is a bird much larger than the swan, which it resembles in shape and colour. It has strong wings, furnished with thick plumage of an ash colour, like its feathers over the whole body. Its eyes are small in comparison to the size of the head, its countenance is sad and melancholy, and it is dull and reluctant in all its motions. It is slow of flight, to which it is only impelled by necessity. When pelicans raise themselves above the

surface of the sea to the height of thirty or forty feet, they turn their head with their eye downward, and continue to fly in that attitude. As soon as they perceive a fish they dart upon it with the swiftness of an arrow, seize it, and deposit it in their pouch. They then rise again, though not without considerable difficulty, and in this manner they continue fishing until they have procured a supply of food. The plumage of the pelican, when full grown, is nearly all white, with an expanse of which that sometimes reaches to twelve feet. The bird is spread over many

parts of Asia, Africa, and Europe.

water.

The most remarkable characteristic of the pelican, and which distinguishes it from all other birds, is its enormous bill containing an extraordinary pouch, which is a curious dilatation of the throat for depositing its food till the hour of eating arrives. From the point of the bill to the opening of the mouth there is a length of about fifteen inches, and underneath is a bag reaching the entire length of the bill to the neck, and said to be capable of holding fifteen quarts of When feeding its young, the pelican squeezes the food deposited in its bag into their mouths by strongly compressing it upon its breast with its bill-an action, it has been observed, which might well originate the tradition, that the pelican, in feeding her young, pierced her own breast and nourished them with her blood. After a whole day's fishing the pelican will often take a flight of thirty or forty miles into the country to feast in the lonely wilderness upon the contents of its well-filled pouches, illustrating the observation of the Psalmist, "I am like a pelican of the wilderness."

PINE, so translated from the Hebrew word tidhar, a well known forest tree, of which there are several valuable species. Its rendering in the Prophecy of Isaiah where it occurs (xli. 19; lx. 13) is very uncertain, and the different versions severally render plane, beech, pine, cypress, larch, and elm. If, however, we are content with the authorized statement, we may presume that the silver-pine is intended, the presence of which is always considered by the Tartars a certain

QUAILS, shelaw, birds smaller than pigeons, and remarkable for their migratory

Q

sign of good springs of water, and which in Europe is a native of some parts of the Lower Alps, of the Jura, the Pyrenees, and of Germany. Its leaves are solitary and flat, like those of the common fir. It is a noble tree," says Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, "in its native country, and the masts and spars of the French navy are in a great measure constructed of it. It has grown to be a very fine tree in Great Britain, and, although when inserted in a soil which is unfit for it the tree becomes poor both in appearance and timber, yet in favourable situations it is both beautiful and valuable. As to the picturesque effect of this tree, we have seen many of them throw out branches from near the very root, which turned and swept away from them in so bold a manner, as to give them in a very great degree that character which is most capable of engaging the interest of the artist."

POMEGRANATE, rimmon, a tree bear. ing a leaf which resembles a myrtle. It was common in Palestine, and as it produced a beautiful and delicious fruit it is often metaphorically mentioned in the Scriptures. The fruit is larger than the golden pippin, and filled with seeds imbedded in a red pulp, which is the part eaten. The leaves, fruits, and flowers of this tree are remarkable for their beauty. The pomegranate juice was made into a kind of sherbet, which was greatly esteemed, and it is still greatly employed in the East to impart a snb-acid flavour to various beverages, much in the same way as we use lemon juice.

POPLAR, a tree mentioned in the Book of Genesis (xxv. 37) which grows in Egypt and Syria, and occurs frequently in Persia. Probably the white poplar is indicated by the sacred writer, as the Hebrew word (libnek) denotes whiteness. It is a stately tree, of which there are several varieties tall and spreading, having its trunk covered with smooth white bark. The leaves are indented at the edges, dark green in the upper surface, but white and woolly underneath. It is also a native of this country.

PULSE, a name for grains or seeds which grow in pods, such as beans, peas, &c.

habits, moving from place to place in prodigious flocks, and often seen crossing the

Mediterranean in their passage to and from Africa. On two several occasions they constituted the food of the Israelites in the Wilderness, when myriads of them were brought together by the Divine command at an appointed time. Hasselquist states that quails are plentiful near the shores of the Dead Sea, near the Jordan, and in the deserts of Arabia; and Dr Wittman says that they are found in great numbers in the neighbour hood of Gaza, and along the coast of the Mediterranean.

These birds also abound

in several of the provinces of modern Persia. "The Persians," says Mr Morier, "hunt

this bird in a very curious and indeed successful manner. They stick two poles in their girdle, upon which they place either their outer coat or a pair of trousers, and these at a distance are intended to look like the horns of an animal. They then with a hand net prowl about the fields, and the quail, seeing a form more like a beast than a man, permits it to approach so near as to allow the hunter to throw his net over it. The rapidity with which the Persians caught quails in this manner was astonishing, and we had daily brought to us cages full of them, which we bought for a trifle."

RAM. See SHEEP.

RAVEN, oreb, a well known bird which, including the crow, rook, and all other birds of the genus, is declared unclean in the Levitical Law. Its predominating colour is black, and the etymology of its Hebrew term means the bird of night, an appellation which it received from the tincture of its plumage, which is dark, like night's "sable livery." As the whole genus of this class of birds is declared unclean by the Mosaic Law, the meaning of the expression, every raven after his kind, Lev. xi. 15, is easily explained. Unlike the rooks, crows, and others of its genus, who build in lofty trees, rising from the level ground of the forest, the raven builds either in rocks almost, if not altogether, inaccessible, or in withered, old, and picturesque trees, which shoot out their limbs from the face of some steep precipice; but he has no objection to haunt the forest for prey. He is strong on the wing, and can scent carrion at a great distance.

Ravens are said to have been the agents for supplying the wants of the Prophet Elijah, when by the Divine command he returned to the wooded neighbourhood of the brook called Cherith. They "brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening," namely, by the controlling power of God they dropt, or otherwise deposited near the refuge of the solitary Prophet, a portion of the food they were conveying to their nests for their own offspring. All the ancient versions except the Arabic agree in acknowledging ravens to be the agents employed, but some commentators have argued that the word (orebim) should be

translated as a proper name, and that it refers either to the Arabs or to the inhabitants of some town called Horbo or Orbo. We read of a rock called Oreb, from the Midianitish king of that name who was slain there, but we read of no town called Horbo or Orbo, and we prefer the literal interpretation that the birds are actually indicated. Although the raven was declared unclean by the Law, it does not follow that contact with or the touch of it conveyed any ceremonial pollution. The ass was declared unclean, but no one was ever held to be polluted because he rode on one, or partook of food which the ass had carried.

ROEBUCK, tzebi, otherwise roe, gazelle, antelope, an elegant and light animal of the deer kind, which the Hebrews were allowed by the Mosaic Law to eat. It is very common in Northern Africa and Western Asia, and is about two feet in height; its hair is of a fawn colour on the back, brownish on the sides, and white under the belly. As Professor Paxton observes-" the lofty mountains of Syria, Amana, Lebanon, and Carmel, swarmed with these animals, which, descending into the plains to graze on the cultivated fields, invited the Israelites to the healthful exercise of the chase, and supplied their tables with a species of food equally abundant and agreeable." The roe-deer are extremely active and nimble, and at times take immense leaps; but they have not sufficient swiftness to enable them to escape the hounds in an open country. They were once very common in Scotland, and are still found in considerable numbers in the parks

and preserves of mansion-houses. They would soon increase were their numbers not kept down from the idea that they destroy young trees, which they certainly do, though not to the extent supposed; but they inflict more injury on growing trees by rubbing their heads when the horns are dropping off against the stems, and in this way they destroy the bark.

ROSE, a well known flower which seems to have been a favourite with the Hebrews, as it has ever been with all nations among whom it was cultivated. In the East, as well as in the West, the rose is the queen of

flowers, and even where it grows wild it is the object of admiration. The Persian poems abound with allusions to and comparisons drawn from it, and its extreme fragrance and beauty in some countries and districts of Western Asia have attracted the attention of many travellers. In Persia, in particular, the rose-trees, and the number and mixture of the flowers on them, far exceed those of this country.

RUE, a well known garden herb of some value in Judea, and of which the Pharisees scrupulously paid tithe, as mentioned by our Saviour, Luke xi. 42.

SAFFRON, a flower which is well known as an ornament in our gardens, as it was in those of Solomon, Cant. iv. 14. It is joined by the Hebrew king with other aromatics, and the scented drug called saffron is procured from it.

SALT, melach, a mineral well known, dug out of mines in a solid substance.

SAPPHIRE, sappir, a precious stone, after the diamond the most valuable of the gems, and exceeding all others in lustre and hardness. The Oriental sapphire is of a sky blue or azure colour, and hence the appropriate comparison of the throne of God to the colour of sapphire by the Prophet Ezekiel. Pliny says that the best sapphires were procured in Media.

SARDIUS, odem, a precious stone, the cornelian of the moderns, which is said to have taken this name from Sardus or Sardinia, where it was found in abundance. The finest specimens come from the East Indies. SARDONYX is thought to be a sardius united to an onyx.

It

SCORPION, akreb, the largest and most malignant of the insect or reptile tribes. resembles a lobster in its general appearance, though it is much more hideous. There are few creatures more formidable or irascible than scorpions, but happily they are as destructive to their own species as to other animals. Dr Goldsmith informs us that Maupertius put about a hundred of them together in the same glass, and they scarcely came into contact when they began the work of mutual destruction, so that in a few days there remained only fourteen, who had killed and

devoured the rest. Their maliguity is still more apparent towards their own offspring. The same individual enclosed a female scorpion big with young in a glass vessel, and she was seen to devour them as fast as they were brought forth, only one of the number escaping destruction by taking refuge on the back of its parent, and it soon after revenged the others by putting the old one to death. The scorpion in Europe seldom exceeds four inches in length, but in the tropi cal climes they are often twelve inches and upwards. It is of a blackish colour, waddling as it moves, and fixes so violently with its mouth and by its feet on any living object that it is removed with considerable difficulty. Its head appears to be joined and continued to the breast; it has eight legs proceeding from the breast, each divided into six parts and covered with hair, at the end of which are six talons or claws. The body is divided into seven rings, from the last of which proceeds the tail, made after the manner of a string of beads tied end to end, the last of which is armed with a sting filled with a dangerous poison. Dr Shaw, however, tells us that the sting of scorpions is not always fatal, the malignity of their venom being in proportion to their size and completion. Mr Lane says that there are dervishes in Egypt who handle living serpents and scorpions with impunity, and partly eat them, depriving the former of their venomous fangs, and the latter of their poison.

SERPENT, a general name for a great variety of dangerous and cunning reptiles, some of which are mentioned in the sacred