sycamine, or sycomore, one of the common timber trees, not only of Egypt, but also of the Holy Land *. The mummy chests, the sacred boxes, the ragadura, the models of ships, and a variety of other curiosities found in the catacombs, are all of them, as I have before observed, made out of this wood. And further, as the grain and texture of it is remarkably coarse and spongy, it could not therefore stand in the least competition (Isa. ix. 10. †) with the cedar, for beauty and ornament. The sycomore, from budding very late in the spring, is called arborum sapientissima; and from having a larger and more extensive root than most other trees, it is alluded to as the most difficult to be plucked up, Luke xvii. 6. The mulberry trees that are said, Psal. Ixxviii. 48. to have been destroyed by the frost, should be rather the sycomore tree, nope, as the word is.

Above the sycomores, within the precincts probably of Ethiopia, there is another large shady tree (F), distinguished by two yellowish clusters, as they seem to be, of flowers; and by the KHIПEN, which is running upon one of the branches. This then may be the cassia fistula, whose flowers

Συκόμορον, ένιοι δε και τετό Συκάμινον λεγωσι, καλείται δε και ὁ απ' αυτής καρπος συκομορον, δια το άτονον της γλυσεως. Diosc. l. i. c. 182, or sycamine, pw, sicamum. Psal. lxxviii. 47. 1 Kings x. 27. 1 Chron. xxvii. 28. Amos vii. 14. Luke xvii. 6. xix. 4.

The sycomores are cut down, but we will change them into

cedars.

‡ Cassia fistula ab Arabibus inventa, et a recentioribus Græcis, ut Actuario xaora μλa nominatur. Fabam Indicam veterum, ut Aristobuli, Valerius Cordus credidit. Siliquam Ægyptiam

Theophrasti

flowers are of this colour, grow in this fashion, and yield a most delightful fragrancy.

The COINTIA display themselves upon another large tree, of a less shady quality, and with boughs more open and diffused. These circumstances agree very well with the azedarach, (not much different from ni, ezrach, or the bay tree, as we render it, Psal. xxxvii. 35.) another noted tree of these countries; whose commoner name is ailah or eleah, the same with the Hebrew, the oak, the elm, the lime, &c. as it is differently rendered, Josh. xxiv. 21. Isa. vi. 13. Ezek. vi. 13. Collectan. II. Phytogr. No. 31.

The banks of the Nile are every where adorned with several tufts and ranges of reeds, flags, and bulrushes. Among the reeds, the emblem of Egypt, (2 Kings xviii. 21. Ezek. xxix. 6.) we are to look for the calamus scriptorius, the Пp, (Isa. xliii. 24. Jer. vi. 20.) or calamus aromaticus, or sweet calamus, Exod. xxx. 23. and the arundo saccharifera. As most of these plants appear in spike or flower, they might thereby denote the latter end of the summer, the beginning of the autumnal season, or perhaps the particular time when Alexander made the conquest of Egypt. The clusters of dates that hang down from one of the palm trees, the bunches likewise of grapes that adorn the lower bower (g), may equally typi

fy

Theophrasti hist. 18. nonnulli censent. C. Bauh. Pin. p. 403. Being originally an Ethiopian plant, it might not have fallen under the cognizance of Theophrastus, as it was not known in Egypt at that time.

fy the same season. Neither should we leave the bower, thus occasionally mentioned, till we have admired the variety of climbers that shelter it from the sun. Such are the gourd (the kikaion or *kikoeon, P'p, as it bids the fairest to be, in the history of the prophet Jonas), the balsamines, the climbing apocynums, &c. all which I have seen flourishing in Egypt, at the time of the year, with great beauty.

As to the flags and bulrushes (G), they are of ten mentioned; particularly Exod. ii. 4. where we learn, that the mother of Moses, when she could no longer hide him, took for him an ark of bulrushes, [or papyrus, as D is frequently rendered), and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein, and laid it in the flags (D, suph, juncus) by the river's brink. The vessels of bulrushes, that are mentioned both in sacred and

profane history †, were no other than larger fa

brics

* Some authors make the kikaion to be the same with the Egyptian kik or kiki, from whence was drawn the oil of kiki, mentioned by Diodorus, 1. i. c. 34. This was the xgory of the Greeks, the elkaroa of the Arabians; the same with the ricinus, or palma Christi, which is a spongy quick-growing tree, well known in these parts, (vid. Ol. Clusii Hierobotanicon, p. 273.) though the oil which is used at present, and perhaps has been from time immemorial, for lamps and such like purposes, is expressed from hemp or rape seed, whereof they have annual crops; whereas the ricinus is infinitely rarer, and the fruit of it consequently could not supply the demands of this country. The Egyptians are said to be the inventors of lamps, before which they used torches of pine-wood. Clem. Alex. Strom. 1.

Isa. xviii. 2. Pliny (1. vi. c. 22.) takes notice of the naves papyraceas, armamentaque Nili; and (1. xiii. c. 11.) he observes, ex ipsa quidem papyro navigia texunt. Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus

brics of this kind; which, from the late introduction of plank, and stronger materials, are now laid aside.

The short, and, it must be confessed, imperfect and conjectural account that is here given of this very instructive piece of antiquity, will, I hope, excite some curious person to treat and consider it with greater erudition, and more copious annotations. The subject very well deserves it, as all Egypt, and no small portion of Ethiopia, are here most beautifully depicted in miniature, and elegantly contracted into one view. And it will add very much to the credit and authority of the representations here given us, that notwithstanding the artist had so much room for indulging his fancy and imagination; yet, unless it be the ONOKENTAÝPA, we are entertained with no other object that appears to be trifling, extravagant, or improbable. Neither will there be much occasion to apologize even for this figure; in as much as, several centuries after this pavement was finished, Ælian himself, (lib. xvii. c. 3.) that great searcher into nature, seems to give way to the common fame, and to believe the existence of such a creature.

Siculus have recorded the same. And, among the

can:

Conseritur bibula Memphitis cymba papyro.

CHAP

poets, Lu

CHAPTER III.

The Natural History of Arabia; particularly of Arabia Petræa, Mount Sinai, &c. and of the Ostrich,

IF

F

If we leave Palæstine and Egypt behind us, and pursue our physical observations into the Land of Edom, we shall be presented with a variety of prospects, quite different from those we have lately met with in the land of Canaan, or in the field of Zoan. For we cannot here be entertained with pastures clothed with flocks, or with vallies standing thick with corn, or with brooks of waters, or fountains or depths, that spring out of the vallies and hills, Deut. viii. 7. Here is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or pomegranates, Num, xx. 5. but the whole is an evil place, a lonesome desolate wilderness, no otherwise diversified than by plains covered with sand, and by mountains. made up of naked rocks and precipices. I hated Esau, (says the prophet, Mal. i. 3.) and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness,

Neither is this country ever, unless sometimes at the equinoxes, refreshed with rain; but the few hardy vegetables which it produces, are

stunted