out much lightning in the north-west quarter of the heavens, but unattended with thunder; and when it appears in the west or south-west, it is a sure sign of rain, either preceded or followed by thunder. This we may also expect in Judea before the equinox, as the atmosphere is then charged with electricity.

We have, unfortunately, few meteorological ob servations, or prognostications as to the weather of Judea, from the paucity of ancient records, and the danger of present travelling; but the following hints should not be overlooked. A red sky in the evening betokened fair weather; and when the sky was red and lowering in the morning, they expected foul weather that day." When a cloud arose from the west or Mediterranean, they expected a shower; and when the south wind blew, they said, There will be heat. Such are the observations which we have been able to collect on the weather of Judea, and the difference of temperature at different seasons of the year; yet they are far from being generally applicable, since heat is regulated not merely by latitude, but by its proximity to, or remoteness from, the sea; by the nature of the soil, and the degree of elevation. Thus, the air is much colder in the mountainous parts than on the coast; and Shaphet, in Galilee, from its height of situation, is so fresh and cool, that the heats of summer are scarcely felt; while about Jericho, in the neighbourhood of Jordan, it is extremely troublesome and even fatal.

d

a Aleppo, vol. ii. p. 385. b Matth. xvi. 2, 3. c Luke xii. 54, 55. A Reland, Palest. p. 387. e Egmont and Heyman, vol. ii. p. 47.

SECT. V.

Agriculture of Judea,

Time of ploughing; form of their plough; the ox goad; their manner of sowing; diseases of grain; blasting or blight; mildew ; hoarfrost; thunder showers; caterpillar; locusts; harvest in Judea. The barley harvest; wheat harvest; manner of reaping by pulling up; cutting with a sickle; harvest a season of joy; sheaves, but no shocks in Judea; threshing the grain by a staff; flail; feet of cattle; the drag; the wain with iron wheels or teeth: winnowing by the shovel and fan; threshing floors in airy situations; straw used as fodder; grain preserved in earthen jars, or heaps in the fields, or subterraneous repositories: these last sometimes sealed. Grinding corn by the handmill; the work of women, at day-break; corn ground in a mill wrought by asses.

We have no allusions in Scripture as to the connexion between astronomy and agriculture; but it is well known that the Greeks and Romans were guided in their agricultural operations, by the rising and setting of certain stars; and it is not unlikely that the Jews were so likewise, although they are not particularly mentioned. Let us, then, before we collect and compare the modern practice in the East with that of Scripture, begin with the hints which Virgil has given us in his Georgics, and more especially which Hesiod has left, in his excellent treatise entitled, Egya naι 'Huegas, and of which the Georgics are an evident imitation. In Italy, Virgil directs his countrymen to give a light furrow to poor land, at the rising of Arcturus, or about the middle of September; lest the scanty moisture should forsake the sandy soil,

a

if they ploughed it sooner. Between the time that the sun entered Libra, which was at the autumnal equinox, and the winter solstice, or the 22d of December, was the season for sowing barley, flax, and the poppy. When the dog-star had set, and Tau❤ rus had opened the year, they sowed beans, trefoil, and millet; and wheat and other strong bearded grain, when the Pleiades, and the Gnossian star of Ariadne's crown, were set in the morning. Some, indeed, began before the setting of Maia, one of the Pleiades, but they were mocked with empty ears and vetches, kidney-beans, and Egyptian lentils, were planted when Boötes set. Such are the hints which are given us by the Roman agriculturist, who died nineteen years before Christ. Let us next attend to the observations of Hesiod, who is thought to have been contemporary with Homer, and of course to have flourished 907 years before Christ; carrying us back to the times of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and Ahab king of Israel.

He advises the Greeks to begin the harvest at the rising of the Pleiades, and ploughing when they set; which constellation, after lying concealed 40 days and 40 nights, appears again when the sickle is sharpened. They cut their wood in autumn, when the dog-star appeared. The voice of the crane, on her annual return, was the signal for ploughing, and showed the time of rainy winter.' The appearance of the cuckoo was rather late for sowing; but, if it rained moderately for three days, they had as good a crop as those who sowed ear

a Georg. i. 66—70; iii. 304. d Hesiod, ii. 1—5.

e

Georg. i. 208–212. ©Georg. i. 215–230.
Hesiod, ii. 35. f Hesiod, ii. 66.

lier." When the winter had finished, sixty days after the equinox, Arcturus, leaving the ocean, first appeared in the evening, and was the signal for cutting their vines. And when the tortoise lifted its claws from the earth, as if flying the Pleiades, the vines were no more to be dug, but the hooks sharpened for the harvest. When the this tle was in flower, and the grasshopper chirped under the trees, the vines were best, for then Sirius ruled. When the force of Orion was first felt, they trod out their grain in a place exposed to the wind, and then laid it up in vessels. When Orion and Sirius came to the middle of the heavens, and Aurora, with her rosy fingers, beheld Arcturus, they plucked their grapes, laid them on the ground for ten days and nights, and then drew off the juice into vessels.' After the Pleiades, Hyades, and strength of Orion were set, then was the season for ploughing. It appears from Homer," however, and Madame Dacier's note upon it, that the Grecians did not plough in the manner now in use; for they first broke up the ground with oxen, and then ploughed it more lightly with mules. And, when they employed two ploughs in a field, they measured the space they could plough in a day, and set their ploughs at the two extremities of that space, when they proceeded to plough towards each other. This intermediate space was constantly fixed, but less in proportion for two ploughs of oxen, than for two of mules: because oxen were slower, and employed more in a field that had not been yet turned

a Hesiod, ii. 104. b Hesiod, ii. 184. d Hesiod, ii. 200. e Hesiod, ii. 215. * Hesiod, ii. 232. h Il. x. 351.

c Hesiod, ii. 189.

Hesiod, ii. 227.

up; whereas mules were naturally swifter, and made greater speed on ground that had already got the first furrow. Pope's note on the above is, that this manner of measuring a space of ground, seems to have been customary in those times, from that passage in 1 Sam. xiv. 14, where "Jonathan and his armour-bearer slew twenty men, within as it were half an acre of land, which a yoke of oxen might plough." And I may add, that the same thing is alluded to in the Odyssey viii. 124, where Homer is describing the space of ground at the games given by Alcinous, king of Phæacia, in honour of Ulysses, in which Clytonius outstripped his rivals at the race "as far as the hinds allow between the mule and ox from plough to plough." These are the notices which Hesiod and Virgil give us of ancient agriculture; but they are not such good interpreters of Scripture as the present usages of the East: we shall therefore quit them, to collect what can be got by comparing the accounts of eastern travellers, beginning,

1st, With the times of ploughing and sowingIt was observed, when treating of the weather of the Holy Land, that, when the former rains begin to fall, there are commonly two or three days of heavy rain, after which the weather clears up for twenty or thirty days; and that then the rains return, and continue at times during the winter. The natives never think of ploughing their fields

a Those who wish to enter deeply into the subject, may consult the Husbandry of the Ancients, in two volumes, by the Rev. Adam Dickson, late minister of Whittingham; a work fraught with much good sense and sound criticism: but what must enhance its value to every classical scholar is, that the originals of all the passages cited by him are to be found in the notes.