case, about nine inches long, by an inch and a quarter broad, and half an inch thick, the hollow of which serves to contain the reed pens and penknife. It is furnished at one end with a lid attached by a hinge. To the flat side of this shaft, at the end furnished with the lid, is soldered the ink vessel, which has at the top a lid with a hinge and clasp, fitting very closely. The ink vessel is usually twice as heavy as the shaft. The latter is passed through the girdle, and is prevented from slipping through by the projecting ink vessel. The whole is usually of polished metal, brass, copper,

or silver."

3. Ink. This leads us to notice the ink of the Orientals, ancient and modern. The inkhorn we have described is not at all suited for such a fluid as we use, and, according to Winckelman's testimony, the ink of the ancients differed very little from that which the Orientals still employ, and which is better adapted than our own to the formation of their written characters. It is usually composed of lamp black, or powdered charcoal, prepared with gum and water, and sold in small particles or grains. The writer, when he wants to replenish his inkhorn, puts some of this into it, and adds a little water to it, which makes it of a similar thickness to that of our printers'. This seems to agree with what is said of the ink of the ancients. Thus, Demosthenes reproaches Eschines with labouring in the grinding of ink, as painters do in the grinding of their colours; and it has been said of the substance found in an inkstand at Herculaneum, that

it "looks like a thick oil or paint, with which the manuscripts there have been written in a relievo, visible in the letters when you hold a leaf to the light in a horizontal direction." In the manuscripts written with this ink, the characters appear of an intense glossy black, and it neither changes its hue in the lapse of time, eats into the paper, nor becomes indistinct. But although the writing of the Orientals has an intense black colour, and will remain unchanged for ages, yet it makes no permanent mark on the material, be it what it may on which the words are written; for it may at any time be sponged or washed out with water. And such, it would appear, was the sort of ink used in the days of Moses, for we find a reference to blotting, or washing out ink with water, in the book of Numbers, v. 23. This refutes the supposition of some, that the ink mentioned in this verse was especially prepared for the occasion; and the verse itself confirms the opinion of others, that the ink of the modern Orientals is similar in substance to that of the ancients. Besides this, Oriental writers write in gold, and they use inks of various colours and great brilliancy, which gives a rich and beautiful appearance to the page, when applied diversely.

BEACONS.

THE apostle Paul, exhorting the Philippian converts to a careful proceeding in the way of salvation, and

reminding them of the position in which they stood with an ungodly world, uses this remarkable expression: "Among whom ye shine as lights in the world,” Phil. ii. 15. This metaphor has an evident allusion to the buildings which we call beacons, or, more properly, lighthouses; the most celebrated of which, among the ancients, was that raised in the island of Pharos, by Ptolemy Philadelphus. On this tower a bright flame was always kept burning in the night, so that mariners might see their way, and be in no danger of shipwreck. Some of these lighthouses were constructed by the ancients in the shape of a human figure. Such a one was the Colossus at Rhodes, which held in one hand a flame that enlightened the whole port. It was probably to such as the former that the prophet Jeremiah alludes, in that passage wherein he speaks of "a sign of fire in Beth-haccerem," Jer. vi. 1, which R. Kimchi understands as meaning a high tower." This passage shows that it was customary with the Hebrews, as with other nations, to telegraph tidings by fire signals on some elevated station. This was performed by the ancients, either from tower to tower, or from mountain to mountain. By this means, it may be mentioned, it was made known in Greece that Troy was taken, as we learn from a passage in the Agamemnon of Eschyles.

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Besides these lighthouses, the Orientals had, and still have moveable lights, for the purpose of directing the marches of the caravans by night. They have been thus described by Dr. Pococke: " They are

L

somewhat like iron stoves, into which they put short dry wood, which some of the camels are loaded with. Every cotter hath one of these poles belonging to it, some of which have ten, some twelve of these lights on their tops, and they are likewise of different figures, one perhaps oval, another triangular, or like an N or M, etc.; so that every one knows by them his respective cotter. They are carried in the front, and set up in the place where the caravan is to pitch, before that comes up, at some distance from one another."

pents, on account of their murmurings, Moses was commanded to make a serpent of brass, and place it upon a pole, that, whosoever was bitten might look thereon and live. This command was obeyed, and it is said, that, "it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived," Numb. xxi. 5-9. This brazen serpent was preserved as a memorial of the miracle performed till the days of the good king Hezekiah, when, in consequence of its having become an object of idolatrous worship among the Hebrews, that monarch, at the same time he destroyed the altars, groves, and high places of the idolatrous people, broke it in pieces, 2 Kings xviii. 4. Do we wonder at the fact, of the Hebrews paying divine honours to a brazen serpent? It is indeed an act calculated to excite our surprize; but if we recollect that serpent worship, under one form or the other, was one of the most prevailing idolatries of the ancients, and if we recollect further that the brazen serpent must have been an interesting memorial of the remarkable transaction with which it had been associated, our surprize in a great measure must be diminished. We may, indeed, imagine from this that the influence of example might have induced the Hebrews to have taken this fatal step; and the recollection that their forefathers looked upon it, and lived, by the Divine command, might have confirmed them in their choice. Besides, although Scripture associates with the serpent all that is evil, and makes it even personate the wicked one, by the heathen world it was made