was a river called Phut. The prophets often speak of of Phut, usually in connexion with Egypt. In the time of Jeremiah the country was subject to Necho, king of Egypt; and Nahum (3. 9,) reckons its people among the allies of No Ammon.

PHYGELLUS, Puyeλλos, a Christian of Asia, who being at Rome during St. Paul's second imprisonment, (A.D. 65,) deserted him in his necessity along with Hermogenes and others. (2Tim. 1. 15.)

PHYLACTERY, puλakтηpia, (Matt. 23. 5.) The Greek word puλaxтηptov signifies a watch, post, or guarded place, and figuratively, protection, safeguard, hence, an amulet. In the New Testament the

term тa puλaктηpia, phylacteries, is used to signify the strips of parchment on which are written various sentences of the Mosaic law, (Exod. 13. 1-10,11-16, &c.,) which the Jews usually bind in different ways round the forehead and left wrist while at prayer, following a literal interpretation of Exodus 13. 16.

Among the charges alleged against the Pharisees by Our Lord, is that of enlarging their phylacteries, as indicating their pretensions to a more studious and perfect observance of the Law. The phylacteries consisted of four strips or scrolls of parchment, or the dressed skin of some clean animal, inscribed with four paragraphs of the Law, taken from Exodus 13. 1-10, and 13. 11-16; Deuteronomy 6. 4-9, and 11. 13-21, all inclusive; which the Pharisees, interpreting literally Deuteronomy 6. 8, and other similar passages, (as do the modern Rabbins,) tied to the points of their caps, and on their arms, and also inscribed on their door-posts. These phylacteries were regarded as amulets, and efficacious in keeping, off evil spirits. They are termed in the Talmud, tephillin. A modern writer on the forms, customs, and manners of the Jews thus describes them.

"The parchment case for the head into which the phylacteries are put, is formed into a particular shape upon a last of wood, made exactly square at the bottom.

Phylactory for the Head.

This is a flat smooth piece of board, upon which there are four other smooth pieces placed parallel to each other. The parchment which covers and receives its

figure from this frame, is first thoroughly soaked in water, to make it pliable and capable of receiving any form. It is thus fitted to the frame or last, so as to be thrust in between every upright piece of board, to the bottom, and this also must be exactly covered with it; when it is thus made in every part, as smooth and as close to the frame as it can possibly be, it remains there till it is perfectly dry and stiff; so that when the parchment is taken off the last, there are four cavities in it, corresponding to the thickness of the four pieces of board; and into every one of these cavities is put a section of vellum. The four sections that are thus put are as the Law, written with great exactness, upon very fine follow:-The first is, from the beginning of the fourth verse of the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy to the end of the sixth verse of the same; the second is, from the

beginning of the thirteenth verse of the eleventh chapter the same; the third is, from the beginning of the first of Deuteronomy to the end of the twenty-first verse of verse of the thirteenth chapter of Exodus to the end of the tenth verse of the same; and the fourth, from the the end of the sixteenth verse of the same. On the beginning of the eleventh verse of the said chapter to

letter of Shaddai, Almighty, one of the incommunicable names of Jehovah, is cut out in relievo, and the other the strokes of the letters, either prominent or hollow, which is written within the board, is cut so deep, that the strokes of the letters, either prominent or hollow, dry. It is made wide enough at the bottom to reach a distinctly appear upon this parchment case when it is little over the lowest board; this is done in order that it may be sewed together at last, that the sections of the Law may not drop out of the cavities. At one end there is a loop, into which a thong is put, with which it is made to bind about the head. The parchment is covered carefully over with a fine skin, the hairy side of which must be outermost, to keep the perspiration of the head from the case, and the phylacteries that are within it. The whole is sewed together with thongs of leather, cut very fine and made very soft.

outside boards of the frame the letter shin, the initial

"The following is the mode of preparing the parchment case for the phylacteries for the arm. It is made upon a frame, the same as the other, but with only one cavity, into which is put the same four sections as in those which are for the head. The four sections thereof must be written on four different slips of vellum; and must also have the letter shin on the two sides thereof. But as to the phylacteries for the arm, the abovementioned four sections are to be written on one piece of vellum, in four columns, and not to have the letter

shin on each side as the other had. In every cir cumstance of this affair they are extraordinarily scrupulous, as to the order of writing and placing the sections; the manner of making the ink; preparing the vellum, &c., all of which are very particularly described by Maimonides, in his Hilcoth Tephillin, The use of the Tephillin or Phylacteries.' Every male of the whole Jewish nation, at or above the age of thirteen, is considered accountable for his actions, enters into what they term the state of manhood; and, therefore, from that time forward, he is obliged to observe the precepts of the Law. Before he begins his prayers, he must (whether it be at the public worship, in the synagogue or privately at home,) put on the phylacteries in the following manner. They first take the phylactery for the arm, and having placed it on that part of the left arm which is opposite the heart, say the following grace: 'Blessed art thou, O Lord, our God, King of the Universe! who hath sanctified us with his commandments, and commanded us to say the Tephillin.' They then instantly, by means of a leather thong which runs

PHYLACTERY

through a loop of the case like a noose, fasten it on the arm that it may not slip from thence. They then take the phylactery for the head, and saying the following, 'Blessed art thou, O Lord, our God, King of the Universe! who hath so sanctified us with his commandments, and commanded us the commandment of Tephillin,' place the case on the forehead on that part where the hair begins to grow, and fasten it by means of a leather thong, which runs through the loop, is carried round the head, and tied behind, where it remains in that position; observing also, at the same time, that it is placed exactly between the eyes. All this is understood by the commandment in the Law: 'And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thy hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.' The Rabbins say, this commandment, if duly considered, and properly weighed, is indeed a sign of the first magnitude between the Almighty and us. For we herein make confession of the unity of God, and the duties which we owe unto him; and that we may remember the miracles and wonders which he wrought for us when he brought us forth from Egypt; and that he hath power and government over all; as well in the heavens above as in the earth beneath; to do in them according to his will. They moreover state, that he hath commanded us to bind the phylacteries on our arm, in remembrance of the strong hand wherewith the Lord brought us forth; and that it should be on that part of the arm which is opposite the heart, to show that we ought to subject the appetites and imaginations of our hearts to his service; and that the phylactery for the head, which is just opposite the brain, is to intimate that it is the place nearest where the soul is seated, and that all its senses and powers should be entirely devoted to the service of God. Thus it becomes an article of faith among the Jews, that every one of them are bound, every morning at least, during the time of reading the Shema, and saying the nineteen prayers, to have on the phylacteries, because it is a sign of their acknowledging the Almighty to be the creator of all things; and that he hath power to do as he pleases. On the Sabbath and other festivals, they do not put on the phylacteries, because the duly observing them is a sufficient sign of itself, as expressed in Exodus 31.12: And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily, my Sabbath shall ye keep; for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you.' And again, (verse 17.) 'It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth.' Thus every one of the whole Jewish nation is sealed with these two signs of the covenant of God continually, thereby making confession of the unity of God, and consequently of the duties they owe to Him. For He being the Creator of all things, as well celestial as terrestrial, it is proper that Divine worsnip should be offered to Him and none else."

PHYSIC. See MEDICINE; DISEASES.

PHYSICIAN, No ropha, (Gen. 50. 2;) tarpos, (Mark 5. 26.) Though the art of the physician was but little regarded among the Hebrews, the language of the prophet Isaiah proves that it was sometimes resorted to. He describes the moral corruption of Judah in the following terms: "From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither Lound up, neither mollified with ointment." (Isai. 1. 6.) The ancient Egyptians were highly celebrated for their skill in surgery and medicine. It is not easy to deter

mine from the monuments whether they, like the Israelites, connected the medical art with conjuration and magic; but it is not an improbable conjecture, that they, like most Oriental nations, regarded sickness as a supernatural visitation, somewhat like possession by devils, for the priests were the chief practitioners in medicine. They were sacerdotal physicians in Egypt, to whose care the embalming of bodies was confided.

Among the Assyrians, Chaldæans, Egyptians, Libyans, and Greeks, we have hints of skilful physicians; but until Hippocrates the Coan, about A.M. 3540, digested medicine into a kind of system, it was very little considered. Aretæus the Cappadocian, long afterwards, further improved it. Galen, who lived in the second century of the Christian era, put the art into a still clearer order, but by pretending to found everything on the four elements, he embarrassed it with unintelligible jargon. Between the sixth and ninth centuries of Christianity, the art of medicine was in a manner lost, but from that to the thirteenth the Arabs cultivated it with much zeal. It was not, however, until the last two centuries, that it was treated in a proper manner; nor is it so even now, except among Europeans of the Christian name. See MEDICINE.

PIBESETH, ♫

(Ezek. 30. 17.) According to the Septuagint and Vulgate, this was the same as Bubastis, a celebrated city of Egypt, situated on the Pelusiac branch of the Nile. Bubastis derived its name and celebrity from a magnificent temple dedicated to the goddess Bubastis. The site still bears the name of Tel Basta; but the great mass of ruins is situated at Chobra and Heryeh, rather more than half a mile west of the Tel. There is no portion of any standing edifice remaining. All is overthrown, and the wide-spread rubbish affords the only remaining evidence of the ancient splendour of Bubastis. The direction of the ruins can, however, easily be traced, and they correspond precisely to the ancient intimations concerning the place. It was prophesied that "the young men of Pibeseth should fall by the sword," (Ezek. 30. 17,) and it is believed that the city was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar.

"The city of Bubastis," says Sir John Gardner Wilkinson, "where the goddess was particularly adored, stood east of the Delta, and at a short distance from the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, where lofty mounds, called Tel Basta, still mark its site. 'Here,' says Herodotus, 'is a temple of Bubastis deserving of mention. Other temples are larger and more magnificent, but none are more beautiful than this. The goddess Bubastis is the same as the Greek Diana. The temple stands in an island surrounded on all sides by water, except at the entrance passage. Two separate canals lead from the Nile to the entrance, which, diverging to the right and left, surround the temple. They are about one hundred feet broad, and planted with trees. The vestibule is ten orgyes (fathoms) high, ornamented with very fine figures six cubits in height. The temple stands in the centre of the town, and in walking round the place you look down upon it on every side, in consequence of the foundations of the houses having been elevated, and the temple still continuing on its original level. The sacred inclosure is encompassed by a wall, on which a great number of figures are sculptured; and within it is a grove, planted round the cella of the temple, with trees of a considerable height. In the cella is the statue of the goddess. The sacred inclosure is a stadium (six hundred feet) in length, by the same in breadth. The street, which corresponds with the entrance of the temple, crosses the public square, goes to the east, and leads to the temple of Mercury; it is about three stades long, and four

plethra (four hundred feet) large, paved and planted on either side with large trees.

"Bubastis is represented with the head of a lioness or a cat, and to her the latter was peculiarly sacred. On her head she bears a disk, from which rises the uræus, or royal asp, and in her hand she holds the usual sceptre of the Egyptian goddesses. From the difficulty experienced in distinguishing between the cat and the lionheaded figures, doubts sometimes arise respecting the form of the Egyptian Diana; though it appears she took the head of both those animals. The goddess of the Speos Artemidos is represented in the hieroglyphics by a lioness; and if it be true that the wolf and jackal were dedicated to one deity, Anubis, we can with equal reason suppose the lion and cat to have been emblems of the same goddess.

"One of the principal festivals of the Egyptians was held at Bubastis, in honour of Pasht; and Herodotus considers that they took a greater interest in it than in any of the numerous fêtes annually celebrated in Egypt. This,' says the historian, 'is the nature of the ceremony on the way to Bubastis. They go by water, and numerous boats are crowded with persons of both sexes. During the voyage, several women strike the cratala, (a sort of cymbals,) while some men play the flute; the rest, both men and women, singing and clapping their hands. As they pass near a town, they bring the boat close to the bank. Some of the women continue to sing and play the cratala; others cry out as long as they can, and utter reproaches against the people of the town, who begin to dance, while the former continue to conduct themselves in a scoffing manner. The same is repeated at every town they pass on the river. Arrived at Bubastis, they celebrate the festival of Diana, sacrificing a great number of victims, and on that occasion a greater consumption of wine takes place than during the whole of the year; for, according to the accounts of the people themselves, no less than seven hundred thousand persons of both sexes are present, besides children."

The black basalt sitting figures in the British Museum, and other European collections, represent the Egyptian Bubastis.

PIGEON, yonah. (Levit. 1. 14.) A sketch of the natural history of this bird has been given in a former article. See Dove.

Michaëlis, in his Commentaries on the Laws of Moses, says, "It may be doubted whether breeding of pigeons was much practised among the Israelites; for those kept in dove-cotes, are, in the later Hebrew, called by a name equivalent to Herodian doves, because Herod is said to have introduced them. Pigeons, it is true, appear frequently in their offerings; but then they might be of the wild kind, as well as turtle-doves. Here, however, I speak doubtfully; for even in the patriarchal history, we find pigeons used as offerings, and Egypt, out of which the Israelites came, is at this day, full of pigeon

houses."

Sir John Gardner Wilkinson says, "Pigeons are not generally represented in the sculptures of Egypt; but an instance occurs of their introduction at the coronation ceremony, which is particularly interesting, as it shows the early custom of training carrier-pigeons, and adds one more confirmation of the truth of Solomon's remark, 'There is no new thing under the sun.' The king is there represented as having assumed the pshent, or double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt; and a priest lets fly four pigeons, commanding them to announce to the south, the north, the west, and the east, that Horus, the son of Isis and Osiris, has put

on the splendid crown of the upper and lower country, —that is, the king, Remeses III., has put on the two

crowns.

"The pigeon is also noticed as a favourite food of the Egyptians; and so pure and wholesome was it considered by them, that when the country was visited by epidemic diseases, and all things were affected by the pestilential state of the atmosphere, they believed that those alone who contented themselves with it were safe from the infection. Indeed, during that period, no other food was placed upon the tables of the kings and priests, whose duty it was to keep themselves pure for the service of the gods. There is, however, no appearance of pigeons, or even doves, having been sacred; and neither these nor the quail are found embalmed."

Solomon says, "Curse not the king, no, not in thy thought, and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber; for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter." (Eccles. 10. 20.) There is here an obvious allusion to the carrier-pigeon. Professor Paxton observes, "The manner of sending advice by pigeons was this: they took doves which had a very young and unfledged brood, and carried them on horseback to the place from whence they wished them to return, taking care to let them have a full view. When any advices were received, the correspondent tied a billet to the pigeon's foot, or under the wing, and let her loose. The bird, impatient to see her young, flew off with the utmost impetuosity, and soon arrived at the place of her destination. These pigeons have been known to travel from Alexandretta to Aleppo, a distance of seventy miles, in two hours, and in two days from Bagdad; and when taught, they never fail, unless it be very dark, in which case they usually send two, for fear of mistake.

"It is more than probable that to this singular custom Solomon alludes in the above-named passage. The remote antiquity of the age in which the wise man flourished, is no valid objection; for the customs and usages of Orientals are almost as permanent as the soil on which they tread. Averse to change, and content, for the most part, with what their fathers have taught them, they transmit the lessons they have received, and the customs they have learned, with little alteration, from one generation to another. The pigeon was employed in carrying messages, and bearing intelligence, long before the coming of Christ, as we know from the odes of Anacreon and other classics; and the custom seems to have been very general and quite familiar. When, therefore, the character of those nations and the stability of their customs are duly considered, it will not be reckoned extravagant to say Solomon in this text referred to the carrier-pigeon."

The

Numb. 13. 7;) a place on the borders of the Red Sea, where the Israelites made their second encampment. As the Israelites were truly delivered at this place from their captivity, and fear of the Egyptians, (Exod. 14.5,) Dr. Shaw thinks that it derived its name (signifying, the opening of liberty,) from that circumstance. Israelites were commanded to turn to the south-west, and encamp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over against Baal-zephon by the sea. This place, then, together with the two places in connexion with which it is mentioned, must probably have been situated on the west coast of the western arm of the Red Sea, which stretches up into the desert, and near the top of it, above the modern town of Suez.

PILATE, the Roman governor of Judæa, under whose orders the crucifixion of Our blessed Lord took place. Pontius Pilate is supposed to have been a native of Italy, and was sent to govern Judæa about the year A.D. 26 or 27. According to the testimony of Philo, he was procurator of Judæa eleven years, and his government was one scene of extortion and cruelty; he set justice to sale, plundered the people, and executed the innocent. His conduct from the first excited dissatisfaction in Judæa; as he commenced his administration with an act that outraged the national and religious feelings of the Jews. He sent his soldiers from Samaria to Jerusalem to winter quarters, and directed them to carry the images of Cæsar, which were on their standards, into the city by night. The people regarded this as a violation of their law, and many Jews went to Cæsarea to entreat Pilate to remove the images from the city. They remained five days before his palace, without obtaining the object of their requests. On the sixth day, Pilate seated himself on a throne in one of the public squares; and when the Jews appeared before | him, he surrounded them with his soldiers, and threatened them with instant death unless they departed to their homes; but they threw themselves on the ground, bared their necks, and exclaimed, that they would rather die than suffer the images to remain in their capital contrary to the law. Pilate was finally prevailed upon to give orders for the removal of the standards from Jerusalem.

If the relation of Philo be true, that Pilate next set up shields with idolatrous inscriptions at Jerusalem, and afterwards, at the request of the Jews, received orders from the Emperor Tiberius to take them away, it was probably in part through desire of revenge, that he now determined to construct an aqueduct to Jerusalem from a fountain at the distance of twenty English miles, and demanded disbursements from the treasury of the Temple to pay the expenses. In consequence of this demand, when in his tribunal at Jerusalem, he was beset with the most earnest entreaties by the people; but he sent disguised soldiers among the multitude with daggers or bludgeons concealed under their garments, who slew several, and others were trodden to death in the crowd. Such a course of conduct provoked frequent commotions, especially in Galilee, and Pilate sought revenge upon the people of that province, by putting to death some of them who had repaired to Jerusalem to the Temple. Thus St. Luke acquaints us that Pilate mingled the blood of certain Galilæans with their sacrifices; and that the matter having been related to Our Lord, he introduced the subject into his discourse. (Luke, ch. 13.)

Yet in the proceedings relative to the death of Our blessed Saviour, Pilate appears to have been actuated at first by a sense of justice, though he too easily suffered himself to be led away by the clamours of the highpriests and their followers. His extreme reluctance to condemn Christ, considering his merciless character, is signally remarkable, and still more, his repeated protestations of the innocence of his prisoner, although on occasions of massacre, he made no scruple of confounding the innocent with the guilty. But he was unquestionably overruled by the Almighty, to make the righteousness of Our blessed Lord appear as clear as the noon-day, even when condemned and executed as a malefactor, by the fullest, the most authentic, and the most public evidence.

At the time of Our Saviour's passion, Pilate made some attempts to deliver him out of the hands of the Jews. He knew the reasons of their enmity against him, (Matt. 27. 18;) his wife also, having had a dream

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that alarmed her, requested he would not stain his hands with the blood of that just person, (v. 19.) He therefore attempted to appease the wrath of the Jews by scourging Jesus, (John 19. 1; Matt. 27. 26;) and also tried to take him out of their hands by proposing to deliver him or Barabbas on the day of the Passover. Lastly, he thought to discharge himself from pronouncing judgment against him by sending him to Herod, king of Galilee. (Luke 23. 7,8.) When he found all this would not satisfy the Jews, and that they even threatened him in some manner, saying he could be no friend to the emperor if he suffered Jesus to be set at liberty, (John 19. 12,15,) he caused water to be brought, and washed his hands before all the people, and publicly declared himself innocent of the blood of that just person, (Matt. 27. 23,24;) yet, at the same time, he delivered him to his soldiers, that they might crucify him. Pilate ordered the inscription to be placed over the head of Our Saviour, (John 19. 19,) and when requested by the Jews to alter it, peremptorily refused. He also gave permission for the removal of Our Lord's body, and to place a guard over the sepulchre. (Matt. 27. 65.) These are all the particulars that we learn concerning Pilate from the writers of the Gospels; but we know from other sources, that after he had held his office for ten years, having caused a number of innocent Samaritans to be put to death, that injured people sent an embassy to Vitellius, proconsul of Syria, by whom Pilate was ordered to Rome to give an account of his administration to the emperor; the charges against him being proved, Caligula banished him to Gaul, where he is stated to have committed suicide about the year of Christ 41.

There are said to have been once extant certain writings of Pontius Pilate having reference to Our Lord, which demand a brief notice. Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Eusebius, and after these several other writers, both ancient and modern, assure us that it was formerly the custom for the Roman magistrates to prepare copies of all verbal processes and judicial acts passed in their several provinces and to send them to the emperor; and that Pilate, in compliance with the custom, having informed Tiberius of what had passed relating to Jesus Christ, the emperor wrote an account of it to the senate, in a manner that gave reason to suppose that he thought favourably of the religion of Jesus Christ, and showed that he should be willing for them to confer divine honours upon him; but the senate was not of the same opinion, and so the matter dropped. It appears by what Justin says of these acts, that the miracles of Christ were mentioned there, and even that the soldiers had divided his garments among them; Eusebius insinuates that they also spoke of his resurrection and ascension. Tertullian and Justin refer to these acts with so much confidence, as to make it supposed that they had read and handled them. However, neither Eusebius nor Jerome, nor any other author who wrote afterwards, seems to have seen them, at least not the true and original acts, for as to what we have now in great numbers, they are not authentic, being neither ancient nor uniform. There are likewise some pretended letters of Pilate to Tiberius, giving a history of Our Saviour; but they are universally allowed to be spurious.

PILESER. See ASSYRIA.

PILGRIMAGE. The word magur, signifies a stay, or an abode in a foreign country, travels, a pilgrimage. (Gen. 17. 8.) Metaphorically, it is applied to the sojourning on earth; thus the patriarch Jacob says

Pil

to Pharaoh, "The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years." (Gen. 47. 9.) The Psalmist likewise says, Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage." (Psalm 119. 54.) Pilgrimage, in later times, is understood to be a kind. of religious discipline, which consists in taking a journey to some reputed holy place, as the tomb or shrine of a saint or martyr, frequently in discharge of a vow. grimages, by Christians, chiefly to Judæa, began to be made about the middle of the fourth century, were much practised through the whole of the middle ages, but were most in vogue from the end of the eleventh century to the end of the thirteenth. Objects of pilgrimage for the votaries of the churches of Rome and the East, are found in almost every country, but the chief place has been, and still is, Palestine, or the Holy Land. See JERUSALEM, Holy Places; JORDAN; where will be found as full an account of this unscriptural practice as is consistent with the design of this work. The journeys of the Mohammedans to the tombs of their false prophet, or his son-in-law Ali, though pilgrimages in the strict sense of the word, are altogether foreign to our purpose.

PILLAR, 2 nitsib. (Gen. 19. 26.) Pillar properly means a column raised to support a building; but in Scripture the term occurs more frequently in the sense of a stone of memorial, or it is figuratively employed.

Dr. Wait observes, "What are termed the pillars of Seth, Hermes Trismegistus, and the like, were means employed to hand down historical facts to future times. They were covered with characters or hieroglyphics, which could only be deciphered by the sacred order, and perhaps the initiated in the mysteries, without which all the knowledge of the primitive state of the Pagan world which we now possess would have been irretrievably lost. This style of hieroglyphic representation seems to have prevailed in most parts of the world at some period or other of their history. Very many of the rites and opinions in the Pentateuch were, decidedly, anterior to Moses, all of which we denominate patriarchal. Amongst these we reckon the use of pillars, on which these records were most probably depicted in the symbolical style of the day, and these ornat are often contrasted with the Law engraven on stones. But we do not imply that they were decorated in the same heroohieroglyphical manner as the Egyptian pillars; because we find Moses expressly forbidding the 18 aben maskith, (Levit. 26. 1,) image of stone,' which particular phrase carried with it some such idea as the hodar maskith, in Ezekiel 8. 8-11, which can only signify the emblematical imagery, with which subterranean vaults were ornamented in the Egyptian, Mithraic, Hindoo, and Chaldaic religions." See IMAGERY, CHAMBERS OF.

Monuments of large and rude stones disposed in various forms, whose date ascends for the most part beyond all history and tradition, are found dispersed in countries the most remote from each other. The setting up of such stones of memorial, appears to have been one of the earliest means devised for preserving the memory of important events and facts. The first instance mentioned in the Scriptures, is that of the stone which Jacob set up at Bethel to commemorate the vision with which he was there favoured, and to be a witness of the engagement he entered into. (Gen. 28. 18-22.) Then there is the remarkable affair between Jacob and Laban, when the latter overtook the former in Gilead, where a pillar and a heap of stones were made the monuments and evidences of a solemn compact of peace between them.

(Gen. 31. 45-53.) Such monuments of erected stones with heaps of stones at their base or near at hand, are far from being unknown among the most ancient monuments of our own country; thus in Cornwall there is one remarkable monument of this kind, with a heap of stones lying at its base, in Boswen's Croft, Sancred; and a similar monument occurs in Oxfordshire, about half a mile to the south-west of Eston Church. The twelve pillars which Moses set up together with an altar at the foot of Mount Sinai, (Exod. 24. 4,) and those which Joshua caused to be set up at Gilgal, taken from the bed of the Jordan, (Josh. ch. 4,) are instances of another class of monuments. The stone also which Joshua set up under the oak at Shechem, was avowedly an evidence and memorial of the covenant into which the people entered with God. (Josh. 24. 26,27.) In addition to the numerous stones, the occasion of the erection of which is mentioned in Scripture, there are such incidental references to other marked and conspicuous stones as show that monuments of this kind were numerous in the country. Thus there is the stone of Bohan, the son of Reuben, (Josh. 18. 17;) and in another place (1Sam. 6. 18,) we read of a well-known and distinguished stone of great magnitude on which the ark of God was placed when returned from the Philistines, and taken out of the cart by the Levites; this had before been known as "the great stone of Abel." Stones were likewise set up as memorials of their victories; such was the Ebenezer, "the stone of help," set up by Samuel. (1Sam. 7. 12.)

Another use of stone pillars, as indicated in Scripture, was to point out the graves of the dead. The earliest instance of this is offered by the pillar which Jacob set up over the grave of his beloved Rachel, (Gen. 35. 20,) but as the Hebrews generally placed their dead in excavated sepulchres, we do not find sepulchral pillars common among them; and in fact, they appear to have been chiefly employed for such eminent persons as it was necessary to inter remote from the sepulchres of their fathers, as in the case of Rachel. The custom, however, was very general with other nations, for the Greeks had for many ages no other monuments than such unhewn pillars, which they set up on the top of the barrow or the tumulus. Several allusions to such monuments are to be met with in the Iliad.

We transcribe the following account from Professor Robinson's Biblical Researches, respecting the singular and mysterious monuments, or pillars, of Surabit el Khadim, in the Wilderness of Sin, which we are inclined to consider as sepulchral.

"These lie mostly within the compass of a small inclosure, one hundred and sixty feet long from east to west, by seventy feet broad, marked by heaps of stones thrown or fallen together, the remains perhaps of former walls or rows of low buildings. Within this space are seen about fifteen upright stones, and several fallen ones, covered with Egyptian hieroglyphics; and also the remains of a small temple, whose columns are decorated with the head of Isis for a capital. At the eastern end is a subterranean chamber excavated in the solid rock, resembling an Egyptian sepulchre. It is and square; the roof is supported in the middle by a square column left from the rock. Both the column and the sides of the chamber are covered with hieroglyphics; and in each of the sides is a small niche. The whole surface of the inclosure is covered with fallen columns, fragments of sculpture, and hewn stones strewn in every direction; over which the pilgrim can with difficulty find his way. Other similar upright stones stand without the inclosure in various directions, and even at some distance; each surrounded by a heap of stones, which may have been