extinguished, or so enfeebled at once as to be incapable | rower and filthy dwellings, without fresh air, and withof resisting the violence of the disorder." Rees. The question as to the real nature of the plague, that is, whether or not it is contagious, has of late years been much debated, but without attaining to anything like certainty on the subject. Its contagious nature was formerly considered unquestionable, but the recent researches of Europeans in the East make it probable that its periodical appearance and extensive ravages in those countries are mainly attributable to the general want of attention to ventilation and cleanliness. Professor Robinson thus describes the breaking out of this disease during his visit to Jerusalem in the year 1838. "As if we were to have a specimen of all the evils to which the Oriental world is exposed, a few days after our arrival in the Holy City, rumours of the plague began to be circulated. It had broken out with violence in Alexandria; and in consequence a strict quarantine had been established at Yafa. Yet on Sunday, April 22nd, the report came that the plague had made its appearance in Yafa also; supposed to have been introduced by pilgrims from the southern coast of Asia Minor. Some of these pilgrims were known to have come up to Jerusalem; and now the inhabitants were tormented day by day with various rumours of its existence. At first many doubted; but several fearful cases at Yafa, in the families of some of the Frank consuls, speedily put the question beyond doubt in respect to that place. In Jerusalem there were for some days no very decided cases. Deaths indeed occurred which were ascribed to the plague; but no one pronounced authoritatively upon them. Yet all were in Yet all were in fear and upon their guard; several houses were barricadoed by the police; many families and some of the convents put themselves in quarantine; and all took care in passing to and fro along the streets, not to come in contact with any other person. At length, after a few days, the plague developed itself decidedly; all doubt was at an end; and the disease continued to extend its ravages on every side continually, though mildly. This was a state of things such as I had never anticipated, and which I shall never forget. Men's lives seemed to hang in doubt before them. No one knew what to do or whither to turn himself. All who could, hurried away from the city; for they feared that according to despotic custom, Jerusalem would be shut up, and a cordon of troops drawn around it, in order to prevent the plague from spreading among the villages of the country. Nor was this fear groundless. All business was at a stand. The merchants from Damascus and other places left the city. The missionaries broke off their sittings, and those from abroad hastened to depart with their families. Several Frank travellers also hurried away, and some who were upon the road from Beirout to Jerusalem turned back at Nabulus. Meanwhile we continued our investigations without interruption, taking care to come in contact with no one as we passed along the streets; and a kind Providence preserved us from the dangers by which we were surrounded. On the 18th of May, the city was actually shut up, and no one permitted to go out. We had left it the day before on a long excursion to Gaza, Hebron, and Wady Musa; and although we afterwards returned to its gates, yet we did not enter them again. The city remained shut up until the beginning of July." The Professor goes on to state that on his return after a considerable absence, the situation of affairs in the Holy City had not improved. "It had been shut up the day after our departure; and now for more than three weeks all direct communication with the country had been cut off. Ten thousand persons were thus confined within the narrow streets, and their own still nar out fresh provisions or vegetables, except so far as a scanty supply of the latter was to be obtained at the gates. Under such circumstances, the wonder was, not that the plague did not abate, but that it had not increased its ravages. Yet this seemed not to have been the case; the instances of contagion were scattered and occasional, as before; and the disease continued to exhibit the same character for some weeks longer; the city not having been again thrown open until July. A hakim bashi, a physician of the government, had arrived from Alexandria soon after the shutting up of the city; to whom the management of the health department was intrusted. As a special favour, our friends had been permitted by him to perform the necessary quarantine in their own house, instead of the wretched public establishment; and had thus escaped many of the privations and annoyances to which they must otherwise have been subjected. We were struck with the pallid hue of the inhabitants whom we saw, and of our friends in particular. The latter presented a strong contrast to our own dark visages; which after so long an exposure to the burning sun of the 'Arabahı and the glowing winds of the Sephela, had become scorched to a bronze, deeper even than the ordinary Arab complexion. In the city, of course, all business was at a dead stand; the stranger merchants had departed, and none could come in from abroad, either to buy or sell. The labours and schools of our missionary friends were wholly interrupted. Many of the inhabitants had preferred to quit the city, and were living in the fields or wandering among the villages. The evils attendant upon such a state of things may be imagined better than described. The Mutesellim, Sheikh Mustafa, who was absent at Dura and Hebron when Jerusalem was shut up, had pitched his tent outside of the Damascus gate, where he transacted all his business without entering the city. The markets, too, were held at the Damascus and Yafa gates. A double fence, having an interval of six or eight feet, was erected around the gate on the outside, inclosing a considerable extent of ground. To this fence the inhabitants of the city could come on the inside, and the people of the country on the outside; while health-officers walked to and fro in the intervening space, each equipped with a stout staff. All the traffic was carried on through the lines of this fence, and across the intervening interval of six or eight feet. Here the provisions brought by the country people were first handed in, and then passed to the other side by the guardians; and the money in like manner transferred from the city to the country side, after being dropped into water or vinegar. But wo to the hands or fingers on either side that ventured too far within the pale! The attendants were ever on the watch as to this point; and no very gentle thwack with the staff seemed to be not less a matter of zest to them than of pain to the offending party. "How it was possible for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and especially for the numerous poorer classes, to hold out under such a state of things, I am unable to conceive. The city had been shut up on a single day's notice, and for an indefinite time; so that no one of course could make preparation for such an emergency, Nothing could come into the city but provisions, and little or nothing passed out except money, and of this the vast majority of the inhabitants had little or none in store. Already the complaint was universal that the daily purchases in the markets had exhausted the stock of small coins; so that it was next to impossible to give or obtain change. Nevertheless, permission could be obtained to enter the city by authority of the Hakim, preceded and followed by officials of the quarantine, to prevent all contact with the people and forbidden objects. The English travellers whom we had met at Hebron, and who were now encamped on the south-west of the city, beyond the valley of Hinnom, availed themselves of such a permission to visit the interior of Jerusalem; but in our case there was no motive to do so strong enough to counterbalance the accompanying risk and trouble. With our friends, who still remained in the city, we had frequent communications from the walls; and once both Messrs. Whiting and Nicolayson, with their families, came out, accompanied by a health-officer, and met us for an hour or two, under the terebinth at the north-west corner of the city. Here we bade each other farewell; and I am sure I shall forget their affectionate kindness only when I forget Jerusalem." PLAGUES OF EGYPT. The awful visitations known by this name, though serving also as a punishment of the Egyptians for their oppression of the Israelites, had primarily a more exalted purpose, that of demonstrating the existence of the Almighty, (Exod. 8. 22; 9. 14,) and his supremacy over the base objects of Egyp- | tian worship. (Exod. 12. 12.) A brief consideration of the subject against which each particular visitation was directed will show how fully both purposes were accomplished, and we have beside the testimony of the Philistines (1Sam. 4. 8) as to the terror caused among the neighbouring nations by these manifestations of the Divine power. (1.) The first plague, in which the water of their deified river, the Nile, was turned into blood, and its fish, also objects of worship, were destroyed, (Exod. 7. 14-25,) had so obvious a tendency to make good the declaration, "In this thou shalt know that I am the Lord," that although Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and ether visitations consequently followed, it need not detain us here. The worship paid to the Nile has been noticed under that article. See NILE. (2.) The second plague, that of frogs, (Exod. 8. 1-15,) again made the Nile an instrument of their punishment. By this plague, its waters became a second time polluted, and another of their deities was smitten, for frogs were deemed sacred by the Egyptians, and, as we are informed by Horapollo, an emblem of man in embryo. "This," says Sir John Gardner Wilkinson, "is confirmed by the sculptures, where it is represented bearing upon its back a palm-branch, the symbol of a year, as the commencement of human life. There are also a frog-headed god and goddess; the former probably a form of Pthah, the Creative power, though in some inferior capacity. The importance attached to the frog, in some parts of Egypt, is shown by its having been embalmed and honoured with sepulture in the tombs of Thebes." (3.) The next plague, that of lice, (Exod. 8. 16-19,) must have been particularly disgusting to such a people as the Egyptians, who considered cleanliness a religious duty, and thought it a great profanation of their temples, if they entered it with vermin upon them. This plague, therefore, was particularly humbling to the magicians themselves; and when they tried to imitate it, and failed, they were forced to confess the hand from whence it came and said, "This is the finger of God." Thus were "the illusions of their magic put down, and their vaunting in wisdom reproved with disgrace." (Wisd. 17. 7.) Philo, the Jew, makes the following judicious observations on these earlier plagues of Egypt: "Some, perhaps, may inquire, Why did God punish the country by 1057 such minuate and contemptible animals as frogs, lice, flies, rather than by bears, lions, leopards, or other kinds of savage beasts which prey on human flesh? Or, if not by these, why not by the Egyptian asp, whose bite is instant death? But let him learn, if he be ignorant, first, that God chose rather to correct than to destroy the inhabitants; for if he desired to annihilate them utterly, he had no need to have made use of animals as his auxiliaries, but of the divinely inflicted evils of famine and pestilence. Next let him further learn that lesson so necessary for every state of life, namely, that men, when they war, seek the most powerful aid to supply their own weakness; but God, the highest and greatest power, who stands in need of nothing, if at any time He chooses to employ instruments, as it were, to inflict chastisement, chooses not the strongest and greatest, disregarding their strength, but rather the mean and the minute, whom He endows with invincible and irresistible power to chastise offenders." The first three plagues appear to have been common to the Egyptians and the Israelites, to convince both that "there was none like the Lord," and perhaps to wean the latter from any predilection for the Egyptian idolatries, and induce them to return to the Lord their God. And when this end was answered, the Israelites were exempted from the ensuing plagues; for the Lord severed the land of Goshen from the rest of Egypt; whence the following visitations confined to the latter, more plainly appeared to have been inflicted by the God of the Hebrews, (Exod. 8. 20-23,) to convince both. of "the goodness and severity of God," (Rom. 11. 22,) that great plagues remain for the ungodly, but that mercy embraceth the righteous on every side. (Psalm 32. 10.) (4.) Egypt we learn from Herodotus abounded in summer with prodigious swarms of flies or gnats; but the plague of flies (Exod. 8. 20-32,) was inflicted in the midst of winter, and not in the midst of summer. Flies were among the objects of Egyptian worship, and a portion of their punishment was now inflicted by them. The visitation of flies, of the gad-fly or hornet, was probably more intolerable than any of the former. (5.) The fifth plague, the murrain among cattle, was of a still more deadly description than the preceding. It destroyed all the cattle of Egypt, but of "the cattle of the Israelites died not one." When the distemper inflicted by this judgment spread irresistibly over the country, the Egyptians not only suffered a severe loss, and saw the inedical skill upon which they prided themselves of no avail, but also beheld their favourite deities sink helpless before the God of the despised Hebrews. See MURRAIN. (6.) As the Egyptians were celebrated for their medical skill, and their physicians were held in the highest repute, the sixth plague, the infliction of boils accompanied with blains, (Exod. 9. 8-12,) which neither their deities could avert nor the art of men alleviate, would further show the vanity of their gods. This plague was accompanied by a circumstance that demands particular notice. Aaron and Moses were ordered to take ashes of the furnace, and to scatter them towards heaven, that they might be wafted over the face of the country. This was a significant command, and is thought to have allusion to an idolatrous and cruel rite which was common among the Egyptians, and to which it is opposed as a contrast. They had several cities styled Typhonian, such as Heliopolis, Eilethya, Abaris, and Busoris. In these, at particular seasons, according to Plutarch they sacrificed men. The objects thus destined were persons with bright hair, and a particular complexion, such as were rarely to be found among the native Egyptians; whence Mr. Bryant infers the probability that they were foreigners and chosen from among the Israelites whilst they resided in Egypt. They were burnt alive upon a high altar, and thus sacrificed for the good of the people. At the close of the sacrifice, the priests gathered together the ashes of these victims, and scattered them upwards in the air, with the idea, probably, that where any atom of this dust was carried, a blessing might be entailed. This portion of the detestable ceremony was now imitated by Moses, bringing upon the Egyptians the evils they so barbarously and senselessly sought to avert. Sir John Gardner Wilkinson endeavours, we think unsuccessfully, to disprove the assertion that the Egyptians immolated human victims. See SACRIFICE. (7.) The plague of hail, rain, and fire, phenomena of extremely rare occurrence, at any period of the year, in Egypt, and now occurring at the most unusual season, forcibly demonstrated the powerlessness of Osiris and Isis, deities especially charged with the prevention of such calamities. (8.) The plague of locusts which followed, completed the havoc begun by the hail: by this, "the wheat and rye were destroyed and every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left; and there remained not any verdure in the trees, nor in the herbs of the field, throughout the land of Egypt. Very grievous were they; before them were no such locusts as they; neither after them shall there be such." (Exod. 10.3-15.) The Egyptians now found the very winds which they venerated made the instruments of their destruction; and the sea, which they regarded as their ordinary defence against the locusts, could not afford them any protection. (9.) The ninth plague consisted in three days' darkness over all the land of Egypt. (Exod. 10. 21-27.) This visitation must have been terrible indeed, not only from the inconveniences and dangers to which it exposed them, but because they considered light and fire, as the purest of elements, to be proper types of God. They regarded the sun, the great fountain of light, as an emblem of his glory and salutary influence on the world. The sun was esteemed the soul of the world, and was supposed with the moon to rule all things. Accordingly, they worshipped them as well as night and dark ness. This miraculous darkness, therefore, would confirm still further the vanity of their idol deities. (10.) The tenth plague, which was destined to effect the liberation of the Israelites, and to complete the punishment of the Egyptians, was announced to Pharaoh with a solemnity suited to its awful character. (Exod. 11. 4-8.) Such a threat, delivered in so high a tone, both in the name of the God of Israel and of Moses, did not fail to exasperate the infatuated Pharaoh, and he said, "Get thee from me; take heed to thyself; see my face no more; for in the day thou seest my face, thou shalt die. And Moses said, Be it so as thou hast spoken; I will see thy face no more. And he went out from Pharaoh in great anger." (Exod. 10. 28,29; 11.8.) The Egyptians seem to have regarded death with extreme terror, and to have "sorrowed as those who have no hope." (1Thess. 4. 13.) We learn from Herodotus, that it was their custom to rush from the house into the street, to bewail the dead with loud and bitter outcries: and every member of the family united in these expressions of sorrow. How great then must their terror and their grief have been, when, “at midnight, the Lord smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sat on his throne, unto the first-born of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle. And when Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead!" How natural, also, that they should be “ urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste." See EGYPT; EXODUS; MOSES. Some infidel objectors have affected to throw discredit upon the Mosaic narrative, by remarking that no traces of any allusion to these plagues of the Egyptians are discoverable upon the monuments of that country. To this the reply is easy. The monuments in question were reared under the superintendence of the heathen priesthood, and miracles such as these were too humbling to their pride, and too destructive of their influence with the people, to render it likely that they would allow them to be recorded in any manner. Victories, triumphs, religious processions, and whatever was calculated to exalt the gods and kings in the minds of the people, were the only subjects permitted to be sculptured on the walls of the temples; and the usages of domestic life furnish the subjects of the paintings of the tombs. Besides, these monuments have not been perfectly investigated; erasures also are observable on some of them; and though we cannot assert that the figures erased had reference to the visitations that preceded the Exodus, neither can any one deny it upon anything better than mere assumption; so that the very fact that the objectors take for granted may perhaps be a mere fiction after all. PLAINS. See PALESTINE. PLAISTER, tuach. (Levit. 14. 42.) This Hebrew word signifies to overlay, to cover, and is especially applied to the plaistering or whitening of a wall. The Prophet Ezekiel says, "One built up a wall, and lo others daubed it with untempered mortar." (ch. 13. 10.) The passage might be rendered, "He buildeth up a a wall, and behold they plaster it with mortar," so that it appears to be secure, without being so. See LIME; MORTAR. The word plaister, in a medical sense, in reference to the malady of Hezekiah, (Isai. 38. 21,) is in the Hebrew murach, and is to be understood the laying on a wound any substance as a lenitive; "Let them take dried figs and lay them on the boil, or comminute them upon the boil." This is one of the earliest notices that we have of the healing art among the Hebrews. See DisEASES; MEDICINE; PHYSICIAN. PLAITING THE HAIR. The word eμTOKN (1Peter 3. 3) signifies a braiding, entwining, or plaiting of the hair of women, by way of ornament. Professor Paxton, in remarking upon Paxton, in remarking upon this passage, observes, "Eastern females wear their hair, which the prophet emphatically calls the 'instrument of their pride,' very long, and divided into a great number of tresses. In Barbary the ladies all affect to have their hair hang down to the ground, which after they have collected into one lock, they bind and plait with ribands; a piece of finery which the Apostle marks with disapprobation: 'Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel.' Not that he condemns in absolute terms all regard to neatness and elegance in dress and appearance, but only an undue attention to these things; his meaning plainly is, Whose adorning, let it not chiefly consist in the outward adorning of plaiting the hair, but rather let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is, in the sight of God, of great price. The way in which the Apostle uses the negative particle in this text is a decisive proof that this is his PLAITING THE HAIR true meaning; it extends to every member of the sentence; and by consequence of its prohibiting the plaiting of hair, it equally prohibits the putting on of apparel. But it never could be his design to forbid women to be decently and neatly dressed; therefore, the negative must have only a comparative sense; instructing us in the propriety and necessity of attending more to the dispositions of the mind, than to the adorning of the body. And as one inspired writer cannot in reality contradict another, the command of St. Paul must be explained in the same way, not as an absolute but comparative prohibition: 'In like manner, that women adorn themselves with modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety, not with, or according to this view, rather than with 'broidered hair or gold, or pearls or costly array.' Where nature has been less liberal in its ornaments, the defect is supplied by art, and foreign is procured to be interwoven with the natural hair. The Apostle's remark on this subject, corresponds entirely with the custom of the East, as well as with the original design of the Creator: 'Doth not nature even itself teach you, that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her; for her hair is given her for a covering.'" See HAIR; HEAD-DRESSES. The subjoined engraving shows a mode of arranging the hair, and decorating it with jewels, very common among the ladies in the East, and from its splendid appearance, it may give a better idea of what the Apostles condemn than a more simple arrangement. palaces, or as it were the twelve palaces in which the sun abides. See ASTRONOMY; CONSTELLATION. PLANKS, лs tsilaoth. In the building of the Temple by Solomon, we read (1 Kings 6. 15) that he "covered the floor of the house with planks of fir;" that is, according to the Hebrew, with narrow boards in the shape of ribs. See TEMPLE. PLANT. See AGRICULTURE; GARDEN. PLATE, tsitz. (Exod. 28. 36.) This word applies to the gold plate which the high-priest wore on his forehead in accordance with the injunction of the Lord: "And thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, and grave upon it, like the engravings of a signet, Holiness to the Lord."" See HIGH-PRIEST. 66 Howbeit in vain do PLATTER. The word Tapos, rendered "platter," means properly a side dish, consisting of dainties set on as a condiment, or sauce. Our Lord, in reproving the Pharisees, says, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess." (Matt. 23. 25.) they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandFor laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups; and many other such like things ye do. And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition." (Mark 7. 7,8,9.) ments of men. The Talmud contains numerous directions with respect to these utensils, which every Jew must strictly observe. It is the duty of the chief Rabbi of the synagogue among the modern Jews to explain to the congregation in what manner they must act with respect to all utensils used for food. Thus every Jew must have in his kitchen, or where most convenient, two cupboards, one for all kinds of utensils which are used for butter victuals, and another set for meat victuals. See EARTHEN VESSELS. PLAY, P tsachak. (Exod. 32. 6.) This word, in addition to the sense of joking or sporting, (Gen. 19. 14,) may be also understood of amusements, accompanied with music and singing, in which sense it may be understood in Judges 16. 25. Though we have no particular mention in the Old Testament of such matters, Jewelled Head-dress of a Turkish Lady. PLANE, D maktsuah. (Isai. 44. 13.) This word refers to some kind of sharp instrument, most probably a species of adze or hatchet, though denoted in our version by the word "plane;" but it is probable that the plane was unknown to the Hebrews. On referring to the Egyptian monuments we do not find that a work-bench was ever used, and consequently the tool we call a plane could have been of little use. The work. men either pursued their labours squatted upon the ground, or else, when necessary, stood up, and rested the article on which they were employed upon a block, or anything else that offered. The Egyptian hatchets, of which there are various specimens in the British Museum, were composed of bronze. See CARPENTER. PLANETS. The word i Mazzaloth, (2Kings 23. 5,) is by the Chaldee and the Hebrew interpreters rendered "the constellations of the zodiac," in which Gesenius concurs. The Arabic version, following the popular phrase, gives a "house," or "dwelling-place," for the Arabs call the signs of the zodiac, the circle of we may reasonably suppose that some of the games prac- | PLAYERS. See MUSIC. PLEA. The word 1 din, which occurs in Deuteronomy 17. 8, signifies a judgment, as well as a process, or cause, as in Proverbs 29. 7. Our version has in the first passage, "between plea and plea," which may be rendered, "between the cause of the one and that of the other." See TRIALS; TRIBUNals. pledge for money, (Exod. 22. 26,27,) nor disgrace the pomp of a heathen temple. It may not be amiss to consider why the circumstance of clothes being taken to pledge, is mentioned here. Attending an idolatrous feast must have been undoubtedly wrong in these Israelites; but of what consequence was it to remark that some of them seated themselves on carpets that had been put into their hands by way of pledge? It may be answered, that it might be galling to those that had been obliged to pledge these valuable pieces of furniture secretly, to have them thus publicly exposed; that it may insinuate that these idolatrous zealots detained them when they ought to have been restored; (Ezek. 18. 7,12,16; 30. 15;) and that they subjected them to be injured in the tumult of an extravagant and riotous banquet in a heathen temple; to which may be added, that they might belong to some of their countrymen who abhorred those idols, and might consider them as dishonoured, and even dreadfully polluted by being so employed." PLEAD, PLEADING. See TRIALS; TRIBUNALS. 1.14.) Egypt, from the earliest times, has laid claim to PLEDGE. The words y arabon, (Gen.38.17,) and hhobil, (Deut. 24. 6,) are both alike rendered "pledge" in our version; the first word, however, properly signifies anything given as the token for the performance of a promise, and the second, a deposit for money advanced. See LEND. Under the Mosaic law the taking of pledges was regulated: the millstone was not to be taken in pledge, nor was the person taking the pledge to enter the house to fetch it, (Deut. 24. 10,) nor to detain necessary raiment after sunset, (v. 12,) nor was the widow's raiment to be taken in pledge. (v. 17.) The mildness and benevolence of these directions are evident, but they appear to have been frequently disregarded: thus we find some reproached that they had taken their brother's pledge; others, that they had taken the widow's ox in pledge; and that they did not restore the pledge as the law directed. (Job 22. 6; 24. 3,9; Ezek. 18. 12.) The Prophet Amos, speaking of the anger of God against Israel, says, "And they laid themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar, and they drank of the wine of the condemned in the house of their God." (ch. 2. 8.) Burder remarks upon this passage, "It was found advantageous, both for ease and health, to have a carpet, or some soft and thick cloth spread on the ground, for those to sit upon who dwelt in tents: subsequently those who lived in houses used them too. When they held their idolatrous feasts in the temples dedicated to the gods, they sat upon the ground, but not on the bare earth, or the marble pavement of those temples, but upon something soft and dry spread under them, brought for the purpose. The clothes mentioned by the prophet may mean the coverings of the body for the night, as well as for the day. When it was dark,' says Dr. Chandler, 'three coverlets, richly embroidered, were taken from a press in the room which we occupied, and delivered one to each of us; the carpet or sofa, and a cushion, serving with this addition instead of a bed.' Such carpets or embroidered coverlets would neither be an improper the honour of the invention of this important implement, and as it was undoubtedly one of the first countries brought under culture by the hand of man, the claim may be well founded. Agriculture was also early practised among the Hebrews, and from their agreement in so many other matters, it is likely that the implements of the two nations were very nearly the same. "The ancient plough," says Sir John Gardner Wilkinson, "was entirely of wood, and of very simple form, like that still used in Egypt. It consisted of a share, two handles, and the pole or beam, which last was inserted into the lower end of the stilt, or the base of the handles, and was strengthened by a rope connecting it with the heel. It had no coulter, nor were the wheels applied to any Egyptian plough: but it is probable that the point was shod with a metal sock either of bronze or iron. It was drawn by two oxen; and the ploughman guided and drove them with a long goad, without the assistance of reins, which are used by the modern Egyptians. He was sometimes accompanied by another man, who drove the animals, while he managed the two handles of the plough; and sometimes the whip was substituted for the more usual goad. The mode of yoking the beasts was exceedingly simple. Across the extremity of the pole a wooden yoke or cross-bar, about fifty-five inches or five feet in length, was fastened by a strap, lashed backwards and forwards over a prominence projecting from the centre of the yoke, which corresponded to a similar peg, or knob, at the end of the pole; and occasionally, in addition to these, was a ring passing over them, as in some Greek chariots. At either end of the yoke was a flat or slightly concave projection, of semicircular form, which rested on a pad placed upon the withers of the animal; and through a hole on either side of it passed a thong for suspending the shoulder-pieces, which formed the collar. These were two wooden bars, forked at about half their length, padded so as to protect the shoulder from friction, and connected at the lower end by a strong broad band passing under the throat. Sometimes the draught, instead of being from the shoulder, was from the head, the yoke being tied to the base of the horns; and in religious ceremonies oxen frequently |