Milesi ans, as appears from the titles of Saviour and Benefactor given him. Another supported the statue of the Emperor Severus, and has a long inscription with this curious preamble: The senate and people of the city of the Milesians, the first settled in Ionia, and the mother of many and great cities, both in Pontus and Egypt, and various other parts of the world.' From the number of forsaken mosques, it is evident that Mohammedanism has flourished in its turn at Miletus. The history of this place, after the declension of the Greek empire, is very imperfect. The whole region has undergone frequent ravages from the Turks, while possessed of the interior country, and intent on extending their conquests westward to the shore. One sultan, in 1175, sent twenty thousand men, with orders to lay waste the Roman provinces, and bring him sea-water, sand, and an oar; all the cities on the Meander and on the coast were then ruined. Miletus was again destroyed towards the end of the thirteenth century by the conquering Othman."

MILITARY DISCIPLINE. See ARMS, ARMOUR,

ARMY.

MILK, hhalab. (Gen. 18. 8; 49. 12; Judges 5. 25.) Milk, principally that of sheep and goats, forms an important part of the diet of people in the East, and enters largely as an ingredient into the composition of their prepared dishes. The word NOT hhamah, usually rendered "butter," in our version, equally applies to thick curdled milk or cream, in various states of consistence. The Arabs make much use of butter-milk; and coagulated sour milk, diluted with water. Although unpleasant at first to strangers, the natives swallow it with avidity. From the frequent mention of milk in the Scriptures, it is evident that its use must have been very common among the Hebrews.

In the present made by Jacob to Esau, (Gen. 32. 15,) we read of "thirty milch camels with their colts." Milch camels, among the Arabs, constitute a principal part of their riches. Niebuhr relates that among other dishes presented to him by the Arabs at Menayre, there was also camel's milk; that it was indeed considered cooling and healthy in these hot countries, but that it is so clammy, that when a finger is dipped into it, and drawn up again, the milk hangs down from it like a thread. Another

traveller, in his Account of Morocco, states, that "the Moors also drink camels' milk; and when they have milked them for a short time, they suffer the young camels to suck, and then begin to milk again, partly to share it with the young camels, and partly to make the camels give the milk better."

In Proverbs 27. 27, goat's milk is referred to: "And thou shalt have goat's milk enough for thy food, for the food of thy household, and for the maintenance of thy maidens." Russell informs us that goats are chiefly kept for this purpose, that they yield it in no inconsiderable quantity, and that it is sweet and well tasted. This at Aleppo is, however, chiefly from the beginning of April to September; the people being generally supplied the other part of the year with cow's milk, such as it is; for the cows being commonly kept at the gardens and fed with the refuse, the milk generally tastes so strong of garlic or cabbage leaves as to be very disagreeable." Butter and cheese are usually made of the milk of goats and sheep, and cow's milk, where it is to be had, is held in comparatively little esteem.

In Job 10. 10, it is said, "Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese?" Roberts remarks, "Much philological learning has been brought to the explanation of this passage. In the preceding

-MILL.

867

verse, Job is speaking of his death. Wilt thou bring me unto dust again? But what has the pouring out of milk to do with death? The people of the East pour milk upon their heads, after performing the funeral obsequies. Has a father a profligate son, one he never expects to reclaim, he says, in reference to him, ‘Ah! I have poured milk upon my head; that is, 'I have done with him; he is as one dead to me.'-'And curdled me like cheese.' The cheese of the East is little better than curds; and these are also used at the funeral ceremonies."

In Job 21.24, we read, "His breasts are full of milk, and his bones are moistened with marrow." The margin of our version has, for "breasts," "milk-pails;" and Roberts informs us, "Of a man who is very rich it is common to say, 'His chatties (vessels) are full of milk.' But of a good king, or governor, it is said, 'He nourishes like the king whose breasts are full of milk.' 'Yes; he so rules, that the hearts of the goddess of the earth are full of milk.""

Milk and honey in figurative language are the emblems of fertility; and Bochart observes that this phrase occurs about twenty times in the Scriptures. Milk sometimes denotes the unadulterated word of God, as in 1 Peter 2. 2, compared with Isaiah 55. 1. St. Paul compares some of his converts to little children, to be fed with milk, and not with solid food. (1 Cor. 3. 2; Heb. 5. 12.) A land flowing with milk and honey, as Canaan is de scribed to be, (Josh. 5. 6,) is a country of extraordinary fertility. By the Prophets, the kingdom of the Messiah is represented as a time of great abundance, "when the hills shall flow with milk," (Joel 3. 18;) and Isaiah says to the Church, ch. 60. 16, "Thou shalt also suck the milk of the Gentiles, and shalt also suck the breast of kings."

scarcely differed at all from that which is used at the present day in Egypt and the East. It consisted of two circular stones two feet in diameter and half a foot in thickness. The lower one, called tachtiy, and

pelach, (Deut. 24. 6,) or 'лn n pelach tachthith, (Job 41. 24,) exhibited a slight rise or elevation in the centre, and was fixed in the floor; the upper one, called 7 recheb, (Judges 9. 53,) was moveable, and in order to make it fit the nether one precisely, was

slightly hollowed. In the middle of it was a hole, through which the corn to be ground was admitted. The upper stone had a handle attached to it, by which it was moved upon the lower, and the corn and grain were in this way broken. There were sieves attached to the mill which separated the flour from the bran; the bran was put into the mill again and ground over. The sieves were made of reeds; those made of horse-hair were a later invention. Sir John Chardin remarks, that the persons employed in grinding are "generally female slaves, who are least regarded or are least fitted for anything else; for the work is extremely laborious, and esteemed the lowest employment about the house. Thus it is said, 'And all the first-born in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the first-born of the maid servant that is behind the mill."" (Exod. 11. 5.)

The manner in which the hand-mill is worked in Palestine is thus described by Dr. Edward Daniel Clarke: "Scarcely had we reached the apartment prepared for our reception, when, looking from a window into the court yard belonging to the house, we beheld two women grinding at the mill, in a manner most forcibly illustrating the saying of Our Saviour: Two women shall be grinding at the mill, the one shall be taken and the other left.' They were preparing flour to make our bread, as it is always customary in the country when strangers arrive. The two women seated upon the ground opposite to each other, held between them two round flat stones, such as are seen in Lapland, and such as in Scotland are called querns. In the centre of the upper stone was a cavity for pouring in the corn, and by the side of this an upright wooden handle for moving the stone. As this operation began, one of the women opposite received it from her companion, who pushed it towards her, who again sent it to her companion; thus communicating a rotatory motion to the upper stone, their left hands being all the while employed in supplying fresh corn, as fast as the bran and flour escaped from the sides of the machine."

When they are not impelled, as in this instance, to unusual exertion by the arrival of strangers, the women grind their corn in the morning at break of day; the noise of the mill is then to be heard everywhere, as they bake their bread every day, and commonly grind their corn as it is wanted. The females engaged in this operation beguiled the period of toilsome exertion with a song; and we learn from an expression of Aristophanes preserved by Athenæus, that the Grecian maidens also accompanied the sound of the millstones with their voices. The noise of the millstone is therefore, with great propriety, selected by the prophet as one of the tokens of a populous and thriving country: 'Moreover, I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle, and this whole land shall be a desolation." (Jerem. 25. 10,11.) The custom of daily grinding corn for the family, shows the propriety of the law: "No man shall take the nether or the upper millstone to pledge, for he taketh a man's life to pledge;" because if he take either the upper or the nether millstone, he deprives him of his daily provision, which cannot be prepared without them. The fact that it was performed only by women and menials, displays also the vindictive contempt which suggested the punishment of Samson, the captive ruler of Israel, whom the Philistines, with barbarous contumely, compelled to perform the meanest service of a female slave; they sent him to grind in the prison. (Judges 16. 21.) The prophet Isaiah, speaking of the judgment upon Babylon, says, "Come down, and sit in the

dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldæans. Take the millstones, and grind meal," but not with the wonted song: "Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness," (47. 1,2,5,) there to conceal thy vexation and disgrace. Sir John Gardner Wilkinson describes the mills used by the ancient Egyptians for grinding corn as consisting of two circular stones, nearly flat, the lower one fixed, while the other turned on a pivot or shaft rising from the centre of that beneath it; and the grain, descending through an aperture in the upper stone immediately above the pivot, gradually underwent the process of grinding as it passed. It was turned by a woman, seated, and holding a handle fixed perpendicularly near the edge. Roberts also describes the mill in India as consisting of "two circular stones about eighteen inches in diameter, and three inches thick. The top stone has a handle in it, and works round a pivot, which has a hole connected with it to admit the corn. The mortar also is much used to make rice flour. It is a block of wood, about twenty inches high, and ten inches in diameter, having a hole scooped out in the centre. The pestle is a stick of about four feet long, made of ironwood, having an iron hoop fixed to the end." See AGRICULTURE; MORTAR.

MILLET, dochan. (Ezek. 4.9.) It has been a subject of controversy whether millet or dourra be the dochan mentioned in the above passage, though the rendering of our version is supported by Hiller and Celsius. Millet (Panicum miliaceum of Linnæus) is cultivated not only in the East, but in the South of Europe. The plant rises with a reed-like channelled stalk, from three to four feet high; at every joint there is one seed-like leaf, joined on the top of the sheath, which embraces and covers that joint of the sheath below the leaf and is clothed with soft leaves; the stalk is terminated by a large loose panicle, hanging on one side. In the East millet is used as bread-corn, but in Europe it is almost exclusively employed to feed animals; poultry are fond of the grain, and cattle are partial to its straw. The dourra, (Holcus sorghum,) which may be distinguished on the Egyptian monuments, is still extensively cultivated in Palestine, Syria, Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia. In the countries south of Egypt wheat is scarcely known, and dourra forms the principal product, constituting the chief food of man and beast. Besides being made into bread, much of it is also consumed in the form of pap, seasoned with salt, and sometimes the grains are boiled and eaten like rice. When made into bread it is mixed with oil, butter, camel's milk, and other unctuous substances, and is almost the only food eaten by the common people of Arabia Felix. Niebuhr found it so disagreeable that he would willingly have preferred plain barley bread; but Rauwolf seems to have been of a different opinion, or was not so difficult to please. "Of this grain," he observes, "they bake very well-tasted bread and cakes, and some of them are rolled very thin, and laid together after the manner of a letter; they are about five inches broad, six long, and

Millet.

MILLET

two thick, and of an ashen colour." The grain, however, is greatly inferior to wheat or barley, and must therefore form an indifferent species of bread.

Its

Sir John Gardner Wilkinson, in his enumeration of the products of ancient Egypt, as evinced by paintings and seeds preserved in the tombs, having noticed wheat, beans, lentiles, all which are mentioned in Ezekiel 4. 9; remarks, "Another species of grain, with a single round head, was plucked up by the roots, but formed in the Thebaid, at least, a much smaller proportion of the cultivated produce of the country. height far exceeds the wheat, near which they represent it growing; and its general appearance cannot better answer to any of the order of gramina than to the sorghum or Egyptian dourra." And in another place he observes, "Besides wheat, other crops are represented in the paintings of the tombs; one of which, a tall 'grain, is introduced as a production both of Upper and Lower Egypt. From the colour, the height to which it grows, compared with the wheat, and the appearance of a round yellow head it bears on the top of its bright green stalk, it is evidently intended to represent the dourra, or Holcus sorghum. It was not reaped by a sickle, like the wheat and barley, but men, and sometimes women, were employed to pluck it up; which being done, they struck off the earth that adhered to the roots with their hands, and having bound it in sheaves, they carried it to what may be termed the threshing floor, when, being forcibly drawn through an instrument armed at the summit with metal spikes, the grain was stripped off, and fell upon the well-swept area below; a satisfactory illustration of which is given in one of the agricultural scenes of a tomb at Eilethyas."

MILLO, Ni (2Sam. 5. 9.) Some writers are of opinion that this was a valley in Jerusalem, which separated ancient Jebus from the city of David, but was afterwards filled up by David and Solomon; others say it was a place in Jerusalem adjacent to the city of David: but from the devastation which Jerusalem has so repeatedly suffered, the truth cannot now be determined. All that is really known is the fact that David began to build about Millo, and gave the command of the place to Joab. (1Chron. 11. 8.) There is also mention made, in the reign of Hezekiah, of "Millo, in the city of David," and which therefore must have been either upon Mount Zion, or some place adjacent. (2Chron. 32. 5.)

We also read of the house of Millo as the name of a family. In Judges 9. 6 it is said: "And all the men of Shechem gathered together, and all the house of Millo, and went and made Abimelech king by the plain of the pillar that was in Shechem:" from which it has been concluded that the ". men of the city" were the inferior inhabitants, and "the house of Millo" some powerful family who were the governors of the place; both of whom on this occasion met in the senate-house, to set the crown upon the head of their favourite.

MINCING, taphaph. (Isai. 3. 16.) This phrase occurs in the prophet's description of the behaviour of the "daughters of Jerusalem." The Hebrew word, as well as the Arabic taf, refers to the taking small and quick steps, the affected pace of a coquettish Woman. The passage might be rendered, "they walk and trip along."

MINISTER. See PRIEST.

MINNI, (Jerem. 51. 27,) is the name of an ancient kingdom, the king and troops of which assisted the Medes and Persians to destroy Babylon. According

MINSTREL, minaggin, (2Kings 3. 15;) avλnτns. (Matt. 9. 23.) In these two passages mention is made of minstrels in a manner that calls for some elucidation. In the first Elisha says, "Now bring me a minstrel. And it came to pass, when the minstrel played, that the hand of the Lord came upon him," and he delivered a prophecy of a supply of water to his countrymen, and the destruction of the Edomites. The other passage refers to the raising of Jairus' daughter, and affords another proof of the unchangeableness of customs in the East.

Music was often employed among the Hebrews, more particularly for purposes of a sacred character, and we may suppose that the prophet Elisha commanded the minstrel to sing with his music, a hymn to Jehovah, setting forth his being a God that gave rain, that preserved such as were ready to perish, the giver of victory, and whose power was equally operative in every place. The coming of the spirit of prophecy upon Elisha, enabling him to declare a speedy copious fall of rain, and a complete victory over the enemies of the Israelites immediately upon the submissive compliance of the idolatrous prince Jehoram with the requisition of the prophet; and such a hymn in praise of the God of Israel, appears as probable an interpretation, as the supposing he desired the minstrel to play some soft composing tune to calm his ruffled spirits, and to qualify him for the reception of the influences of the spirit of prophecy. Singing was and is so frequently joined with the sound of musical instruments, that it will generally be supposed the minstrel sang as well as played before Elisha, and especially when it is recollected that songs in the East are frequently extemporaneous. It is natural, therefore, to infer that the prophet required something to be sung suitable both to his character and to the occasion.

when Jesus came into the ruler's house, [he] saw the In the passage in the New Testament it is said, " And minstrels and the people making a noise." This may be illustrated by the present usages in Egypt, where it is sion of a death, to call in women who play on the tabor, customary for the lower class of people, upon the occaand whose business it is, like the hired mourners in other countries, to sing elegiac airs to the sound of that instrument, which they accompany with the most fright

ful distortions of their limbs. These women attend the and friends of the deceased, who commonly have their corpse to the grave, intermixed with the female relations hair in the utmost disorder, their heads covered with dust, their faces daubed with indigo, or at least rubbed with mud, and howling like maniacs. Such were the minstrels whom Our Lord found in the house of Jairus, round the bed on which the dead body of his daughter lay. The instruments employed on such occasions by the minstrels appear to have been pipes, as the Greek word avλnτns denotes. The noise and tumult of these hired mourners, and the other attendants, is excessive, and it appears to commence immediately after the person expires. "The moment," says Sir John Chardin, "any one returns from a long journey, or dies, his family burst into cries that may be heard twenty doors

off; and this is renewed at different times, and continues several days, according to the vigour of the passions. Especially are these cries long and frightful in the case of death." See MOURNING WOMEN; MUSIC AMD MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

MINT, dovoμov, (Matt. 23. 23; Luke 11. 42,) is a well-known garden-herb. The Jewish writers mention mint as one of the herbs to be tithed, and subject to the law of the seventh year; and it seems that it was strewed on the floors of their houses and in their synagogues, probably on account of its agreeable smell. Mint is placed by Theophrastus among those herbs which, from their daily use in domestic economy, were distinguished by the common appellation of λaxava, or potherbs, and were, therefore, largely cultivated by the ancient gardener and husbandman.

MIRACLE, ADİD mophith. (Exod. 7. 9.) Some Some of the strongest arguments for the Divine authority both of the Jewish and the Christian religion, arise from the miracles that were wrought to confirm them, the subject of miraculous interposition is therefore one of great importance, and must ever deserve the particular attention of the Biblical student. Happily for Christians of the present day, the doctrine of miracles has been investigated by a host of able writers during the last and present century, among whom we may especially mention the names of Campbell, Douglas, Farmer, Paley, Gregory, and Chalmers, by whom it has been placed in such a luminous point of view that little remains to be added by any subsequent writer, and we therefore content ourselves with giving a brief statement of their views.

(1.) Definition of Miracles.-A miracle may be defined as an effect or event contrary to the established constitution or course of things, or a sensible suspension or controlment of, or deviation from, the known laws of nature, wrought either by the immediate act, or by the assistance, or by the permission of God, and accompanied with a previous notice, or declaration, that it is performed according to the purpose, and by the power of God, for the proof or evidence of some particular doctrine, or in attestation of the authority or Divine mission of some particular person.

In judging of miracles, there are certain criteria, peculiar to the subject, sufficient to conduct our inquiries, and warrant our determination. Miracles assuredly do not, as a sceptic has asserted, appeal to our ignorance, for they presuppose not only the existence of a general order of things, but our actual knowledge of the appearance which that order exhibits, and of the secondary material causes from which, in most cases, it proceeds. If a miraculous event were effected by the immediate hand of God, and yet bore no mark of distinction from the ordinary effects of his agency, it would impress no conviction, and probably awaken no attention. Our knowledge of the ordinary course of things, though limited, is real; and therefore it is essential to a miracle, both that it differ from that course, and be accompanied with peculiar and unequivocal signs of such dif

ference.

"Thus," observes Dr. Cook, "the production of grain by vegetation is according to a law of nature; were it to fall like rain from the clouds, there would be a miracle. Or, it is a law of nature that the dead return not to life; were a dead person to become alive again, there would be a miracle. It is thus carefully to be distinguished, although the distinction be not often observed, from events of extraordinary magnificence or unusual occurA miracle, indeed, must be unusual; but events

rence.

any

may be both unusual and magnificent which are not miraculous. The appearance of a comet is unusual, and a violent thunder-storm is magnificent; but in neither the one nor the other is there a suspension or alteration of of nature's laws. All the various appearances, indeed, which material or mental phenomena may, according to those laws, assume, we are perhaps far from knowing. But it is one thing to assume an appearance, which, although a variety, is obviously, from its analogy, resolvable into a general law, and another, to suspend or reverse the law; and it is by this total alteration of what, from ample experience and induction, even we, with all our ignorance, can safely pronounce to be a law of nature, that a miracle must be distinguished from every other phenomenon. We ascertain these laws by an experience so extensive and uniform, that it produces a certainty of expectation scarcely inferior to the certainty accompanying the testimony of our senses: this undoubted permanency being the foundation of all those rules of conduct in the affairs of life, which are the same in all generations, and implied in all the most brilliant discoveries and profound calculations in the science of physics."

"No event," says Bishop Gleig, "can be justly deemed miraculous merely because it is strange, or even to us unaccountable; for it may be nothing more than the regular effect of some physical cause operating according to an established though unknown law of nature. In this country earthquakes happen but rarely, and at no stated periods of time; yet an earthquake is as regular an effect of the established laws of nature as the bursting of a bomb-shell, or the movements of a steam-engine. It is therefore necessary, before we can pronounce an event to be a true miracle, that the circumstances under which it was produced be known, and that the common course of nature be in some degree understood; for in all those cases in which we are totally ignorant of nature, it is impossible to determine what is, or what is not, a deviation from her course. Miracles, therefore, are not, as some have represented them, appeals to our ignorance. They suppose some antecedent knowledge of the course of nature, without which no proper judgment can be formed concerning them; though with it their reality may be so apparent as to leave no room for doubt or disputation. Thus, were a physician to give instantly sight to a blind man, by anointing his eyes with a che mical preparation, which we had never before seen, and to the nature and qualities of which we were absolute strangers, the cure would to us undoubtedly be wonderful; but we could not pronounce it miraculous, because it might be the physical effect of the operation of the unguent on the eye. But were he to give sight to his patient merely by commanding him to receive it, or by anointing his eyes with spittle, we should with the utmost confidence pronounce the cure to be a miracle; because we know perfectly that neither the human voice, nor human spittle, has, by the established constitution of things, any such power over the diseases of the eye. No one is now ignorant, that persons apparently dead are often restored to their families and friends by being treated, during suspended animation, in the manner recommended by the Humane Society. To the vulgar, and sometimes even to men of science, these resuscitations appear very wonderful, but as they are known to be effected by physical agency, they can never be considered as miraculous deviations from the laws of nature, though they may suggest to different minds very different notions of the state of death. On the other hand, no one could doubt of his having witnessed a real miracle, who had seen a person that had been four days dead, come alive out of the grave at the call of another, or who had