that law, he had a particular view to designed and malicious conflagrations, since the corn lies in the heap but a very little while, and yet it is expressly mentioned, as what might probably be its state, when a fire was kindled.

This circumstance discovers an impropriety in our translation of Exod. xxii. 6, where these heaps are called stacks of corn. The stacking of corn, in our agricultural language, means, the collecting corn in the straw into heaps, larger or smaller as it happens, designed to continue for some considerable space of time; whereas the heaps of the East are only the disposing the corn into a proper form, to be immediately trodden out. They are not wont

to stack corn, in our sense of the word, in those countries.

The term shock, by which the word w gadeesh is translated in two other places, is less exceptionable, but not perfectly expressive of the original idea. We put together, or heap up our corn, not fully ripe, in parcels which are called shocks, that it may more perfectly ripen after being cut, but the original word

gadeesh, means an heap of corn fully ripe, (see Job v. 26,) means, in a word, the heaps of the Eastern threshing-floors, ready to be trodden out.

The substances on which fire is supposed first to fasten, is expressed by a word which is translated in our version thorns, and is rendered so nine times out of the ten in which it occurs, (in

the tenth it is thistles; but as a kindred word is translated summer, and summer-fruits, may it not be queried then, whether it does not properly signify, the vegetables that are wont to wither and grow so sear as easily to catch fire? of which many may be of the prickly kind, (which quality is undoubtedly pointed out, in some of the places in which this Hebrew word is used,) though not all, and among the rest thistles, which seared vegetables Dr. Chandler calls the undergrowth, p. 276.

I will only add farther, that the setting the grass and undergrowth on fire in the East, has been practised in these countries to annoy their enemies, and has sometimes occasioned great terror and distress. I remember to have seen an account of the making use of this stratagem, in the Gesta Dei per Francos. It appears also, I think, to have been practised anciently, from those words in Isaiah: When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burnt; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee, ch. xliii. 2.

So we find, in Dr. Hawksworth's account of the late voyages to the South Seas, the wild inhabitants of New South Wales endeavoured to destroy some tents and stores, belonging to Captain Cook's ship, when he was endeavour

Which are represented by Dr. Russell, in his account of the natural history of Aleppo, as dry in the deserts, and eaten by the camels in that state, as they pass through those parched places.

ing to repair its damages, by setting fire to the long grass of that country, and it had like to have been attended with terrible consequences. It appears then to be a stratagem naturally made use of, by nations little advanced in the arts of human life, and consequently, it may be supposed, by the people of antiquity.

OBSERVATION XXV.

Different Kinds of destructive Insects in Judea.

WE are so little acquainted with the various species of destructive insects that ravage the Eastern countries, that it may be thought extremely difficult to determine what kind was meant by Solomon, in his prayer at the dedication of the Temple, 2 Chron. vi. 28. by the word chaseel, which our version renders caterpillars, and which is distinguished by him there from the locusts, which genus is so remarkable for eating up almost every green thing; but a passage of Sir John Chardin may, probably, illustrate that part of Solomon's address to him whom he considered as the GoD of universal nature.

The paragraph of Solomon's prayer is this: When heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; if they pray towards this place, &c. . . . . If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, or if there be caterpillars;

if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities, &c. . . Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, &c.

The causes of famine, reckoned up here, are want of rain, blasting, mildew, locusts, and caterpillars, according to our translation; with which may be compared the following passage of the above mentioned very observing traveller, in the second tome of his Travels.*

1

"Persia is subject to have its harvest spoiled, by hail, by drought, or by insects, either locusts, or small insects, which they call sim, which are small white lice,' which fix themselves on the foot of the stalk of corn, gnaw it, and make it die. It is rare for a year to be exempt from one or the other of these scourges, which affect the ploughed lands and the gardens," &c.

The enumeration by Solomon, and that of this modern writer, though not exactly alike, yet so nearly resemble each other, that one would be inclined to believe, these small insects are what Solomon meant, by the word translated caterpillars in our English version.

* P. 245. 1 Pucerons is the French term, which is often translated vine-fretters; but as I apprehend many of the small insects which live upon various kinds of vege tables, as well as animals, are called lice, I thought these. small insects which destroy the stalks of corn, would be better expressed by the term lice, than vine-fretters, which, by their name, should be supposed rather to injure vine. yards than corn.fields.

OBSERVATION XXVI.

Curious Account of Locusts.

Ir seems that the movements of locusts are not always the same way: they have sometimes been observed to come from the Southward; but those the Prophet Joel speaks of were to come in an opposite direction," and they have sometimes been accordingly known to come from the North.

Some may have been ready to imagine, on this account, that Joel was speaking not of real locusts, but of the Chaldeans," or some other desolating army of men that should come from the North. But the Baron de Tott assures us, that he found them coming in great numbers from Tartary towards Constantinople, which lies to the South of that country.

"I saw no appearance of culture on my route, because the Noguais avoid the cultivation of frequented places. Their harvest by the sides of roads would serve only as pasture to travellers' horses. But if this precaution

m Ch. ii. 20. "But I will remove far from you the Northern army, and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face towards the East sea, and his hinder part towards the utmost sea; and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up."

n So St. Jerom in his Comment on Joel."

• The Tartars,