the islands of the Archipelago;" upon which, Mr. Harmer, Obs. V. ii. p. 337, thus reasons, "if an imported article in these times, we cannot suppose the enslaved Israelites were acquainted with it, when residing in Egypt in those elder times. Perhaps the roots of the colocassia might be meant, which are large, Maillet tells us, almost round, and of a reddish colour; and, as being near akin to the nymphea, are probably very cooling." See ONION. GIER-EAGLE. RACHAM. Occ. Levit. xi. 18; and Deut. xvi. 17, only. per As the root of this word signifies tenderness and affection, it is supposed to refer to some bird remarkable for its attachment to its young; hence some have thought that the Pelican is to be understood; and Bochart endeavours to prove that the golden vulture is meant; but there can be no doubt that it is the cnopterus of the ancients, the ach-bobba of the Arabians, particularly described by Bruce under the name of Rachamah. He says, "we know from Horus Apollo, l. i. c. 11, that the Rachma, or she-vulture, was sacred to Isis, and adorned the statue of the goddess; that it was the emblem of parental affection; and that it was the hieroglyphic for an affectionate mother." He farther says, that "this female vulture, having hatched her young ones, continues with them one hundred and twenty days, providing them with all necessaries; and, when the stock of food fails them, she tears off the fleshy part of her thigh, and feeds them with that and the blood which flows from the wound." In this sense of attachment we see the word used with great propriety, 1 Kings, iii. 26; Isai. xlix. 15; and Lamentations, iv. 10. Hasselquist, (p. 194,) thus describes the Egyptian vulture. (Vultur percnopterus.) "The appearance of the bird is as horrid as can well be imagined. The face is naked and wrinkled, the eyes are large and black, the beak black and crooked, the talons large, and extended ready for prey; and the whole body polluted with filth. These are qualities enough to make the beholder shudder with horror. Notwithstanding this, the inhabitants of Egypt cannot be enough thankful to Providence for this bird. All the places round Cairo are filled with the dead bodies of asses and camels; and thousands of these birds fly about and devour the carcasses, before they putrify and fill the air with noxious exhalations." No wonder that such an animal 3 From Dr. Russell we learn, that at Aleppo, the “Vultur_percnopterus" of Linnæus is called '77, which is evidently the same with the Hebrew on, and .רהמה the Arabic 4 The figure which Gessner, de Avib. p. 176, has given of it, Dr. Shaw says, is a very exact and good one. 66 Descriptionem ejus avis, quæ Arabibus Rachaeme audit, accuratissimam dedit Hasselquist in Itiner. p. 286, qui nomen ei indidit Vulturis percnopteri, capite nudo, gula plumosa; quo nomine etiam comparet in Syst. Linn. t. i. p. 1. p. 249. Rosenmuller. should be deemed unclean. This insatiable appetite seems to be alluded to in Prov. xxx. 16, where its name is unhappily translated "womb." The wise man describing four things which are never satisfied, says, they are the grave, and the ravenous racham, the earth, that is always drinking in the rain, and the fire that consumeth every thing." Here the grave which devours the buried body, and the racham the unburied, are pertinently joined together. See EAGLE and VULTURE. GLASS. ΥΑΛΟΣ. This word occurs Rev. xxi. 18, 21; and the adjective vaλivos, Rev. iv. 6; xv. 2. Parkhurst says, that in the later Greek writers, and in the New Testament, vaλoç denotes the artificial substance, glass; and that we may either with Mintert, derive it from λ, splendour," or immediately from the Hebrew, ελη, "to shine." So Horace, 1. iii. od. 13, v. 1. "O fons Blandusiæ, splendidior vitro." O thou Blandusian spring, more bright than glass. And Ovid, Hesiod. Epist. xv. v. 158. "Vitreo magis pellucidus amne." Clearer than the glassy stream. There seems to be no reference to glass in the Old Testament. The art of making it was not known. De Neri, indeed, will have it as ancient as Job; for the writer of that poem, ch. xxviii. 17, speaking of wisdom, says "gold and glass shall not be equalled to it." This, we are to observe, is the reading of the Septuagint, Vulgate, Latin, St. Jerom, Pineda, &c. for in the English version we read "crystal;" and the same is expressed in the Chaldee, Arias Montanus, and the king of Spain's edition. In other versions it is rendered "stone;" in some "beryl;" in the Italian, Spanish, French, Dutch, &c. "diamond;" in others "carbuncle;" and in the Targum, "mirror." The original word is 'ZECHUCHITH, which is derived from the root zacac, to shine, be white, transparent; and it is applied, Exod. xxx. 34, to frankincense, and rendered in the Septuagint pellucid. Hence the reason of so many different renderings; for the word signifying beautiful and transparent, in the general, the translators were at liberty to apply to it whatever was pure or bright. See CRYSTAL. Most authors will have Aristophanes to be the first who mentions glass; but the word he uses is ambiguous, and may as well be understood of crystal. Aristotle has two problems upon glass; but the learned doubt very much whether they be original. The first author, therefore, who made unquestionable mention of this matter, is Alexander Aphrodiscus. After him, the word vaños occurs commonly enough. Lucian mentions 5 See his Comedy of the Clouds, Scene i. Act 2. large drinking glasses. And Plutarch, in his Symposiacon, says that the fire of the tamarisk wood is fittest for making glass. Among the Latin writers, Lucian is the first who takes notice of glass. Pliny relates the manner in which this substance was discovered. It was found, he says, by accident in Syria, at the mouth of the river Belus, by certain merchants driven thither by the fortune of the sea. Being obliged to live there, and dress their victuals by making a fire on the ground, and there being much of the plant kali upon the spot, this herb being burnt to ashes, and the sand or stones of the place accidentally mixed with it, a vitrification was made; from whence the hint was taken and easily improved. This, says De Pau, is probably a fabulous narrative. Mankind had made fire in this same way, many thousand years before the existence of the town of Tyre; and in certain cases, even the ashes of wood or dried herbs, are sufficient solvents. It was, therefore, superfluous to suppose that these adventurers had the good fortune to find some alkali; and this circumstance has evidently been added afterwards to support an incongruous fable. The concourse of fortuitous causes has not been so powerful, in all such inventions, as people generally imagine; and the procedures must have been developed one after another. Chance seems, indeed, to have little to do in the discovery of glass, which could only be a consequence of the art of pottery. In Egypt, the people, in burning their earthen pots, might have discovered, sooner than the inhabitants of other countries, all the different stages of vitrification; accordingly ancient historians agree, almost unanimously, that glass was known to the Ethiopians; the glasshouse of the great Diospolis, the capital of the Thebais, seems to be the most ancient regular fabric of the kind. They even had the art of chiseling and turning glass, which they formed into vases and cups. The Roman poets speak of these fragile goblets, as unfavourable to their parties of pleasure. So Martial, I. xi. "Tolle puer calices, tepidi toreumata Nili; Et mihi secura pocula trade manu." This passage is explained by one in the xiith book, as well as by the following lines: "Non sumus audacis plebeia toreumata vitri; Aspicis ingenium Nili, quibus addere plura Dum cupit, ah! quoties perdidit auctor opus." So that the factitious, transparent substance, now known to us by the name of glass, may probably enough be referred to in the New Testament by the Greek word veλos; though, as we noted before, it is not mentioned in the Old Testament. Our translators have rendered the Hebrew word 2 MA6 Recherches sur les Egyptiennes. ROTH, in Exodus, xxxiii. 8, and Job, xxxvii. 18, "lookingglass." But the making mirrors of glass, coated with quicksilver, is an invention quite modern. Dr. Adam Clarke has a note upon this place in Exodus, where our version represents Moses as making" the laver of brass, and the foot of it of brass, of the looking-glasses of the women." He says, "Here metal highly polished must certainly be meant, as glass was not yet in use; and had it been, we are sure that looking-GLASSES could not make a BRAZEN laver. The word, therefore, should be rendered mirrors, not looking-glasses, which in the above verse is perfectly absurd, because from those MAROTH, the brazen laver was made. The first mirrors known among men were the clear still fountain, and unruffled lake. The first artificial ones were apparently made of brass, afterwards of polished steel, and when luxury increased, they were made of silver; but they were made at a very early period of mixed metal, particularly of tin and copper, the best of which, as Pliny tells us, were formerly manufactured at Brundusium. Optima apud majores fuerant Brundisina, stanno et ære mixtis.' Hist. Nat. 1. xxxiii. c. 9. But according to him the most esteemed were those made of tin: and he says that silver mirrors became so common that even the servant girls used them. 'Specula (ex stanno) laudatissima, Brundusii temperabuntur; donec argenteis uti cœpere et ancillæ.' Lib. xxxiv. c. 17. When the Egyptian women went to the temples, they always carried their mirrors with them. The Israelitish women probably did the same; and Dr. Shaw states, that the Arab women carry them constantly hung at their breasts. It is worthy of remark, that at first these women freely gave up their ornaments for this important service, and now give their very mirrors, probably as being of very little service, seeing they had already given up the principal decorations of their persons. Woman has been invidiously defined, a creature fond of dress, (though this belongs to the whole human race, and not exclusively to woman). Had this been true of the Israelitish women, in the present case we must say, they nobly sacrificed their incentives to pride to the service of their God." On the other hand, Dr. Geddes says, that "the word from, though it occurs above a hundred times in the Hebrew Scriptures, never elsewhere signifies a mirror. Why then should it have that siguification here? especially as in the whole Pentateuch, a mirror is not so much as mentioned under any denomination: nor, indeed, as far as I know, in any Hebrew writing prior to the Babylonish captivity7. 7 I know that Job, xxvii. 18, has been alleged as a proof, where phas been by moderns rendered "sicut speculum fusum"-" as a molten lookingglass." But besides that, the word here is 7, not MD, it is very doubtful whether be well rendered "speculum." I have endeavoured to show the contrary in my C. R. on that place. At any rate it cannot be brought as a proof, that 7 in Exodus has the same meaning. "The first time I meet with a mirror in the Bible, is in the book of Wisdom, vii. 26, the unspotted mirror of the power of God.' What Hebrew word, (if the book were ever in Hebrew) corresponded with eroTrgov, we know not; but it could not, Í think, be . The term which the Syriac translator of Wisdom uses to express a mirror is ; and the same term is employed by the Syriac translator of the New Testament in 1 Cor. xiii. 12, and in James, i. 13." After examining the oriental versions and various readings Dr. Geddes seems assured, that the only proper rendering of the passage is," he made the laver under the inspection of the women, who ministered at the entry of the door of the convention tent.' It may be remarked that the word "looking-glass" occurs in our version of Ecclesiasticus, xii. 11. "Never trust thine enemy; for like as iron [marg. brass] rusteth, so is his wickedness. Though he humble himself, and go crouching, yet take good heed and beware of him, and thou shalt be unto him as if thou hadst washed a looking-glass, and thou shalt know that his rust hath not been altogether wiped away." This passage proves, by its mention of rust, that mirrors were then made of polished metal. In reprobating in the daughters of Sion their superfluities of ornamental dress, Isaiah says, ch. iii. 23, that they shall be stripped of their jewels, &c. and our version includes their glasses; but Bp. Lowth, Dr. Stock, and Mr. Dodson, render it "transparent garments," like gauze; worn only by the most delicate women, and such as preferred elegance to decency of habit. This sort of garments was afterwards in use among the Greeks. Prodicus, in his celebrated fable, exhibits the personage of Sloth in this dress. "Her robe betray'd Through the clear texture, every tender limb, Her stature show'd more tall, more snowy white her skin.” This, like other Grecian fashions, was received at Rome when luxury began under the emperors9; and it was sometimes worn even by the men, but looked upon as a mark of extreme effeminacy 10 The word εrogov, or mirror, occurs in 1 Cor. xiii. 12, and James, i. 23. Dr. Pearce thinks that in the former place it signifies any of those transparent substances which the ancients used in their windows, and through which they saw external objects obscuredly. But others are of opinion that the word 8 "elegantius, quam necesse esset probis." 9 The robes were called "multitia" and "Coa" by the Romans, from their being invented, or rather brought into fashion by one Pamphila, from the isle of Cos. 10 Juvenal, sat. ii. v. 65. |