cording to another derivation, bright, deep, red dye. For both significations sufficient grounds and old authorities might be quoted; but the former is the most usual, and, on account of its analogy with dißaQov, seems to be the most probable. But was the coccus known so early? Is not tola, the worm-dye, perhaps the same with purple, because the ancients made no distinction between vermis and snail? I believe not. For purple the orientals have a particular name, argaman, argevan, which is accurately distinguished from tola, and is often added to it as something distinct. All the ancients therefore translate the Hebrew word tola by nonnos, kermes, zehori, and nehorito (deep red, bright dye), which words they never put for argaman. the Phoenicians traded at so early a period with Spain and other countries, where the kermes are indigenous, it may be readily comprehended how that dye was known in Palestine about and before the time of Moses. It must have been known also in Egypt about the same epoch; for when Moses, in the wilderness, required scarlet to ornament the tabernacle, it could have been procured only from that country. Whether kermes be indigenous in Egypt, I do not know. On the word naharov, quoted by Bochart from Hesychius as Egyptian, the abbreviation of which, laia, in the Ethiopic language signifies scarlet, I lay no great stress, because it cannot be proved, 1st, That the word is originally Egyptian, as it occurs several times in the Greek' writers and in various significations; and 2ndly, That it signifies scarlet dye, because the ancients explain it sometimes by purple, sometimes by sea-colour. See Bochart, 1. c. p. 730. If the word be Egyptian, it signifies rather red dye in general than defines purple colour. At any rate, there is in Coptic for the latter a peculiar word, scadschi, or sanhadschi. The latter is explained by Kircher in Prodrom. Copt. p. 337, mercator purpura, vermiculus coccineus, purpura; which is altogether vague and contradictory. The Arabic lexicographer, whom he ought to have translated, gives a meaning which expresses only purple ware. If one might venture a supposition respecting the language of a people whose whole history is almost bare conjecture, I would ask if the Coptic dholi was the name of scarlet in Egypt. The lexicographers explain it by a worm, a moth; but in those passages of the translation of the Bible which I have compared, another word is always used, when allusion is made to worms which gnaw or destroy. Was dholi the name of the worm that yields a dye? As dholi sounds almost like the Hebraeo-Phoenician tola, we might further conjecture that the Egyptians received both the name and the thing signified from the Phoenicians. But this is mere opinion. The following conclusions seem to be the natural result of the above observations. 1st. Scarlet, or the kermes dye, was known in the east in the earliest ages, before Moses, and was a discovery of the Pho nicians in Palestine, but certainly not of the small wandering Hebrew tribes. 2d. Tola was the ancient Phoenician name used by the Hebrews, and even by the Syrians; for it is employed by the Syrian translator, Isaiah, chap. i. ver. 18. Among the Jews, after their captivity, the Aramæan word zehori was more common. 3d. This dye was known also to the Egyptians in the time of Moses; for the Israelites must have carried it along with them from Egypt. 4th. The Arabs received the name kermes, with the dye, from Armenia and Persia, where it was indigenous, and had been long known; and that name banished the old name in the east, as the name scarlet has in the west. For the first part of this assertion we must believe the Arabs. 5th. Kerines were perhaps not known in Arabia; at least they were not indigenous, as the Arabs appear to have had no name for them. 6th. Kermes signifies always red dye; and when pronounced short, it becomes deep red. I consider it, therefore, as a mere error of the translation when, in Avicenna, iii. Fen. 21, 13, kermesiah is translated purpureitas. It ought to be coccineum." The following remarks of M. Goguet upon this curious subject are too important to be overlooked. "Opinions are divided as well as to the sense of the Hebrew word, as to the coccus by which the Septuagint and Vulgate have translated it. Some think that it is crimson, others that it is scarlet. By adopting the translation of the Septuagint and the Vulgate, which I believe right, it is easy to show that the colour called coccus by the Greeks and Romans is scarlet, very different from crimson. The examination of the materials proper for one and the other colour ought to decide the question. "Crimson, properly so called, is of a deep red, and is made with cochineal, an ingredient absolutely unknown to antiquity. Scarlet is of a lively and bright red. To make this dye, they use a sort of little reddish grains, which they gather from a kind of holm oak, a dwarf tree common in Palestine, in the Isle of Crete, and many other countries 33. They find on the leaves and on the bark of this shrub, little nuts or bladders about the size of juniper berries." These excrescences are occasioned by the eating of little worms 34. The Arabians have given them the name of kermes.'-Let us apply these principles to the question in hand. 6 33 P. Roger, Voyage de la Terre Sainte, l. 1. c. 2. Moncony's Voyage, part i. p. 179. Belon. Obs. 1. 1. c. 17. 1. 2. c. 88. Acad. des Scien. 1714. Mem. p. 435. An. 1741. Mem. p. 50. 34 Exod. xxv. 4. Plin. l. ix. c. 65. Quinctil. Inst. Or. l. 1. c. 2. at Rome scarlet was allowed to every body, but the purple was reserved for the highest diguities. "It is certain that the ancients had a red colour much esteemed, called 'coccus,' which they distinguished from the purple. The coccus differed from the purple, as well by its preparation, as by its shade and the effect of the colour. Purple, as we have seen, was of a deep red approaching to coagulated blood, and was dyed with a liquor of certain shell-fishes. The coccus, on the contrary, was of a gay red, lively, bright, approaching to the colour of fire 35. This dye was made with a sort of little grains, which they gathered on the holm oak 36. The ancients even called these the fruits of the holm oak 7. Neither were they ignorant that these pretended fruits enclosed worms 38. After this exposition, it clearly appears that the colour named coccus by the ancients was our scarlet. The Septuagint and Vulgate having translated by that word the Hebrew term used by Moses to design a red colour, other than purple, it follows that they believed he meant the scarlet. But independently of the authority and consideration which these interpreters deserve, the etymology of the terms, of the original text proves the truth of the sentiment which I propose. We see there plainly intended, a dye made with worms. "But I do not think that this colour was as brilliant as that which we now call scarlet. I even doubt whether the ancients could approach towards it. Let us not forget, that before chemical discoveries, the art of dying must have been very imperfect. Without the preparations which chemistry affords, we could not dye stuffs fine scarlet. This is the most bright and beautiful colour in dying; but one of the most difficult to bring to its point of perfection." In Exod. xxv. 4; xxviii. 8, et al. nyn TOLAAT, the worm or colouring matter, is joined with SHANI, which signifies "to repeat," or "double," and implies that to strike this colour, the wool or cloth was twice dipped; hence the Vulgate renders the original "coccum bis tinctum," scarlet twice dyed. And that this was usual among the ancients is certain from many passages which might be quoted. Thus Horace, l. ii. od. xvi. v. 35. "Te bis Afro Muricæ tinctæ The wool with Afric's purple double dyed. 35 Plin. N. H. 1. ix. c. 65. p. 528. 1. xxi. c. 22. p. 240. 36 Theophrast. Hist. plant. 1. iii. c. 16. Plin. 1. xvi. c. 12. Dioscorid. 1. iv. c. 48. Pauss. 1. 10. c. 36. 37 Пgive xagrov. Plut. in Thess. p. 7. Plin. l. xvi. c. 12, calls these little grains "cusculia," from the Greek xoxoλλ, which signifies to cut little EXCRESCENCES; because in effect they cut and scrape these small grains off the bark and leaves of the tree. 38 Coccum ilicis celerrime in vermiculum se mutans." Plin. l. xxiv. c. 4. BB And again, Epod. xii. v. 21. "Muricibus Tyriis iteratæ vellera lanæ.” The wools with Tyrian purple double dyed. And Pliny, N. H. l. ix. c. 16, mentions "dibapha Tyria," called dibapha," says he, because it was twice dyed ("bis tincta”), at a great expense. The word rendered "scarlet," in Dan. v. 7, 16, 29, should be purple. The scarlet mentioned in the New Testament, Matth. xxvii. 28; Hebr. ix. 19; and Rev. xvii. 3, 4, is nonиwvos, or coccus colour 39. See RED and PURPLE. SCORPION. y OKRAB. Occ. Deut. viii. 15; 1 Kings, xii. 11, 14; 2 Chron. x. 11, 14; and Ezek. ii. 6. EKOPIOZ, Luke, x. 9; xi. 12; Rev. ix. 3; and Ecclesiasticus, xxvi. 7; xxxix. 30. It has been remarked, that the name is formed of two words, which signify to kill one's father, and hence means "the fatherkiller;" and both Pliny and Aristotle informs us that it is the character of the scorpion to destroy its own parents. But Parkhurst derives the name from py to press, squeeze, and much, greatly, or near, close. Calmet remarks, that "it fixes violently on such persons as it seizes upon, that it cannot be plucked off without difficulty;" and Martinus, Lex. Etymol. in Nepa, declares, "habent scorpii forfices seu furcas tanquam brachia, quibus retinent quod apprehendunt, postquam caudæ aculeo punxerunt." Scorpions have pincers or nippers, with which they keep hold of what they seize after they have wounded it with their sting. The word Ekreb, and plural Ukraban, is found in the lexicon of Meninski, 3256 and 3297, as the name of the scorpion; the Arabs still retain the name; and there is no difficulty in determining the animal. The scorpion, el-akerb is generally two inches in length, and resembles so much the lobster in form, that the latter is called by the Arabs "akerb d'elbahar," the sea-scorpion. It has several joints or divisions in its tail, which are supposed to be indicative of its age; thus, if it have five, it is considered to be five years old. The poison of this animal is in its tail, at the end of which is a small, curved, sharp-pointed sting, similar to the prickle of a buck-thorn tree; the curve being downwards, it turns its tail upwards when it strikes a blow. 39 This is a crimson approaching to the purple. Hebr. yn xoxxivov, cramosinum. To illustrate Matth. xxvii. 28, comp. Philo in Flaccum, where Carobas, a mock king of Egypt, is dressed in this colour. In John, xix. 2, the Syriac gives , which answers to the Hebrew 18 and is rendered by the Greeks, as the LXX, Togovgov; yet the colour 8, is the same, or nearly that expressed Thus Isai. i. 18; the Septuagint renders ws PoIVINOV, Lat. Vulgate, "coccinum." The scorpion delights in stony places and in old ruins. Some are of a yellow colour, others brown, and some black. The yellow possess the strongest poison, but the venom of each affects the part wounded, with frigidity, which takes place soon after the sting has been inflicted. Dioscorides, 1. vii. c. 7, thus describes the effect produced: "where the scorpion has stung, the place becomes inflamed and hardened; it reddens by tension, and is painful by intervals, being now chilly, now burning. The pain soon rises high, and rages, sometimes more, sometimes less. A sweating succeeds, attended by a shivering and trembling; the extremities of the body become cold; the groin swells; the hair stands on end: the visage becomes pale; and the skin feels throughout it, the sensation of perpetual prickling, as if by needles." This description strikingly illustrates Rev. ix. 3, 4, 5, 10, in its mention of "the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man 40" Some writers consider the scorpion as a species of serpent, because the poison of it is equally powerful: so the sacred writers commonly join the scorpion and serpent together in their descriptions. Thus Moses, in his farewell address to Israel, Deut. viii. 15, reminds them, that God "led them through the great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents and scorpions." We find them again united in the commission of our Lord to his disciples, Luke, x. 19; "I give you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy;" and, in his directions concerning the duty of prayer, Luke, xi. 11, 12. "If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?" The scorpion is contrasted with an egg, on account of the oval shape of its body. The body of the scorpion, says Lamy 41, is very like an egg, as its head can scarcely be distinguished; especially if it be a scorpion of the white kind, which is the first species mentioned by Elian, Avicenna, and others. Bochart has produced testimonies to prove that the scorpions in Judea were about the bigness of an egg. So the similitude is preserved between the thing asked and given. The Greeks have a proverb, 'anti Tεguns σnogov, instead of a perch, or fish, a scorpion 42 Celsius 43 and Hiller conjecture that in 1 Kings, xii. 11; 2 Chron. x. 11; and Ezek. ii. 6, a thorn is spoken of, whose prickles are of a venomous nature, called by the Arabians, scorpion thorns." But, in the first of these places, the Chaldee 66 40 For an account of the scorpion see Pliny, N. H. 1. xi. c. 25. Tertullian, in his book called "Scorpiacum," has well described the scorpion: see also Scheuchzer, Phys. Sacr. tab. cccxxxiii. 41 Apparat. Bibl. b. iii. c. 2, § 8. 43 Hierobot. p. ii. p. 45. 42 Erasm chiliad. 44 Hierophyt. c. 42. |