Prosper Alpinus, speaking of the several, qualities of this plant, observes, that clusters of its flowers are seen hanging tos the ceilings of houses in Cairo, &c. to render the air more moderate and pure 80.

Mr. Harmer has given a particular account of this plant in his į very valuable "Outlines of a Commentary on Solomon's Song,"s extracted from Rauwolf. The plant is also described by Hasi selquist, Shaw, and Russell; who all attribute to it the same qualities. But the most exact account is to be found in Sonnini's Travels, accompanied with a beautiful drawing que CANE.

.KANEH קנה

81

A reed common in Arabia and Syria. The word is also used to signify calamus aromaticus, sometimes alone, as Cantic. iv. 14;) Isai. xliii. 24; Ezek. xxvii. 19; and sometimes with the addition of wa, Exod. xxx. 23, and , Jerem. vi. 20.

The calamus aromaticus is a plant of India and Arabia. While growing, it scents the air with a fragrant smell, and when cut down, dried, and powdered, makes an ingredient in the richest perfumes 82

This plant was probably among the number of those, which the queen of Sheba presented to Solomon; and what seems to confirm the opinion is, that it is still very much esteemed by the Arabs on account of its fragrance.

This is the sweet cane of Jeremiah. "To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba, and the rich aromatic reed from a far country?" It is spoken of, Isai. xliii. 24, as being costly, and applied to sacred uses. Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. 1. ix. c. 7, and Pliny, after him, Nat. Hist. 1. xii. § 48, say that this reed, and that of the very best sort too, grew in Syria, near Mount Libanus. But had this been the case, it can hardly be supposed, says Dr. Blaney, that the Jews would have taken the trouble of fetching it from "a far country." It is most probable that this reed, as well as the frankincense, came to them from Saba where it grew, as we are informed by Strabo, 1. xvi. p. 778, and by Diodorus Siculus, 1. iii. p. 125, ed. Rhodom. Pliny also in the place above cited, speaks of it as a native of Arabia; and Dionysius, in his Periegesis, v. 935, enumerates it among the fragrant productions of that country. Saba, we know, was situated towards the southern extremity of the Peninsula of Arabia; so that it was indeed, with respect to Judea, "a far country," as it is also said to be, Joel, iii. 8. And our Saviour, speaking of its queen, whom he calls "the queen of the South," says that she came "from the extreme parts of the earth.” Matth. xii. 42. In the book of Exodus, also, it is said to come from " a far country."

80 Nat. Hist. Egypt. tom. ii. p. 193.

81 Vol. i. p. 164.

$2 Dioscorides, lib. 1. c. 17. Plin. N. H. lib. xii. c. 22. Celsius, Hierobot. V. 2. p. 313. Hiller, Hierophyt. ii. 36.

+

Some have supposed the sugar cane intended, Isai. xliii. 24, and Jerem. vi. 208.

-The sugar cane is a native of the East, and has been cultivated there time immemorial. It was first valued for its agreeable juices afterwards boiled into a syrup; and, in process of time, an inebriating spirit was prepared by fermentation. This is confirmed by the etymology; for the Arabic word 0 is evidently derived from the Hebrew w, which signifies an intoxicating liquor. When the Indians began to make the cane juice into sugar," says Mr. Grainger, "I cannot discover. Probably it soon found its way into Europe, in that form, first by the Red Sea, and afterwards through Persia, by the Black Sea, and Caspian. But the plant itself was not known to Europe till the Arabians introduced it into the southern parts of Spain, Sicily, and those provinces of France, which border on the Pyrenean mountains. From the Mediterranean the Spaniards and Portuguese transported it to the Azores, the Madeira, the Canary, and the Cape de Verd islands, soon after they had discovered it in the fifteenth century; and in most of these, par ticularly Madeira, it throve exceedingly; and, 1506, Ferdinand the Catholic ordered the cane to be carried from the Canaries to St. Domingo, and cultivated there," See CALAMUS, REED. CANKER-WORM. ALEK.

Occ. Psal. cv. 34, and Jerem. li. 27, where it is rendered "caterpillar." Joel, i. 4, ii. 25, and Nahum. iii. 15, “cankerworm."

According to the opinion of Adam Genselius 85, ialek is an insect which principally ravages the vineyards, called by the Greeks, II, II. Pliny calls it convolvulus, volvox 86; Columella calls it volucra 87; and Plautus, involvulus 88; because it deposits its eggs in the leaves, and occasions them to roll themselves up. It is known wherever the vine is cultivated.

As it is frequently mentioned with the locust, it is thought by some to be a species of that insect. It certainly cannot be the canker-worm, as our version renders it; for in Nahum, it is expressly said to have wings and fly, to camp in the hedges by day, and commit its depredations in the night. But it may be, as the Septuagint renders it in five passages out of eight where it occurs, the bruchus, or hedge-chafer 89. Nevertheless, the passage, Jerem. li. 27, where the ialek is described as "rough," that

83 See "The History of Sugar in the early and middle Ages," by Dr. Falconer, in V. 4. of the Transactions of the Manchester Society. Robertson's India, and Franklin's Hist. of Egypt, V. 1. p. 174.

84 Grainger's Sugar Cane, a poem, p. 2, note.

85 Ephemerid. Germ. Cent. vii.

87 De Re rustica.

89 Scarabæus sacer. Linnæi.

86 N. H. lib. xviii. c. 8.

88 Cistel. act iv. scen. 2.

A

is with hair standing an end on it, leads us very naturally to the rendering of our translators in that place, "the rough caterpillar which like other caterpillars, at a proper time, casts its exterior i covering and flies away in a winged state 9o, AJEZAJ The several changes of insects are not always well understood even by tolerable observers; but supposing that their different states have different names, in reference to different insects, orei to insects which differ in their periods of appearance (as somers are several weeks, others a long time in their grub state), nitrisiɔ no wonder that we find it difficult to ascertain what is meantɔa by the appellation in Hebrew, though we may perceive the gene-d ral application or import of the terms employed by the sacred

writers.

....w to

Scheuchzer observes that we should not, perhaps, be far from s the truth, if with the ancient interpreters, we understood this ialek, after all, as a kind of locust; as some species of them have hair principally on the head, and some which have prickly points standing out 91. Perhaps there is an allusion to such a kind, in Revelation, ix. 8, where we read of locusts" having hair like the hair of a woman." The Arabs call this kind orphau, alphantapho. See LOCUST.

CARBUNCLE.

.BAREKETH ברקת

Occ. Exod. xxviii. 17, xxxix. 10, and Ezek. xxviii. 13; and ANOPAE, Ecclus. xxxii. 5, and Tobit, xiii. 17.

A very elegant and rare gem, known to the ancients by the name anthrax, or coal, because, when held up before the sun, it appears like a piece of bright burning charcoal; its name carbunculus, has the same meaning.

It was the third stone in the first row of the pectoral; and is r mentioned among the glorious stones of which the New Jeru salem is figuratively said to be built. Bp. Lowth observes, that on the precious stones mentioned Isai. liv. 11, 12, and Rev. xxi. 18. seem to be general images to express beauty, magnificence, purity, strength, and solidity, agreeably to the ideas of the Eastern nations; and to have never been intended to be strictly scrutinized, and minutely and particularly explained, as if they had some precise moral or spiritual meaning. Tobit, in his prophecy of the final restoration of Israel, ch. xii. 16, 17, describes the New Jerusalem in the same oriental manner.

90 Jerome (in Amos, iv.) says, "Non evolat eruca, ut locusta, etc. Sed permanet perituris frugibus, et tardo lapsu, pigrisque morsibus consumit universa. "Non solum teneras audent erodere frondes

Implicitus concha limax, HIRSUTAQUE CAMPE." COLUMELLA in Horto. Campe, id est eruca, quomodo interpretatur ipse in prosa "De cultu horti," circa finem libri duodecimi. "Quæ a nobis appellantur Eruca Græce autem μι nominantur." "horret apex

91 Claudian mentions a kind of caterpillar, which he says, capitis."

The Septuagint, Josephus, and the Vulgate, render NOPHEC, the anthrax, or carbuncle; and they are followed by Dr. Geddes. In our translation, it is called "emerald." See EMERALD.

Oce. Exod. xxx. 24; Psal. xlv. 8; and Ezek. xvii. 19.

The aromatic bark of an oriental tree of the same name. It is not much unlike cinnamon. Theophrastus 92, Herodotus 93, and Pliny 9, mention it along with myrrh, frankincense, and cinnamon, and say that they all come from Arabia. They describe it as used to perfume ointments. Scacchus thinks that by KIDDAH we are to understand that fragrant composition extracted from a plant which the ancients called costus, the best of which was brought out of Arabia, and was of a white colour, as he proves from Avicenna, Dioscorides, and Pliny; and it appears from Propertius 95, that it was used on the altars together with frankincense.

The proportion of the ingredients for the holy anointing oil, Exod. xxx. 23, 24, 25, deserve our notice. Observe the word shekel is not expressed in the orignal; so that some have supposed the gerah was the weight intended; but the shekel seems to be supplied by verse 24," according to the shekel of the sanctuary. These words, however, probably only denote a correct, or standard weight.

But

The difficulty is, that so great a quantity of drugs put into so small a quantity of oil, would render the liquor much too thick, and merely a paste. To obviate this some have supposed that they were previously steeped, and their oil drawn out from them, which extract was mixed with the pure oil of olive. Others think that recourse was had to pressure, to force out an oil strongly impregnated; others that the mass was distilled; and some, that the value only of the ingredients was intended. all agree that sixty-two pounds of aromatics, to twelve pounds of oil, is not according to modern art, and seems contradictory to the exercise of art in any state of practice. The adoption of gerahs, instead of shekels, would give a proportion of thirty-five and a half ounces of drugs, to one hundred and twenty-three ounces of oil, or three and a half to one. In common, one ounce of drugs to eight of oil is esteemed a fair proportion. Dr. Geddes says, "I have rather chosen to say proportional parts, as in medical recipes. If all the parts here mentioned had weighed a shekel, a hin of oil would not have been sufficient to give them the necessary liquidity; unless, with Michaelis, we reduce the shekel of Moses, to one fourth or fifth part of latter shekels.”

In Psal. xlv. 9, the word ' KETSIOTH, is translated cassia. This may mean an extract, or essential oil, from the same fragrant bark.

92 De Plant. lib. ix. c. 4, 5. 93 Lib. iii. c. 107. 94 N. H. lib. xii. c. 19. 95❝Costum molle date, et blandi mihi thuris odores." L. iv. elog. 5.

CATERPILLAR. YON CHASİL. › Arab. uskul. 98. The word occurs Deut. xxviii. 38; Psal. lxviii. 46; Isai. xxxii. 4; 1 Kings, viii. 37; 2 Chron. vi. 28; Joel, i. 4, ii. 25. ‚edonod In the four last cited texts, it is distinguished from the locust, properly so called; and in Joel, i. 4, is mentioned as "eatings up what the other species had left, and therefore may be called. the consumer, by way of eminence. But the ancient interpreters are far from being agreed what particular species it signifies. The Septuagint in Chronicles, and Aquila in Psalms, render it Bpaxoss so the Vulgate in Chronicles, and Isaiah, and Jerom int Psalms, bruchus, the chafer, which is a great devourer of leaves. From the Syriac version, however, Michaelis is disposed to understand it, the "taupe grillon," mole cricket, which in its grub state, is very destructive to corn, and other vegetables, by feeding on their roots. See LOCUST.

CEDAR. NEREZ. Arab. ers, and eraza.

Occurs frequently: and KEAPOZ, Ecclus. xxiv. 13; and 2. Maccab. ix. 4.

Its lofty

The cedar is a large and noble evergreen tree. height, and its far extended branches, afford a spacious shelter and shade 96. Ezek. xxxi. 5, 6, 8. The wood is very valuable; is of a reddish colour, of an aromatic smell, and reputed incorruptible, which is owing to its bitter taste, which the worms cannot endure, and its resin, which preserves it from the injuries of the weather 97. The ark of the covenant, and much of the temple of Solomon, and that of Diana, at Ephesus, were built of cedar. :

The tree is much celebrated in Scripture. It is called "the glory of Lebanon." Isai. lx. 13. On that mountain it must in former times have flourished in great abundance. There are some now growing there which are prodigiously large. But travellers who have visited the place within these two or three centuries, and who describe the trees of vast size, inform us that their number is diminished greatly; so that, as Isaiah, x. 19, says, a child may number them 98" Maundrel measured one of the

66

96 Celsius Hierobot. V. i. p. 74. Cotovicus, Itiner. p. 380. Rauwolf, part 2. c. 12, p. 108. AXTIUS de Arbor. conif. p. 8.

97 Some cedar wood was found fresh in the temple of Utica, in Barbary, above two thousand years old.

98 Peter Bellon in 1550 counted 28 | Boullaye le Gouz in 1650 counted 22