from the extremities of the encampment; it is certain, | however, that he intends to state the countless numbers of these birds which fell around the tents of Israel.

Some interpreters have doubted, whether the next clause refer to the amazing multitude of these birds which strewed the desert, or to the facility with which they were caught; the wind let them fall by the camp-" as it were two cubits high upon the face of the earth." The Seventy, and after them the Vulgate, render it, They flew, as it were two cubits high above the earth. Others imagine, the quails were piled one above another over all that space, to the height of two cubits; while others suppose, that the heaps which were scattered on the desert with vacant spaces between, for the convenience of those that went forth to collect them, rose to the height of two cubits. The second opinion seems entitled to the preference; for the phrase "to rain," evidently refers to these birds after they had fallen to the ground, upon which they lay numerous as the drops of rain from the dense cloud. Besides, the people could scarcely have gathered ten homers a piece, in two days, if they had not found the quails lying upon the ground; for a homer is the largest measure among the Jews, and contains nearly si pints; according to some Hebrew writers, the load of an ass, from whose name the term is supposed to be derived.-PAXTON.

Ver. 15. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna; for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the LORD hath given you to eat.

We cannot mistake in this description the natural production which is called, in all the European languages, manna. Manna is the common name for the thick, clammy, and sweet juice, which in the southern countries oozes from certain trees and shrubs, partly by the rays of the sun, partly by the puncture of some kinds of insects, and partly by artificial means. The manna common in our druggists' shops, comes from Calabria and Sicily, where it oozes out of a kind of ash-tree, from the end of June to the end of July, when the bicada appears, an insect at first sight resembling the locust, but is distinguished from it by a thorn under the belly, with which it punctures this tree. The juice issuing from this wound, is in the night fluid, and looks like dew, but in the morning it begins to harden. But the European manna is not so good as the oriental, which is gathered in particular in Syria, Arabia, and Persia; partly from the oriental oak, and partly from a shrub, which is called in Persia, Terengabin or Terendschabin. Rauwolf says, that the manna grains resemble coriander seeds, as mentioned in the Mosaic account; and this is confirmed by several modern travellers. Gmelin remarks, that the manna is as white as snow, and consists of grains like coriander seeds. The peasants about Ispahan gather it at sunrise, holding a sieve under the branch, into which the grains fall when the branches are struck with a stick; if the gathering it be put off till after sunrise, no manna can be obtained, because it melts.-Burder.

The Wady el Sheikh, the great valley of western Sinai, is in many parts thickly overgrown with the tamarisk or arfa, (Hedysarun Alhagi of Linn.) It is the only valley in he peninsula of Sinai where this tree grows, at present, in any great quantity; though small bushes of it are here and here met with in other parts. It is from the tarfa that the nanna is obtained. This substance is called by the Bedouins mann, and accurately resembles the description of manna given in the scriptures. In the month of June, it drops from the thorns of the tamarisk upon the fallen twigs, leaves, and thorns which always cover the ground beneath that tree in the natural state; the manna is collected before sunrise, when it is coagulated; but it dissolves as soon as the sun shines upon it. The Arabs clean away the leaves, dirt, etc. which adhere to it, boil it, strain it through a coarse piece of cloth, and put it in leathern skins: in this way they preserve it till the following year, and use it as they do honey, to pour over unleavened bread, or to dip their bread into. I could not learn that they ever made it into cakes or loaves. The manna is found only in years when copious rains have fallen; sometimes it is not produced at all. I saw none of it among the Arabs, but I obtained a small piece of the ast year's produce, in the convent (of Mount Sinai,) where,

having been kept in the cool shade and moderate tempera ture of that place, it had become quite solid, and formed a small cake; it became soft when kept some time in the hand; if placed in the sun for five minutes, it dissolved; but when restored to a cool place, it became solid again in a quarter of an hour. In the season at which the Arabs gather it, it never acquires that state of hardness which will allow of its being pounded, as the Israelites are said to have done, in Num. xi. 8. Its colour is a dirty yellow, and the piece which I saw was still mixed with bits of tamarisk leaves; its taste is agreeable, somewhat aromatic, and as sweet as honey. If eaten in any considerable quantity, it is said to be slightly purgative.

The quantity of manna collected at present, even in seasons when the most copious rains fall, is trifling, perhaps not amounting to more than five or six hundred pounds. It is entirely consumed among the Bedouins, who consider it the greatest dainty which their country affords. The harvest is usually in June, and lasts for about six weeks. In Nubia, and in every part of Arabia, the tamarisk is one of the most common trees; on the Euphrates, on the Astaboras, in all the valleys of the Hedjaz and the Bedja, it grows in great plenty. It is remarked by Niebuhr, that in Mesopotamia, manna is produced by several trees of the oak species; a similar fact was confirmed to me by the son of a Turkish lady, who had passed the greater part of his youth at Erzerum in Asia Minor; he told me that at Moush, a town three or four days distant from Erzerum, a substance is collected from the tree which produces the galls, exactly similar to the manna of the peninsula in taste and consistence, and that it is used by the inhabitants instead of honey. BURCKHARDT.

To

The notion, however, that any species of vegetable gum is the manna of the scriptures, appears so totally irreconcilable with the Mosaic narrative, that, notwithstanding the learned names which may be cited in support of the conjecture, it cannot be safely admitted as any explanation of the miracle. It. is expressly said, that the manna was rained from heaven; that when the dew was exhaled, it appeared lying on the surface of the ground,-" a small, round thing, as small as the hoar-frost,"—"like coriander seed, and its colour like a pearl;" that it fell but six days in the week, and that a double quantity fell on the sixth day; that what was gathered on the first five days became offensive and bred worms if kept above one day, while that which was gathered on the sixth day kept sweet for two days; that the people had never seen it before, which could not possibly be the case with either wild-honey or gumarabic; that it was a substance which admitted of being ground in a handmill or pounded in a mortar, of being made into cakes and baked, and that it tasted like wafers made with honey; lastly, that it continued falling for the forty years that the Israelites abode in the wilderness, but ceased on their arriving at the borders of Canaan. perpetuate the remembrance of the miracle, a pot of the manna was to be laid up by the side of the ark, which clearly indicates the extraordinary nature of the production. In no one respect does it correspond to the modern manna. The latter does not fall from heaven, it is not deposited with the dew, but exudes from the trees when punctured, and is to be found only in the particular spots where those trees abound; it could not, therefore, have supplied the Israelites with food in the more arid parts of the desert, where they most required it. The gums, moreover, flow only for about a month in the year; they neither admit of being ground, pounded, or baked; they do not melt in the sun; they do not breed worms; and they are not peculiar to the Arabian wilderness. Others have supposed the manna to have been a fat and thick honey-dew, and that this was the wild-honey which John the Baptist lived upon, a supposition worthy of being ranked with the monkish legend of St. John's bread, or the locust-tree, and equally showing an entire ignorance of the nature of the country. It requires the Israelites to have been constantly in the neighbourhood of trees, in the midst of a wilderness often bare of all vegetation. Whatever the manna was it was clearly a substitute for bread, and it is expressly called meat, or food. The abundant supply, the periodical sus pension of it, and the peculiarity attaching to the sixth day's supply, it must at all events be admitted, were preter natural facts, and facts not less extraordinary than that the substance also should be of an unknown and peculiar de

scription. The credibility of the sacred narrative cannot receive the slightest addition of evidence from any attempt to explain the miracle by natural causes. That narrative would lead any plain reader to expect that the manna should no longer be found to exist, having ceased to fall upwards of 3,000 years. As to the fact that the Arabs give that name to the juice of the tarfa, the value of their authority may be estimated by the pulpit of Moses and the footstep of Mohammed's camel. The cause of Revelation has less to fear from the assaults of open infidels, than from such ill-judged attempts of skeptical philosophers, to square the sacred narrative by their notions of probability. The giving of the manna was either a miracle or a fable. The proposed explanation makes it a mixture of both. It admits the fact of a Divine interposition, yet insinuates that Moses gives an incorrect or embellished account of it. It requires us to believe, that the scripture history is at once true and a complete misrepresentation, and that the golden vase of manna was designed to perpetuate the simple fact, that the Israelites lived for forty years upon gum-arabic! The miracle, as related by Moses, is surely more credible than the explanation.-MODERN TRAVELLER.

Ver. 16. Gather of it every man according to his eating; an omer for every man, (Heb. a head,) according to the number of your persons; take ye every man for them which are in his tents.

A man, when offering money to the people to induce them to do something for him, says, "To every head, I will give one fanam." In time of sickness or sorrow, it is said, "Ah! to every head there is now trouble." "Alas! there is nothing left for any head." "Yes, yes, he is a good master: to every head he has given a cow." "What did you pay your coolies?"-" To every head one fanam."— ROBERTS.

CHAP. 17. ver. 1. And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and pitched in Rephidim and there was no water for the people to drink.

At twenty minutes' walk from the convent of El Erbayn, a block of granite is shown as the rock out of which the water issued when struck by the rod of Moses. It is thus described by Burckhardt: "It lies quite insulated by the side of the path, which is about ten feet higher than the lower bottom of the valley. The rock is about twelve feet in height, of an irregular shape, approaching to a cube. There are some apertures upon its surface, through which the water is said to have burst out; they are about twenty in number, and lie nearly in a straight line round the three sides of the stone. They are for the most part ten or twelve inches long, two or three inches broad, and from one to two inches deep, but a few of them are as deep as four inches. Every observer must be convinced, on the slightest examination, that most of these fissures are the work of art; but three or four perhaps are natural, and these may have first drawn the attention of the monks to the stone, and have induced them to call it the rock of the miraculous supply of water. Besides the marks of art evident in the holes themselves, the spaces between them have been chiselled, so as to make it appear as if the stone had been worn in those parts by the action of the water; though it cannot be doubted, that if water had flowed from the fissures, it must generally have taken quite a different direction. One traveller saw on this stone twelve openings, answering to the number of the tribes of Israel; another describes the holes as a foot deep. They were probably told so by the monks, and believed what they heard, rather than what they saw. About 150 paces farther on in the valley, lies another piece of rock, upon which it seems that the work of deception was first begun, there being four or five apertures cut in it, similar to those on the other block, but in a less finished state. As it is somewhat smaller than the former, and lies in a less conspicuous part of the valley, removed from the public path, the monks thought proper, in process of time, to assign the miracle to the other. As the rock of Moses

has been described by travellers of the fifteenth century the deception must have originated among the monks of an earlier period. As to the present inhabitants of the convent and of the peninsula, they must be acquitted of any fraud respecting it, for they conscientiously believe that it is the very rock from whence the water gushed forth. In this part of the peninsula, the Israelites could not have suffered from thirst. The upper Sinai is full of wells and springs, the greater part of which are perennial; and on whichever side the pretended rock of Moses is approached, copious sources are found within an hour of it." The fact, that this part of the peninsula abounds with perennial springs, which is attested by every traveller, proves decidedly that this cannot be the vale of Rephidim. It is astonishing to find such travellers as Shaw and Pococke credulously adopting this imbecile legend. "Here," says the former, "we still see that extraordinary antiquity, the rock of Meribah, which hath continued down to this day, without the least injury from time or accident. It is a block of granite marble, about six yards square, lying tottering as it were, and loose in the middle of the valley, and seems to have formerly belonged to Mount Sinai, which hangs in a variety of precipices all over this plain. The waters which gushed out, and the stream which flowed, (Psalm lxxviii. 20,) have hollowed, deep and twenty wide, appearing to be incrustated all over, across one corner of this rock, a channel about two inches

like the inside of a teakettle that hath been long in use. Besides several mossy productions that are still preserved by the dew, we see all over this channel a great number of holes, some of them four or five inches deep, and one or two in diameter, the lively and demonstrative tokens of their having been formerly so many fountains. It likewise may be further observed, that art or chance could by no means be concerned in the contrivance, for every circumstance points out to us a miracle, and, in the same manner with the rent in the rock of Mount Calvary, at Jerusalem, never fails to produce a religious surprise in all who see it.'

That this rock is as truly the Rock of Meribah, as the spot alluded to is Mount Calvary, may be freely admitted; but the surprise which they are adapted to awaken in an intelligent observer, is at the credulity of travellers. "These supernatural mouths," says Sir F. Henniker, “appear to me common crevices in the rock: they are only two inches in depth, and their length is not confined to the watercourse. That the incrustation is the effect of water, I have not the slightest doubt, for the rocks close at hand, where water is still dripping, are marked in the same manner: and if a fragment of the cliff were to fall down, we should scarcely distinguish between the two. I therefore doubt the identity of the stone, and also the locality; for, in this place, the miracle would be that a mountain so lofty as Mount Sinai should be without water!"-MODERN TRAV

ELLER.

Ver. 16. For he said, Because the LORD hath sworn that the LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.

Literally, "Because the hand of the Lord is upon the throne." These words are susceptible of a very different meaning, which has not escaped the notice of some valuable commentators: "For he said, Because his hand hath been against the throne of the Lord, therefore, will he have war with Amalek from generation to generation." The prophet is there giving a reason of the perpetual way which Jehovah had just proclaimed against that devoted race; their hand had been against the throne of the Lord, that is, they had attacked the people whom he had chosen, and among whom he had planted his throne; disregarding, or probably treating with contempt, the miraculous signs of the divine presence which led the way, and warranted the operations of Israel; they attempted to stop their progress, and defeat the promise of Heaven; therefore they dared to lift their hand against the throne of God himself, and were for their presumption, doomed to the destruction which they intended for others. Hence, the custom of laying the hand upon the gospels, as an appeal to God, if not the contrivance of modern superstition, is derived from the practice of some obscure Gentile nation, and has no claim whatever to a more reputable origin.-PAXTON.

CHAP. 19. ver. 1. In the third month, when the

children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai.

We were near twelve hours in passing the many windings and difficult ways which lie betwixt the deserts of Sin and Sinai. The latter is a beautiful plain, more than a league in breadth, and nearly three in length, lying open towards the N.E., where we entered it, but is closed up to the southward by some of the lower eminences of Mount Sinai. in this direction, likewise, the higher parts of it make such encroachments on the plain, that they divide it into two, each of them capacious enough to receive the whole encampment of the Israelites. That which lieth to the eastward of the mount, may be the desert of Sinai, properly so called, where Moses saw the angel of the Lord in the burning bush, when he was guarding the flocks of Jethro. The convent of St. Catharine is built over the place of this divine appearance: it is near three hundred feet square, and more than forty in height, being partly built with stone, partly with mud only and mortar mixed together. The more immediate place of the Shekinah is honoured with a little chapel, which this old fraternity of St. Basil hath in such esteem and veneration, that, in imitation of Moses, they put off their shoes from off their feet, when they enter or approach it. This, with several other chapels, dedicated to particular saints, are included within the church, as they call it, of the Transfiguration, which is a large beautiful structure, covered with lead, and supported by two rows of marble columns. The floor is very elegantly laid out in a variety of devices in Mosaic work; of the same workmanship, likewise, are both the floor and the walls of the presbyterium, upon the latter whereof is represented the figure of the Emperor Justinian, together with the history of the transfiguration. On the partition, which separates the presbyterium from the body of the church, there is placed a small marble shrine, whereon are preserved the scull and one of the hands of St. Catharine. Mount Sinai hangs over this convent, being called by the Arabs, Jebbel Mousa, the mountain of Moses, and sometimes only, by way of eminence, El Tor, the mountain. St. Helena was at the expense of the stone staircase, that was formerly carried up entirely to the top of it; but, at present, as most of these steps are either removed, washed out of their places, or defaced, the ascent up to it is very fatiguing, and entirely imposed on their votaries as a severe penance. However, at certain distances, the fathers have erected, as so many breathing places, several little chapels, dedicated to one or other of their saints, who are always invoked on these occasions; and, after some small oblation, are engaged to lend their assistance. The summit of Mount Sinai is somewhat conical, and not very spacious, where the Mohammedans, as well as the Christians, have a small chapel for public worship. Here we were shown the place where Moses fasted forty days; where he received the law; where he hid himself from the face of God; where his hand was supported by Aaron and Hur, at the battle with Amalek. After we had descended, with no small difficulty, down the western side of this mountain, we came into the other plain formed by it, which is Rephidim.-SHAW.

The Arabs call Jebbel Musa, the mount of Moses, all that range of mountains at the exterior extremity of the valley of Paran; and to that part of the range on which the convut of St. Catharine stands, they give the name of Tur Sina. This similarity of name, owing most probably to tradition, affords ground for presuming, that the hill which we had now reached was the Sinai of the Jews, on which Moses received the law. It is, indeed, not easy to comprehend how such a multitude of people as the Jews, who accompanied Moses out of Egypt, could encamp in those narrow gullies, amid frightful and precipitous rocks. But, perhaps, there are plains on the other side of the mounain, that we know not of. Two German miles and a half up the mountain stands the convent of St. Catharine. The body of this monastery is a building one hundred and twenty feet in length, and almost as many in breadth. Before it stands another small building, in which is the only gate of the convent, which remains always shut, except when the bishop is here. At other times, whatever is introduced within the convent, whether men or provisions, is drawn up to the roof, in a basket, with a cord and a pulley. The whole building is of hewn stope, which, in such a desert,

must have cost prodigious expense and pains. Next day our scheichs brought me an Arab, whom they qualified with the title of scheich of Mount Sinai. Under the conduct of this newly-created lord of Sinai, with our scheichs, I attempted to clamber to the summit of that mountain. It is so steep, that Moses cannot have ascended on the side which I viewed. The Greeks have cut a flight of steps up the rock. Pococke reckons three thousand of these steps to the top of the mountain, or, rather, bare-pointed rock. Five hundred steps above the convent we found a charming spring, which, by a little pains, might be improved into a very agreeable spot. A thousand steps higher, a chapel, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin; and five hundred above this, two other chapels, situated in a plain, which travellers enter by two small gates of mason work. Upon this plain are two trees, under which, at high festivals, the Arabs are regaled at the expense of the Greeks. My Mohammedan guides, imitating the practice which they had seen the pilgrims observe, kissed the images, and repeated their prayers in the chapels. They would accompany me no farther, but maintained this to be the highest accessible peak of the mountain; whereas, according to Pococke, I had yet a thousand steps to ascend. I was, therefore, obliged to return, and content myself with viewing the hill of St. Catharine at a distance.-NIEBUHR.

After reposing in the convent and its delightful garden, the first duty of a pilgrim is, to climb the summit of the Djebel Mousa, or mountain of Moses, the road to which be gins to ascend immediately behind the walls of the convent. Regular steps (it is said, to the number of 15,000) have been cut all the way up; but they are now either entirely destroyed, or so much damaged by the winter torrents, as to be of very little use. They are ascribed to the munificence of the Empress Helena. "After ascending for about twenty-five minutes," says Burckhardt, "we breathed a short time under a large impending rock, close by which is a small well of water, as cold as ice. At the end of three quarters of an hour's steep ascent, we came to a small plain, the entrance to which from below is through a stone gateway, which in former times was probably closed: a little beneath it, stands, amid the rocks, a small church dedicated to the Virgin. On the plain is a larger building of rude construction, which bears the name of the convent of St. Elias: it was lately inhabited, but is now abandoned, the monks repairing here only at certain times of the year to read mass. Pilgrims usually halt on this spot, where a tall cypress-tree grows by the side of a stone tank, which receives the winter rains. On a large rock in the plain are several Arabic inscriptions, engraved by pilgrims three or four hundred years ago; I saw one also in the Syriac language. According to the Koran and Moslem traditions, it was in this part of the mountain, which is called Djebel Oreb, or Horeb, that Moses communicated with the Lord. From hence a still steeper ascent of half an hour, the steps of which are also in ruins, leads to the summit of Djebel Mousa, where stands the church which forms the principal object of the pilgrimage: it is built on the very peak of the mountain, the plane of which is at most sixty paces in circumference. The church, though strongly built with granite, is now greatly dilapidated by the unremitted attempts of the Arabs to destroy it; the door, roof, and wal's are greatly injured.

Some ruins round the church indicate that a much larger and more solid building once stood here; and the rock appears to have been cut perpendicularly with great labour, to prevent any other approach to it than by the southern side. The view from this summit must be very grand, but a thick fog prevented me from seeing even the nearest mountains. About thirty paces from the church, on a somewhat lower peak, stands a poor mosque, without any ornaments, held in great veneration by the Moslems, and the place of their pilgrimage. It is frequently visited by the Bedouins, who slaughter sheep in honour of Moses, and who make vows to him, and entreat his intercession in heaven in their favour. There is a feast-day on which the Bedouins come hither in a mass, and offer their sacrifices. I was told that formerly they never approached the place without being dressed in the Ihram, or sacred mantle, with which the Moslems cover their naked bodies on visiting Mecca, and which then consisted only of a napkin tied round the middle; but this custom has been abandoned for the last forty years. Foreign Moslem pilgrims often repair