[Artemisia Judaica.]

ABSTINENCE is a refraining from the use of certain articles of food usually eaten ; or from all food during a certain time for some particular object. It is distinguished from TEMPERANCE, which is moderation in ordinary food; and from FASTING, which is abstinence from a religious motive. The first example of abstinence which occurs in Scripture is that in which the use of blood is forbidden to Noah (Gen. ix. 20) [BLOOD]. The next is that mentioned in Gen. xxxii. 32: The children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day, because he (the angel) touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew that shrank.' This practice of particular and commemorative abstinence is here mentioned by anticipation long after the date of the fact referred to, as the phrase unto this day' intimates. No actual instance of the practice occurs in the Scripture itself, but the usage has always | been kept up; and to the present day the Jews generally abstain from the whole hind-quarter on account of the trouble and expense of extracting the particular sinew (Allen's Modern Judaism, p. 421). By the law, abstinence from blood was confirmed, and the use of the flesh of even lawful animals was forbidden, if the manner of their death rendered it impossible that they should be, or uncertain that they were, duly exsanguinated (Exod. xxii. 31; Deut. xiv. 21). A broad rule was also laid down by the law, defining whole classes of animals that might not be eaten (Lev. xi.) [ANIMAL; FOOD]. Certain parts of lawful animals, as being sacred to the altar, were also interdicted. These were the large lobe of the liver, the kidneys and the fat upon them, as well as the tail of the 'fat-tailed' sheep (Lev. iii. 9-11). Everything consecrated to idols was also forbidden (Exod. xxxiv. 15). In conformity with these rules the Israelites abstained generally from food which was more or less in use among other people. Instances of abstinence from allowed food are not frequent, except in commemorative or afflictive fasts. The forty days' abstinence of Moses, Elijah, and Jesus are peculiar cases requiring to be separately considered [FASTING]. The priests were commanded to abstain from wine previous to their actual ministrations (Lev. x. 9), and the same abstinence was enjoined to the Nazarites during the whole period of their separation (Num. vi. 5). A constant abstinence of this kind was, at a later period, voluntarily undertaken by the Rechabites (Jer. xxxv. 16, 18). Among the early Christian converts there were some who deemed themselves bound to adhere to the Mosaical limitations regarding food, and they accordingly abstained from

which the law accounted unclean; while others contemned this as a weakness, and exulted in the liberty wherewith Christ had made his followers free. This question was repeatedly referred to St. Paul, who laid down some admirable rules on the subject, the purport of which was, that every one was at liberty to act in this matter according to the dictates of his own conscience; but that the strong-minded had better abstain from the exercise of the freedom they possessed, whenever it might prove an occasion of stumbling to a weak brother (Rom. xiv. 1-3; 1 Cor. viii.). In another place the same apostle reproves certain sectaries who should arise, forbidding marriage and enjoining abstinence from meats which God had created to be received with thanksgiving (1 Tim. iv. 3, 4). The council of the apostles at Jerusalem decided that no other abstinence regarding food should be imposed upon the converts than from meats offered to idols, from blood, and from things strangled (Acts xv. 29).

The Essenes, a sect among the Jews which is not mentioned by name in the Scriptures, led a more abstinent life than any recorded in the sacred books. As there is an account of them elsewhere [ESSENES], it is only necessary to mention here that they refused all pleasant food, eating nothing but coarse bread and drinking only water; and that some of them abstained from food altogether until after the sun had set (Philo, De Vita Contemplativá, p. 692, 696).

That abstinence from ordinary food was prac tised by the Jews medicinally is not shown in Scripture, but is more than probable, not only as a dictate of nature, but as a common practice of their Egyptian neighbours, who, we are informed by Diodorus (i. 82), 'being persuaded that the majority of diseases proceed from indigestion and excess of eating, had frequent recourse to abstinence, emetics, slight doses of medicine, and other simple means of relieving the system, which some persons were in the habit of repeating every two or three days.'

ABYSS (ABvooos). The Greek word means literally without bottom,' but actually deep, profound. It is used in the Sept. for the Hebrew Din, which we find applied either to the ocean (Gen. i. 2; vii. 11), or to the under world (Ps. Ixxi. 21; cvii. 26). In the New Testament it is used as a noun to describe Hades, or the place of the dead generally (Rom. x. 7); but more especially that part of Hades in which the souls of the wicked were supposed to be confined (Luke viii. 31; Rev. ix. 1, 2, 11; xx. 1, 3; comp. 2 Pet. ii. 4). In the Revelation the authorized version invariably renders it bottomless pit,' elsewhere deep.'

Most of these uses of the word are explained by reference to some of the cosmological notions which the Hebrews entertained in common with other Eastern nations. It was believed that the abyss, or sea of fathomless waters, encompassed the whole earth. The earth floated on the abyss, of which it covered only a small part. According to the same notion, the earth was founded upon the waters, or, at least, had its foundations in the abyss beneath (Ps. xxiv. 2; cxxxvi. 6). Under these waters, and at the bottom of the abyss, the wicked were represented as groaning, and undergoing the punishment of their sins.

There were confined the Rephaim-those old giants who while living caused surrounding nations to tremble (Prov. ix. 18; xxix. 16). In those dark regions the sovereigns of Tyre, Babylon, and Egypt are described by the prophets as undergoing the punishment of their cruelty and pride (Jer. xxvi. 14; Ezek. xxviii. 10, &c.). This was the deep' into which the evil spirits in Luke, viii. 31, besought that they might not be cast, and which was evidently dreaded by them [CosmoGONY; HADES].

The notion of such an abyss was by no means confined to the East. It was equally entertained by the Celtic Druids, who held that Annon (the deep, the low port), the abyss from which the earth arose, was the abode of the evil principle (Gwarthawn), and the place of departed spirits, comprehending both the Elysium and the Tartarus of antiquity. With them also wandering spirits were called Plant annun, the children of the deep' (Davis's Celtic Researches, p. 175; Myth. and Rites of the B. Druids, p. 49).

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ABYSSINIA. There is no part of Africa, Egypt being excepted, the history of which is connected with so many objects of interest as Abyssinia. A region of Alpine mountains, ever difficult of access by its nature and peculiar situation, concealing in its bosom the long-sought sources of the Nile, and the still more mysterious origin of its singular people, Abyssinia has alone preserved, in the heart of Africa, its peculiar literature and its ancient Christian church. What is still more remarkable, it has preserved existing remains of a previously existing and wide-spread Judaism, and with a language approaching more than any living tongue to the Hebrew, a state of manners, and a peculiar character of its people, which represent in these latter days the habits and customs of the ancient Israelites in the times of Gideon and of Joshua. So striking is the re

probable hypothesis, which should bring them down as a band of wandering shepherds from the mountains of Habesh (Abyssinia), and identify them with the pastor kings, who, according to Manetho, multiplied their bands of the Pharaohs, and being, after some centuries, expelled thence by the will of the gods, sought refuge in Judea, and built the walls of Jerusalem. Such an hypothesis would explain the existence of an almost Israelitish people, and the preservation of a language so nearly approaching to the Hebrew, in intertropical Africa. It is certainly untrue, and we find no other easy explanation of the facts which the history of Abyssinia presents, and particularly the early extension of the Jewish religion and customs through that country Prichard's Physical History of Man, pp. 279, 280).

The above paragraph will suggest the grounds which appear to entitle Abyssinia to a place in a Biblical Cyclopædia. But as the country has no physical connection with Palestine-which is, geographically, our central object-a particular description of it is not necessary, and it will suffice to notice the points of inquiry suggested by the quotation. A brief outline is all that seems requisite.

'ABYSSINIA' is an European improvement upon the native name of HABESH.' That this country lies to the south of Nubia, which separates it from Egypt, and to the east of the Gulf of Bab-el-Mandah and the southern part of the Arabian sea, will sufficiently indicate its position. Abyssinia is a high country, which has been compared by Humboldt to the lofty Plain of Quito. By one of those beautiful synthetical operations of which his writings offer so many examples, the greatest living geographer, Carl Ritter of Berlin, has established, from the writings of various travellers, that the high country of Habesh consists of three terraces, or distinct table-lands, rising one above another, and of which the several grades of ascent offer themselves in succession to the traveller as he advances from the shores of the Red Sea (Erdkunde, th. i. s. 168). The first of these levels is the plain of Baharnegash: the second level is the plain and kingdom of Tigré, which formerly contained the kingdom of Axum: the third level is High Abyssinia, or the kingdom of Ambara. This name of Amhara is now given to the whole kingdom, of which Gondar is the capital, and where the Amharic language is spoken, eastward of the Takazzé. Amhara Proper is, however, a mountainous province to the south-east, in the centre of which was Tegulat, the ancient capital of the empire, and at one period the centre of the civilization of Abyssinia. This province is now in the possession of the Gallas, a barbarous people who have overcome all the southern parts of Habesh. The present kingdom of Amhara is the heart of Abyssinia, and the abode of the emperor, or Negush. It contains the upper course of the Nile, the valley of Dembea, and the lake Tzana, near which is the royal city of Gondar, and likewise the high region of Gojam, which Bruce states to be at least two miles above the level of the sea.

Abyssinia is inhabited by several distinct races, who are commonly included under the name of Habesh or Abyssins. They are clearly distin

arising from it, without any marked change of their customs or language. But all which this leaves unsolved may, to our apprehension, be very satisfactorily accounted for by the now generally admitted fact, that at least the people of Tigré, who possessed a Semitic language so nearly resembling the Hebrew, are a Semitic colony, who imported into Abyssinia not only a Semitic language, but Semitic manners, usages, and modes of thought. Whether this may or may not be true of the Amhara also, depends in a great degree upon the conclusion that may be reached respecting the Amharic language, which, through the large admixture of Ethiopic and Arabic words, has a Semitic appearance, but may, notwithstanding, prove to be fundamentally African. At all events, the extent to which the Gheez language has operated upon it would afford a proof of the influence of the Semitic colony upon the native population: which is all that can reasonably be desired to account for the phenomena which have excited so much inquiry and attention.

If it should be objected that it is not sufficient to identify as Semitic the manners and usages | which have been described as Hebrew, we would beg to call attention to that passage, in the commencing extract, which, with an unintended significance, intimates that these customs are those of the early times of Gideon and Joshua, when the Hebrews had not been long subject to the peculiar modifying influences of the Mosaical institutions. This is very much the same as to say that the customs and usages in view are in accordance with the general type of Semitic manners, rather than with the particular type which the Mosaical institutions produced; or, in other words, that they resemble the manners of the Hebrews most when those manners had least departed from the general standard of usages which prevailed among the Semitic family of nations. They are, therefore, less Hebrew manners than Semitic manners, and, as such, are accounted for by the presence of Semitic races in the country. In point of fact, travellers who derive their first notions of the East from the Bible, when they come among a strange people, are too ready to set down as specifically Hebrew some of the more striking usages which attract their notice; whereas, in fact, they are generically Oriental, or at least Semitic, and are Hebrew also merely because the Hebrews were an Oriental people, and had Oriental features, habits, and usages. Our conclusion, then, is, that the former prevalence of the Jewish religion in Abyssinia accounts for the existence of the Jewish ritual usages; and that the presence of one (perhaps more than one) paramount Semitic colony accounts for the existence, in this quarter, of a Semitic language, and Semitic (and therefore Hebrew) manners and usages. We entertain a very strong conviction that this conclusion will be corroborated by all the research into Abyssinian history and antiquities which may hereafter be made.

Having thus considered the question which alone authorized the introduction of this article, we reserve for other articles [CANDACE; ETHIOPIA; SHEBA, QUEEN OF] some questions connected with other points in the history of Abyssinia, especially the introduction of Judaism into that

country. Of the numerous books which have been written respecting Abyssinia, the Histories of Tellez and Ludolph, and the Travels of Kramp, Bruce, Salt, and Ruppell, are the most important: and an admirable digest of existing information may be found in Ritter's Erdkunde, th. i., and (as far as regards ethnography and languages) in Prichard's Researches, vol. ii. ch. vi., and his Natural History of Man, sect. 26.

ACCAD (EN; Sept. 'Apxáð), one of the five cities in the land of Shinar,' or Babylonia, which are said to have been built by Nimrod, or rather to have been the beginning of his kingdom' (Gen. x. 10). Their situation has been much disputed. Ælian (De Animal. xvi. 42) mentions that in the district of Sittacene was a river called 'Apyaons, which is so near the name 'Apxáð which the LXX. give to this city, that Bochart was induced to fix Accad upon that river (Phaleg. iv. 17). It seems that several of the ancient translators found in their Hebrew MSS. Achar () instead of Accad (78) (Ephrem Syrus, Pseudo-Jonathan, Targum Hieros., Jerome, Abulfaragi, &c.); and the ease with which the similar letters 7 and might be interchanged in copying, leaves it doubtful which was the real name. Achar was the ancient name of Nisibis; and hence the Targumists give Nisibis or Nisibin (1) for Accad, and they continued to be identified by the Jewish literati in the times of Jerome. But the Jewish literati have always been deplorable geographers, and their unsupported conclusions are worth very little. Nisibis is unquestionably too remote northward to be associated with Babel, Erech, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.' These towns could not have been very distant from each other; and when to the analogy of names we can add that of situation and of tradition, a strong claim to identity is established. These circumstances unite at a place in the ancient Sittacene, to which Bochart had been led by other analogies. The probability that the original name was Achar having been established, the attention is naturally drawn to the remarkable pile of ancient buildings called Akker-koof, in Sittacene, and which the Turks know as Akker-i-Nimrood and Akker-iBabil. Col. Taylor, the British resident at Baghdad, who has given much attention to the subject, was the first to make out this identification, and to collect evidence in support of it; and to his unpublished communications the writer and other recent travellers are indebted for their statements on the subject. The Babylonian Talmud might be expected to mention the site; and it occurs accordingly under the name of Aggada. It occurs also in Maimonides (Jud. Chaz. Tract. Madee, fol. 25, as quoted by Hyde), who says, 'Abraham xl. annos natus cognovit creatorem suum'; and immediately adds, 'Extat Aggada tres annos natus.

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Akker-koof is about nine miles west of the Tigris, at the spot where that river makes its nearest approach to the Euphrates. The heap of ruins to which the name of Nimrod's Hill-Tel-i-Nimrood, is more especially appropriated, consists of a mound surmounted by a mass of brick-work, which looks like either a tower or an irregular pyramid, according to the point from which it is viewed. It is about 400 feet in circumference at the bottom, and rises to the height of 125 feet above the sloping elevation on which it stands.

The mound, which seems to form the founda- | tion of the pile, is a mass of rubbish accumulated by the decay of the superstructure. In the ruin itself, the layers of sun-dried bricks, of which it is composed, can be traced very distinctly. They are cemented together by lime or bitumen, and are divided into courses varying from 12 to 20 feet in height, and are separated by layers of reeds, as is usual in the more ancient remains of this primitive region. Travellers

have been perplexed to make out the use of this remarkable monument, and various strange conjectures have been hazarded. The embankments of canals and reservoirs, and the remnants of brick-work and pottery occupying the place all around, evince that the Tel stood in an important city; and, as its construction announces it to be a Babylonian relic, the greater probability is that it was one of those pyramidal structures erected upon high places, which were consecrated to the heavenly bodies, and served at once as the temples and the observatories of those remote times. Such buildings were common to all Babylonian towns; and those which remain appear to have been constructed more or less on the model of that in the metropolitan city of Babylon.

ACCARON. [EKRON.]

ACCENT. This term is often used with a very wide meaning: as when we say that a person has a Scotch accent,' in which case it denotes all that distinguishes the Scotch from the English pronunciation. We here confine the word, in the first place, to mean those peculiarities of sound for which grammarians have invented the marks called accents; and we naturally must have a principal reference to the Hebrew and the Greek languages. Secondly, we exclude the consideration of such a use of accentual marks (so called) as prevails in the French language; in which they merely denote a certain change in the quality of a sound attributed to a vowel or diphthong. It is evident that, had a sufficient number of alphabetical vowels been invented, the accents (in such a sense) would have been superseded. While the Hebrew and Greek languages are here our chief end, yet, in order to pass from the known to the unknown, we shall throughout refer to our own tongue as the best source of illustration. In this respect, we undoubtedly overstep the proper limits of a Biblical Cyclopædia; but we are in manner constrained so to do, since the whole subject is misrepresented or very defectively ex

a

plained in most English grammars: and if we abstained from this full exposition, many readers would most probably, after all, misunderstand our meaning."

Even after the word accent has been thus limited, there is an ambiguity in the term; it has still a double sense, according to which we name it either oratorical or vocabular. By the latter, we mean the accent which a word in isolation receives; for instance, if we read in a vocabulary: while by oratorical accent we understand that which words actually have when read aloud or spoken as parts of a sentence.

The Greek men of letters, who, after the Macedonian kingdoms had taken their final form, invented accentual marks to assist foreigners in learning their language, have (with a single uniform exception) been satisfied to indicate the vocabular accent: but the Hebrew grammarians aimed, when the pronunciation of the old tongue was in danger of being forgotten, at indicating by marks the traditional inflections of the voice with which the Scriptures were to be read aloud in the synagogues. In consequence, they have introduced a very complicated system of accentuation to direct the reader. Some of their accents (so called) are, in fact, stops, others syntactical notes, which served also as guides to the voice in chanting.

In intelligent reading or speaking, the vocal organs execute numerous intonations which we have no method of representing on paper; especially such as are called inflections or slides by teachers of elocution: but on these a book might be written; and we can here only say, that the Masoretic accentuation of the Hebrew appears to have struggled to depict the rhythm of sentences; and the more progress has been made towards a living perception of the language, the higher is the testimony borne by the learned to the success which this rather cumbrous system has attained. The rhythm, indeed, was probably a sort of chant; since to this day the Scriptures are so recited by the Jews, as also the Koran by the Arabs or Turks: nay, in Turkish, the same verb (oqumaq) signifies to sing and to read. But this chant by no means attains the sharp discontinuity of European singing on the contrary, the voice slides from note to note. Monotonous as the whole sounds, a deeper study of the expression intended might probably lead to a fuller understanding of the Masoretic accents.

Wherein the Accent consists.-In ordinary European words, one syllable is pronounced with a peculiar stress of the voice; and is then said to be accented. In our own language, the most obvious accompaniment of this stress on the syllable is a greater clearness of sound in the vowel; insomuch that a very short vowel cannot take the primary accent in English. Nevertheless, it is very far from the truth, that accented vowels and syllables are necessarily long, or longer than the unaccented in the same word; of which we shall speak afterwards. In illustration, however, of the loss of clearness in a vowel, occasioned by a loss of accent, we may compare a contest with to contést; équal with equality; in which the syllables con, qual, are sounded with a very obscure vowel when unaccented.

Let us observe, in passing, that when a vowel sound changes through transposition of the ac

D