some thousand years ago, made use of the same ceremony. The like transaction too, though after the storm, is recorded by the prophet Jonas, i. 16. But, to pursue the natural history of this country, the mountains of Libanus are covered all the winter with snow; which, when the winds are easterly, affects the whole coast, from Tripoly to Sidon, with a more subtile and piercing cold than what is known in our northern climates. Whereas the other maritime and inland places, either to the N. or S. of these mountains, enjoy a much milder temperature, and a more regular change in the seasons. In cloudy weather, especially when the winds are tempestuous, and blow, as they often do in these cases, in several directions, water-spouts are more frequent near the Capes of Latikea, Greego, and Carmel, than in any other part of the Mediterranean. Those which I had the opportunity of seeing, seemed to be so many cylinders of water, falling down from the clouds; though, by the reflection it may be of these descending columns, or from the actual dropping of the water contained in them, they would sometimes appear, especially at a distance, to be sucked up from the sea. Nothing more perhaps is required to -Meritos aris mactavit honores: explain Virg. Æn. iii. 118. Nigram Hyemi pecudem, Zephyris felicibus albam. Id. Ibid. v. 772. explain this phenomenon, than that the clouds. should be first of all crowded together, and then that contrary winds, pressing violently upon them, should occasion them to condense, and fall in this cylindrical manner. Surely they cannot be accounted for, according to Lemery's supposition*, from submarine earthquakes and eructations; neither will the Siphonic winds †, if there be any such, much better solve the difficulty. In travelling by night, in the beginning of April, through the vallies of Mount Ephraim, we were attended, for above the space of an hour, with an ignis fatuus, that displayed itself in a variety of extraordinary appearances. For it was sometimes globular, or else pointed like the flame of a candle; afterwards it would spread itself, and involve our whole company in its pale, inoffensive light; then at once contract, and suddenly disappear. But in less than a minute, it would begin again to exert itself, as at other times, running along from one place to another with great swiftness, like a train of gun-powder set on fire; or else it would spread and expand itself over more than two or three acres of the adjacent mountains, discovering every shrub and tree (the thick bushes, Psal. xxix. 9.) that grew upon them. The atmosphere, from the beginning of the even ing, * When hurricanes come from those places of the earth which are under the sea, they raise the waters into prodigious pillars; * the same are called spouts at sea.'---Lemery's Course of Chemis try, edit. 4. p. 116. + Τυφώνας και Σίφωνας καλετι δια το ύδως πολλακις ανασπασι. Olymp. in Arist. Meteor. ning, had been remarkably thick and hazy, and the dew, as we felt it upon our bridles, was unusually clammy and unctuous. I have observed at sea, in the like disposition of weather, those luminous bodies that skip about the masts and yards of ships, which are called Corpusanse* by the mariners, and were the Castor and Pollux of the ancients. Some authors have accounted, particularly for the ignis fatuus, by supposing it to be occasioned by successive swarms of flying glow-worms, or other luminous insects. But not to perceive or feel any of these insects, even whilst the light, which they are supposed to occasion, spreads itself round about us, should induce us to account both for this phenomenon, and the other, from the received opinion of their being actually meteors, or a species of natural phosphorus. The first rains in these countries, usually fall about the beginning of November; the latter sometimes in the middle, sometimes towards the end of April. It is an observation at, or near Jerusalem, that provided a moderate quantity of snow falls in the beginning of February†, whereby the fountains are made to overflow a little afterwards, there is the prospect of a fruitful and plentiful year; the inhabitants making, upon these * A corruption of Cuerpo santo, as this meteor is called by the Spaniards. Plin. l. ii. c. 37. +As the month of February is the usual time at Jerusalem for the falling of snow, it might have been at that particular season when Benaiah is said, 1 Sam. xxiii. 20. to have gone down and smote a lion in the time of snow. these occasions, the like rejoicings* with the Egyptians, upon the cutting of the Nile. But during the summer season, these countries are rarely refreshed with rain; enjoying the like serenity of air that has been mentioned in Barbary. Barley, all over the Holy Land, was in full ear in the beginning of April; and about the middle of that month it began to turn yellow, particularly in the southern districts; being as forward near Jericho in the latter end of March, as it was in the plains of Acre, a fortnight afterwards. But wheat was very little of it in ear at one or other of those places; and in the fields near Bethlehem and Jerusalem, the stalk was little more than 3 foot high. The Boccôres likewise, or first ripe figs, were hard, and no bigger than common plumbs; though they have then a method of making them soft and palatable, by steeping them in oil. According therefore to the quality of the season, in the year 1722, the first fruits could not have been offered at the time appointed; and would therefore have required the intercalating of the 1781 Ve-ader, and postponing VOL. II. S * The rejoicings that were used upon these occasions, seem to have been very great, even to a proverb; as we may infer from Psal. iv. 7. Lord, thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than at the time when the corn and wine increased. This known quality of the summer season is appealed to, 1 Sam. xii. 17. Is it not wheat harvest to-day? I will call unto the Lord, and he shall send thunder and rain: which must have been looked upon as an extraordinary phenomenon at that time of the year. c. i. e& על שלשה סימנין מעבדין את השנה * Propter poning thereby the passover for at least the space of a month. The soil both of the maritime and inland parts of Syria and Phoenice, is of a light loamy nature, little different from that of Barbary, and rarely requires more than one pair of beeves to plough it. Besides all sorts of excellent grain, and such vegetable diet as has been described in the fruit and kitchen gardens of Barbary, the chief produce of these countries is silk and cotton. The inhabitants send the eggs of the silk worm, as soon as they are laid, to Cannobine, or some other place of Mount Libanus, where they are kept cool, without danger of hatching, till the mulberry buds are ready for them in the spring. The same caution is used at Limesole, and other places which I have seen, in the island of Cyprus, by preserving them upon Mount Olympus, which they call Jibbel Krim, i. e. the great mountain. The whole economy and management of the silk worm is at present so well known, that nothing need be added upon that subject. Though Propter tres casus intercalabant in anno; propter epocham anni solaris; propter fruges maturas; et propter fructus arborum. Si Judices animadvertissent nondum maturas esse fruges, sed adhuc serotinas esse, neque fructus arborum, quibus mos est tempore paschali florere; illis duobus argumentis nitebantur et intercalabant in anno. Ac quanquam Epocha anni antevertebat sextam decimam mensis Nisan, tamen intercalabant, ut frumentum maturum esset, ex quo offerretur manipulus in XVI Nisan, et ut fructus florerent more omnium.-Judices computo inito sciebant si Tekupha Nisan esset in sextadecima Nisan aut post; et intercalabant in eo anno, mutato Nisan in Adar geminum, nimirum u Pesach incideret in tempus frugum maturarum, &c. Maimonid. apud J. Scalig. de Emendat. Temp. 1. ii. p. 104. |