fy the same season. Neither should we leave the bower, thus occasionally mentioned, till we have admired the variety of climbers that shelter it from the sun. Such are the gourd (the kikaion or *kikoeon, "P'p, as it bids the fairest to be, in the history of the prophet Jonas), the balsamines, the climbing apocynums, &c. all which I have seen flourishing in Egypt, at the time of the year, with great beauty. As to the flags and bulrushes (6), they are often mentioned; particularly Exod. ii. 4. where we learn, that the mother of Moses, when she could no longer hide him, took for him an ark of buirushes, [or papyrus, as D is frequently rendered), and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein, and laid it in the flags (, suph, juncus) by the river's brink. The vessels of bulrushes, that are mentioned both in sacred and profane history †, were no other than larger fa brics Some authors make the kikaion to be the same with the Egyptian kik or kiki, from whence was drawn the oil of kiki, mentioned by Diodorus, 1. i. c. 34. This was the хротах of the Greeks, the elkaroa of the Arabians; the same with the ricinus, or palma Christi, which is a spongy quick-growing tree, well known in these parts, (vid. Ol. Clusii Hierobotanicon, p. 273.) though the oil which is used at present, and perhaps has been from time immemorial, for lamps and such like purposes, is expressed from hemp or rape seed, whereof they have annual crops; whereas the ricinus is infinitely rarer, and the fruit of it consequently could not supply the demands of this country. The Egyptians are said to be the inventors of lamps, before which they used torches of pine-wood. Clem. Alex. Strom. 1. + Isa. xviii. 2. Pliny (1. vi. c. 22.) takes notice of the naves papyraceas, armamentaque Nili; and (1. xiii. c. 11.) he observes, ex ipsa quidem papyro navigia texunt. Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus brics of this kind; which, from the late introduction of plank, and stronger materials, are now laid aside. The short, and, it must be confessed, imperfect and conjectural account that is here given of this very instructive piece of antiquity, will, I hope, excite some curious person to treat and consider it with greater erudition, and more copious annotations. The subject very well deserves it, as all Egypt, and no small portion of Ethiopia, are here most beautifully depicted in miniature, and elegantly contracted into one view. And it will add very much to the credit and authority of the representations here given us, that notwithstanding the artist had so much room for indulging his fancy and imagination; yet, unless it be the ONOKENTAYPA, we are entertained with no other object that appears to be trifling, extravagant, or improbable. Neither will there be much occasion to apologize even for this figure; in as much as, several centuries after this pavement was finished, Elian himself, (lib. xvii. c. 3.) that great searcher into nature, seems to give way to the common fame, and to believe the existence of such a creature. CHAP Siculus have recorded the same. And, among the poets, can: Conseritur bibula Memphitis cymba papyro. Lu The Natural History of Arabia; particularly of Arabia Petræa, Mount Sinai, &c. and of the Ostrich. IFV F we leave Palæstine and Egypt behind us, and pursue our physical observations into the Land of Edom, we shall be presented with a variety of prospects, quite different from those we have lately met with in the land of Canaan, or in the field of Zoan. For we cannot here be entertained with pastures clothed with flocks, or with vallies standing thick with corn, or with brooks of waters, or fountains or depths, that spring out of the vallies and hills, Deut. viii. 7. Here is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or pomegranates, Num. xx. 5. but the whole is an evil place, a lonesome desolate wilderness, no otherwise diversified than by plains covered with sand, and by mountains made up of naked rocks and precipices. I hated Esau, (says the prophet, Mal. i. 3.) and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. Neither is this country ever, unless sometimes at the equinoxes, refreshed with rain; but the few hardy vegetables which it produces, are stunted stunted by a perpetual drought; and the nourishment which the dews contribute to them in the night, is sufficiently impaired by the powerful heat of the sun in the day. The intenseness of the cold and heat, at these respective times, very emphatically accounts for the provision of Providence, in spreading out for the Israelites a cloud to be a covering by day, and fire (like a harmless sun, Wisd. xviii. 3.) to give both light and heat in the night season, Psal. cv. 39. But, to be more particular; when I travelled in this country, during the months of September and October (1721), the atmosphere was perfectly clear and serene all the way from Kairo to Corondel; but from thence to Mount Sinai, the tops of the mountains, which lay on each side of us in the midland road, would be now and then capped with clouds, and sometimes continue so for the whole day. This disposition of the air was succeeded soon after by a violent tempest; when the whole heavens were loaded with clouds, which discharged themselves, almost during a whole night, in extraordinary thunderings, lightnings and rain. But these phenomena are not frequent, rarely falling out, as the monks informed me, (and who have reason to remember them), above once in two or three years. And indeed, to make a short digression, it is very fortunate for the fraternity of St Catharine's that they hap pen so seldom. For as the torrents consequent thereupon wash down an immense quantity of stone and gravel from the mountains, the large capacious capacious cistern below, which receives its water from the convent, and liberally refreshes therewith the Arabs and their cattle, is usually filled up thereby. This the monks are immediately obliged to cleanse, as it happened when I was there, ten or a dozen of them being let down every day, and drawn up again at night, till the work was finished. And to shew the ingratitude of these their rapacious neighbours, for whose conveniency all this labour had been bestowed, I must mention likewise, that after these poor laybrothers had done all to their satisfaction, they would not suffer them to return, without paying each of them a sultanie, and a quantity of provisions besides, for the permission. Except at such extraordinary conjunctures, as were just now taken notice of, there is the same uniform course of weather throughout the whole year; the sky being usually clear, and the winds blowing briskly in the day and ceasing in the night. Of these, the south winds are the gentlest, though those in other directions are the most frequent; which, by blowing over a vast tract of these deserts, and skimming away the sandy surface along with them, leave exposed several putrified trunks and branches of trees, make continual encroachments upon the sea, and occasion no less alterations in the surface of the continent. For to these violent winds, we may attribute the many billows and mountains of sand, which we every where meet with; the sand supplying the place of water; or, as this phenome VOL. II. 2 $ non |