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Rh viz., 100°, took place on October 16th; on this day the maximum temperature at Jerusalem was 90°·5.

The lowest temperature of the air in each month is shown in column 6. The lowest in the year was 28°·5, on January 23rd; the temperature was below 40°, in January, on 22 nights; in February it was below 40° on 20 nights; and in March, on 8 nights. Therefore the temperature was below 40° on 50 nights in the year. The yearly range of temperature was 76°·5. At Sarona the temperature was below 40° on only 9 nights in the year; the lowest temperature in the year was 32°, on January 22nd and 24th. The yearly range at Sarona was 68°.

The range of temperature in each month is shown in column 7, and these numbers vary from 23°·5 in February, to 50° in both May and August. At Sarona the range of temperature in each month varied from 24° in February to 51° in March.

The mean of all the highest by day, of the lowest by night, and of the average daily ranges of temperature, are shown in columns 8, 9 and 10 respectively. Of the high day temperatures, the lowest, 49°·4, is in January, and the highest, 88°, in August. At Sarona, of the high day temperatures, the lowest, 60°·2, is in January, and the highest, 86°, in August.

Of the low night temperatures, the coldest, 38°·0, is in January, and the warmest, 63°·5, in August. At Sarona, of the low night temperatures, the coldest, 40°·9, is in January, and the warmest, 68°·9, in August.

The average daily range of temperature, as shown in column 10, the smallest, 11°, is in February, and the largest, 24°·5, is in August. At Sarona, the average daily range, the smallest, 14°·l, is in February, and the largest, 24°·4, in April.

In column 11, the mean temperature of each month, as found from observations of the maximum and minimum thermometers only, are shown; the month of the lowest temperature is January, 43°·7, and that of the highest, August, 75°·8. The mean for the year is 61°·6. At Sarona, the mean temperature of each month, the lowest is January, 50°·5, and that of the highest August, 77°·4. The mean for the year at Sarona is 65°·7.

The numbers in columns 12 and 13 are the monthly means of a dry and wet bulb-thermometer, taken daily at 9 a.m., and in column 14 the monthly temperature of the dew-point, or that of the temperature at which dew would have been deposited. The elastic force of vapour is shown in column 15, and in column 16 the water present in a cubic foot of air, in January and February, was as small as 2·8 grains, and as large as 5 grains in August. The numbers in column 18 show the degree of humidity, saturation being considered as 100; the smallest number in this column is in June, and the largest number is in January and February. The weight of a cubic foot of air under its pressure, temperature, and humidity, at 9 a.m., is shown in column 19.

The most prevalent wind in January was S.W., and the least


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46 prevalent winds were N., N.E., and E. In February the most prevalent were S.W. and W., and the least were N., S., and N.W. In March the most prevalent was S.W., and the least were N.E. and S. In April the most prevalent were S.W., W., and S.E., and the least were N. and N.E. In May the most prevalent were N.W. and S.E., and the least were N. and S. In June the most prevalent were N.W. and W., and the least were S. and N. In July the most prevalent was N.W., and the least were E. and S. In August the most prevalent were N.W. and W., and the least S. and S.W. In September the most prevalent was N.W., and the least were E. and S. In October the most prevalent were N.W., E., and N., and the least was N.E. In November the most prevalent were S. and W., and the least was N.; and in December the most prevalent wind was E., and the least prevalent were S. and W. The most prevalent wind for the year was N.W., which occurred on 85 times during the year, of which 16 were in July, 12 in August, and 11 in September; and the least prevalent wind for the year was S., which occurred on only 19 times in the year, of which 8 were in November. At Sarona the most prevalent wind for the year was S.W., which occurred on 72 times during the year, and the least prevalent wind was E., which occurred on only 8 times during the year.

The numbers in column 28 show the mean amount of cloud in each month; the month with the smallest amount is July, and the largest, February. Of the cumulus, or fine weather cloud, there were 63 instances, of which 15 were in September. Of the nimbus, or rain cloud, there were 46 instances, of which 14 were in February, and 9 in both January and March. Of the cirrus there were 3 instances; of the stratus, 2 instances; of the cumulus stratus, 64 instances; of the cirro stratus, 16 instances; of the cirro cumulus, 54 instances; and 118 instances of cloudless skies, of which 21 were in July, 20 in June, and 15 in August, and 3 only in February. At Sarona there were 74 instances of cloudless skies, of these 16 were in June, 12 in December and 11 in November.

The largest fall of rain for the month in the year was in February, 8·26 inches, of which 1·24 inch fell on the 14th, and 1·22 inch fell on the 9th. The next largest fall for the month was 6·09 inches in January, of which 2·83 inches fell on the 22nd, 1·24 inch on the 21st, and 1·05 inch on the 20th. No rain fell from May 5th to October 30th, making a period of 177 consecutive days without rain. The total fall of rain for the year was 23·96 inches, which fell on 54 days during the year. At Sarona the largest fall of rain for the month in the year was 6·69 inches in January, and the next in order was 6·09 inches in February. No rain fell from May 5th to October 20th, with the exception of June 23rd, when 0·02 inch fell, making a period of 167 consecutive days without rain. At Sarona the total fall for the year was 18·73 inches, which fell on 65 days during the year.

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reproduite ci-dessus a été découverte récemment à Gaza et adressée au Musée Impérial de Constantinople. Par le fond et la forme elle appartient à la collection d'El Amarna. Il y est question d'un Zimrida qui ne peut être que ce gouverneur de Lachis, ville voisine de Gaza, que nous connaissons déjà par une de ses lettres (Winckler-Abel 123), et qui fut, paraît-il, massacré par les rebelles, d'après une autre lettre de la même série (ibid, 124). Dans cette nouvelle tablette, un personnage sans titre donne avis à son correspondant des agissements de Dainu-Addi qui cherche à suborner Zimrida. OuOn [sic] croit reconnaître dans ligne antépénultième le nom de Rabil, déja connu par la 143$e$, ligne 37 d'El Amarna, où il est écrit avec d'autres signes.

A. . . . galbat [moi]. . . . abi, à, tes pieds je me prosterne. Sache que Dainu-Addi et Zimrida se sont réuinsréunis [sic] en conférence et que Dainu-Addi a dit à Limrida "Envoie vers moi Pisyara (?) . . . . deux . . . . et trois poignards et trois glaives. Si moi je marche (?) contre le pays du roi et si tu m'aides à m'en emparer, je restituerai ensuite [à qui de droit] le territoire qu'il s'était conquis." J'ai dit, envoie donc [des troupes] au devant de moi. J'ai dépêché Rabil. . . . [Tiens compte] de ces avis.

a former number of the Quarterly Statement (October, 1890) I gave some account of the foreign influences on Jews in Palestine after the Christian era. It is here proposed to give some account of Jewish life in the first and second centuries under Roman rule in Syria, which—in spite of the terrible episodes of the sieges of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. and 132 A.D.—was for the greater part of the period a peaceful domination over a very mixed population at a time when the Jews were very prosperous and fairly contented.

The most authentic sources of information are the inscriptions of the age—Greek, Roman, and Aramaic—and the scattered notes which occur


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48 in the most unexpected places in the Mishnah or "Second Law," completed before 200 A.D. at Tiberias, and written in the later Hebrew. The Mishnah is the Rabbinical comment on the Law, a work divided into six orders (Seeds, Feasts, Women, Damages, Holy Things, and Purifications), including 63 tracts in all. The well-known edition of Surenhusius including the comments of Maimonides, Bartenora, and others, occupies three stout folios, and gives the Hebrew text unpointed. The great lexicon of Buxtorff is indispensable for its study. The work, as a whole, is a dry digest of the decisions of famous Rabbis on cases connected with the subjects above-named, but the incidental notices include most valuable accounts of Jewish customs during the time when Herod's Temple was still standing, taken from the remembrances of the earlier Rabbis who survived its fall, and also notices of Jewish practices, occupations, and manners during the times when the Sanhedrin sat at Jamnia, and finally at Tiberias. To these subjects—sometimes illustrated by the evidence of existing buildings, inscriptions, coins, and also by modern customs, it is proposed to draw attention under the various headings which follow.

The government of the country under the Legate, with various local officials, assisted by Roman legions and by native auxiliaries, was in the hands of foreigners. Soldiers from Italy, Gaul, Saxony, Greece, Africa, and Asia Minor, mingled with corps of Arabs on dromedaries, guarded the frontiers, and were quartered in the towns. They have left many memorials, especially in Bashan, where the tombstones of Roman officers are numerous; and the local councils often erected memorial tablets, which speak enthusiastically of the goodness of their rulers, and attest their fealty to the Cæsars.

Under these rulers the population included the or "country folk," apparently Jews, together with pagans of Aramean and Arab origin; and an upper native class who understood Greek. There were scattered communities of Christians, living very humbly, and some of whom—Marcionites, Markosians, Ebionites, and, later on, Manicheans—were heretics; while some—like Justin Martyr's congregation at Shechem—held a purer faith, and were recruited from among Samaritans, Jews, and Greeks alike. The Jews were allowed freedom of religion, and a Sanhedrin, which was permitted to rule them in religious matters, but sternly repressed when it attempted political action, or roused rebellions like that of Rabbi Akiba at Bether. As subjects the Jews seem to have enjoyed equal rights with others, and were not only prosperous in trade, but also owned houses and lands, and became rich. Their power in Rome


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Rh itself, after the unsuccessful attempt of Claudius to banish them, greatly increased, especially in the times of the Agrippas, before the fall of Jerusalem, and under the Syrian Emperors Elagabalus and Philip the Arab. They do not appear to have held government posts, though some were enlisted in the army (Tebul Yom, iv, 5). Their relations with the other elements of the population will be considered later.

The Jewish colony at Palmyra prospered under the native princes. In the third century Queen Zenobia is called Yedithah on some Palmyrene texts, which apparently means "Jewess." She was not really of Jewish birth, though she may have favoured the Jews as she favoured the Christians. She is not mentioned in the Mishnah, which shows that late additions were not allowed to corrupt its text.

The Sanhedrin which finally settled at Tiberias (T. B. Rosh hash Shanah, 51 h) appears to have been undisturbed till Constantine renewed the edicts of Hadrian against the Jews (T. B. Sanhed, 12 a). In the Mishnah there is little which would lead us to suppose that the persecution of the Jews continued after Hadrian's time until the establishment of Christianity. There is much on the contrary to prove peaceful intercourse with the non-Jewish population.

The Jews were engaged in trade and in agriculture. Some of them were rich, for there are frequent allusions to the "men of leisure." A place containing ten Jews who were Batlanin was accounted a city, Megillah, i, 3), and they furnished the congregation of the synagogue, as they were said to have furnished that of the temple when standing. There is abundant evidence that the Jews travelled far by sea and by land. Media, Italy, Spain, Alexandria, Nehardea, and Greece are mentioned in the Mishnah, with regulations on board ships and on journeys. Women as well as men went abroad: "the dispersion" were the Jews so scattered, and even a Samaritan woman might be met travelling on a ship (Taharoth, v, 8). The employments of the Jews were connected with trade and commerce, both external and internal, as well as with agriculture, though the scribes and doctors of the law still formed a separate class. The Mishnah insists on the importance of teaching a son a useful trade or profession (Kidushin, iv, 14), and includes the curious criticism that "donkey drivers were mostly wicked, but camel drivers good, sailors pious, doctors only tit for Hades, and butchers for the company of Amalek."


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Rh Among trades and occupations most commonly noted may be mentioned shearing, fulling, carding, dyeing, spinning, tailoring, hunting the gazelle and preparing its flesh and skin, tanning, and the work of blacksmiths and carpenters (Sabbath, vii, 2). The Jews were also soapmakers, and traded in Tyrian purple; they were barbers, bootmakers (Pesakhim, iv, 6), laundresses (Sabbath, i, 5), ass and camel-drivers, and even sailors (Kethubim, v, 5), boatmen and bathmen (Shebiith, viii, 5). As regards agriculture, sowing, ploughing, reaping, binding the sheaves, threshing, winnowing, sifting, grinding, riddling, with kneading and baking, were forbidden on the Sabbath (Sabbath, vii, 2); the Jews owned fields (Kethubim, xiii, 8) as well as flocks and herds, and were fishers; they caught game and birds in nets (Yom Tob, iii, 2; Baba Kama, vii, 7; Kelim, xxiii, 2). The bow was used in hunting, as it still is sometimes by Arabs (Kelim, xii, 4, 5). Hunting on the Sabbath was forbidden (Sabbath, xiii, 6), though games of chance were allowed (xxiii, 2). The occupations regarded as unfit for the pious included dicing, pigeon flying, and usury (Rosh hash Shanah, i, 8). Unguent sellers are noticed, and unguent bottles and oil of roses (Maaseroth, ii, 3; Kelim, ii, 4; Shebiith, vii, 7; Sabbath, xiv, 4) from the rose gardens of Jerusalem (Maaseroth, ii, 5; T. B. Baba Kama, 82 b) and elsewhere; servants and slaves, Jewish or Gentile, were not only owned but also sold (Maaser Sheni, i, 7), and it would seem that a thief might be sold to slavery (Sotah, viii, 8).

The question of coinage and prices may be briefly noticed. The recent recovery of a half shekel weight in Palestine shows that the ancient coin weighing 320 grains troy had the value of 3s. 4d. sterling, but the later shekels weighing 220 grains were worth only 2s. 6d. These, of course, were not struck after the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D.; and the existence of any of the coins struck during the revolt under Bar Cochebas is to say the least very uncertain. The names of coins in the Mishnah include the Prutha or sixteenth of an English penny, the Assarion, Pondion, and Bipondion (two pence), the Zuza or shilling, the Sela or four shillings, and the gold Minah, the lesser being about £8 6s. 8d., and the larger double that value. An existing half shekel weighing 109 grains is known, with shekels of double that weight. The Assarion and Bipondion  bear foreign names for the smaller copper coins (Shebiith, vii, 4) with the gold dinar  which was profane money (Maaser Sheni, iv, 9). A small charge was made for changing two half shekels for a shekel, when the new money for temple payments was issued (Shekalim, i, 6). The Darkon or Daric bore a Persian name (Shekalim, ii, i, 4), and appears to have been worth about a guinea, though stated by Maimonides to have been only eight shillings. The shekel of Jerusalem was double that of Galilee (Kethubim, v, 9; Kholin. xi, 2). The dinar is in one passage reckoned as twenty-five zuzas or shillings (Baba Kama, i, 4). The Prutha was the eighth of an Italian Assarion


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52 (Edioth, ii, 9), so that the latter was the halfpenny. The silver Mina of Tyre was worth five Sela’ or twenty shillings, being nearly equivalent to the gold Dinar (Bicuroth, viii, 7). The current coin of the country recognised by the Roman Government included copper coins of various cities, such as Jerusalem, Tyre, &c., which had pagan superscriptions in Greek. Pompey had forbidden the Phoenicians to coin silver; and gold was only stamped by the central government. Tyrian coins from 145 B.C. to 153 A.D. are well known. The Jews used such coinage in dealings with the Gentiles, as, for instance, in selling sheep, calves, &c. (Pesakhim, iv, 3). The value of a bull appears to have ranged from £2 10s. to £10. A bull of 1,000 dinars is noticed, but these probably were not of gold (Baba Kama, iv, 1; Kholin, iii, 7).

The Jews had to deal with Greeks, Romans, pagan natives, and a few Christians, whom they appear to have called Minim, a term which some have connected with the name of Manes the heretic. The prevailing religion of the country was a Polytheism partly Greek and partly native, and its character is established by the texts found in the ruins of pagan temples, especially in Bashan and in Syria. The statue of Hadrian continued erect on the Holy Rock of the Jerusalem temple even as late as the fourth century. The temples to Augustus at Samaria and Cæsarea, and those at Ascalon, at Gaza, and at Afka, at Daphne and at Carchemish in Syria, were all still standing. Those of Baalbek and on Hermon, at Gerasa and Rabbath Ammon, still remain in ruins, with traces of smaller sanctuaries, and especially of the Temple to the pagan deity Aumo, raised by Herod the Great in Bashan.

The inscriptions tell us that the deities worshipped by the Greek speaking population included Zeus Keraunios, Zeus Kassios, Kronos, Athene Gozmaia, Tyche (or fate), to whom one text is addressed showing that a temple was built to her (Waddington, No. 2413), with Herakles, Helios, Selene, Atergatis and Theandrites. Among the native gods were Marna of Gaza, Aumo, Aziz, and Du Shera, all of whom have Greek texts ill their honour, with Baal Markod near Beirut, and the Palmyrene gods Baal Samin, Melek Baal, and Aglbaal, while at Daphne there was still a priest of Apollo. The worship of some of these deities continued even after the establishment of Christianity, especially among the Arabs. Aumo is invoked in 320 A.D. (Waddington, 2393). Du Shera was worshipped in 164 A.D. (No. 2023).

An important, tract (Abodah Zara) relates to the Jewish dealings with Pagans, but the only deities named are Aphrodite (iii, 5), whose image stood in the public bath at Accho, and Markulim or Mercury (iv, 1), who was represented by a stone before which a dolmen altar of three stones was placed. The Epicureans (Beracoth, ix, 5; Sanhedrin, xi, 1) and philosophers (Abodah Zara, iii, 5) are noticed, and the Asharoth or sacred trees (iii, 7), under which sometimes, as at Sidon (iii, 7) was a stone heap, including a rude hermaic image. All images were unlawful, including


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Rh votive hands and feet (iii, 2), yet the Jews now carve the "hand of might" on their doorways even in Jerusalem, where I have seen one painted red. The worship of the spirits of mountains, hills, trees, and springs, which dated back among the Hittites to 1400 continued (iii, 6) to be observed, and the little niches for statues are still found at springs in Palestine. The triumphal arches of the Romans were unclean to the Jew (iv, 6) on account of sculptures such as we still find on the roof of the Baalbek temple. A few statues of gods, from Gaza, Baalbek, &c., have also survived the destruction by the monks in the times of Constantine and of Theodosius.

The Jews had often pagan servants, and the Jewesses pagan nurses (Abodah Zara, ii, 2, 4), but the touch of the "country folk" polluted the Pharisees (Hagigah, ii, 7). To entice a Jew to worship some local demon was a heinous offence (Sanhedrin, vii, 10), and sorcerers were punished with death while the Sanhedrin had power, though conjurers were allowed (Sanhedrin, vii, 10). The Samaritans rendered a third of the Holy Land unclean, and the waters of Jordan and of the Yermuk impure (Parah, viii, 10). Samaritan bread was unclean (Shebiith, viii, 10), yet an Israelite in Syria might serve a Samaritan as gardener (Khalah, iv, 7). The Samaritans were charged with lighting false beacons to throw out the proclamation of the New Moon by the Jews (Rosh hash Shanah, ii, 4), but the eating of garlic on the Sabbath—for family reasons-—was common to Jew and Samaritan (Nedarim, iii, 10). The Mishnah was the work of Pharisees; and the Sadducees and Boethusians are hardly less condemned in it than the pagans. The Galilean Sadducees appear to have been in their own opinion Pharisees, but not in that of the Jerusalem School. The Khasidin or Saints, of whom Simon the Just said that the world stood on their acts (Pirki Aboth, i, 2), were probably the companions of Judas Maccabæus. They, as well as the Perushim (Hagigah, ii, 7), or Pharisees, are still a sect. The "stranger" of the Old Testament was, according to the Rabbis, to be


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 recognised only in the convert who had accepted baptism and circumcision (Demai, vi, 10), including such famous persons as Helena of Adiabene, Monobasus and Izates, and King Agrippa. Rabbi Gamaliel said (Pirki Aboth, ii, 5): "A boor cannot be fearful of sin, nor can one of the country folk be a saint."

Purifications were rendered necessary by contact with Gentiles, and strict rules were enforced to prevent even suspicion of countenancing or assisting in idolatrous rites. For three days before or after their feasts (Abodah Zara, i, 1) no Jew might deal with idolaters, or lend or borrow with them, or take or give payment. The feasts specified are the Kalends Saturnalia and Quartisima, also every anniversary when incense was burned to an Emperor (i, 3). Fir cones, figs, incense, and white cocks might not be sold to idolaters (Abodah Zara, i, 5) because connected with their rites. Lions and bears could not be sold, being used in the games (i, 7), which were still celebrated at Seleucia in 221 A.D. (Waddington, No. 1839), and which were yet observed in the time of Chrysostom. The Jews became victims at such games in 70 after the fall of Jerusalem, and the theatres in which they were held still exist at Cæsarea, Bethshean, Gadara, Gerasa, Amman, &c. The Jews might not erect basilicas, stadia, or bemas for Gentiles, might not make ornaments for their idols, or let buildings or fields to them in the Holy Land (i, 7, 8, 9). The general regulations of this important tract show fear of violence as well as fear of idolatry. "In every place in which you find a high mountain, or high hill, or flourishing tree, know that there is strange worship" (iii, 6). Vessels bought from pagans must be scoured or cleansed with fire (v, 12). Lights burned in honour of idols and of the dead are noticed (Beracoth, viii, 6). The Mishnah does not, however, seem, even in its latest tracts, to intimate that the Jews were prevented from observing the Law, save that their Temple was desecrated, and their condition, in absence of the ashes of the Red Heifer, one of legal uncleanness.

The intention of the Mishnah is to make a "hedge about the Law" (Pirki Aboth, i, 1) to secure its exact fulfilment. But many of the rites of the second Temple, and yet more those of the times when only a synagogue service existed, are unnoticed in the Torah, or of necessity differed from those observed in times of freedom. A few of these later enactments may be mentioned, and these often illustrate the New Testament notices.

The Shema (Beracoth, i, 1) was still repeated as to our own times ("Hear, O Israel, Jehovah our God is one Jehovah"), and the phylacteries


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Rh worn in prayer were believed to be mentioned in the Law, The procession of the first fruits, brought in baskets of gold and silver with a bull whose horns were gilded (Bicurim, iii, 2-8), was a rite not described in the Law, but observed in the days of the last Temple. The Sabbath lamp of olive oil with flaxen wick (Sabbath, ii) became an important observance, and the regulations against work on the Sabbath were minute. The Passover differed materially from that of the Samaritans, and from that described in the Law, because Israel had come to the "rest and the inheritance," and even the meanest must "recline at ease" (Pesakhim, x, i), instead of standing with girt loins staff in hand. Down to 70 A.D. the lamb was roasted (Pesakhim, vii, 2), but after the destruction of the Temple was no longer killed either for one or for more (viii, 7), the shank bone alone remained, as it still does, the symbol of the lamb. The Passover might be eaten in legal uncleanness (vii, 6) but it consisted only of unleavened bread, mingled wine, and bitter herbs (ii, 6), namely, lettuce, endives, and horseradish, liquorice and bitter coriander, with the Kharoseth sauce symbolic of the mortar used for building in Egypt, and made of figs, pistachios, and almonds, with acids, spices, and cinnamon (Bartenora's note on, x, 3); but the Kharoseth was not a command (x, 3), nor indeed were the four cups of wine (x, 2-7), though they were used at the Passover in the time of Christ. The search for leaven was strict, and even bookbinder's paste was avoided (iii, 1) among sources of suspected fermentation.

The great day of Yoma—the fast of Atonement—could no longer be observed, save by fasting of the strictest character, even children and babes being encouraged to observe it. The dance of maidens in the vineyards, and when going down to fetch willows at Kolonia (Taanith, iv, 7; Succah, iv, 4) was no longer a cheerful rite when wives were chosen by young men not for their beauty but for pious worth. It used to occur twice yearly before the Temple fell. The scapegoat was no longer precipitated from the cliff of Zuk {el Muntâr) for fear of its return to Jerusalem (Yoma, iv, 4); nor was the feast of water pouring, or the torchlight dance in the Temple possible (Succah, iv, 9; v, 2-4), but the palm branches could still be brought to the synagogue (Succah, iii, 12), and the lulab, or bunch, carried with the citron. The messengers no longer bore witness to the new moon in Jerusalem (Rosh hash Shanah, i, 3), nor were beacons lighted to carry the news to Babylon (ii, 2), but probably the ram's-horns were blown at this feast (iii, 3), as they still are in Jerusalem, and as they were even in the fourth century A.D. The booths were made not only on or outside houses but even on board ship, or when travelling in a car (Succah, ii, 3), The fasting for rain, beginning in October and going on if needful till April (Taanith, i, 2-7) could still be observed, but no wood-offering could be brought to the Temple (Taanith, iv, 5).

The Levirate ceremony (Yebamoth) was strictly observed, as it still


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56 is, but the administration of the Water of Jealousy (Sotah) seems to have fallen into disuse even while the Temple, where the rite was observed, was standing. The wording of vows (Nedarim) was as precise as it is recorded to have been in the Gospel (Matt, xxiii, 16). The Nazarite, abstaining (either for life or for a stated time) from all impurity, from wine, and from shaving the head (Nezir, vi, 1), might still observe the ancient practices. But the power of the Sanhedrin to punish by stoning, strangling, burning, and beheading (Sanhedrin, vii) was taken away by the Romans (Sotah, viii, 12) and even scourging could not be inflicted (Macoth, i, 12). The Jews awaited the coming of Elias (Sotah, viii, 15), and that of the Messiah with the resurrection of the pious (Sanhedrin, xi, 1; Sotah, viii, 15) and many questions were to remain unsettled till Elias should come (Edioth, viii, 7; Baba Metzia, ii, 8), but the ashes of the red heifer could no longer be prepared with water from Siloam, drawn from thence by boys seated on bulls, and said to have been born in the Temple and there kept to avoid impurity till the time arrived (Parah, iii, 2-6). These ashes might not be taken across water (ix, 5), and could only be prepared in the Temple, and the rite appears to have been observed under the Hasmoneans and down to about the Christian era (iii, 5). But the limit of a Sabbatical journey was still obligatory (Erubin), and the limits of unwalled towns defined by ropes (Erubin, i, 9), as they still are at Safed; while the Sabbatical year was certainly observed in Herod's time, and apparently in the second century A.D. (Shebiith, vi, 1). The law as to trees not eaten of till the fourth year (Orlah) was less strict in Syria than in Palestine, and a law as to first fruits only held beyond Jordan (Bicurim, i, 2). The three boxes to receive the old shekels for Israel, Syria, and Babylon (Shekalim, iii, 4) could no longer be set out in the sanctuary, and the daily "continual" service (Tamid) was abolished, though the "Story of Creation" could be read in the synagogue (Taanith, iv, 2) as of old.

 V.—

The languages of everyday life were Aramaic and Greek, but that of the Mishnah is Hebrew. I have already given a list of Greek and Latin words from the Mishnah, but it requires to be considerably extended, and I here give the results of further study of the subject:—


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Rh


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58


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Rh

These words are by themselves sufficient to show the age of the Mishnah and the communication between the Jews and the Greek and Roman population. It is clear that vessels and medicines, with various articles of food, were bought from Gentiles. The list is not perhaps exhaustive, and several doubtful words have been omitted; but out of about 70 words only about a fourth are Latin, and three fourths may be older than the Roman conquest. Some of the words are not Greek or Latin in origin, though received apparently from such sources. Among these are Cucuma, Oryza, and Angaros, with probably Calamaria, Dalmaticum, and Cannabis.

A good many of these words occur on the contemporary Greek texts of Syria, and some survive in the language of the peasantry, such as Funduk "inn"; Kumkum  "bottle"; Roz  "rice"; Kinnib  "hemp"; Asfinjah  "sponge"; Tawala  "table," with others of Greek and Latin origin noted in my former paper.

In addition to Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin, other dialects were spoken in Palestine, such as the Aramaic of the Palmyrene inscriptions and of Bashan, and the Sabean dialect of the Arab tribes from Yemen settling south of Damascus, and the Nabathean of Petra, of the Sinaitic Desert, and of Moab; to which Persian and Mongol dialects, and those of the Aryans of Asia Minor, might perhaps be added in Northern Syria. From the earliest historic age other dialects besides Hebrew have always been spoken in Palestine, but the traces of the Persian domination seem to have been very faint as compared with the Greek influence, and are mainly found, in 500 A.D., in the Hagadah or legendary lore of the Babylonian Talmud. The Phœnician dialect was no doubt still extant, and though we have no known Phœnician texts of the age, Phœnician personal names occur in Greek texts near Beirut. The Samaritan dialect was also distinct, and that of Galilee differed from the Hebrew of Jerusalem. In the Galilean Synagogue texts, and the tomb texts of Jerusalem, Jaffa, and Galilee, dating from the Christian era to the third century A.D., we find evidence both of the language, and of the characters used in writing by the Jews.


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60

The Roman capitals, and the Greek capitals gradually becoming uncial in the second and third centuries we find on the extant inscriptions; and the character used by the Jews was derived from the Aramaic, and was just changing into the "square" Hebrew of later times. The Phœnicians and Samaritans alone preserved, in later forms, the alphabet which had been used by Israel before the Captivity. The changes in the letters will be best understood by the attached comparative table, which shows the difference between the alphabet of Jerusalem 700 and that of the Jerusalem tombs about 100 A.D. The Samaritan Alphabet, even in the sixth century  remained nearest to the old Hebrew, and the Phœnician continued to preserve the earlier forms about 200 B.C. The Palmyrene of (he third century A.D. differs little from the Hebrew of Jerusalem a century earlier, which is the Ashuri of the Talmud. The Mishnah contains many notes as to writing, and as to books, some of which may be mentioned in order of occurrence.

On the Sabbath the scribe might not go out with his pen (Sabbath, i, 3) or write two letters of the alphabet (vii, 2). Writing in the dust, and mistakes in writing, such as led to errors in the lxx translation of the Scriptures, are noticed in the same tract (Sabbath, xii, 5). Bound books are also noticed (Pesakhim, iii, 1). The power of reading, or of expounding the Law, was sometimes not attained even by a High Priest (Yoma, i, 6); and Josephus speaks of the ignorance of one of the later holders of this dignity; but the Scriptures were read in the synagogues, all but certain chapters (Taanith, iv, 2; Megillah, iii, 10). The writing of Greek was allowed, though not approved by the stricter Rabbis (Megillah, i, 8), and according to Buxtorff notes in the Scriptures might only be written in Greek. Various ornamental inks, red and gold, were condemned (Megillah, ii, 2; Sabbath, i, 5; Kelim, xv, 6): the materials were tablets (probably of wax), papyrus, and skin; and gum was sometimes used with the ink (Sotah, ii, 4). The Scriptures were orally rendered in Aramaic (Megillah, iii, 6), Hebrew not being generally understood; and regular liturgies appear to have existed for synagogue use. Writing materials were carried in a case, probably of metal and including an inkstand, as is still usual in the East (Kelim, ii, 4). All books but that of Ezra were impure (Kelim, xv, 6) and foreign books were condemned, those who read them being classed with sorcerers as worthy of death (Sanhedrin, xi, 1). The Law was written, as it still is, on parchment, with broad margins, and mounted on a roller. It must be written in black ink, and this, with gum or vitriol black, rendered water unfit for purifications (Yadaim, i, 3; iii, 4). "All the Scriptures render the hands unclean" (Yadaim, iii, 5), including Solomon's Song and, according to some Rabbis, Ecclesiastes. So did the Aramaic passages in the text of Daniel and Ezra, if written in the sacred character; but Targums in the older character did not require that the hands should be washed after reading (Yadaim, iv, 4). This


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Rh latter passage is important, not only as showing the difference of the two languages, but also as showing the existence of two scripts, one called Hebrew, the other Ashuri which is variously rendered "upright," "sacred," or "Assyrian." The old alphabet and the Aramaic language were profane: the Hebrew and the new alphabet, which came with Ezra from Babylon, were sacred.

Although the Jews of Europe have long been distinguished as musicians, there is no doubt that the music of the Temple, like all other Oriental music, was rude and monotonous. The instruments used were wind (Nehiloth) and stringed (Neginoth) with various instruments for beating. The silver trumpet was accompanied by the Shophar or ram's horn, and a horn of the ibex with a gold mouthpiece (Rosh hash Shanah, iii, 3) proclaimed the new year. The halil or "pipe" no doubt resembled that still in use, and the abub was a reed pipe. The harp and lute (nebel) were also sacred instruments (Kelim, xv, 6), but the Levites' lute differed from that of the ordinary singer, in having no hole in the body of the instrument. Marcuph or the "musical horse" (Kelim, xv, 6; xvi, 7) was a wooden instrument like a horse, and considered pure; but Niktemon (, with certain kinds of harp and timbrel, werwere [sic] profane instruments (Kelim, xv, 6): these instruments were carried in cases (xvi, 7). The cymbal was used in the Temple court (Succah, v, 4), at the feast of Tabernacles, with harps, lutes, and trumpets. A peculiar instrument (Tamid, iii, 8) was the Magrupha  which, according to some, was only the fire shovel of the altar, but according to others a gong. That it made a loud noise is certain, and the word also means a "spoon." The musical instruments of the Mishnah are in short, with few exceptions, those of the Bible, to which the Toph or small drum still in use must be added.

The Jewish year, like that of the early Greeks, of the Akkadians and Babylonians, was lunar; with an intercalated month. The names of the months were not those used before the Captivity, which appear to have been still used by the Phœnicians in the Greek age, but those of the Assyrian Calendar, brought from the land of captivity. There were four "heads of the year" for various purposes of reckoning (Rosh hash Shanah.


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62 i, 1), but the new moon was fixed by actual observation, and not by a written calendar (Rosh hash Shanah, ii, 8). Sun dials were used for telling the time of day (Kelim, xii, 4, 5).

The Macedonian calendar was generally used by the Greeks in Palestine, as is clearly shown by many inscriptions; the calendar used by the natives of Palmyra was the same as that of the Arabs in the ninth century a.d., except the months which the latter called Tishri II and Kanun II; in Palmyra these were Kislul and Tebeth. The parallel calendars of the age may be given as below:—

In this table the names in the last three columns are taken from extant inscriptions. The Attic calendar was not used. The Palmyrene is identical with the Jewish, except in the case of Kanun, and was adopted later by the Arabs. The Phœnicians seem to have retained the old Hebrew calendar, used before the Captivity, but the information at present available is fragmentary.

The Jewish festivals being those of the Bible require no special notice.

Social duties form an important subject in the Mishnah. "Women, slaves, and children are exempt from reciting the 'Hear, O Israel,' and from phylacteries; but are bound to pray, to use the Mezuzah on the door post, and to bless after food" (Beracoth, iii, 3). The lighting of the Sabbath lamp and the dough offering (Numbers, xv, 20), were most important duties for wives (Sabbath, ii, 6). The dower for a maiden was £10 and for a widow £5 at least (Kethubim, i, 2; v, 1). The wife's duties included grinding flour, making bread, washing, cooking, nursing, making the bed, and spinning: if she had one servant she need not grind, or make bread, or wash; if two she need not cook or nurse; if three she need


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Rh not make the bed or spin; and if four "she sits on a chair." But Rabbi Eleazar said that she ought to spin if she had an hundred maids, because evil comes of being idle (Kethubim, v, 5).

The husband was bound to supply a minimum of corn for the wife's use, with vegetables and oil and dried figs, and also at least a bed and a mat. He must also give her a head veil, a girdle, and shoes, from feast day to feast day, and £2 10s. at least for clothes in the year. He must give her the money necessary for the house, and always eat with her when possible (Kethubim, v, 8, 9). If she married a tanner and found she could not endure the smell of tanning it was considered a fair reason for divorce (vii, 10). A man might have four wives at once, like Jacob, if he could support them (x, 5). A king was allowed eighteen wives (Sanhedrin, ii, 2). The vows of wives might be remitted in certain cases by their husbands (Nedarim, x). Though drinking is not a Jewish vice, it seems that cases were not unknown of women becoming drunk (Nezir, ii, 3), but women as well as men might become Nazerites, abstaining for a time, or for life, from wine.

The only causes for divorce, according to the stricter school of Shammai, were misconduct and barrenness; but Hillel is said to have allowed a man to divorce his wife if she spoilt his dinner, or if he considered some other woman prettier (Gittin, ix, 10). The ceremony was, however, only legal when a get, or written document, was properly given. Men were not allowed to be alone with any women but their wives (Kidushin, iv, 14), and the pious were advised not to talk much with women (Pirki Aboth, i, 5). The private property of wives could not be taken by their husbands (Baba Bathra, iii, 3). The duty of the Levirate was strictly enforced.

The women had a gallery in the Temple, at the back of the court called "Court of the Women," the men occupying the floor, and they brought their offerings as far as the Gate Nicanor, leading into the Priests' Court. They also had a gallery at the end of the synagogue furthest from the ark containing the roll of the Law.

The wedding ceremonies of the Jews are not described in the Talmud, but were no doubt much the same as those now in use; for in the Gemara (T. B. Tract Calah) there is a mention of the cup of wine which is dashed down during the ceremony by the bridegroom. The bride appears to have worn a silk veil (Kethuboth, ii, 1). The dance of maidens (Taanith, iv, 8) was accompanied by a song in which they exhorted the young men to choose a wife for her piety, and not for beauty. "All the daughters of Jerusalem walked and danced in the vineyards. And what said they? Look, O young men, and see whom you choose; look not for beauty but for family. 'Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but she who fears the Lord she shall be praised'; and it is said, 'Give her the fruit of her hands, and let her own works praise her in the gate.'"


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64

The dress of a Jew might not be of mixed material, and garments which entailed work to put on might not be worn abroad on the Sabbath. Women consequently might not go out with a gold crown representing Jerusalem—an adornment often mentioned (Sabbath, vi, 1; Edioth, ii, 7; Kelim, x, 2). The small girls wore plaited hair, and splinters in their ears to prepare for earrings. The Jewesses from Arabia wore veils, and a peculiar cloak distinguished those of Media (Sabbath, vi, 6). From the same passage we learn that the Jews used wooden legs and crutches, with various amulets (Sabbath, vi, 8, 9). The women also painted the eyes with Kohl (viii, 3). The sword, bow, shield, sling and lance were forbidden on the Sabbath. Anklets were worn and false hair and false teeth (Sabbath, vi, 4, 5); laces and fillets, necklaces, nose-rings, seal-rings, sandals, mail coats, greaves, and helmets, scent boxes and musk bottles, are noticed in the same passage (Sabbath, vi, 1, 2, 3).

In another tract occur several notices of dress (Kelim, xi, 8, xxiii, 2, xxvi, 1, xxviii, 5) and of arms, such as the helmet, lance, shield, and breastplate, with women's ornaments, the fibula, earrings, rings, nose-ring, chains, gems, pearls, and glass (apparently false jewels). The people of Ascalon wore a peculiar belt, and the Jewish girls wore their hair in nets. Sandals or overshoes for muddy weather, and a peculiar sandal made at Latakia, are noticed, with women's caps and Arab veils. Smelling bottles seem to have been much used (Kethubim, vi, 4) as well as signet-rings, earrings, &c. (Sotah, i, 6; Nedarim, iv, 1). Clothing included sheepskins (Nedarim, vii, 3) and woollen stuff and Galilean linen (Baba Kama, x, 9). Coral (almug) was worn in rings (Kelim, xiii, 6), and amulets are said to have contained either writings or magic roots (Mikvaoth, x, 2). The wearing of amulets was an universal custom, as it still is in the East, and in a great part of Europe, among all nations.

Regulations as to food were founded on the Law, and all meat required to be lawfully killed. Many dishes are noticed in the Mishnah, some of which are still eaten in Palestine. The beans of the locust tree were steeped in wine (Shebiith, vii, 7), and mead and apple wine (Sabbath, XX, 2; Trumoth, xi, 2) are noticed, with an acid of winter grapes (Nedarim, vi, 8); dried figs in cakes and date jam are noticed (Trumoth, ii, 4, xi, 2) with palm honey (Nedarim, vi, 8), and other articles of food occur in the same passage last quoted. Salt fish (Sabbath, iii, 5) and a small fish in bottles from Spain are mentioned (Niddah, vi, 3; Macsherin, vi, 3). Greek hyssop was eaten as medicine (Sabbath, xiv, 3) with other


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Rh herbs, including shepherd's purse. Honey and pepper occur in the same connection, and salt fish wrapped in paper are noticed (Yom Tob, iv, 5); finally, cheese is often noticed, as well as milk, and the tunny fish and herring, with assafœtida (Abodah Zara, ii, 5) and crushed beans (Taharoth, iii, 1). Olives were pickled in salt (Maaseroth, iv, 3), and corn was eaten in the fields (Maaseroth, iv, 5). Egyptian beer (Pesakhim, iii, 1), beer from Media, and various wines are noted with other eatables, including flesh, game, poultry, eggs, fruits, vegetables, and fish, as will be further noted in speaking of the fauna and flora of the country.

In this connection a few words must be said as to the Jewish cubit; for the Talmud gives us the only information on the subject, as annotated by Maimonides. There is no evidence that the Egyptian cubit was ever used by the Jews, and all attempts to deduce a measurement from tombs I have found, after measuring several hundreds of all ages, and in all parts of the country, to fail utterly, on account of the irregularity of their dimensions and the absence of right angles. From measurements of the Siloam tunnel, which is stated to have been 1,200 cubits long, we should obtain a cubit of about 17 inches; but in the times of which we now treat there was a cubit for measuring buildings of 48 barleycorns or 16 inches (three grains of Palestine barley measuring exactly one inch as found by repeated experiment), and a smaller cubit of 15 inches for vessels (Kelim, xvii, 9).

The measurements of the Temple stones, and the breadth of the pilasters which I found in the north-western corner of the Haram, together with their distance apart, and the measurements of the Galilean synagogues, all agree with the view that from the time of Christ to the second century A.D. the Jewish building cubit was 16 inches. Measurements in any other unit will, I believe, only apply to Greek or Byzantine work, and not to buildings which are certainly of Jewish origin. The measurement of the contents of eggs, as compared with the Jewish cubic measure, leads to the same result {see "Conder's Handbook to Bible," p. 57). The measurements of carefully-cut masonry and of well-built structures are evidently more reliable than those of irregularly hewn tombs. The Mishnah (Baba Bathra, vi, 8) gives model dimensions for tombs, and these I tried to apply in Palestine to the innumerable tombs which I measured, but after keeping a register for several years I found that no result could be obtained; whereas the Temple masonry and the synagogues gave a definite unit, which agreed with the statements of the Mishnah and of Maimonides.

Among the building materials noticed in the Mishnah we find wood and stone; there is also reference to chalk, gypsum, pitch, clay, and


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66 bitumen (Kelim, x, 2). The full account of the Temple which is our best guide in study of the subject (Middoth) need not here be mentioned, but it should be noticed that it had two veils woven annually by women (Shekalim, viii, 4) Private houses had fiat roofs on which booths were erected in summer, as is still the practice in Galilee (Shebiith, iii, 7), and some houses had porches (Oheloth, vi, 2), they probably contained little furniture beyond beds and mats. Two kind of beds are noticed (Nedarim, vii, 5) and a folding table. The shops and inns are also frequently mentioned, as well as tanneries, and the glassmakers' manufactories. The purity of the oven was important legally. The roofs were of cement (Moed Katon, i, 10), and rolled with rollers, as is still usual. Hollows under buildings (Oheloth, iii, 7) prevented contamination by some corpse in a "tomb of the depth," or ancient unknown sepulchre below.

What the synagogues were like we know from remains of those built in the second century as described more fully in "Syrian Stone Lore." They contained arks for the rolls of the law (Taanith, ii, 1; Nedarim, iv, 1), and the Jews were occasionally obliged to sell a synagogue (Megillah, iii, 2) stipulating that it should not be used for disgraceful purposes. The word for synagogue is that now used for a "church" in Palestine. The synagogue liturgy is noticed (Taanith, iv, 3) on the days of fast.

The fear of impurity from the dead was a most important social feature; but the hair, nails, and bones did not defile (Oheloth, iii, 3), and, consequently, the bones of a father or a mother might be gathered (Moed Katon, i, 5) and transported. This accounts for the Jewish bone-boxes found on Olivet; and Benjamin, of Tudela, notices such boxes at Hebron in the twelfth century. The cemetery or "house of tombs" (Taharoth, iii, 7) must be placed at least 40 cubits outside a city, and it would seem that lilies were here grown, as they are still planted (the purple iris) in Moslem cemeteries (Baba Bathra, ii, 9; Parah, iii. 2). The only tombs known inside Jerusalem were those of the Kings (Tosiphta Baba Bathra, i) and of the prophetess Huldah, which may, I believe, be recognised in the so-called "Tomb of Nicodemus" in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, while the Sepulchre itself may he conjectured to be that called of Huldah in the Mishnah. The tombs of the first and second centuries at Jerusalem, which are certainly Jewish, are all at some distance from the walls.


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Rh The sepulchres were whitewashed once a year in March (Shekalim, i, 1); the form of the tomb depended on the rock in which it was cut (Baba Bathra, vi, 8), but two models are suggested in this passage. The first was a chamber four cubits broad, by six from the door to the back, having three kokin oil each side and two at the back. The second was six cubits by eight having a court in front, measuring six cubits by six. It had 13 kokin, four each side, three at the back, and one each side of the door. Malefactors were buried in two pits near the "House of Stoning" (Sanhedrin, vi, 5).

The country was tilled by the Jews, and contained vineyards, olive yards, corn-fields, vegetable gardens, fruit orchards, and other plantations. The regulations of the seventh year were only strictly applied to the Holy Land, and the same refers to the trees not plucked till the fourth year. The corner of the field and the gleanings were left to the Levite or the poor, as directed in the Law. The fields in the mountain district had stone terraces as at the present time (Shebiith, iii, 8). The vines were of two kinds (Menakhoth, viii, 6), one on poles, the other growing on the ground. The grapes were trodden in presses (Shebiith, viii, 6; Sabbath, i, 9), and the olives crushed in stone vats. Ruined remains of both are numerous. The corn was stacked in heaps and threshed on the threshing floor (Sanhedrin, iv, 3; Maaser Sheni, iv, 5) exactly as it now is. Vines were planted in quincunx order (Kilaim, iv, 5). Manure was used in the fields (Shebiith, ii, 1), and was sometimes obtained from blood of sacrifices (Yoma, V, 6). Tares of various kinds are noticed with the wheat, barley, spelt, and beans (Kilaim, i, 1). The irrigation of trees is also noticed (Moed Katon, i,.3). Charcoal was made for warming (Yom Tob, iv, 4), and wood chopped for the fire (Baba Kama, iii, 7). Ox carts (Shebiith, v, 6; Kilaim, viii, 4) and a cart like a chair, perhaps the threshing wain (Kelim, xxiv, 2) were drawn by oxen, and mules were apparently not used (Kilaim, viii, 4; Baba Bathra, vi, 1). It is certain that many fruits were foreign to Palestine, though grown in its plains, including rice, citrons, and perhaps the Egyptian bean, Persian fig, and Cilician bean, with the Greek and Egyptian cucumber, the melopepo and crustomima, and the peach and quince. The strongest wine came from Bethlaban and Bethrima, on the borders of Samaria (Menakhoth, viii, 6), and Sharon wine is also noticed (Niddah, ii, 7). The finest oil was from Tekoa, south of Bethlehem, and the next best from Ragaba, in Gilead (Menakkoth, viii, 3). The fields had thorn hedges as they still have in the plains (Baba Kama, iii, 2) and the tibn or chopped straw is noticed with straw proper (Baba Kama, iii, 2)


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68

The common animals of the country are often noticed in the Mishnah, including oxen, sheep, goats, camels, asses, and mules, with the gazelle as already noticed. Among wild beasts we find the wolf, lion, bear, leopard ( Arab ), and the small panther, pardulus, which some render basilisk (Baba Kama, i, 4); they were all hunted apparently in Palestine (Sanhedrin, i, 4) which, if we could be certain of locality, would make the survival of the lion very late. The pardulus was perhaps a large wild cat, still found in wild districts. The wolf, bear, and leopard are still to be found.

The pig and dog were unclean (Baba Kama, vii, 7) with the wild boar, which is still numerous (Kholin, ix, 2). A wild ox ( or ) is also noticed (Kilaim, viii, 6; Baba Kama, iv, 7), but whether this was the Reem (A. V. unicorn) hunted by Assyrians in the seventh century or the bubale or bovine antilope is not clear. The latter is the Bakr el Wahash or "wild cow" of modern Arabs. Another doubtful animal was the Coi, which was a wild sheep (Bicurim, ii, 8; Nezir, v, 7; Kholin, vi, 1). It was doubtful whether the Coi was cattle  or game. It is to be noted that Coi is an ancient Turkish word for a "sheep," and that wild sheep are hunted in Cyprus. Probably they were found in Northern Syria at the time of which we treat. Tame sheep it may also be noted wore bells, as they still do (Nezir, vi, 2).

Another wild animal was the "sea dog," which was amphibious and came at times on land ( Kelim, xvii, 13), but whether in Palestine or elsewhere is not stated. There can be little doubt that the seal is intended, which would be familiar to the Jews in the Black Sea and in the Caspian, and which is occasionally found off the Syrian coast, as has been noted in the Quarterly Statement, Palestine Exploration Fund. The Lybian ass like a camel (Kilaim, viii, 4)) was apparently only a large breed of ass from Egypt. The mole rat (Middoth, i, 3) and the


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Rh mole which was blind (Kelim, xxvi, 6) are noticed, with the frog (Taharoth, v, 1) and various snakes, including the basilisk (Baba Metzia, vii, 7). There are few allusions to birds, other than cocks, and pigeons, and doves (Baba Kama, vii, 7), both wild and tame; the fish, tunny, herring, and Spanish Colis have been already mentioned. All reptiles were unclean (Kelim, iv, v, &c.), and centipedes as well (Mikvaoth, v, 3). There remain only to be noticed bees, which were kept in hives (Shebiith, X, 7; Ouketzin, iii, 10) and also found producing wild honey (Macshirin, vi, 4). The hare and the "coney" are noticed (Ouketzin, iii, 3) as mentioned in Scripture. The latter is the Arab Wabr or Thofan which still inhabits the rocks near the Dead Sea. It is not a rabbit or hare at all, but belongs to quite another genus. The Shamir or mythical worm that cut the stones for the temple was the size of a grain of corn (Pirki Aboth, V, 6; Sotah, viii, 12), and some suppose the diamond to be intended, as indeed the name would seem to imply.

Of the vegetable, productions of Palestine, fruits, trees, shrubs, grains, and plants, there are many notices in the Mishnah, though some of these products bear names of doubtful meaning. As regards vineyards something has been said, and it need only be added that Helioston refers to grapes prematurely ripened by artificial means under the Sun (Menakhoth, viii, 6), such being considered unfit for consecrated wine. In the same tract (Menakhoth, viii, 3) we read of Anphikinon, a purgative oil of bitter taste, made from unripe olives. The best oil came from the ripe olives, beaten from the trees and allowed to ooze; the second quality was beaten on the roofs, and apparently squeezed in the stone mill; the third quality was stored till the olives were rotten, dried on the roofs, and beaten, and put in a basket (Menakhoth, viii, 3, 4). The best was used for the golden seven-branched lamp, and the second for the Menakhoth or "meat (bread) offerings." Other oils were known to the Jews, including sesame oil, nut oil, radish oil, fish oil, that from colocynth or wild cucumber, and naphthah or mineral oil, as well as castor oil ( Κἰκι) all of which were unfit for sacred purposes (Sabbath, ii, 1, 2). The olives are still beaten from the trees in Palestine, and the castor oil plant grows to a tree near Jericho. Mineral oil is now much used by the Jews for lighting.

Among trees the principal ones noticed are the olive and the fig, but many wild kinds are also mentioned. The Persian fig (Shebiith, v, 1) was a foreign tree, but the locust tree or carob (Shebiith, vii, 7; Baba Bathra, ii, 9; Edioth, iv, 7) was the same tree still common in Palestine


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70, of which the pods are edible. The sycamore fig (Baba Bathra, ii, 9; Trumoth, xi, 4) is still to be found in the plains, but the apple (Trumoth, xi, 4) is less common. The mulberry, pomegranate, date palm, peach, quince, and citron occur among fruit trees (Maaseroth, i, 2) with the walnut, almond, and Sorba which appears, according to the commentators, to be the Arabic Z'arûr, a kind of hawthorn, of which I have eaten the haws on Carmel. The chestnut is not a common tree now (, Shebiith, vii, 6) though planted on Lebanon, but the oak and terebinth are plentiful (Shebiith, vii, 5). Willows are noticed at Kolonia below Jerusalem (Succah, iii, 3; iv, 5) and cedar wood, with ash, cypress, and fig wood for burning (Yoma, iii, 8). The altar fire was fed with fig-tree wood, nut, and wood of the "oil tree," not with olive wood or vines (Tamid, ii, 3). The lulab bunch consisted of palm, myrtle, and willow, and a citron was carried with it (Succah, iii, 4). The palm branches were laid on the roof of the Temple Court, or carried into the synagogue (Succah, iii, 12, 13): the willows were put in gold vases (Succah, iv, 6); and the children at this same feast of Tabernacles strewed palm branches and ate their citrons (Succah, iii, 7).

Another tree is sometimes rendered "elm," but appears to have been a kind of pine or cedar, of which pure vessels were made (Kelim, xii, 8). There is a species of fir which grows wild in the Gilead woods (Pinus Carica), but the Aleppo pine (Pinus Halepensis) of the Lebanon now bears a foreign name, viz., sinobar, which is apparently the (Buxtorff, 679), ', otherwise  and ' (T. B. Pesakhim, 4:2b), and though believed in the fourth and fifth centuries to have been the tree of which Solomon built the temple, it is not impossibly a stranger to Palestine, though now plentiful in Lebanon.

By the "oil tree" may perhaps be understood the oleaster or wild olive (, Tamid, ii, 3), though Bartenora says "pine" or "balsam." It was one of the woods for the altar fire. Finally, the og is believed to have been the sumach (Kelim, xxvi, 3). It had a red fruit, fit for eating and for dyeing skins.

Among shrubs the most famous is the hyssop. There can be little doubt that the origany or wild marjoram is the plant intended, as has always been traditionally supposed. The caper is quite out of the question, nor does its Arab name Asâf bear any relation to the Hebrew word for hyssop (, ezob), which the Greeks seem to have borrowed as . Maimonides says that hyssop was, which is a kind of marjoram (on Maaseroth, iii, 9), and the plant called Miriamîyeh in Palestine (as Dr. Chaplin pointed out to me) is not only of this family, but grows from ruined walls, and is used for purposes of disinfection.


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Rh There are several kinds of salvias, origanies, and satureias in Palestine, remarkable for their grey thick leaves, and to one of these growing above the Jordan valley the name' Adhbeh is given by the Arabs, which may be a corruption of ezob. There were several kinds of hyssop, such as Greek, coloured, Roman, or desert hyssop (Negaim, xiv, 6 : Parah, xi, 7), bvit only one kind was sacred, of which the seeds are noticed  in the latter passage, with the sprouts or stalks. Three species of origany or hyssop are noticed (Ouketzin, ii, 2) as eaten, and Greek hyssop (Sabbath, xiv, 3), with another kind of marjoram, as medicine. Greek hyssop is believed by botanists to have been a Satureia, of the same family with the mint and the marjoram ; and the Greek word is used in the New Testament (Hebrews, ix, 19) as equivalent to the Hebrew hyssop. Short hyssop was tied into a bunch (Parah, xii, 1) for sprinkling.

The crops grown in Palestine have been noted, and included wheat, barley, rye (or spelt), and probably oats (, see Kilaim, i, 1), with sesame and millet. In the same chapter we tind noticed beans, peas, French beans, white beans, Egyptian beans, chick peas, eshalots, Greek pumpkins, gourds, cucumbers, cardamums, mustard, I'ape, carrots or radishes, hemp, indigo, fenugrec, flax, wild crocus ; and tares, jackal-spike and wild corn, growing in good corn. In the next tract of the Mishnah (Shebiith, ii) are noticed cucumbers and gourds, rice, millet, poppies, Egyptian beans, and onions, with the luf (v, i) either an eshalot or a pumpkin ; and (vii, 1) mint, succory, cresses, leeks, milk-wort, thistles or thorns of some kind , indigo, madder (which is now eaten), scolopendrium, wormwood, and other plants with doubtful names. Blackberries are also noticed (, Shebiith, vii, 5) according to Maimonides, and among flowers the rose (vii, 6) ; also wild asparagus, coriander in the mountains, rocket in the desert, and apparently cabbage (ix, 1) with rue and other plants. There were two kinds of melon, the melopepo and the water melon (Trumoth, ii, 6 ; iii, 1). In another passage we read of rocket, nasturtium, carrots, garlic, and onions, and Cilician pounded beans, Egyptian lentils, and another kind of lentil (Maaseroth, iv, 5 ; v, 4) with a word variously explained as leeks or as cresses. The ladanum (, Shebiith, vii, 6), which is rendered "myrrh" in the Bible, was the gum cistus, which is common in Palestine (Gen., xxxvii, 25), and the word survives in the Arabic ladan. The Cilician lentils and Egyptian lentils are again noticed (Negaim, vi, i, and Kelim, xvii, 8). Bread was made of wheat, barley, and rye or spelt (Shebuoth, iv, 2), and another enumeration we find garlic, leeks, mint, rue, lettuce, carrot, rape, onions, cabbage, beetroot, cucumbers, pears, quince, and hawthorn, artichokes, chick peas, cistus, cinnamon, and crocus (Ouketzin, i, 2, to iii, 3). The general result of this inquiry is to show that both the fauna and flora of the country were the same as at the present day, as were also the seasons and


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72 climate. All the plants and trees mentioned grow and are cultivated still, and it is only the area of cultivation, and in some parts of woods and forests, that has diminished. Yet Palestine, which was fully cultivated in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries A.D., is regarded by many as a stony desert without crops, trees, or flowers.

The Talmudic Geography has been studied so fully by Dr. Neubauer that little remains to be said on the subject; but the greater number of places mentioned by him are noticed in Jewish writings of the fourth and later centuries A.D. There is not much of geographical interest in the Mishnah, but a few words may be devoted to its foreign and its home geography.

Among the foreign countries that we find noticed are Egypt, especially Alexandria, whence ships came to Palestine (Oheloth, viii, 3), Greece (Gittin, viii), and Italy (Sanhedrin, viii, 1), whence wine was brought, with Rome as visited by the Jews (Aboda Zara, iv, 7). Further East there are frequent references to Babylonia, and to Media, with the Chaldean cities of Nehardea, Tel Arza, and Beth Dely (Yebamoth, xvi, 7). The most westerly country is Spain (Baba Bathra, iii, 2), whence the small fish in bottles were brought. These names bear witness to a trade which extended throughout the Mediterranean, and eastwards to the Tigris and the Caspian, while communication with India was also established (Yoma, iii, 7), as it is well known to have been, through the accounts of Greek and Eonian writers.

The divisions of the native land of the Jews included—(1) Judea, of which the southern border was near Rekem or Petra and Elath, and the northern (Menakhoth, viii, 6) near Beth Eima, Beth Laban, and Antipatris, which were on the Samaritan border; (2) Samaria, which included Caphar Outheni (Kefr Adhan), south of Carmel, with Cæsarea and Bethshean; (3) Perea or Gilead; (4) Galilee; (5) Syria, including Phoenicia. Special information as to the districts into which Judea and Galilee were divided is given in two passages which require notice. In the first we read that the Land of Israel extended to Chezib (Ez Zib), north of Accho (Shebiith, vi, 1); and the region beyond, to Amanus and the Euphrates, was not cultivated by Jews during the seventh year, though the fruits cultivated there by others might be eaten—a law which existed already in the time of Herod the Great (15 Ant., ix, 2). This region is called Syria (Shebiith, vi, 2-6).


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Rh In the second geographical passage we find Galilee divided into three parts (Shebiith, ix, 2), namely, Upper Galilee, Lower Galilee, and the Valley. The first was the region above Caphar Hananiah (Kefr' Anân), the second was south of this limit, the third was the country of Tiberias on the shores of the Lake. Judea was also, according to this passage, divided into the Mountain, the Shephelah, and the Valley. The Shephelah included Lydda and the hills to the south. Bethhoron was the limit of the "King's Mountain," or Jerusalem range. Perea was also apparently divided into mountain, hill, and valley, though the limits are not stated.

It will be convenient to notice the places mentioned in Syria and Palestine in alphabetic order, and the majority are either well known or have been identified by aid of the Survey, though a few are doubtful.

Accho was in the Holy Land, yet contained a statue of Aphrodite in its bath (Abodah Zara, iii, 5). It was the last city in Palestine, and it was doubtful if tombs to its east were pure (Oheloth, xviii, 9), being close to the frontiers {see Nedarim, iii, 5; Gittin, i, 1; vii, 7).

Ahab's Well (Parah, viii, 10) was impure, being in Samaria. It is perhaps the "Fountain in Jezreel" (1 Sam., xxix, 1), and may be the great spring 'Ain Jalûd below that city.

Akrabah was a day's journey north of Jerusalem (Maaser Sheni, v, 2), and the limit of the "square vineyard," so that it appears to have been on the Samaritan border—the present 'Akrabeh.

Amanus was the northern Lebanon (Shebiith, vi, 1).

Antipatris was also on the Samaritan border (Gittin, vii, 7), but on the Judean side of the line—now Ras el 'Ain.

Ascalon appears to have been regarded as the south-western frontier (Gittin, i, 1); the belts and the crooks of the Ascalon people are noticed (Kelim, xiii, 7; xxiii, 2).

Bethel (Taanith, iv, 6) was the famous city where Barcochebas and Rabbi Akiba resisted Hadrian. It is said to have fallen on the 9th of Ab. There is no practical doubt that the site is the present Bittir, southwest of Jerusalem. It is mentioned with Tekoa (Khalah, iv, 10).


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74 Beth Kerem, from the valley of which the stones for the altar were taken (Middoth, iii, 4), was probably the Beth-ha-Kerem of the Bible (Neh. iii, 14; Jer. vi, 1) which I believe to have been the present 'Ain Kârim{see Niddah, ii, 7); it was a place with a good supply of water in the valley, which suits the identification.

Beth Horon, now Beit 'Ûr, was at the edge of the Jerusalem Hills (Shebiith, ix, 2).

Beth Laban, a place in the mountains with vineyards, appears to have been the ancient Lebonah on the road from Jerusalem to Shechem (Menakhoth, viii, 6).

Bethlehem of Judea (Kelim, ii, 2).

Bethnamar, beyond Jordan (Peah, iv, 5), may be Nimrîn, east of Jordan.

Beth Rima, mentioned as in the mountains and possessing vineyards, was the present Beit Rima, west of Lebonah (Lubben), and on the south side of the border valley of the Samaritan frontier, which valley also runs north of Lubben (Menakhoth, viii, 6).

Bethphage, near Jerusalem (Menakhoth, xi, 2), is an uncertain site on the Mount of Olives.

Bethshean (Abodah Zara, i, 4) was a city of idolaters—probably on account of the temple and theatre still extant, and was reckoned sometimes as within Samaria.

Beth Uniki was also an idolatrous city (Abodah Zara, ii, 4), of which the locality is not indicated. It is not certain that the present text is correct, or that the town was in Palestine.

Bedan, in Samaria (Kelim, xvii, 5) famous for pomegranates (Orlah, iii, 7), is probably the present village Bedyeh.

Birath ha Peli (Edioth, vii, 3) was a place with water, perhaps now Fûleh in Lower Galilee.

Cæsarea. Both towns of this name seem to be mentioned in the Mishnah, as the "Eastern" and "Western" Cæsarea. The tombs in their vicinity were impure; for the first—Paneas—was on the boundary of the Holy Land, and the second, on the sea-coast, was in Samaria (Oheloth, xviii, 9). There could be no tombs west of the Western Cæsarea, since it is situated on the shore.

Caphar Aziz (Kilaim, vi, 4) is probably the ruined town of 'Aziz, south of Hebron.


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Rh Caphar Hananiah, the boundary of Upper Galilee, is the Hannathon of the Bible, now Kefr 'Anân (Shebiith, ix, 2).

Caphar Signa was a place with vineyards in the plains (Menakhoth, ix, 7) within the borders of Judea. It was perhaps near Jamnia (Kelim, V, 4), since the question as to a tire in its ovens was carried there. Possibly Tell es Sellâkah, north-east of Yebnah.

Caphar Outhnai (Gittin, i, 5; vii, 8) was on the border of Samaria— probably Kefr Adhan, north-west of Jenin.

Chezib, now Ez Zib, was the border of the Holy Land north of Accho Peah, i, 3; Shebiith, vi, 1).

Colonia, near Jerusalem (Succah, iv, 5) otherwise called Ham-Motza, "the spring," was the present Kolonia, near which is the ruin Beit Mizzeh.

Catzra, apparently meaning "camp" (, Castrum), is applied to two walled towns. One was at Sepphoris (Seffûrieh), one at Gush Caleb (el Jîsh), a third noticed with these is called Yudephath (or Yorphat), "the old", and its site not clearly explained. It might be fixed at Jeshanah ('Ain Sinia) in Judea, since Jerusalem is noticed in the same passage (Eracin, ix, 6). There was a Castra near Haifa (Midrash Ekha, i, 17), which appears to have been the ruin Kefr es Samîr, "the village of Samaritans," and its inhabitants were enemies of the Jews of Haifa. But the places called Catzra were ancient Jewish towns.

Elath, now Aila, on the Red Sea, was the limit of the Holy Land on the south-east (Maaser Sheni, v, 2).

Emmaus, now 'Armwâs, had a meat market (Kerithoth, iii, 7). It was not well regarded by the Rabbis (Eracin, x, i), though Jewish priests lived there.

En Sucr (Menakhoth, x, 2) was in a plain within Judea.

Gamala (Eracin, ix, 6) may be the famous fortress defended against Vespasian, east of the Sea of Galilee—now called el Hosn.

Gedor, in the same passage, may be the town so-called south of Jerusalem, now Jedûr, It was an ancient walled town according to the Mishnah.

Gilgal is once mentioned (Zebakhim, xiv, 5) with Gibeon.

Gush Caleb in the same passage is now el Jîsh in Galilee.

Hadashah (Erubin, v, 6) in Judea is a doubtful site.

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Rh its hot springs (Sabbath, iii, 4); another unknown place with hot springs was Maarah (Sabbath, xxii, 5).

Harid, an ancient walled town (Eracin, ix, 6), is perhaps an error for Hadid (Ezra, ii, 33), now Haditheh.

Hattulim was a place whence wine was brought of the best quality (Menakhoth, viii, 6). Perhaps Beit Tulma, north of Colonia.

Hebron (Tamid, iii, 2; Yoma, iii, 1) was the limit from the Temple of the morning aurora when day was to begin.

Jamnia is frequently noticed, being the seat of the Sanhedrin till the fall of Bether. It is now Yebnah (Rosh hash Shanah, iv, 1, 2, 3, 4), and here the new moon was fixed after the destruction of Jerusalem.

Jarmuk River (Parah, viii, 10) was impure because it joined the Jordan within the confines of Samaria. Now the Yermûk.

Jordan River is mentioned as impure in the same passage, flowing as it did near Samaria.

Jericho (Pesakhim, iv, 8; Tamid, iii, 8; Menakhoth, x, 8) was near 'Ain es Sultân. Dates and corn are mentioned in the first passage at Jericho, with fruit and vegetables.

Jerusalem is often mentioned, but few details are given.

Joppa (Nedarim, iii, 6) was in the Holy Land, the Samaritan border being at Antipatris.

Kidron Valley (Yoma v, 6) received the blood of the temple sacrifices (see also Middoth, iii, 3).

Kermiun, a stream (Parah, viii, 10) was impure on account of marshes. It might be the Iskanderuneh, to which the description would apply, or the Nam'ein (Belus), also very marshy.

Keruthim was famous for the best wine (Menakhoth, viii, 6). It may have been Corea, now Kuriût, just within the border of Judea, on the side of Samaria.

Latakia is probably the Syrian town still so-called (Kelim, xxvi, 1), famous for sandals.

Lydda was in the Shephelah (Shebiith, ix, 2) and a religious boundary (Kelim, ii, 2).

Migdol Eder (Shekalim, vii, 4) was near Bethlehem, and sacrifices were brought thence.

Modin (Hagigah, iii, 5; Pesakhim, ix, 2) is now Medyeh.

Mountain of Iron (Succah, iii, 1), apparently the mountains east of Jordan or else in the Desert of Sin (Targ. Jonathan, Num. xxiv, 4).

Mount Mikvor is believed to have been Machærus, east of the Dead Sea (Tamid, iii, 8). It was a place for feeding goats.

Netophah (Peah, vii, 1) was famous for its oil. It was probably the present Beit Nettif.

Nob (Zebakhim, xiv, 5) is only noticed historically without indication of its site.

Ono, now Kerr 'Ana,near Lydda, was an ancient fortified city (Eracin, ix, 6).


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Rh Paneas, now Baniâs (Parah, viii, 10), is noticed for its waters, which were pure.

Pugah in the same passage (viii, 10), had marshy waters, which were not allowed for making the Red Heifer ashes. Perhaps 'Ain Fijeh in the Anti-Lebanon is intended.

Ragab, beyond Jordan, had famous oil (Menakhoth, viii, 3). It is the modern Rujîb, in Northern Gilead.

Rekem (Gittin, i, 2; Niddah, vii, 3) was apparently "Rekem of the Ravine," a name for Petra in the Targums and later works.

Sartabah, where a beacon was burnt at the new moon (Rosh hash Shanah, ii, 4), was the present Kurn Sartaheh. The other stations, Grophina, Hoveran (perhaps Haurân) and Beth-Baltin, are unknown.

Sharon is noticed both as a place where calves were reared (Baba Kama, x, 9), and for its wine (Niddah, ii, 7).

Shiloh is only noticed historically (Zebakhim, xiv, 5), but the site at Seilûn was no doubt known.

Shohek is connected with the Ammonites (Sotah, viii, 1). Probably the place so-called north of Petra.

Sidon (Abodah Zara, iii, 7) had an idolatrous image under a tree.

Siloam is mentioned in connection with a place called Gadivan, where the Greek kings erected idols (Zabim, i, 5). This latter word is explained as Gad-Yavan, "the luck of the Greek." Perhaps some allusion is intended to the Greek tombs in the Kedron Valley.

Stone of Foundation (Yoma, v, 2) was that on which the temple stood—the present Sakhrah.

Stone of Wanderers (Taanith, iii, 8) was a place in Jerusalem where lost property was proclaimed for three feast days.

Stoning—House of (Sanhedrin, vi, 1) I place at the present Jeremiah's grotto.

Tekoa (Khalah, iv, 10), was famous for its oil (Menakhoth, viii, 3); it is the present Tekû'a south of Bethlehem.

Tyre is noticed in connection with its coinage (Bicuroth, viii, 7).

Zalmon (Yebamoth, xvi, 4) is apparently the mountain so named near Shechem, the site of which is doubtful.

Zerephin, a place with gardens (Menakhoth, x, 2), probably Surafend, near Jaffa, as noticed by Isaac Chelo in 1334 A.D.

Zippori is often noticed (see Catzra). It was the capital of Lower Galilee—now Seffûrieh.

Zoar is noticed for its dates (Yebamoth, xvi, 4), which shows that it was in the valley, not on the mountains, of Moab. It is probably the present Tell Shaghûr.

Zuk was the place where the scapegoat was thrown over a precipice (Yoma, vi, 5). I have shown that the distance from Jerusalem points to


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78 the remarkable precipice of el Muntâr, and the name survives in that of the well Sûk  on this ridge.

This enumeration of 80 sites will, I think, be found to exhaust all that is of interest in the geography of the Mishnah.

Talmudic history is notoriously inexact, and makes many confusions between historic personages. The Mishnah is not concerned with history, and the most important information is contained in the "Sentences of the Fathers," a tract which contains many sayings interesting to students of the Gospels. In this tract the succession of famous teachers is given (Pirki Aboth, i, ii) from Simon the Just, about 300 B.C., to Eleazar bar Azariah, who died in Galilee about 140 A.D. The succession of doctors of the law is thus approximately dated by generations. Simon the Just 300 B.C., Antigonus of Socho 270 B.C., Jose of Zeredah and Jose of Jerusalem 240 B.C., Joshua and Nitai of Arbela 190 B.C., Judah and Simon 150 B.C., Shemaiah and Abtalion 100 B.C., Hillel and Shamai 50 B.C., Gamaliel 20 B.C., Simon his son born about the commencement of the Christian era, Judah (Rabban) about 40 A.D., Gamaliel his son was living about 90 A.D., Akiba died 135 A.D., and Eleazar bar Azariah about 140 A.D.. Rabbi Tarphon lived about the same time as the last, and the latest of these doctors was Rabbi Judah, who compiled the Mishnah at Tiberias about 150-190 A.D. Fourteen generations of doctors of the Law formed the successive precepts on which the Mishnah is based.

The earliest recollections of historic personages include Monobasus, Izates, and Helena of the Royal family of Adiabene (Yoma, iii, 10; Nezir, iii, 6), converted to Judaism in the first century A.D. After whom Vespasian and Titus are noticed in connection with the great Polemos or War of 70 A.D. (Sotah, viii, 14), Hadrian's mixture of wine and clay as a ration for troops is noticed (Abodah Zara, ii, 4) and the fall of Bether


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 “I wish every smoker in the kingdom to be invited to my funeral in every way possible—by letter, circular, and advertisement. Every smoker who takes advantage of the invitation shall receive as a present ten pounds of tobacco and two pipes, on which shall be engraved my name, my crest, and the date of my death. The poor of the neighbourhood who accompany my bier shall receive every year, on the anniversary of my death, a large package of tobacco. I make the conditions that all those who assist at my funeral, if they wish to partake of the benefits of my will, must smoke without interruption during the entire ceremony. My body shall be placed in a coffin lined throughout with the wood of my old Havana cigar-boxes. At the foot of the coffin shall be placed a box of the French tobacco called caporal and a package of our old Dutch tobacco.


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 At my side place my favourite pipe and a box of matches, … for one never knows what may happen. When the bier rests in the vault, all the persons in the funeral procession are requested to cast upon it the ashes of their pipes, as they pass it on their departure from the grounds.” His last wishes were carried out; but, strange to say, Rotterdam—nay, Holland—has not erected any monument to him. Still, many a Dutch rooker (smoker) must have blessed his memory.

There is much eating in Holland, but the quantity of the food absorbed, rather than the quality of its cooking, calls for remark. Is there a national dish? 'Tis hard to say, unless it be a dish composed of meat and vegetables boiled together—the French pot-au-feu, in fact, minus the cabbage—and more partaken of by the humbler folk than by the well-to-do.


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 Veal is largely consumed, but not mutton, except in the form of lamb cutlets. Restaurants and cafés there are in profusion in all large towns, but what they give their patrons is exactly what we get in other capitals under the misnomer of “French cookery.” The restaurant has everywhere a powerful rival in the melk-salons or melkinrichtingen, where milk, coffee, chocolate, eggs, sandwiches, and cakes are served. They are cheap and excellent places to frequent at luncheon-time. The cafés are remarkable owing to an arrangement unknown elsewhere—they are divided into two parts by a sombre-hued curtain. The part of the café fronting the street is not lit up when darkness sets in; the customers sit there quietly engaged in conversation or in meditation—the Dutchman thinks a good deal—gazing the while at the passers-by in the street. On


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 But the dog in Holland is not used merely for the purpose of keeping tramps at a distance; he is employed throughout the country to draw loads that are sometimes none too light, and the Dutch dog's labours have doubtless given rise to the saying, “To work like a dog.”


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 the other side of the curtain there is a blaze of light, and the habitués engage in a game of billiards, and play cards or dominoes. The quieter ones read the evening newspapers, and there is a loud hum of conversation. It is not customary to enter the back room through the front one, but by a side-door. Shortly after four o'clock begins the bitteruur, or the "hour for bitters," the favourite “appetizers” being oude klare, pure or “neat” old gin, catz, boonekamp, curaçoa, pomerans, oranjebitter, half om half, and vermouth. Absinthe, fortunately for a short while only, made an insidious attempt to be admitted into the ranks of “appetizers,” but it met with little encouragement in its endeavours, and finally the Government prohibited the importation of the maddening intoxicant.

Drunkenness, of course, exists in Holland, as elsewhere, but even at time it is


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 very rare to see a woman, even of the lowest class, any the worse for liquor. The wife or the fiancée will during that boisterously festive period, when the men drink deep, watch with eager solicitude over her “man,” and see him safely to his home; but she will resent the interference of the brass-helmeted gerechtsdienaar, and will not suffer her ward to be arrested, for she is an expert at steering him home, tack as he may across the street, and her assertion that she can manage him is no mere boast. The common people put sugar in their drinks, whether gin, beer, or brandy.

To revert once more to the vulgar subject of eating. As already stated, the Dutch look upon a meal as something serious, and food is absorbed by them in large quantities. There is no stinting in either restaurants or hotels, and in the former a


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 single portion will always satisfy a couple of appetites. Cheese is to be found on the table at all meals, together with ham, rolled smoked beef, gherkins, and preserved ginger. In country localities your host will inform you that his smoked beef is “beef of the cow, not of the horse.” Others may set the latter on the table, but he never does. It is all a matter of faith. In regard to the cutting of cheese, every stranger will have to learn how to perform the operation without cutting himself, and more especially how to avoid disfiguring it, an unforgivable sin in Dutch eyes. The Edammerkaas (Edam cheese), the one with which we are so familiar, must be sliced crossways into transparent slices, but never be dug into or scooped out, for then it ceases to retain its moisture and freshness. In many small places the only food procurable, in addition to eggs, are


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, which seem to constitute the national appeaser of hunger.

Club-life, in the shape of societeiten, flourishes in the Netherlands, the smallest towns boasting of one or more of these social circles. Foremost among them is De Witte, at The Hague. It is second to none in Europe as regards high standing and comfort, and has a membership of fifteen hundred, drawn from the élite of officialdom. The club's premises are sumptuously furnished and decorated; it has strong French proclivities (French is a popular language in Holland), and welcomes and entertains its guests with courteous and cordial hospitality. In this respect the club is not an exception, for throughout Holland the stranger who has been properly introduced, or who knows how to ingratiate himself with the people, is sure to be treated with extreme kindness. It may


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 even fall to the luck of a traveller to be taken up by some prominent citizen, who, noticing that he is particularly interested in some one thing, will come up, politely tender him his assistance, and place at his disposal whatever information he may possess on the subject absorbing the stranger. From that there is but one step to being done the honours of your newly-found friend's house. This will not take place all at once, for the Dutchman is observant, cautious, and of an inquiring turn of mind. He will first have found out something about you, but when once he has opened his door to you, thereafter you will always find it on the latch. Most proud is he to supply you with facts, for what he dreads—he is very sensitive and very proud of his country—is that erroneous statements may be spread abroad about it. Should ladies accompany you, they are


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 always presented with the freedom of the kitchen, which in private residences is as neat, as picturesque, and as fresh-looking as the toy-kitchens which are the delight of children. And a Dutch kitchen is the ideal of what a kitchen ought to be, for all is therein in its place, all is bright and clean, and the shining saucepans complete with the blue-and-white chinaware a perfect interior.

Cleanliness (netheid or zindelijkheid) is a ruling passion of the Dutch vrouw or meisje, and polishing, scrubbing, rubbing, and sluicing are unceasingly carried on with a continuity and thoroughness unknown elsewhere. The outside paintwork, the windows, even the brick pavement, are all the subject of sedulous attention; and rain does not stop the Dutch maid from her outdoor work, which she will engage in while holding an umbrella over her head.


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 Indoors the disease—for disease it amounts to—prevails, and from cellar to garret everything presents a spick-and-span appearance. But the reverse of this pretty picture is to be seen in many localities, where the women would seem to be too busily engaged in scouring pots and pans to give much attention to personal cleanliness or to that of their children. In this connection tourists must not be deceived into believing that Broek en Waterland is the “cleanest place in Holland.” It shares with the Island of Marken the reputation of being nothing more than a “show-place.” Both places are to be avoided, for they are not representative of Holland. Tourists have perhaps themselves to blame for the gross rudeness they experience at Marken.

The Dutchman who has amassed a fortune in the West or East Indies, more especially in the latter, or in Rotterdam or


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 Amsterdam, delights, towards his declining days, in retiring to a country villa, and there enjoying absolute rest from his labours. Arnhem is the favourite camping-ground of retired Dutch East Indian nabobs. The names of these buitenplaatsen are characteristic of the national temperament. Among many are: Weltevreden (quite content); Veldlust (rustic enjoyment); Welgelegen (well-laid-out site); Buitensorg (sans-souci, or free from care); Door geluk (through luck); Vroeg op wint tyd (Who rises early, finds time); Komt, gaat in vrede (Come, and go in peace); Het Loo (the grove or wood); Lust in rust (pleasure in repose). And in most places there is the warning, Wacht U voor den hond! (Beware of the dog!). Happy hours are spent in these cosy retreats, and Dutch home life is there seen at its best—simple after having been strenuous.


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Author:Henry Dunn

Works

 * Guatimala or the United Provinces of Central America in 1827-8 (1828)

title: Author:Henry Dunn


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 4. The same Malpighi thought he should have met with the same thing in Terrestrial Animals; but he found, that Fishes alone have such a structure of the Optique Nerve: For that of an Ox, Frog, and other such Animals, is nothing but a heap of many small Fibres of the same substance with the Brain, wrapped about with the Dura Mater, and accompanied with many little vessels with bloud. Hence he draws the decision of that great question among Anatomists; Whether the Optique Nerve be hollow or not? For, saith he, it cannot be otherwise, but there must be many cavities in this Nerve; forasmuch as the small filaments, of which it is composed, cannot be so closely joyned, that there should not be some void space betwixt them.

5. Concerning the Tongue, the same Author hath discovered in it many little Eminences, which he calls Papillary, and believes to be the principal Organ of Taste. * But here is not to be omitted the Observation of Fracassati, importing, that as the Tongue hath towards its point many Eminences, by the means whereof it goes, as it were, to meet objects of Taste; so on the contrary, it hath many cavities towards its root, wherein it receives them. All which cavities terminate in nerves, and seem to serve for Funnels to conveigh the aliment into them. Which maketh the Author think it very probable, that the finest part of the aliment passeth immediately from the Tongue into the Nerves, whence it comes to pass, that Wine, being only taken into the mouth, restoreth vigour presently.

When any bloud is become cold in a dish, that part which is beneath the superficies appears much blacker, than that on the top; and 'tis vulgarly said, that this black part of the bloud is Melancholy bloud, and men are wont to make use of this example to shew that the Melancholy humor as 'tis called, enters with the 3 others into the composition of the bloud. But Signior Fracassati maintains, that this blackish colour comes from hence, that the bloud, which is underneath, is not expos'd to the Air, and not from a mixture of Melancholy: to prove which he assures, that upon its being expos'd to the Air it changes colour, and becomes of a florid red.

An Experiment as easie to try, as 'tis curious. Some


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32 Or, consider vegetables and fruits. Farmers, except near towns, do not often grow them now. Why? Chiefly because of the difficulty and uncertainty of a market, and the high charges for freights and commission. To quote the words of Dr. Farquharson, M.P., when they "try to dispose of these things they find themselves struggling so hopelessly in a spider's web of rings, and middlemen, and speculators, that they are more than half-inclined to give up the attempt in despair, and fall back on those things that stand up straight and square to their prices in the open market." A curious calculation may be interesting with regard to milk. Assuming each person in the town consumed only one-third of a pint a day, then 30,000 would consume 1,250 gallons a day, and might thus save, taking railway charges at a penny per gallon, upwards of £1,900 per annum in railway rates upon the one item of milk, a saving which must be multiplied by a large figure in order to realise the general saving to be effected by placing consumer and producer in such close association. In other words, the combination of town and country is not only healthful, but economic—a point which every step taken will serve to make yet more clear.

But the rents which the agricultural tenants of Garden City would be willing to pay would increase for another reason. The waste products of the town could, and this without heavy charges for railway transport or other expensive agencies, be readily brought back to the soil, thus increasing its fertility. The question of sewage disposal is naturally a difficult one to deal with, but its inherent difficulty is often much increased by artificial and imperfect conditions already in existence. Thus, Sir Benjamin Baker, in his joint report with Mr. (now Sir)


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This Italian Virtuoso, famous for his knowledge and curiosity, as well as for his Hospitality to ingenious strangers, did in a late Letter of his to the Publisher, impart the following Particulars.

1. In the Valley of Lancy, which runs between the Mountains of Turin, grows a Plant like the Doronicum, (so also called by the Inhabitants and Botanists;) near the roots whereof you may find pure Quicksilver, running in small grains like Pearls; the juice of which Plant being expressed, and exposed to the Air of a clear night, there will be found as much Mercury, as there is lost of ]uice. *

2. In a Voyage he made a few years since to Genoa, when he was to pass some mountains, he met with some Peasants, who digging on the sides of an Hill, had found and gathered very many Cockle-shels of divers kinds; which he wondring at, stopped his intended journey, and went to the very place, where he was satisfied of the truth of the relation, finding great store of different shells, as the Turbinets, Echini, and some Pearl-shells, whereof one had a fair Pearl in it, which, he saith, he put into his Repository.

Took notice at Deal, whence I set sail for Jamaica, of the great difference in the rusting of Iron, in such houses, as front the Sea, in comparison of that effect in the Street immediately placed behind Rh


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Rh Alexander Binnie to the London County Council, says: "In approaching the consideration of the vast question of the whole sewerage system of the Metropolis, and the state of the Thames, as a practical problem … we had clearly at once to recognise the fact that the general features of the main drainage system were unalterably settled, and must be accepted in the same way as the main lines of thoroughfares have to be accepted whether quite as we could wish them to be or not." But on Garden City site, given the skilful engineer, he would have comparatively little difficulty. He would have, as it were, a clean sheet on which to prepare his plans, and the whole estate being equally the property of the municipality, he would have a free course before him, and would doubtless succeed in adding greatly to the productiveness of the agricultural estate.

The great increase in the number of allotments, especially such favourably situated allotments as are shown in Diagram 2, would also tend to raise the total sum offered in rent.

There are yet other reasons why the rent which a farmer on the Garden City estate would be willing to pay for his farm, or a labourer for his allotment, would tend to increase. The productiveness of the agricultural part of the estate, besides being increased by a well-devised system of sewage disposal, and by a new and somewhat extensive market, with unique conveniences for transit to more distant markets, would also be increased because the tenure on which the land is held encourages maximum cultivation. It is a just tenure. The agricultural portion of the estate is let at fair rents, with a right to continue in occupation as long as the tenant is