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if avarice and the most cruel injustice did not furnish the subject, &c.P

"All researches after the inhabitants of Adjemka were useless, until the second day, when, at the moment of departure, the ricks of corn and forage, which concealed the poor

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people, were set on fire. Then it was that they came and cast themselves into the arms of their enemies to escape the flames, which devoured their harvests and their homes. order to burn Adjemka was executed so suddenly, and the blaze caught the thatched houses with so much violence and rapidity, that we ourselves, at leaving it, were obliged to pass through the flames. The atmosphere was loaded with ashes, and the vapour of melted snow which, after having darkened the sun for a time, united and formed a grey snow, that crackled between our teeth.

"A hundred and fifty villages, which by being, in like manner, burnt, produced the like effect, sent forth their clouds of ashes, twenty leagues into Poland, where our arrival only could explain the phenomenon."

I do not know that the Septuagint interpreters found any difficulty, in understanding the meaning of the Hebrew word which signifies spreading themselves, though they have not used a word in their version of a very determinate sense; but Mr. Green certainly was embarrassed; which I believe, few of my readers will be, after having read the extracts given P. 183, 184. P. 183, 184.

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above from the memoir of the Baron de Tott. They will also serve to illustrate other parts of the description the Prophet gives of the Chaldean army, and the just cause the Prophet had for lamentation and apprehension, the incursions of the Chaldeans and of the Tartars manifestly bearing a great resemblance to each other. I will raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty (or swift) nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, ch. i. 6-They are terrible and dreadful, ver. 7 -Their faces shall sup up (or consume) as the East wind, and they shall gather the captivity (or captives) as the sand, ver. 9-When I heard, (of their coming) my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice, &c.-Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall the fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flocks shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls (expressing a devastation like what might be expected from an incursion of Tartars :) yet will I rejoice in the Lord, ch. iii. 16, 17, 18.

OBSERVATION LXIV.

Of the ancient Division of Companies into ten Men each.

Ir we are to explain the sacred Jewish history by modern Eastern managements, and by those of other nations in ancient times, we may

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suppose the appointment of every tenth man in the congregation of Israel, when gathered together to punish the tribe of Benjamin, mentioned Judges xx. 10, was not so much to collect food for the use of their companions in that expedition; as to dress it, to serve it up, and to wait upon them in eating it.

In the present Barbary camps, which march about their territories every year, we find by Pitts, twenty men are appointed to each tent: two of them officers of different ranks, sixteen common soldiers, one a cook, and another a steward, who looks after the provisions. Here every tenth man is concerned in the management of their provisions: half as store-keepers ; the other half as cooks.

Among the Greeks, according to Homer, they seem to have divided their troops into companies of ten each, one of whom waited upon the rest when they took their repast, under the name of the vox, which I think is usually translated cup-bearer; but perhaps the person that was so characterised, not only gave them their wine, when they took their repasts, but had the care of their provisions, set out their tables, and perhaps had the principal share in cooking their food.

For it will be difficult to assign a reason, why Agamemnon should think of dividing the Greeks into companies of tens, if they had not been wont to divide them ten to a tent and mess, of which one ministered to the rest, II. 2, v. 126, &c.

. P. 28, 29.

when, comparing the numbers of the inhabitants of Troy and the Greeks together, he observed, that the Trojans were not sufficiently, numerous to furnish cup-bearers to the Greek companies, of ten each.

It was, probably, for the same reason, that Israel are supposed to be divided into companies, and that one of each company was to take care to provide victuals for the rest-not, it may be, as our translators seem to have imagined, by fetching provisions from their distant towns; but dressing that part of their food that wanted dressing, setting out their repasts in due order, giving them drink when requisite, and performing all the offices of the Grecian Vox, or cup-bearers.

Among the people of Barbary, the care of their provisions is divided between stewards and cooks; among the old Jews and Greeks, it it should seem, one set of people discharged the functions of both offices.

So the word np lakachath, translated in our version to fetch, (to fetch victuals for the people) is used for preparing food, 2 Sam. xiii. 8; and for taking provisions when dressed, in order to set out a repast in a proper manner, Gen. xviii. 8; and doubtless in other places.

Such an explanation agrees best with their expectation of speedily accomplishing their undertaking against Benjamin; whereas the for provisending home, by each company, sions, would have been a work of some time. Nor were the Israelites wont to assemble toge

ther, on public occasions, without taking provisions, since they were wont to do so when two or three only travelled together, as appears by the account of the Levite's journey,' which unhappily proved the occasion of this dreadful slaughter of the Benjamites.

How odd, after this, the expression of Bishop Patrick must appear, who supposes the tenth part of the army was to forage for the rest, as if they had been in an enemy's country!"

OBSERVATION LXV.

A remarkable Illustration of Gideon's Defeat of the Midianites.

A modern piece of Arab history very much. illustrates the defeat of the Midianites by Gideon, and at the same time points out wherein the extraordinary interposition of GoD appeared.

The Arab story is to be met with in Niebuhr's history of Arabia, and relates to a contest between two chiefs for the Imamship (or sovereignty) of Oman, a considerable province of the southern part of that country. The Judges xix. 19.

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Bishop Patrick's thought is, I am satisfied, in the mean, perfectly correct, and is sufficiently supported by the ori ginal words, for my np lakachath tsedah laam,

signifies literally, to take prey for the people. But it probably means here such prey as was taken not in a foraging party, but in hunting. EDIT.

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