but it is to be remembered, that great improvements might have been, and doubtless actually were made, in the introducing foreign plants into Ægypt, between the time of MoJes and that of Ptolemy Philadelphus. All, perhaps, that can be certainly faid about it is, that if thefe water-melons were common in Ægypt, in the time the children of Ifrael fojourned there, it can be no wonder that they longed for them in thofe fuitry deferts; and that as improvements went very flowly on in thofe very early times, they might not have been introduced into the land of Canaan, when the fpies took a furvey of it. Had they found it there, they would, no doubt, have brought a fpecimen of this fruit to Mofes and Ifrael in the Wilderness. Nor would it have been unmentioned, in thofe paffages that fpeak of the fertility of the country promised to the patriarchs.

It may be amufing to fubjoin Maillet's account of this kind of fruit, in it's prefent ftate, in Egypt. Among the different kinds of vegetables, which are of importance to supply the wants of life, or to render it more agreeable, he tells us, is the melon, which, without difpute, is there one of the most jalutary and common among them. All the jpecies that they have in Europe, and in the fea-ports of the Mediterranean, are to be found in Egypt. Befides them, there is one, whofe fubflance is green

Lett. 9, p. II, 12.

and

and very delicious. It grows round like a bowl, and is commonly of an admirable tafte. There are alfo water-melons, extremely good. But, above all the reft, at Cairo and it's neighbourbood, they boast of a species of melons, pointed at each end and fwelling out in the middle, which the people of the country call Abdelarins. This is an Arabian word, which fignifies the Slave of Sweetness. In fact thefe melons are not to be eaten without fugar, as being infipid without it. Macrifi fays this laft kind was formerly tranf ported hither, by a man whofe name they bear... They give it to the fick, to whom they refuse all other kinds of fruit. The rind is very beautifully wrought; it's figure very fingular; as well as the manner of ripening it, which is by applying a red-hot iron to one of it's extremities. The people of the country eat it green as well as ripe, and in the fame manner as we eat apples. Thefe melons, of a foreign extraction, continue two whole months, and grow no where elfe in Egypt. They fay the fame fpecies is found in Cyprus.

The royal city of Samaria was fo feverely diftreffed, when a certain king of Syria befieged it, that we are told an ass's head then fold for four fcore pieces of filver, and the fourth part of a cab of doves-dung for five pieces': this laft article has been thought to be fo unfit

for food, that it has been very commonly imagined, I think, that a fpecies of pulse was meant by that term '; nevertheless, I cannot but think it much the most probable, that proper doves-dung was meant by the prophetic hiftorian, fince though it can hardly be imagined it was bought directly for food, it might be bought for the purpose of more Speedily raifing a fupply of certain efculent vegetables, and in greater quantities, which must have been a matter of great confequence to the Ifraelites, fhut up fo ftraitly in Samaria.

Had the kali of the Scriptures been meant, how came it to pass that the common word was not made use of? Jofephus and the Septuagint fuppofe that proper doves-dung was meant, and the following confiderations may make their fentiment appear far from improbable.

All allow that melons are a most refreshing food, in those hot countries. And Chardin fays, melons are ferved up at the tables of the luxurious almost all the year; but that the proper feafon lafts four months, at which time they are eaten by the common people. They hardly eat any thing but melons and cucumbers at that time. He adds, that during these four melon months, they are brought in fuch quantities to Ifpahan, that he believed more were eaten in

• Bochart has taken a great deal of pains to fupport this notion, though by no means with equal fuccefs.

that

that city in one day, than in all France in a month'.

On the other hand, he tells us, in another volume, that they have a multitude of dove-houfes in Perfia, which they keep up more for their dung than any thing else. This being the fubftance with which they manure their melon-beds, and which makes them fo good and fo large.

Now if melons were half fo much in requeft in thofe days' in Judæa, as they are now in Perfia, it might be natural enough to exprefs the great fcarcity of provifions there, by obferving an afs's head, which, according to their law was an unclean animal, fold for fourfcore pieces of filver; and a small quantity of that dung that was most useful to quicken vegetation, as well as to increase those productions of the earth which were fo defirable in thofe hot climates, that a fmall quantity, I fay, of that fubftance fhould, in fuch circumftances, be fold for five fuch pieces. At leaft it is probable thus the Septuagint and Jofephus understood the paffage, if we should think it incredible that melons were in very common ufe in the days of foram king of Ifrael. Jofephus, in particular, fays this dung was purchased for it's falt, which can hardly mean to be used, by means of fome preparation, as table-falt, but as con

Voyages, tome 2, p. 19.

2 Tome 3, P. 91. 3 Many generations after the time of Mofes and the fpies.

taining

taining falt proper for manuring the earth. The prophet Elisha, in that very age, put falt into a spring of water, to express the imparting to it the quality of making the land watered by it fruitful, which land had been before barren, 2 Kings ii. 19-22, to which event Jofephus could be no stranger.

It has been objected to this interpretationthat the doves-dung was for manure, (for this interpretation is not a new one, but wanted to be better illuftrated,) that there could be no room for growing any kind of vegetable food within the walls of a royal city, when befieged; but has any one a right to take this for granted? when it is known that there is a good deal of ground unbuilt upon now in the royal cities of the Eaft; that Naboth had a vineyard in Jezreel', a place of royal refidence a few years before; that Samaria was a new-built city; and that, in the time of distress, every void place might naturally be made use of to raise a fpecies of food, that with due cultivation, in our climate, is brought to perfection, from the time of it's fowing, in four months, and at the fame time is highly refreshing. When we reflect on these things, the fuppofition appears not at all to be improbable.

We know nothing when the fiege commenced, or how long it continued; that of Jerufalem, in the time of Zedekiah, lafted, it

1 Kings 21. 1.

2 Ch. 16. 24.

fhould