V, U VERMILION. ww SISIR. Occ. Jer. xxii. 14, and Ezek. xxiii. 14, only. MIATOE, Wisdom xiii. 14. So the LXX render in the above places. A very beautiful red colour. Pliny informs us, that this, which the Greeks call urog, was found in silver mines, in the form of reddish sand, and was much used by the Romans in his time as a paint, and formerly applied to sacred purposes." Nat. Hist. lib. xxxiii. cap. vii. Bochart (vol. i. p. 484) observes, that there is a lake in Africa, called from the Phoenicians, "Sisara;" so named, he thinks, both on account of the vermilion or red paint (ww) for which those parts were famous, and also of the neighbouring river, called likewise in Latin, "rubricatus," redcoloured. Ezekiel, xxiii. 14-16, reproving the idolatry of the times, says, that Aholibah "added to her idolatries; for she saw men portrayed upon the wall, images of Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion, girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, after the manner of the Babylonians, even of Chaldea; and she doted upon them as soon as she cast her eyes on them." These were the representations of Chaldean deities. In the 13th chapter of the book of Wisdom is a fine ironical description of these "vain idols," in which the carpenter is represented as taking the very refuse of his timber, being a crooked piece of wood and full of knots," and carving it diligently when he hath nothing else to do, and fashioning it into the image of a man, or that of some vile beast, laying it over with vermilion and with paint, colouring it red, and covering every spot therein. "And when he hath made a convenient room for it, he set it up in a wall, and made it fast with iron; for he provideth for it, that it might not fall, knowing that it was unable to help itself (for it is an image, and hath need of help). Then maketh he prayer for his goods, for his wife and children, and is not ashamed to speak to that which hath no life. For health, he calleth upon that which is weak; for life, prayeth to that which is inanimate; for aid, humbly beseecheth that which hath least means to help; and for a good journey, he asketh of that which cannot set a foot forward; and for gaining and getting good success of his hands, asketh ability of him that is most unable to do any thing." Bp. Lowth observes, that" the sacred writers are generally large and eloquent upon the subject of idolatry: they treat it with great severity, and set forth the absurdity of it in the strongest light. The passage of Isaiah xliv. 12-20, exceeds any thing that was ever written upon the subject, in force of argument, energy of expression, and elegance of composition. One or two of the Apochryphal writers have attempted to imitate the prophet, but with very ill success: Wisd. xiii. 10--19; xv. 7, &c.; Baruch, ch. vi. especially the latter; who, injudiciously dilating his matter, and introducing a number of minute circumstances, has very much weakened the force and effect of his invective. On the contrary, a heathen author, in the ludicrous way, has, in a line or two, given idolatry one of the severest strokes it ever received. Cum faber, incertus scamnum faceretne PriMaluit esse Deum.' 'Olim truncus eram ficulnus, inutile lignum; арит, HORAT. 1. i. sat. 8." "Late a maimed fig-tree trunk I stood, A shapeless, useless block of wood; When a rough artist, long in doubt Into what shape to carve me out, A bench or a Priapus,-deem'd And so, for reasons surely wise, A god would be the most esteem'd ; Into a god he bid me rise." The vine is a common name, or genus, including several species under it; and Moses, to distinguish the true vine, or that from which wine is made, from the rest, calls it, Numb. vi. 4, the wine vine. Some of the other sorts were of a poisonous quality; as appears from the story related among the miraculous acts of Elisha, 2 Kings iv. 39, 41. [See GRAPES: WILD GRAPES.] The expression of "sitting every man under his own vine," probably alludes to the delightful Eastern arbours, which were partly composed of vines. Capt. Norden in like manner speaks of vine-arbours as common in the Egyptian gardens; and the Prænestine pavement in Dr. Shaw, gives us the figure of an ancient one. There were in Palestine many excellent vineyards. Scripture celebrates the vines of Sorek, of Seba -90 See Celsins, Hierobot. V. ii. p. 400, who has devoted forty-four pages to the illustration of this article. Profane mah, of Jazer, of Abel. authors mention the excellent wines of Gaza, Sarepta, Libanus, Saron, Ascalon, and Tyre. Jacob, in the blessing which he pronounced on Judah, Gen. xlix. 11, says: "Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine, he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes;" to shew the abundance of vines that should fall to his lot. Noah planted the vine after the deluge, and is supposed to have been the first who cultivated it; Gen. ix. 20. Many are of opinion, that wine was not unknown before the deluge; and that this patriarch only continued to cultivate the vine after that event, as he had done before it but the fathers think that he knew not the force of wine; having never used it before, nor having ever seen any one use it. He is supposed to have been the first that gathered the juice of the grape, and preserved it till by fermentation it became a potable liquor. Before him, men only ate the grapes like other fruit. The law of Moses did not allow the planters of vineyards to eat the fruit before the fifth year. Levit. xix. 24, 25. The Israelites were also required to indulge the poor, the orphan, and the stranger with the use of the grapes on the seventh year. A traveller was allowed to gather and eat the grapes in a vineyard as he passed along, but he was not permitted to carry any away. Deut. xxiii. 24. The scarcity of fuel, especially wood, in most parts of the East, is so great, that they supply it with every thing capable of burning; cowdung dried, roots, parings of fruits, withered stalks of herbs and flowers; Matth. vi. 21-30. Vine-twigs are particularly mentioned as used for fuel in dressing their food, by D'Arvieux, La Roque, and others. Ezekiel says, in his parable of the vine, used figuratively for the people of God, "Shall wood be taken thereof to do any work? Or will men take pared to the contrariety or colluctation between vinegar and nitre. Untimely mirth, to one in anxiety, serves only to exasperate, and, as it were, put into a ferment by the intrusion. a pin of it to hang any vessel thereon? | songs to a heavy heart, is finely comBehold, it is cast into the fire for fuel." ch. xv. 3, 4. "If a man abide not in me (saith our Lord), he is cast forth as a branch [of the vine], and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned." John xv. 6. OEOZ, Matth. xxvii. 48; Mark xv. 36; John xix. 29, 30. An acid produced by a second fermentation of vinous liquors. The law of the Nazarite was, that he should " separate himself from wine and strong drink, and should drink no vinegar of wine, nor vinegar of strong drink, nor any liquor of grapes. "Dr. A. Clarke, in his note on Levit. xi. 9, says, that "the word W SHECER, from SHACAR, to inebriate, signifies any kind of fermented liquors. This is exactly the same prohibition that was given in the case of John Baptist, Luke i. 15. οινον και σίκερα συ μη πιη, wine and sikera he shall not drink. Any inebriating liquor, says St. Jerom, (Epist. ad Nepot.) is called Sicera, whether made of corn, apples, honey, dates, or other fruits. One of the four prohibited drinks among the Mahomedans in India, is called " sakar," (see the Hedaya, v. 4. p. 158,) which signifies inebriating drink in general, but especially dute wine. From the original word, probably, we have our term cider or sider, which, among us, exclusively means the fermented juice of apples." Vinegar was used by harvesters for their refreshment. Boaz told Ruth, that she might come and dip her bread in vinegar with his people. Pliny, N. H. 1. xxiii. c. 1, says: "Aceto summa vis in refrigerendo." It made a cooling beverage. It was generally diluted with water. When very strong, it affected the teeth disagreeably. Comp. Prov. x. 26. In Prov. xxv. 20, the singing of On the vinegar offered to our Saviour on the cross, see the articles GALL and MYRRH. VIPER. уEN EPHOEн. Arab. Epha. Pers. mar-iefy. Written by Avicenna, al-ephai, and by Abenbitar, ephe91. Occ. Job xx. 16; Isai. xxx. 6; lix. 5. EXIANA, Matth. viii. 7; xii. 34; xxxiii. 33; Luke iii. 7; Acts xxviii. 3. ms A serpent famed for the venomousness of its bite, which is one of the most dangerous poisons in the animal kingdom. Our translation of Job xx. 16, has, «The viper's tongue shall slay him;" and Isaiah speaks of the evil to be apprehended from this venomous reptile. Dr. Shaw (Travels, p. 179) says: "The most common as well as ma lignant of the serpent tribe, is the leffah. It is about a foot in length: it is not always of the same colour, but varies a little according to the quality of the earth, sand, or rocks where it is found 92." The torrida dipsas answers very well both to the name and the quality of this serpent, which is so called from leffah, to burn. [See SERPENT.] "These are said to be very numerous on and about the south foot of the Atlas mountains, and the border of the desert, where these were caught when young, and where they often attack and destroy both men and beasts. The effuh's bite is said to be incurable, and its poison so subtile as to cause a man's death in fifteen minutes. When I saw the effah, it brought to my mind the story of the fiery serpents that bit the children of Israel in the deserts of Arabia, near Mount Hor, as recorded in the 21st chapter of the book of Numbers; merely because the effah resembled, in appearance, a brazen serpent. The two serpent-eaters said, they came from Egypt about three years ago 95." So remarkable, says Dr. Mead 93, has the viper been for its venom, that the remotest antiquity made it an emblem of what is hurtful and destructive. Nay, so terrible was the nature of these creatures, that they were very commonly thought to be sent as executioners of divine vengeance upon mankind, for enormous crimes which had escaped the course of justice 94. An instance of such an opinion as this, we have in the history of St. Paul, Acts xxviii., whom the people of Melita, when they saw the viper leap upon his hand, presently concluded to be a murderer; and they as readily made a god of him when, instead of having his hand inflamed, or falling down dead, one or other of which is usu-chievous character of wicked men, ally the effect of these bites, he without any harm shook the reptile into the fire: it being obvious enough to imagine, that he must stand in a near relation at least to the gods themselves, who could thus command the messengers of their vengeance, and counterwork the effects of such powerful agents. See Asp; COCKATRICE. Capt. Riley describes an exhibition of two Arab serpent-eaters at Millah in Morocco, one of whom suffered himself to be bitten by two serpents; one of which was called El Effah, and the other El Busehfah, The first, he describes as "about four feet long, and eight inches in circumference. His colours were the most beautiful in nature, being bright and variegated with deep yellow, a purple, a cream colour, black and brown, spotted, &c. The other was black, very shining, and appeared to be seven or eight feet long, but not more than two inches in diameter." He says, that he afterwards saw engravings of these two serpents in Jackson's Marocco, which are very correct resemblances. 93 Essay on Poisons. 94 Herodot. 1. 2. c. 74. Elian de Animalib. 1. 17, c. 5. Isaiah, lix. 5, illustrating the mis " and the ruinous nature of sin, says: 95 Capt. Riley's Narrative, p. 415. The the phenomenon which the prophet | sibility, to be the one-horned rhinomentions, may certainly take place 96. ceros; and that Moses also very UNICORN. REEM ראס Occ. Numb. xxiii. 22; xxiv. 8; Deut. xxxiii. 17; Job xxxix. 9, 10; Psalm xxii. 21; xxix. 6; xcii. 10; Isai. xxxiv. 7. In each of these places, it is rendered in the Septuagint, μovoкepoç, monoceros; except in Isaiah, where it is adpot, the great or mighty ones. An animal which, as it is generally pictured, never existed except in imaginary description. It is represented as having the legs and body of a deer, the tail, mane, and head of a horse, and with only one long and straight horn placed in the middle of the forehead. Our Translators have imagined this fabled animal to have really existed, and have given its name to the Hebrew reem. a For all that can be now known of the opinions of the ancients respecting the unicorn, I refer the curious inquirer to the learned and ingenious work of Thomas Bartholinus, De Unicornu Observationes nova: secunda editione auctiores et emendatiores editæ a filio Casp. Bartholino. Amst. apud Wetstein, 1678, 12mo. ;-to the chapter in Bochart (tom. ii. pp. 313-335), Quid veteres et recentiores scripserint de animalibus unicornibus; -and to Barrow's Travels in Southern Africa (p. 294). The last-mentioned Author has given a drawing of the head of the unicorn," a beast with a single horn projecting from the forehead;" accompanied with such details as, he thinks, offer strong arguments for the existence of such animals in the country of the Bosjesmans. He observes, that this creature is represented as a solid-ungulous animal resembling a horse, with an elegantly shaped body, marked from the shoulders to the flanks with longitudinal stripes or bands." Still, he acknowledges that the animal to which the writer of the book of Job puts into the mouth of the Almighty a poetical allusion, has been supposed, with great plau96 Paxton's Illustrations, v. i. p. 336. 66 probably meant the rhinoceros, when he mentions the unicorn as having the strength of God. "It is very remarkable," says Mr. Bruce," that two such animals as the elephant and the rhinoceros should have wholly escaped the description of the sacred writers. Moses and the children of Israel were long in the neighbourhood of the countries which produced them, both while in Egypt and in Arabia. The classing of the animals into clean and unclean, seems to have led the legislator into a kind of necessity of describing, in one of the classes, an animal which made the food of the principal Pagan nations in the neighbourhood. Considering the long and intimate connexion Solomon had with the south coast of the Red Sea, it is next to impossible that he was not acquainted with them, since both David his father and he made plentiful use of ivory, as they frequently mention in their writings, which, along with gold, came from the same part. Solomon, besides, wrote expressly on zoology, and we can scarce suppose was ignorant of two of the principal articles of that part of the creation, inhabitants of the great continent of Asia, east from him, and that of Africa on the south, with both which territories he was in constant correspondence. "There are two animals named frequently in scripture, without naturalists being agreed what they are. The one is the behemoth, the other the reem; both mentioned as types of strength, courage, and independence on man; and, as such, ex |