of the scarcity, in the time of the Antonines, from A. D. 138 to A. D. 193, and produces passages from Tertullian, and the Roman historians, concerning the calamity the empire endured by scarcity in this period." We learn this, however, from the passage, that wheat was at three times the price of barley. In 2 Kings, vii. 1. "Then Elisha said, Hear ye the word of the Lord; thus saith the Lord, To-morrow, about this time, shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria." Here wheat is only twice the price of barley; and in this moment of plenty, if the measure was the same, the price was higher than in the former case. In Levit. xxvii. 16. where Moses is speaking of vows, and the redemption of devoted things, he says, "If a man shall sanctify unto the Lord some part of a field of his possession, then thy estimation shall be according to the seed thereof: an homer of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver." If the homer be set at seventy-five gallons five pints, and our bushel at eight gallons, then there will be rather more than nine bushels in a homer; and the price of a bushel of barley, at that rate, would be 12s. 81d., a very high price indeed for barley, which cannot, with us, be estimated at more than about half the price of wheat; so that, if we take 10s. as the standard price of wheat, 5s. should be that of barley. Fleury (p. 58) makes the quantity of corn which a man consumes in a month to be three bushels, or thirty-six in a year. But, I believe, our labourers would, in general, be satisfied if they could get two bushels in the month of four weeks, or twentysix bushels in the year, or 4 pints a day, wheat being at 10s. the bushel, or 12d. the pint, whereas the chanix (or pint and a half) at a penny Jewish, (or 74d. of our money) would make it 5d. the pint. But all these conjectures and calculations must necessarily be very vague and imperfect.

Of what is to be said respecting barley, something has been anticipated in treating of the seasons and of wheat, where it was stated, that it was sown probably in the autumn, in October; and in March or April, just after the Passover, it was reaped, and bound up in sheaves. (Ruth, ii. 7.) In Egypt, though a more southern country, the barley harvest was later; for, when the plague of hail fell there, a few days before the Passover, the flax was bolled, and the barley in the ear, but not ripe, and the wheat only in the blade. (Exod. ix. 31, 32.) Barley was considered an inferior grain, and was used for servants, poor people, and cattle. But, when parched, its grains, and especially its flour, mixed with water,

is excellent for persons fatigued, and is much used by the Moors in Barbary. It does not appear that it was malted and used to make beer, which is the chief reason for its being held in so high estimation with us. Barley, too, with the husks knocked off in a mortar, called Scotch barley, renders soups particularly nourishing and palatable; made into frumenty, it is scarcely inferior to wheat. Barley, as we have before seen, was one of the treasures of the land of promise. (Deut. viii. 8.) In David's flight from Absalom, his friends brought him wheat, barley-meal, lentiles, beans, and pulse. (2 Sam. xvii. 28.) Solomon had barley for his horses and dromedaries; and sent barley, along with wine, oil, and wheat, to his Tyrian servants. (1 Kings, iv. 28. 2 Chron. ii. 10, 15.) A man from Baal-shalisha, in a time of dearth in Gilgal, brought Elisha twenty loaves of barley, and corn in the husk, when the servant of God performed, on a smaller scale, that miracle which was so abundantly displayed afterwards by his divine Successor, and fed an hundred men with them, who were satisfied, and had to leave. (2 Kings, iv. 42-44.) The tribute which the king of the Ammonites was to pay to Jotham, was " an hundred talents of silver, and ten thousand measures of wheat, and ten thousand of barley." (2 Chron. xxvii. 5.) Barley-bread seems to have been the usual food of the lower classes in the time of our Saviour, since the bread which he and his disciples had with them, on both occasions, when he miraculously fed the multitude, was probably barley-bread; for aptos is the word used both in Matt. xiv. 17. Mark, vi. 38. and Luke, ix. 13. and in Matt. xv. 34. and Mark, viii. 6.; but the pros of the former three places we are expressly told, (John, vi. 9.) was xpilívos; and therefore was probably the same on the other occasion.

Rye is mentioned only twice in Scripture. The first is Exod. ix. 32. where, in speaking of the plague of hail, it is said, "The flax and the barley was smitten: for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was bolled. But the wheat and the rye were not smitten; for they were not grown up.' From which it appears, that in Egypt the rye was later than the barley; whereas with us it is usually the first grain sown, and the first cut. In the other passage, (Isa. xxviii. 25.) it is only mentioned along with wheat and barley, so that no other particulars respecting it can be collected. It is the custom with us sometimes to sow rye and wheat together, and, still oftener, beans and peas, and clover and other seeds with wheat, barley, or oats. This was forbidden to the Israelites: "Thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed:" (Levit.

xix. 19.) "Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with divers seeds; lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown, and the fruit of thy vineyard, be defiled." (Deut. xxii. 9.) But this was, probably, only as a type to the Israelites, that they were to be a chosen seed, and to be kept separate from all

admixture with others.

Amongst the articles which Barzillai brought to David, (2 Sam. xvii. 28.) were beans, as they were also among those which Ezekiel was to take at the siege of Jerusalem, (iv. 9.; but there does not seem to be any mention at all of peas.

Fitches, or vetches, probably what we call tares, are mentioned amongst the several articles to which reference has been before made, Isa. xxviii. 25-27. and Ezek. iv. 9. In 2 Kings, vi. 25. we are told, "There was a great famine in Samaria and behold they besieged it, until an ass's head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove's dung for five pieces of silver." On which Orton says, "They were reduced to the last extremity, so that an ass's head, which was forbidden to be eaten, was sold for near ten pounds, and less than a pint of fetches or tares, which was only fit for doves to eat, the worst of vegetables, was sold for about twelve shillings and sixpence." Brown, in his Dictionary of the Bible, (article dung) calls them chickpeas. The tares mentioned in the parable of the sower were, probably, weeds of several kinds, of which more will be said under that article.

Of lentiles we have mention so early as Gen. xxv. 34. when Jacob made red pattage of them, for a mess of which Esau, when hungry, sold his birth-right to him. They are used for the same purpose in France at this time, lentile soup being considered a wholesome and savoury dish. Lentiles also were among the articles brought by Barzillai to David, (2 Sam. xvii. 28.) and amongst those mentioned by Ezekiel at the siege of Jerusalem. (iv. 9.) The defence of" a piece of ground full of lentiles" was one of the feats of valour which Shammah, the son of Agee the Hararite, one of David's generals, performed. (2 Sam. xxiii. 11, 12.)

"Millet," says Brown, " is a coarse kind of grain, which was given to beasts, and little used by men, except in times of great scarcity but whether the dohhan appointed of God for Ezekiel, as part of his provision, was millet, we dare not determine." Ezek. iv. 9. Millet, with us, is often used to make puddings, and when thus prepared is very good.

Cummin is a plant somewhat like fennel, which produces its branches and blossoms in the form of a nosegay. The

Israelites sowed it in their fields, and threshed it out with a rod. (Isa. xxviii. 25-27.) The Maltese sow it in the same manner. Doves are very fond of it. It was, probably, cultivated on a less extensive scale in our Saviour's time, as he mentions the great scrupulousness in paying tithe of mint, and anise, and cummin, while they neglected things of more important concern. (Matt. xxiii. 23.)

Anise, or dill, is another plant something like fennel, the seeds of which are well known for their strong aromatic smell, and their properties as a cordial.

Flax was an article of considerable importance among the Israelites, though the "fine linen of Egypt" was one of their articles of importation and luxury. (Prov. vii. 16. Ezek. xxvii. 7.) Damascus too was celebrated for its flax and its linen. Hughes, in his tragedy of the Siege of Damascus, makes Eumenes, the governor, offer, amongst the articles to be given to the Saracens as an inducement to withdraw their forces:

"To each inferior captain

A turbant spun from our Damascus' flax,
White as the snows of heaven."

Act I. Scene 1.

The spinning of flax was an employment of women of rank. One of the traits in the character of the excellent daughter, whose "husband is known in the gates," and "sitteth among the elders in the land," is, that "she seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands." (Prov. xxxi. 13.) Flax was probably used by the Israelites for the wicks of candles and lamps, as, in Isa. xlii. 3. it is said of the Messiah, "The smoking flax shall he not quench;" that is, the almost fainting sinner he will not extinguish, but foster him. It has been before noticed, that in Egypt the barley was later than in the land of Canaan; that a few days before the Passover," the barley was" only "in the ear, and the flax was bolled," (Exod. ix. 31.) that is, as Orton explains it, "the head began to appear above the stalk;" or, according to Johnson, who calls a boll "a round stalk or stem," to boll is "to rise in the stalk." But, when the children of Israel were approaching Jordan, and Joshua sent the spies to view Jericho, and they entered into the house of Rahab, and the king sent to take them, "she had brought them up to the roof of the house, and hid them with the stalks of flax, which she had laid in order upon the roof" to dry. (Josh. ii. 6.) Here, then, the flax was in a much more forward state, as the passage over Jordan was on the tenth day of the first month,

and this was nine or ten days before. (See Josh. ii. 22. iii. 1, 2, 5. iv. 19.) When Maundrel travelled in the Holy Land, cotton was one of its articles of produce. "The country people were now" (April 15, 1697,)" every where at plough in the fields, in order to sow cotton." P. 110. But it does not appear that it was so when the Israelites inhabited it.

As the principal blessing promised to this chosen people in the land of Canaan was that it should be "a land flowing with milk," so it was promised to them by God that, while they lived in obedience, "I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full." Deut. xi. 15. "The pasture grounds in Canaan, Arabia, and even in Egypt," says Brown, " are still a kind of commons, in which strangers, as well as those of the adjacent cities or villages, at least for a small reward, may feed their flocks and herds." They had, however, certainly pasture fields, or inclosures, as well as these commons. (Jerem. xiv. 5. Zech. x. 1.) "In Egypt, Canaan, and some other fat soils," observes the same author, "Grass grows to the height of a man, and when it and flowers are withered, they are often used to heat their ovens." (Matt. vi. 30.) And that this was mown and converted into hay, appears from Psal. cxxix. 6, 7. Prov. xxvii. 25. Isai. xv. 6. 1 Cor. iii. 12. That it was made speedily, in this warm climate, is to be inferred from Psal. xc. 5, 6. where, speaking of the transitory nature of man, it is said, (we here quote the translation of our prayer book) "they fade away suddenly like the grass. In the morning it is green, and groweth up; but in the evening it is cut down, dried up, and withered." So, again, we are told of the rich, 66 as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth." (James, i. 10, 11.)

"All

Maundrel, indeed, in his Journey, (May 11,) says, that occurred to us new, in these days' travel, was a particular way used by the country people in gathering their corn; it being now harvest time." That is, I suppose, wheat harvest.

They plucked it up by handfuls from the roots; leaving the most fruitful fields as naked as if nothing had ever grown on them. This was their practice in all places of the East that I have seen: and the reason is, that they may lose none of their straw, which is generally very short, and necessary for the sustenance of their cattle'; no hay being here made. I mention this, because it seems to give light to that expression of the Psalmist, Psal. cxxix. 6. which withereth afore it be