parts of Africa their sting is certain death, and the town of Pescaria is deserted by its inhabitants in the summer on account of the great quantity of scorpions. JOAM. LEO, Histor. Afric. b. vi. In winter they are nearly in a torpid state, and their sting is less dangerous. It is said, that if a scorpion, surrounded by a circle of burning coals, finds it cannot escape, it strikes itself with its sting on the back, and immediately dies. The few scorpions I saw in Greece are about two inches in length, and generally black. I found some at Thermopylæ about half an inch longer, and of a dull yellow tint: in Italy they are extremely common, and enter the houses as soon as the first autumnal rains commence. DODWELL'S Tour through Greece, vol. i. p. 29. GEN. xlix. 22. Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches hang over the wall.] "To the northward and westward are several villages, interspersed with extensive orchards and vineyards, the latter of which are generally enclosed by high walls. The Persian vine-dressers do all in their power to make the vine run up the wall, and curl over on the other side, which they do by tying stones to the extremity of the tendril. The vine, particularly in Turkey and Greece, is frequently made to entwine on trellises, around a well, where, in the heat of the day, whole families collect themselves, and sit under the shade." MORIER'S Second Journey through Persia, p. 232. 1 JOSHUA, ix. 4. Wine bottles.] CHARDIN informs us, that the Arabs, and all those that lead a wandering life, keep their water, milk, and other liquors, in leathern bottles. They keep in them more fresh than otherwise 66 they would do. These leathern bottles are made of goatskins. When the animal is killed, they cut off its feet and its head, and they draw it in this manner out of the skin without opening its belly. They afterwards sew up the places where the legs were cut off, and the tail, and when it is filled, they tie it about the neck. These nations and the country people of Persia never go a journey without a small leathern bottle of water hanging by their side like a scrip. The great leathern bottles are made of the skin of a he-goat, and the small ones, that serve instead of a bottle of water on the road, are made of a kid's skin." These bottles are frequently rent when old and much used, and are capable of being repaired by being bound up. This they do, CHARDIN says, "sometimes by setting in a piece; sometimes by gathering up the wounded place in manner of a purse ; sometimes they put in a round flat piece of wood, and by that means stop the hole." MAUNDRELL gives an account exactly similar to the above. Speaking of the Greek convent at Bellmount, near Tripoli, in Syria, he says, "The same person whom we saw officiating at the altar in his embroidered sacerdotal robe, brought us the next day, on his own back, a kid and a goat-skin of wine, as a present from the convent." Journey, March 12. These bottles are still used in Spain, and called borrachas. Mr. BRUCE gives a description of the girba, which seems to be a vessel of the same kind as those now mentioned, only of dimensions considerably larger. "A girba is an ox's skin, squared, and the edges sewed together very artificially, by a double seam, which does not let out water, much resembling that upon the best English cricket balls. An opening is left at the top of the girba, in the same manner as the bunghole of a cask; around this the skin is gathered to the size of a large handful, which, when the girba is full of water, is tied round with whipcord. These girbas generally contain about sixty gallons each, and two of them are the load of a camel. They are then all besmeared on the outside with grease, as well to hinder the water from oozing through, as to prevent its being evaporated by the heat of the sun upon the girba, which, in fact, happened to us twice, so as to put us in imminent danger of perishing with thirst." Travels, vol. iv. p. 334. "The water, in leaving Egypt, is commonly conveyed in goat-skins artificially prepared; but no skin can entirely prevent evaporation. On their march from Soudan to Egypt, the Jelabs oftener use ox-hides, formed into capacious sacks, and properly seasoned with tar or oil; a pair of these is a camel's load. They keep the water in a better state for drinking than the smaller, and these sacks are sold to great advantage throughout Egypt; a pair of the best kind being sometimes worth thirty piastres: they are the common instruments for conveying water from the river to different parts of each town. The camels are not allowed to partake of this store, which, after all the care that can be taken of it, is often very nauseous, from the tar, the mud which accompanies the water in drawing, heat, &c. Six of the smaller skins, or two of the larger, are generally esteemed sufficient for four persons for as many days.” BROWNE'S Travels in Africa, Egypt, and Syria, p. 252. See also Sir W. OUSELEY's Travels in the East, vol. i. p. 246. JUDGES, ix. 27. Trod the grapes.] In the East they still tread their grapes after the ancient manner. "August 20. 1765, the vintage (near Smyrna) was now begun, the juice (of the grapes) was expressed for wine; a man, with his feet and legs bare, `was treading the fruit in a kind of cistern, with a hole or vent near the bottom, and a vessel beneath to receive the liquor." CHANDLER, Travels in Greece, p. 2. 2 SAM. vi. 19. Wine.] "By way of dessert, some walnuts and dried figs were afterwards served to us, besides a very curious article, probably resembling the dried wine of the ancients, which they are said to have preserved in cakes. Those of which we now partook might be also called wine cakes. They were of the shape of a cucumber, and were made out of the fermented juice of the grape formed into a jelly, and in this state wound round a central thread of the kernel of walnuts; the pieces of the nuts thus forming a support for the outer coat of jelly, which became harder as it dried, and would keep, it is said, fresh and good for many months, forming a welcome treat at all times, and being particularly well adapted for sick or delicate persons, who might require some grateful provisions capable of being carried in a small compass, and without risk of injury on a journey." BUCKINGHAM'S Tr. among the Arab Tribes, p.137. PSALM 1xxx. 10. The boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars.] Dr. Lowrн proposes the following construction of this verse: Her shadow covered the mountains, And her boughs (covered) the cedars of God. So that the image is that of a flourishing vine, climbing up even the highest cedars, spreading itself along the branches, and covering the very top of them. This may well be allowed in the description of an allegorical vine, which is represented as stretching out her branches to the sea, and her boughs to the river, especially when compared with what KAEMPFER says of some foreign vines: Maximum proventum vites tribuunt, quæ nulla jutæ cultura palmites per summa spargunt fastigia arborum. Amanitat. Exot. Fascic. 2. Relat. 9. § 2. p. 390. The author of the History of the Piratical States of Barbary (published in 1750) informs us that some of the vines near Algiers climb to the tops of very lofty trees, and extending themselves to others, form natural bowers, p. 163. And BEVERLEY, in his History of Virginia, p. 116., affirms that he has seen great trees covered with single vines, and those vines almost hid with the grapes. The vine's covering the cedars might be intended to suggest an idea, not only of its extent, but of its sovereignty. A Greek poet has, from this very circumstance, represented the vine as the mistress of the trees. Loquens cum vite (Nonnus Dionysiac, l. xii. 278.) ait illam esse dominam arborum, nam scandit per illas, tanquam per humeros famularum. DE LA CERDA on VIRGIL, Georg. i. v. 2. "The vines are not cultivated in this part of Asia in the same manner as in the wine countries, where each plant is every year pruned down to the bare stalk; they are here trained up to some tall tree, frequently a plum or an apricot; the tendrils reach the loftiest as well as the lowest branches, and the tree thus seems to be loaded with a double crop of fruit. Nothing can present a more delightful appearance than the intimately blended greens and the two species of fruit, luxuriantly mingled." BEAUFORT'S Karamania, p. 49. The Israelitish nation is described under the emblem of a vine transplanted by God from Egypt to Palestine, where it was tended by him and flourished beautifully, and spread its branches over the whole country. When it is said in the above words, that this vine "has covered the cedars of God with its boughs," (for so LUTHER has translated it,) that is, the highest and strongest cedars, which inspire awe by their appearance, the image is taken from the circumstance that in the southern coun tries vines usually climb up the trees. "Nothing is more pleasing," says GMELIN (Travels through Russia and the North of Persia, vol. iii. p. 431.), “ than to behold the growth of the vine in the (Persian) province of Ghilan. This climbing shrub thrives only in woody districts, whether level or in small eminences. It is generally found in the greatest abundance on the declivities of the mountains. There it twines over the tallest trees, farther than the eye can reach; and its branches, which are as thick as an arm, are so spread and entangled together, that in those places where it is most luxuriant, it is difficult to penetrate." The same is stated by REINEGGS of the vines of Iberia. "The vine," says he (General Description of Caucasus, vol. ii. p. 47.), " is here neither cut, pruned, nor tended; left to itself, it is generally interwoven with the branches of venerable oaks, beeches, or alders.” That the vine climbs about the elm is said by PLINY, Nat. Hist. b. xiv. chap. i. § 3. See VIRGIL'S Georgics, ii. 361. ISAIAH, i. 8. As a cottage in a vineyard.] This was |