word which is thought to signify appointed, which has hardly any sense or meaning in this place!

I have elsewhere observed, that it is not improbable that the last word means a sort of grain which they call corn of Damascus, and the Italians surgo rosso, which it seems grows in a very moist soil in Egypt, when that country is overflowed; and so it stands distinguished from the millet which grows, according to Rauwolff, in the burning sands of Arabia. is GoD that gives the husbandman discretion when and where to sow the different kinds of grain-the wheat early in the winter, the barley in the latter end of it; the millet in sandy places, the corn of Damascus in those that are marshy or watery.

66

It

This circumstance is perhaps meant by the last word in the 25th verse, which in our translation is rendered in their place," but is translated by others his border-the no cussumeth of his or its border, cussumeth is the Hebrew word to express this kind of grain. Now rivers (whose borders are generally more or less marshy or fenny) were commonly made use of to separate one country, or one district from another, as they are now, and consequently the cusasmeth of his border may mean the cussameth that is wont to be sown in moory, fenny, or watery places. This places the thought of the Prophet in a more clear and de

y See Jos. xxii. 25, Numb. xxi. 13, 14, 24, 1 Kings iv. 21, Gen. xv. 18, &c.

terminate point of view, than it is wont to appear in the works of commentators.

Agreeable to this, Rauwolff saw Indian millet in the fields near Rama, when he visited the Holy Land, in the time of Queen Elizabeth. It was known then, at the time when our ⚫ translation was made, that millet grew in Judea; how unhappy that it appears not in our version, among the other things mentioned by Isaiah as cultivated there! He was there the middle of September, O. S. 1575, and observed that Rama was situated on an ascent, in plain fields, which extended themselves two leagues, where the hills begin that continue to Jerusalem. "These fields are very fruitful, and very well tilled, and sown with corn, cotton, and Indian millet. Hereabout do also grow Indian musk-melons in great quantity, by the Arabians called batiere, which are very pleasant, and well tasted, chiefly those that are red within; so that in all my travels I hardly met with the like."

OBSERVATION XIII.

Different Kinds of Seeds, eaten with their Bread.

I HAVE, in a preceding volume, taken notice of the present Eastern custom of sprinkling various sorts of seeds on their bread, to make it more pleasing: Rauwolff mentions the seeds

Ray's Coll. of Travels, p. 229.

of sesamum, Romish coriander, and wild garden saffron, as used for that purpose. Here I would observe, that in another place Rauwolff tells us, that in going from Aleppo to Bir, a town on the Euphrates, he saw whole acres of Turkish corn called sesamo, and others all sown with cotton.b

In like manner Dr. Russell informs us, that, "Besides Turkey wheat, barley, and cotton, they sow in the fields, cicers, lentils, beans, chickling, small vetch, sesamum, bastard saffron, Turkey millet."

For the same reason-the frequent use of these seeds to give a more agreeable flavour to their bread, they might anciently too sow some of their fields with these vegetables: and it is probable that to some of them the Prophet refers when he says, Doth the ploughman plow all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods of his ground? When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he cast abroad the fitches, (or rather the sesamum, or some other seed made use of to sprinkle on their bread,) and scatter the cummin . For his GOD doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him. For the fitches (the sesamum, or some such seed) are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is cart-wheel turned

about upon the cummin; but the fitches (the sesamum, &c.) are beaten with a staff, and the cummin with a rod.

Descr. of Aleppo, vol. i. p. 78, &c. d Is.xxviii. 25, &c.

Whether what we call cummin is the seed Isaiah precisely meant, is not absolutely certain the Dutch of our times are said to put that kind of seed into their cheeses, but I do not recollect that any of our travellers say that it is used to give a relish to bread. However, the accounts that are given us, of the sowing these small and tender seeds in their fields by the modern Oriental husbandmen, may illustrate the words of the Prophet here, better than the translating this first word by the term gith, as the vulgar Latin does, and also St. Jerom, with which vegetable, and its uses, we are not well acquainted. The Bishop of London, in his late curious translation of this sacred book, renders it dill, which seed might certainly be used for the same purpose as the sesamum, and grows in the gardens of Aleppo, Russell tells us, as the carraway and the coriander; but the dill neither appears in his catalogue of the seeds sown in the fields of which the Prophet is speaking, nor does Rauwolff give us any account of its being sprinkled upon their bread but itis possible both may be true.

St. Jerom remarks, that the Septuagint translates the end of the 27th verse, and beginning of the 28th, after this manner: "The gith is beaten out with a rod, and the cummin is eaten with bread;" and says, he could not imagine what they had in view in that translation: but, I think, we may learn at least from it this, that in those times in which they lived, such small Vol. i. p. 73. &c.

seed as cummin, &c. were wont to be sprinkled on their bread; they would hardly otherwise have so translated the words. This Jerom did not attend to, but observed that it was a deviation from the Hebrew copy he made use of, and such an one as he could not well account for."

By another passage, in the same commentary, it appears that in Judea, in his time, the same difference continued that the Prophet mentions, as to the mode of threshing these things-The wheat, barley, and the fourth kind of grain, passed under the old Eastern machine; the smaller seeds, first mentioned, threshed by a staff; but as to the millet, he was unable to say how it was treated.

It may not be improper to add, that, according to the Baron de Tott, cummin is so much cultivated to this day in Judea, that its seed constitutes one branch of its commerce with Egypt; but he gives us no account of the use that is made of it, whether as a relisher of their bread, their cheese, or any other sort of their food, or whether it is imported for the use of their pigeons. I will however set down the passage,

"The commerce of Jaff, (he means Joppa,) only consists of linen and rice, sent from Damietta for the consumption of Napooloose,

f Nescio quid volentes LXX. transtulerunt: Cyminum autem cum pane comeditur. Com. in loc.

Pietro della Vallé, speaking of some of the Turkish dishes, gives an account of sausages made of beef, seasoned with cummin-seed, which was by no means agreeable to bis palate. Tome 1, p. 129, 130.