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DIFFERENCES OF OPINION AS TO THE GOURD.

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farther than is necessary to secure the result required. When Lazarus was to be raised, for example, Martha must guide to the tomb; some must remove the stone from the cave's mouth, and others loose the risen Lazarus from his grave-clothes. So, when Jonah was to be sheltered from the burning sun, that which was best adapted to the purpose, and which grew with the greatest rapidity, was selected to make the shade.

Is there any reason to suppose that it was not a gourd, but some other plant; that of the castor-bean, for example, as many learned critics have concluded?

It would be impertinent to say, or imply, that there is no reason for this, or for any other opinion adopted by learned and impartial men, after careful examination; but their arguments do not for a moment disturb my settled conviction that it was a gourd. The cause of their mistake may probably be found in the fact that, in these Shemitic dialects, the word kur'ah, gourd, closely resembles, both in form and sound, khŭrwah, castor-bean, just as the kikion, gourd, of Jonah resembles the Egypto-Greek kiki, castor-bean, according to Dioscorides. These accidental resemblances may have led Jerome and others into the opinion that they were the same plant. But Orientals never dream of training a castor-oil plant over a booth, or planting it for a shade, and they would have but small respect for any one who did. It is in no way adapted for that purpose, while thousands of arbors are covered with various creepers of the general gourd family. As to ancient translations, the Septuagint gives colocynth, which is a general species of gourd; and the Vulgate, castor - bean. Augustin differed with Jerome about this vine, and even quarrelled over it, according to a bit of patristic scandal. Let us not imitate them; for, though I believe it was a gourd, I am quite willing that any one should adopt that opinion which he thinks best supported.

The brief history of Jonah has always appeared to me to be encumbered with a large share of obscurities. For example, who were those sailors? They were not Jews; were wholly unacquainted with the prophet, and yet they conversed with him without difficulty.

In all probability they were Phoenicians, and their language was

therefore so closely related to the Hebrew that an interpreter was not needed.

Where was Tarshish, to which port or country the ship belonged or was bound?

Scarcely any name in Biblical geography suggests more unanswered and unanswerable questions than this. The Arabs believe it was Tarsus, the birthplace of Paul, and their Bible naturally suggests this idea. In English, the name is variously written-Tarshish, Tarsis, and Tarsus. The Seventy do not translate it always alike, and the Vulgate is still more confused. When I first came to the East, I resided some time in Jaffa, and the friends with whom I became acquainted traded largely with Tarsus. Ships, loaded with soap and other articles, were constantly departing from "Joppa" for "Tarshish," as they appear to have done in the days of Jonah. I had then no doubt as to the identity of the places. Subsequent examination, however, has led me to modify this opinion. It is true that Palestine has always traded with Asia Minor through Tarsus; true, also, that from Tarsus to the Grecian islands the distance is not great, and the connection by trade is natural and uninterrupted to this day. It is not forced, therefore, to connect Tarsus and the Greek islands together, as is frequently done in the Bible. Doubtless the first trading voyages from Phoenicia northward were along the coast, and round the head of this sea by Tarsus, and thence westward to the islands. It was not until after long experience in coasting that mariners acquired courage and skill to strike out boldly into the shoreless ocean. It is doubtful whether they did this in the days of Jonah, although the pilots of Hiram's ships were celebrated, even in the times of David and Solomon. I am inclined to adopt the opinion that "ships of Tarshish," or Tarsis, early became a general name for large merchantships, just as we speak of an East Indiaman or a whaler. The name may have been derived, first of all, from Tarsus of Cilicia, and subsequently given to Tartessus, country or city, or both, in Spain, which was a colony, perhaps, from Tarsus. Arrian,' Diodorus,' and Strabo all mention such a city, and I think it probable that Jonah meant to flee thither. Tarsus, nearly on the route to Nineveh from 3 Strab. iii. 147.

1 Alex. iii. 86.

? Diod. Sic. v. 35.

SHIPS OF TARSHISH.-PIOUS LANGUAGE OF ORIENTALS.

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Palestine, would not have been selected by the rebellious prophet for his place of concealment. However this may be, we must give a very wide latitude to the expression "ships of Tarshish." They sailed everywhere-west, along all the shores of the Mediterranean, and out into the Atlantic; and south and east, through the Red Sea, along the African and Arabian coasts as far as India. From Asia Minor and from Spain they brought gold, silver, lead, tin, and iron; and from India and the East came spices, and ivory, and ebony, and apes, and peacocks, as we read in the accounts of the Jewish and Phoenician merchant navies. By the aid of this theory we can reconcile the Biblical statements as to the time occupied by these ships of Tarshish in their expeditions-once in three years. Those trading with the far East, or with Ireland or England, might require that length of time to complete their sales and purchases, and to return home.

How do you account for the very pious and becoming language used by these heathen sailors, and the humble and penitent deportment of the king of corrupt Nineveh?

There is nothing very strange in this to Orientals, or to one familiar with them. Such language is universal. No matter how profane, immoral, and even atheistical a man may be, yet will he, on all appropriate occasions, speak of God-the one God, our God -in phrases the most proper and pious. We are abashed and confounded in the presence of such holy talkers, and have not courage, or, rather, have too much reverence for sacred things to follow them in their glib and heartless verbiage. The fact is, I suppose, that Oriental nations, although they sank into various forms of idolatry, never lost the phraseology of the pure original theosophy. We are struck with this in all the Bible histories in which these people have occasion to speak of God and his attributes. The Canaanites. could talk as devoutly as Abraham, and Nebuchadnezzar with as much propriety as Daniel. And the same is wonderfully true at the present day. A hard old Druse of Lebanon would edify a Payson or a Martyn. Indeed, there is nothing in which modern custom corresponds more completely with the ancient than in this. pious talk. There is scarcely an expression of the kind we are considering which has not its perfect parallel in the daily living lan

guage of the people around us. Place an Arab in the circumstances in which these old heathen are represented as acting and speaking, and his expressions will be so similar, even to the very words and peculiar idioms, as to suggest the idea that they have been learned from the Bible. And yet this cannot be, because the remark applies, in all its extent, to the Bedawîn, in whose tribes there never has been a Bible, nor a man able to read it, had there been one.

In regard to the profound impression produced by the preaching of Jonah in Nineveh, we must suppose that he was attended by such credentials of his prophetic office and mission as commanded attention and belief. What these credentials were we do not know. Jonah "was a sign unto the Ninevites." Perhaps he carried with him, or there had preceded him, such well-authenticated proofs of his wonderful preservation in the whale's belly as deeply alarmed the Ninevites, on whose account, in an important and portentous sense, the miracle had been wrought. Nor is it difficult to discover how such reports might have been spread abroad. The sailors of the ship could testify that they threw Jonah overboard in a tempestuous sea; very likely they saw him swallowed by the great fish. They would, therefore, be immensely amazed to find him on shore, alive and well. Such a thing would now make a prodigious noise in the world, and the news of it would fly from city to city with incredible speed. There is no reason to doubt, therefore, that the story of the prophet had preceded him to Nineveh, and prepared the way for the extraordinary success of his preaching.

I must now leave you for the remainder of the day, and return to the city, in order to complete the preparations for our journey. In overhauling your baggage, I advise you to lay aside all articles not strictly necessary for daily use. Everything has to be carried on mules, will be roughly handled, and exposed to various accidents; and whatever can be spared from your impedimenta had better be forwarded to Jerusalem to await our arrival there some forty days hence.

April 4th. Evening.

I have been detained in the city longer than I anticipated, and yet have not completed our preparations. My cook once said to me, in excuse for a provoking delay, "This plenty patience coun

NÂ'URAH, PERSIAN WATER-WHEEL.

19 try." The fact cannot be denied, and you will do well to "put on the garment of patience," according to the Arab proverb, for you will need it every day.

There has been no occasion for the use of it thus far. I have been roaming about these biârahs, looking at and into things generally. Our position is not only novel but picturesque, and extremely pleasant. Notwithstanding all I had heard and read about these gardens, I am surprised at their extent. From the roof of the house the eye wanders over a veritable wilderness of luxuriant vegetation, apparently without limits, and certainly very beautiful.

Jaffa is famed in modern times for her gardens and orchards of delicious fruit more than for anything else. They are quite extensive, flourishing, and profitable, but their very existence depends upon the fact that water to any amount can be procured in every garden, and at a moderate depth. The entire plain seems to cover a river of vast breadth, percolating through the sand en route to the sea. Hundreds of Persian water-wheels, working night and day, produce no sensible diminution, and this inexhaustible source of wealth underlies the whole territory of the Philistines down to Gaza at least, and probably much farther south, though wells have to be sunk to a great depth in many places to reach the water.

Have we any reason to believe that these Persian water-wheels were here in ancient days of Jewish history? I have been greatly interested in them, and they seem admirably adapted for the purpose intended.

Simple in construction, cheap, quickly made, soon repaired, easily worked, they raise an immense quantity of water. Many efforts have been made to introduce pumps, but they always fail and get out of repair; and as there is no one able to mend them, they are thrown aside, and the gardener returns to his nâ'urah. The whole of this machinery is quickly enumerated and described. A clumsy cog-wheel, fitted to an upright post, is made to revolve horizontally by a mule attached to a sweep; this turns a similar one perpendicularly, placed at the end of a heavy beam, which has a large wide drum built into it, directly over the mouth of the well. Over this drum revolve two rough hawsers, or thick ropes, made of twigs and branches twisted together, and upon them

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