OBSERVATION XX.

Of the Time in which the Vine-Leaf falls off.

ACCORDING to Dr. Richard Chandler's observations in the Lesser Asia, it seems that their tame cattle are very fond of vine-leaves, and are permitted to eat them in the autumn: this may serve to illustrate a passage in the writings of Moses.

"The wine of Phygela," says the Doctor, "is commended by Dioscorides: and its territory was now green with vines. We had remarked, that about Smyrna the leaves were decayed, or stripped by the camels and herds of goats, which are admitted to browze after the vintage," "

He left Smyrna September 30, and their vineyards were by that time stripped, though they still continued green at Phygela, the 5th or 6th of October,"

I believe we may be very sure, that the leaves of the vineyards of Smyrna had not disappeared from natural decay the 30th of September, since they continue longer than that time in our climate; it must have been owing then to their camels and goats.

If those animals are so fond of vine-leaves, it is no wonder that Moses, by an express law,'

u Trav. in Asia Minor, p. 142.

y P. 141.

* P. 110.

Exod. xxii. 5.

for bad a man's causing another man's vineyard to be eaten, by putting in his beast: since camels and goats are so fond of the leaves of the vine, and consequently the turning any of them in before the fruit was gathered, must have occasioned much mischief; and even after it must have been an injury, as it would have been eating up another's food.

If however these leaves were generally eaten by cattle, after the vintage was over, it seems to be rather difficult how to explain the Prophet's representing the dropping down of the stars of heaven, in a general wreck of the frame of nature, by the falling of the leaf from the vine, Is. xxxiv. 4. The leaves of many other trees fell in great numbers, but we are supposing few or none of the leaves of the vines in their vineyards dropped, the cattle being turned into their vineyards before these leaves were wont to drop, and being very fond of eating them.

I do not know how to account for this other-. wise, than by reminding my reader, that though the ancient Israelites were in a manner universally concerned in agriculture, yet they did not live in detached habitations in the fields as many of our people of that class do, but in. towns where the houses stood thick together, but with some trees planted near to them, whose shade their camels and goats were not permitted to destroy. To which is to be added, from St. Jerom, that the air is often so soft, even late in the autumn, as to admit, and even in

vite their sitting abroad, when the leaves were scattered on the ground, and consequently scattering from these domestic trees. And if not, they could not well avoid seeing them as they sat in their houses close by.

OBSERVATION XXI.

Different Kinds of Wines in the Holy Land.

THE wines produced in the Holy Land are, it seems, of different sorts, in consequence of the vines there being of different kinds.

This is common in other countries, and is expressly taken notice of by travellers as to the wine made by the monks of Canobine on Mount Lebanon, of which I have taken notice in another article: one sort being red, the best of the colour of gold.

There is, it is found. a like difference in the adjoining country. So the gentleman that travelled in these countries in 1774 remarked, that the grapes of the Holy Land that he saw were chiefly black, while those of Colo-Syria are remarkable for their size, and mostly white. This implies that those he saw were, at least comparatively speaking, smaller than the Syrian, as well as of a different colour.

Accordingly the Scriptures speak of red wine, Is. lxiii. 2; as well as of the blood of the grape, Deut. xxxii. 14, which term may, possibly, be designed to indicate its colour.

The term blood there seems to refer to the colour of the juice of the grape, or of the wine produced by it,

The wine made from these black grapes he found very indifferent: whether from the real quality of the grape, or bad method of making the wines, he could not say.

But though this gentleman seems to have seen no grapes of a large size in Judea, as he had in Cœlo-Syria, yet there are some such growing there, though he happened not to see them; or at least there were a thousand years ago: for d'Herbelot tells us, in his Bibliotheque Orientale, from the Persian historian Khondemir," that Jezid being in Palestine, which he calls Beled Arden, or the country of Jordan, and diverting himself in a garden with one of his women, of whom he was passionately fond, they set before him a collation of the most excellent fruits of that country: during this little repast, he threw a single grape to the lady, which she took, and putting it to her mouth to eat it, she let it slip down her throat, and being very large, such as that country produced, it stopped her breath, and stiffed her in an instant.” b

This surprising accident, which it seems threw the Khalife into such a melancholy as brought that great, prince to the grave, happened about the year of our LORD 1723; but Palestine has undergone great alterations since that time.

otherwise it is likely that a word signifying tears would have been used, answering to the marginal translation of Exod xxii. 29.

Art. Jezid Ben Abdalmalek.

Doubdan, however, tells us, that travelling in the country about Bethlehem he found a most delightful valley, full not only of aromatic herbs and rose-bushes, but planted with vines, which he supposed were of the choicest kind, and that it was indeed the valley of Eshcol, from whence the spies carried that prodigious branch of grapes to Moses, of which we read in the book of Numbers. "It is true," says this writer," I have seen no such bunches of grapes, not having been here in the time of the vintage; but the monks assured me that they still find here some that weigh ten or twelve pounds. As to the wine, I have tasted of it many times, and have always found it the most agreeable of that made in the Holy Land. It is a white wine, which has however something of a reddish cast, is somewhat of the muscadel kind, and very delicious to drink, without producing any bad effects."'d

There are then different kinds of grapes, procuced in this country, some red, some white; and though they labour under great discouragements as to making of wine in Mohammedan countries, and consequently much of it may be poorly managed, one sort, at least, appeared very delicious to a person well acquainted with the wines of France.

Ch. xiii. 23, 24.

Voy. de la Terre-Sainte, p. 154.