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possibly a passage in Vinisauf may lessen this astonishment.

Vinisauf, speaking of the army under our Richard the first, a little before he left the Holy Land, and describing them as marching on the plain not far from the sea-coast, towards a place called Ybelin, which belonged to the knights-hospitalers of St. John of Jerusalem, pretty near Hebron, says, "The army stopping a while there, rejoicing in the hope of speedily setting out for Jerusalem, were assailed by a most minute kind of fly, flying about like sparks, which they called cincinella. With these the whole neighbouring region round about was filled. These most wretchedly infested the pilgrims, piercing with great smartness the hands, necks, throats, foreheads, and faces, and every part that was uncovered, a most violent burning tumour following the punctures made by them, so that all that they stung looked like lepers." He adds, "that they could hardly guard themselves from this most troublesome vexation, by covering their heads and necks with veils."

What these fire-flies were, and whether they shone in the dark, and for that reason are compared to sparks flying about, or whether they were compared to them on the account of the burning heat they occasioned, as well as a swelling in the flesh of all they wounded, I shall not take upon me to determine. I would only observe, Richard and his people met with

* Hist. Angl. Scrip. quinque, vol, 2, p. 396.

them in that part of the country, which seemed to be of the country which was not very far from Ekron, and which seemed to be of much the same general nature: a plain not far from the sea coast.

Can we wonder, after this recital, that those poor heathens that lived in and about Ekron, derived much consolation from the supposed power of the idol they worshipped, to drive away the cincinella of that country, which were so extremely vexatious to these pilgrims of the 12th century, and occasioned them so much pain. Lord of the fly, Lord of these cincinellæ, must have appeared to them a very pleasing, a very important title.

I will only add, that Sandys, in his travels in the same country, but more to the northward, speaks of the air's appearing as if full of sparkles of fire, borne to and fro with the wind, after much rain and a thunder-stopm, which appearance of sparkles of fire he attributes to infinite swarms of flies that shone like glow-worms; but he gives not the least intimation of their being incommoded by them.

What this difference was owing to, it is quite beside the design of these papers to enquire; whether its being about two months earlier in the year, more to the northward, or immediately after much rain and a thunderstorm, was the cause of the innoxiousness of these animals when Sandys travelled, and even whether the appearance Sandys speaks of was

a P. 158.

really owing to insects, or any effect of electricity, I leave to others to determine.

OBSERVATION XXVIII.

Different Kinds of Goats in Judea.

DR. Russell observed two sorts of goats about Aleppo one that differed little from the common sort in Britain; the other remarkable for the length of its ears. The size of the animal, he tells us, is somewhat larger than ours, but their ears are often a foot long, and broad in proportion. That they were kept chiefly for their milk, of which they yielded no inconsiderable quantity."

The present race of goats in the vicinity of Jerusalem are, of this broad-eared species, as I have been assured by a gentleman that lately" visited the Holy Land, who was struck with the difference between the goats there, and those that he saw in countries not far distant from Jerusalem. "They are," he says, "black and white, and some grey, with remarkable long ears, rather larger and longer legged than our Welch goats." "This kind of animal," he observed," in some neighbouring places, differed greatly from the above description, those of Balbec in particular, which were generally, if not always, so far as he observed, of the other species.

b Vol. ii. p. 150.

• In 1774.

These last I presume, are of the sort common in Great Britain, as those about Jerusalem are mostly of the long-eared kind; and it seems they were of the same long-eared kind that were kept anciently in Judea, from the words of the Prophet, As the shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear, so shall the children of Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria, . . . . and in Damascus.*

Though it is indeed the intention of the Prophet, to express the smallness of that part of Israel that escaped from destruction, and were seated in foreign countries; yet it would have been hardly natural, to have supposed a shepherd would exert himself, to make a lion, quit a piece only of an ear of a common goat: it must be supposed to refer to the large eared kind.

It is rather amusing to the imagination, and a subject of speculation, that the same species. of goat should chiefly prevail about Jerusalem, now chiefly kept in the Holy Land, should have been the same species that were reared there two thousand five hundred years ago. Is it the nature of the country, or the quality of the food of it, that is the occasion of the continuance of this breed, without deviation, from very remote times ? ?..

Rauwolff observed goats about Jerusalem with hanging ears, almost two feet long; but he neither mentions their being all, or mostly

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of that species, nor that it is another species that is most commonly kept in some of the neighbouring countries.

Whether the kids of the two, species are equally delicious, travellers have not informed us, but it appears from Hariri, a celebrated writer of Mesopotamia, that some kids at least are considered as a delicacy; for describing a person's breaking in upon a great pretender to mortification, he found him with one of his disciples, entertaining themselves, in much satisfaction, with bread made of the finest flour, with a roasted kid, and a vessel of wine before them. This last is an indulgence forbidden the Mohammedans, and with bread of the finest flower, proves that a roasted kid is looked upon as a very great delicacy.

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This shows in what light we are to consider the gratification proposed to be sent to Tamar, Gen. xxxviii. 16, 17; the present made by Sampson to his intended bride, Judg. xv. 1; and what was the complaint, made by the elder brother of the prodigal son, that his father had never given him a kid to entertain his friends with: he might have enabled him to give them some slight repast; but never qualified him to treat them with such a delicacy, Luke xv. 29.

f Hariri, translated by Chappelow, Arabic Prof. at Cambridge, 1st. Assembly, p. 7.

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