with thousands of excavations" (percés de milliers excavations). The reader will be aware that the minute appearance of the excavations is occasioned by the distance of the view, and consequent diminution of the apparent height of the rocks; and in the multiplicity of excavations, perceptible even in the rocks which border the elongated valley, he will not fail to observe the dwellings in the clefts of the rocks, and to see how the inhabitants of the capital of Edom made their nest as high as the eagle's. This perfect coincidence both with the description, as identifying the spot, and with the prediction of the prophet, as now abandoned and desolate, is the more remarkable as it is incidentally and indirectly placed in view, the title of the print being, A View of an Isolated or Deserted Column (Vue d'une Colonne Isolée).

In the notes connected with the ruins of a temple, of which two views are given, it is stated that, "besides the gigantic and singular tombs cut out of the rock, Petra contains a great number of monuments, of which the ruins attest the beautiful style and the magnificence; but of all these buildings, the only one which has resisted the ravages of time is that which is here represented. Situated to the west of the city, on the bank of the river, it towers over the innumerable wreck of buildings (débris) which cover the soil, and yet present, though in ruins, a beautiful mass, and beautiful details of architecture. The cornice which surmounts the temple is in a pure and elegant style. In the back-ground is seen the antique pavement, as it still exists."

In explanation of the plate which represents the ruins of a triumphal arch, it is stated, "The passage under the triumphal arch leads to a public place, a species of forum, paved with large flag-stones, which reach to the temple that is seen in the back-ground. The monument represented in this view formed three arcades, of which one, that in the middle, is by far the

largest, and served for carriages, and the two othersfor foot-passengers. There is observable in the construction some analogy to the triumphal arch which terminates the colonnade of Palmyra, towards the east. The pilaster, which still remains, is that which separates the middle arch from that of one of the corners." "This view is taken from the west, and represents the same monument described (as above) in the preceding livraison. In the back-ground is seen one part of the grand funereal monuments."

Other plates present to view the vast magnificence of the tombs of Petra; the effect of which, it is apprehended, would in a great measure be lost, in etchings on so small a scale as the size of this volume could conveniently admit. There is one tomb, of which a view is given, which is peculiarly deserving of notice, there being engraven on it a Latin inscription, with the name of a magistrate, Quintus Prætextus Florentinus, who died in that city, being governor of that part of Arabia Petræa. "It behoved to be," it is said, "about the time of Adrian or Antoninus Pius," or ́at a period unquestionably several centuries posterior to the predictions.

They shall be called the border of wickedness. Strabo contrasts the quiet disposition of the citizens of Petra with the contentious spirit of the foreigners who resided there; and the uninterrupted tranquillity which the townsmen mutually maintained together, excited the admiration of Athenodorus.b The fine gold is changed: no such people are there now to be found. Though Burckhardt travelled as an Arab, associated with them, submitted to all their privations, and was so completely master of their language and of their manners, as to escape detection, he was yet reduced to that state, within the boundaries of Edom, which alone can secure tranquillity to the tra

b Strabo, p. 779.

veller in the desert; "he had nothing with him that could attract the notice, or excite the cupidity of the Bedouins," and was even stripped of some rags that covered his wounded ankles.c The Arabs in that quarter, he observes, "have the reputation of being very daring thieves." In like manner, a Motselim who had been twenty years in office, pledged himself to Captains Irby and Mangles, and the travellers who accompanied them, (in presence of the governor of Jerusalem,) that the Arabs of Wady Mousa are "a most savage and treacherous race," and added, that they would make use of their Franks' blood for a medicine. That this character of wickedness and cruelty was not misapplied, they had too ample proof, not only in the dangers with which they were threatened, but by the fact which they learned on the spot, that upwards of thirty pilgrims from Barbary had been murdered at Petra the preceding year, by the men of Wady Mousa. Even the Arabs of the surrounding deserts, as already stated, dread to approach it; and towards the borders of Edom on the south, "the Arabs about Akaba," as described by Pococke, and as experienced by Burckhardt, "are a very bad people, and notorious robbers, and are at war with all others." Such evidence, all undesignedly given, clearly shews that in truth Edom is called the border of wickedness.

Thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof. In lieu of any direct and explicit statement in corroboration of the literal fulfilment of this prediction, it may be worthy of observation that the camels of the Bedouins feed upon the thorny branches of the Talh (gum arabic) tree, of which they are extremely fond; that the large

c Burckhardt's Travels, p. 438.

d Irby and Mangles's Travels, p. 417. Macmichael's Journey, pp. 202, 234.

e Pococke's Description of the East, vol. i.

p.

136.