ance caused either by the red mud brought down from Abyssinia or by animalculæ ; it next assumed a green appearance. The god Nilus was represented of a blue and red colour, in allusion, perhaps, to these different appearances. Assuming that this plague took place after the return of the waters to their bed, and not before the overflow (see p. 46), the change to blood could not be attributed to that deity, nor to those natural causes which prevailed only in the earlier part of the year.

Apart from the suffering occasioned by this plague, there was something awful in the very nature of the miracle: it was not merely a "wonder," but a "sign." Prodigies of this kind were always looked upon as very fearful, and the Egyptians were addicted, more than any other people, to observing omens. The legends of antiquity are full of such portents, derived it may be from some indistinct tradition of the history before us. In Homer, before the death of Sarpedon,

"the weeping heavens distilled

A shower of blood o'er all the fatal field."

Iliad, xvi. v. 459.

According to Plutarch, "when Flaminius and Furius were leading an army against the Isubrians, the river which ran through the Picene was seen flowing with blood" (Marcell, c. 44). Livy tells us "the Alban water flowed in a bloody stream: this and other prodigies were expiated by the larger kind of victims" (1. xxvii. c. II).

But the sign in the river of Egypt had a particular

meaning for those who dwelt upon its banks. The Egyptians, at an early period of their history, had been used to sacrifice human victims—a girl, or, as others say, a boy and a girl, to the Nile, at the time of its annual rising: this barbarous custom had long been discontinued; but at the time of the Exodus it was in a manner revived, the male children of the Israelites being cast into the river as they were born. Pharaoh had "charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river” (Exod. i. 22). The people, who hated all strangers, considering it an abomination even to eat at the same table with an Hebrew, had willingly lent themselves to this act of cruelty, and had made themselves partakers in their ruler's guilt. Upon this river Moses had himself been exposed in an ark of bulrushes; he had been "drawn out of the water," as his name implied, to be a god to Pharaoh, not like those wretched Nile deities which he adored, but armed with irresistible might, as an avenger of blood. The cry of those many murdered innocents had come up before God's throne, and Pharaoh and his people must answer for it.

We are reminded in this history of the description of a future judgment in the book of Revelation. "The third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood. And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O LORD, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus: for they have shed the blood of the saints and prophets, and thou hast

given them blood to drink; for they are worthy" (Rev. xvi. 4). Here was an evident retribution for the cruelties of which they had been guilty; here, too, was a manifestation of God's power and justice which all might understand. The natural effect of this would be to lead them to think seriously of the danger they were bringing upon themselves by daring to contend with One so great and righteous; and thus, by timely submission, to escape the greater evils of which this first plague was a warning and a sign.

CHAPTER V.

THE PLAGUE OF FROGS.

The Plague of Frogs-Purifications of the Egyptians prevented-The Frog an Emblem of Fecundity-Frog-headed Deities—Frogs reverenced-Greek Epigram-Parallel accounts from Classical Writers.

GRIEVOUS and terrible as the first of the plagues of Egypt must have been, it does not appear to have called forth any expression of alarm, or any act of submission, from the king. "Seven days were fulfilled after that the Lord had smitten the river." During that time there was no water to be had for any purpose, except in such small quantities as might be obtained by digging round about the river. Pharaoh, in his palace, would no doubt have enough of this ; while water was to be had for labour, he would have it; and he cared but little for the affliction of his people as long as he himself could be exempt. But God was more merciful than Pharaoh; and although the king still refused what Moses had demanded, God at length removed the plague and made the river of Egypt to flow once more in its pure and unpolluted state. The Israelites suffered from this visitation as well as the Egyptians; the plague was upon them all, and they who were bondmen in the land would naturally bear even a greater share of the burden than the rest. If "all the Egyptians dug round about the