finally driven out of Syria into Egypt. Acre is now rapidly increasing in prosperity. Its chief articles of commerce are corn and cotton, but it is said that the trade has been or is monopolized by the Pacha, to the exclusion of the European merchants. The British government has a consul; the French have a number of mercantile houses, also superintended by a consul; and Russia has a resident. Within the walls of Acre were seen, till recently, the ruins of the cathedral church dedicated to St Andrew, of the church of St John, the tutelary saint of the city, of the convent of the Knights Hospitallers, and of the palace of the Grand Master. There are still some remains of the Pacha's palace, the mosque, the public bath, the fountains, fragments of antique marble, and shafts and capitals of granite and marble pillars, but many of these ruins are now so interwoven with other buildings, that they are scarcely perceptible. The climate of Acre, according to Dr Clarke, is much better than that of Cyprus, and he says that the same observation applies generally to all the coast of Syria and Palestine. Volney alleges that the air of Acre is unwholesome during summer, but Dr Clarke, without contradicting that writer, does not alter his own opinion. The external view of Acre, either from the bay, or from the hills behind, resembles every other town in the Levant, and is the only prospect of it worth beholding. The interior of the city is like that of Constantinople and other Turkish cities, consisting of narrow dirty lanes, wretched shops, and numbers of very poor inhabitants. A great quantity of cotton is exported from Acre, and the adjacent country abounds in cattle, corn, olives, and linseed. As is the case in almost every town of Syria, there is a soap manufactory. The private houses are built of stone, but exhibit a strange contrast in size and plan; the roofs of the houses are flat, and are provided with terraces for enjoying the summer evening breezes. The present religious buildings are a Roman Catholic convent, a Greek church, a Maronite place of worship, seven mosques, and two Jewish synagogues. The stationary inhabitants of Acre are formed one-half of Mahometans, in equal portions of Arabs and Turks, one-fourth of Christians, and one-fourth of Jews. The chief priest of the Jews, who was alive in 1816, though then far advanced in years, pretended to be descended in the right line from Aaron, and was much respected. He was a man of great wealth, and acted as a kind of prime minister to the Pacha. It ACELDAMA, the Field of Blood, is the name of a field in the vicinity of Jerusalem, which has been used as a cemetery since our Saviour's time. was purchased by the chief priests with the thirty pieces of silver which were given to Judas Iscariot as a reward for betraying our Saviour. Judas, stung with remorse and the upbraidings of a guilty conscience, brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the Temple, and afterwards hanged himself. The priests, thinking it not lawful to use money obtained in that manner for the service of a place so holy as the Temple, bought with it a potter's field, to be used as a place of interment for strangers, Matt. xxvii. 7; Acts i. 19. It is situated on the side of Mount Sion, and now belongs to the Armenian Christians. "It is still," says Dr Clarke, as it ever was, a place of burial, and its appearance maintains the truth of the tradition, which points it out as the Aceldama of Scripture." The place is very small, and is covered with an arched roof in the form of a crypt. It has been always famous on account of the sarcophagous virtue of the earth about it hastening the decay of dead bodies, which, according to some travellers, are said to consume in a few days. Ship loads of the earth were carried to the Campo Sancto in Pisa. ACHAIA, grief or trouble, the name of a province of Greece, of which the city of Corinth was the capital. In the times of the Romans, Achaia was used in the general sense to denote Greece Proper, now called Livadia; but Achaia Proper is a very small province in the south of Greece, and north of the Peloponnesus. It is bounded on the north by the Gulf of Corinth, on the south by Arcadia, on the east by Lycinia, and on the west by the Ionian Sea. It received the name of Achaia from Achæus, the son of Xuthus, king of Thessaly, who, when banished from that kingdom, settled at Athens. Achæus afterwards recovered possession of Thessaly, but having committed manslaughter, was obliged to take refuge in Laconia, a province of the Morea, where he died. His posterity remained in that province under the appellation of Achaians, until they were conquered by the Dores and Heraclidæ. They then laid claim to Achaia, and having expelled the Ionians, took possession of the country. modern geography, Achaia is now called Romana Alta. See CORINTH and Greece. of the strong town of Ai, distant three or four leagues from Jericho, with the loss of thirty-six men. The discovery was, according to the very ancient custom, made by lot, and the lot fell first on the tribe of Judah, to which Achan belonged, then on the family of Zarhi, then on the house of Zabdi, and lastly on Achan himself. Achan confessed his crime, and the articles were found hid in the earth under his tent. He, his sons, and his daughters, the concealed articles, his cattle and asses, his very tent, and every thing which belonged to him, were immediately taken to the valley of Achor and stoned to death, and their bodies and the goods were afterwards consumed by fire. The Israelites raised a heap or cairn of stones over the ashes of those In unfortunate persons, which the author of the Book of Joshua says remained in his time. This event took place 1451 years before Christ. Josh. vii. 1, 2, 3, &c. See AI. ACHMETHA, a name of Ecbatana, the capital city of the ancient Medes. In Ezra vi. 2, we read that there was "found at Achmetha, in the palace that is in the province of the Medes, a roll," &c. The word Achmetha may denote, as is observed on the margin of our Bibles, a coffer, or strong-box, or press, in which the records of the Medo-Persian court were deposited, but it is generally understood to denote Ecbatana, the capital of ancient Media. See Ec BATANA. ACHOR, trouble, was the name of a valley not very far from Jericho, near the river Jordan, in the allotment of the tribe of Benjamin, where Achan was stoned by the command of Joshua for concealing and appropriating to himself some valuable articles, a Babylonish garment, a wedge of gold, and two hundred shekels of silver, among the spoils of Jericho, contrary to the commands of God, who had ordered Joshua to destroy every thing contained in that city. Achan's covetousness was for some time concealed, but Joshua discovered it on the defeat of three thousand of his men whom he sent to possess themselves ACHSHAPH, poison, tricks, or one that breaks, or the lip or brim of any thing, the name of a city which belonged to the tribe of Asher, near the foot of Mount Tabor, and the king of which was conquered by Joshua, Josh. xi. 1, xii. 20, xix. 25. According to some geographers, it was also known by the name of Achzib, but this appears to be a mistake. In St Jerome's time, about 400 years after Christ, it was a small village called Chasalus, which is now extinct. ACHZIB, liar, lying, or that runs, or that delays, the name of two towns, the one belonging to the tribe of Asher, and situated on the shore of the Mediterranean, equally distant from Tyre and Acre. It is denominated ZIB by the Arabs, Josh. xix. 29. The other town of this name belonged to the tribe of Judah, and was strongly fortified, Josh. xv. 44. The prophet Micah says (i. 14), that "the houses" forts or families "of Achzib were a lie to the kings of Israel;" namely, that the kings of Israel were deceived or disappointed by the inhabitants of Achzib during the Assyrian invasion. ACRA, a fortress, the name of a fortress to the north of and commanding the Temple of Jerusalem, built by Antiochus Epiphanes. It was demolished by Simon Maccabæus, who also levelled the eminence on which it was built. It is still a high elevation in the modern Jerusalem, and on it now stand the Latin convent of the Terra Sancta, the castle of the Pisans, or Citadel of David, as it is popularly called, the Gate of Jaffa, &c. overlooking the whole of the town. See JERUSALEM. ACRABATENE, derived from Akrabbim, scorpions, according to Eusebius, was the name of a district of Judea extending eastward between Shechem and Jericho, about twelve miles in length. It was also the name of another district towards the end of the Dead Sea. ADADAH, the witness or testimony of the assembly, a city in the south of the possessions of the tribe of Judah, Josh. xv. 22. ADAD-RIMMON, or HADAD-RIMMON, the shout of the pomegranate, the height of the pomegranate, or the invocation of the god Rimmon, a city in the valley of Jezreel, in the half-tribe of Manasseh, where a disastrous battle was fought between Josiah, king of Judah, and Pharaoh-Necho, king of Egypt, in which the former was slain, 2 Kings xxiii. 29. It was situated seventeen miles from Cæsarea in Palestine, and ten from Jezreel. ADAM, ADOM, or ADAMI, earth, earthy, red, or bloody, the name of a town on the banks of the Jordan, to the south of the Sea of Galilee, in the district of Perea, and opposite to Jericho. It is supposed that it received its name from the peculiar colour of the soil in its neighbourhood, which is represented to be red stiff clay. But as the name Adam or Adom also denotes beauty or symmetry, it is conjectured that the city was so termed from its handsome appearance. It is celebrated as the spot where the Israelites crossed the Jordan on dry land, the waters of which "stood as an heap" till they passed over, thus presenting a miniature specimen of the memorable passage through the Red Sea, Josh. iii. 16. This city belonged to the tribe of Naphtali. ADAMAH, or ADMA, bloody, earthy, red earth, the most easterly of the Cities of the Plain, involved in the dreadful calamity which visited Sodom and Gomorrah, and the site of which, as well as those of the other cities then destroyed, is now covered by the Dead Sea, Gen. xiv. 2; Hosea xi. 8. A town of this name must have been subsequently built by the inhabitants of that country, for, according to the version of the Septuagint, Isaiah says, that "God will destroy the Moabites, the city of Ai, and the remnant of Adamah,” Isa. xv. This town was situated not far from the site of the old one, on the eastern shore of the Dead Sea. ADAMAH was also the name of one of the "fenced cities" which belonged to the tribe of Naphtali, Josh. xix. 36. ADAR, high or eminent, or HAZARADAR, the name of a village mentioned in Numb. xxxiv. 4. Also, a city belonging to the tribe of Judah, Josh. xv. 3. ADIDA, a city of Judah mentioned in 1 Macc. xiii. 3. ADITES, or the tribe of Ad, were a very powerful tribe of the ancient Arabians, and are said to have been descended from Ad, the son of Aws or Uz, Gen. x. 22, 23, who was a grandson of Shem, and great-grandson of Noah. After the affair of the Tower of Babel, and the remarkable confusion of tongues which ensued, the Adites settled in the province of Arabia Petræa, now called Al Akkaf, or the winding sands, where they appear to have greatly increased. Like the other kindred tribes of those early times, the Adites soon abandoned the true worship of God, and set up four idols whom they worshipped, Sakia, whom they imagined to supply them with rain; Hafedha, who preserved them from all foreign and external dangers; Razeka, who provided them with food; and Salema, who restored them from sickness to health. It is said that God commissioned the prophet Hud or Heber to attempt their reformation, but remaining obstinate in their idolatry, they were almost all destroyed by a suffocating wind. The few who escaped retired with the prophet Hud to another place. Before this severe punishment, they had been visited with a dreadful drought for four years, which killed their cattle, and reduced them to great distress. They are often mentioned in the Koran, and some writers, on the authority of that work, affirm that they were of gigantic stature. See AMALEKITES and ARABIA. ADITHA, or ADATHA, a city belonging to the tribe of Judah, Josh. xv. 36. ADMAH, earthy, red earth. See ADAMAH. ADOM. See ADAM. ADDON, base, foundation, the Lord, the name of a place mentioned by Nehemiah (vii. 61). ADORAIM, ADORA, ADOR, or DORA, strength or power of the sea, a city belonging to the tribe of Judah, 2 Chron. xi. 9. ADRA, or HADRACH, the name of a town, according to Ptolemy, in ColoSyria, Zech. ix. 1. The district of Hadrach was not far from Damascus. ADRIA, or HADRIA, the name of two towns in Italy, one of which was situated in the country of the Veneti, on the river Tartarus or Adria, and is called Atrias by Ptolemy and Pliny; and the other in the country of the Piceni, now the dukedom of Atri, in Abruzzo, which was the country of the ancestors of the Roman Emperor Adrian. It has been disputed which of those two places gave the name to the Adriatic Sea, but it is generally allowed to Adria in the Veneti, which was more ancient than the other. Adria is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles (xxvii. 27) as the city to which St Paul was bound when overtaken by the storm which threatened the destruction of the vessel. The Adriatic Sea, or, as it is more commonly called, the Gulf of Venice, is an immense arm of the Mediterranean, about 200 leagues long and 50 broad, which stretches along the east of Italy on one side, and the west of Dalmatia, Sclavonia, and Turkey, on the other, from south-east to north-west between 12° 9' and 19° 48' of east long, and between 40° 15′ and 45° 49′ of north lat. The temperature of this sea or gulf is considerably higher in summer than that of the Mediterranean, but in winter it is so low that it is frequently frozen near Venice. The dominion of the Adriatic Sea was long possessed by the Venetians, to whom it still belongs, under the House of Austria. The ceremony of the Doge of Venice marrying the Adriatic is well known, and is annually practised on Ascension Day, but it has lost its attractive importance since the State of Venice ceased to be independent. The Adriatic Sea, says Heyschius, is the same with the Ionian Sea; and in order to account for the circumstance of the ship which carried St Paul being near Malta, and therefore in the Lybian or Sicilian Sea, and not in the Adriatic, which would invalidate the statement of the writer of the Acts of the Apostles, it is alleged by the ancient geographers, that not only the Ionian, but also the Sicilian Sea, was called the Adriatic. Strabo says that the Ionian Gulf is a part of that which in his time was called the Adriatic Sea. ADRAMYTTIUM, the court of death, the mansion of death, the name of a celebrated city mentioned in Acts xxvii. 2. The ship in which St Paul sailed from Cæsarea to Myra belonged to this place. It was a maritime town of Mysia Major in Asia Minor, opposite the island of Lesbos, and was sometimes also called Pedasus, situated with its harbour and docks at the foot of Mount Ida, near the Cæcus. It gave its name to an arm of the Ægean Sea, and is supposed to have derived its designation from Adramys, the brother of Croesus, by whom it was built, or from Hermon, one of the kings of Lydia, who, in the Phrygian language, was called Adramys. It is now termed La Andramiti, and is a wretched place, inhabited only by a few Greek fishermen. St Jerome and others have erroneously supposed this city to be the same as that built by Alexander the Great at the Canobic mouth of the Nile in Egypt, and which is understood to be the same as Thebes. ADULLAM, their testimony, their prey, or ornament, a very beautiful city belonging to the tribe of Judah, situated towards the Dead Sea, in the southern boundary of that tribe, Josh. xv. 35. It is mentioned as the scene of some important events. Joshua killed the king of Adullam, in his conquering progress through the land of Canaan, and took the city, Josh. xii. 15. In a cave near this city, of difficult access, David, when he withdrew from Achish, king of Gath, concealed himself from the rage of Saul, and his friends resorted to him there, 1 Sam. xxii. 1, 2. Adullam, which appears to have suffered greatly during the wars of the Hebrews, was rebuilt by King Rehoboam, who strengthened it with fortifications, 2 Chron. xi. 7. It was taken and plundered by the army of Sennacherib in the reign of Hezekiah, Micah i. 15. Judas Maccabæus encamped during a sabbath day in the plain of Adullam, 2 Macc. xii. 38. It continued to be a place of some importance 400 years after Christ. Eusebius says that in his time it was a very large town, ten miles east of Eleutheropolis, and St Jerome observes that it was not a small place in his days. It has long since been reduced to ruins. Judah, one of the sons of Jacob, cohabited with a female of Adullam, Gen. xxxviii. 1. ADUMMIM, or ADUMMON, a town and mountain in the tribe of Benjamin, which some place north and others south of Jericho; but as the road from Jerusalem to Jericho passed through this town, it must have been west of the latter city, Josh. xv. 7; xviii. 17. Dr Shaw, however, says that the mountain of Adummim belonged to Judah, and through it, he says, the road leading from Jerusalem to Jericho is cut. It is described as an extremely difficult pass the mountain of blood, or the bloody road, and was much infested by banditti. It is conjectured that it was in this road that the man mentioned by our Saviour, in the fine parable of the Good Samaritan, fell among thieves, as he was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, Luke x. 30. AEN, or AIN, a city belonging to the tribe of Judah, but afterwards to Benjamin, Josh. xv. 32; 1 Chron. iv. 32. AEN, AIN, or EN, signifies a fountain, and is frequently found conjoined with the names of several cities. AENON, ENAN, or ENON, cloud or mass of darkness, or his fountain, or his eye, mentioned by Ezekiel (xlviii. 1), was the north boundary of Canaan, either Gaana to the north of Damascus, or En-Hazor of Naphtali. A town called Aenon, or Enon, is mentioned by the Evangelists; and there was a town of that name in Samaria, near Salem, where John baptized, near the Jordan. AERMON. See HERMON. AFRICA, dust, or ashes reduced to dust, one of the four great quarters or divisions of the world, is not expressly mentioned in Scripture, but there are many allusions to it, and various of its countries and towns are most prominently connected with Sacred History. Africa is a peninsula joined to Asia by the neck of land called the Isthmus of Suez, lying between the Mediterranean Sea and the Arabian Gulf, which is about sixty miles broad. Africa ranks next after Asia and America in size and extent, but in political, religious, and moral importance, is the meanest quarter of the globe. This vast continent is bounded on the north by the Mediterranean Sea, which separates it from Europe; on the west by the Atlantic Ocean, which divides it from America; on the south by the Southern Ocean; and on the east by the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, and part of Asia. Its sides on the east and west are very irregular. From Cape Bona in the Mediterranean to the Cape of Good Hope, it comprehends about 70 degrees of latitude, or 4980 miles; and from Cape Verd, in 17° 33′ west long. to Cape Guardafui, 51° 20' east long., it is more than 4790 miles. Africa was chiefly peopled by the descendants of Ham, but it is sup |