forty years; but after twenty-five or thirty his activity begins to fail, and he is no longer capable of enduring much fatigue. If a camel that has passed his sixteenth year become lean, the Arabs say that he can never be again rendered fat; and in that case they generally sell him at a low price to the peasants, who feed their cattle better than the inhabitants of the desert.

The common hedjein saddle in Egypt (very slightly differing from a horse-saddle) is called ghabeit. The hedjein saddle of the Nubians, imported likewise into Egypt, and very neatly worked in leather, is called gissa. The pack-saddle of the Egyptian peasant, different from that of the Arabians and Syrians, is called shaghour. (From this word the Arabians derive an opprobrious appellation, which they bestow upon the Egyptian peasants, whom they style shaghaore.) The pack-saddles of the Libyan, Nubian, and Upper Egyptian Bedouins are called Hawye, and are the same as those of the Arabians.

The deloul saddle is, throughout every part of Arabia, called shedád. The asses in Hedjaz are saddled with the shedad, differing only in proportionable size from that used with the de

loul.

In Hedjaz the name of shebrýe is given to a kind of palanquin, having a seat made of twisted straw, about five feet in length, which is placed across the saddle of the camel, with ropes fastened to it. On its four sides are slender poles, joined above by cross bars, over which either mats or carpets are placed, to shade the traveller from the sun. This among the natives of Hedjaz is the favourite vehicle for travelling, because it admits of their stretching themselves at full length, and sleeping at pleasure.

Similar machines of the palanquin kind, but on a shorter and narrower scale, are placed lengthwise on both sides of the camel's saddle, and then called shekdef. One person sits in each of them, but they do not allow of his stretching out at full length. Both of these shekdefs are covered, likewise, with carpets thrown across; and this vehicle is principally used for the conveyance of women.

Different from that is the taht roán (or rather takht raván, as the Persians, from whom the term is borrowed, call it); a litter carried by two camels, one before, and the other behind. In this kind of vehicle the great pilgrims travel: but it is more frequently used by the Turks than by the Arabians.

It is the fashion in Egypt to shear the hedjein as closely as a

sheep is shorn; and this is done merely from a notion that it improves the beast's appearance. The French, during their occupation of Egypt, had established a corps of about five hundred camel-riders, whom they selected from the number of their most brave and excellent soldiers, and by means of whom they succeeded in checking the Bedouins. Many horsemen among the troops of the Pasha of Egypt have been ordered by him to keep hedjeins; and his son, Ibrahim Pasha, has about two hundred of his men mounted in that manner.

The hedjeins of Egypt are guided by a string attached to a nose-ring. Those of Arabia are very seldom perforated in the nose; and are more obedient to the short stick of the rider than to the bridle.

The Arab women, on all occasions, make a great display in the fitting-out of their camel-saddle. A woman of Nedjd would think herself degraded, were she to ride upon any other than a black camel; but, on the contrary, a lady of the Aenezes much prefers a grey or white camel.

The practice of mounting upon camels small swivel-guns, which turn upon the pommel of the saddle, is not known in Egypt. I have seen them in Syria; and they appear to be common in Mesopotamia and Baghdad. Although of little real service, yet against Arabs these small swivel-guns are a very excellent and appropriate weapon, more adapted to inspire them with terror than the heaviest pieces of artillery.

The price of a camel is found to vary in almost every place: thus, in Egypt, according to the abundance and cheapness of provisions, the price of the same camel may fluctuate from twelve to forty dollars. A good dromedary, or hedjein, from Nubia, sometimes will cost at Cairo eighty dollars. In Hedjaz very high prices are paid for camels; fifty and sixty dollars are sometimes given for a deloul of the most common kind. There is a considerable demand in Nedjd for delouls of the first quality. Saoud has been known to pay as much as three hundred dollars for an Omán camel.

The Arabs distinguish in their camels various defects and vices, that very much affect their value. The principal defect is called el asaab; this is the camel's fetlock; and they regard it as incurable, and a proof of great weakness. The next is el fekeh, a strong tremor in the hind legs of the camel when it couches down, or rises up: this, likewise, is considered as a proof of weakness. El serrar, ulcerations below the chest; el

hellel, el fahoura, and many others. Most of the caravan camels are broken-winded (or sedreh khorbán) from excessive fatigue, and the carrying of too heavy loads. When this circumstance occurs, the Arabs cauterise the camel's chest. They resort also to the same process, cautery, in cases of wounds on the camel's hump, and of injuries frequently occasioned by bad pack-saddles, and burdens of too great weight. Towards the close of a long journey scarcely any evening passes without the cauterising operation, yet the next morning the load is placed again upon the part so recently burnt: but no degree of pain induces the generous camel to refuse the load, or throw it on the ground. It cannot, however, be forced to rise, if from hunger or excessive fatigue its strength has failed.

XII. LOCUSTS.

It has been remarked in my different journals, that these destructive creatures are found in Egypt, all along the river Nile as far as Sennar, in the Nubian, and in all parts of the Arabian deserts. Those that I have seen in Upper Egypt came all from the north; those that I saw in Nubia were all said to have come from Upper Egypt. It seems, therefore, that such parts of Africa are not the native places of the locusts. In the year 1813, they devoured the whole harvest from Berber to Shendy in the Black countries; and in the spring of that same year I had seen whole flights of them in Upper Egypt, where they are particularly injurious to the palm-trees. These they strip of every leaf and green particle, the trees remaining like skeletons with bare branches.

In Arabia the locusts are known to come invariably from the East, and the Arabs accordingly say that they are produced by the waters of the Persian Gulf. The province of Nedjd is particularly exposed to their ravages; they overwhelm it sometimes to such a degree, that having destroyed the harvest they penetrate by thousands into the private dwellings, and devour whatever they can find, even the leather of the water vessels. It has been observed, that those locusts which come from the East are not considered so formidable, because they only fix upon trees, and do not destroy the seed; but they soon give birth to a new brood, and it is the young locusts, before they are sufficiently grown to fly away, that consume the crops. According to general report, the locusts breed as often as three times in the year.

The Bedouins who occupy the peninsula of Sinai are frequently driven to despair by the multitudes of locusts, which constitute a land plague, and a most serious grievance. These animals arrive by way of Akaba (therefore from the East), towards the end of May, when the Pleiades are setting, according to observations made by the Arabs, who believe that the locusts entertain a considerable dread of that constellation. They remain there generally during a space of forty or fifty days, and then disappear for the rest of the year.

Some few are seen in the course of every year, but great flights every fourth or fifth year; such is the general course of their unwelcome visits. Since the year 1811, however, they have invaded the peninsula every successive season for five years, in considerable numbers.

All the Bedouins of Arabia, and the inhabitants of towns in Nedjd and Hedjaz, are accustomed to eat the locusts. I have seen at Medinah and Tayf locust-shops, where these animals were sold by measure. In Egypt and Nubia they are only eaten by the poorest beggars. The Arabs, in preparing locusts as an article of food, throw them alive into boiling water, with which a good deal of salt has been mixed; after a few minutes they are taken out, and dried in the sun; the head, feet, and wings are then torn off, the bodies are cleansed from the salt and perfectly dried; after which process whole sacks are filled with them by the Bedouins. They are sometimes eaten broiled in butter; and they often contribute materials for a breakfast, when spread over unleavened bread mixed with butter.

It may here seem worthy of remark, that among all the Bedouins with whom I have been acquainted in Arabia, those of Sinai alone do not use the locusts as an article of food.

ART. VI. LITERARY NOTICES, ETC.

1. Modern Hebrew Manuscripts. From Henderson's Travels in Russia, p. 206 sq.

On my return through Dubno,* I stopped a few hours in order to visit some of the Jews, by whom it is chiefly inhabited.

* Dubno is not far from Ostrog, in the government of Volhynia.— ED.

Their number is estimated at upwards of 10,000, and many of them appear to be in affluent circumstances. They have a great number of synagogues; the principal one of which I found greatly resembling our oldest Seceding Meeting-houses in Scotland, having high arched windows, brass chandeliers, and the pulpit, wainscotting, doors, etc. all of unpainted wood. In the ark of this synagogue were preserved several beautiful copies of the law, some written with large, and others with smaller characters. I here made inquiry, as I did in other places, relative to ancient MSS. of the Hebrew Scriptures, but found none of any great age. The fact is, when no longer fit for public use in the synagogue, instead of being sold, or kept as objects of curiosity, they are carefully inclosed in a box, and deposited in the burying-ground, it being deemed a most heinous offence to erase or obliterate a single letter of the law, or expose it to the profane gaze of the Gentiles. Some may smile at this custom of interring the Scriptures, and regard it as a superstitious veneration for the mere letter of the word; but it must certainly be viewed as praiseworthy, when contrasted with the manner in which many professing Christians treat mutilated and worn-out copies of the Bible, by using them in a variety of ways as wastepaper, in total absence of reverence for that sacred name which stands forth so prominently in every page. How laudable the practice adopted by the Schleswig-Holstein Bible Society! In order to prevent defective copies from falling into the hands of the grocers, the Committee buy up all the old Bibles to be found, and, after endeavouring to complete them from each other, they collect what is no longer fit for use, and, with becoming solemnity, consume it in a fire kindled for the purpose.

Having expressed a wish to obtain some Hebrew manuscripts, my Jewish guide conducted me down a narrow lane to the house of a Sopher, or scribe, whose employment consists in multiplying written copies of the law, according to the established rules of Hebrew calligraphy. His small apartment presented quite a novel scene to my view. On the table before him lay developed an accurate exemplar from which he was taking his copy; rolls of parchment were lying about in every direction the walls were hung with compasses, inkbottles, and other implements; and in one corner of the room, a number of skins were in a process of preparation for the use to which they were to be appropriated. As I entered, he looked up with all that absence and discomposure which generally characterises those