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

who are abruptly roused from the absorption connected with deep study, or occupied about some object requiring the application of profound attention. Some remarks, however, on the nature of his occupation, interspersed with a few technical phrases in Hebrew, soon excited his curiosity; and, laying aside his pen, he readily entered into a conversation respecting his business, and the difficulties inseparable from its proper and conscientious execution.

Unlike other employments, that of a Jewish copyist absolutely and religiously excludes all improvement. He is tied down to perform every part of the work exactly as it was done twelve or thirteen centuries ago, at the period of the composition of the Talmud, to the laws of writing prescribed in which, he must rigidly conform, even in the smallest minutiæ. The skins to be converted into parchment must be those of clean animals; and it is indispensable that they be prepared by the hands of Jews only. Should it be found that any part has been prepared by a Goi (a name by which Christians and all who are not Jews are designated), it is immediately thrown aside as unfit for use. When ready they are cut even, and joined together by means of thongs made of the same material. They are then regularly divided into columns, the breadth of which must never exceed the half of their length. The ink employed in writing the law, generally consists of a composition made of pitch, charcoal, and honey, which ingredients are first made up into a kind of paste, and after having remained some time in a state of induration, are dissolved in water with an infusion of galls.

Before the scribe begins his task, and after every interruption, he is required to compose his mind, that he may write under a sensible impression of the sanctity of the words he is transcribing. Particular care is taken that the letters be all equally formed; and so supreme is the authority of antiquity, that where letters are found in the exemplar of a larger or smaller size than the rest, or such as are turned upside down, or suspended above the line, or where a final-shaped letter occurs in the middle of a word, these blunders are to be copied with as great fidelity as any part of the text. Is it not passing strange, that even Christian editors of the Hebrew Bible, should have servilely followed these Jewish puerilities? It is well known what importance the genius of Rabbinical superstition has attached to such anomalies; and it is a fact, that many of them are interpreted in a manner highly reproachful to the religion of Christ.

"," from the

For instance, in Psalm lxxx. 14, the word wood," is written and printed, with the letter ain suspended, because it is the initial of the word 7, "tree," and is explained by the Jews, of the cross; while the wild boar referred to in the context, they blasphemously interpret of our blessed Saviour. Yet this error of transcription is printed in the editions of Opitius, Michaelis, Van der Hooght, Frey, Leusden, and Jahn, although corrected in Menasseh Ben Israel's edition of 1635!

Of

Faults that creep in during transcription may be rectified, provided it be done within the space of thirty days; but if more time has elapsed, the copy is declared to be posel, or forbiddena word (b) used in Scripture to denote a graven image, which the Israelites were taught to hold in utter detestation. Should Aleph-Lamed (b) or Jod-Hê () be wrongly written, it is unlawful to correct or erase them, because they form the sacred names; nor is it permitted to correct any of the Divine names, except when they are applied in an inferior sense. this an instance occurs, Gen. iii. 5, where the name, Elohim, is used twice. The Rabbins, regarding it as employed the second time to denote false objects of worship, permit its erasure; but prohibit it at the beginning of the verse, as being undeniably used of the true God. When transcribing the incommunicable name 77, Jehovah, the scribe must continue writing it until it be finished, even although a king should enter the room; but if he be writing two or three of these names combined, such as wax bs, Jehovah God of Hosts, he is at liberty, after having finished the first, to rise and salute his visitant. Nor is the copyist allowed to begin the incommunicable name immediately after he has dipt his pen in the ink; when he is approaching it, he is required to take a fresh supply when proceeding to write the first letter of the preceding word.

Shackled by canons of such exquisite minuteness, it cannot be matter of surprise that the Dubno Scribe should exhibit an emaciated appearance, and affix a high price to the productions of his pen. For a copy of the law, fairly written in small characters, he asked ten louis-d'ors, and assured me that he had been sometimes paid at the rate of fifty. To the intrinsic value and spiritual beauty of the law of the Lord he appeared totally insensible !

Turning round the corner of a square, my attention was arrested by an immense number of books that were lying open Vol. IV. No. 16.

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on the ground. Conceiving that they were exposed for sale, and finding, on reaching them, that they were Hebrew, I eagerly commenced an examination of the more bulky and respectable looking volumes; but I was soon undeceived by a Jew, who seemed to be watching them, by whom I was informed, that they belonged to the Synogogue, and were not to be sold. Besides several copies of the Talmud, there appeared to be a complete collection of all kinds of works in Rabbinical literature.

II. Jewish Wedding. Illustration of Matt. XXV. From the same, p. 216.

Before retiring to rest [at Kamenetz in Podolia], we were stunned by the noise of a procession, led on by a band of musicians playing on tambourines and cymbals, which passed our windows. On inquiry, we learned that it consisted of a Jewish bridegroom, accompanied by his young friends, proceeding to the house of the bride's father, in order to convey her home to her future residence. In a short time, they returned with such a profusion of lights, as quite illuminated the street. The bride, deeply veiled, was led along in triumph, accompanied by her virgins, each with a candle in her hand, who, with the young men, sang and danced before her and the bridegroom. The scene presented us with an occular illustration of the important parable recorded in the twenty-fifth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew; and we were particularly reminded of the appropriate nature of the injunction which our Saviour gives us to watch and be ready, for the re-procession must have commenced immediately on the arrival of the bridegroom.

III. Further Notice of the Karaites. See p. 665 above.

We subjoin here, as an additional notice of the Karaites of Taurida, the following graphic description of their fortress, Djufut-Kalè, from the pen of the celebrated Russian traveller, Muriaviev-Apostol.*

"Venice is a city in the water, Djufut-Kalè a city in the air. The dwellings of the Karaites hang like eagles' nests around the summit of a steep inaccessible rock; within, the city is cleanly and neat; its pavement is the solid rock. The Karaim, or more