nations; they have similar manners, and the same language. The linen which comes from Colchis the Greeks call Sardonian 186; the linen of Egypt, Ægyptian.

As for the linen-yarn mentioned in Scripture, it is still, according to Norden, one of the principal of their merchandises, and is sent away in prodigious quantities along with unmanufactured flax and cotton spun. To which I would add this remark of Sanutus, who lived about 400 years ago, that though Christian countries abounded in his time in flax, yet the goodness of the Ægyptian was such that it was dispersed all about, even into the West; for the same reason, without doubt, the Jews, Hittites, and Syrians anciently purchased the linen-yarn of this country, though they had flax growing in their own.

186 Sardonian.]-In the original, for Zapdovikov, Larcher recommends the reading of Σαρδιανικον, which he justifies by saying that Sardis was a far more proper and convenient market for this kind of linen than Sardinia.

This latter country in ancient times had the character of being remarkably unhealthy. "Remember," says Cicero, writing to his brother," though in perfect health, you are in Sardinia." Martial also,

Nullo fata loco possis excludere, cum mors

Venerit, in medio Tibure, Sardinia est.

This country also gave rise to many peculiar phrases: Sardi venales, Risus Sardonicus, Sardonia tinctura, &c. The first is differently explained; Cicero, applying it to Gracchus, who after the capture of Sardinia wasted much time in selling his prisoners, makes it to signify any matter tediously protracted. Others, applying it to the Asiatic Sardis, make it signify persons who are venal. The Sardonic laugh is that beneath which the severest uneasiness is concealed. Sardinia," says Solinus, " produces a herb which has this

CVI. The greater part of the pillars which Sesostris erected in the places which he conquered, are no longer to be found. Some of them I myself have seen in Palestine of Syria, with the private members of a woman, and with the inscriptions which I have before mentioned. In Ionia there are two figures of this king, formed out of a rock; one is in the road from Ephesus to Phocæa, the other betwixt Sardis and Smyrna. Both * of them represent a man, five palms in height; the right hand holds a javelin, the left a bow; the rest of the armour is partly Ægyptian and partly Æthiopian. Across his breast, from shoulder to

singular property, that whilst it destroys whoever eats it, it so contracts the features, and in particular of the mouth, into a grin, as to make the sufferer appear to die laughing." Of this herb, Solinus relates other strange properties. Sardinia was also famous for a very beautiful colour, whence Sardonia tinctura was made to signify a modest blush. See Pliny, Solinus, Hoffman, &c.

Larcher observes that Mingrelia, the antient Colchis, is still famous for such manufacture of linen. The linen of Ægypt is thus mentioned in Ezekiel, c. xxvii. v. 7.

Fine linen, with broidered work from Egypt, was that which thou spreadest forth to be thy sail.

Again, in Proverbs, c. vii. v. 16.

I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Ægypt.

* Either no travellers have taken the route from Phocæa to Ephesus, and from Sardis to Smyrna, or they have neglected to inquire whether any traces of these stupendous statues are yet visible.

"*

shoulder, there is this inscription in the sacred characters of Egypt, "I conquered this country by the force of my arms. Who the person here represented is, or of what country, is not specified; both are told elsewhere. Some have been induced, on examination, to pronounce this to be the figure of Memnon, but they must certainly be mistaken.

CVII. The same priests informed me that Sesostris returned to Egypt with an immense number of captives, of the different nations which he had conquered. On his arrival at the Pelusian Daphne, his brother to whom he had confided the government in his absence, invited him and his family to take up their abode with him ; which when they had done, he surrounded their apartments with combustibles, and set fire to the building' As soon as Sesostris discovered the villany, he deliberated with his wife, who hap

187

* The following line from Claudian appears, says Larcher, to be a translation of this passage of Herodotus:

Ast ego quæ terras huneris pontumque subegi.

187 Set fire to the building.]-Diodorus Siculus relates the matter differently. The brother of Sesostris made him and his attendants drunk, and in the night set fire to his apartment. The guards being intoxicated, were unable to assist their master; but Sesostris, imploring the interposition of the gods, fortunately escaped. He expressed his gratitude to the deities in general, and to Vulcan in particular, to whose kindness principally he thought himself indebted.—7'.

pened to be with him, what measures to pursue: she advised him to place two of their six children across the parts that were burning, that they might serve as a bridge for the preservation of themselves and of the rest. This Sesostris executed: two of the children consequently perished, the remainder were saved with their father.

CVIII. Sesostris did not omit to avenge himself on his brother: on his return to Ægypt, he employed the captives of the different nations he had vanquished, to collect those immense stones which were employed in the temple of Vulcan. They were also compelled to make those vast and numerous canals by which Egypt is in

188

188 Numerous canals.]-Probably one reason why Sesostris opened canals, was to prevent these hurtful inundations, as well as convey water to those places where they might think proper to have villages built, and to water the lands more conveniently, at such times as the waters might retire early; for they might find by experience, after the canals. were opened, that, instead of apprehending inundations, they had greater reason, as at present, to fear a want of water. — Pococke.

There are still eighty canals in Ægypt like rivers, several of which are twenty, thirty, and forty leagues in length.Savary.

The same author adds, that the chain-buckets used in Ægypt to disperse the water over the high lands, gave to Archimedes, during his voyage in Egypt, the idea of his ingenious screw, which is still in use. A country

tersected. In consequence of their involuntary labours, Egypt, which was before .conveniently adapted to those who travelled on horseback or in carriages, became unfit for both. The canals

A country where nothing is so seldom met with as a spring, and where rain is an extraordinary phenomenon, could only have been fertilized by the Nile. Accordingly from times of the most remote antiquity, fourscore considerable canals were digged at the entrance of the kingdom, besides a great number of small ones, which distributed these waters all over Ægypt.-Raynal.

The following note, abridged from Larcher, is highly honourable to him:

Sesostris, says Volney, lived before Moses, and, according to Herodotus, cut so many canals in Egypt, that it became impossible to travel in chariots. The Bible, therefore, must relate a fable, for it says that Pharaoh pursued the Israelites in six hundred chariots.

Unluckily for Volney, replies Larcher, the first assertion is not true. The passage of the Red Sea took place one hundred and seventy-five years before the time of Sesostris. The miracle took place in the year 3183, of the Julian period, 1531 years before our æra. Sesostris mounted the throne in the year 3358, of the Julian year, which is 1356 years before our æra.

Volney should have remembered that he was a candidate for a prize at the Academy of Belles Lettres on a subject relating to chronology. His memoir was indignantly rejected, as indeed it deserved. I advise him to study chronology, or rather never again to write on any subject connected with it.

I have much satisfaction in introducing the above castigation of an author, whose bold assertions and fallacious reasonings have done so much mischief to the public, particularly from a pen so well qualified to detect and expose his errors and falsehoods.