persed by manual labour, or by hydraulic engines. The Babylonian district, like Ægypt, is intersected by a number of canals 244, the largest of which, continued with a south east course from the Euphrates to that part of the Tigris where Nineveh stands, is capable of receiving vessels of burden. Of all countries which have come within my observation, this is far the most fruitful in corn. Fruit-trees, such as the vine, the olive, and the fig, they do not even attempt to cultivate; but the soil is so particularly well adapted for corn, that it never produces less than two hundred fold; in seasons which are remarkably favourable, it will sometimes rise to three hundred: the ear of their wheat as well as barley is four digits in size. The immense height to which millet and sesamum 245 will grow, although 244 Number of canals.]—The uses of these artificial canals were various and iniportant: they served to discharge the superfluous waters from one river into the other, at the season of their respective inundations; subdividing then selves into smaller and smaller branches, they refreshed the dry lands, and supplied the deficiency of rain. They facilitated the intercourse of peace and commerce; and as the dams could be speedily broken down, they armed the despair of the Assyrians with the means of opposing a sudden deluge to the progress of an invading army.-- Gibbon. 245 Sesamum.]-Of this plant there are three species; the Orientale, the Indicum, and the Trelictum: it is the first kind which is here meant. It is an annual herbaceous plant; its flowers are of a dirty white, and not unlike the foxglove; it is cultivated in the Levant as a pulse, and indeed in all the eastern countries; it has of late years been intro8 3 duced 1 though I have witnessed it myself, I know not how to mention. I am well aware that they who have not visited this country will deem whatever I may say on the subject a violation of probability. They have no oil but what they extract from the The palm 246 is a very common plant in this country, and generally fruitful: this they cultivate like fig-trees, bread, wine, and honey. is this: they fasten the Greeks term the male tree to the one which pro sesamum. and it produces them The process 247 observed fruit of that which the duces duced into Carolina, and with success; an oil is expressed from its seed: it is the seed which is eaten; they are first parched over the fire, and then stewed with other ingredients in water.-T. 246 The palm.]-The learned Kæmpfer, as a botanist, an antiquary, and a traveller, has exhausted the whole subject of palm-trees. The diligent natives, adds Mr. Gibbon, celebrated either in verse or prose the three hundred and sixty uses to which the trunk, the branches, the leaves, the juice, and the fruit were skilfully applied. 247 The process.]-Upon this subject the learned and industrious Larcher has exhausted no less than ten pages. The ancients whom he cites are Aristotle, Theophrastus, and Pliny; the moderns are Pontedera, and Tournefort, which last he quotes at considerable length. The Amonitates Exoticæ of Kæmpfer, to which I have before alluded, will fully satisfy whoever wishes to be more minutely informed on one of the most curious and interesting subjects which the science of natural history involves.-T. The male bears a large branch something like millet, which is full of a white flower (flour) and unless the young fruit of the female is impregnated with it, the fruit is good for nought. And to secure it, they tie a piece of the fruit of the male to every bearing branch of the female.-Pococke. duces the date, by this means the worm which is contained in the former entering the fruit, ripens and prevents it from dropping immaturely. The male palms bear insects in their fruit, in the same manner as the wild fig-trees. * These which CXCIV. Of all that I saw in this country, next to Babylon itself, what to me appeared the greatest curiosity, were the boats. are used by those who come to the circular form, and made of skins. structed in Armenia, in the parts above Assyria, where the sides of the vessels being formed of willow 248, are covered externally with skins, and city, are of a They are con having *This is one of the many passages which prove that Herodotus personally visited the places which he more circumstantially describes. This appears almost throughout the 2d book, and particularly in chapters 3,29, 44, 104, 106, 167. In Melpomene also, c. 86. 243 Formed of willow, &c.]- The bending willew into barks they twine, Then line the work with skins of slaughter'd kine; Rowe's Lucan. The navigation of the Euphrates never ascended above Babylon.-Gibbon. I have been informed, that a kind of canoe made in a similar form, and precisely of the same materials, is now in use in Monmouthshire, and other parts of Wales, and called a corricle s 4 having no distinction of head or stern, are modelled into the shape of a shield. Lining the bottoms of these boats with reeds, they take on board their merchandize, and thus commit themselves to the stream. The principal article of their commerce is palm wine, which they carry in casks. The boats have two oars, one man to each; one pulls to him, the other pushes from him. These boats are of very different dimensions; some of them are so large as to bear freights to the value of five thousand talents: the smaller of them has one ass on board; the larger, several. On their arrival at Babylon, they dispose of all their cargo, selling the ribs of their boats, the matting, and every thing but the skins which cover them; these they lay upon their asses, a corricle. They are also common in Cheshire, and may be seen on the Dee. Much like this also is the boat described by Mr. Turner, in his Account of Tibet: I saw a boat placed on its end in one of the villages, for occasional use, which might easily be carried on the back of the passenger. It was composed chiefly of leather, and consisted of a rude skeleton of wood, with thwarts and ribs, over which a bull's hide was stretched. It appeared to be exactly similar to that kind of boat which under the name of corricle still continues in use on the Wye and perhaps on some other of our English rivers, and it brought forcibly to my recollection the important use to which Cæsar once applied this rude and simple invention of our British Ancestors.-T. See the Scholiast to Apollonius Rhodius, book ii. verse 168, where we are told, that anciently all the inhabitants of the sea coasts made their rafts and boats of passage of the skins of beasts. asses, and with them return to Armenia. The rapidity of the stream is too great to render their return by water practicable. This is perhaps the reason which induces them to make their boats of skin, rather than of wood. On their return with their asses to Armenia, they make other vessels in the manner we have before described. CXCV. Their clothing is of this kind: they have two vests, one of linen which falls to the feet, another over this which is made of wool; a white sash connects the whole. The fashion of their shoes 249 is peculiar to themselves, though somewhat resembling those worn by the Thebans. They wear their hair 250 long, and covered with a turban, 249 Fashion of their shoes.]—The Theban shoes were made of wood, and came up part of the leg. The dresses for the feet and legs amongst the Greeks and Romans were nearly the same; they had both shoes and sandals, the former covered the whole foot, the last consisted of one or of more soals, and were fastened with thongs above the foot. In the simplicity of primitive manners, the feet were only protected by raw hides. It is said in Dion Cassius, that Julius Cæsar gave offence at Rome, by wearing high-heeled shoes of a red colour. The shoes of the Roman senators were distinguished by a crescent. A particular form of shoe or sandal was appropriated to the army; and a description of thirty different. kinds, as used by the Romans and such nations as they deemed barbarous, may be found in Montfaucon.-T. 250 Their hair.]-It cannot be a matter of much importance, to know whether the Babylonians wore their hair short, or suffered it to grow. But it is a little singular, that in this instance Strabo formally contradicts Herodotus, although in others he barely copies him.-Larcher. |