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drank it with particular fatisfaction; and enquired upon what food the Persian monarch subsisted, and what was the longest period of a Perfian's life. The king, they told him, lived chiefly upon bread; and they then described to him the properties of corn: they added, that the longest period of life in Perfia was about eighty years. "I am not at all furprized," faid the Æthiopian prince, " that, subsisting on dung, the term of life is fo fhort among them; "and unless," he continued, pointing to the wine, "they mixed it with this liquor, they would not "live fo long:" for in this he allowed that they excelled the Æthiopians.

23 24

30

XXIII. The Ichthyophagi in their turn queftioned the prince concerning the duration of life in Pet Ethiopia, and the kind of food there in ufe:-They were told, that the majority of the people lived to the age of one hundred and twenty years, but that fome exceeded even that period; that their meat was baked flesh, their drink milk. When the fpies expressed astonishment at the length of life in Æthiopia, they were conducted to a certain fountain, in which having bathed, they became fhining as if anointed with oil, and diffused from their bodies the perfume of violets. But they afferted that the water of this fountain was of fo infubftantial a nature, that neither wood, nor any thing ftill lighter than wood, would float upon its furface, but every thing inftantly funk to the bottom. If their reprefentation of this water was true, the conftant use of it may probably explain the extreme length of life which

which the Ethiopians attain. From the fountain they were conducted to the public prifon, where all that were confined were fecured by chains of gold; for among these Æthiopians brafs is the rarest of all the metals. After vifiting the prison they faw alfo what is called the table of the fun.

XXIV. Finally they were fewn their coffins 28, which are faid to be constructed of crystal, and in this manner :-After all the moisture is exhausted from

23 Coffins.]-Coffins, though anciently used in the East, and confidered as marks of distinction, are not now there applied to the dead either by Turks or Chriftians.

xiii. 21.

"With us," fays Mr. Harmer, in his Obfervations on Paffages. of Scripture," the pooreft people have their coffins: if the relations cannot afford them, the parish is at the expence, In the East, on the contrary, they are not now at all made use of. Turks and Chriftians, Thevenot affures us, agree in this. The ancient Jews probably buried 'their dead in the fame manner : neither was the body of our Lord, it should feem, put into a coffin, nor that of Elisha, whofe bones were touched by the corpfe that was let down a little after into his fepulchre, 2 Kings, That they, however, were anciently made ufe of in Ægypt, all agree; and antique coffins, of stone and syeamore wood, are ftill to be feen in that country, not to mention those faid to be made of a kind of pafte-board, formed by folding and glewing cloth together a great number of times, which were curiously plaistered, and then painted with hieroglyphics. Its being an ancient Egyptian custom, and its not being used in the neighbouring countries, were doubtlefs the cause that the facred hiftoian exprefsly observes of Jofeph, that he was not only embalmed, but put into a coffin too, both being managements peculiar in a manner to the Ægyptians."-Obfervations on Paffages of Scripture, vol. ii. 154.

Mr. Harmer's obfervation in the foregoing note is not ftrictly

true.

from the body, by the Ægyptian or fome other procefs, they cover it totally with a kind of plaster, which they decorate with various colours, and make it convey as near a resemblance as may be of the perfon of the deceased. They then inclose it in a hollow pillar of crystal 29, which is dug up in great abundance,

true. The use of coffins might very probably be unknown in Syria, from whence Joseph came; but that they were used by all nations contiguous on one fide at least to Ægypt, the paffage before us proves fufficiently. I have not been able to ascertain at what period the use of coffins was introduced in this country, but it appears from the following paffage of our celebrated antiquary Mr. Strutt, that from very remote times our ancestors were interred in fome kind of coffin. "It was customary in the Chriftian burials of the Anglo Saxons to leave the head and fhoulders of the corpfe uncovered till the time of burial, that relations, &c. might take a last view of their deceased friend." We have also the following in Durant, “Corpus totum at fudore obvolutum ac locuto conditum veteres in cœnaculis, feu tricliniis exponebant."

We learn from a paffage in Strabo, that there was a temple at Alexandria, in which the body of Alexander was depofited, in a coffin of gold; it was ftolen by Seleucus Cybiofactes, who left a coffin of glafs in its place. This is the only author, except Herodotus, in whom I can remember to have feen mention made of a coffin of glass. The urns of ancient Rome, in which the afhes of the dead were depofited, werè indifferently made of gold, filver, brafs, alabafter, porphyry, and marble; these were externally ornamented according to the rank of the deceased A minute defcription of thefe, with a multitude of fpecimens, may be seen in Montfaucon.-T.

29 Pillar of crystal.]- Our glass," fays M. Larcher, "is not the production of the earth, it must be manufactured with much trouble." According to Ludolf, they find in fome parts of Æthiopia large quantities of foffil falt, which is tranfparent,

and

338

abundance, and of a kind that is easily worked. The deceased is very confpicuous through the cryftal, has no difagreeable fmell, nor any thing else that is offenfive. This coffin the nearest relations keep for a twelvemonth in their houses, offering before it different kinds of victims, and the firft-fruits of their lands; these are afterwards removed and fet up round the city.

XXV. The fpies, after executing their commiffion, returned; and Cambyfes was fo exafperated at their recital, that he determined inftantly to proceed against the Æthiopians, without ever providing for the neceffary fuftenance of his army, or reflecting that he was about to vifit the extremities of the earth. The moment that he heard the report of the Ichthyophagi, like one deprived of all the powers 21 of reafon, he commenced his march with the whole body of his infantry, leaving no forces behind but fuch Greeks as had accompanied him to Ægypt. On his arrival at Thebes, he selected from his army about fifty thousand men, whom he ordered to make an incurfion against the Ammonians, and to burn the place from whence the oracles of Jupiter were delivered he himfelf, with the remainder of his

and which indurates in the air: this is perhaps what they took for glass.

We have the teftimony of the Scholiaft on Ariftophanes, that ados, though afterwards used for glass, fignified anciently cryftal: as therefore Herodotus informs us that this fubftance was digged from the earth, why fhould we hesitate to tranflate it cryftal?-T.

troops

21

troops, marched against the Ethiopians. Before he had performed a fifth part of his intended expedition, the provifions he had with him were totally confumed. They proceeded to eat the beafts which carried the baggage, till these alfo failed. If after these incidents Cambyfes had permitted his paffions to cool, and had led his army back again, notwithftanding his indifcretion he ftill might have deferved praife. Inftead of this, his infatuation continued, and he proceeded on his march. The foldiers, as long as the earth afforded them any fuftenance, were content to feed on vegetables; but as foon as they arrived among the fands and the deferts, fome of them were prompted by famine to proceed to the most horrid extremities. They drew lots, and every tenth man was deftined to fatisfy the hunger of the rest 30. When Cambyfes received intelligence of this fact, alarmed at the idea of devouring one another, he abandoned his defigns upon

30 Satisfy the hunger of the reft.]—The whole of this narrative is transcribed by Seneca, with fome little variation, in his treatife de Ird; who at the conclufion adds, though we know not from what authority, that notwithflanding thefe dreadful fufferings of his troops, the king's table was ferved with abundance of delicacies. Servabantur interim illi generofæ aves et inftrumenta epularum camelis vehebantur.

Perhaps the most horrid example on record of suffering from famine, is the defcription given by Jofephus of the fiege of Jerufalem. Eleven thoufand prifoners were ftarved to death after' the capture of the city, during the ftorm. Whilft the Romans were engaged in pillage, on entering feveral houses they found whole families dead, and the houses crammed with starved carcafes; but what is fill more fhocking, it was a notorious fact, that a mother killed, dreffed, and eat her own child.-T.

the