ences made for sheltering the shepherds from bad weather, or to defend them from the incursions of enemies; for they might rather be designed to keep the nations that pastured there in awe to prevent their disputing with his servants about wells, and also to induce them quietly to pay that tribute to which the seventh and eighth verses seem to refer.

OBSERVATION LXI.

Mountains also resorted to, as Places of Refuge.

PEOPLE too retired to the mountains anciently when defeated in war: they do so still.

Dr. Shaw indeed seems to suppose, that there was no greater safety in the hills than in the plains of this country: that there were few or no places of difficult access; and that both of them lay equally exposed to the insults and outrages of an enemy, p. 340. But in this point this ingenious writer seems to be mistaken: since, as we find that those that remained of the armies of the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled to the mountains, in the days of Abraham, Gen. xiv. 10; so d'Arvieux tells us, that the rebel peasants of the Holy Land, who were defeated while he was in that country by the Arabs, in the plain of Gonin, fled towards the mountains, whither the Arabs could not pursue them at that time."

d See Gen. xxi. 25, and ch: xxvi. 20, 21.

So in like manner, the Archbishop of Tyre tells us, that Baldwin IV. of the Croisade kings of Jerusalem, ravaging a place called the valley of Bacar, a country remarkably fruitful, the inhabitants fled to the mountains, whither our troops could not easily follow them."

This flying to hills and mountains for safety, is frequently alluded to in Scripture.

OBSERVATION LXII.

Nature of the Encampments used in the East.

IN the Croisade wars, their encampments seem often to have been much less strong than in modern times, and we may believe that of Saul, when he pursued after David, was still less guarded.

One can hardly imagine then, that the Hebrew word mágal, signifies a ditch and bank thrown up, 1 Sam. xxvi. 5, as one would suppose our translators apprehended, from their using the word trench; for it appears from the story, that they took no precautions against David. Nor does it seem to mean a ring of carriages, as it is supposed in the margin, and as Buxtorf interprets the word, for most probably the passing of carriages was impracticable in that mountainous country. It seems simply then to mean the round these troops formed, in

Ad quos non erat facilè iter nostris pervium. Gesta Dei, p. 1003.

5 Vide Buxtorfii Epit. Rad. Heb.

the midst of which, as in the place of honour, Saul slept.

The view d'Arvieux gives us of a modern Arab camp, agrees perfectly well with this account of Saul, only supposing, that for the sake of expedition they carried no tents with them; for he tells us, an Arab camp is always round when the disposition of the ground will permit, the prince being in the middle, and the Arabs about him, but so as to leave a respectful distance between them.h Add to this, that their lances are fixed near them in the ground all the day long, ready for action.*

When David is represented as sometimes secreting himself in the night, when he was with his armies, instead of lodging with the people, 2 Sam. xvii. 8, 9, it is to be supposed to refer to his not lodging in the middle of the camp, which was the proper place for a king, the better to avoid any surprise from enemies.

OBSERVATION LXIII.

Curious Remarks on Habbakkuk i. 8.

THE Bishop of Waterford has observed, in his notes on Hab. i. 8, that an ingenious author, whom he cites,* supposes that the clause, "their horsemen shall spread themselves," is a h Voy, dans la Pal. p. 173, 174.

Mr. Green.

i P. 169.

faulty addition to the words of the Prophet, as the Syriac translation omits the word spread themselves; and the Septuagint, he says, knew not what to make of it. But nothing is more easy to be conceived, if we consider the Chaldean army as rather engaged in pillaging and destroying the country, after the manner of the modern Tartars, than deciding their dispute with Judea, by set and regular battles.

Habakkuk says, Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves: and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle that hast

eth to eat.

With this account, particularly the spreading themselves, I would compare the Baron de Tott's description of the manner in which an army of modern Tartars, in which he was present, conducted themselves; which may be seen in the following extracts:

"These particulars informed the cham' and the generals what their real position was: and it was decided, that a third of the army, composed of volunteers, commanded by a sultan and several mirzas, should pass the river, at midnight, divide into several columns, subdivide successively, and, thus, overspread New Servia, burn the villages, corn and fodder, and carry off the inhabitants and cattle, &c."

The rest of the army, in order to follow

The prince to whom the Tartars in Crimea are subject. "Memoirs of de Tott, part 2, p. 171, 179.

the plan concerted, marched until it came to the beaten track, in the snow, made by the detachment. This we followed until we arrived at the place where it divided into seven branches, to the left of which we constantly kept, observing never to mingle, or confuse ourselves, with any of the subdivisions, which we successively found, and some of which were only small paths, traced by one or two horsemen, &c."

"Flocks were found, frozen to death, on the plain; and twenty columns of smoke, already rising in the horizon, completed the horrors of the scene, and announced the fires which laid waste New Servia, &c.°

"The care, the patience, the extreme activity with which the Tartars preserve their booty, are scarcely credible. Five or six slaves of all ages, sixty sheep, and twenty oxen, seem not to embarrass the man by whom they have been captured. The children, with their heads out of a bag, at the pommel of the saddle, a young girl sitting before him sustained by his left arm, the mother behind, the father on a led horse, the son on another, the sheep and oxen before, all are watched, all all managed, nothing escapes the vigilant eye of the conductor. He assembles, directs, provides subsistence, 'walks himself to give ease to his slaves; nothing seems painful to him, and the picture would be truly interesting, ⚫ P. 175, 176.

D P. 174.