Arabs that we owe its use, and the method of preparing it. The drug is the round pod, from ten to twenty inches long, with its seed. The pod is subdivided by transverse scales separating the seeds, which are embedded in a sweet pulp. It is prepared in whole pods, with only the trouble of alternate heaping up and spreading for a certain number of days. The taste is so agreeable, that the Arabs and Egyptians make comfits of it, which used to be brought into Europe as a gentle and agreeable aperient; and, in its native country, the Cassia Fistula is valued as a perfume.

Cassia Fistula, of a kind differing little from that of Arabia, has been found in the woods of South America.

Psalms, xxix. 5.; lxxx. 10; xcii. 1 Esdras, iv. 48.; v. 55.

12.; civ. 16.; cxlviii. 9.

Ecclus. xxiv. 13.; 1. 12.

BESIDES the numerous texts cited above, there are several passages in Scripture where the Cedar is simply called the Glory of Lebanon.

It is not impossible that the Cedar of Leviticus may be a juniper*; for it is only used as that fragrant shrub might be, namely, as a purification for a person or a house infected with leprosy. The Cedar was not a native of Egypt, nor could it have

*The Cedar wood in common use, so soft in substance and red in colour, is the wood of a West Indian juniper. Its fragrance renders it the most agreeable of pencils.

been procured in the desert without great difficulty: but the juniper is most plentiful there, and takes deep root in the crevices of the rocks of Mount Sinai; together with that variety of the bramble sometimes called Rubus-sacer because it grows there, and an elegant species of white broom.

The first text in Numbers might also be read juniper with propriety; but not so the second. There the Cedar is magnificently placed. When the faithless prophet, willing to curse the people of God, is forced by the Spirit to bless instead of cursing, he compares the tents of Israel to "the trees of a garden which the Lord hath planted, lign aloes and the Cedars by the waters."

Next we have the Cedars of Lebanon in the beautiful fable of Jotham, too noble to be subjects of the worthless bramble: and then the texts from the five historical books, beginning with the second of Samuel, and ending with the second of Chronicles, acquaint us with the various domestic uses of the timber of the Cedar.

The negotiations of the King of Tyre with David and Solomon, for the cutting down of the timber and the carriage of it when cut, teach us that at that

period Cedar was used generally, in the surrounding countries, in the construction of temples and palaces; as there is no appearance of any thing out of the ordinary course of business in the agreement. A certain number of workmen were to be sent from Jewry, to work under the more experienced woodcutters of Tyre; and the payment was to be in provisions, partly for the consumption of the labourers, partly for the supply of the Tyrian market.

Nothing could be fitter for the purpose required than Cedar wood. Its size and straightness, and above all its durability, were most desirable for buildings that were to last. The beauty of the wood, the high polish of which it was susceptible, and its fra

grance, also recommended it equally for the temple and the palace; and that for centuries it continued to be sought for such purposes, we find from Jeremiah's denunciation of woe to the rich, who built themselves houses with large rooms, and made wide their windows, and with ceilings of Cedar, and painted with vermilion.

As to the carriage of the Cedars from Lebanon to Jerusalem, the timber was floated down some of the mountain streams, mostly down the Nar el Kelb, to