thanks for the harvest. The Feast of the Tabernacles, celebrated from the fifteenth to the twenty-third of the seventh month, was to commemorate the Wanderings in the Wilderness, and was also in honor of the vintage and the gathering of the fruits. It was a season of joy and gladness.

The Israelites considered themselves as sacred and holy-as the special guardians of the only true religion; but the tribe of Levi, and particularly the priests of that tribe, called Levites, were more especially viewed in that light. Aaron and his posterity, who were from this tribe, were consecrated to the priesthood, who were given a close access to the throne of Jehovah, in the Holy Place. The other Levites performed the inferior religious duties, but were allowed servants for the more menial offices. The High Priest sustained the most exalted office of the tribe.

Among sacred things we may name sacrifices, of which there were many kinds and for different purposes purification, the firstborn, the first fruits, tithes, oaths and vows. Concerning these there were many particular regulations. One peculiar rite was the sending forth of the scape-goat into the wilderness, in atonement for national sins. After the lustration of the Holy Place, the Tabernacle and the altar, the High Priest was directed to procure a live goat, lay both hands upon his head, confess over him all the iniquities, transgressions and sins of the nation, putting the blame for them on the goat, and then letting him go free in the desert.

The Hebrews were taught that Jehovah is the Only God—the Creator and Ruler of the entire universe, to whom all men owe gratitude and obedience. They were only admonished to abstain from such kinds of food as were regarded unclean, to keep themselves free from moral pollution, and to be pure as God is pure. They were taught to be kind to the poor, to the widow and the orphan. They were forbidden to utter falsehoods and to spread scandal. They were not allowed to curse such magistrates as they disliked. Thus the Laws of Moses generally had a good moral tendency. The

laws respecting circumcision, cleanliness, tithes, usury, slavery, property, marriage, theft, war, and the like, were adapted to the peculiar circumstances of the Hebrew nation. These laws were rigidly enforced.

Polygamy was prevalent among the Hebrews from the Mosaic times. Moses endeavored to check this institution by narrating the original institution of marriage, and showing the evils resulting from a plurality of wives-evils which are very great in all Asiatic countries. There were likewise some special regulations restraining polygamy, and the evil considerably diminished in the progress of time.

Agriculture, and likewise the keeping of flocks and herds, prevailed in the primitive ages, and the Mosaic laws specially favored the tillage of the soil. This art was held in high esteem among the Hebrews. The naturally-fertile soil of Palestine was made more fertile by the care taken to improve it. Such grains as wheat, millet, spelt, barley, beans, lentils, meadow-cumin, etc., were cultivated; while flax, cotton, melons, cucumbers and rice were likewise raised. The beasts of burden used in agriculture were bulls, cows and asses. The vine was extensively cultivated.

Agriculture was the chief pursuit of the Hebrews. Every seventh year the lands were left untilled, and whatever grew of itself was to be given to the destitute. The houses were mostly poor and low, and were built of sun-dried mud or unhewn stones until the time of the kings, when more attention was devoted to architecture. The street-doors were adorned with inscriptions from the Laws of Moses. The windows had no glass, but were latticed. The roofs were flat, and the people often resorted to them for cool air, and even slept there in summer time. Domestic implements were rare and of simple construction. Grain was ground in hand-mills by the women. Olive-oil was used in lamps to give light. The towns presented a mean appearance, because of the want of public buildings. The Hebrew books, like those of other ancient nations. were in the form of rolls.

LTHOUGH Africa was circumnavigated in very early times, the interior yet remains unexplored; and the southern part, because of the difficulty of navigation in the ocean, was neglected until all knowledge of its discovery had been forgotten. But the northern coast bordering on the Mediterranean became lined with Greek and Phoenician colonies. This vast region was naturally divided into three strips, differing in width, almost parallel with the sea-line-1, the maritime country, which consisted mainly of very fertile tracts, whence it was called Inhabited Africa, is now styled Barbary; 2, a rugged mountain district, whose loftiest peaks form the chain of Mount Atlas, in which abound wild horses and palm-groves, whence the ancients called it the land of lions, and the moderns Beled el Gerid, or the Land of Dates, while the Romans generally called it Gætulia; 3, a vast sandy desert, called Sahara by the Arabs.

Several small rivers flow north into the Mediterranean from the chain of Mount Atlas, but there are no important streams on the south side of these mountains, and there is no great river in the interior north of the distant Niger, of which the ancients knew very little or nothing; and nothing was actually known of its real course until the present century, when the Lander brothers first explored it along its entire

course.

The Mediterranean coast of Africa west of Egypt embraced six political divisions.

Of these, Marmarica, the most eastern division, bordering on Egypt, was a sandy tract occupied by nomad tribes. Cyrenaica, west of Marmarica, was a fertile district planted with Greek colonies, extending to the greater Syrtis, and its chief cities were Cyrêné and Barca. Both Marmarica and Cyrenaica embrace the territory of the modern Barca. Regio Syrtica, the modern Beylik of Tripoli, was a sandy region subject to the Carthaginians, but principally occupied by nomad hordes. The domestic territory of Carthage embraced that of the modern Beylik of Tunis. West of this section was a very fruitful country subject to Carthage, the northern part being called Byzacéna, and the southern Zeugitána. Numidia embraced the eastern part of the territory of the present Algeria. Mauritania comprised the middle and western portion of the present Algeria and the northern part of the domain included in the present empire of Morocco. Numidia and Mauritania were both occupied by nomad hordes, the ancestors of the present Moors and Berbers; but both these countries had some Carthaginian colonies along the coasts.

The mighty city of Carthage-for a long time the mistress of the Mediterraneanwas built on a peninsula in the interior of a large bay, now known as the Gulf of Tunis, formed by the projection of the Hermæan promontory (now Cape Bon) on the east, and the promontory of Apollo (now Cape Zebid) on the west. The peninsula was about midway between Utica and Tunis, both these cities being visible from the walls