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Leader (1850-1860), 21st July 1860, Edition 2 of 2, Page 8, 072 The SaMrday Analyst and L^

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      Dictionary Op The Bible, * If Tho Thoolo...

      -would be understood to assert that there is not widely diffused a mechanical knowledge of the events recorded . The children in National Schools and the graduates of Oxford arid . Cambridge are each examined in Scripture History ; , they aie alike expected to recite tables of the Kings of Israel '* and Judah ; and required to tell , at a moment ' s notice , by , what acts Ehud or Bathsheba were rendered famous ; geographically , too , they might pa ^ s muster fairly ; yet the amount of ignorance of all that constitutes the real history—civil , literary , and religious—of the Jewish people is something almost past belief . The want of interest that sxich a theme inspires is evident from the absence in our literature of

      any trustworthy guides to the subject . Until the publication of the present dictionary , there was not a single work of reference that could be consulted with a fair chance of success . Nearly every other subject of human inquiry has been furnished with hand-books and dictionaries long ago ; Dr . Smith is , however , the first Englishman who has ever endeavoured to produce such a work for the intelligent student of the ancient history of Palestine . Others , indeed , whom we need not name , have published works under nearly similar titles ; but , on examination , they will be found to be rather collections of materials for the support of sectarian religionism than aids for the historical inquirer .

      Dr . William Smith is already favourably known as the editor of a series of classical dictionaries Of the most elaborate kind . There is hardly a subject in Koinan domestic life , or an obscure name in Greek literature which has not found ample notice in its pages . A dictionary of the Bible required a somewhat different mode of treatment to the works on which the editor had formerly been engaged . In the hands of most men it would either have been written in such a tone as to offend nearly all the religiousminded among its readers ; or it would have become a party work , valuable as a monument of the opinions of one section of English

      thought , but comparatively -useless as a storehouse ot knowledge relative to the Jewish people . Both these errors the editor has avoided so well that there is hardly an article in the present volume where party spirit colours the narrative , arid in the one or two instances where it seems to do so , the evil is in a great measure obviated by each author haying attached his name to his own contributions . The list of the writers contains the names of most of the biblical critics of England arid America , selected with the single object' of obtaining : the most thoroughly trustworthy information . The religious beliefs of the writers never seem to have entered into the Edrfcor ^ s head : all schools are represented ; irbmi-the narrowest Puseyism to the most fearless liberality .

      Puritan and Papist , Rationalist and Evangelical , here meet m peace * ( Those who have lost wealth arid position for the sake of Mediaeval Christianity ,: and those who owe their present fame to their untiring labours in attacking the outworks of the sariie system , are all ranged in alphabetical array in the catalogue of contributors . ¦ .. ¦¦ ¦ . ' .,. . The article which has the greatest attraction to us , and which , on the whole , we consider the most valuable , is the one on Jerusalem . No pains have been spared to make it as complete as possible . The maps and woodcuts by which it is illustrated hav 0 all evidently been executed with the greatest possible accuracy . As to ^ he ^ iterary ^ ortionT- ^ we ^ av ^ sttid- ^ n ^^

      is by James Furgusson , F . R . A . S ., the man ot all others most competent to write upon such a subject , . To all those who have ever wandered among the ruined cities of Palestine , who have encamped beneath the shadow of her date trees , and drunk of the mountain streaias where the soldiers of Joshua may have refreshed themselves , this work will be valued for other than its literary and archaeological merits . To all such the history of the East , and of Judaja and Jerusalem especially , has attractions such as do not exist elsewhere . Whatever our religious creed , Our credulity , or want of faith , still to all of us the instinct of the soul points not to Rome , tho capital of empire ; not to the republios of ancient Hellas , where mankind first learned the Creator

      to love liberty and art ; but to that land where alone has revealed himself to his creatures ; where only , from the earliest histdrio times , mankind has worshipped the Divine Unity ; whence the voice of inspiration has been granted and has issued forth tp mould tho human race . We Europeans , the children of yesterday , roamed wild savages in the forests of Scandinavia when tho cities of tho East were rejoicing in tho blessings of civilization . The lands that xiroduced Jerusalem and Damasous , Nineveh and Antiooh—the pastures where Sheikh Abraham fed his Hooks and where Jacob saw visions—tho desert where Moses legislated , arid the mountain slopes whero Joshua routed the rmies of the ' ' Gentiles—are landmarks in the history , not of tho Jews only , bnt of the human race . Spots oonseorated to religious feeling—oall it poetio instinct if you will—suoh as no pomp of material splendour , no relics even of tho most glorious art , will

      ever efface from memory . Raoes have changed . The wild iree-4 pm-loving ^ outon haa beoome the world ' s master . Tho islands W ^ moater-builder of Solomon , bartered with painted savages for tin , arp now far greater than was Tyre in all her glory . But the East is still the , same . Of her cities some havo crumbled into T V a Tk'iJPUiP 0118 heaps , " somo shrunk into mere villages , and those that * < -Kd A JO jjfoffn havo felt tho changes of time and dynasty . Still , to tho ^ /& $$ rpW &&& Q % f l wandoror , they are the same . Far otherwise is it with « »^^^ j ^^ 4 l ^( W >|| QAhern city . London and Paris stand on tho remains of yP 7 . i ^^ ^ -f ? fflfiwPTWTIH J y what connection have they with the far-off ?\ li ^^^ fdKc 7 ^ V thin 1 " tu 0 Romans , when ho passes down tho Jt ^^^ t ^^ lBmmJffhofiQ villas once linod the way on either side of him ? ^^ ^ 1 ^ 9 /^""^*'"" ^ ti 10 past is Drokon * Two or tliree soul P " a sd vjs'ALiNr

      tured stones alone are left to tell that here , too , the world s conquerors once planted their eagles . With the citiea of the ILast , and with Jerusalem pre-eminently , it is noMo . Ihat which is most especially memorable in their history ends before ours has a beginning . The traveller sees around him the very objects , both of nature and of man ' s works , that were existing when David ruled in Israel . The walls may still be traced that were encompassed by the chariots and horsemen ; of the King of Assyria ^ that so long resisted the concentrated power of Imperial Rome . Ihe surrounding hills were the same as now : many of the buildings , even , were hoar with antiquity when the last of the Hebrew bards closed the book of prophecy . The Pool of ^ Bethesda , the Mount of Olives , and the Street of Grief , bring before us a time , a being , and a sacrifice , before which ev ery other human memory

      Such is Palestine ; such is Jerusalem ; such is the mystic East . Quacumque ingredimur in aliquam historiam vestigium ponimus .

      072 The Samrday Analyst And L^

      072 The SaMrday Analyst and L ^

      Hunting In The Himalaya.* Nphe Author Of...

      HUNTING IN THE HIMALAYA . * npHE author of Hunting in the Himalaya is surprised at seeing I how much time and labour are expended by his countrymen on deer-stalking and bird-shooting in Scotland , and wonders ^ they do not take advantage of the wonderful facilities at present existing for visiting the Himalaya , where they would be presented with such a variety of game on which to indulge their natural love of sport and adventure . He supposes that this apparent want of enterprise on the part of English sportsmen is owing to their ignorance of the above facilities ; and it is with a view to public enlightenment on this subject , arid an earnest desire to afford all who shall be induced to follow in the print of his own footsteps the extra advantage of his personal experiences that he has compiled the present volume . After an introductory chapter , in which we are made acquainted with some of the principal features ot the mountainous regions to which the author ' s labours are confined , and which also contains a short catalogue of the different species of animal by Which this part of the world is inhabited , Sve come at once to a description of an elephant hunt , in the valley of Dehra Doori . The author defends himself and all sportsmen against Sir Emerson Teiinant ' s well known opimon relative to the utility and humanity of " elephant catching . " The ; latter , in his work entitled " Hunter ' s Life in South Africa , " describes the wild elephant , as harmless , dnd , of course , under that supposition , its captxire , as a mere matter of sport is an act of gratuitous and wanton cruelty . Mi \ Dunlop , however , most emphatically asserts a contrary tbeory , and he adduces nuirieroiis instances in which ; deathhas resulted from the untamed ferocity of -this animal . He speaks of a solitary elephant , called the " Guiiesh , " . formerly belonging to the Government Commissariat , which first killed its keeper , and then fied to the jungle , still retaining : on its ley : i bit of the chain by which it had been secured . During fifteen years . this monster is reported to have caused the same number of deaths alone- the foot of the hills . Unon another occasion , a poor letter-.

      carrier was attacked and crushed to death by a " rogue elephant as a certain tribe of them are designated , while engaged in the quiet exercise brKi !^ ffirer ~ -Tfte ^ aT ^^^ of trapping wild elephants- —one by pitfalls , the other with the assistance of their domesticated brethren . " These pits , which are dug in the earth , from fifteen to twenty feet deep , are all screened from observation by a slight and yielding 1 covering , formed of ^ grass , branches , < fcc ., so that the animal may fall all the more readily , and as it ; were blindfolded , into the snare . But the sagacity of tins animal is such that , " though these pits are admirably concealed , it is not often that elephants fall into them ; they not only try most carefully , when at all suspicious , the ground before them with thenfeet , but-make incessant use of their trunks , in testing the ground , or liftnur off the pathwav any branches or other impediments winch in winch

      might conceal a trap . " But this is not the only instance the instinct and sagacity of the wild elephant forces itself upon our notice . They have a peculiar faculty for divining tho exact period of the year at which their different kinds of forage will be lit i or consumption . Speaking of a bed of reeds or tiger-grass , near the Song and Soovwa rivers , called " nul" and ¦ " nurkut" in Hmdostani , the author says : —" This the elephants have apparently declared , in their mental almanac , to reach tho stage of maturity at which it is most agreeable to their palates about the 12 th or 18 th 1 ebrunry ; and to ft , therefore , they come , year after year , at almost the same date , hiding in the Lewalik hills , just south of the spot , during : the

      day , and visiting the nul every night . ., The author winds up his remarks upon elephant hunting with ; i few general directions as to the best mode of firing at that aiumul . This information is all tho more valuable , since it is only by aiming at particular parts of the skull that the elephant ' s brmn is accessible ; and , in caso tho shot should not prove futnl , tiio sportmen ' Hjife is in danger from the retaliation of his enrntfcci antagonist . We have then a short account of tlur Beripnl tiffpr , its habits , its ferocity , and tho best mode of attacking »? ailso a description of tho various sorts of gnme to be met . with in tui ' Sewalik Hills , together with an interesting paragraph upon tinexcellence of tho Doon fisheries , Plieasrihts and partrul ^ en , ol mi colours and denominations , also abound in this region . Jj r . Dunlop says , " the best plan for obtaining an accurate idea' ol the plumage of tho different varieties , both male nnd ieiwile . is to

      • Hunting In The Himalaya, With Notices ...

      • Hunting in the Himalaya , with notices of cwatonirt and countries li . mi llu alephant Iwuntii of Rehni l > oon to tho » uiu ; howr trnukH In « ti « nml *\ . »>\> . ¦ »> K . II . W . Dunlop , nnthor of " Adventure wllli tho Kh « k « o JCohhoIiiIi . ' Wvhan \ lientlcy . , , %

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), July 21, 1860, page 8, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_21071860/page/8/