18 
north side, along with many of the 
islands, are little known but to sports- 
men and casual visitors; North Har- 
bour is rugged on both sides, the banks 
composed chiefly of sand-stone, and 
Feady apparently to fall to pieces. 
Our “live lumber” viewed the scene 
of their future abode with no small 
anxiety ; many,. I believe, with hope, 
and a desire to endeavour to do better 
than “in times past ;” but, before dis- 
charging them, another preliminary 
eeremony was to be performed, 
(To be continued. ) 
——— 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
On the ANCIENT HISTORY Of PERSIA. 
(Coneluded from Vol, 55, page 518.) 
OON after the death of Cyrus, 
Cambyses became insane, and 
was probably assassinated in Egypt. 
The seven conspirators then placed 
Darius I. the Mede, the son of Hys- 
taspes, on the throne of Cyrus, whose 
daughter Vashti, or Atossa, he had 
espoused. Most of these conspirators 
were Jews: this is certain with respect 
to their chieftain Otanes, whose 
writings are quoted with reverence by 
the rabbies to a very late period (see 
Cyprian De Idolorum vanitate); it is 
certain with respect to Arioch of Elam, 
the captain of the king’s guard, who, 
having Aspatha, or Ispahan, within 
his government, is probably the Aspa- 
thines of Herodotus; and itis certain 
with respect to Darius himself. Nor 
can the Judaism of Gobryas be rati- 
onally doubted, as his family was 
doubly intermarried with that of 
Darius ; or the Judaism of Megabazus 
and Hydarnes, who, long after the 
* establishment of this religion in Persia, 
retained the confidence (Herodotus, 
ii. 143. and vii. 135.) both of Darius 
and Xerxes. If Intaphernes be 
Haman, he was no doubt an idolater: 
in the Greek Esther he is called a 
Macedonian* ; yet his connexion with 
the idolatrous interest in Persia would 
rather lead to the suspicion of his 
belonging to Babylon, where was its 
chief seat. 
By a severe measure, related with- 
out disguise in the ninth chapter of 
Esther, the Jewish religion was made 
the domineering one in Persia. The 
property of the idolatrous temples 
was confiscated tothe state; the Jews, 
* This word may well have become sy- 
nonimous with idolater after the conquest 
of Alexander, 
Oriental Accounts of the Ancient History of Persia. 
‘Although the process 
[Aug. T, 
it is said, (verse.16,) laid not their 
hands on the prey; and it was no 
doubt distributed in lots among the 
officers of the army. This expulsion 
of the priests of Baal, termed by 
Herodotus the Magophonia, was order- 
ed to be celebrated yearly ; and the 
commemoration was adopted in the 
temple at Jerusalem by the name of 
the Feast of Purim, and is retained 
throughout Jewry to this day. In the 
Book of Esther is contained an ex- 
ceedingly curious sceret history, not 
so much of the causes which prepared 
this extensive proscription, and which 
must be sought in the wants of an 
independent army, as of that interior 
management of the harem, by means 
of which the eunuchs in waiting con- 
trived to superinduce upon the king 
the determination of the conspirators. 
That the entire edict was a measure 
of finance, is evident from this, that 
Hiaman, having offered to raise ten 
thousand talents of silver (iii. 9.), was 
at first avowedly permitted to threaten 
proscription against the Jews; but the 
Jews having secretly, through Morde- 
cai, sent in better proposals, the 
original order was reversed. It was 
perhaps issued only as a method of 
accelcrating their contributions. Ha- 
man and Mordecai were, in fact, com- 
petitors for a loan to be secured on 
the confiscated property. 
The Parisian orientalist, M. Langlés, 
does not lightly, or without reflection, 
term the Book of Esther a most iate- 
resting section of the Jewish records. ~ 
It is on every account remarkable ; 
not only because it contains authentic- 
particulars of the greatest religious 
revolution which the world ever saw, 
and which continues to influence the 
persuasions of a majority of mankind; 
but because if is the earliest native 
document of Persian literature. Capt. 
Kennedy will net have the same diffi- 
culty which Michaelis felt, to orien- 
talize himself (s’ortenter,) in this book; 
and will not see, in the manners of the 
various personages introduced, any 
discrepancy with eastern usage. Ap- 
parently, it is a fragment of the Chro- 
nicles of the Kings of Media and 
Persia (c. x. vy. 2), faithfully extracted 
for the use of the temple at Jerusalem, 
where the origin of the feast of Purim 
was required to be known. 
This Book of Esther secms to have 
been written by an atheist: no mention 
of Deity occurs in the whole narrative. 
commanded 
had 
