II.] AND SORTS OF CORN. 



single corn plant^ in my field^ has^ on one stalk, 

 seven ears of corn. 



22. A great many things that we find in the 

 Bible, and which puzzle us exceedingly, must have 

 arisen from the want of local knowledge in the 

 translators, of which I have here given some very 

 striking instances. I believe most smcerely, that 

 none of the translators ever thoroughly under- 

 stood the Hebrew tongue ; and, as we have such 

 a large parcel of learned men, and as we pay them 

 so dearly for their learning, is it not a sort of 

 duty imposed upon them, to take these seven texts 

 of Scripture which I have mentioned, and either 

 find out themselves, or get some old Rabbi to find 

 out for them, an accurate translation of these, 

 ^nd many other passages, in the Bible, which 

 really stagger hundreds of thousands of persons. 

 I have done my share here ; let the parsons that 

 own the tithes of our sixteen thousand parishes, 

 each of them do some little matter in this way. 



23. It is curious to observe how strictly the 

 Americans have, in naming the different parts of 

 this plant, adhered to the appellations of Holy 

 Writ. The fruit they call corn, the fruit and the 

 cobb they call the ear, the delicate leaves which 

 envelop the ear they call the husk, as it is called 

 in the above quotation from the Second Book of 

 Kings ; the part of the plant, which towers up 

 above the ear, they call the top^ as it is called in 



