VERMILION. 330 



e'lis, however, thinks that berith means, not the herb or plant Kali, 

 but the alkaline or lixivial salt procured from the ashes of that and 

 other plants ; though he confesses that in Jer. ii. 22, it may also fc c 

 rendered soap, made ofsnch salt. But he understands Mai. ii. 2, o f 

 the alkaline salt itself, such as fullers indeed use, but which in this 

 passage he apprehends is mentioned only in respect to its use in 

 liquifying and purifying metals (ver. 3), by causing their impurities 

 to vitrify, and melt down into scoria?, thus leaving the metal pure. 

 In like manner he interprets 6er, in Isa, i. 25, ' I will melt down, 

 (with) alkaline salt, thy dross, and I will remove all thy base metal,' 



NITRE. 



IN conjunction with the soap or alkali of the preceding article, 

 the prophet Jeremiah (ch. ii. 22) mentions nitre : ' Though thou 

 wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is 

 marked before me, saith the Lord God.' 



This substance, nitre, differs very little from the berith we have 

 just noticed, being a pure and native salt, extremely different from 

 our nitre, and indeed, from all the other native salts. It is a fixed 

 alkali, plainly of the nature of those made by fire from vegetables* 

 Natrum, whether native or purified, dissolves in a very small quan 

 tity of water; and this solution is in many parts of Asia used fo 

 washing, where it is also made into soap, by mixing it with oil ' 

 The natives sweep it from the surface of the ground, and call if 

 goap-earth. The earliest account we have of it is in the Scriptures 

 where we find that the salt called nitre, in those times, would fer 

 ment with vinegar, and had an abstersive quality, so that it was use. 

 in baths, and in washing things. 



Solomon compares the singing of songs to a heavy heart to the 

 contrariety of vinegar and nitre, which nitre, with that mentioned 

 in the passage already cited, exhibits properties that perfectly agree 

 with this salt, but not at all with our nitre or saltpetre. 



The ancient Egyptians are said to have made great use of this 

 nitre for the preservation of their dead, by macerating them in it for 

 several months previously to their being embalmed. 



VERMILION, 



THIS beautiful color is only spoken of in two passages of scrip- 

 ture ; in one of which it is referred to as being used in decorating 

 the interior of splendid buildings (Jer. xxii. 14); and in the other 



