346 SCRIPTURE NATURAL HISTORY. 



being judged to have a superior excellence to the other hymns of 

 this collection, absolutely speaking, hut their being suited to some 

 particular circumstances, which might occasion them to be treated 

 with this distinction. See Isaiah xxxvii. 14. 



The works of seven of the most excellent Arab poets, who flour- 

 ished before the times of Mahomrnedanism, were called ' Al Moal- 

 lacat,' because they were successively fixed, by way of honor, to 

 the gate of the temple of Mecca ; and also, Al Modhahebat,' which 

 signifies gilded or golden, because they were written in letters of 

 gold, upon Egyptian paper. The same writer, in a succeeding 

 page, states that the Arahs, when they would praise any one's 

 poems, were wont to say, These are the golden verses of such or 

 such-an-one, which he seems to suppose was derived from th$ 

 writing of these poeins in tetters of gold. 



SILVER. 



THIS metal, which is equally well known with that of the for- 

 mer article, ranks next to it in value. Like that it has been, from 

 a very early period, coined into money, or at least stamped, for the 

 purposes of exchange, and also manufactured into various kinds of 

 utensils. See Numbers vii. 13, 84 ; ch. x. 2 ; 1 Chronicles xxviii. 

 15, 17, &c. 



AMBER. 



IT is evident from the manner in which the prophet Ezekiel 

 speaks of (chesmel,) amber (ch. i. 4, 27 ; and viii. 2), that he did not 

 intend the bituminous substance now so well known under this 

 name. The LXX. render the Hebrew word electron, which signi- 

 fies amber a mixed metal of gold and silver and crystal. From 

 this version of Ezekiel i. 4 * And in the midst ofit (the whirlwind) 

 os the appearance oftlectrum in the midst of a fire' it appears that 

 the translators, by electron could not mean either amber or crystal ; 

 the former of which grows dim as soon as it feels the fire, and 

 shortly dissolves into a resinous or pitchy substance ; the latter is 

 scarcely ever put into a fire, or if it were, it could hardly contract 

 any thing from it but soot and dimness. It remains then, that they 

 meant the mixed metal which is much celebrated by the ancients 

 for its beautiful lustre, and which, when exposed to the fire, does, 

 like other metals, grow more bright and shining. Hence the LXX. 



