132 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS. 



light on that passage in Scripture, where in 

 the famine of Samaria, the fourth part of a 

 cab of dove's dung was sold for five pieces of 

 silver.' (Second Journey, p. 141.) AYe think 

 that the alternatives lie between this explana- 

 tion and that which Bochart has given, 

 although neither of them seems entirely free 

 from grounds of objection." 



If the cities of the east, such as Samaria, 

 resembled modern London and Paris, the 

 utility of manure for the growth of vegetables 

 would be out of all question, but such was not 

 the case. Detached houses, with surrounding 

 gardens, — large spaces, used for the rearing of 

 culinary vegetables — streets rather resembling 

 lanes than the streets of a European city of 

 tlie present day, and the whole surrounded 

 by a wall of brick, or mud and stones, with 

 towers at given distances, — such was, and 

 such is still a city of "Western Asia ; and when 

 the uncouth catapult, the sling, and the bow 

 were the only projectile weapons, these rude 

 fortifications were more difficult to be carried 

 than a tov.n of modern Europe would now be 

 (Vauban himself having fortified it) by a few 

 thousand men with artillery, and the arts of 

 modern warfare. 



