EBO 



ECH 



ceremonies of tlie Mosaic institution with 

 the precepts of the gospel, observed both 

 the Jewish Sabbath and Christian Sun- 

 day, and in celebrating the Eucharist 

 made use of unleavened bread. They 

 abstained from the flesh of animals, and 

 even from milk. In relation to Jesus 

 Christ, some of them held that lie was 

 born, like other men, of Joseph and 

 Alary, and acquired sanctification only 

 by his good works. Others of them al- 

 lowed that he was born of a Virgin, but 

 denied that he was the word of God, or 

 had any existence before his human gene- 

 ration. They said he was, indeed, the 

 only true prophet; but yet a mere man, 

 who by his virtue had arrived at being 

 called Christ, and the son of God. They 

 also supposed that Christ and the devil 

 were two principles, which God had op- 

 posed to each other. Of the New Testa- 

 ment they only received the gospel of St. 

 Matthew, which they called the gospel 

 according to the Hebrews. See th*e arti- 

 cle NAZARCXSS. 



EBONY is an exceedingly hard and 

 heavy kind of wood, susceptible of a very 

 fine polish, and on that account used, in 

 mosaic and inlaid works, for toys, &c. It 

 is of divers colours, most usually black, 

 red, and green; produced chiefly in the 

 island of Madagascar and the Mauritius. 

 Travellers give very different accounts 

 of the tree that yields the black ebony ; 

 some say that it is a sort of palm tree, 

 others a cytisus, &c. M. Flacourt tells 

 us, that it grows very high and big, its 

 bark being black, and its leaves resem- 

 bling those of the myrtle, of a deep, 

 dusky, green colour. Rlack ebony is 

 much preferred to that of other colours. 

 The best is a jet black, free from veins 

 and rind, very massive, astringent, and 

 of an acrid pungent taste. It yields an 

 agreeable perfume when laid on burning 

 coals: when green, it readily takes fire 

 from the abundance of its fat. Green 

 ebony, besides Madagascar and the Mau- 

 ritius, likewise grows in the Antilles, es- 

 pecially in the isle of Tobago. The tree 

 that yields it is very bushy ; its leaves 

 are smooth, and of a fine green colour. 

 Beneath, its bark is a white rind about 

 two inches thick ; all under which, to the 

 very heart, is a deep green, approaching 

 towards a black, though sometimes 

 streaked with yellow veins. Its use is 

 not confined to inlaid work, it is likewise 

 good in dyeing, as yielding a line green 

 tincture. 



Ebony is now less used than anciently, 

 since the discovery of giving other hard 



woods a black colour. There is a son 

 of ebony coming from the West Indies, 

 which is either black or white. This 

 bears a flower resembling that of the 

 English broom, seldom rises above eight- 

 een feet, and in the largest part of the 

 stem does not exceed five inches diame- 

 ter. It is a fine timber wood, has a 

 smooth even grain, which takes a good 

 polish, and is very proper for bed-posts, 

 and a variety of turnery ware ; for which, 

 purposes the black is generally prefer- 

 red, the heart of which is the complexion 

 of jet There is likewise a bastard ebony, 

 growing in the West India islands, called 

 mountain ebony, which is of a dark brown. 

 See ASTKRIMOM. 



EBULLITION. See Boiti\r r . 



ECH1NE1S, the remaru, in natviral liis- 

 tory, a genus of fishes of the order Tho- 

 racici. Generic character: head fur- 

 nished on the top with a flat, oval, trans- 

 versely grooved shield; gill-membrane, 

 with ten rays, according to Gmelin, and 

 six, according to Shaw ; body not scaled. 

 There are three species, the echineis re- 

 mora, or Mediterranean remora. is of the 

 length of from twelve to eiglueen inches." 

 Among the ancients its peculiarity of 

 structure and habits was connected with 

 the most incredible and marvellous cir- 

 cumstances, which are, lio we ver, detailed 

 with all possible gravity and faith, by 

 their most profound naturalists. Pliny 

 states, that the force of the tide, the cur- 

 rent, and the tempest, joining in one 

 grand impulse with oars and sails, to 

 urge a ship onwards in one direction, is 

 checked by the operation of one small 

 fish, called remora, by the Roman au- 

 thors, which completely counteracts this 

 apparently irresistible accumulation of 

 power, and compels the vessel to remain 

 motionless in the midst of the ocean. He 

 credits the prevailiug report that Antho- 

 ny's ship, in the battle of Actium, was 

 kept motionless by the exertion of the 

 remora, notwithstanding the efforts of 

 several hundred sailors ; and that the 

 vessel of Caligula was detained between 

 Aslura and Antium by another of these 

 fishes, found sticking to the helm, and 

 whose solitary efforts could not be coun- 

 tervailed by a crew of 400 able seamen, 

 till several of the latter, on examining into 

 the cause of the detention, perceived the 

 impediment, and detached the remora 

 from its hold. The Emperor, he adds, 

 was not a lillle astonished, that the fish 

 should hold the ship so fast in the water, 

 and when brought upon the deck appear 

 to possess no power of detention over it 



