ISIAC TABLE ISIS. 



155 



Khekh in Persia, an Tsmaelian Iman still lias his 

 residence, who is revered as a god by the Ismaelians, 

 who extend as far as India, and is presented with 

 the fruits of their robbery, from which he pays a 

 considerable tribute to the shah of Persia. The 

 Syrian Ismaelians dwell around Mesiade, west of 

 Hainan, and in the mountain Semnack on Lebanon ; 

 they are under Turkish dominion, with a sheik of 

 their own, who, in consideration of a yearly tribute 

 to the Porte of 16,500 piastres, enjoys the revenues 

 of the country, rendered productive and flourishing 

 by agriculture and commerce (in cotton, honey, silk, 

 and oil). These people are commended by modern 

 travellers for their hospitality, frugality, gentleness, 

 and piety. But their prosperity was interrupted in 

 a war with the Nassarians (q. v.), who took Mesiade 

 in 1809, and desolated the country ; and, though re- 

 instated, in J810, in the possession of their territory, 

 they drag out a miserable existence. The Ismaelians, 

 with other Shiites, adore the prophet Ali as the in- 

 carnate God, and Mohammed as an ambassador of 

 God, and the author of the Koran. All Ismaelians 

 term themselves Seid, that is, descendants of the 

 family of Mohammed, and wear the green turban, in 

 token of their pretended nobility. In accordance 

 with their exposition of the Koran, they believe in 

 supernatural communications of the Deity by the 

 prophets (I mans), and in the transmigration of souls, 

 deny a paradise and hell, do not observe the purifi- 

 cations and fasts of the orthodox Mohammedans, and 

 perform their pilgrimages, not to Mecca, but to 

 Meschid, the place of Ali's interment, four days' 

 journey from Bagdad. They have no public temples, 

 and their simple rites display more of pure theism 

 than those of the Mohammedans. See the treatise 

 of Rousseau, consul-general in Aleppo, respecting 

 the Ismaelians and Nassarians. 



ISIAC TABLE, or BEMBINE TABLE (Mcnsa 

 Isiaca and Tabula Bembina) ; an ancient Egyptian 

 monument, on which is represented the worship of 

 the goddess Isis, with her ceremonies and mysteries. 

 It is a square table of copper, divided into five com- 

 partments, covered with silver mosaic skilfully in- 

 laid. The principal figure of the central group is 

 Isis. After the capture of Rome (1525), this table 

 came into the possession of cardinal Bembo, from 

 whom the duke of Mantua obtained it for his cabinet. 

 After the sack of Mantua in 1630, cardinal Pava 

 obtained it, and presented it to the duke of Savoy. 

 It is at present in the royal gallery at Turin. Several 

 engravings of it have been made ; the first by ^Eneas 

 Vicus (Venice, 1559) in figures, the size of the 

 original. Caylus has engraved and described it in 

 Ins Recueil des Antiquites, vii. p. 34. It is filled 

 with all sorts of hieroglyphics ; and this mixture, 

 with other reasons, Spineto considers as a proof of 

 its having been fabricated in Rome, at a late date, 

 by some person who knew little about the science. 



ISIDORE ; the name of several martyrs, saints, 

 monks, and bishops ; among others, of a monk of 

 Pelusium in Egypt, died about the year 449, whose 

 letters are valuable, as illustrative of the Bible. In 

 the history of the papal law, a collection of decretals 

 is worthy of note, which bears on its title page the 

 name of Isidore, archbishop of Seville (who died 

 636), but which was corrupted in the 9th century by 

 many spurious additions, and was widely circulated 

 from the east of Germany. 



ISINGLASS. This substance is almost wholly 

 gelatine, 100 grains of good dry isinglass containing 

 rather more than 98 of matter soluble in water. It 

 Is brought principally from Russia. The belluga 

 yields the greatest quantity, being the largest and 

 most plentiful fish in the rivers of Muscovy; but the 

 sounds of all fresh water fish yield more or less fine 



isinglass, particularly the smaller sorts, found in 

 prodigious quantities in the Caspian sea, and several 

 hundred miles beyond Astracan, in the Wolga. Yaik, 

 Don, and even as far as Siberia. It is the basis of 

 the Russian glue, which is preferred to all other 

 kinds for strength. Isinglass receives its different 

 shapes in the following manner. The parts of which 

 it is composed, particularly the sounds, are taken 

 from the fish while sweet and fresh, slit open, washed 

 from their slimy sordes, divested of a very thin mem- 

 brane which envelopes the sound, and then exposed 

 to stiffen a little in the air. In this state, they are 

 formed into rolls about the thickness of a finger, and 

 in length according to the intended size of the staple; 

 a thin membrane is generally selected for the centre 

 of the roll, round which the rest are folded alter- 

 nately, and about half an inch of each extremity of 

 the roll is turned inwards. Isinglass is best made in the 

 summer, as frost gives it a disagreeable colour, de- 

 prives it of its weight, and impairs its gelatinous 

 principles. Isinglass boiled in milk forms a mild, 

 nutritious jelly, and is thus sometimes employed 

 medicinally. This, when flavoured by the art of the 

 cook, is the blancmanger of our tables. A solution 

 of isinglass in water, with a very small proportion 

 of some balsam, spread on black silk, is the court 

 plaster of the shops. Isinglass is also used in fining 

 liquors of the fermented kind, and in making mock- 

 pearls, stiffening linens, silks, gauzes, &c. With 

 brandy it forms a cement for broken porcelain and 

 glass. It is also used to stick together the parts of 

 musical instruments. 



ISIS ; the principal goddess of the Egyptians, the 

 symbol of nature, the mother and nurse of all things. 

 According to Diodorus, Osiris, Isis, Typhon, Apollo, 

 and Aphrodite (Venus) were the children of Jupiter 

 and Juno. Osiris, the Dionysos (Bacchus) of the 

 Greeks, married Isis (sun and moon) and they both 

 made the improvement of society their especial care. 

 Men were no longered butchered, after Isis had 

 discovered the valuable qualities of wheat and barley, 

 which had till then grown wild, unknown to mankind, 

 and Osiris taught how to prepare them. In grati- 

 tude fbr these benefits, the inhabitants always pre- 

 sented the first ears gathered as an offering to Isis. 

 Whatever the Greek related of his Demeter (Ceres) 

 the Egyptian attributed to Isis. As agriculture was 

 improved, civilization advanced, and a taste for art 

 and letters was developed. At least, we first hear 

 among the Egyptians, of the building of cities and 

 temples, and the constitution of the priesthood, after 

 the time of Isis, who was also revered as the inven. 

 tress of sails. According to Plutarch's learned 

 treatise (on Isis and Osiris), Osiris and Isis were the 

 illegitimate offspring of Saturn and Rhea. When 

 Helios (Sol), the husband of Rhea, discovered the 

 intrigue, he pronounced judgment upon her, that she 

 should not be delivered in any month nor in any year. 

 Mercury, who was then in love with Rhea, and was 

 loved by her, having heard the curse, discovered a 

 way in which she might be delivered, notwithstand- 

 ing. In playing at draughts with the moon, he won 

 from her the seventieth part of her light, of which 

 he made five days, and, having added them to the 

 360, of which the year had previously consisted, gave 

 the goddess time for delivery. These were the inter- 

 calary days of the Egyptians, which were celebrated 

 by them as the birthdays of their deities. Osiris was 

 born the first, and at his birth a voice cried, " The 

 lord of the world is born." On the second day, 

 Rhea was delivered of Aroueris, or the elder Horus 

 (Apollo), on the third of Typhon, on the fourth of 

 Isis, and on the fifth of Nephthys, who was called 

 Teleutc, the Consummation, though others give 

 her the name of Aphrodite and Nike (Victory). Of 



