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Testament, where it sometimes means a wild, un- 

 inhabited desert, and sometimes only an unculti- 

 vated plain : the wilderness through which the 

 Israelites were conducted, partook of both these 

 descriptions, being partly rocky, and partly a 

 sandy, unproductive district. It occupied the 

 space between the two branches of the Arabian 

 Gulf, which was sometimes called in Hebrew, 

 and is indeed at this day in the Coptic language, 

 the ' Sea of Weeds.'" 



" Why, then, do we give it the name of the 

 Red Sea?" 



(( We have borrowed the term from the 

 Greeks," said my uncle : tc from whence they 

 derived it is not so easily answered ; certainly 

 not from the colour of the water, or of the sand 

 at the bottom. The most probable notion is, 

 that it was originally called the sea of Edom, 

 as it washed the coast of that country; and that, 

 as Edom signifies red in Hebrew, the Greeks, 

 not understanding the geographical allusion, 

 simply translated it, just as the Romans and 

 ourselves have done after them." 



A general conversation then ensued, about the 

 passage of the Israelites through the sea ; and 

 I shall write here some of what I picked up, by 

 way of exercise only, for I am sure, Mamma, 

 that you are already well acquainted with all 

 that is known on the subject. 



The exact spot at which they quitted the 



