44 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[February 1, 1896. 



Virgil mentions the chestnut in his " Eclogues " and in 

 his " Georgics " as a tree. In the first I'clogue lie says of 

 its fruit : — 



'■ Kipc a]i]>los ami soft chcstnufs wo hu\r tlu'rt\ 

 And curtl !ilmii(I;iiit 1o snjijily our fare." 



And in his second Eclogue, as rendered by Orydcn, he 

 writes : — 



" Mvsolf will s,'tti-ch our plant cil {jroiiTids at liomp 

 For (lownv poaches and the i;lossv phini, 

 And tlivash t)io chestnuts in the ncif^hliourinf; (Jtrovc. 

 Sui'h as inv AniarvUis used to love." 



The old I'nglish poets frequently allude to the chestnut, 

 and Milton refers to the custom of roasting chestnuts when 

 he says : — 



" While hisses on my hearth the pulpy pear, 

 The black'uiug chestnuts start and crackle there." 



LIFE IN BABYLONIA IN PATRIARCHAL TIMES. 



By Theo. G. Pinches, M.R.A.S., 



Diimrtment of Egyptian anil Assyrian Antiquities, British 

 Museum. 



ACCORDING to Babylonian chronology, the patri- 

 archal age in Palestine seems to have corresponded 

 with the period immediately following 22(3o b.c, 

 the earlier portion probably diflering from the 

 received chronology by two or three hundred 

 years. This question of chronology is a difficult one, and, 

 though important, does not really belong to the scope of 

 the present 



paper. Those 

 who wish to 

 go into the 

 question of 

 dates may 

 consult the 

 works of 

 S a y c e, 

 p p e r t, 

 Schrader, 

 etc., though, 

 to say the 

 truth, a 

 really satis- 

 factory 

 scheme of 

 chronology 

 must, in the 

 present im- 

 perfect state 

 of our know- 

 ledge, neces- 

 sarily be a 

 matter of 

 time. Those 

 who read 

 the present 

 paper to the 

 end, how- 

 ever, will 



see wlay the date of 2200 b.c. has been chosen as the earlier 

 limit of the period treated of. 



The age of the patriarchs in Palestine appears, from 

 the account that has come down to us, to have been one 

 of great simplicity of manners and customs, and of an 



Sketch Map of Western Asia. 



exceedingly primitive State of civilization. All civilization 

 was then (compared with the present day) exceedingly 

 primitive and simple, but it must not be imagined that the 

 standard of the Hebrew patriarchs is to be that for the 

 civilized world at that age. As early as IJHOO ii.c. the 

 cuneiform writing in use in I'labylonia had not only lost, for 

 the most part, tlio hieroglyphic form which it originally 

 had, but had also become highly artificial ; and certain 

 arts, notably that of engraving on hard stone, had made 

 considerable advances. For sixteen hundred years after 

 that time civilization had been marching with slow and 

 measured pace (for everything c;oo3 slowly in the East), 

 struggling in the tranimeLs of superstition, and against 

 the retarding incursions of barbarous hordes — disadvan- 

 tages with which it had to contend until the world was 

 well within the present enlightened era. 



Whether, when Abram, the father of many of the 

 Semitic tribes, was in the district or city known as ['r of 

 the Chaldees, he was living in a town or in the country is 

 uncertain. The general opinion among scholars at present 

 is that I'r is to be identified with the ancient city of Uri 

 or Uriwa, now represented by the mounds known as 

 Mugheir (Mukeyyer), in Southern Babylonia. This may 

 be so ; but it seems to be more likely that Ur of the 

 Chaldees (Ur-Kasdim) is simply the Akkadian name of 

 the district (not the city) known as Akkad, which, in 

 the language there spoken, was called Uri. Abram, with 

 his flocks and herds, would probably have preferred to 

 live out in the country, rather than in (or even so near as 

 to be called "in"') a city. The cities of Babylonia, 

 however, must have been well known to him during the 



time that he 

 lived there. 

 Small 

 reason 

 would an in- 

 habitant of 

 the plains 

 have to love 

 the cities of 

 Babylonia 

 — ^,j u s t as 

 little as he 

 would love 

 the cities of 

 the East to- 

 day. The 

 streets were 

 narrow and 

 the houses 

 small. The 

 walls were 

 mostly of 

 unbaked 

 brick, some- 

 times plas- 

 tered over, 

 and the fire- 

 places were 

 primitive in 

 the extreme. 

 The drain- 

 The builders of 

 eeping the 



age, it is needless to say, was unsanitary 

 the houses knew, nevertheless, the importance of 

 walls free from humidity, for they constructed drains and 

 ventilators in them for tliat purpose. Life in an old Baby- 

 lonian town, even with all the comforts of a royal palace of 



