72 Gleanings from the 



Maghair Shu'ayb (on the eaft of the Gulf of 

 Akaba), in his exploration of the land of Midian, 

 found that " the gem of his whole collection was a 

 copper coin thickly encrufted with filver, proving 

 that even in thofe days the Midianites produced 

 ' fmafhers ;' fimilarly, the Egyptian miners ' did ' 

 the Pharaoh by inferting lead into hollowed gold. 

 The obverfe mews the owl in low relief, an animal 

 rude as any counterfeit prefentment of the $ea 

 yXavKWTrie 'A^rivrj ever found in Troy. It has the 

 normal olive-branch, but without the terminating 

 crefcent (which, however, is not invariably prefent) 

 on the proper right, while the left mews a poor 

 imitation of the legend AOE(NH). The filvering 

 of the reverfe has been fo corroded that no figns 

 of the goddefs' galeated head are vifible. My 

 friend, Mr. W. E. Hayns, of the Numifmatic 

 Society, came to the conclufion that it is a barbaric 

 Midianitifh imitation of the Greek tetradrachm." 1 

 The owl became in good truth a mefTenger of 

 death to Herod Agrippa, who was fmitten of 

 God for not giving Him the glory, and died at 

 Caefarea (Acts xii. 23). " Prefently his flatterers 

 cried out," fays Jofephus, 2 " one from one place, 

 and another from another ; (though not for his 

 good), that * He was a god ;' " and they added, 

 " Be thou merciful to us. For although we have 

 hitherto known thee only as a man, yet mall we 

 henceforth own thee as fuperior to mortal nature." 



1 "The Land of Midian" (Kegan Paul and Co., 1879). 

 Vol. i., p. 93. 



2 Whifton's Tranflation. " Antiq." Bk. xix. 8, 2. 



