7l6 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1743. 



of that metal's being common, seems to have been the usual instrument of 

 operation in other circumstances as well as this. For it is observed of Zippo- 

 rah, the wife of Moses, when she was ordered to circumcise her son, that she 

 took a sharp stone, and cut ofF the foreskin of her son. (Ex. iv. 25). And, 

 when God orders Joshua to circumcise the Israelites, he says, make thee sharp 

 knives, as we translate it ; but in the original it is, knives of sharp stones. 

 (Josh. v. 2, 3). 



Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus both take notice, that it was the custom 

 among the ancient Egyptians, at the time of embalming the dead, to cut open 

 the body with an Ethiopic stone (Herod. Euterp. Diod. lib. i. c. 5): and Ovid, 

 in describing the origin of the customs of the Corybantes, &c. says, that a 

 Phrygian youth with whom the goddess Cybele was in love, and to whom he 

 proved faithless, for a punishment to himself,* cut himself all over with a sharp 

 stone ; ille etiam saxo corpus laniavit acuto, &c. (Ovid, Fast. 4). 



It is manifest, indeed, that the use of iron was found out in Egypt before the 

 time of Joshua and Moses, both of whom mention it as made use of not only 

 for cutting of soft things,-|- but also for chizeling of stones (Deut. xxvii. 5, 

 Josh. viii. 3l). But I apprehend it must have been very rare, and that the art 

 of reducing iron to the hardness and consistency of steel, was not yet disco- 

 vered ; because, when God orders Joshua to write the words of the law upon 

 stones, as soon as he had passed over Jordan, the way he is ordered to do it is 

 this ; to plaster the stones over with plaster first, and then to grave in this 

 plaster the words of the law (Deut. xxvii. 2, 3). And yet this is called both by 

 Moses and Joshua, writing upon the stones (Deut. xxvii. 8). 



It is certain, that the art of polishing of jewels, and of cutting one hard 

 stone with another that was harder, was invented and practised in Egypt before 

 the time of Moses ; for he speaks of graving the names of the children of Israel 

 in 2 onyx stones, which, being harder than iron, even than steel, are not to be 

 wrought upon with this ; but must be cut by some stone which is harder than 

 themselves. Wherefore Moses says, with the work of an engraver in stone, 

 like the engravings of a signet, shalt thou grave the two stones (Ex. xxviii. Q, 

 11). And therefore the prophet Jeremiah mentions a pen of iron, as made use 

 of for engraving (Jer. xvii. l). 



But the use of iron seems by no means to have been found out in these west- 

 ern parts of the world till much later ; and therefore it is probable, that the in- 

 habitants of these countries made use of stones, which were the original 

 instruments used in cutting both for domestic and military service, in all 



* Of the antiquity of this practice, see Lev. xix. 28. — Orig. 



J Joseph, when he was sent for by Pharoah, shaved himself. Gen. xli. 14. — Orig. 



