218 Lead Mines of Kohel el Terdfeh. [No. 3, 



and thanksgiving, after the passage of the Red Sea and the overthrow 

 of Pharoah and the Egyptian host in its waters. ["Thou didst blow 

 with thy wind, the sea covered them : they sank as lead in the mighty 

 waters." Ex. xv, 10.] Again in Numbers xxxi. 22, — where it is men- 

 tioned with the other five metals most in use at this early. period : 

 (" only the gold, and the silver, the brass, the iron, the tin, and the 

 lead.") Job thus alludes to the use of lead for the permanent record of 

 remarkable transactions, (xix. 23, 24.) " Oh, that my words were now 

 written! Oh, that they were printed (written?) in a book ! that they 

 were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever !" Again in 

 Jeremiah vi. 29. "The bellows are burned, the lead is consumed of 

 the fire, the founder melteth in vain." According to the following 

 passage in Ezekiel, by whom this metal is mentioned more than once, 

 it would seem to have been imported into Palestine by merchants from 

 Tarshish (xxvii. 12.) "Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the 

 multitude of all kind of riches ; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they 

 traded in thy fairs." In the time of Zechariah lead appears to have 

 been used for the sealing up and covering of vessels, (v. 8.) " And 

 he cast it into the midst of the ephah ; and he cast the weight of lead 

 upon the mouth thereof." 



Pausanias speaks of certain books of Hesiod, written upon sheets of 

 lead, and Pliny states, that public acts were registered on leaves of the 

 same metal. A great number of leaden coins, most of them Greek or 

 Roman, but some representing Egyptian divinities, have been figured 

 by Ficorini in his Piombi Antichi ; and frequent allusion is made to 

 leaden coins by the poets. 



The ancient Egyptians made use of lead chiefly in their alloys, and 

 for solder. 



An ancient Sistrum found by Mr. Burton at Thebes is soldered with 

 lead : and I have seen portions of this metal still adhering to cavities 

 in hewn stones in some of the temple walls at Thebes. 



The lead appeared to have been used for fastening bars of bronze or 

 iron into the blocks. The bars have disappeared, but have left their 

 traces in a few places, in stains of rust or verdigris. According to 

 Diodorus lead was employed by the Egyptians in purifying the gold 

 dust, found on the confines of Egypt, which he tells us (hi. 1 1 .) was 

 placed with a fixed proportion of lead, salt, a little tin, and barley bran 

 into earthem crucibles closed with clay, and exposed to heat in a fur- 



