THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 



399 



oxcafioned great devaluation. Paufanius fays, that this flood 

 happened in Ethiopia in the reign of Cecrops ; and, about 

 the 1490 before Chrift, the Ifraelites entered the land of pro- 

 mife,, under- Caleb and Jofhua. We are not to wonder at 

 the great impremon that invafion made upon the minds of 

 the inhabitants of Paleftine. We fee by the hiftory of the 

 harlot, that the different nations had been long informed 

 by prophecies, current and credited among themfelves, that 

 they were to be extirpated before the face of the Ifraelites, 

 who for fbme time had been hovering about their frontiers. 

 But now when Jofhua had pafTed the Jordan, after having mi- 

 raculoufly dried up the river * before his army had inva- 

 ded Canaan, and had taken and deftroyed Jericho, a panic 

 feized the whole people of Syria and Paleftine. 



These petty Hates, many in number, and who had all 

 different languages, feeing a conqueror with an immenfe 

 army already in poffemon of part of their country, and 

 who did not conduct himfelf according to the laws of o- 

 ther conquerors, but put the vanquished under faws and 

 harrows of iron, and deftroyed the men, women, and child- 

 ren, and fometimes even the cattle, by the fword, no long- 

 er could think of waiting the arrival of fuch an enemy, 

 but fought for fafety by fpeedy flight or emigration. The 

 Shepherds in Abyffinia and Atbara were the moft natural re- 

 fuge thefe fugitives could feek ; commerce muft have long 

 made them acquainted with each others manners, and they 



v. i. 3 d muft; 



Joihua, iii. 1 6, 



