368 
RUINS OF BABYLON. 
vintage. These accounts certainly show a settled place of resi¬ 
dence for himself and immediate family; and must imply the 
building of habitations, which, most probably, would be erected 
on the old plan of his ancestors ; of a proportionate extent and 
durability to a race of inhabitants, whose individual term of ex¬ 
istence yet included several hundred years. The sons of this 
second father of mankind, very early sent out their posterity “ to 
replenish the earth,” towards Egypt, Elam, Assyria, and the 
Land of Shinar, where they planted cities ; and in all which 
countries this most ancient style of architecture is traceable. 
The nomade, or as it is called, the patriarchal manner of life, 
(from its antiquity also,) appears to have commenced after these 
first establishments, at a time when minor colonies separated 
from the greater stocks : some founded towns of their own, in 
distant lands; and others continued roaming about with their 
flocks and herds, in the way the Arabs do to this day. But in 
every place of the Holy Scriptures, where we read of the pa¬ 
triarchs dwelling in tents, it is not necessary to conclude that 
they had no other habitation. Sometimes the expression may 
be considered merely figurative; as in the passage where Noah 
is described sleeping after having drank his wine; he is dis¬ 
covered in his tent , or place of rest. But when it is used literally, 
in a course of emigration ; for instance, when “ Abram removed 
his tent,” &c., it is not to be understood that he, or any other 
of the patriarchs, after making any thing like a settlement, 
always dwelt under canvas. We therefore cannot suppose, from 
the time of his establishing himself “ in the plain of Mamre, 
which is in Hebron,” that he did not build more substantial 
walls than a camp, for his winter residence; but that (in 
the present style of the Courdish tribes,) only in the summer 
