H A M 
« 5 ren. As for himfejf, it is fuppofed by fome writers 
that he dwelt in Egypt; but M. Ba'fnage is of opinion 
that neither Ham nor Mjzraim ever were in Egypt, but 
that their pofterity fettled in tliat country, and called it 
by the name of their anceftors. And as to Ham’s being 
worlhipped as Jupiter Hammon, he thinks'people may 
have been led into this miftake by the fimilitude of 
names; and that Jupiter Hammon was the fun, to which 
divine honours have been paid at all times in Egypt. 
Still, however, Africa is called the land of Ham, in feveral 
placesvof the Pfalms. (Pfal. lxxvii.51. civ. 23. cv.22.) 
In Plutarch, Egypt is called Chemia ; and there are fome 
footfteps of themame of Ham or Cham obferved in Pfo- 
chemmis, Plitta-chemmis, which’are cantons of Egypt. 
Mr. Bryant, in his “Ancient Mythology,” fays that 
Ham was the Zeus of Greece, and the Jupiter of Latium. 
From Egypt his name and worftiip were'brought into 
Greece; as indeed were the names of almolt all the 
deities there worfliipped. He, being the Apollo of the 
eaft, was worfliipped as the Sun, which was alfo called 
Sham and Shem. This has been the caufe of much per¬ 
plexity and miftake: for by tliefe means many of his 
pofterity have been referred to a wrong line, and reputed 
the fons of Shem; the title of one brother not being 
diftinguiflied from the real name of the other. The chief 
oracle in the firft ages was that of Ham, who was wor- 
fliipped as the Sun, and ftiled El, and Or ; hence thefe 
oracles are called Amphi, Omphi, Alphi, Elphi, Orphi,Urphi. 
In the fnoft ancient accounts of Greece, Ham is called 
fdmus, and his priefts Idmidce. His oracle in confequence 
of this was ftiled Idrnphi, and Iambi, which was the fame 
term as Amphi. From Iambi came the meafure Iap.Sc?, 
in which oracles of old were delivered. Ham among the 
Egyptians was called Tithrambo , which is the fame name 
as the Dithyrambus 'of Diodorus. Ma,vleiov dv iv 
O'J agyrr/o; ysyovt'j Ia/zo;, Tn Ota /aai/leice, v> uca /ze^i 
rov viv 01 I a.fjuS’ai ygaftat. Schol. in Hind. Olymp. Ode vi. 
Ja^o? was in reality the deity : his attendants 
tiie Iamidae were perfons of great power and repute. 
From the term Dithyrambus were derived the of 
the Greeks and the triumpku's of the Romans. 
Ham was the Hermes of die Egyptians, and his oracle 
was called Omphi, and when particularly fpoken of as the 
oracle, it was exprefled P’omphi, and P'ompi. The wor- 
fhip of Ham, or the Sun, as it was the mod ancient, fo 
it was the mod univerfal of any in the world. It was at 
firft the prevailing religion of Greece; and was propa¬ 
gated over all the fea-coaft of Europe: from whence it 
extended itfelf into the inland provinces. It was efta- 
blifhed in Gaul and Britain; and was the original reli¬ 
gion of this illand, which the Druids in aftertimes adopt¬ 
ed. Tliat it went high in the north.is evident from A11- 
fonius, who takes notice of its exifting in his time. Ham 
was alio the fame as Petor, and the O/iris of Egypt. 
HAM, the country fuppofed to be inhabited by the 
Ziiziins, or Zamzummims, a numerous race of giants, 
toho were difpoflefled by "the. Ammonites, who occupied 
their country in their ftead. Gen. xv. 5. Dent. ii. 19-21. 
HAM (Land ot), a fcriptura'i name of Egypt. 
Pfal. lxxviii. 51. cv. 23, 27. cvi. 22. 
HAM, a town ot France, in the department of the 
Somme, and chief place of a canton, in the diftrift of 
Peronne, fitiiated on the Somme, and defended by a 
ftrong caftle. It is three pofts and a half fouth-fouth- 
eaft of Peronne,' and fifteen and a quarter north of Paris. 
Lat. 50. n.N. Ion. 20, 44. E. Ferro. 
HAM BLUFF, a cape at the weft extremity of the 
ifland of Santa Cruz, in the Weft Indies. Lat. 17. 51. N. 
Ion. 63. 34. W. Greenwich. 
IIA'MA, / [humus, Lat.] A kind of hook to pull 
down lioules on fire. 
HA'M ADA, a town of Arabia Felix, in the province 
of Yemen : twenty-four miles fouth-eaft of Chamir. 
HA'MAD^AN. See Amaoan, 
Vol.IX. No. 577, 
H A M 189 
HAMADRY'ADES, in fabulous hiftory, nymphs 
who lived in the country, and prefided over trees, with 
which they were faid to live.and die. The word is de¬ 
rived from apa, fimul, and quercus. Virgil. —The 
poets, however, frequently confound the Hamadryades 
with the Naiads, Napteae, and rural nymphs in general. 
The woody nymphes, fair Hamadryades, 
Her t6 behold do thether runne apace. Spenfer. 
HA'MfE, in ancient geography, a town of Campania, 
near Cumae. Livy. 
HA'MAH, a town of Afiatic Turkey, in Syria, on 
the Orontes. It is the refidence of the fclieik, with the 
title of emir. The geographer, Abulfeda, was prince 
of Hamah, from, the./year 1342 to 1345. Numbers u 4 
wild aftes are found in the country between this place 
and Aleppo. It is 124 miles north, of Damafcus, and 
fixty-eight fouth-fouth-weijt of Aleppo. 
H AMAME'-LIS, f. [Gr. fo called becaufe it flowers 
with the apple.] Witch-hazel ; in botany, a genus 
of the clafs tetrandria, order digynia, natural order of 
berberides, JnJJ. The generic characters are—Calyx s 
involucre three-leaved, three-flowered ; .-the two inner 
leaflets roundi-lh, fmaller, blunt; the outnioft 'larger* 
lanceolate; perianthium. double; the outer two-leaved, 
fmaller, roundifli ; the inner four-leaved, upright, the 
leaflets oblong, blunt, equal. Corolla: petals four, 
linear, equal, very long, blunt, reflex; ne6tary of four 
truncate leaflets, growing to the corolla. Stamina : fila¬ 
ments four, linear, (hot ter than the calyx ; antherae two¬ 
horned, bent in. Piftil.lum : germ ovate, villofe, end¬ 
ing in two ftyles, which are of the fame length with the 
ftamens; ftigmas capitate. Pericarpium : hut ovate^ 
half covered with the calyx, blunt, furrowed on both 
fides,at the tip, having two little horns fpreading hori¬ 
zontally, two celled, two-valved. Seeds: one in each 
cell, oblong, narrow at the bafe.— Effential Gharatter. In¬ 
volucre three-leaved ; perianthium four-leaved ; petals 
four; nut two-horned, two-celled. 
Hamamelis Virginica, or witch-hazel; a Angle fpecies. 
This tree has a woody idem, from two to three feet high, 
fending out many (lender branches. Leaves oval, in¬ 
dented on their edges, having great refemblance to thofe 
of the hazpl, and placed alternately on the branches: 
thefe fall away in autumn, and-then the flowers come 
out in clufters from the joints; they are not followed 
by feeds in this country. It feems to be polygamous, 
for in Virginia it js dioecous, with axillary, peduncled, 
crowded, petaloid, flowers : in Carolina it is monoecous, 
with terminating, many-ftamened, apetalous, flowers, in 
fpikes. Whether thefe are diftindt fpecies or not, may 
be doubted ; (ince they are fo very much alike in the 
herb. In New England, the germ endures the feverity 
of their winters, and the fruit does not ripen till the 
September fucceeding, when ripe fruit and frefli blof- 
foins will be found on the fame tree. The frudfification 
is fhewn on the Botany Plate X. fig. 14-17. 
The Indians confider this tree as a valuable article in 
their materia medica. They apply the bark, which is 
fedative and difeutient, to painful tumours and external 
inflammations. A catapdafm of the inner rind is found 
to be very, efficacious in removing painful inflammations 
of the eyes. 
It may be propagated by laying down the yodng 
branches in autumn, which will take root in one year, 
1 provided they are duly watered in dry weather ; but 
many of the plants which are in the gardens, 1 have been 
produced from feeds which came from America ; thefe 
feeds always remain a whole year in the ground, fo they 
fhould be fown in pots, which may be plunged into 
the ground in a Ihady part of the garden, where they 
may remain all the fummer, and require no other care 
but to keep the pots clean from weeds, and in very 
dry weather to water them now and then; in autumn 
