biz LIB 
clothes, are Tonne vines, which afford excellent wine ; and 
fine young mulberry-trees, as well as cedars, and other 
curiolities. Of the boafted cedars of Libanus, there are 
no very magnificent remains; four or five of them only 
deferring notice; but the number of firs, oaks, brambles, 
mulberry-trees, figs, and vines, is much more confiderable. 
The wines of Libanus we/e much extolled by the Gre¬ 
cian and Roman epicures. It is probable, that the inha¬ 
bitants of this territory have made no change in their an¬ 
cient method of making wines, nor in the culture of their 
vines. They are not pruned as in France, which mult 
certainly, fays Volney, greatly injure both the quantity 
and quality of the crop. The vintage begins about the 
end of September. The convent ot Mar-hanna makes 
about 150 rabia, or earthen jars, containing about 14 gal¬ 
lons. The price current in the country is about zs. 6d. 
per gallon. Of the numerous kinds of wine made in Sy¬ 
ria, the chief is the vino d'oro , or golden wine, of Mount 
Libanus. This is not boiled, as in the preparation of 
other wines, but left to purify itfelf by keeping ; the quan¬ 
tity produced is fmall. It is, as its name implies, of a 
bright golden colour ; and is highly prized even on the i'pof. 
Several confiderable rivers have their fource in this 
mountain, viz. the Jordan, Rochatn, Nahar-Rofiian, and 
Nahar-Ca-dicha ; hefides many fmaller ftreasns, that run 
between the valleys ; particularly that of Ahouali, which 
flows down into the Romantic Valley, lb called, becaufe 
it is fufrounded on all fides with high rocks. Thefe ri¬ 
vers, ruffing down from fuch heights, form leveral beau¬ 
tiful calcades, like thofe of the Nile. This mountain has 
been, and is ifill to this day, a place of retreat and refuge 
for a great number of robbers, and other defperate people. 
The (lone which compofes the mountains of Libanus and 
Antilibanus, and thole of Syria in general, is a hard cal¬ 
careous Hone of a whitilh colour, fonorous like, free-ltone, 
and difpofed in ffrata varioufly inclined. Of this Hone 
the inhabitants build their houfes, and make lime. 
LIBATION, /. \_libatio, Lat.] The act of pouring 
wine on the ground in honour of fome deity.—In digging 
new earth, pour in fome wine, that the vapour of the 
earth and wine may comfort the fpirits ; provided it be 
not taken for a heathen facrifice, or libation to the earth. 
Bacon's Natural Hijlory. —The wine fo poured.—They had 
no other crime to object againlt the Chriltians, but that 
they did not offer up libations, and the frnoke of facrifices, 
to dead men. Stillingfleet on Romijk Idolatry. 
The goblet then ffe took, with neftar crown’d, 
Sprinkling the firlt libations on the ground. Dryden. 
Libation, among the Greeks and Romans, was an ef- 
fential part of foleinn facrifices. It was alio performed 
alone, as a drink-offering, by way of procuring the pro¬ 
tection and favour of the gods, in the ordinary affairs 
of life. Libations, according to the different natures of 
the gods in honour of whom they were made, conliffed 
of different liquids, but wine was the molt ufual. The 
wine offered to the gods was always unmixed with water. 
We meet with libations of water, libations of honey, li¬ 
bations of milk, and libations of oii ; thefe are called 
sn<pa.Atcc iga. The libation was made with a lerious de¬ 
portment and folemn prayer. At facrifices, the libation, 
after it had been tailed by the prieft, and handed to the 
byftanders, was poured upon the victim. At entertain¬ 
ments, a little wine was generally poured out of the cup, 
before the liquor began to circulate, to ffow their grati¬ 
tude to the gods for the hleffngs they enjoyed. Alexan¬ 
der the Great is laid to have lacrificed a bull to Neptune ; 
and, for an offering to the fea-gods, to have thrown the 
golden veffels u led'for the libation into the fea. 
Libations were alfo in life under the law of Moles, 
as the Hebrews poured a kind of wine on the victim 
after it was killed, and the feveral pieces of the facrifice 
were laid on the altar, ready to be confumed in the flames. 
This at lead we underhand to be the nature of the drinh- 
ojfering commanded in Numbers xv. 4-10. And the 
L I B 
pouring the blood befdc the bottom of the altar, Exod. xxix 
12. we take to have been another Ipecies ot libation. 
LIBAT'TA. See Olibato. 
LIBAU', a feaport ot the duchy of Courland, fituated 
on the Baltic. It was built by the Lettonians ; and is 
faid to derive its name from the Lettonian word lecpaja, 
i. e. a piece of ground planted with linden-trees; for a 
great number of thole trees formerly grew here; and, to this 
day, the Lettonians call the town Leepaja. It obtained the 
privileges of a city in 1625. It contains about 5000 inha¬ 
bitants. As the harbour has not a firfficient depth of wa¬ 
ter for Ihips of burden, they are unloaded in the road; but 
duke Ernelt John, in 1737, caufed it to be cleared, and 
the future accumulation of mud and land to be prevented 
by a water-work, which lias rendered it very commodious 
for light veffels. About 260 or 270 veffels generally en¬ 
ter, one year with another. Not long fince the importa¬ 
tions amounted to the value of 931,551 roubles; the ex¬ 
ports, on the contrary, amounted to 2,028,520 roubles. 
This town was often taken by the Swedes, but finally ceded 
to Courland by the peace of 1660: lixty-fix miles welt of 
Mittau. Lat. 55.28. N. Ion. 21. 37. E. Maltcbrun s Picture 
of Poland. 
LIBA'VIUS (Andrew), a phyfician and chetnift, was a 
native of Hall in Saxony. In 1588 he was profeffor of 
hiftory and poetry at Jena. Thence he removed in 1591 
to Rothenburg, on the Tauber; which he quitted in 1605 
for Coburg in Franconia, where he was appointed princi¬ 
pal of the college of Cafimir. He died in that city in 
1616. Libavius was greatly attached to the ftudy of che- 
miltry, and was one of the firlt who purified it upon true 
principles, although he was not free from the delulions of 
alchemy He made ufe of many chemical preparations 
in medicine; but with more fobriety than Paracelfus, 
whofe doctrines he frequently refutes. He was the author 
of a great number of works in medicine and chemillry, 
which contain fome valuable oblervations, though now 
obfolete. His lalt work, entitled Examen Philofophia Nova, 
folio, 1615, is remarkable for the firlt mention of the 
transfufion of blood from one animal to another, of the 
falutary effects of which he fpeaks with great confidence. 
It was not, however, till beyond the middle of the lame 
century that it was experimentally tried. See Lower 
(Richard), v’ol. xiii. A chemical preparation called the 
Jmoking liquor of Libavius, or fpirit of Libavius, has long 
been known in laboratories; it is a highly-concentrated 
muriatic acid much impregnated with tin. See the article 
Chemistry, vol. iv. p.292, 3. 
LIB'BARD,/I \_liebard, Germ, leopardus, Lat.] A leo¬ 
pard.—The torrid parts of Afric are by Pifo refembled to 
a libbard' s lkin, the diltance of whofe fpots reprefent the 
difperfenels of habitations, or towns of Afric. Brerewood. 
The libbard and the tiger, as the mole 
Riling, the crumbled earth above them threw. Milton. 
LIB'BARD’s BANE, or Leopard’s Bane, a plant 
fuppofed to be poifonous ; as to which, fee Doronicum, 
vol. vi. p. 28.—Nightlbade, moonwort, libbard's bane. B. 
Jon [on . 
LIBEC'CHIO, [Italian.] The Libyan wind ; a hot 
wind. 
LI'BEL, f. \_libellus, Lat. libdle, Fr.] A fa tire ; defa¬ 
matory writing; a lampoon.—Are we reproached for the 
name of Chrilt? that ignominy ferves but to advance our 
future glory ; every fuch libel here becomes panegyric there. 
Decay of Bitty. 
Good heav’n! that fots and knaves ffould be fo vain. 
To wiff their vile relemblance may remain! 
And Itand recorded, at their own requelt, 
To future days, a libel or a jelt. Dryden. 
Libel, in law, a contumely, or reproach, publiffed to 
the defamation of the government, of a mag iff rate, or of 
a private perfon. It is alfo defined to be, a malicious de¬ 
famation, expreffed either in printing or writing, or by 
fig 11s, 
