454 
To every nine quarts of boiling water 
put two pounds of treacle, and mix them 
well together. Pour this mixture into a 
veffel, containing a pretty large quantity 
of cowflips ; and, after it has ftoed long 
enough to become fufficiently cool for 
working, infufe into it a gill of yeaft. 
Let the top of the veffel be covered with 
a flate or tile; and keeping it expofed to 
the fun’s rays, or placed near a fire, ftir or 
fhake it up every now and then; and then 
at the end of three months it will be proper 
for ufe, and may be bottled off. _But the 
longer you keep it in the veflel, before it 
is bottled, the ftronger it wil] be. It will 
ferve for pickling. 
Ravenjtonedale. 
—=e 
Joun RoBINson. 
Yo the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
OUR correfpondent who differted on 
the feaftof Purim, Vol. IX. p.315, 
evidently felt embarrafiment from the cir- 
cumftance, that Ejther is explicitly de- 
clared to have become the wife of Aha- 
-fuerus, and the queen of Perfia; whereas 
Darius is not ftated to have married an 
obfcure Jewefs, nor to have been much 
influenced by any of his queens, except 
Atoffa and Artifiona, who were both 
(Herodot. Thalia, 88) daughters of Cyrus. 
In order to conne&t Efther with one of 
thefe princefles, your correfpondent feems 
to have projected a re-tranflation of the 
feventh verfe of the fecond chapter, and 
to have fuppofed it liable to this inter- 
pretation: ‘ He, that is to fay, Eftber, his 
uncle’s daughter, had the nurfing of Ha- 
doffah.’ Even if this aukwardneis were 
admiffible, on what grounds would he 
fubititute throughout the ref of the book 
the name of Hadaffah; or, how would 
he account, on probable principles of hu- 
man nature, for the lafting and complete 
influence of the nurfe and the fofter-father 
over the queen? A different folution ap- 
pears then to be requilite; if the events 
of the book of Efther are to be applied to 
the times of Darius, vas the maflacre un- 
doubtedly muft, 
Why may not Efther herfelf have been 
a daughter of Cyrus, the Artiftona of 
the Grecian hiftorians ? 
It was a cuttom of the Perfian fove- 
reigns to marry many wives, and to felect 
them from the ruling families of the de- 
pendent provinces. ‘Thefe intermarriages 
with the imperial family were fought as 
an honor by the provincial fatraps or na- 
More Comments on the Bock of Efther. 
[June 7; 
bobs ; and ferved to corroborate the 
allegiance of governors, who had often 
the name and always the duthority of 
kings. Cambyfes, although wedded to 
two of his fiiers, folicited alfo in mar- 
riage the daughfer of Amatis (Thalia 1.), 
whom Cyrus had railed to the government 
of Egypt. Darius, although previoufly 
united to a daughter of Gobryas (Polym- 
nia 2), married alfo two daughters of 
“Cyrus, a daughter of Smerdis, and 4 
daughter of Artanes (Thalia $8; Po- 
lymnia 78 and 224). Cyrus therefore is 
likely to have married into the royal fa- 
mily of Paleftine, as a mean of attaching 
the province; ard elpecially at the period 
of that attempt to reftore Jerufalem and 
regain the allegiance of the Jews, which 
was made by Zerubbabel, whofe fudden 
favor at the Perfian court, whofe exalta- 
tion to the prejudice of Zedekiah’s de- 
{cendants, and whofe liberal patronage by 
Cyrus (Ezra IiI. 7.), indicate a new and 
a very confidential connexion. 
The pedigree of Zerubbabel is thus 
given in 1 Chronicles (III. 19.), from 
his royal anceftor.—Jofiah, Jehoiakim, Je- 
coniah, Pedaiah, Zerubbabel atid Shimei. 
From Zerubbabel defcended Mefhullam, 
Hananiah, Shelomith, and others; from 
his brother Shimei, it fhould feem, de- 
f{cended (Efther II. 5.) Jair, the father of 
Mordecai; fo that Zerubbabel was the 
great uncle of Mordecai. The name Pe- 
daiah muft be an error; for Zerubbabel 
is called, in Ezra, the fon of Shealtiel ; and 
Shimei, in Efther, the fon of Rith :-pof- 
fibly this genealogy fhould be read, with 
a change of the name Affir:—Jeconiah, 
Rifh, Salathiel, Zerubbabel and Shimei. 
It is not eafy to fuggeft a more proba- 
ble reafon for the high favor of Zerubba- 
bel, than the marriage of his: daughter to 
the Perfian fovereign; nor is it ealy to 
fuggeft any other reafon, at all probable, 
for the folitary recurrence of the femi- 
nine name Shelomith, in this genealogy 
(x Chron. IIT. 19.), than that’ fhe was 
the perfon felested for the imperial alliance. 
Some great dittinétion muft have rendered 
the name of Shelomith nationally intereft- 
ing to the Jews, or it would not have been 
injerted in the national archives contrary 
to eftablith edulage. The-epithalamium 
commonty called Solomon’s Song, not hav- 
ing been compofed until Firzah was be- 
come a refidence (VI. 4.) of the royal 
houfe of Paleftine, cannot relate to any 
prince prior to Baafha (1 Kings XV. 21.) 
and confequently not to Solomon himielf; 
it alludes to the marriage of a ea 
- ( iTe 
