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ing story, which Bishop Taylor relates in his Work "On the Liberty of Prophesying :".

"I end with a story, which I find in the Jews' books:-When Abraham sat at his tent-door, according to his custom, waiting to entertain strangers, he espied an old man, stooping and leaning on his staff, weary with age and travel, coming towards him, who was 100 years of age. He received him kindly, washed his feet, provided supper, and caused him to sit down. But, observing that the old man ate and prayed not, nor begged for blessing on his meat, he asked him why he did not worship the God of heaven? The old man told him that he worshipped the fire only, and acknowledged no other God: at which answer Abraham grew so zealously angry, that he thrust the old man out of his tent, and exposed him to all the evils of the night and an unguarded condition. When the old man was gone, God called to Abraham, and asked him where the stranger was? He replied, 'I thrust him away, because he did not worship thee.' God answered him: 'I have suffered him these 100 years, although he dishonored me; and couldst not thou endure him one night when he gave thee no trouble? Upon this, saith the story, Abraham fetched him back again, and gave him hospitable entertainment and wise instruction." The worthy and pious Bishop adds, "Go thou and do likewise, and thy charity will be rewarded by the God of Abraham."

I have searched for this story in the extracts from the Hebrew books, which are furnished by Wetstein in his Edition of the New Testament; I have examined "the Rev. J. P. Stehelin's Rabinical Literature, or the Traditions of the Jews, contained in their Talmud and other Mystical Writings," 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1748; and also J. Lightfoote's "Erubhin or Miscellanies, Christian, Judaicall, and others;" and lastly, I find no mention of it in Jo. Chr. Wagenseilii Tela Ignea Satana, h. e. Arcani et horribiles Judæorum adversus Christum Deum et Xtianam Religionem Libri ávexdoto, Altdorfii Noricorum 1681. 4to, which was in 1674 published at the same place under the following title:-Sota, h. e. Liber Mischnicus de Uxore Adulterii suspecta, una cum Libri En Jacob Excerptis Gemara Versione Lutina, et Commentario perpetuo. But, though I have not discovered the object of my search, I have in this last work, p. 192, met with something, which may amuse your readers, in another story about Abraham :

Nimirum habuit Abrahamus hoc in perpetuo more positum, ut occasionem ad veri Dei cultum perducendi homines sedulo captaret, idque, si Judæos audimus, etiam admodum juvenis adhuc, ét cum apud patrem degeret, fecisse deprehenditur. Locus face

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tus e Midraschim hac de re est in Schalsch. Hak. p. 8: nec me contineo, quin Lat. interpretationem afferam. Ergo fertur, Tharam Abrahami patrem, non idolatram tantum fuisse, sed et idola parasse, et eorum venditione quæstum fecisse maximum. Forte negotiorum causa, iter ei aliquando suscipiendum erat: Abrahamum igitur tabernæ præficit. Ceterum hunc si quis accedebat emtor, quæsivit Abrahamus ex eo, quot annos natus esset? Isto vero annorum numerum edisserente, tum Abrahamus, Quæso te,' inquiebat,' mi homo, annon oppido insanis, qui, cum tantam ætatem agas, tamen idolum adorare instituis, quod xlès kai πρwi demum, e rudi materia fuit effictum ?' Quamobrem suffusi pudore quotquot emtum venerant, infecta re discesserunt. Adfuit postremo anus quædam, offam gestans, sacrificatura eam, ut aiebat, omnibus, quæ in Abrahami taberna prostabant, numinibus. Hic quidem Abraliamus, ira percitus, amplius se continere non valens, accepto fuste omnia numina comminuit, solo inter ea majore relicto incolumi, cujus manibus fustem ipse commisit. Interea temporis reversus pater, illamque stragem cum horrore aspiciens, quis eam edidisset, Abrahamum interrogat. Enim vero,' inquit Abr., nescio quæ vetula adventarat, offam consecrans istis numinibus: ibi tumultus inter ea ortus est longe maximus, unoquoque sibi offam deposcente. Denique eo res rediit, ut magnum illud, reliquisque valentius, arrepto fuste, minorum temeritatem compescere, et pœnam, quam, mi pater, vides, de iis sumere cogeretur. (Negante patre, id accidere potuisse, cum sensu omni numina sua careant, tum vero exprobrare ei cœpit filius ineptissimam superstitionem, quod iis honorem deferret, quæ inanima esse ipse agnosceret, quodque opem ab iis præstolaretur, quæ a suis capitibus fustium contusiones averruncare nequirant.') Sed Thara, sana consilia haud admittens, adversus filium apud Nimrodum accusationem instituit: qui vocatum Abrahamum jubet ignem adorare illicó. At Abrahamus, Magis est,' inquit, ut aquam quis adoret; hæc enim ignem extinguit.' Ergo, quando ita visum esset, jubetur aquam venerari Abr.; sed is, 'Imo,' excipit, potius nubes adorandæ sunt; nam hæ aquas sustinent.' Nubibus cultum deferre jussus, majori jure huuc vento competere regerebat, quod is nubes dispergeret. Verum nec ad hunc divino cultu prosequendum, permoveri potuit, causam allegans, quod homo adversus ventum adhuc queat consistere, nec proinde æquius videri, quam ut homines sese invicem adorare debeant. Tandem Nimrodus sentiens ludum et jocum tantum se esse Abrahamo, in fornacem ardentem eundem actutum conjici jussit.

I shall conclude my Paper with a story from the History of Genghizcan the Great, p. 188:

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"Non habentur bæc in Schalsch. Hak., sed supplemus ea ex M 50 p. 24. b. ubi tamen ceteroquin multa aliter gesta narrantur."

A remarkable Fable of three devout Pilgrims, from Miconde. One Persian Author, after having much condemned this step of the Califf, compares him to three devout pilgrims, of whom a Fable is related, which is much talked of in the countries of the Levant; and in reality the application is good. One day, says he, three devout pilgrims, travelling together, perceived in the fields some rotten bones; they stopped to consider them, they disputed, and neither of the three could agree to what kind of animal it was these bones belonged. They therefore resolved to pray to God that the animal might return to life, and agreed to make their prayers one after the other. The first had not finished his prayer before a great wind rose, and brought the scattered bones together. Heaven heard the prayer of the second also, and the bones were covered with veins, nerves, and flesh. And the prayer of the third completed the miracle: life entered into the machine, which began to stir; and they immediately beheld a lion strong and terrible, who, getting upon his feet, came and devoured the three devout pilgrims, who had made so many prayers for him.

E. H. BARKER.

Thetford, April, 1822.

AFRICAN FRAGMENTS.

No. IV. [Continued from No. LIII. p. 117.]

Some Fragments extracted from [] L'abou el Feda's Description of the Provinces of Egypt. Cairo.

THE city of Cairo is situated to the left of Fostat:' it was built by the Fatemyte Khalifs, who reigned in the west of Africa,

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1 Whilst Amrou ben el-Aas [o] was waging war in Egypt, he pitched his tent in the plain where Fostat now stands. A dove having come thither to make its nest, Amrou would not disturb it when he departed, but left his tent standing there. Some time afterwards when he passed that place, he was desirous of commemorating this action; he therefore ordered a town to be built on the spot, which he named Fostat, that is to say, tent. This town is now called Old

مصر العتيق] Cairo

* The princes of this dynasty pretended to have descended in a direct

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and afterwards conquered Egypt. The first prince of this Dynasty who reigned in Egypt, was El Moâz Mâdd,' the son of El Mansure Ismael, the son of El Kassim Muhamed, the son of El Mehedy Abeed-Allah. He conquered the many provinces of Egypt, and laid the foundation of Cairo in the year of the Hejra 359. (A. D. 976.) The ground upon which this city was built was a garden belonging to the sons of Teelune," who resided in the neighbourhood of the city of their princes, known by the name of El Kêtaya. They gave it the name of El Kahira, which signifies Victorious, thus intimating that it would triumph over all resistance. Cairo is not on the banks of the Nile, but to the East, and near Fostat, which being on the Nile, is the general resort of travellers, and where ships lie in safety; hence there is more traffic than at Cairo, and merchandise is procured at more moderate prices.

The Pharos, Watch-tower, or Light-house, of Alexandria.

منارة اسكندرية] Among the curiosities of Egypt is the

Tower of Alexandria; its height is one hundred and eighty [L] cubits. It was built as a point of remark to ships, because Alexandria is situated on a flat land without hill or mountain, and there was placed on the top a mirror of burnished steel,4 for the purpose of seeing from it at a great distance ships

line from Aly], and Fatmah [bli] his wife, daughter of Muhamed, the Arabian prophet. This dynasty began to reign in Africa in the year of the Hejra 296. (A. D. 908.)

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They once asked this prince which brauch of the Ait-Aly he belonged to; Moaz, drawing his scimitar from its scabbard, replied, [

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this is my genealogy. Then throwing to his soldiers handsful of gold,

.this is my race [هدا جنسي] ,he added

was the founder of the [احمد ابن طولون] Ahmed en Tulune :

dynasty of the Tulunites [b] in Egypt, which expired in the 2920 year of the Hejra.

3 Dra'ain, i. e. cubits. It is a measure from the elbow to the end of the middle finger of a full-sized man. 20 English inches and a half is one cubit, or 4 yards make 7 cubits; so that according to [] L'Abou el Fēdâ, the watch-tower is 309 feet high.

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of Europe.

The Christians, however, contrived to get it destroyed in the early period of Islaemism, during the Kalifat of El Walid ibn Abdelmelk.

العريش The Bower, or El Arych

El Arych was formerly one of the finest towns in Egypt: the air was pure and temperate, and fresh water was found there. It is reported that famine having ravaged Palestine, the brethren of Joseph came into Egypt to purchase provisions; but they had scarcely reached the neighbourhood of El Arych when they were arrested by the guards placed by Joseph on the frontiers, whereupon the captain of the guard wrote to Joseph a letter of the following purport:

"A deputation of the sons of Jacob of Canaan have just arrived near us: famine having ravaged their territories, they desire to purchase wheat []." Whilst they sojourned on the frontiers, waiting for Joseph's order to permit their entrance into Egypt, they made a bower of reeds and branches of trees to keep off the sun's rays. Ever since that period this place has been called El Arycha, that is to say, the Bower. Fruits and dates are found here in abundance, also pomegranates, called

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pomegranates of El Arych, which are the [الرمان العريشي]

best in Egypt.

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burnished steel. The French translation has rendered ima

acier de la Chine, Steel of China; but this is unquestionably an error, for the word esseeny is well known to be the Arabic word for brass. The French translator, therefore, in rendering Esseeny, of China, has followed the sound, but not the sense of the word.

1

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[S] marakub errume, ships of Rome. The Arabian writers designate by this term ships of all the Christian nations of Europe, or of all those nations who acknowledged the supremacy of the pope in the early ages of the Muhamedan Era, or the 7th and 8th century of the Christian Era.

2 These bowers are erected by the Jews in the courts of their houses in (Northern Africa, or at least in) West and South Barbary, to this day, during the feast of the passover, which period lasts seven days. They eat and drink, and receive visits, in these bowers of reeds and boughs.

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