widely diffused over Ireland, was the work of different ages, of
various races, and had more objects than one in view. Nearly all the
nations of Europe, in the infancy of their civilization, seem to have
delighted in the erection of these artificial hills. The whole of
Southern Russia is full of them, and we meet with them in Hungary,
Turkey, Scandinavia, and Denmark, as well as in England and Ireland;
but nowhere in such numbers as in Ireland, whence we may conclude that
the ancient Irish must have built many of their raths long before the
Danes arrived among them.

“It is also probable that they were erected with different objects in
view. Some, we know, were intended as boundary marks, and some, we
know, were raised over the remains of distinguished heroes and chiefs.
From some it was customary for the law-givers and judges to announce
their decisions to the assembled multitude, and on others kings were
anointed and crowned. The Druids required sacred hills to offer their
sacrifices on, and where a natural hill was not to be had an artificial
one, no doubt, was often formed.

“Others, again, may have been intended as fortresses on which the
people might seek refuge from an enemy. Many, no doubt, remain that are
quite enigmatical. Several, when opened, are found to contain passages
and cells, of which it is difficult to guess what use they were
intended for. They are too small for storehouses, and can scarcely have
served as tombs, or bones and other remains would have been found there.

“Lisserdowling, a high pyramid surrounded by a low rampart and ditch,
is more likely, in my opinion, to have been erected as a religious
monument than as a fortress. Had it been intended for a fortress, why
should so much labour have been expended in giving it a conical form,
and why not have bestowed more pains on the circumvallation. As a
fortress it would have been the strangest and most ineligible that
could have been built. The space on the summit would scarcely afford
room for two huts, and when the ramparts had once been stormed by the
enemy, the defenders would have been at the greatest disadvantage on
the sides of the cone.

“Probably the circumvallation has led to the belief that this, and many
other tumuli, were intended for fortresses; but Stonehenge, which
nobody ever took to be a fortress, is also surrounded by rampart and
ditch. The circumvallation may have been intended simply to mark the
boundary of the holy place, and to cut off all connection with the
profane part of the world.”

These ruins which Mr. Kohl has described, and respecting which he has
given his opinion, are simply the remains of ancient granaries or
pyramids, erected by the Phenicians, who left them standing when they
returned to their own country. After the departure of these Phenicians,
Ireland was visited by the Moors, who were masters of Spain and
Portugal. These Moors coming from the coast of Africa, opposite Spain,
were a colony formerly from the heart of Negroland, whence they reached
the coast by way of the great desert called the Sahara, and joined
their countrymen who had already settled in the new empire called
Mauritania, which comprised Morocco and Tunis, &c., of our time.

These new visitors erected the round towers, in which to stack corn,
just as their predecessors had constructed the Pyramids for a like
purpose. There are round granaries in Africa, constructed with
materials procurable in the place; but in Ireland they used stone
instead, which was more durable, although retaining the same form as in
the prototypes. The following is what Kohl says about the round
towers:—

“On leaving Kilrush I entrusted my person and my portmanteau to a small
boat which I had engaged to carry me over to Scattery Island, and
thence to the coast of Kerry. The morning was warm, and not a breath of
wind disturbed the surface of the water, but the sun was completely
concealed by a thick yellow fog, which scarcely allowed us to see
beyond the length of our boat. Nevertheless, my boatman brought me in
safety to the little green island, which I was about to visit for the
sake of its interesting ruins, and by the time we reached its shore the
fog had sufficiently dispersed to allow us to distinguish the remains
of its ‘Seven Churches,’ while the lofty column of the round towers
presented itself at first as a dark line, and then gradually broke with
more distinctness through the turbid atmosphere.

“These Round Towers are the most interesting remains of antiquity that
Ireland possesses. Like most travellers in Ireland, I was soon infected
with a passion for round towers; but as this passion is one of which
few of my friends in Germany are likely to have a distinct idea, I
believe that some introductory remarks on these venerable buildings
will not be out of place here.

“These Round Towers are built of large stones, and when seen at a
distance look rather like lofty columns than towers, being from the
base to the top of nearly the same thickness. They are now, indeed, by
no means all of the same height, many of them having fallen into ruins;
but those which remain tolerably complete are all from 100 to 120 feet
high, from forty to fifty in circumference, and from thirteen to
sixteen in diameter. At the base the wall is always very thick and
strong, but becomes slighter towards the top. Within, the tower is
hollow, without any opening but a door, generally eight or ten feet
from the ground, and some very narrow apertures or windows, mostly four
in number, near the top.[74] These windows are usually turned towards
the four cardinal points of the compass.

“In all parts of Ireland these singular buildings are found scattered
about, all resembling each other like the obelisks of Egypt. Sometimes
round towers are found in solitary islands, sometimes on the side of a
river, or a plain, or some secluded corner of a valley. The whole
number of them, according to the map of Ireland published by the
Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, is, at present, 118; of
these fifteen are in a perfect state of preservation, and of thirty-six
little more than the foundation remains.

“The general name of ‘Round Towers’ is very little characteristic of
these remarkable buildings, for towers are seldom otherwise than round.
Some writers have called them ‘pillar temples,’ but this name assigns
to them a designation which it is by no means certain that they bore.
The characteristic peculiarity of these towers consists in their
resemblance to mighty pillars, and the most appropriate name for them
would, in my opinion, be ‘pillar towers.’

“In no part of Europe do we find any similar building of antiquity. In
Scotland, it is said, two or three pillar towers exist, and these, it
may be inferred, were reared by Irish colonists. In the far east only
we come to erections of the same character and dimension; the first
thing that a traveller is reminded of on seeing an Irish round tower,
is a Turkish minaret.

“No authentic records exist to guide us to a knowledge of the time when
these towers were built, or of the use for which they were intended.
Everything proves that they have existed from a very remote antiquity,
and the most opposite conclusions have been adopted with respect to the
period and object of their erection; none of these hypotheses carry
conviction with them, but of many, at least, the absurdity can be shown
with little trouble.

“Some, for instance, have maintained that these towers were built by
the Danes; but these sages appear to have forgotten that round towers
are found in parts of the island where the Danes never set foot, as,
for instance, in Donegal and the remote counties of Connaught. Besides,
had these been Danish erections, how came the Danes not to leave any of
them in England?

“Popular tradition assigns them to the Phœnicians, and learned
antiquarians ought not too hastily to reject popular tradition, for
often the memory of a people undergoes less corruption and change in
the course of a thousand years than do the records preserved in books.
There is nothing very improbable in the hypothesis that these towers
were built by the Phœnicians, who are known to have visited the island
and to have exercised power there.

“Travellers have recently discovered in the Persian province of
Masanderan towers precisely similar to those of Ireland, and in India
erections of a similar kind, dedicated to religious purposes, have also
been met with. This, taken in connection with the shape of the Turkish
minaret, makes it extremely probable that the round towers have had an
Oriental origin. Many have been staggered by the great antiquity which
such an hypothesis would assign to the Irish towers, but they are
buildings of wonderful solidity, and there is nothing at all
extraordinary in the supposition that these stones may have remained in
their present position for some thousands of years. Have we not even
brick buildings of Roman erection, that are known to have been built
before the Christian era?

“No less diversified have been the opinions respecting the use for
which the round towers were intended, and on this subject some
strangely absurd doctrines have been advanced. Some people have
supposed them to have formed chains of telegraph stations spread out
over the whole island; but the absurdity of this notion is sufficiently
shown by the position of some of the towers upon low ground, in the
corners of valleys, and on remote and solitary islands, whence nothing
could well be seen, and nothing, therefore, made known. This opinion
is, nevertheless, still entertained by many.

“Others suppose the towers to have been fortresses, erected in the
early ages of Christianity as places of refuge, in case of danger, for
the priests and their church treasures. I can hardly think, however,
that any people could have selected such a style of architecture for
places of defence. The defenders within would have had to stand upon
each other’s heads, and their only means of annoying their enemies
would have been the four small openings at the top, eighty or a hundred
feet from the ground. Besides, had the round towers been military
places of defence, they would probably have all been destroyed in the
course of the constant wars by which the island has been afflicted,
whereas the round towers have evidently been preserved by the people
with great care, and have ever been looked on by them with the greatest
veneration.

“The notion that the round towers were built by the early Christians as
steeples to hang their bells in is equally untenable, for, though they
are frequently found in close vicinity to the ruins of churches, yet no
kind of steeple could be worse constructed for such a purpose, as the
sound of the bells would scarcely have been heard through the small
apertures at the top, except by those who had already assembled around
the tower.

“Many other opinions have been hazarded, but all at variance with the
popular tradition, which represents the round towers to have been the
temples of the old fire-worshippers from the East, who came over with
the Phœnicians. The poet Moore and other Irish antiquarians are
disposed to adopt this tradition, the more so as the pyreas of the
Ghebers, according to the account of several travellers, bear the
closest similitude to the Irish towers, and because the worship of fire
is known to have been at one time the prevailing religion of Ireland.
The dark interiors of these towers have been well calculated to show
the sacred fire preserved there to the greatest advantage, and the
height of the entrance-door from the ground would be explained by the
sanctity of the place, to which only a few were probably allowed to
have access.

“The great height of the towers has been objected to as entirely
superfluous, supposing them to have been applied to such a use; but it
may have been customary to place the sacred fire in an elevated
position, as an additional mark of respect, and then the towers may
have answered more purposes than one; from the windows at the top
signals may have been made to summon the faithful to prayer, or the
apertures may have been used for astronomical observations, intended to
fix the time of the religious feasts.

“Christian emblems have been discovered in some of these towers. On the
summit of that near Swords, in the county of Dublin, is a small stone
cross, and in others even representations of the Virgin have been
found; but these, there cannot be a doubt, are of modern addition. That
churches and cemeteries should so often be found in the vicinity of
these towers is nothing surprising, for a building that has once become
sacred in the eyes of a people, generally retains a portion of its
sanctity, even though the original religion may be utterly swept away.
Most of the early Christian churches were erected on the foundations of
heathen temples, and a large portion of the Turkish mosques were
formerly Christian churches.

“Generally, where in the vicinity of a round tower there occur the
ruins of churches, these are in number seven. This has been explained
by supposing that, previously to the appearance of St. Patrick,
Christianity—but not Roman Catholic Christianity—had been introduced
into Ireland. This ante-patrician Christianity is said to have been
introduced by the Apostle James, who first preached the gospel in
Ireland, and established the Eastern Church there, with the rites of
the Eastern Œcumenic Synods; and the frequent appearance of seven
churches close to each other is accounted for as a reference to the
seven celebrated churches of the East.

“In this hypothesis, though stoutly denied by the Roman Catholics,
there is nothing improbable, and, if true, it affords another
remarkable proof of the early connection between Ireland and the East.
In no other Christian land in Europe do we constantly find the ruins of
ancient churches in groups of seven.

“We effected a landing on Scattery Island, called in ancient times
Inniscattery, and at present occupied by a few tenants of a Mr. M’Kean,
who graze their cattle there. ‘It is a very old ancient place,’ said
one of the boatmen, as he was carrying me through the water on his
shoulders, for we had come to a landing-place where the tide had left
one foot of water over a large extent of coast. This pleonasm of ‘old
ancient’ might be applied to many parts of Ireland, where old and older
ruins are constantly found in close contiguity.

“In general, where there are seven churches, in Ireland, some ancient
saint is named as having lived and died there, and as having belonged
to the first preachers of Christianity in the country. At Scattery it
is Saint Senanus, whose grave is still shown amid one of the ruins, and
whose fame has been extended far beyond his native isle by one of
Moore’s melodies. These ancient ruins, however, have many graves of a
more modern date; for bodies are still brought over from the mainland
to be interred at Scattery. On the occasion of such a funeral, one boat
serves generally as a hearse, and the mourners follow in other boats.

“I saw many tomb-stones only a few years old, with new inscriptions,
from which the gilding had scarcely begun to fade, and their effect
upon the solitary and remote island was peculiar and by no means
unpleasing. Among them were the tombs of several captains of ships, and
it would have been difficult to suggest a more appropriate place of
interment for such men than this little island cemetery at the mouth of
a great river, with the wide ocean rolling in front. Indeed, there is
no other country in Europe where there are such interesting cemeteries,
or such picturesque tombs, as in Ireland, partly on account of the
abundance of ivy with which they are hung, and partly on account of the
practice that still prevails of burying the dead among ruins.

“Of some of the seven churches on Scattery isle, scarcely a trace
remained; but three of them were in tolerable preservation. Their
walls, covered with ivy, remained, and into the wall of one of them,
that nearest the round tower, a stone strangely sculptured into the
form of a human face had been introduced. Strange to say, it has
completely the stiff, mask-like features and projecting ears of the
Egyptian statue, whence I conclude it must have belonged originally to
some other building. On the opposite wall is a stone with evident
traces of an ancient inscription.

“The round tower stands a little to the side. Although not perfect, it
belongs to the most picturesque in Ireland, for it has been struck by
lightning, and has received a split on one side from top to bottom. On
the south side it is covered completely with mosses and creeping
plants; on the north and west side it is bare, the heavy winds, as the
sailors told me, making all vegetation impossible there. Lightning and
vegetation are the worst enemies the round towers have to contend with,
and it is strange that such active foes should not have been able to
overturn the whole of them in a space of two thousand years.

“All the land upon the little island, except the cemetery, is
pasturage. A small battery has been erected here to protect the mouth
of the Shannon, the entrance to which river is defended by no less than
six batteries and forts, while at the mouth of the Thames there is not
one.

“On leaving Inniscattery, to repair to the kingdom of Kerry, we had
work enough before us, for the tide was against us, besides which we
had to contend with such a variety of currents, that the boatmen
required all their skill and experience to carry their slight skiff in
safety to the little port of Tarbert, whither we were bound. The mouth
of the Shannon has rather the character of an arm of the sea, but to
consider it as such would be in violation of the principles of Irish
geography.

“The waves, now of a very respectable size, were rolling out towards
the ocean; but the fog was completely gone, and we had the most
beautiful sunshine. With the exception of our own little bark, which
seemed to crest the waves like a bird, neither ship nor boat was to be
seen upon the noble estuary, and, without passing a human creature with
whom we could have exchanged a salutation, we arrived at length in
safety at our destined harbour.

“There I learned, when it was too late, that without any additional
expenditure of time or trouble, I might have effected a landing at
Ballybunian, whose marine caverns, at the mouth of the Shannon, are
reckoned among the wonders of Ireland. These caverns stretch more than
a mile from the sea into the land. Ireland, indeed, is rich in
remarkable caverns, many of which are but little known to the
scientific world.”

The original models from which the Round Towers of Ireland were taken
are still to be found in the Soudan of Africa; and the people whose
ancestors erected buildings after this fashion, as they migrated from
their native country to the seaboard, and crossed over to Spain—whence
they visited Ireland—are to this day as savage in manners and customs
as their forefathers were before they left Africa. The following
description of the round conical granaries, the country where they are
situated, and the builders of them, is taken from a work called _Egypt,
the Soudan, and Central Africa_, by John Petherick, F.R.G.S., Her
Britannic Majesty’s Consul for the Soudan:—

“Those of my men who had wintered with the Djour had procured from the
negroes a large quantity of tusks, the accumulation of several years’
hunting. Their journeys had extended to the confines of the Rohl, in
the east, and in the territory of the Djour westwards beyond the large
stream which, on reference to the map, will be seen as the largest
feeder of the lake. I had discovered southwards they had penetrated the
Dôr territory; and as they had succeeded in gaining the good-will of
the Dôr chief Djau, I despatched a party to invite him to meet me.

“The porters who had accompanied me from the Raik, on learning my
intention to proceed south amongst tribes unknown to them, and dreaded
in consequence of the difference of weapons and savage habits, refused
to proceed; and, consigning loads of ivory to them, in charge of a
detachment of my Khartoumers, I sent them back to their own country.
Levying in their stead a party of Djour for the transport of my stock
in trade, I took the advantage of a moonlight night to perform the
journey to the Dôr to Fan-Djau (the country of Djau), so named after my
chief Djau, situated in about six degrees north latitude.

“Our reception amongst them was most hospitable, and in the vicinity of
the chief’s huts we were accommodated with strong wooden sheds, about
six feet high, upon which their corn, divested of its reeds, was
prettily stacked, consisting of different kinds of dourra of different
colours—white, grey, and red—in separate batches. The stacks were
formed with much taste, the sides being perpendicular, terminating in a
cone. The precaution of raising their stacks so high from the ground
was to preserve it from vermin and the white ants.

“The Dôr surpass the Djour in industry, a proof of which existed in
their extensive fields and granaries. Prior to the rainy season, their
grain was threshed and preserved in large cylindrical receptacles,
constructed of reeds and clay, from twelve to fifteen feet in diameter,
and four feet in height, supported upon a strong wood framework some
four feet from the ground. To preserve its contents from the rain, it
was covered by a large thatched framework, not unlike an extinguisher
in shape, and was so light in substance, that when the grain was
required, one side of it could be lifted and supported by a pole, and
the granary entered.[75]

“Their huts were constructed of a beautiful basket-work of cane. The
perpendicular walls were six feet high, and were surmounted with a
pretty cupola-shaped reed roof, topped with wood carvings of birds. A
wooden bedstead occupied its centre, and an oval-shaped hole, two and a
half feet high, barely sufficient to admit a man in a stooping posture,
formed the doorway. At night this was barricaded with logs of wood laid
horizontally upon each other, between perpendicular posts.

“Cooking was carried on in a separate hut, and in lieu of the
stone-mill in use in the Soudan, a large wooden mortar, the pestle some
four or five feet in length, by three inches diameter, served as their
flour-mill. Their food consisted principally of a thick porridge, and a
sauce flavoured with herbs and red pepper; but beef, whenever they
could obtain it by barter for grain with the Djour, or meat from the
chase, was preferred. Rats, mice, and snakes were highly esteemed, and
of these the children were continually in search. Fowls were reared to
a great extent, but from some unaccountable superstition they were only
considered proper food for women: if eaten by men, it was a proof of
effeminacy.

“The Dôr territories are more considerable than any I had yet
traversed; and their language, the nouns of which generally terminated
in _o_ or _a_, was entirely different from any that I had heard. The
men were shorter in stature than the tall Dinka Shillooks, but broader
in the chest and stouter-limbed.

“Total nudity was held in contempt by them, although their covering was
reduced to the smallest possible amount; and when the Djour entered
their village, the little hide ornament worn by them in common with the
Dinka tribes, as a mark of respect was turned round to the front.

“Of a dark brown colour, they further differed from the negroes
hitherto described, in the preservation of their teeth and the
difference of their weapons: these consisted of bows and arrows,
fearfully-barbed lances, and a variety of clubs. Some resembled the
mace of the Middle Ages, whilst others, made of hard wood, were like
the mushroom. The edges were firm and sharp, and when employed against
an enemy would cleave the skull. The points of their arrows, made of
iron, are also numerously barbed; the workmanship, in a variety of
patterns, is admirable.

“The Dôr perhaps excel the Djour in smithery; and, possessing no
cattle, their valuables consist in objects of iron, mostly in circular
plates from nine inches to one foot in diameter, and long ornamented
lance-like articles. For a certain number of these they intermarry.

“Goats and fowls are their only domestic animals; the former a
short-legged and smooth-haired variety. The coat is fine, and coloured
frequently with large round spots of black, yellow, or brown upon
white: they are not milked, although, when taken to Khartoum and
crossed with the native race, they become excellent milkers.

“The women would be handsome were it not for a disfiguration of the
under lip, in which circular pieces of wood are inserted, varying in
size, according to age, from a sixpence to a florin. The young women
are naked, but the married women wear large clusters of green leaves in
front and behind, which, attached by a belt to the waist, reach to the
ankles. Clean in their habits, they are particular in the daily renewal
of their costume from the bush, the numerous evergreens and creeping
plants affording them an abundant material for that purpose.

“Their ears, necks, and waists are profusely adorned with beads, and on
their wrists they wear numerous iron bracelets. The ankles are
encumbered with bright heavy iron rings, fully one inch thick; and
these tinkling together as they dance produce a peculiarly fascinating
sound.

“In the centre of the village is a large circus, where, on a tree,
their war-trophies, the skulls of the slain, are suspended. Beneath it
large tom-toms, made of hollowed trunks of trees, well finished, and
strung with dressed buffalo-hides, were used only on occasions of
universal rejoicing, or to sound the alarm in time of war. The sound
could be heard miles distant. At ordinary times smaller instruments of
the same kind were employed. This large circus was carefully swept and
watered; and under the shade of the tree the men met during the day,
and in the evenings, more especially on moonlight nights, it was the
scene of great conviviality.

“The several approaches to it were narrow foot-paths, and both sides
were ornamented with rough wooden posts, carved into semblances of
human figures, four feet apart; the first were largest in size, the
others had on their heads wooden bowls. These figures were said to
represent the chief proceeding to a festival, and followed by his
retainers bearing viands and _mau_ to the feast.

“The village was prettily situated at the foot of a hill, around which
were two or three other villages, this forming the entire community of
a large district. From its summit a beautiful view of the surrounding
country was obtained. Surrounding the village, at a moderate distance,
were the unfenced gardens of the villagers, in which cucurbits,
vegetables, and seeds were grown; and beyond, to the eastward, was a
large plain of cultivated dourra fields; southward, at about one mile
distant, a winding brook was to be seen, bordered with superb trees and
flourishing canes.

“The bush supplied a variety of game, consisting of partridges,
guinea-fowl, a large white boar, gazelles, antelopes, and giraffes.
Elephants and buffalo I did not encounter, and I was told they only
frequented the locality during the rainy season.

“The Dôr acknowledge no superior chief, and the tribe is divided into
separate communities; and these, although living, as in this instance,
in close proximity, look upon each other as almost separate tribes,
holding little or no communication. They live in a state of continual
feud, attributable to encroachments on hunting-grounds. Their battues
consist in driving the game into strong nets, which, suspended to the
trunks of trees at right angles, cover a space of several miles.

“During my stay at Djau, a hunt of this description, in which the
inhabitants of a village some miles distant joined, took place, and, as
usual, ended in a quarrel. Sitting under my habitation at noon, several
boys returned to the village for extra weapons for the use of their
fathers. The alarm spread instantly that a fight was taking place, and
the women _en masse_ proceeded to the scene with yellings and shrieks
indescribable. Seizing my rifle, and accompanied by four of my
followers, curiosity to see a negro fight tempted me to accompany them.

“After a stiff march of a couple of hours through bush and glade,
covered with waving grass reaching nearly to our waists, the return of
several boys warned us of the proximity of the fight, and of their fear
of its turning against them—the opposing party being the most
numerous. Many of the women hurried back to their homes, to prepare, in
case of emergency, for flight and safety in the bush. For such an
occurrence, to a certain extent, they are always prepared; several
parcels of grain, and provisions neatly packed up in spherical forms,
in leaves surrounded by network, being generally kept ready in every
hut for a sudden start.

“Accelerating our pace, and climbing up a steep hill, as we reached the
summit and were proceeding down a gentle slope, I came in contact with
Djau and his party in full retreat, and leaping like greyhounds over
the low underwood and high grass. On perceiving me they halted, and
rent the air with shouts of ‘The white chief! the white chief!’ and I
was almost suffocated by the embraces of the chief. My presence gave
them courage to face the enemy again; a loud peculiar shrill whoop from
the grey-headed but still robust chief was the signal for attack, and,
bounding forward, they were soon out of sight. To keep up with them
would have been an impossibility; but, marching at the top of our pace,
we followed them as best we could.

“After a long march down a gentle declivity, at the bottom of which was
a beautiful glade, we again came up with them, drawn up in line in
pairs, some yards apart from each other, within the confines of the
bush, not a sound indicating their presence. Joining them, and
inquiring what had become of the enemy, the men whom I addressed
silently pointed to the bush on the opposite side of the glade, some
three hundred yards across.

“Notwithstanding my intention of being a mere spectator, I now felt
myself compromised in the fight; and although unwilling to shed blood,
I could not resist my aid to the friends who afforded me an asylum
amongst them. Marching accordingly into the open with my force of four
men, I resolved that we would act as skirmishers on the side of our
hosts, who retained their position in the bush.

“We had proceeded about a third of the way across the glade, when the
enemy advanced out of the wood and formed a long line of two or three
deep, on its confines opposite to us. I also drew up my force, and for
an instant we stood looking at each other. Although within range, at
about two hundred yards’ distance, I did not like to fire upon them;
but in preference continued advancing, thinking the prestige of my
fire-arms would be sufficient. I was right. We had scarcely marched
fifty yards, when a general flight took place, and in an instant Djau
and his host, amounting to some three or four hundred men, passed us in
hot pursuit.

“After reflection on the rashness of exposing myself with so few men to
the hostility of some six hundred negroes, and in self-congratulation
on the effect my appearance in the fight had produced, I awaited the
return of my hosts. In the course of an hour this took place; and as
they advanced I shall never forget the impression they made upon me. A
more complete picture of savage life I could not have imagined. A large
host of naked negroes came trooping on, grasping in their hands bow and
arrow, lances and clubs, with wild gesticulations and frightful yells
proclaiming their victory, whilst one displayed the reeking head of a
victim.

“I refused to join them in following up the defeat of their enemies by
a descent on their villages. With some difficulty they were persuaded
to be content with the success already achieved—that of having beaten
off a numerically superior force—and return to their homes. Their
compliance was only obtained by an actual refusal of further
co-operation; but in the event of a renewed attack upon their villages,
the probability of which was suggested, I promised them my willing
support.

“We had not gone fifty paces, when I beheld the form of a young man
prostrate, apparently lifeless; and seeing only a deep incision across
his wrist, nearly severing the hand from the arm, and a lance-thrust
that had penetrated the shoulder between the muscle and the flesh, his
open eyes suggested that life might not be extinct. I felt his pulse,
but it was imperceptible. At the same time a negro with his lance
coolly severed the muscle, and extricated the barbed projectile. I
looked upon the man with disgust; but, with a laugh, taking the body by
the hand, he rolled it over on the chest, and then two open
lance-wounds between the shoulders plainly showed the cause of death.

“On our way home the body was drawn by the legs for a considerable
distance, and finally carried on the shoulders of some of the party to
conceal the trail. It was secreted in the bush in the hope of its
eluding the search of the enemy, leaving it to be devoured by beasts of
prey; but the head, severed from the body, was secured and destined,
with four others, to be suspended on the tree in the centre of the
village circus.

“At night great rejoicings took place, commencing with a war-dance by
the women, who, in pairs, closely following each other to the sound of
the tom-tom, and chanting a war-song, moved in measured steps round the
tree. At each time, as the procession approached the heads of the
victims, a halt took place, and insulting epithets addressed to the
fallen were followed by the clanking of their anklets and shrieks of
applause. Sickened with the exhibition, I retired from the scene.

“The day following, after a night’s conviviality, the heads were
secreted in the bush in order to bleach the skulls. Another feast
celebrated their suspension on the tree.”

These are the descendants of the Moors who built the Round Towers in
Ireland, when they became masters of Spain!

                               CHAPTER X.

                            DEATH OF MOSES.

The Law-giver, when he had firmly established the two extensive empires
of Mexico and Peru, had it in his mind to found another kingdom in the
north of Mexico, which should include King George’s Sound, in the
Pacific Ocean, and stretch across the continent of North America till
it reached the Atlantic Ocean.

This immense tract of country was inhabited by savages, living like the
wild animals by whom they were surrounded. They knew not God, nor had
they any idea of religion, having no greater intelligence than that
possessed by the brute creation. It was, however, the intention of
Moses to visit these people, to teach them the knowledge of civilised
life, and to impart to them the blessings of religion and industry.

This, indeed, was the mission on which Moses was sent over the
different quarters of the habitable globe by his God, who spoke to him
on Mount Sinai, and who took him away from the camp of the children of
Israel at the ford of the river Jordan, viz. that he (Moses) might
carry the glorious tidings of salvation to nations that were living in
ignorance and superstition. He obeyed the sacred behest, and there are
ample proofs which attest the success of his mission and labour of love.

The route he took is marked by signs of flourishing empires, with
religion, learning, and laws, as far as the spot where the servant of
God was killed by savages—the very people whom he came to reclaim. He
visited the coast of North America in a boat made of copper, everything
on board of which was made of that metal. Of this the Indians are
passionately fond, and for the sake of it they killed the inspired
missionary.

But the sequel proves that they repented of their wicked deed—when it
was too late. In the hope of obtaining forgiveness from the murdered
old man, they paid him divine worship, and carved an image to represent
the visitant whom they so cruelly deprived of life. The memory of this
remarkable event was handed down to posterity from generation to
generation, even to the time when Captain Meares visited that coast in
his ship; and the story was related to him by one of the descendants of
those who committed the horrid crime. Captain Meares gives the
following narrative of what he heard:—[76]

“For a long time the English thought the inhabitants had no religious
belief whatever. To the huge mis-shapen images seen in their houses
they addressed no homage; they had neither priests nor temples, nor did
they offer any sacrifices; but an accidental circumstance led to the
discovery that, though devoid of all superstitious observances, and
wholly ignorant of the true God, they were not without a certain
species of mythology, including a belief of an existence after death.
This discovery arose from our inquiries on a very different subject.

“On expressing our wish to be informed by what means they became
acquainted with copper, and why it was such a peculiar object of their
admiration, a son of Hannapa, one of the Nootkan chiefs, a youth of
uncommon sagacity, informed us of all he knew on the subject; and we
found, to our surprise, that his story involved a little sketch of
their religion. When words were wanting he supplied the deficiency by
those expressive actions which nature or necessity seems to communicate
to people whose language is imperfect; and the young Nootkan conveyed
his ideas by signs so skilfully as to render them perfectly
intelligible. He related his story in the following manner:—

“He first placed a certain number of sticks on the ground, at small
distances from each other, to which he gave separate names. Thus, he
called the first his father, and the next his grandfather: he then took
what remained and threw them all into confusion together, as much as to
say that they were the general heap of his ancestors, whom he could not
individually reckon.

“He then, pointing to this bundle, said, when they lived an old man
entered the sound[77] in a copper canoe, with copper paddles, and
everything else in his possession of the same metal; that he paddled
along the shore, on which all the people were assembled to contemplate
so strange a sight, and that, having thrown one of his copper paddles
on shore, he himself landed. The extraordinary stranger then told the
natives that he came from the sky, to which the boy pointed with his
hand; that their country would one day be destroyed, when they would
all be killed, and rise again to live in the place from whence he came.

“Our young interpreter explained this circumstance of his narrative by
lying down as if he were dead, and then, rising up suddenly, he
imitated the action as if he were soaring through the air. He continued
to inform us that the people killed the old man, and took his canoe,
from which event they derived their fondness for copper; and he added
that the images in their houses were intended to represent the form,
and perpetuate the mission, of this supernatural person who came from
the sky.”

Thus ended the glorious life of the man of God. His death was as
mysterious to his followers in America, as was his disappearance and
supposed death to the Israelites in Asia. He was the first missionary
who carried the glad tidings of God’s good-will towards an erring
world; and he died the death of a martyr at the hands of the very world
that he came to enlighten.

At the time of his death Moses must have been very old, for he was
already one hundred and twenty years old when he left the Israelites.
To arrive at the exact age to which he attained, an acquaintance with
the chronicles of many kingdoms would be necessary, in order to know
the date at which he arrived, and what length of time he sojourned, in
each. But as most of the empires which Moses founded are now under the
government of various nations, who have wantonly destroyed every
vestige of the history and traditions of their former kings, this
knowledge cannot be attained in this age of the world.

When Moses commenced his missionary life he was accompanied by his
Ethiopian consort,[78] and a son, by her, as there is evidence to prove
in the painting at Thebes, where there is a representation of the
Ethiopian princess with a boy on her lap.[79] There also went with him
Zipporah and her two sons, Gershom and Eliezer,[80] and their sons,[81]
and a large company of Jews, Egyptians, and Ethiopians.[82]

The doctrine that Moses preached everywhere was the same as that he
wrote and left among the Jews. It will, therefore, not be out of place
to rehearse it here, as he rehearsed it before the Israelites previous
to his departure from their midst:—

“Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words
of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil
as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers
upon the grass: Because I will publish the name of the Lord: ascribe ye
greatness unto our God. He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all
his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and
right is he.

“They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his
children. Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? Is
not he thy father that hath bought thee? hath he not made thee, and
established thee?

“Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask
thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee.
When the Most High divided to the nations the inheritance, when he
separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according
to the number of the children of Israel. For the Lord’s portion is his
people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He found him in a desert
land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he
instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.

“As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth
abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: so the Lord
alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him. He made him
ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of
the fields, and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out
of the flinty rock; butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of
lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of
kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape.

“But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxed fat, thou art grown
thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made
him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation. They provoked him
to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to
anger. They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew
not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not. Of
the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God
that formed thee.

“And when the Lord saw it, he abhorred them, because of the provoking
of his sons, and of his daughters. And he said, I will hide my face
from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very
froward generation, children in whom is no faith. They have moved me to
jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger
with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which
are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest
hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire
the foundations of the mountains.

“I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them.
They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and
with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon
them, with the poison of serpents of the dust. The sword without, and
terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the
suckling also with the man of gray hairs.

“I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the
remembrance of them to cease from among men: Were it not that I feared
the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should behave themselves
strangely, and lest they should say, Our hand is high, and the Lord
hath not done all this. For they are a nation void of counsel, neither
is there any understanding in them.

“O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would
consider their latter end! How should one chase a thousand, and two put
ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the Lord
had shut them up? For their Rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies
themselves being judges. For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of
the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters
are bitter. Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of
asps. Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my
treasures?

“To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide in
due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that
shall come upon them make haste. For the Lord shall judge his people,
and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is
gone, and there is none shut up or left. And he shall say, Where are
their gods, their rock in whom they trusted, which did eat the fat of
their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offerings? let them
rise up and help you, and be your protection.

“See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill,
and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can
deliver out of my hand. For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say I live
for ever. If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on
judgment; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them
that hate me. I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword
shall devour flesh: and that with the blood of the slain and of the
captives, from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy.

“Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people: for he will avenge the blood
of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will
be merciful unto his land, and to his people.

“And Moses came and spake all the words of this song in the ears of the
people, he, and Hoshea the son of Nun. And Moses made an end of
speaking all these words to all Israel.

“And he said unto them, Set your hearts unto all the words which I
testify among you this day, which ye shall command your children to
observe to do, all the words of this law. For it is not a vain thing
for you; because it is your life: and through this thing ye shall
prolong your days in the land, whither ye go over Jordan to possess
it.”[83]

                              CHAPTER XI.

                           RECORD OF FAMINES.

It appears from the numerous ruins of Pyramids (and Round Towers), that
the ancients, such as Zaphnath-paaneah and Moses—the latter under a
great many different names—in their wisdom and forethought erected
them as granaries, so that, notwithstanding the various causes of
famine, their territories might be always well provisioned and able to
withstand the attack of the dire enemy.

The Famine Statistics of modern times show how necessary those
precautions were. If the Round Towers of Ireland had still been used in
the Christian Era as granaries, and well stored with corn, instead of
being turned into towers for hanging church bells in, how many precious
lives would have been saved during all those famines which devastated
that beautiful island!

The following is a Chronological Table of Famines[84] that visited
Ireland within the Christian Era.

  A.D.

 10-15     | A general fruitlessness, giving rise to famine and great
           |  mortality.
    76     | Great scarcity.
   192     | General scarcity; bad harvest; mortality and emigration,
           |   “so that lands and houses, territories and tribes, were
           |   emptied.”—First notice of emigration.
   535     | Destruction of food and scarcity, lasted four years.
   664     | Great famine.
   669     | Great scarcity; and in following year.
 695-700   | Famine and pestilence during three years, “so that men ate
           |   each other.”
   759     | Great famine throughout the kingdom;
           |   and more or less for several years.
   768     | Famine and an earthquake.
   772     | Famine from drought.
  824-25   | Great dearth.
  895-97   | Famine from invasion of locusts.
  963-64   | An intolerable famine, “so that parents sold their children
           |   for food.”
   1047    | Great famine and snow.
   1116    | Great famine, “during which the people even ate each
           |   other.”
   1153    | Great famine in Munster, and spread all over Ireland.
   1188    | Great scarcity of food in north of Ireland.
   1200    | “A cold, foodless year.”
   1203    | A great famine, “so that priests ate flesh in Lent.”
   1227    | A great famine throughout the country.
   1262    | Great destruction of people from plague and hunger.
   1271    | Pestilence and famine in the whole of Ireland.
   1295    | Great dearth during this and the previous and following
           |   years.
   1302    | Famine.
   1314    | Famine and various distempers.
   1316    | Great dearth. Eight captured Scots eaten at siege of
           |   Carrickfergus.
   1317    | A great famine throughout the country in consequence of
           |   Bruce’s invasion.
   1332    | A peck of wheat sold for 22 shillings.
   1339    | A general famine.
   1410    | “A great famine.”
   1433    | Famine of great severity.
   1447    | Great famine in the Spring.
   1491    | Such a famine that it was called, “The Dismal Year.”
   1497    | “Intolerable famine throughout all Ireland—many perished.”
   1522    | A great famine.
   1586    | Extreme famine consequent on the wars of Desmond. Human
           |   flesh said to have been eaten.
 1588-89   | Great famine, “when one did eate another for hunger.”
 1601-03   | Great scarcity and want. Cannibalism again reported.
 1650-51   | A famine throughout the country. Sieges of Limerick and
           |   Galway.
   1690    | Famine and disease.
 1727-29   | Corn very dear. “Many hundreds perished.” Emigration.
 1739-40   | Potatoes destroyed by frost; wheat 42 shillings per
           |   kilderkin.
   1765    | Great scarcity; distilling and exportation of corn
           |   prohibited by Act of Parliament.
   1822    | Dreadful famine, produced by failure of potato crop.
           |   “While, however, the agriculturists of the continent were
           |   suffering from an abundance, a grievous famine arose in
           |   Ireland, showing the anomalies of her situation,
           |   resulting either from the staple food of her population
           |   differing from that of surrounding  nations, or the
           |   limitation of her commercial exchanges with her
           |   neighbours. Her distresses from scarcity were aggravated
           |   by the agrarian outrages, originating in the pressure of
           |   tythes and rack-rents on the peasantry and small farmers.
           |   Several of the ringleaders of these disorders were
           |   apprehended by the civil and military power, and great
           |   numbers executed or transported.”—Wade’s _Brit. Hist._
   1831    | Famine; Parliament granted £40,000 for relief; £74,410
           |   subscriptions in England.
   1845    | Famine; the Government expended £850,000 in relief of
           |   sufferers.
 1846-47   | Great potato famine; Parliament advanced nearly
           |   £10,000,000; about 275,000 persons are supposed to have
           |   perished. The famine in the whole lasted over nearly six
           |   years; the population became reduced by about 2,500,000.
           |   The emigration to America was 1,180,409, and 1,029,552
           |   are said to have died from starvation and pestilence
           |   consequent upon it. This is probably over-stated. It is
           |   further said that about 25 per cent. of the emigrants
           |   died within twelve months of leaving. The Commerce and
           |   Navigation Laws were repealed.

The above table shows how terribly the Irish people have suffered from
want of food, and how in their hunger they have been compelled to have
recourse to cannibalism in order to save themselves from death by
starvation. This sad picture should be a lesson to fanatics like those
who, in their misdirected zeal to serve their Master in heaven,
destroyed the granaries of the ancient people, mistaking them to be
temples dedicated to heathen gods. For, had the pyramids, which appear
to have existed in large numbers all over Ireland, been filled during
the years of plenty, and the grain kept in reserve until the time of
scarcity, there would then have been sufficient food not only for the
inhabitants of Ireland, but also for the wants of the sister islands.

The following chronological table of the famines that have devastated
England, Scotland and Wales, is taken from Walford’s _Famines of the
World_. It presents a sad picture of human misery and wretchedness,
which might have been prevented by wisdom and forethought.

           TABLE OF FAMINES IN ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, AND WALES.

   A.D.    |
     54    | England. Grievous famine
    104    | England and Scotland. Famine.
    107    | Britain. From long rains.
    119    | Britain. “After a pillar of fire seen several nights in the
           |   air.”
    151    | Wales. Grievous.
    160    | England. Multitudes starved.
    173    | England. After severe frost and snow.
    228    | Scotland. “Thousands were starved.”
    238    | Scotland. “Most grievous.”
    259    | Wales. Thousands were “pined to death.”
    272    | Britain. People ate the bark of trees and roots.
    288    | Britain. Famine all through.
    298    | Wales. After a comet.
    306    | Scotland. Thousands died; most grievous and fatal for four
           |   years.—Short.
    310    | England. 40,000 perished.
    325    | Britain. Generally, severe famine.
    439    | Britain. After a comet.
    466    | Britain. “And bad fatal air.”—Short.
    480    | Scotland. After a comet.
    515    | Britain. “Most afflictive.”
    523    | Scotland. “Terrible.”
    527    | North Wales. Famine.
    531    | South Wales. And a small plague.
    537    | Scotland. Dearth; also in Wales.
    576    | Scotland. “Fatal.”
    590    | England. From a tempest that raised a great flood.
    592    | England. Drought from 10th January to September; and
           |   locusts.
    605    | England. From heat and drought.
    625    | Britain. Grievous.
    667    | Scotland. Grievous.
    680    | Britain. From three years’ drought.
  695-700  | England. Famine and pestilence during three years, “so that
           |   men ate each other.”
    712    | Wales. Famine.
    730    | England, Wales and Scotland. Great famine.
    746    | Wales. Dearth.
    748    | Scotland. Famine.
    774    | Scotland. “With plague.”
    791    | Wales. Grievous.
    792    | Scotland. Dearth.
    793    | England. “After many meteors”; and in other parts of the
           |   world.
    803    | Scotland. “Terrible.”
  822-23   | England. “Thousands starve”; also in Scotland, according to
           |   Short.
    836    | Wales. “The ground covered with dead bodies of men and
           |   beasts.”—Short.
    856    | Scotland. A four years’ famine began.
    863    | Scotland. With a plague.
    872    | England. “From ugly locusts.”
    887    | England. “Grievous two years.”
    890    | Scotland. Great dearth.
    900    | England. Famine.
    931    | Wales. Famine.
    936    | Scotland. After a comet; four years, “till people began to
           |   devour one another.”—Short.
    954    | England, Wales, and Scotland. Great famine, which lasts
           |   four years.
    962    | England. Famine caused by frost.
    969    | England. “All grain burnt by the winds.”—Short.
    975    | England. Famine scoured the hills.
    976    | England. This was the “great famine,” micla hungor.—John of
           |   Brompton.
    988    | England. From rains and barren land.
    989    | England. “Grievous, from a rainy winter; bad spring;
           |   neither ploughing nor sowing; snowy harvest.”
   1004    | England. “Such a famine prevailed as no man could
           |   remember.”
   1005    | England. “This year was the great famine in England.” Sweyn
           |   the Dane quits in consequence.
   1008    | Wales. Attended with plague.
   1012    | England. Endless multitudes died of famine.
   1025    | England. From rains, and plague.
   1031    | England. From great rains and locusts.—Short.
   1042    | England. About this time such a famine came on that a
           |   sextarius of wheat, which is usually a load for one
           |   horse, sold for five solidi and more.—Henry of
           |   Huntingdon. Lasted seven years.
   1047    | England. From snow and frost.
 1047-48   | Scotland. Famine-extending over two years.
   1050    | England. Great famine and mortality; from barrenness of the
           |   land.
   1053    | England. Famine after a comet; lasted two years.
   1068    | England. Famine and plague after a severe winter.
   1069    | England. Normans desolated England, and in the following
           |   year famine spread over the northern counties of England,
           |   “so that man, driven by hunger, ate human, dog, and horse
           |   flesh”; some to sustain a miserable life sold themselves
           |   for slaves. All land lying “between Durham and Yorke lay
           |   waste, without inhabitants or people to till the ground,
           |   for the space of nine years, except only the territory of
           |   St. John of Bewlake.”—(Beverley.)
           |   “Divers other parts of his realm were so wasted with
           |   his wars that, for want both of husbandry and habitation,
           |   a great dearth did ensue, whereby many were forced to eat
           |   horses, dogs, cats, rats, and other loathsome and vile
           |   vermin; yea, some abstained not from the flesh of men.
           |   This famine and desolation did specially rage in the
           |   north parts of the realm.”—_Harleian Miscellany_,
           |   III. p. 151.
   1073    | England. Famine, followed by mortality so fierce that “the
           |   living could take no care of the sick, nor bury the
           |   dead.”—Henry of Huntingdon.
   1086    | England. A great murrain of animals, and such intemperate
           |   weather that many died of fever and famine.—Henry de
           |   Knyghton. Excessive rains.—Short.
   1087    | England. Pestilence followed by famine; great suffering.
   1093    | England. Great famine and mortality.—Stow.
   1096    | England. “Heavy-timed hunger that severely oppressed the
           |   earth.”—_Saxon Chronicle._ “Summer rain, tempests,
           |   and bad air.”—Short.
   1099    | England. Famine from rains and floods.
   1106    | England. From barren land; then plague.
   1111    | England. Winter long and very severe; great scarcity
           |   followed.
   1117    | England. From tempest, hail, and a year’s incessant rains.
 1121-22   | England. “Great famine from long and cruel frosts.”
   1124    | England. “Such a famine prevailed that everywhere in
           |   cities, villages, and cross-roads lifeless bodies lie
           |   unburied.”
           |   “By means of changing the coine all things became very
           |   deere, whereof an extreame famine did arise, and afflict
           |   the multitude of the people, even to death.”—Penkethman.
   1125    | England. Great flood on St. Lawrence’s Day; famine in
           |   consequence of destruction of crops, &c.
   1126    | England. “Incessant rains during the summer, when followed
           |   in all England a most unheard-of scarcity. A sextarius of
           |   wheat sold for 20 shillings.”
 1135-37   | England. Great drought and famine.
   1141    | England. Famine, said to have lasted twelve years.—Short.
   1154    | England. From rains, frost, tempest, thunder, and
           |   lightning.
   1175    | England. Pestilence, followed by great dearth.
   1176    | Wales. A great famine and mortality.
   1183    | England and Wales. A great famine severely afflicted both
           |   England and Wales.
 1193-96   | England. Famine occasioned by incessant rains. “The common
           |   people (_Vulgus pauperum_) perished everywhere for
           |   lack of food; and on the footsteps of famine the
           |   fiercest pestilence followed, in the form of an acute
           |   fever.”—Walter Hemingford.
   1203    | England. A great mortality and famine, from long rains.
   1209    | England. Famine from a rainy summer and severe winter.
   1224    | England. A very dry winter and bad seed-time, whence
           |   followed a great famine.
   1235    | England. Famine and plague; 20,000 persons die in London;
           |   people eat horseflesh, bark of trees, grass, &c.—Short.
   1239    | England. Great famine, “people eat their children.”—Short.
   1248    | England. “By reason of embasing the coin of great penury
           |   followed.”
   1252    | England. No rain from Whitsuntide to autumn; no grass;
           |   hence arose a severe famine; great mortality of man and
           |   cattle; dearness of grain and scarcity of fruit.
   1257    | England. The inundations of autumn destroyed the grain and
           |   fruit, and pestilence followed.
   1258    | England. North winds in spring destroyed vegetation; food
           |   failed, the preceding harvest having been small, and
           |   innumerable multitudes of poor people died. Fifty
           |   shiploads of wheat, barley, and bread were procured
           |   from Germany; but citizens of London were forbidden
           |   by proclamation against dealing in same. “A great dearth
           |   followed this wet year pest, for a quarter of wheat was
           |   sold for 15 and 20 shillings, but the worst was in the
           |   end; there could be none found for money when—though many
           |   poor people were constrained to eat barks of trees and
           |   horseflesh, but many starved for want of food—20,000 (as
           |   it was said) in London.”—Penkethman.
   1271    | England. A violent tempest and inundation, followed by a
           |   severe famine in the entire district of Canterbury.
   1286    | England. Short speaks of a twenty-three years’ famine
           |   commencing this year.
   1289    | England. A tempest destroyed the seed, and corn rose to a
           |   great price.
   1294    | England. Severe famine; many thousands of the poor died.
   1295    | England. No grain or fruits, “so that the poor died of
           |   hunger.”—Camden. Hail, great concussion of
           |   elements.—Short
   1297    | Scotland. “Calamitous” famine and pestilence.
   1298    | England. 26 Edward I. “A great famine in England, chiefly
           |   want of wine; so that the same could scarcely be had to
           |   minister the communion in the churches.”—Penkethman.
   1302    | England and Scotland. Famine.
   1314    | England. Grains spoiled by the rains. Famine “so dreadful
           |   that the people devoured the flesh of horses, dogs, cats,
           |   and vermin.” Parliament passed a measure limiting the
           |   price of provisions.
   1316    | England. Universal dearth, and such a mortality,
           |   particularly of the poor, followed, that the living could
           |   scarcely bury the dead. Royal proclamation: no more beer
           |   to be made.
   1321    | England. Famine again; this is regarded by some writers as
           |   the last serious famine in this country.
   1335    | England. Famine occasioned by long rains.
   1336    | Scotland. Desolated by a famine.
   1341    | England, Scotland. Great dearth in this and following year.
           |   People ate horses, dogs, cats, &c., to sustain
           |   life.—Holinshed.
   1353    | England. Great famine.—Rapin.
   1355    | England. Great scarcity; grain brought from Ireland
           |   afforded much relief.
   1358    | England. “A great dearth and pestilence happened in
           |   England, which was called the second
           |   pestilence.”—Penkethman.
   1369    | England. Great pestilence among men and larger animals;
           |   followed by inundations and extensive destruction of
           |   grain. Grain very dear.
   1390    | England. Great famine arising from scarcity of money to
           |   buy food.
   1392    | England. Great scarcity for two years; people ate unripe
           |   fruit, and suffered greatly from “Flux.” The Corporation
           |   of London advanced money and corn to the poor at easy
           |   rates.—Stow.
           |   Short attributes the famine of these three years to the
           |   “hoarding of corn.”
           |   Penkethman gives further details regarding the
           |   assistance rendered by the Corporation of London, as
           |   follows: “The Mayor and Citizens of London took out of
           |   the Orphans’ chest in their Guildhall, 2,000 marks to buy
           |   corn and other victualls from beyond the sea; and the
           |   Aldermen each of them layd out twenty pound to the like
           |   purpose of buying corn; which was bestowed in divers
           |   places, where the poore might buy at an appointed price,
           |   and such as lacked money to pay doune, did put in surity
           |   to pay in the yeare following: in which yeare, when
           |   Harvest came, the fields yielded plentifull increase, and
           |   so the price of Corne began to decrease,” p. 68.
   1427    | England. Famine from great rains.
   1429    | Scotland. Dearth.
 1437-38   | England. Wheat rose from its ordinary price of 4s. to 4s.
           |   6d. per quarter to 26s. 8d.
           |   Bread was made from fern-roots.—Stow.
           |   Rains and tempests.—Short.
   1438    | England. “In the 17th yeere of Henry the Sixt, by meanes of
           |   great tempests, immeasurable windes and raines, there
           |   arose such a scarcitie that wheat was sold in some places
           |   for 2 shillings 6 pence the bushell.”—Penkethman.
   1439    | England. (18 Hen. VI.). “Wheat was sold at London for 3s.
           |   the bushell, mault at 13s. the quarter, and oates at 8d.
           |   the bushell, which caused men to eat beanes, peas, and
           |   barley, more than in an hundred years before: wherefore
           |   Stephen Browne, then maior, sent into Pruse (Prussia),
           |   and caused to be brought to London many ships laden with
           |   rye, which did much good; for bread-corne was so scarce
           |   in England that poor people made their breade of ferne
           |   rootes.”—Penkethman.
   1440    | England. A scarcity. Scotland.—A famine.
   1486    | England. “Famine sore.”
   1491    | England. Considerable scarcity.
   1494    | England. Great scarcity and high prices.
   1521    | England. Famine and mortality. “Wheat sold in London for
           |   20s. a quarter.”
   1523    | England. Severe famine.
   1527    | England. (19 Hen. VIII.). “Such scarcitie of bread was at
           |   London and throughout England that many dyed for want
           |   thereof. The King sent to the Citie, of his owne
           |   provision, 600 quarters: the bread carts then coming from
           |   Stratford (where nearly all the bakings were, probably on
           |   account of proximity to Epping Forest) towards London,
           |   were met at the Mile End by a great number of citizens,
           |   so that the maior and sheriffes were forced to goe and
           |   rescue the same, and see them brought to the markets
           |   appointed, wheat being then at 15s. the quarter. But
           |   shortly after the merchants of the Stiliard (Steelyard)
           |   brought from Danske (Danzic) such store of wheat and rye,
           |   that it was better cheape at London than in any other
           |   part of the Realme.”—Penkethman.
   1545    | England. A wonderful dearth and extreme prices.
   1549    | England. Famine from neglect of agriculture.
  1556-58  | England. Famine from great rains, bad and inconstant
           |   seasons; heat and long south winds.—Short.
   1563    | London. Famine and pestilence, said to have carried off
           |   20,000 people.
   1565    | British Isles. Extended famine. £2,000,000 said to have
           |   been expended in importation of grain.
   1586    | England. “In the 29th yeare of Queen Elizabeth, about
           |   January, Her Majesty observing the general Dearthe of
           |   Corne, and other Victual, growne partly through the
           |   unseasonablenesse of the year then passed, and partly
           |   through the uncharitable greediness of the Corne-masters,
           |   but especially through the unlawful and overmuch
           |   transporting of graine in forreine parts; by the advice
           |   of Her most Hon. Privy Council, published a Proclamation,
           |   and a Booke of Orders, to be taken by the Justices for
           |   reliefe of the Poore [commencement of the poor law],
           |   notwithstanding all which the excessive prices of graine
           |   still encreased: so that Wheat in meale, was sold at
           |   London for 8s. the Bushel, and in some other parts of the
           |   Realme above that price.”—Penkethman.
   1594    | England. Famine. During the siege of Paris by Henry IV.
           |   this year, owing to famine, bread which had been sold,
           |   while any remained, for a crown a-pound, was at last made
           |   from the bones of the charnel-house of the Holy
           |   Innocents.—Hinault.
   1595    | England. (36 Elizabeth.) “By the late Transportations of
           |   graine into forreine  parts, the same was here grown of
           |   an excessive price, as in some parts of this Realme, from
           |   14s. to 4 markes the quarter, and more, as the Poore did
           |   feele; and all other things whatsoever were made to
           |   sustain man, were likewise raysed, without all conscience
           |   and reason. For remedie whereof our Merchants brought
           |   back from Danske (Danzic) much rye and wheat, but passing
           |   deere; though not of the best, yet serving the turn in
           |   such extremities. Some ’Prentices and other young people
           |   about the Citie of London, being pinched of their
           |   Victuals, more than they had beene accustomed, tooke
           |   Butter from the market folkes in Southwarke, paying but
           |   3d. where the owners would not afford  it under 5d. by
           |   the pound. For which disorder the said young men were
           |   punished on the 27th June, by whipping, setting on the
           |   Pillorie, and long imprisonment.”—Penkethman.
   1630    | England. Dearth; bread made of turnips, &c.
   1649    | Scotland and North of England. “From rains and wars”; also
           |   following year.
   1649    | Lancashire. Occasioned by the ravages of the armies; and
           |   the plague follows it.—Salmon’s _Chronological
           |   Historian_.
 1694-99   | Scotland. Famine; England, great dearth, “from rains,
           |   colds, frosts, snows; all bad weathers.”—Short.
   1700    | England. From rain and cold of previous year.
   1709    | Scotland. From rain and cold; also in England.
 1740-41   | England. “From frost, cold, exporting and hoarding up
           |   corn.”—Short.
   1741    | Scotland. From “terrible shake-winds when corn was ready
           |   for reaping.”—Short.
   1748    | England. Extended famine.
   1766    | Scotland. “The magistrates of Edinburgh and Glasgow have
           |   put a stop to the exportation of grain, tallow, and
           |   butter, in their respective jurisdictions; a power which
           |   the magistrates of London do not seem to
           |   possess.”—_Gentleman’s Magazine_, February.
   1795    | England. Scarcity of food severely felt.
   1801    | United Kingdom. Great scarcity; flour obtained from
           |   America; Committees of both Houses of Parliament were
           |   appointed to inquire into means of supplying food.
   1812    | United Kingdom. Great scarcity in England and Ireland.

To this list of heart-rending desolation caused by famine, may be added
many other cases which have occurred more recently, and among them the
appalling famine in China—a kingdom well provided with granaries
constructed by the ancient founder, Moses. From the account given by a
traveller, who marvelled at such solitary hills standing in plains
surrounded by fertile corn-fields, it may safely be inferred that these
Pyramids or Storehouses still remain unopened, and, consequently, are
stored with the produce of the fields that surround them. So that had
the Emperors of China been aware of the existence of such
treasure-houses in their extensive dominions, peopled by innumerable
millions of human beings, they would never have had the sorrow of
reading such a harrowing account of misery suffered by their subjects,
arising from want of food, which was so near at hand! This severe
famine visited China in A.D. 1877-78, and is thus chronicled by
Walford:—

“North China.—A telegram dated 26th January 1878, says: ‘Appalling
famine raging throughout four provinces North China. Nine million
people reported destitute. Children daily sold in markets for (raising
means to procure) food. Foreign Relief Committee appeal to England and
America for assistance.’ Total population of districts affected,
seventy millions. Mr. Fredk. H. Balfour, of Shanghai, said: ‘The
people’s faces are black with hunger; they are dying by thousands upon
thousands. Women and girls and boys are openly offered for sale to any
chance wayfarer. When I left the country, a respectable married woman
could be easily bought for six dollars, and a little girl for two. In
cases, however, where it was found impossible to dispose of their
children, parents have been known to kill them sooner than witness
their prolonged sufferings, in many instances throwing themselves
afterwards down wells, or committing suicide by arsenic.’

“‘Lord Derby received a report drawn up by Mr. Mayers, Chinese
Secretary of the Legation at Pekin, upon the distress which the drought
of the last two years has caused in the northern and central provinces
of China. This famine, it seems, has been most severely felt in the
district furthest from the coast. With the exception of Chefoo, and, in
a lesser degree, Tien-tsin, no foreign settlement has come directly
into contact with the misery which has been described as existing in
the interior, nor are any immediate traces of it visible in the
neighbourhood of the capital. The apparent cause was disturbance in the
usually unfailing regularity of the summer monsoons. The spring and
summer of 1876 were marked in the southern maritime provinces,
Kwangtung and Fuhkien, and in a less degree also along the coast as far
north as Ningpo, by an excessive rain-fall, causing in the two
provinces above-named disastrous floods and much destruction of crops.
In the north, on the contrary, from the Yangtsze to the neighbourhood
of Pekin and thence eastward to the borders of Corea, an unusual
drought was experienced.’—_Times_, 13th March 1878.

“Further papers on this famine were presented to Parliament, 2nd July
1878. The number of souls for whom relief is required is said to be
between three and four millions. One point brought out is the enormous
cost of transporting supplies to the province of Shansi, where a
mountain range has to be crossed and a distance of some hundreds of
miles to be traversed by carts. Mr. Mayers says the reported cost of
transporting these supplies to Shansi would be about four taels per
picul, or, say, £12 sterling per ton. Mr. Hugh Fraser sends from Pekin,
18th January, the translation of a memorial addressed to the throne by
Yen King-Ming, ‘Special High Commissioner for the Superintendence of
the Arrangements for Famine Relief in Shansi. The commissioner dwells
upon the painful scenes he has witnessed at every stage of his journey,
in the course of which his chair has continually been surrounded by
crowds of the famine-stricken population imploring relief, to whom he
has administered comfort in soothing words, assuring them of the
Imperial sympathy. The roads are lined with corpses in such numbers as
to distance all efforts for their interment, while women and children,
starving and in rags, know not where to look for the means of keeping
body and soul together. The memorialist, his heart wrung with
despairing pity, cannot but ask, why has a calamity so awful as this
been visited upon the people. He can only ascribe it to his own failure
in the due discharge of his duty, and he feels that his short-coming
admits of no excuse. In reply, the Grand Council has received a
rescript expressing profound sympathy with the sufferings of the people
as reported in this memorial, and directing that all that is possible
for their relief be done, in consultation with the governor of the
province.”

“Note.—The Empire of China has long been subject to the most serious
famines; but of these we have found no details available.”

It is sad to know that famines will occur, as long as man exists on the
earth at enmity with his Creator. The ground was cursed on man’s
account, and therefore it is man’s duty to appease the anger of his
offended God. As man was taught by the Lord God to plough, and to sow,
to reap and to garner up for the winter; so is it incumbent on those
who govern nations to exercise their benevolence and make provision of
food in granaries and storehouses against the recurrence of famines.

In the olden times, there were constructed near corn-fields, in all the
countries over which the descendants of Israel ruled, most noble, solid
granaries in rocks, as well as aqueducts and canals throughout their
dominions. In the present age not a single civilized nation is prepared
for a calamity which is sure to visit every country under heaven,
sooner or later.

Of all countries, India is the one where famines recur most frequently,
as the following table attests.

              CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF FAMINES IN INDIA.[85]

   B.C.    |
 503-443   | India. During the reign of the Emperor Jei-chund; extending
           |   over this period, there was a great pestilence and
           |   famine.
   A.D.    |
   1022    | Hindoostan (reign of Musaood I). Great drought followed by
           |   famine; whole countries entirely depopulated. This year
           |   was remarkable for drought and famines in many parts of
           |   the world.—Dow’s _Hindustan_.
 1052-60   | Hindustan. There was seven years’ drought in Ghor (? Ghore,
           |   supposed to be one of the earliest seats of the Afghan
           |   race), so that the earth was burned up, and thousands of
           |   men and animals perished with heat and famine.—Dow’s
           |   _Hindustan_.
   1291    | India. No rain fell in the provinces about Delhi, and there
           |   was in consequence a most terrible famine.—_Vide_
           |   Birni’s _History of Feroze_.
   1342    | India. Famine in Delhi, very severe; few of the inhabitants
           |   could obtain the necessaries of life.
 1344-45   | India. A famine, supposed to have extended more or less
           |   over the whole of Hindustan. Very severe in the Deccan.
           |   The Emperor Mahommed, it is said, was unable to procure
           |   the necessaries for his household.—Dow’s _Hindustan_.
 1412-13   | India. Great drought, followed by famine, occurred in the
           |   Ganges-Jumna delta.
   1471    | India. A famine in Orissa.
   1495    | India. A great dearth occurred about this date in
           |   Hindustan.
   1521    | India. A very general famine in Sind.
 1540-43   | India. A general famine in Sind during these years.
   1631    | India. A general famine caused by drought and war; and
           |   throughout Asia.
   1661    | India. Famine caused by drought, and supposed to be
           |   confined to the Punjab.
   1703    | India. Famine in Thar and Parkar districts of Sind.
   1733    | India. Famine; appears to have been confined to North
           |   Western Provinces.
   1739    | India. Famine in Delhi and its neighbourhood.
 1745-52   | India. Famine in Nara districts of Sind, and Thar and
           |   Parkar.
 1769-70   | Hindustan. First great Indian famine of which we have
           |   record. It was estimated that 3,000,000 of people
           |   perished. The air was so infected by the noxious effluvia
           |   of dead bodies, that it was scarcely possible to stir
           |   abroad without perceiving it; and without hearing also
           |   the frantic cries of the victims of famine who were seen
           |   at every stage of suffering and death. Whole families
           |   expired, and villages were desolated. When the new crop
           |   came forward in August it had in many cases no
           |   owners.—_Encyclopædia Britannica_, Art. Hindustan.
           |   Other estimates have been that one-third of the
           |   population perished.
           |   “Alarming want of rain was also reported throughout all
           |   the upper parts of Bengal. Madras was also suffering from
           |   drought, and from the ravages of the enemy, and the
           |   demands for grain caused a scarcity also in Calcutta.
           |   During September, October, and November, the drought
           |   continued nearly all over Bengal, the calamity being most
           |   severely felt in Behar and the Bengal districts north of
           |   the Ganges. A plentiful rain fell in June 1770; but the
           |   hopes of relief from the next crop which were thereby
           |   raised, were disappointed by the overflowing of the
           |   rivers in the eastern provinces; but the new crops in all
           |   the districts not greatly injured by floods were good.”
           |   The famine ceased by the end of the year.—Danvers, 1877.
 1781-83   | India. Famine in the Carnatic and the Madras Settlement.
           |   “The Carnatic had been devastated by Hyder Ali’s
           |   incursions in 1780-81, and the settlement of Madras was
           |   reduced to great straits for food, as the whole country
           |   in its vicinity was suffering from a general scarcity.
           |   Early in 1781 the Government of Madras took steps to
           |   regulate the supply of grain; and the distress
           |   continuing, in January 1782 a public subscription was
           |   raised for the relief of the poor, to which the
           |   Government contributed. This was the origin of the
           |   institution for the relief of the native poor, known as
           |   the Monegar Choultry. Early in October the Government
           |   deemed it necessary to take the supply of rice and
           |   food-grain into their own hands. The scarcity seems to
           |   have come to an end in the early months of
           |   1783.”—Danvers, 1877.
 1782-84   | India. Famine in province of Sind, including Thar and
           |   Parkar. “When the Kulhora dynasty ceased in 1782, and
           |   that of the Talpors commenced, a very severe famine
           |   occurred, which lasted for two and a half years. During
           |   four months of this time not a grain of corn was
           |   procurable. This famine was caused by the burning of
           |   crops, and the suspension of cultivation during a period
           |   of hostilities. There was also no rainfall for two
           |   years.”—Danvers, 1877.
 1783-84   | India. Famine in the north-west provinces of the Punjab.
           |   “The disturbance of the season of 1783 seems to have been
           |   general; but as the countries most affected were not then
           |   subject to British rule, very little information therein
           |   is obtainable. There are reasons for believing that the
           |   upper parts of Hindustan had been visited with
           |   extraordinary drought during the two previous years. In
           |   September and October 1783 there was an abnormal
           |   cessation of rain and extreme drought, and in the latter
           |   month a terrible famine was reported in all the countries
           |   from beyond Zahore to Karumnasa (the western boundary of
           |   Behar) ... and the famine had been already felt in all
           |   the western districts towards Delhi. To the northward of
           |   Calcutta, the crops upon the ground had been scorched,
           |   and nearly destroyed.”—Danvers, 1877. By the middle of
           |   1784 the famine had abated.
 1787-88   | India. Famine prospects in Behar and north-west provinces
           |   of Punjab, consequent upon excess of rain and floods. The
           |   Government laid an embargo on the exportation of grain.
 1790-91   | India. Famine in district of Baroda, and in many adjoining
           |   districts, in some of which, however, it was only partial
           |   and local. “Very little is known concerning the famine in
           |   many of the districts named, beyond the fact that in 1790
           |   tradition records the occurrence of a very severe famine.
           |   An almost total failure of rain was the immediate cause,
           |   apparently, of the calamity; and sufficient information
           |   exists to prove that it was one of the most remarkable on
           |   record. So great was the distress that many people fled
           |   to other districts in search of food; while others
           |   destroyed themselves, and some killed their children, and
           |   lived on their flesh. In Belgaum the scarcity was
           |   aggravated by people flocking into the district boarding
           |   on the Godavery.”—Danvers, 1877.
           |   In Kach, in 1791, a famine was caused by innumerable
           |   black ants which swarmed in almost all parts of the
           |   country, and destroyed vegetation. [This Kach, formerly
           |   Cutch, is in Bombay Presidency, situated south-east of
           |   the mouths of the Indus, and appears in later times to
           |   have become a terribly God-forsaken place: famines and
           |   plagues constantly!]
  1790-92  | India. Serious dearth in the northern districts of the
           |   Madras Presidency, and the pressure continued for about
           |   two years, from November 1790 to November 1792. “Many
           |   deaths from starvation occurred. At an early period
           |   Government suspended the import and transit duties on all
           |   kinds of grain and provisions, and themselves imported
           |   grain from Bengal. In the latter part of 1791 the export
           |   of rice from Tanjore was prohibited, except to the
           |   distressed districts. Rice was distributed by Government,
           |   and relief was afforded by employing the poor on public
           |   works.”—Danvers, 1877.
           |   This was the first occasion of the poor being employed on
           |   public works by the Government in India.
 1802-4    | India. Famine in the Nizam’s dominions (Bombay Presidency).
           |   “This famine was caused in the several districts affected
           |   by it by four distinct causes, which operated apparently
           |   about the same time. In Kach the crops are said to have
           |   been destroyed by locusts. In Pahlumpur, Rerva Kanta,
           |   Surat, Guzerat, Hyderabad, Belgaum, and Rutnagherry, the
           |   famine is stated to have been caused by want of rain.
           |   Candeish was overrun by the armies of Holkar; and the
           |   Pindaree bands sacked and burnt villages in every
           |   direction, even destroying the grain standing in the
           |   fields; and the same fate attended the districts of
           |   Ahmednagar, Poona, and Sholapur: whilst the influx of
           |   starving people from other districts into Sattara,
           |   Kolapur, Dharwar, and Colaba, caused a scarcity of food
           |   in those districts.”—Danvers, 1877.
  1804-7   | India. Scarcity in the Bombay Presidency, following the
           |   unfavourable season of 1804; severe pressure on the
           |   poorer classes. “In the latter part of the following year
           |   a general failure of crops appears to have occurred in
           |   most parts of the presidency, and the scarcity caused
           |   thereby had not passed over until October 1807.”—Danvers,
           |   1877.
 1812-13   | India. Famine in parts of Sind and other neighbouring
           |   districts, attributed to failure of rain. “In Kach and
           |   Pahlunpore the loss was aggravated by locusts; and in
           |   Kattywar it was followed by a plague of rats. Guzerat
           |   suffered most from scarcity caused by export of grain to
           |   the famine districts; and Ahmedabad was overrun with
           |   starving immigrants. In Mahee Kanta the distress was
           |   caused by internal disturbances; whilst in Broach there
           |   was no failure of rain, but the crops, before they were
           |   reaped, were entirely devoured by locusts, which came in
           |   very large numbers, and spread all over the
           |   country.”—Danvers, 1877.
 1812-14   | India. Scarcity in Madras Presidency, following
           |   unfavourable season of 1811; “but no serious distress
           |   appears to have been generally experienced throughout the
           |   presidency on this occasion, although the district of
           |   Madras suffered considerably.”—Danvers, 1877.
 1813-14   | India. Partial famine in many parts of the Agra district;
           |   the autumn crop of 1812 failed, and the harvest of the
           |   following spring was indifferent. In 1813 the rains set
           |   in late, and were then only partial.
   1819    | India. Great scarcity in the Allahabad and neighbouring
           |   districts, under the following circumstances:—”The rains
           |   set in late, but when they did come they appear to have
           |   fallen in abundance. The land which had hitherto been so
           |   dried up by the heat that sowing had to be undertaken
           |   twice without any effect, became so drenched that a third
           |   sowing was not possible till the middle of September. In
           |   Bundelkhand the kharif of 1819 failed extensively, and
           |   frost nipped the spring crops in the beginning of
           |   1820.“—Danvers, 1877.
 1820-22   | India. Famine in Upper Sind and neighbouring provinces,
           |   caused only partially by drought. “In 1819 there was a
           |   failure of crops in Ahmedabad, caused by unseasonable
           |   weather after the monsoon; whilst in Sawunt Warru it was
           |   occasioned by a sudden and unusual fall of rain,
           |   accompanied by a terrific storm—the former destroying the
           |   ground crops, and the latter the bagayut
           |   produce.”—Danvers, 1877.
 1824-25   | India. Famine in several districts. In Delhi and
           |   neighbouring provinces it was due to severe drought; in
           |   the Madras Presidency, and more particularly in the
           |   Carnatic and Western districts, the cause was failure of
           |   rains at the usual season. In Hindustan the same.
 1825-26   | India. Famine in the north-west provinces, occasioned by
           |   failure of rains; and scarcity in Saugor and Nerbada
           |   territories caused by blight, and a succession of heavy
           |   thunderstorms.
 1827-28   | India. Famine in parts of Hindustan. “The autumn of 1827
           |   and the following spring were marked by drought across
           |   the Jumna. In Pergunnahs, Raneea, and Sirsa, the rains
           |   commenced auspiciously, but stopped abruptly early in
           |   July, and did not begin again till the 22nd September. It
           |   was then too late to retrieve the mischief which the
           |   drought had already caused; and to add to the general
           |   distress, there was every chance of a failure in the
           |   wheat. This was the staple rubbee crop in these regions,
           |   and its success was mainly dependent on the river Ganges
           |   overflowing its banks, but on this occasion the usual
           |   inundations did not occur.”—Danvers, 1877.
 1831-32   | India. Scarcity in Poona and the Mahratta country,
           |   producing considerable distress, but hardly a famine.
 1832-34   | India. Famine in some of the north-west provinces. “It is
           |   said that not a single shower of rain fell in Ajmir in
           |   1832. In the following year the drought was most severely
           |   felt in Bundelkhand, and in the southern pergunnahs of
           |   Cawnpore; but in the pergunnahs bordering on the Ganges,
           |   the rubbee was good owing to the facilities for
           |   irrigation.”—Danvers, 1877.
 1833      | India. Famine in the Guntoor and other districts in the
           |   Madras Presidency; about 200,000 perished. Mr. Danvers
           |   says, “this was the most serious famine which has
           |   occurred since the British occupation, and from the
           |   fearful loss of life which took place in the Guntoor
           |   district on this occasion, the scarcity became generally
           |   known as the ‘Guntoor Famine.’”
 1833-35   | India. Famine in Madras Presidency. “In 1834 rain fell
           |   copiously in Kach; grain was sown and came up well; but
           |   locusts appeared and destroyed all the crops and grass as
           |   well as the trees. In Ahmedabad there was excessive rain
           |   the same year, which rendered cultivation impossible, and
           |   locusts also appeared in great quantities. In Broach the
           |   famine of 1835 was also caused by excessive rain, which
           |   destroyed the spring crops, whilst the winter crops were
           |   also burnt up by intense cold. In the other districts
           |   named, the scarcity appears to have been caused by
           |   failure of crops owing to drought.”—Danvers, 1877.
 1837-38   | India. Famine in north-west provinces, resulting from a
           |   general failure of rain. This was also felt in the lower
           |   provinces: for in Calcutta it is said the tanks were
           |   empty. Lord Auckland wrote in January 1838: “The fall in
           |   the usual season of the rains last year was unusually
           |   late and scanty; and an absolute drought has followed up
           |   to the present time.”
 1838-39   | India. Great scarcity and considerable distress, caused by
           |   failure of rains in Surat and other districts in the
           |   Bombay Presidency. Large numbers of people left these
           |   provinces in search of food elsewhere.
 1853-54   | India. Great scarcity in the Bellary district (Madras
           |   Presidency). “The rains which usually fall in the months
           |   of October and November, ceased at an unusually early
           |   period in the year 1853; and the showers which usually
           |   fall in June and July had been scanty. The grain harvests
           |   were consequently almost universally deficient, and
           |   considerable distress occurred in several parts of this
           |   presidency. In Bellary district the season had been
           |   exceptionally unfavourable: an average fall of only 9½
           |   inches of rain having taken place during the year,
           |   against an average of about double that quantity in
           |   previous years. The stocks of grain on hand were small:
           |   for serious damage had been occasioned by a storm in 1851
           |   to several of the irrigation works of the district; and
           |   in 1852 the falls of rain had been unseasonable, and the
           |   crops short.”—Danvers.
 1860-61   | India. “In 1859-60 the Delhi territory suffered from want
           |   of rain. The great Nujjufghar Jheel became entirely dry—a
           |   thing never before known within the memory of man. The
           |   rains of 1860 completely failed in the country between
           |   the Jumna and the Sutlej; and except where irrigation was
           |   available, no autumn or spring crop could be
           |   sown.”—Danvers, 1877.
 1861-62   | India. Considerable scarcity of food in Kach and various
           |   other districts of the Bombay Presidency, owing to scanty
           |   and unseasonable rains in 1861, and to short fall in the
           |   early part of 1862.
 1866      | India. Awful famine in the Lower Provinces of Bengal,
           |   Orissa, Behar, &c.; 1,500,000 persons reported to have
           |   perished.
           |   “The total quantity of rainfall for the year (1865) was
           |   not unusually small in most of the districts of Bengal,
           |   but it fell abnormally and out of time. Much rain fell
           |   early in the season, before the usual time for sowing,
           |   while the later rains, which are usually expected in the
           |   end of September and October, failed.”—Danvers, 1877.
           |   Great scarcity also in Madras Presidency, through many
           |   districts.
 1868-70   | India. Famine and scarcity in a considerable number of the
           |   north-west provinces, including Delhi, Meerut, &c. This
           |   was occasioned by failure of the harvest of 1868,
           |   following upon the inferior crop of 1867.
   1874    | India. Bengal; famine arising from drought. The Government
           |   took early measures, and at a cost of £6,500,000
           |   organised a system of relief. About 1,000,000 tons of
           |   rice were carried into the distressed districts, and
           |   about 100,000 remained after relief concluded. Mr.
           |   Danvers gives us the following details respecting this
           |   famine:—
           |   “During three successive years the weather in Bengal had
           |   been abnormal. In 1871 the rain was excessive, but the
           |   crops were good. In 1872 the rain was deficient, but
           |   although extraordinarily scanty, it was happily
           |   distributed both in time and place, and the crops were
           |   good in Bengal, and not bad in Behar. The year 1873 was
           |   again dry, almost beyond precedent, and what rain there
           |   was was unfortunately distributed. South of the Ganges it
           |   was excessive; but in North Behar, and almost the whole
           |   of Bengal, the rain was below the average. Coupled with
           |   deficient rainfall, the monsoon of 1873 was abnormally
           |   hot.... In January 1874 it was reported that the frost
           |   and west winds were drying up the crops in Patna. The
           |   famine reached its culminating point in April and May.”
    1877   | India. Madras Presidency. One of the most extended famines
           |   on record. The cost to the Government of India, in
           |   remedial measures and loss of revenue, is estimated at
           |   £10,000,000. The actual amount of mortality occasioned is
           |   difficult to determine, the estimates vary so much.
           |   Cholera prevailed in some of the famine districts, and
           |   added greatly to the number of deaths. The Mansion House
           |   Relief Fund, instituted by the Lord Mayor (Sir Thomas
           |   White), exceeded half a million sterling. Mr. Danvers
           |   gives the following details regarding the meteorological
           |   incidents associated with this famine:—
           |   “The season of 1874 was generally good, but in parts it
           |   was unfavourable. In 1875 the season was in many places
           |   unpropitious. In 1876 the south-west monsoon, or summer
           |   rains, were deficient throughout the greater part of the
           |   Madras Presidency, and in the Bombay district of Poona.
           |   In the northern portions only of the Madras Presidency
           |   ... was the rainfall ordinarily propitious. The
           |   north-east monsoon, or autumn rains, failed still more
           |   disastrously. In October the whole of the nine districts
           |   of the Bombay Deccan were threatened with a serious
           |   famine, nearly all the monsoon crops having perished, and
           |   there having been no later rains to admit of sowing the
           |   rabi.... The spring and summer rains again failed in
           |   1877 ... and added to this, the rainfall was short almost
           |   all over Northern India.”

“Famines in India have arisen from several different causes; but the
most general cause has not been failure of the usual rains. Distress
has also, however, been caused by hostile invasions; by swarms of rats
and locusts; by storms and floods; and not unfrequently by the
immigration of the starving people from distant distressed parts into
districts otherwise well provided with food supplies; and occasionally
by excessive exports of grain into famine-stricken districts; or by
combinations of two or more of the above-named circumstances.”—Report
1878, p. 2, Mr. F. C. Danvers.

These stern facts prove that, in times of plenty, grain should be
garnered in each district, and held in reserve till the time of famine,
when, food being found at hand, the people would have no need to
migrate into neighbouring provinces. The finest example set for the
imitation of those who have the destiny of nations in their hands, is
that precaution adopted by Joseph, when he expected the visitation of
the seven years’ famine.

This memorable famine took place in the year B.C. 1708. But the land of
Egypt had corn in her granaries—the Pyramids of our time; therefore
none of the Egyptians died from starvation. Egypt even supplied food to
other famine-stricken countries; for the Bible says, “the famine was
over all the face of the earth; and all countries came into Egypt to
Joseph for to buy corn, because that the famine was so sore in all
lands.”

In the year A.D. 1064 there was another seven years’ famine in Egypt,
but the land was governed by a people ignorant of what the Pyramids
were, and how their contents had once saved the world from a cruel
death. The following account shows the consequences of their
ignorance:—

“Egypt.[86] For seven successive years the overflow of the Nile failed,
and with it almost the entire subsistence of the country; while the
rebels interrupted supplies of grain from the north. Two provinces were
entirely depopulated; in another half the inhabitants perished; while
in Cairo city (El-Káhireh) the people were reduced to the direst
straits. Bread was sold for 14 dirhems to the loaf; and all provisions
being exhausted, the worst horrors of famine followed. The wretched
resorted to cannibalism, and organised bands kidnapped the unwary
passenger in the desolate streets, principally by means of ropes
furnished with hooks and let down from the latticed windows.

“In the year 1072 the famine reached its height. It was followed by a
pestilence, and this again was succeeded by an invading army.”

And again in “1877, short rainfall and low Nile; great scarcity.”

These calamities have occurred hitherto, and so long as the world
exists they will occur again. It therefore behoves all monarchs and
governors to adopt measures similar to those employed by Joseph, the
first Viceroy of Egypt; that, wherever and whenever the enemy may
appear, every nation may be found so well provided against it as to
escape its dire consequences.

                              CHAPTER XII.

                          APOTHEOSIS OF MOSES.

During the period when the Shepherd Kings ruled the land of Egypt
famine was not allowed to depopulate the world. After these Kings came
their descendant Moses, the mortal to whom the Almighty spoke from the
top of Mount Sinai, in the presence of a multitude of witnesses, and
gave laws by which man must defend himself from an enemy more cruel
than famine; for those who die from famine may still rise to enjoy life
eternal, whereas death brought into the world by sin, through the
instigation of Satan, is death eternal, from which there is no
resurrection.

This inspired Moses taught the Israelites how to serve God, the only
way by which they can secure themselves from eternal death. And when he
considered them capable of continuing in the way he set them, he went
to other nations, and everywhere instructed the people, that they might
live for ever.

One of the moral precepts he taught in the Far East, in Hindustan, is
still revered by the Hindoos to this day. In that country he assumed
the name of Manu, so that the children of Israel who were in Palestine
might not recognise him and claim him as their sovereign. The precept
is this:—

            Daily[87] perform thine own appointed work
            Unweariedly; and to obtain a friend—
            A sure companion to the future world—
            Collect a store of virtue like the ants
            Who garner up their treasures into heaps;
            For neither father, mother, wife, nor son,
            Nor kinsman, will remain beside thee then,
            When thou art passing to that other home—
            Thy virtue will thy only comrade be.

            Single is every living creature born,
            Single he passes to another world,
            Single he eats the fruits of evil deeds,
            Single, the fruit of good; and when he leaves
            His body like a log or heap of clay
            Upon the ground, his kinsmen walk away;
            Virtue alone stays by him at the tomb,
            And bears him through dreary trackless gloom.

            Depend not on another, rather lean
            Upon thyself; trust to thine own exertions.
            Subjection to another’s will gives pain;
            True happiness consists in self-reliance.
            Strive to complete the task thou hast commenced;
            Wearied, renew thy efforts once again;
            Again fatigued, once more the work begin;
            So shalt thou earn success and fortune win.

This Law-giver’s moral teaching extended all over the Eastern world,
including Corea and Japan, and thence to the western shores of the
American continent; so that when his earthly course was finished, the
dwellers in all these countries founded religions based on his
precepts, making his memory the object of their worship.

The Mexicans and Peruvians held him and his followers in such
reverence, and were so confident that some day he would revisit them,
that, when the Spaniards appeared among them, they mistook them for the
expected visitors, and were ready to worship them.

It is related that “Viracocho, the eighth Inca, beheld in a vision a
man of majestic form, with a long beard, and garments reaching to the
ground, who declared that he was a child of the sun. That monarch built
a temple in honour of this person, and erected an image of him,
resembling as nearly as possible the singular form in which he had
appeared to him. In this temple divine honours were paid to him under
the name of Viracocho.”

“When the Spaniards first appeared in Peru, the length of their beards,
and the dress they wore, struck everybody as so like to the image of
Viracocho, that they supposed them to be children of the sun, who had
descended from heaven to earth. All concluded that the last days of the
Peruvian Empire were at hand, and that the throne would be occupied by
new rulers. Atahualpa himself, considering the Spaniards as messengers
from heaven, was so far from entertaining any thoughts of resisting
them, that he determined to yield implicit obedience to their commands.
From these sentiments flowed his professions of love and respect; to
these were owing the cordial reception of Soto and Ferdinand Pizarro in
his camp, and the submissive reverence with which he himself advanced
to visit the Spanish general in his quarters.”[88]

The same idolatrous worship is paid in Japan and China to the memory of
the Law-giver Moses, who was the founder and sovereign of these
Empires. In Japan this mode of worship is called Shintoism, and in
China Confucianism. The institutor of the latter was Confucius. After
him came his disciple Laou-tsze, who wrote a book containing five
thousand characters; on this he constructed the modern Chinese
religion. The book is called Taou-tih-King; the religion, Taouism.

“The first chapter of the Taou-tih-King tells us that, ‘that which is
nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth,’ and elsewhere we are
let into the secret of the processes which led up to this creation.
Taou produced one, the first great cause; one produced two, the male
and female principles of nature; two produced three; and three produced
all things, beginning with heaven and earth.

“Heaven is treated by Laou-tsze much in the same way as by Confucius,
but with far more reserve. In the utterances of both teachers we find
the word used to designate the material heaven as well as a personified
heaven. Just as Confucius speaks of the Sage as being the equal of
heaven, Laou-tsze says that he is the associate of heaven, and that he
is heaven itself.

“Heaven, also according to him, gives laws to the earth, just as it
takes its laws from Taou. It has no special love, but regards all
existing beings as grass-dogs made for sacrificial rites, _i.e._ for
temporary purposes. It is as unselfish as it is impartial, and because
it does not aim at life it lasts long. It is great and compassionate,
and is ever ready to become the saviour of men. But it is also the
material heaven, and maintains its existence by the ‘clearness’ which
is imparted to it by its unity with Taou.”[89]

These religious systems are at the present time to a great extent
superseded by Buddhism. This religion has many followers, and its
tenets are known throughout the East, in Thibet, Central Asia, Siberia,
and even as far west as Swedish Lapland.

The founder of Buddhism was born on the borders of Nepaul about B.C.
620, and was heir to the throne of Kapilavastu. Renouncing his claim,
he made himself known to the world as the Buddha Gautama, whose advent
was foretold by the Brahmans. It had been predicted that either he
would live among men and become a Chacawati, or mighty ruler, whose
sway all the human race would acknowledge; or, withdrawing from the
world, he would become a recluse, and in that condition, after
disentangling himself from the miseries of existence, would become a
Buddha, and remove the veils of ignorance and sin from the world.

The tribe to which belonged the father of Gautama, whose name was
Suddhódana, was called Sākya. His mother’s name was Mâya, “daughter of
Supra-buddha, chief of the neighbouring and kindred tribe of Kolyans.
Both tribes were of pure Aryan race, and branches of the Suryavansi, or
line of the Sun.”[90]

All statues of Guatama represent him with short points of hair on the
top of the head; in some the hair has a curled or woolly appearance.
This, together with other circumstances, proves that the Sage descended
from the Ethiopian Colonisers who entered India with Moses. Some of the
precepts of the Buddha resemble those of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ, who preached six hundred years later, though there are some
differences of doctrine. Gautama abolished sacrifices, and taught the
law of Love and Charity, and the reward of obedience; also the
liberation of the soul from self, with its absorption into the
Infinite, or the Finite lost in the Infinite and the Mortal in the
Immortal.

The invocation which he taught his disciples was addressed to the
Spirit in the Lotus, a mystical reference to the preservation of the
Founder of his tribe—the Hebrew infant cast on the bosom of the sacred
Nile in a cradle of bulrushes. The Trinity of the Buddhists, also, is
analogous to the Trinity of the Egyptians—the Osiris, Isis, and their
son Horus, signifying Moses (rescued from the water) and his Ethiopian
consort Tharbis, and their son (represented in paintings in Thebes).

About six hundred years after Gautama’s death Our Lord Jesus Christ
entered the world. His coming was expected by the followers of the last
Buddha, insomuch that the Brahmans came to Judea in search of the
Infant, whose birth was made known to them by a bright, extraordinary
star.

The mission of the Saviour was to fulfil the predictions of the Hebrew
Scriptures, that, by His death, the world might be restored to the
favour of God. And the reward of His Sacrifice of Himself on man’s
behalf will be the restoration of God’s favour to His erring creatures,
so that, in the fulness of time, the Lord God will again walk with man
on earth, in the cool of the day, as He did in the days of Adam’s
innocency in the Garden of Eden.

                              APPENDICES.

                              APPENDIX I.

         _A Narrative of the Great Famine in the Land of Egypt,
                    as recorded in the Talmud._[91]

Pharaoh the King issued a proclamation throughout the whole land of
Egypt to the wise men thereof. And he called upon all the wise men to
seek his presence and listen to the dreams which troubled him.

“He who can properly interpret to me the meaning of these visions shall
have his dearest wishes granted as they issue from his lips; but he who
is able to read dreams and neglects my bidding shall surely be put to
death.”

Then the wise men, and the soothsayers, and the magicians of the land
of Egypt, came and stood before the King.

And the King related to them his dream, and though many interpreted, no
two agreed as to its meaning. They contradicted one another, and they
served but to confuse the King. Many were the interpretations.

“The seven fat cows,” said one, “are seven kings who will arise over
Egypt from royal families, and the seven lean cows are seven princes
who will arise from them, and in the end of days destroy the seven
kings. The seven rank ears are seven great princes of this land who
shall in a coming time of war fall into the power of seven princes, now
weak and in no wise to be feared.”

“The seven fat cows,” said another, “are seven queens whom thou shalt
marry in the coming days, and the seven lean cows declare that these
queens shall die during thy life, O King! The seven rank ears and the
seven lean ears are fourteen children whom thou shalt beget, and they
will fight among themselves, and the seven weaker ones shall conquer
their stronger brethren.”

But the King was not satisfied with these interpretations. His mind was
still unquiet, for the Lord had ordained that Joseph was to be released
from his prison and elevated to a princely position; therefore did
Pharaoh remain unsatisfied with the words of his wise men.

And the King was wroth, and he dismissed the wise men from his
presence; and all the wise men and the soothsayers and magicians of
Egypt went out from the presence of their King in shame and confusion.
And the King commanded in his wrath that all these men should be put to
death.

When the chief butler heard this he sought the presence of the King,
and in deep obeisance before him spoke as follows:

“O King, live for ever! May thy greatness, O King, increase for ever
through the land. Lo, thou wast wroth with thy servant, and thou didst
place him in confinement. For a year was I imprisoned, I and the chief
baker. And with us in our dungeon was a Hebrew servant who belonged to
the captain of the guard. His name was Joseph, and his master growing
wroth with him, had placed him in prison, where he served the captain
of the guard, and he served us also.

“And it came to pass when we had been in the prison for a year we
dreamed, each, a dream, and the Hebrew slave interpreted for each of us
his dream. And lo, as he interpreted our dreams so was the reality. As
he spoke so did it come to pass.

“Therefore, my lord King, I pray thee, do not kill the wise men of
Egypt for naught. Behold, this slave is still in the prison. If it be
pleasing in the eyes of the King let him be sent for. Let him listen to
the dreams which trouble the mind of the King, and he will be able to
solve them correctly.”

The King listened to the words of the chief butler, and he ordered that
Joseph should be brought before him. But he commanded his officers to
be careful not to frighten the lad, lest through fear he should be
unable to interpret correctly.

And the servants of the King brought Joseph forth from his dungeon, and
shaved him and clothed him in new garments, and carried him before the
King. The King was seated upon his throne, and the glare and glitter of
the jewels which ornamented the throne dazzled and astonished the eyes
of Joseph.

Now the throne of the King was reached by seven steps, and it was the
custom of Egypt for a prince or noble who held audience with the King,
to ascend to the sixth step; but when an inferior or a private citizen
of the land was called into his presence, the King descended to the
third step and from there spoke with him. So when Joseph came into the
presence of the King he bowed to the ground at the foot of the throne,
and the King descended to the third step and spoke to him.

And he said:

“Behold, I have dreamed a dream, and among all the wise men and
magicians of the land there is not one able to read for me its meaning.
I have heard that thou art far-sighted and blest with the gift of
divination, and I have sent for thee to solve my dream.”

And Joseph answered:

“O King, the power is not with me; but God will answer and give Pharaoh
peace.”

And Joseph found favour in the eyes of the King, and he told to him his
dream. And the spirit of God was upon Joseph, and the King inclined his
ears and heart to the words of Joseph.

And Joseph said to Pharaoh:

“Let not the King think that his dreams are two and distinct; they have
but a single portent, and what the Lord intends doing upon the earth He
has shown to Pharaoh in a vision. Let me advise thee, O King, how thou
mayest preserve thy life and the lives of all the inhabitants of thy
land from the grievous evils of the famine which is soon to drain and
dry up its fruitfulness and its plenty. Let the King appoint a man wise
and discreet, a man well versed in the laws of the country, and let him
appoint other officers under him to go out through all the length and
breadth of the land to gather food during the years of plenty and store
it carefully away for future use, that the land may not die in the
years of famine which will follow. And let the King command the people
of the land, that they shall each and every one gather and store up in
the years of plenty of the produce of the fields, to provide for their
wants when the ground shall be barren and the fields unproductive.”

And the King answered, “How knowest thou that thou hast read the dream
aright?”

And Joseph said, “Lo, this shall be a sign that my words are true. A
son shall be born to the King, and upon the day of his birth, thy
first-born son, who is now two years old, shall die.”

And when Joseph finished speaking these words, he bowed low before the
King and departed from his presence.

The occurrence which Joseph predicted came to pass. The queen bore a
son, and upon the day when it was told to the King he rejoiced greatly.
But as the messenger of glad tidings retired, the servants of the King
found his first-born son dead, and there was a great crying and wailing
in the palace of the King.

And when Pharaoh inquired as to the cause of this great cry he was
informed of his loss, and remembering the words of Joseph he
acknowledged them as true.

After these things the King sent and gathered together all his princes,
officers, and men of rank, and when they came before him, he said: “You
have seen and heard all the words of this Hebrew, and you know that as
he spoke so has the thing occurred; therefore must we believe that his
solution of my dream was the correct one, and that his words of advice
were of good weight and consideration. We must take measures of
protection against the famine which is surely to come upon us.
Therefore search, I pray you, over all Egypt for a man with wisdom and
knowledge in his heart, that we may appoint him over the land.”

And they answered the King: “The advice of this Hebrew was very good;
behold, the country is in the hands of the King to do with it what is
pleasing in his eyes; but the Hebrew has proved himself wise and
skilful, why should our lord the King not select and appoint him as
governor over the land?”

“Yea, surely,” said the King, “if God has made these things known to
the Hebrew, then there is none among us as wise and discreet as he is.
What you have suggested is in accordance with my own thoughts; we will
appoint the Hebrew our governor, and through his wisdom shall our
country be saved the pangs of want.”

And Pharaoh sent for Joseph and said to him: “Thou didst advise me to
appoint a wise and discreet man to deliver the land from the anguish of
famine. Surely, there can be none more discreet than thyself to whom
God has made known all these things. Thy name shall no more be Joseph,
but ‘Zaphenath-Päaneah’ (Revealer of hidden things) shalt thou
hereafter be called among men.

“Thou shalt be second to me only, and according to thy words shall the
land of Egypt be ruled; only upon the throne shall I be greater than
thyself.”

Then the King removed his ring from his finger and placed it upon the
hand of Joseph. And he dressed Joseph in royal apparel, and placed a
crown upon his head and a chain of gold about his neck. And Pharaoh
commanded that Joseph should ride in his second chariot throughout the
land of Egypt. And the people followed him with music, and a large
concourse accompanied him upon his journey.

Five thousand soldiers with drawn swords in their hands, swords
glittering in the sunlight, preceded him, and twenty thousand soldiers
followed. And the people of the land, men, women, and children, gazed
upon the pageant from windows and from house-tops, and the beauty of
Joseph pleased all eyes.

And flowers were strewn in his path when he walked, and the air was
made sweet with perfume, and the savoury odour of balms and spices. And
proclamations were placed in prominent places declaring the authority
of Joseph, and threatening death to those who failed to pay him homage;
for he was considered as dishonouring his King who failed to honour the
man made second in the kingdom. The people bowed down and shouted,
“Long live the King and his Viceroy!” And Joseph, seated in his
chariot, lifted his eyes to heaven, and exclaimed in the fulness of his
heart, “He raiseth the poor from the dust; from the dunghill He lifteth
up the needy. O Lord of Hosts, happy is the man who trusteth in thee!”

And it came to pass after this, that Joseph saw Osnath, the daughter of
Potipharah, a pearl among the beauties of the land, and he loved her
and she became his wife. And Joseph was but thirty years old when he
was elevated to his honourable and trustworthy position. He built for
himself a palace, elegant and complete in its details and surroundings,
so elaborate that three years’ time was required for its completion.
And the Lord was with Joseph, and increased his wisdom and
understanding, and blessed him with manners so affable and deserving
that he quickly won the love and favour of all the inhabitants of the
country.

And during seven years, as Joseph had foretold, the Lord increased the
produce of Egypt sevenfold. And Joseph appointed officers to gather up
the plenty. They built huge storehouses[92] and heaped up corn during
the seven years of plenty, till the amount stored grew so great that no
man could number it. And Joseph and his officers were watchful and
diligent that their stores of grain should not suffer from moth or
mould. The people of the land, too, stored up their surplus crop, but
they were not as careful and watchful as was Joseph and his assistants.

And the wife of Joseph bore him two sons, Manassah and Ephraim, and
their father taught them diligently the way of truth; they listened to
his words and departed not from the paths of pleasantness either to the
right hand or to the left.

They grew up bright and intelligent lads, and were honoured among the
people as were the children of the King.

But the seven years of plenty drew to an end, and the fields became
barren and the trees gave forth no fruit, and the famine which Joseph
had predicted threw its gloomy shadow and threatening presence over the
once fruitful land.

And when the people opened their storehouses, they found to their
sorrow that moth and mould had taken advantage of their neglect. And
they cried aloud to Pharaoh, “Give us food; let us not die of hunger
before thee, we and our children; give to us, we pray thee, from the
plenty of thy storehouses.”[93]

And Pharaoh answered, “Why cry ye unto me, O careless people? did
Joseph not tell ye of the famine which has come upon us? Why did ye not
hearken to his voice, and obey his commands to be frugal and
painstaking?”

“By thy life, our lord,” replied the people, “as Joseph spoke, so did
we, and gathered in our corn during the years of plenty, but lo, when
the pangs of hunger and the barrenness of the land bid us open our
granaries, the moth had destroyed the provisions which we had garnered.”

The King became alarmed lest all their precaution should prove
unavailing against the famine’s blight, and he bade the people to go to
Joseph. “Obey his commands and rebel not against his words.”

And the people repeated to Joseph the cry for food they had addressed
to Pharaoh.

When Joseph heard the words of the people and learned the result of
their want of care, he opened the storehouses of the King and sold food
unto the hungry people.

And the famine grew sore in the land of Egypt and spread through Canaan
and the land of the Philistines, and to the other side of the Jordan.
And when the inhabitants of these countries heard that corn could be
obtained in Egypt, they came all of them into that country to buy, so
that Joseph was obliged to appoint many officers to sell corn to the
large multitude of people.

And Joseph’s thoughts reverted to his father’s home, and he knew that