sinia, and was desired by him to describe the form and appearance of these unknown birds. On which he pointed up to one, which had pursued him during his flight, and which still hovered over his head; at that instant the bird launched a stone at him, and laid him dead at the Emperor's feet.

According to some Arabian writers, Abrahah died of a shocking pestilence, by which his limbs putrified and rotted off.

Gibbon * calls Sale, the translator of the Koran, half a Mussulman, because he remarked that something of a very extraordinary nature must have occurred at the Siege of Mecca. Yet although my religious principles should also be suspected, I cannot help agreeing with him; for the miracle was proclaimed soon after by Mahomet himself, during the life-time of persons who might have been present, and to whom an appeal is made in the following lofty chapter of the Koran.

"THE ELEPHANT REVEALED AT MECCA. †

"In the name of the most merciful God." "Hast thou not seen how thy Lord dealt with

*Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. ix. note on page 254.

+ The Koran by Sale.

"the riders of the elephants? Did he not make "their treacherous design an occasion of

drawing them into error; and send against "them flocks of birds, which cast down upon "them stones of baked clay, and destroyed them "like corn trodden down by beasts ?"

The events of this war were considered so marvellous, that a new epoch was founded; and the era of the War of the Elephant was employed by the Arabians, until the Caliph Omar changed it for the Hegyra.

It can hardly be supposed, that these incidents, recorded by a number of early Arabian writers, corroborated by so remarkable a consequence, and introduced by their prophet into his sacred book, should have been altogether a baseless fabrick. Historical fables have usually some foundation in truth, which is manifested on this occasion by two Arabian authors.

Doctor John James Reiske, of Leyden, was well versed in Arabian antiquities, and the translator of the Moslem Annals of Abulpheda. He also wrote a Latin dissertation, containing miscellaneous medical observations, extracted from Arabian relicks. There is a passage there respecting the origin of Small Pox and Measles, which shall be translated.

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"Dr. Friend has conjectured well in his His"tory of Medicine, that the Small Pox was first brought into Egypt during the Caliphat of "Omar about the year of Christ 640, by the Arabians, who had been infected by some "Eastern or remote nation, and the disease was "thence propagated through Europe. But I "have accidentally discovered in a book, which "in other respects is of no value, both who first "carried the Small Pox into Arabia, and the "time when that occurred. For, in turning over "the Arabian manuscript which is inscribed "No. 53, in the Leyden library, I found, by chance, the following words. • In this year

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* Extractum ex dissertatione inaugurali exhibente Miscellaneas aliquot Observationes Medicas ex Arabum monumentis. Auctore Joanne Jacobo Reiske. Lugd. Batavor. 1746. p. 9. "Observatio I. Recte conjecit Jo. Friend in Historia Medicinæ, ❝ ubi agit de Variolis, p. 305. Ed. Leid. Arabes, ut variolas in"tulerunt primum in Ægyptum sub Omaro, id est circa An. “Chr. 640, unde porro per Europam propagatæ sunt, sic ipsos ❝ antea ab Orientalibus aut remotioribus aliis populis infectos "fuisse. Qui autem variolas primi et quando invexerint in Ara"biam, inveni in libro cætera vili, ubi minime quæsiveram. Vo"lutans aliquando codicem MS. Arabicam.

"No. 53, Bibliotheca Leidense, incido casu in hæc verba.

أول ما رايت الحصبة والنواصل والكالب في ارض المرب في ذللن العام وتل كان بعض نالن في بني اسرايل ولم تدخل ارض المرب الله من مبر الشجر كالحرمل حينين واول ما طهر من مبر والحنطا وما أشبههها في ذللن العام

at length, the Small Pox, the Measles, the "diseases named Nawasal and Kynanthropia, "or Ol Kalab first appeared in the land of "Arabia. Some of those distempers had occur"red before to the Israelites, but never had at"tacked Arabia till then. In this year also "there first appeared certain trees,

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Sylvan rue and the Colocynth.'

as the

"The Ethiopians therefore, at this time, carried "the Small Pox into Arabia, who in the days of

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Hippocrates carried the Plague into Europe. "The year meant is that in which the Abys"sinians, having ejected the royal family of the Homerites, and got possession of their king'dom, invaded Mecca: they were desirous of subduing the remaining part of Arabia, and of "establishing the Christian faith, which they professed, even into Hagar: with this inten"tion they endeavoured to overturn the great

"Hoc demum anno comparuerunt primum in terris Arabum "Variolæ et Morbilli, et on Nawassel et Kynanthropia (seu ol "Kalab ;) quorum quidam aliqua fuerant jam antea inter “Israelitas, non tamenArabum terras invaserunt nisi tum demum. "Primum arbores Sylvestres, ut recta Sylvestris (ol Harmal) et "Colocynthis (ol Hanthal).' Ergo Ethiopes qui olim Hip

pocratis tempore gravem Græciæ pestem intulerunt, hoc anno "Arabiæ variolas intulerunt. Annus autem quem notat est ille, 66 quo Habassini regno Homeritico potiti ejecta regum Homeri. "tarum prosapia, reliquam quoque subigere tentantes Arabiam, "et Christianam fidem quam ipsi profitebantur etiam in Hagar "stabilire invaserunt. Mekkam, ea mențe ut Caabam, magnum

temple of Caaba, the seat of Arabian Paganism: "but they were repulsed and grievously afflicted 66 by those divine and prodigious birds which are " mentioned in Surata; the Koran, c. v. and in "the Commentaries upon it.

"illud templum sedemque paganismi Arabici everterunt : sed a "divinis illis prodigiosis avibus, de quibus vide Surata. Corani, c. v. et ibi commentatores, debellati et gravissime afflicti "fuerunt.

"Is idem annus nascentem vidit Mohammedem. Ex quo efficitur eum annum fuisse annum post Christum natum 572. "Verba isthæc pauca sunt, sed notatæ digna. Posterio "rum eorum partem expendant Botanici. Quid sint Jalill "on Nawasel, non invenio notatum in Lexico Gotic. Sed ex "vi verbi Nasali concludo exanthematum genus esse, forte apthas, forte etiam et id potius febrem scarlatinam purpuram "aut rubeolos. (Germani... appellant.)

"Ol Kalab est rabies canina, non illa Europea, sed ista Ara"bica qua in canes vertuntur qui sic insaniunt: stato quodam "anno tempore ululant latrantque canum instar, deinde sua

sponte ad se řediunt, de quo morbo latius aliquando in libello, "si edere licet de Arabum medicina. Simile quid nostri quoque "scriptores Græci atque Latini perhibent in Lycanthropis.

"Specificum variolarum antidotum hactenus non reperi apud "medicos Arabicos, ut quos non legi, blandior tamen mihi esse "illa fore ut inde aliquando aut ipse ego eruam, aut alius aliquis.

"Liber autem unde hanc descripsi observationem est compen.

هي dium libri Massudi qui » اان seu peuta aurea inscribitur مروج

"ab aliquo Schatibense confectum id est deinde e Xativa, urbi "Hispana, non ut male in Catalogo appellatur, Schuteibio. "Ille autem Massudi auctor etiam nostris hominibus non incog⚫ "nitus ut habeatur pro Livio Arabico, et fama maxima "polleat: re tamen ipsa deprehendi quod Berosus potius aliquis Arabicus sit appellandus, et inter maximos impostores eosque "primos atque ineptissimos collocandus."