We have various amusements; on some days we each invent little tales which are to turn on some circumstance that is first agreed upon; at other times we have some of those question plays in which you discover, by a particular set of questions, the thoughts of another person. One of our favourite occupations is doing arithmetical questions in our heads. We have often used a multiplier of three or four figures, which I assure you makes it hard work. My uncle and aunt now and then join in this; and being of course very ambitious to outdo them, we all get into a sort of fever of exertion which makes it very diverting, and the conqueror very triumphant.—Then we compare the different methods which we took, and each person finds out what caused their mistakes. I am afraid I am oftener behind in the race than most of the party, for beside their being much better arithmeticians than me, I am so afraid of being wrong, that I do not speak out in time even when I have my answer ready and right.
I must tell you one of the questions we had this evening; it was proposed by Caroline. In one of the vignettes to Bewick’s birds, there is a man preparing to fasten himself to a team of birds which are to convey him to the moon; the team is wedge-shaped, and the birds are harnessed together in rows, each of which increases by one, from the single bird that acts as leader. Now, supposing that the man weighs ten stone, and that each bird can raise five pounds, how many rows of birds are necessary for his flight?
27th, Sunday.—My uncle again took up the judgments inflicted on the Egyptians. He said that if they were considered with reference to that particular nation, it appeared that there was a peculiar meaning in some of those calamities, which would not have applied so well to any other people. He told us that they paid an idolatrous reverence to many of the inferior animals, and worshipped, as superior gods, the ox, the cow, and the ram. Among these, the Apis and Mnevis are well known; the former, a sacred bull adored at Memphis, and the latter at Heliopolis. There were also a cow and heifer, which had similar honours, at Momemphis.—These judgments were therefore very significant in their execution and object; as the Egyptians not only saw their cattle perish, but, what was still more dreadful, they saw their deities sink before the “God of the Hebrews.” This satisfactorily explains what is said in Numbers: “Upon their gods also the Lord executed judgments[8]”; and these events had doubtless a useful influence, though not a lasting one, on the minds of the Israelites, to whom the gods of the Egyptians must at that time have appeared very contemptible.
“I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail:” this judgment, he told us, was also particularly adapted to the Egyptians. The rain and hail that were foretold must have appeared of all things most incredible to the Egyptians; for in Egypt little or no rain ever falls, the want of it being supplied by dews and by the overflowing of the Nile; and when they witnessed this storm of hail, “such as had not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof,” and accompanied by “mighty thunderings,” and fire that ran along the ground, what dread and amazement they must have felt! Pharaoh had received warning of these terrific prodigies, which the deities of Egypt could not avert; and even the fire and water, which had been held sacred by the Egyptians, were now employed they found as passive instruments of their punishment. Besides the formation of the hail, which was so uncommon in that country, its falling so miraculously on the day, and in the district foretold, must have overwhelmingly convinced them of the impotence of the creatures which they worshipped, and of the boundless power of the Almighty.
I asked my uncle at what season these plagues had happened, and why the injury to flax and barley were particularly mentioned.
“The season,” said he, “is not expressly stated; but as the departure of the Israelites was on the 15th of the month of Abib, which corresponds with the beginning of April, we may suppose that the seventh plague (of hail) was sent about the beginning of March, so as to leave time for the three succeeding plagues. This idea is confirmed by travellers, from whom we learn that the barley harvest in Egypt is reaped in March, and the wheat in April; and it explains why ‘the barley was in ear,’ though not yet fit for reaping; and ‘the wheat and the rye were not grown up.’ Abib means the month of the young ears of corn.
“Their barley must have been a grievous loss, as the principal beverage of the Egyptians was made from it; but scarcely any thing could have distressed them more than the loss of their flax, because the whole nation wore linen garments, and the priests never put on any other kind of clothing. This linen was manufactured from that fine flax for which the valley of the Nile was famous, and was in great request in other countries also; for though the Egyptians did not trade abroad themselves, yet they readily disposed of it to foreign merchants.”
28th.—A question of mine this morning, though it exposed my ignorance, gave me an opportunity of perceiving how much light is thrown by general knowledge on the difficult parts of Scripture history; and, indeed, on all other history. I had asked how it was that the locusts, independently of their coming at the appointed moment, could have been called one of the miraculous plagues, as they were so common in Egypt. I saw my cousins looking a little surprised, but they are so good-natured that they never laugh at my mistakes.
My uncle explained to me that I was wrong in supposing that locusts were common in Egypt. “They are very abundant,” he said, “in the neighbouring regions of Arabia, which has been proverbially called their cradle, but the Red Sea appears to be an effectual barrier against their molesting the Egyptians. They seldom succeed in crossing any great extent of water; for though they frequently migrate into very distant countries, yet their habit of often alighting on the ground is fatal to them in traversing the sea.
“There is another circumstance that saves Egypt from the visits of these dreadful insects; when they take wing they are obliged to follow the course of the wind, and in that country, you know, the winds blow six months from the north, and six months from the south; but, at the time spoken of, an east wind prevailed ‘all day and all night;’ and the whole face of the country in the morning was covered with the locusts. This strong easterly wind, which enabled them to cross the Red Sea, was plainly preternatural; and we are told distinctly that ‘before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such.’