settled there, still retain the name of Bothel, and on account of an oak near the spot, the place is called Bothel-ac, a compound of the British name of the stones and the Saxon name of the oak.

The Grecians, for a long time, had no other sepulchral monuments than these unhewn pillars, which they erected on the summit of the tumulus, as the patriarch Jacob set up one of these pillars on the grave of his beloved Rachel (Genesis xxxv. 20), which remained to be called "the pillar of Rachel's grave." These pillars the Greeks designated by the sonorous epithet of Batuloi," evidently derived from the ancient word Bethel.

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The pillar in ancient times was a stone no bigger than a man might carry to its destined point, as in Jacob's Bethel, and the Gilgal of Joshua; yet stones that one man could bring to any place, and another might carry away from it, we find remained. in their places for ages. This shows that the practice was a general one and of long standing, and that these deposits were regarded with inviolable respect. In time the magnitude of the pillar, or of the altar,

of unhewn stone was considered as a circumstance conferring dignity on the erection. Thus the pillar near the oak at Shechem, in the vicinity of which the Israelites were assembled by Joshua, is noticed as being a "great stone" (Joshua xxiv. 26); and the altar erected by the tribe of Reuben and of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh on the banks of the Jordan, is said to be a "great altar to see to" (Joshua xxii. 10).

The pillar, or stone of memorial, had various applications in patriarchal times, being raised in commemoration of some Darine interposition, as Jacob's Bethel, and Samuel's Ebenezer; of some solemn covenant entered into with the Almighty, as the pillar at Shechem, and of a civil compact between man and man, as the Galeed of Jacob and Laban; it was also used as a sepulchral memorial, as the pillar at Rachel's grave; and lastly, these stones set up in remembrance of individuals, as the stones of Abel, and the pillar which Absalom erected in the King's dale. The circumstance is thus related: "Now Absalom had in his life time reared up for himself a pillar, which is in the King's dale, for he said, 'I have no son to keep my name in remem

brance; and he called the pillar after his

own name, and it is Absalom's Place" (2

called to this day Samuel xviii. 18).

Thus of these stones of memorial set up in Patriarchal times, we have very satisfactory and circumstantial accounts from about

1000 to 1600 years B.C. The groups of stones set up by the Israelites were twelve in number, according to the number of the tribes; and this circumstance distinguished them from the similar work of their neighbours, the Canaanites.

Of the pillars and other remains of rude unhewn stones in India, on the shores of the Red Sea, and of the Mediterranean, as well as those in Gaul, the Northern parts of Europe, and in almost every part of Britain, it has long been a quæstio vexata on what occasions they were set up, and in every country they are accounted for by some absurd tradition. Their similarity in places so remote from each other, would almost induce the belief of an intercourse existing between these countries, and indeed there is but one way of accounting for them, and that is by ascribing to the Canaanites of Tyre and Sidon the introduction of these primeval works, so strongly resembling each

other, into countries so far separated. The Tyrians inhabited a narrow slip of sterile land incapable of being profitably cultivated, but affording convenient harbours for shipping, and Hermon and the adjacent hills abounded in cedar and timber of various kinds, suitable for the building of vessels of every dimension. Thus situated, the Tyrians of necessity became a commercial people, and the population of Tyre and its coasts were in the commencement of their establishment, chiefly mariners and fishermen. Their commerce at first consisted in the article of corn, which they conveyed from Egypt to the various neighbouring countries, accessible by sea. By this they gradually became the most expert and adventurous navigators of antiquity, and in the days of King Solomon, in conjunction with a fleet sent out by that King, circumnavigated the peninsula of Africa. Before this they had made a settlement at Utica, on the Southern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, and another at Gades (now Cadiz), on the Northern coast; they had also ventured to explore the British Channel, and settle a colony at the Western extremity of Britain, on account of the tin and other

metals which they found there.

That the main support of the Tyrian commerce was the corn of Egypt is asserted by the prophet Isaiah, in these words, "and by great waters the seed of Sihor the harvest of the river [Nile] is her revenue, and she is a mart of nations" (Isaiah xxiii. 3). The settlement at Cadiz constituted the depôt of the Phoenician merchants for the tin of Britain, together with its lead and the silver obtained from it by the separating process of testing, and the iron of Sweden. This station was also called Tartessus, and is allowed by the most approved writers to be the Tarshish of the Scriptures. Ezekiel thus notices this branch of the Phoenician commerce: "Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kinds of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded in thy fairs" (chap. xxvii. 12). These are the very articles which Britain and the Northern countries bordering on the German Sea would supply, between which places and Tyre, Tarshish would be a most convenient intermediate station.

Tin, a metal peculiar to the Western extremity of Britain, is mentioned by Moses,