honey; a land wherein thou shalt cat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mavest dig brass. And thou shalt eat and be full, and thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which He hath given thee." Again, he spoke before a great assembly of the people of Israel the words of a song in which he described the inheritance of Jacob: "He made him to ride on the high places of the earth, And he did eat the increase of the field; He made him suck honey out of the rock, And oil out of the flinty rock; Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, With the fat of kidneys of wheat; And of the blood of the grape thou drankest wine." It was the son of Sirach who wrote in Ecclesiasticus, "The chief of all things necessary for the life of man are water, and fire, and iron, and salt, and flour of wheat, and honey, and milk, the blood of the grape, and oil, and clothing." In the days of Isaiah, Solomon, and David, men had accumulated great wealth and wore raiment of fine linen of bright colors, and decked themselves with precious stones. The refinement of the times may be judged by the significance of these lines: "As a signet of carbuncle In a setting of gold, So is a concert of music in a banquet of wine; As a signet of emerald In a work of gold, So is a strain of music with pleasant wine.” People of wealth were served by small armies of slaves, and their homes, temples, and synagogues were profusely decorated in silver, ivory, pure gold, and jewels. Isaiah, in describing the daughters of Zion, said that they were "haughty, and walked with stretched necks and wanton eyes, mincing as they went." He enumerated "anklets, cauls, crescents, pendants, bracelets, mufflers, headtires, ankle chains, sashes, perfume boxes, amulets, rings, nose jewels, festival robes, mantles, shawls, satchels, hand-mirrors, fine linen, turbans, and veils" as articles of apparel. As they had all these things, it should be no cause for astonishment that they also had the "lady" he mentions, since they seem to have had all her accessories. Many of the tent-dwellers had amassed much wealth in flocks and, while following vegetation to afford grazing, lived in great circumstance. Their large tents were of tanned skins, and their rugs priceless. There were musical instruments, and musicians to play them, and artists to carve statues and paint pictures. David was an accomplished performer on the harp. One of his sons made a long list of the worldly goods he had accumulated which reads very like an inventory of the possessions of a rich man of to-day. Civilization was so old that methods, customs, and forms of living in Bible lands were practically the same that they are now. It was so old that all bird and animal forms were almost identical with the same species of to-day. It was so old that Moses looked to the pyramids as an antiquity, a thousand years before his time, and so new that he never had seen a chicken. In almost every instance the birds here mentioned and the quotations given are taken from Moulton's "Modern Reader's Bible," which as a whole I regard as much more even translation, more connected narrative, and more scholarly deduction than the older versions. In a few instances I prefer the phrasing of the old versions as to me more expressive and poetical, or indicating more clearly the bird that I think was intended by the author of the text. Where I have used these quotations I have indicated their origin. My warmest thanks are due the Hon. George Shiras, 3rd; the Rev. Herbert K. Job, Hon. E. S. Cameron, Mr. Henry W. Lanier, and the Cawston Ostrich Farm, of this country, Miss Doris Forescuc Carr, and Mr. Spooner, of London, and Herr Ottomar Anschutz, of Berlin, for kindly assisting me to those parts of the illustration bearing their names. In two cases where I could not secure the names of the photographers whose studies I used, I credited them to the person through whose agency they were procured. There is no claim made that the birds. of these illustrations are those of Bible lands and times. They are merely our nearest and most available family of those species. They are the birds of which we think when we read, "Her maids shall lead her as with the voice of doves." "Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom?” a hen doth gather her brood under her wings." "As |