However, it no doubt saves life by hiding much more frequently than it possibly could by taking wing in the open.

68

This is one of the marvels of nature to which the Creator called the attention of Job in this chapter. No one gave goodly wings" as we would consider them to the peafowl, and so it is given instead a back so like the rich blue-greens of tropical waters under strong blue skies, surrounded by gold-green and blue-green grasses, bronze shades of dried leaves, and the grey of old logs and limbs, that it hides perfectly and does not need the wings of an eagle. If the peafowl undertook to soar in the sky, its train would make such a target that the most inexpert marksman could not fail to bring it down.

It does not seem to me at all impossible that the peacock really is intended in this summing up of wonders which also includes the curled feathers of the ostrich with the gait of a horse, the wonderful flight of the eagle, the time when wild animals bear their young, or the impossibility of domesticating the unicorn.

There is no question but the translation in Kings and Chronicles is correct, for peafowls were abundant in lands visited by the ships of Solomon, and when one takes into consideration the state of his court in Jerusalem at the time of the visit of the Queen of Sheba, it is not difficult to believe that he had every luxury the known world provided.

It is related that the queen came to Jerusalem on a visit, and she undoubtedly thought well of the pomp and circumstance in which she travelled. She had heard that the court of Solomon at Jerusalem was marvellous for the luxury and wealth of its king, and he famous for his wisdom and learning. So she entered Jerusalem with all the display she could command, a very great train,” and laid at the feet of Solomon gifts of spices in such abundance and richness as never before had been seen at one time. On that point she outdid Solomon, and nowhere else in the world were spices so used as in Bible lands. The cookery was rich with them, clothing packed in them, bath water perfumed with them, and before the

dead were placed in sepulchres every layer of masses of wrappings was filled with quantities of rare spices, so they were in great demand and very precious.

The twelfth book of Pliny's natural history is devoted to spice trees and those that yield incense. Arabia was the only country producing the precious frankincense, and so he called it Happy Arabia." Yet he added: "Unworthy country as it is for that surname, in that it taketh itself beholden to the gods above, therefore, whereas indeed they have greater cause to thank the infernal spirits beneath. For what hath made Arabia blessed, rich and happy, but the superfluous expense that men be at in funerals employing those sweet odours to burn the bodies of the dead which they knew by good right were due unto the gods?" He recorded that only certain families and their descendants were allowed to gather frankincense, and these men were compelled to follow strict observances on the day on which they approached the precious trees. They must not have looked upon the dead, and must have been freshly purified in body.

He described the gathering of frankincense as follows: "The first, and indeed the kindly season falls about the hottest days of summer, at what time as the dog days begin for then they cut the tree where they see the bark to be fullest of liquor, and whereas they perceive it to be thinnest, and strut out most. They make a gash or slit only to give more liberty; but nothing do they pare, or cut clean away. The wound or incision is no sooner made, but out there gushes a fat foam or froth: this soon congeals, and grows to be hard and where the place will give them leave, they receive it in a quilt or mat made of date-tree twigs, plaited and wound one within another, wicker-wise. For elsewhere the floor all about is paved smooth, and rammed down hard. The former is the better way to gather the purer and cleaner frankincense: but that which falleth upon the bare ground proves the weightier. That which remains behind, and sticks to the tree is patted and scraped off with knives, or such like iron tools; and therefore no marvel if it be full of shavings of the bark. The whole wood or forest is divided into

certain portions; and every man knows his own part: nay, there is not one of them will offer wrong unto another, and encroach upon his labours. They need not set any keepers to look unto those trees that be cut, for no man will rob his fellow if he might, so just and true they be in Arabia. But believe me, at Alexandria, where frankincense is tried, refined, and made for sale, men cannot look surely enough to their shops and workhouses, but they will be robbed. The workman that is employed about it is all naked, save that he hath a pair of trousers or breeches to cover his shame, and those are sewed up and sealed too, for fear of thrusting into them. Hoodwinked he is sure enough for seeing the way to and fro, and hath a thick coife or mask about his head, for doubt that he should bestow any in mouth or ears. And when these workmen be set forth again, they be stripped stark naked as ere they were born, and sent away. Whereby we may see that the rigour of justice cannot strike so great fear into our thieves here, and make us so secure to keep our own, as among the Sabaeans, the bare reverence of religion of those woods."

To me the most interesting fact here stated is contained in this last sentence, which contrasts the honour of true believers with pagans. The queen had one small triumph when she presented Solomon with costly spices to exceed all his great store. She also brought magnificent gifts of gold and of jewels. But she very soon learned that all the marvellous reports she had heard, probably for the first time in her experience, fell so far short of what she saw that, as she expressed it, The half was not told me!" You will admit that this is a rare case, and speaks well for the honesty of the times. In these days, when we go to view any spectacle, we are surprised if we see one-half that we have been told we will.

First Solomon answered all those difficult questions which the queen wanted some one else to reason out for her. Queens grow accustomed to being waited upon, and really it is the most tiresome work in the world to think. It is much easier for a queen to summon a train, make a State journey, and ask questions and accept the answers, than

it is to stir up the grey matter at the base of the skull and work out vexatious problems for herself. As to how satisfactory the result is when one accepts the brainwork of another, that all depends. The queen was contented with the wisdom of Solomon, and we who have read his history, his maxims, and his wonderful songs are not surprised. Granting all that may be lost in editing and translation from another language, enough remains of the work of Solomon to prove him as wise as any man who ever has lived, both in thought and business transactions, and his maxims and poems never have been surpassed and probably never will be.

After all the questions were answered, Solomon politely and unostentatiously-for he was a gentlemanshowed the queen how he operated a court, managed retainers, commanded an army, amassed wealth, and provided pleasure. She saw his stores of linen yarn for fine cloth, tapestry, and embroideries. She gazed upon uncounted precious stones, and much gold from Ophir, which is a small island lying to the south-east of India. Solomon had so much almug, or red sandal-wood, that it was used for the pillars for the house of the Lord, and for the frames of harps, and musical instruments for the singers of the temple, and the palace of Solomon. He showed the queen that he received six hundred three score and six talents of gold each year, and spices from the merchants of all the kings of Arabia.

He took her to that house in Lebanon built of fine cedars and filled with two hundred targets of beaten gold, containing six hundred shekels each, and three hundred shields of gold, of three pounds' weight to the shield, and all the vessels of it pure gold. He showed her a throne of ivory overlaid with the purest gold, and surrounded by fourteen carved lions, and the like of it was nowhere else on the earth.

She examined presents sent him by all the rulers of the known world; vessels of silver, gold, jewels, garments, armour, spices, horses, and mules. He showed her one thousand four hundred chariots, twelve thousand horsemen, how he made silver common as stones, and rare cedars

of Lebanon common as sycamores in Jerusalem. He paraded before her hundreds of slaves, retainers, and secretaries, all robed in linen and fine cloth, and wearing bracelets and ornaments of gold, silver, and precious stones. He took her to such service, in such a temple as she did not know existed. He opened for her inspection the produce of those ships of his which came once in three years from Tharshish, bringing "gold, and silver, and ivory, and apes, and peacocks.'

"And when the queen had seen all Solomon's wisdom, and the house that he had built, and the meat of his table and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, and his cup-bearers, and his ascent by which he went into the house of the Lord; there was no more spirit in her. And she said to the king, 'It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom.'

So she presented her great gift of spices, one hundred and twenty talents of gold, and precious stones; and the king returned her courtesy by allowing her to select from his possessions anything that pleased her fancy. I am very sure that she took some peacocks among her selections, for most women love to own a peacock if they can and be like one if they have an opportunity.