The first sign, that of changing a rod into a serpent, was the converse of the common magical trick of rendering snakes rigid like rods. The African Psylle, who had control over sepenta
PLAGUES OF EGYPT
either by natural power or artificially by the use of herbs (Ludolf, Hist. of Ethiopia, Gent’s tr. ix. Pi 49), are mentioned by many classical writers :
erodotus (iv. 173), Dio Cassius (li. 14), Lucan (Phars. ix. 890, 925), Allian (de Nat. Anim. xvi. 27), Vergil (4n. vii. 753), Solinus Polyhistor (Memor. x1.), Aulus Gellius (xvi. 2), Silius Italicus (i. 411, iii. 302, v. 354, viii. 498), Pliny (vii. 2), and several others. Thesame form of serpent-charmin is still practised in Egypt and North Africa, an has been described by several travellers, for ex- ample, von Schubert (ii. 116), Trotter (p. 174), Antes (p. 15), ete. For other observations on the snake as symbol and wand, see Béttiger’s Kleine Schriften, 1837, p. 112. The writer has seen both a snake and a crocodile thrown 2 notism into the condition of rigidity in which they could be held as rods by the tip of the tail.
(1) The First Plague, the defilement of the river, was a severe blow to Egyptian prejudices. The river was & to whom offerings were made (Stern, Zeitschr. A2gypt. Spr. 1873, 129) and adora- tions addressed (Maspero, Hymne au Nil, 1868), According to the narrative in J and E, the trans- formation was confined to the water of the river, killing its fish (7}7.18. 31, 34.380) but P states that it extended to the canals, pools, ponds, and cisterns of wood and stone (v.%), It is meee that vessels of earthenware are not mentioned, and perhaps this may be connected with the statements of Alpinus (Med. 4g. i. 16), Norden (i. 52), Sonnini (i. 124), Troilo (472), and Volney (i. 20), that it is only in earthenware vessels that the discoloured waters of the Nile-flood become clear and can be kept clear. See also Galen, de Simpl. Med. Facult. i ᾿ 8 2. The former narrative (JE) says that the people dug beside the river for supplies, and although it mee nothing of the kind of water in these wells, it does not say that it was blood; the latter (P) declares that the water in these also was changed into blood, and Philo paraphrases this by cumparing these wells to blood-vessels, from which the blood was flowing, as in a hemor- rhage. Volney says that the water found by digging wells is brackish and unfit for use (i. 16). Sushi change was plainly miraculous, and this is
also shown by its
efinite duration of seven days and its sudden disappearance.
In the normal condition of the river, as its waters rise in the third week of June, they become discoloured. This has often been described by travellers. Abd-al-latif says that the water be-
comes green from the fragments of vegetable matter suspended in it, and remains discoloured until August (de Sacy’s tr., p. 333), and Makrizi refers to this alteration in colour and to the offen- sive exhalations from the water at a later stage (quoted by de Sacy, p. 345). Wansleb adds that in process of time the water changes in colour from green to a dull ochreous red (1677, p. 53). Many other travellers confirm this observation. See Maillet, p. 57; Tourtechot, 14; Hartmann, 128 ; Pococke, i. 199; Savary, 1786, ii. 179. The last author speaks of the unwholesomeness of the waters in this stage, and this is confirmed by Pruner (p. 21). These changes in colour are prob- ably due to the wasting down of some great accumulation of ve table matter high up in the river, like the Sudd or great Nile dam described by Sir S. Baker (Lake Albert Nyanza, ii. p. 329). Phrenberg attributes the red coloration to a minute organism, Spheroplea annulina Agardh, which multiplies in the water after the inundation, and he has described a large number of cases of red discoloration of water in Poggendorf’s Annals for 1830, p. 477. This reddening of ponds by minute organisms is not uncommon. Swammer- dam tells us that he saw a pool in the Bois de
PLAGUES OF EGYPT 889
Vincennes made crimson by minute crustaceans. Schuyl describes the same at Leyden, and Hjaerne at Dalecarlia (Bybel der Natuure, 1737, pp. 89, 90). The present writer has seen a similar discoloration in a pool in the Phenix Park, Dublin, on account of enormous quantities of a species of Peridinium. The example in 2 Καὶ 3% may be quoted here. It has recently been shown that in many of these coloured animals the pigment is contained in parasitic bacteria.
Changes in the water of the Nile were not un- known in the legendary history of Egypt. Manetho states that in the days of Nephercheres (about B.C. 4000) the Nile for eleven days flowed with honey. Eusebius mentions the same change as occurring in the reign of a nameless king 200 years earlier.
The plague must have been a serious calamity to the whole population, not only on account of the lack of water, but also because of the killing of the fish, as these formed an important element in the diet of the Egyptian. There is a little obscurity in the description, arising probably from the different standpoints of the original authors of the narratives. In v.17 Moses was instructed to say to Pharaoh that he would cause the plague by smiting with his rod on the waters (E), while in vy.” (P) Aaron is instructed to bring the plague by stretch- ἸΔΕ ΤΟΤΕ his rod.