only cover the food and drink, hut I hey torment the people by settling on their faces, and especially round i heir eyes, thus promoting ophthalmia. See Fly.
"Plague" of th Murrain of Beasts. — Pha- raoh was nexl warned that, if he did nol lei the people go, there should he on the day following "a very griev- ous murrain." upon the horses, asses, camels, oxen, and Egypt, whereas those of the children of Israel should m, t die. This came to pass, and we read that " all the cattle of Egypt died: hut of the cattle of the children ol Israel died not one." Vet Pharaoh -till con- tinued obstinate (Exod. ix, 1 7). h is to 1 bserved
that the expression "all the cattle" cannot he iindcr-
si 1 to !„• universal, bul only g< m ral, for the narrative
of the plague of hail shows thai there were still al a later tin ft, and thai the warn of univer-
sal terms in Hebrew explains this seeming difficulty. The m. i ,- imp,, riant, since il app,ai> to
favor our opinion thai the Pharaoh of the Exodus was r, cami Is apparently nol having been kepi by thi I . ptians of the time of the Pharaohs. This plague would have been a heavy punishment to ih,
Egyptians as falling u| their sacred animals of two
of the kinds specified, the oxen and the Bheep; hut ii would have been mosl fell in the destruction of the pari of their useful beasts. In modern times murrain is not an unfrequent visitation in Egypt, and is supposed to precede the plague. A very severe mur- urred in that country in 1842, which lasted nine
months, during the latter half of that year and the Spring of the following one. and was succeeded by the plague, as had been anticipated [Mr-. Poole, English- woman in Egypt, ii. 32 : i. 59, 114). "'A very grievous murrain.' forcibly reminding us of that which visited this same country in the days ,,| Moses, has prevailed during the last three months"— the letter is dated Oct. L8, 1842 ••and the already distressed peasants feel the calamity severely, or rather i I should Bay I the few w ho possess cattle. Among the rich men of the country the loss has been enormous. During our voyage up the Nile." in the duly preceding, "we observed Beveral dead cws and buffaloe8 lying in the river, as I mentioned in a former letter; and some friends who followed us. two
nths after, saw many on the hanks: indeed up to
this time great numbers of cattle are dying in every part of the country" {ili'ul. i. 111. 115). The similarity of the calamity in character is remarkably in contrast. with its difference in duration : the miraculous murrain seems to have be< n a- sudden and nearly as brief as the destruction of the first-born (though far less t< rri- ble), and to have therefore produced, on ceasing, less effect than other plagues upon Pharaoh, nothing re- maining io lie removed. See Murrain.
(G.) The uPlague" of Boils. — The next judgment appears to have been preceded by no warning, except, indeed, that when Moses publicly sent it abroad in Egypt, Pharaoh might no doubt have repented at the last moment. We read that .Moses and Aaron were to take ashes of the furnace, and Moses was to •• sprinkle it, toward the heavens iii the Bighl of Pharaoh." It was to become "small dust" throughout Egypt, an boil breaking forth [with] blains upon man and upon beast." This accordingly came to pass. The magicians now once more seem to have attempted opposition, lor it. is related that they "could not stand before Moses because of the boil; for the boil was upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians." Notwithstanding, Pha- raoh still refused to let the Israelites go (Exod. ix. 8-12). This plague may he supposed to have been either an infliction of boils, or a pestilence like the plague of modern times, which is an extremely severe kind of typhus fever, accompanied by swellings. See Plague. The former is, however, the more likely ex- planation, since, if the plague had been of the latter nature, it probably would have been less severe than the ordinary pestilence of Egypt has been in this l'.uh century, whereas with other plagues which can he il- lustrated from the present phenomena ol' Egypt I he reverse is the case. Thai this plague followed thai of the murrain seems, however, an argument on the other side, and it may he asked whether il is not likely that I he greal pestilence of i he country, probably known in antiquity, would have been one of the ten plagues; hut lo i his ii may he replied thai it is more probable, and in accordance with the whole narrative, that extraor- dinary and unexpected wonders should he effected than w dial could h, paral!, led in the hist,,ry of Egypt The
tenth plague, moreover, is so much like the great Egyp- tian disease in ils suddenness, that il might rather he compared lo ii il' it were nol so wholly miraculous in every respect .as to he beyond the reach of human in- quiry. The positi f the magicians must he noticed
as indicative of the gradation of the plagues: at first 1 1,, \ succei ded, as we suppose, by deception, in imitat- ing what was wrought by Moses, then they failed, and