276 FRAGMENTS, NOTES, AND ANECDOTES ; Illustrating the Nature and Character of the Countiy.

INTRODUCTION.

In recording the following Anecdotes and Fragments the naked truth is stated, without the embellishments of language, or the labour of rhetoric, which the wiser part of mankind have always approved of as the most instructive way of writing ; and all such as are acquainted with books will readily agree with me, that many authors stretch, even to the prejudice of truth, from an affectation of elegance of style. The following facts, therefore, will form the materials for a history, rather than a history itself.

The study of the language and customs of the Arabs is the best comment upon the Old Testament, The language of the modern Jews is little to be regarded ; their dispersion into various nations, having no fixed habitation, being ijoholly