Smith (Hastings' Dictionary)

enij an artificer, a workman, 1 S 13'^ 18 54'*; Sns u-ir\ a smith (lit. a worker in iron). Is 44'-; 13;? (lit. locksmith?) 2 K 24'-'- '^ Jer '24' 29-. The name smith is common to several metal workers: the goldsmith, the silversmith, the copper- smith, and the ironsmith. The most important of tliese in ancient times was the coppersmith. Tliou"h iron seems to have been known at a very eany period, it did not come into common use. Cojiper, being more easily worked, was the universal iiuna!

for tools, arms, and all kinds of utensils. Alloyed with tin it became hard, and w.as cap.iUle of taking a sharp edge : thus it was suitable for knives, swords, sjiears, axes, etc. The eopjiersmith is still a very important workman in SjTia, for almost all domestic utensils are made of that metal. Pans, pots, trays, caldrons for boiling the grape juice, are made of copper.

The goldsmith and silversmith are next in importance, and their methods of workin" are almost the same as the pictures on tlie tombs in Egyjit show to have been followed by the ancient Eg3'ptians. The silversmith is usually also the tinsmith of a Lebanon village. Iron ore of the very best quality is abundant in the I.eliaiion range, and has been worked for ages by the smiths. The forests around supplied the fuel, and the iron obtained was similar to what is known as Swedish iron.

It was probably from this iron that the smiths of Damascus made their famous steel. Nearly every village in Syria has its smith, whose business it is to make and repair ploughs, pickaxes, hoes, and the tools for the masons and carpenters. He makes shoes also for horses, mules, donkeys, and for the oxen used for ploughing. The fuel of the smith is charcoal, and two very large circular bellows keep up a steady blast.

Smiths in ancient as w ell as in niddern times were noted for the strength of their arms, Is 44". The discovery of the smith's art is ascribed in Gn 4*- (J) to Tubal-cain (which see) the son of Lamech (.see Dillmaiin, ad lor., and Benzinger, Ilcb. Arch. 214). A smith at work is graphically portrayed in Sir 38'". W. CAltsi,A\v. SMYRNA {luf'pva) was an ancient city in the west of .Vsia Minor, situated at the head of a gulf which runs up about 30 miles into the country.

It was at liist a colony of Aeolic Greeks, but was Uiken by an attack from tho Ionian colony of Colophon and truusformcd into an Ionian city. 554 SMYRNA SMYRNA The original Aeolic nnd Ionian Smyrna was cap- tured by tlie Lyilians, who broke u\> its constitu- tion as a Greek city about tlie end ot the 7tli cent.

H c • and it existeil as a mere (jriental town or series of villages lor more tlian three centuries, till Lysimachus (301-281) refounded it as a Greek city in a new situation alioiit 3 miles soutli- west from the ancient site. It has continued ever since an unbroken history as one of the greatest cities of Asia. Smyrna was a faithful ally ot Rome, from the time when the ereiil Italian republic hegun to interk-re w, the affairs of the Kisr choosin.'

that side before Rome had become all-powerful, a;S i-emS^ned-'true to it even during the Mithridatjc »ars when a Smyrna^an assembly, hearing ot the distressed cond t,o . of Sulla's army, stripped off their own clothes and sent them to clothe the soldiers ; and it was according y '^™iired m the lioman poUcv, though it suffered durmg the Civil W ar aft«r the death ot'Ciesar.

That early appreciation of the value o the Koman alliance was undoubtedly due to the position of Smyrna as a great trading oty : the exact circumstences are unknown to us, but Smyrna must have been as earij as B.C. 200 b'ou'°ht int<. s'uch relations with the general Mediterranean trade that its interest lay in supporting «°™« '«^,';f,.^''^"'S and the allied Seleucid kings of Syria, a.

nd against R odes (just as the old friendship of Ma-vsilia and Rome was due to their common dread of the competit.un of Carthaginian mer- "''smvrnawas the port at the end of one of the great roads leadmgtrom the inner country, I'hrygia GalaUa <=tc across Lvdia towards the west. It was also the harbour for "« »ho ^ tride of the fertile Hermus Valley, and was probab y hardly second even to Kphesus as an exporting city. Its great wealth i. attested by its abundant coinage.

It was the chief citv of a coiuf,it«», and was one of those cit.es that were .ii.-nifled with the title of mHropolis. It vied with I'ergamus ami Ephesus tor the title of ' First (city) of Asia w^ij, "aLo; and the contests between the three great cities were carried to a great height, as each invented new titles lor itself or appropriated the titles of the other.

In one case at least; their jealous rivalry led to an appeal to the imperial "^^Ta D 23 the cities of Asia obtained permission to found a temple in honour of Tiberius and his mother Juha Augusta, and in 26 several contended for the privilege o having the Umple within their walls.

The pleadings of the dilte ent cities which claimed that honour throw considerable ''gl' °" the state of the great Asian cities under the early Roman emperors, though only a very brief report has been preserve<l InTacitus (Annah. iv. 65, 56). The claim of Pergamum was rejected because it alrea<ly had the temple dedicated by the province to Augustus : that of Ephesus because it was suHic ei a j weighted bv the worship and the temple of Artemis that of Laodicea Tralles, etc.

, because they were not sufficiently gie.it. ILalicarnassus was carefully considered, but at last the choice lay between Sardis and Smyrna. Sardis relied especially on its- past history, and quoted, amidst other evidence on its si.ie, a decree passed in its honour by the twelve ancient EtrMscan cities. But the Smyrnajans could appeal to their laithml friendship and alliance with Rome ; and they mentioned lliat they had dedicated a temple to the goddess Rome in Bc 19.

,, before the eastern cities had learned by experience that Ronie was the one supreme iwwer in the worTd The ;;!»"" of Smvma was preferred to that of Sardis, thus niarking the superior dignity of the former in the province. The temple was erected by the provin.Mal council (see AsiARcii) in Smyrna, which henceforward could claim the Imperial ^eokorate, i.f. the title ot temple-wariien (,i..o,=or) ot the emperors. The title wi, not so much prized in the Isl cent.

; and the eariiest proof that SiuN'ma ha<f assumed it is in A.n. 98-102. A second and a third Veokorate were alter\vards granted to Smyrna (.as to Per-amum and Kphesus>-the second by Hadrian (though not menlioned on coins till the reign of his successor Pius) the third by Severus towards the end ot hia reign (along with the same compliment to Ephesus) In the Roman time Smyrna was perhaps the most brilliant and splendid of the cities of Asia.

No other city of the province could vie with it for the handsomeness of its streets, the excellence of the oavint' and the skill with which it was laid out in i-ectaiu'ular blocks ; but it was badly drained, and the streets were liable to be Hooded in rain. It stretched along the southern shore of the gulf, not far from its eastern extremity. On the west a lull which overhangs the sea was enclosed witlun lU walls • and on the south a still loftier elevation called' Pagos, ' the hUl,' * 460 ft.

high, served as its • P;."os is, indubitably, an ancient name ; but the hill appears also to have had the special name Mastusia, alluding to its iilpe as seen from the sea (though the likeness to a breast is wento be iUusor^- when one goes round it. or ascends). acropolis, and ailbrded a strong line of defence foi the walls of Lvsimaclius. The modern city stretches beyond the ancient walls on the east side, but leaves out part of the ancient city on the west.

On the lower ground west from Pagos, about tlie south-western extremity of the city, was the 'Ephesian Gate,' whence issued the ancient road to Metropolis, Ephesus, and the south generally. Another gate near the modern station of the Hermus Valley Railway is still called the Black Gate (Kara Kapu).

The most splendid street in ancient Smyrna was called the Golden Street ; it led perliaps from the temple of Zeus on tbe hiU over the sea to the temple of Cybele on the liUlock east from SmjTna called Tepejik (if, as is probable, the temple stood there), issuing from the city prob- ably through Kara Kapu. There was, in addition to the moonng-groiuid in the open gulf, an inner harbour nearly land-locked, which was sufficiently commodious for ancient vessels.

It was in the heart of the modern city ; and the Bazaars now occupy part of its area. In A D. 1402 the entrance to it was blocked by lamer- lane with a mole, to facilitate his assault on the stronghold of the Rhodian Knijrhts beside the sea.

Even before that, it had probably been a good deal neglected in the troubles and the weak govern- ment that prevailed for centuries ; and afterwards under Turkish rule the harbour became more and more choked up, till in the 18th century it hnalJy disappeared. , i » Smyrna has sutiered much from earthquakes. A severe one occurred in A.D. ISO, and great shocks seem often to be felt in the latter part of a century. The last was in 1880. There was no specially famous cultus at Smyrna.

The ' Mother of Sipvlos' was worshipped in a great temple, which probably stood on the alreadv mentioned mound outside the city on the east side ; the priest'ess of the goddess in ironl of the cit> .jipim nf«To/.i«<;) is mentioned in an inscription ; and the ileur -yip'.l- U,us is a common type and legend on the coins of i'°i3>n^ But her cultus was common to other cities round lit.

faipj los, and the Smvrnaian worship did not become famous and im- porunt like" those ot Ephesus, Magnesia etc The temple of She .Nemescis, or Fates, and a Hieron of the hledona. in which divination was practised from chance words or Phrases or acts are mentioned; but it seems very probable that those t»o foundations may have been only a single hol.v place. According to the legend, the two Nemeseis had appeared to Alexander the Great in a dream, and ordered him to rebuild Smyrna. In Sm.

\rna alone was the ordinary singular conception ot Nemesis ilouliled as a pair of divine figures. ^ ♦>,. KirfhnH,-,. Smyrna wii one ot tlie cities claiming to be the birthplace ot Uonier The poet is often represented on its coins ; and there wL a building in or near the city, calkd the flo.»eroon. Trwlition connected him with the sacred river, «> 'ed Meles The descriptions of the river by Aehus Anstidea, and -^ f«^red character, show that it was not any ol the ™, .

ving streamy dry in summer and torrents in the rainy season which lave been identified by different authorities as the Meles (especially the s reau, on the eastern skirts of the -nodern city, crossed by Caravan Bridge on the great road leading to the cast).

1 he ^ieU■s was the unvarying stream rising in ti"^ ^P^^^ -J,""^ springs called Dianas Bath, more than a mile east 'rom Cara- van Bridge, and flowing in a steariy uniform stream through a partly artificial channel (as Aristides says) into the go It^ The whole character of the localities, both springs and channel, has been changed by modern engineering opeiations. The Church of Smyrna has had an honourable history.

The message sent to it anumg the letters to the seven Churches, Rev 2 and 3, is more uni- formlv laudatory than those sent to the other Churches ; even Philadelpliia is hardly praised so hi.'hlv as Smyrna, and the others are all blamed iirvaryiu" degrees. But the Smyma^an Church was apparently kept pure by contmnal siittenng : the Church was poor and oppressed : it was not exposed to the dangers of riches, but was rich spiritually. The Jews of Smyrna are described as bitterly hostile.

Few or none of them seem to have adopted Christianity, and they are described as not being really Jews, but merely a synagogue of Satan.

This probably means both (1) that the GentUe Church of Smyrna represents the true SftfYRNA SMYRNA 555 Block of Abraliam, while the Jews say they are Jews, cl uiiin^' the name, but losing the reality of Jc\vi> I inliuritunce ; and (2) that the Jews in the fit'/ had piveu way to the temptations of luxury nd civilization, and degenerated from Jewisl/ ■ urity and religion.

It is an interesting point 'I it, in an inscription of the 2nd century (6/1/ 31 i), we lind mentioned as one of the classes of the ,.opulation 'the erstwhile Jews' (ol wori 'Ioi;ooio.,. an enigmatic phrase which probably means those who formerly were the nation of the Je'vs, but who have lost the legal standing of a 8L[ arate people and are now merged in the numerous class ol resident slrangers, sprung from various parts of the empire.'

* In the popular outburst which led to the martyr- dom of Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna in A.D. I55,t the Jews are described as playing a prominent part.

The Asiakch I'hilippus, who was presiding at the games (which therefore must have been those called Koii-d 'Aaias, celebrated by the provincial council called the Koinon, and held at the various metropoleis in turn),wa3 very unwilling to authorize the deed, and ^vithout his permission it could not have been carried out in the stadium on the occa- sion of the games ; but the popular clamour con- strained him. The Jews were active also in fetching and arranging the wood to burn the aged bishop.

The view that the Jews of Smyrna are described in the Apocalypse as degenerate from the pure religion of their race seems to be coiilirmed, when we observe that I'olycarp's martyrdom occurred on a Saturday afternoon, and the Jews, who were so active against him, must have appeared in the statiium at games which should have been an abomination to them on the Sabbath day.

It is a noteworthy coincidence, which may be inlintional, that the Divine Sender of the message to Smyrna, the city which had been destroyed and after 340 years refounded, calls himself ' the (irst and the last, which was dead and lived again.' Tlie various titles which the Sender of the messages to the Seven Asian cities assumes in eacli case have sonictinies at least an olmous relation to the circumstances of the city to which the me.

ssage is addressed : that is evidently the ease at TllYATlRA, and may be in otlier cases, though we cannot trace the relation. Here, however, it seems very clear. That, of course, is not inconsistent with the equally olivious relation of the title to the immediate cir- cuiiist.ances of the Smyrna'an Christians as de- scribed in Rev 2'°" 'Fear not the thing which thou art about to sufl'er; behold, a.

ssiiredly, the devil is about to cast some of you into jjrison that ye may be tried ; and ye shall have tribulation for a term of tun days [i.e. a time not unlimited, but with an end fixed]. Be thou faithful unto •leath ; and I will give thee the garland of life [i.e. tlio prize which consists in life].

As your city was destroyed, and lived again more glorious than before, so I who died and lived again will give to thee [each individual Christian is singled out and addressed], if thou be true to death, the reward of the true life (t^s fw^}!)' On the othor hand, it seems highly improbahle that there Is h«ro intcndt-'l any ' allusion to the ritual of the piitf.in niysteries which iiri,-vailed in that city' (aa is KUg(;c8tca by Kev. J. W. Ulnkesley in Smith's Uli iii. p. i:!

36) : ' the story ot the violent death and reviviscence of Dionysos' waa notupecially ehiiract«ristic of Smyrna, or likely to he specially familiar to the Smymioan Christians. It seems quit« unnatural that the • See Mommson In lIMoHschc Zeilnchr. xxvili. p. 417. The meaning 'who were once Jews, but have abandoned their ru- ligion,' seems quite impossible : renegade Jews would not be calle<l so in an inscription which mentions them in a compli- ni'-nlary way. t Till" diite.

as flxcrt by VVaddington, is nearly, but not abso- lutely, cerl-iin. Uarnack considers Wwldington's reasoning to t>e entirulv erif^neous, but accepts the date ou dllTcrent grounds IChronoL der ilUliriM. Lilt. I. pp. 856, 721). Divine Sender of the message should be represented in ■ c;haracter desijined to recall that of Uionysos. It Is probable that the writer had In'his mind the prize of victory (as in the Greek games), when he spoke of the ' garland of life.'

It is indeed quite out of keeping with his usual custom to take a metaphor from such a source : he was not, hke St. Paul, brought up in Greek surroundings and accustomed to draw his illustrations from the social life of the Greek cities, liut that special metaphor had entered so completely Into current language tliat the writer was hardly conscious of its source : he was probably thinking more of St.' Paul's garland of righteousness (2 Ti 48), St.

Peter's garland of glory (1 P 6), and above all St. James's garland of life (!''-), than of the athlete's garland. At the same time it is possible, and even probable, that onother pagan us.ige was also in his mind. The worship- per, while engaged in tlie service of a deity, wore a garland of the kind sacred 10 that deity,— myrtle in tlie service of Aphro- dite, ivy in that of Dionysos, wild olive in that of Zeus Olympius (out of which.

Indeed, developed the victor's garland in the Olympian games), and so on. The meaning then would be : * Be thou faithful to death, and I will give thee the garland of my service, which is of life.' Yet the idea of 7>rc<r or rtward seems inseparable from the passage ; and it is only through the victor' •> L[arlaud that the Stephanos acquired that connotation. Probably tioth ideas are united in this passage.

The magis- trates of hieratic origin, called SfephanvpfiQroi, who were found In Smyrna and the other Asiatic cities generally, are not alluded to in this passage (as baa been suggested): such an allusion lends no point to the words.

Again, we notice that, whereas Sardis, the city whose impregnable fortress had twice been cap- tured while its people slept and neglected to watch, is advised to ' be watchful,' Smyrna, the city which boasted of its faithfulness to the lldiiian alliance, is counselled to ' be faithful [not now to an earthly power, but to God].' Throughout the messages to the Seven Cities it is evident that the writer knew the circumstances of each city, and alluded to many facts of its present or past life.

The references to past historj- are not gathered from reading and literature. The facts alluded to are of that marked tyjie which would be universally known in each city, and would be appealed to by orators addressing popular assemblies. The Cliurch in Smyrna is addressed rather as separate from (and persecuted by) the city, than as forming part of the city and characterized by its qualities and sharing in its works (like Sardis and Laodicea).

Only the faithfulness and the resurrection of the city are alluded to as jiroper to the Church. In its separation from and superiority to the society by which it was surrounded lay the glory of the Smynia*an Church ; and life is to be its reward for its faithfulness and its patient endurance. Life is the dominant tone in the letter to Smyrna, death in that to Sardis, weak- ness and indecision in that to the l^lirygian Laouicea.

It is remarkable how later history has conlirmed the prophecy and the character ascribed to the Church. Smyrna had a chequered history during the Turkish wars ; and It was the last Independent Christian city in the whole of Asia Minor. It was thrice cyiptured by the Seljuk Turks In the end of the 11th and beginning of the 12th cent., but was recovered by the Hyzantine government ; and the emperor John III.

Ducos Vatat::es, who resided freijuently at Smyrna or at Nymphaion, rebuilt the castle on Mount Pogos (12*21- 12^4). Early in the Nth cent. It passed Into Alohamniedan possession, and fonned a part of the dominions of Aidin, the lorrl of Guzel-iiissar, ' the Beautiful Costlc ' of Tralles ; but the Knights of Uhodes seized the lower city, and strengthened the fortilications of the horl>our, though the castle on I'agos over- hatigiiig the city remaine<l In T^irkish hands.

Two Osmanli Sultans, Amurath I. and Uayezid, besieged the city and castle ot the Knights, but without success. At last in M(r> the hosts of Tamerlane captured the castle ; and after he retired the city piwsed quietly under the power of the Seljuk chiefs of Ayasaluk (Kphesns) and Gu/.el, IIii>sjtr, until they were reduced by Amurath 11. under the Osmunll sway.

The last stronghold of Christianity in Asia Minor, Smyrna si ill is more occidental in char- acter and more solidly lloiirishing than any other city of Turkey. It is called by the Turks, accordingly. Giaour Isniir, Inlidel Smyrna. The * Zcller's Idea, that St. James lmlta^ed this passage of the Apocalypse, seems not acoeptabl«.

656 SNAIL SNOW Mohammedans number less than a quarter of the population, which totals over '250,000 : more tlian a half is Greek : there are lar^e Jewish and Armenian quarters : colonies from all the chief countries in Europe, from tlie United States, and from Persia, also are settleil there.

The views from the sea, and from the summit of Mount Pagos, are among the most exquisite in the whole Mediterranean lands ; an<l the prosperity within tlie city is, in comparison with all other Turkish towns, plain to the eye. As in the message to the Cliurcn, so at tlie present day, life is the prominent note. In the early ecclesiastical system Smyrna was a bishopric under the authority, probably, of Ephesus ; but, soon after, it was raised to be independent and antokephnloa.

In the later Notitice it appears as a metropolis, having six bishoprics suliject to it — Phoca?a, Clazomena;, Magnesia ad Sipylum, Archangelos, Sosandra, and Petra. Literature. — Though Smyrna has been so frequently visited by European travellers of every kind, very little has been written on its history, and no proiur study has ever been made of the literary and monumental evidence on the subject. The account given in Sir Charles Wilson's Handbook to Turkey (.

Murray) is the best, thouj^'h necessarily very brief. In the Uistorical Geographi/ of Asia, Minor, Ranisa^*, there are only some inadequate notes, pp. 107-109, 115, 116. An old book in French, by Slaars, on Smyrna, published there, is practically unprocurable. An article by Arist. M. Fontrier, in BaUetin de Corresp. iicU^hiique, xvi. pp. 37&-410, on le Monast^re de Lemboa (five miles east of Smyrna and one south of Bunar- Bashi) is by far the best study that has been written on the subject.

Numerous picturesque descriptions of the beauty of the scenery may be found in the books of travellers and tourists. W. M. Ramsay. SNAIL Two Heb. words are tr'' ' snail ' in AV. 1. a-zn hornet, cravpa, lacerta (Lv 11**). There seems to be no foundation for the AV 'snail.' Other ancient VSS besides the LXX and Vulg. under- stand the word as referring generieally to the lizard. It is in a list of those animals, and prob. one of them. RV tr. it by ' sand-lizard,' which is Lacerta agilis, L.

, a species of wide distribution. This rendering, however, is a mere surmise. 2. SiSs'i' shabhelrd, K-qpos, cera (Ps 58*). The Heb. is Shaph. form from the root b^? bcdal, similar to the Arab. Iialla, ' to moisten.' The rendering 'wax,' of the LXX and Vulg., is amplified by the expressions tVfire rup, supcrccridit ignia (from a c<infusion of n::'N Srj with v\ '75;). Never- theless, the modern VSS are unaninmus in the rendering ' snail.'

The allusion to ' melting away ' is explained in two ways : (a) that a snail, in moving from one place to another, leaves a slimy track, which -was popularly referred to the dis- solution of its body. The Arab, popular name for the snail, hizzAk, 'the spitter,' is derived from tliis cliaracteristic ; (b) Tristram explains it by the fact that, in the dry season, snails attach tliem- selves to rocks, tree.

s, shrubs, or the soil, if possible in a moist situation, or at least one sheltered from (lie direct rays of the sun. If, however, a snail be long exposed to the sun, it will be dried up in its shell. Tristram thinks that this explains the metaphor of the text. A large number of species of land and fresh- water snails are found in Palestine and Syria. They emerge from their hiding-pl.aces after the early ruins, and are collected by the natives, and boiled and eaten with great relish. G. E.

Post. SNOW (j''?': Aram. 3''n[Dn7'']; Gr. x'"") ismen- tioned in Scripture with a degree of infrequency corresponding to the rarity of its appearance in Palestine proper. Of an actual fall of snow we read only t'.vice in the biblical narrative — in 2S aS-" • The verb J ('y occurs in Ps GSi- and Is tr. in LXX by ;tioyoi>tf^«j, :Vif is tr. by IfUti in Pr 26', and in Pr 311 x^'"?? appear to be % corruption of x'"*?

** = 1 Ch 11, , where Benaiah, one of Davii's mighty men, is descrilied as going down and slaying a lion in a cistern on a snowy day ; and in 1 Mac 13-^, wliere the horsemen of Tryphon, the usurper king of Syria, were prevented from attacking Simon at Adora (or Adoiaimi by reason of 'a very great snow ' which fell in the night. Snow is unknown on the seaboard of Philistia, Sharon, and Phieuicia, and seldom whitens the ground inland below an elevation of 2000 feet.

In the Gh6r and the plain of Jericho it never falls. South of Hebron it is rare. Along the summits of the central ridge of Palestine and on the high tableland east of the Jordan snow falls nearly every winter. The snowfall at Jerusalem, which is 2500 ft above sea level, m.\v be taken as t.'i'pical of the whole central ridge. A table ia given by Dr. Chaplin in the PEFSt (vol for 1S83, p. 3'2), coverinjf the winters from ISUO-lSOl to 1SS1-18S2.

Out of the twenty-two seasons to which his report refers there were eight when no snow fell, four of these being consecutive (1883, 1864, 1865, ISOO). It is not wonderful that in 1864-1S66 (see Jerusalem, vol it pp. 586, 586) the water supply from the chief spring entirely failed. From Dr. Chaplin s table we learn that the last few daj'S of December, the months of January and February, and the first; fortnight of Starch make the period within which the snow falls in and around Jerusalem.

In 1870 there was a fall of nearly two inches on April 7th and 8th, but this was a very remarkable and extraordinary' occurrence. ' For the most part,' says Dr. Chaplin, ' the snow is in small quantity and soon melts, but heavy snow- storms sometimes occur, and the snow may then remain unmelted in the hollows on the hillsides for two or three weeks. The deepest snowfall was in Dec. iS, and '29, 1879, when it measured 17 inches where there was no drift- In Feb.

1874 it was SJ inches deep, and on March 14, 5 inches.' Sir J. W. D.awson {E;it/pt and i>;/ria, p. 113) reports that at the Jaffa Gate in Jan. 18*4 there w-ere snowdrifts 5 ft deep. Wallace {Jerusalein the llolij, pi 25'2) mentions that three heavy falls of snow occurred during Jan. and Feb. 1898, when the weather was exceptionally cold, and much suffering was endured by the people. Galilee, with a general elevation of 2000 to 2500 ft., is less liable to snowfalls.

But sometimes these are heavy. In March 1884 a party riding through N. Galilee was overtaken by a snowstorm which covered the ground to the depth of several inches. It lay during the night, and wlien the members of the party set out next day after a comfortless en- campment the snow still Lay white over the land- scape, and its glare was almost blinding as the sun poured down his rays in a blaze that threatened sunstroke. The snow of Lebanon was proverbial (Jer 18", Ca4"').

It is 'the tnhite mountain,' probablj' because tlie snow never fails altogether from its summits (for another explanation of the name see Lebanon, ad init.) On the highest cultivated lands the snow- covers up the wheat sown by the peasantry and protects it from the cold in winter. 1 he lofty dome of Hermon is white all the winter, and through the summer broad patches and long streaks of snow are to be seen upon its wi<lely-extended mass. Snow is an emblem of refreshment in Scripture.

It may be the glowing aspect of the distant moun- tain tops that is in the mind of the psalmist when, speaking of the scattering of Jeliovah's enemies and the consequent elation of the people, he says, 'Then fell snowonZalmon ' (PsBS" ; see Delitzscli, in lor.) Lebanon and Ilermon with their snowy sides have a dcliglitfully refreshing aspect as the inhabitants of the siiltrj' lowlands look up to thera from afar.

' The cold of snow in the time of har- vest' (Pr 25'') may refer to the sight of snow upon the mountain, but more likely to the snow wliich is preserved and stored to m.'ike cooling drinks in the heat of summer. Jn.st as snow from Lebanon and Hermon was carried as a luxury in Jewish times to Tj're and Sidon and Tiberias, so it is to- day used in Bovrout and Damascus for mixing with beverages. ' AV'ater like snow ' is still the beverage most grateful to the fcUahln or to the tliirsty traveller.

Snow-water is mentioned for its cleans- ing properties (Job EP : but the text is doubtful, see Dav. ad loc); and the rapidity with which SXUFFERS, SNUFFDISH SOAP, SOPE 557 the snow disappears in the heat of the sun is aotieeil by tlio sacred writers (Job 0'" 24").

Snow by reason of its rarity and beauty is one of the wonders of God's power (Job 37", Ps 147'°) ; tlie hail and the snow are conceived to be stored in the heavens for use by God in the productiveness of nature (Is So'"), and in tlie accomplishment of moral ends (Job 3S, == ; of. Jos 10" and 1 Mac 13-). To he prepared against its coming, seeing that it keeps its season so precisely, is one of the virtues of the ideal woman (I'r 31-' 2C').

Snow is taken to ex- press whiteness in the realm of nature — the \\ hite- nes.s of wool, hoary hairs, leprosj', milk (Rev I''', cf. l)u 7", Ex 4", Nu 12'», 2 K 5-', La 4').

Snow is the chosen Scripture emblem of stainless moral purit3\ We are perhajis not at liberty to say it is used of the transli^jured Christ (Mk ir), because the best MSS omit ws x"^"- But it is taken to describe the purity of the Nazirites of Zion (La 4'), of the Ancient of Da3-s (Dn 7-'), of the Angel of the Resur- rection (Mt 2S'), of the Risen Lord (Rev 1").

As against the dehlement and condemnation and per- sistence of sin, it describes the righteousness, for- giveness, and complete acceptance of the penitent believer (Ps 51', Is l'»). LiTERATrRE. — Mackie, BtliU Manners and Customt, v. p. 8 ; Condtr. /laiiMook to the Bible, p. 221 ; O. A. Smith, IIGUL p. 64 (., y^KM, 1SS3, p. 32. T. NiCOL.