PANNAG occurs only once in Scripture (Ezek. xxvii. 17), but so much uncertainty exists re specting the meaning of the word, that in many translations, as, for instance, in the Authorized English Version, the original is retained. From the context of the passage in which it occurs, it is evident that wheat, oil, and honey were conveyed by Judah and Israel—that is, the products of their country as an agricultural people—as articles of traffic, to the merchants and manufacturers of Tyre, who, it is certain, must, from their insular position, have obtained their chief articles of diet from the neighbouring land of Syria. It is probable, there fore, that pannag was the produce of Palestine, or at least of Syria. Some have considered pannag to indicate balsam, others cassia, and some again sweetmeats. Chaldus holija Griuca voce, quam interpretatur Hesychius rporydX ta, bellaria ex melle.' Some of the Rabbins have also thought that it was a district of Judaea, which, like Minnith, yielded the best wheat ; others, as Junius and Tremellius, from the similarity in the name, have thought it might be the original of the name of Phoenicia. Hiller (Hierophytica, ii. p. 51) says : Pannag, nisi magnopere fallor, est Panax ye! Panaces, vox Graecm vel Syriacm originis ad Grmcam etymologiam aptata, quo videatur ipso nomine onmium morborum remedia promittere.' The name panax occurs as early as the time of Theo phrastus (ix. so), and several kinds are described by him, as well as by Dioscorides ; one kind is called especially Syrian panax. Of one of these plants, now supposed to be species of Fertile laser pitium or Heracleum, the juice was called opopanax. This was in great repute among the ancients, and still holds its place as a medicine, though not pos sessed of any remarkable properties ; but its name is the origin of our panacea, from raliciicEta, `an universal remedy.' It is curious, however, that
the plant yielding the opopanax of commerce is still unknown, as well as the exact locality where it is produced, whether in Syria, or in some part of the Persian empire. By the Arabs it is called juwasheer. Lady Calcott has supposed the panax of the ancients to refer to Panax qiiinquefolizim, or Rinsing of the Chinese, which they also suppose to be a universal remedy, though not possessed of any active properties. But the name panax was not applied to this plant until the time of Linnmus, and there is no proof, nor indeed is it probable, that it found its way from China at any such early period—at all events, the Israelites were not likely to convey it to Tyre. The Syrian version, how ever, translates pannag by the word dohhon, which, we have already seen [DocHAN], signifies `millet.' Newcome, therefore, translates pannag by the word pants, signifying the species of millet which was employed by the ancients as an article of diet, and which still is so by the natives of the East. Dr. Harris quotes Caesar, as stating that the Massili enses, when besieged, panico vetere omnes ale bantur.' From the context, it would seem most likely that this pannag was a produce of the country, and probably an article of diet. One objection to its being the millet is, that this grain has a name, dochan, which is used by the same prophet in Ezek. iv. 9. Notwithstanding the authority of Hiller, there does not appear sufficient proof in support of his opinion, that the juice of the panax or opopanax was the article intended, and there fore pannag must still be considered undeter mined.—J. F. R.