Reverting to the interpretation of foxes burning the harvest by means of firebrands attached to their tails, the case is borne out by Ovid (Fasti, iv. 680— Cur igitur missm junctis ardentia telis Terga ferunt vulpes'— And again in the fable of Apthonius, quoted by Merrick ; but not, as is alleged, by the brick with a bas-relief representing a man driving two foxes with fire fastened to their tails, which NV2S found twenty-eight feet below the present surface of Lon don ; because tiles of similar character and execu tion have been dug up in other parts of England, some representing the history of Susanna and the elders, and others the four Evangelists, and there fore all derived from Biblical, not pagan sources. Commentators, following the reading of the Sep tuagint, have with common consent adopted the in terpretation, that two foxes were tied together by their tails with a firebrand between them. Now this does not appear to have been the pmctice of the Romans, nor does it occur in the fable of Apthonius. We understand the text to mean that each fox had a separate brand ; and most naturally so ; for it may be questioned whether two united would run in the same direction. They would assuredly pull counter to each other, and ultimately fight most fiercely ; whereas there can be no doubt that every canine would run, with fire attached to its tail, not from choice but necessity, through standing corn, if the field lay in the direc tion of the animal's burrow ; for foxes and jackals, when chased, run direct to their holes, and sports men well know the necessity of stopping up those of the fox while the animal is abroad, or there is no chance of a chase. We therefore submit that
by the words rendered tail to tail' we should understand the end of the firebrand attached to the extremity of the tail. Finally, as the operation of tying three hundred brands to as many fierce and irascible animals could not be effected in one day by a single man, nor produce the result in tended if done in one place, it seems more probable that the name of Samson, as the chief director of the act, is employed to represent the whole party who effected his intentions in different places at the same time, and thereby insured that general conflagration of the harvest which was the signal of open resistance on the part of Israel to the long endured oppression of the Philistine people. These observations, though by no means sufficiently an swering all the objections, are the best we can offer on a difficult question, whith could not be passed over altogether without notice [KELEB ; ZEEB].-C. H. S.