Jonah's Whale a City.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 3150, 11 March 1889, Page 2

Jonah's Whale a City.

If one set of important events affectina - • the pcoplo of Israel—tho first . - league, the battle of Kartar and JSfc's tvibuto - is missing in the Jewish historSal books that have oome down to us, thero is ' ' : ' another affecting Assyria, Riven at lencth m the Bible, anu unrecorded in thembnu- ■ ' menta j, it is the journey of tho prophet •' ' Jonah to Nineveh and his preaohmg there. ; ' - v: " v It is diffloult to know just vihat to make of the narrative. It seems. suoh a thing for a Je\t to do, especially os it never ■ was the Jews wont, lo go out of-their W : . : f' for the spiritual welfare ofany other people, In other respeots the incongruity is perhaps' not as great as at first sight appears. S - Johah's date-this side of SOU, B.C- coin. ■ eides with the disastrous period of weakness : and intestine-troubles which immediately precedee tho when " the monarchy itsolf. seemed ■, threatened with dissolution.. _ Then, tho. proclamation : ;r ; : of a publio fast and penance in times of- - 'v national danger andcalamity isnotincom. '/• patable vvith thc Ass vro-Baby lonian—nor indeed, with the spmt of any Semitio— c leligton, and we know of other cases, ~Aleo theAssyrianshad'propfets or"Seers" in-' whom they placed mueh faith. Lastly, the' jerv fable which is suoh a stumbling n hlooli .to the intelligent reading tho whole - hook •becomes <peetedly: cleared of .its hitherto trable obscurity, when. ,iis that the Assyrian name of the "great - I '* city" if Anna,a word very hko mum, „ : which' means fin;tho / connection' moreover, indicated by the oldest sign fon the rendenng of tho name in ' .which is a combination of plainly' tepreseniing tttnL The origins of both dame sad l ''"

%$4 -; /feeing suggested, tliat :'thoyftUßtbdn'Bbrao- -> • Vfay oonnoolod with tlio Semitic and still If??'.-.liipre Canaanitid; 1 fieh vand the; conse- • .' ', fluent EaoredneEs oi fishes. However ttiat •'•enough is apparent lo surest a solu. ■■.-■•■■ v- Ma ot tho whale stoiy. • The big fish that ■:.■"■ swallowed Jonah wns 110 other than :■■•' Ninevoh, tho Fish-City ilsolt, .whete lie ■must surely have boon sufficiently cncorn- ■ ■• passed by danger to warrant his uesperato ■ .cry lor deliverance, in a ttrain that forcibly recalls the' old Penitential Psalms of ■ - : bhurnit :aiid Accnd. ; Tlio wholo oslraordinary story that assumes its. proper oharacter, that of an Oriontal parable, .Bomowhat exceptionally high in tolsur, it is I true', and adorned with foreign additions, | . - bat rtal cams from 1 cpeated tellings, and I ■ ' possibly in the final wiitjng down, the I'' soriboivlio djtUo. boiiic probably ignorant | • of the myth" nnilerlying the original patable. | Henco tha attempted flight in a Bhip —to i account for tho prophet's getting) intothe fishes belly at all.-The Story ot the Nations-Assyria. By Zenaido A. Bagozin, II —' " ' 54 United States Dollar Market ■ ■ • In the discussion ot this subject, "Canaw k dian," Te ltoti, writes: —In the Auckiahd / Weakly News of February 23, after answer- '' i'"?, "A subscriber" to tho,best of your as to the derivation of tho sign S, "/Jpask, "Can any of our readcis throw 'Upton tho subject?' The account given f&./ :• iu the United Slates, which I Nieve to be correct, is this:—lt ii stated in ancient writings that wlieu Hercules reached the S ; // strait connecting tho Mediterranean with tho Atlantic, finding himself on tho shore o! an unknown ocean to ths west, he erected a pillar on enoh side oi tho strait, The i." figure ola serpent er.oiioling each pillar was out.upon them, and au inscription, the mcauity in English of which was > ".No. moro beyond." When Columbus discovered America for Spain the Spaniards coined American silver- into dollars, with a representation of tho Pillars of Hercules one Side of tho coin, with tho inscription deprived of the first word, making it read " Moro beyond." When the United " States gained their independence; there - was a great deal of Spanish- American coin in circulation in that country, and when they adopted tho decimal system of dollars and cents they used the representation of the Pillars of Hercules, as shown on the Spanish American dollar, as the dollar - mark. Tho distinguishing mark on the . United Mates coinage is tho spread caglo qpfa shield on his breast, showing the BtarS and stripes and the motto," E paribus unnm."