Mereswar

Hist. Brit. (5) 5. 192. Through a misunderstanding of Chronicle 838 Milton uses this name as that of a place, when in reality it means “marsh men,” that is, the inhabitants of Romney Marsh, Kent. A correct explanation is given by Camden. (1. 222.) Meriba. Ps. 81. 32. Meribah, the place where Moses brought water out of the rock for the children of Israel, near Mount Horeb. See Exodus 17.7; Numbers 27. 14. Milton’s word “steep” suggests the “rock in Horeb” of the first pa age. Meroe. P. R. 4. 71. A region in the basin of the Nile, partly surrounded by the waters of the Nile, the Blue Nile, and the Atbara; it was supposed by the ancients to be an island. With Milton’s words compare Pliny: “In the Hand Meroe, which is the cap it all place of the ^Ethiopian nation, and is inhabited 5000 stadia from Syene, upon the river Nilus, twice in the yeere the shadowes are gone, and none at all scene, to wit, when the summer is in the 18 degree of Taurus, and in the 14 of Leo.” (2. 73.) He gives also the report of certain men who in the time of Nero went up the Nile: “They made relation of the truth upon their certaine knowledge, They reported moreover, that it is 874 miles from Syene. that about Meroe (and not before) the gra e and hearbes ap... peared fresh and greene; yea, and the woods shewed somewhat in comparison of all the way besides, and that they espied the tracts of Elephants and Rhinocerotes where they had gone. As for the towne it selfe Meroe, they said it was within the Island from the very entrie therof 70 miles. … As for the building within Meroe, there were but few houses in it: that the Isle was subject unto a ladie or queene named Candace, a name that for many yeeres alreadie went from one queene to another succes With in this towne there is the temple of great holine e sively. and devotion in the honour of Jupiter Hammon: and in all that Finally, so long as the ^Ethyopians tract many other chappels. swaied the scepter and reigned, this’ Island was much renowned and very famous. For by report, they were wont to furnish the yEthyopian king with armed men 250000, and to maintain Last of all there have been counted 45 of Art is anes 400000. kings of the ^thyopians, and so it is reported at this day.” Meroe was the most southern land in Ethiopia known (6. 29.) to the ch198.xhtml r 204