it had been
preserved from profanation, and the miracles which took place in its
neighbourhood proved that it was still the seat of a supernatural power.

[Illustration: 340.jpg MOUSE OF METAL]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch published by Schick
and Oldfield Thomas.

At first the Philistines had, according to their custom, shut it up in
the temple of Dagon at Ashdod. On the morrow when the priests entered
the sanctuary, they found the statue of their god prostrate in front of
it, his fish-like body overthrown, and his head and hands scattered on
the floor;* at the same time a plague of malignant tumours broke out
among the people, and thousands of mice overran their houses. The
inhabitants of Ashdod made haste to transfer it on to Ekron: it thus
went the round of the five cities, its arrival being in each case
accompanied by the same disasters. The soothsayers, being consulted
at the end of seven months, ordered that solemn sacrifices should
be offered up, and the ark restored to its rightful worshippers,
accompanied by expiatory offerings of five golden mice and five golden
tumours, one for each of the five repentant cities.**

* The statue here referred to is evidently similar to those
of the Chaldaean gods and genii, in which Dagon is
represented as a man with his back and head enveloped in a
fish as in a cloak.

** In the Oustinoff collection at Jaffa, there is a roughly
shaped image of a mouse, cut out of a piece of white metal,
and perhaps obtained from the ruins of Gaza; it would seem
to be an ex-voto of the same kind as that referred to in the
Hebrew text, but it is of doubtful authenticity.

The ark was placed on a new cart, and two milch cows with their calves
drew it, lowing all the way, without guidance from any man, to the field
of a certain Joshua at Bethshemesh. The inhabitants welcomed it with
great joy, but their curiosity overcame their reverence, and they looked
within the shrine. Jehovah, being angered thereat, smote seventy men of
them, and the warriors made haste to bring the ark to Kirjath-jearim,
where it remained for a long time, in the house of Abinadab on the
hill, under charge of his son Eleazar.* Kirjath-jearim is only about two
leagues from Jerusalem. David himself went thither, and setting "the ark
of God upon a new cart," brought it away.* Two attendants, called Uzzah
and Ahio, drove the new cart, "and David and all Isr