probably signified some preparation of nitre and sulphur, and that Hannibal made gunpowder and blew up the rocks.  The same author suggests that the story of Hannibal breaking loose from the mountains where he was surrounded on all sides by the Romans, and in danger of starvation, by fastening firebrands to the horns of two thousand oxen, and sending them rushing at night among the terrified Romans, simply refers to the use of rockets.  As Maginn well asks, how could Hannibal be in danger of starvation when he had two thousand oxen to spare for such an experiment?  And why should the veteran Roman troops have been so terrified and panic-stricken by a lot of cattle with firebrands on their horns?  At the battle of Lake Trasymene, between Hannibal and Flaminius, we have another curious piece of information which goes far to confirm the belief that Hannibal was familiar with the use of gunpowder.  In the midst of the battle there was, say the Roman historians, an “earthquake;” the earth reeled under the feet of the soldiers, a tremendous crash was heard, a fog or smoke covered the scene, the earth broke open, and the rocks fell upon the beads of the Romans.  This reads very much as if the Carthaginians had decoyed the Romans into a pass where they had already planted a mine, and had exploded it at the proper moment to throw them into a panic.  Earthquakes do not cast rocks up in the air to fall on men’s heads!

And that this is not all surmise is shown by the fact that a city of India, in the time of Alexander the Great, defended itself by the use of gunpowder:  it was said to be a favorite of the gods, because thunder and lightning came from its walls to resist the attacks of its assailants.

As the Hebrews were a branch of the Phoenician race, it is not surprising that we find some things in their history which look very much like legends of gunpowder.

When Korah, Dathan, and Abiram led a rebellion against Moses, Moses separated the faithful from the unfaithful, and thereupon “the ground clave asunder that was under them:  and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods. . . .  And there came out a fire from the Lord, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense. . . .  But on the morrow all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the people of the Lord.” (Numb. xvi., 31-41.)

This looks very much as if Moses had blown up the rebels with gunpowder.

Roger Bacon, who himself rediscovered gunpowder, was of opinion that the event described in Judges vii., where Gideon captured the camp of the Midianites with the roar of trumpets, the crash caused by the breaking of innumerable pitchers, and the flash of a multitude of lanterns, had reference to the use of gunpowder; that the noise made by the breaking of the pitchers represented the detonation of an explosion, the flame