the ten precepts or commandments delivered by God to Moses, after engraving them on two tables of stone.

The Jews, by way of excellence, call these commandments the ten words, from which they had afterwards the name of decalogue; but it is to be observed that they joined the first and second into one, and divided the last into two. They understand that against stealing to relate to the stealing of men, or kidnapping; alleging that the stealing of one another's goods or property is forbidden in the last commandment.

The Emperor Julian objected to the decalogue, that the precepts it contained, with the exception of those which concern the worship of false gods and the observation of the Sabbath, were already so familiar to all nations, and so universally received, that they were unworthy, for that very reason, to be delivered by so great a legislator to so peculiar a people.

DECCAN, or the Country of the South, formerly included, according to the Hindu geographers, the whole of the countries situated to the south of the river Nerbuddah; at last, however, it came to apply to the country which was situated between this river and the Krishna, the latter being for a long period the southern boundary of the Mahomedan possessions in India, and to the present day it bears this popular acceptation. In 1690, when the Deccan was subdued by Aurungzebe, it was divided into six soubahs or viceroyalties, namely, 1. Khandesh; 2. Aurun-gabad or Ahmednuggur; 3. Beder or Kalbergah; 4. Hyder-abad; 5. Bejapoor; and 6. the Province of Berar. The chief part of the population is Hindu, especially in those provinces which are under the Mahratta government. In those parts which are under the dominion of the nizam the Mahomedan population is considerable; but those who are cultivators of the soil have partly adopted the manners and customs of the Hindus. The Mahrattas who inhabit the Deccan are a peaceable and industrious race, among whom very few crimes occur. The cottages in which the natives reside are small and mean, with steep thatched roofs, and very low side-walls of loose stones; and there is a general appearance of poverty both in the dress and farming implements of the people. A supply of English manufactures, consisting of woollen, English chintzes, knives, scissors, &c. are introduced into this country by travelling merchants, who purchase them at Bombay, and retail them all over the Deccan. The Deccan, says Bishop Heber, is in its general character a barren country, and its population evidently falls short of the average of Europe. It is destitute of trees. Its climate is highly praised during the rainy and cool seasons, and the hot winds are of no long duration.

In early times this country was possessed by the rajas of Telangana and other Hindu princes. It was first invaded by the Mahomedans in the year 1293, who plundered the country. In the year 1323 the Mahomedans made still greater progress in its conquest, and the Hindu dynasty was extirpated. The independent monarchy of the Bhamenee sultans was established in 1347, which continued till the year 1518. It was on the dissolution of this empire that the Deccan was subdivided into five states; and during the reign of Aurungzebe, in the latter half of the seventeenth century, all those states were reduced, and the Deccan annexed to the kingdom of Delhi, when it was divided into six governments, as stated above. In the subsequent reigns, when the great empire of Aurungzebe fell into decay, the nizam, taking advantage of the weak state of the court of Delhi after the Persian invasion in 1739, threw off his allegiance, became an independent sovereign, and fixed his court at Hyderabad. But the rise of the Mahratta power circumscribed his dominions, and he was obliged to cede to them the territories which formerly belonged to the peshwa and the rajas of Berar.