CAN

CAN a modern military camp, because in that case these regulations evidently could not be carried out without a great expenditure of time. But the Israelites traversed a country broken up into innumerable little valleys, and oftentimes the host must have stretched along for miles, but so closely hemmed in between mountain-sides that to go without the camp would be but a few steps. In later times, when Israel was settled in the Promised Land, we find scattered references to camps. They appear to have been generally pitched upon high ground. Jud 7:1, 1 Kgs 15:8; 1 Sam 17:4; 1 Sam 28:4. They were sometimes intrenched; at other times a barrier was formed of the baggage-wagons. Jehoshaphat established permanent camps. 2 Chr 17:2. CAM'PHIRE . Song of Solomon 4:13. A shrub, sometimes 10 feet high, growing in Egypt and other Eastern countries, and called henna (Lawsonia alba). The white-and-yellow flowers grow in clusters, like the lilac, and are very fragrant. From the leaves, when dried Camphire. (Lawsonia alba.) and pulverized, is made an orange or reddish dye, with which females stain their hands and feet. Sonnini says that Eastern women "are fond of decorating themselves with the flowers of the henna-plant; that they take them in their hands and perfume their bosoms with them." What we call camphor is an entirely different substance. It is remarkable that camphire is still found growing only at one place in Palestine, and that En-gedi. Song of Solomon 1:14.

CAN , south-west of the Land of Promise, but in its present usage denotes the whole country bounded by the Jordan on the east, the Mediterranean on the west, Arabia on the south, and Lebanon on the north. For physical features, see PALESTINE. Sketch-Map of Canaan before the Conquest. History.נ-Previous to its conquest by Joshua, Canaan was peopled by several tribes, as Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites, Girgasites, Hivites, Perizzites, and four others, all early known as Canaanites. Gen 10:15-19. Later, "Canaanites" appears to designate a separate tribe, and the land was inhabited by them and six other tribes. Canaan was the country for which Terah started, Gen 11:31; Abram dwelt in it; it was promised to him for a possession. Gen 12:5, 1 Kgs 15:8, etc.; Isaac, Jacob, and the patriarchs made their home there. Gen 26-35. It was left by Jacob because of the famine; searched by the twelve spies. Num 13:2; viewed by Moses, Deut 32:49; conquered by Joshua, Josh 11:23; divided by lot among the twelve tribes. Josh 13:7; a king of the country was slain by Deborah and Barak. Jud 4:24. See Map. In the temple at Karnak, in Egypt, a triple list of 118 or 119 towns of Canaan has lately been discovered, which is believed to be a record of an Egyptian conquest of the land by Thuthmes III, previous to that by Joshua. See the list of these towns in Conder's Tent-Work in Palestine, vol. ii. 344-346. It is the oldest known record of Canaanite cities before the time of Joshua. For later history see Judah, Kingdom of; Israel, Kingdom of; and Palestine.

CAN considerable village. Conder suggests a new location, and proposes to place Cana at Reiach, north-east of Nazareth, and only one and a half miles distant. — CONDER: Tent-Work in Palestine, 1878, i. p. 154. This lacks confirmation.

Part of speech: noun (n.)

an obs. form of began, imp. & p. p. of Begin, sometimes used in old poetry.

Part of speech: noun (n.)

1. A drinking cup; a vessel for holding liquids. [Shak. ] Fill the cup and fill can, Have a rouse before the morn. Tennyson.

2. A vessel or case of tinned iron or of sheet metal, of various forms, but usually cylindrical; as, a can of tomatoes; an oil can; a milk can.

Part of speech: verb (v.)

To preserve by putting in sealed cans [U. S.] "Canned meats" W. D. Howells. Canned goods, a general name for fruit, vegetables, meat, or fish, preserved in hermetically sealed cans.

Part of speech: verb (v.)

1. To know; to understand. [Obs.] I can rimes of Rodin Hood. Piers Plowman. I can no Latin, quod she. Piers Plowman. Let the priest in surplice white, That defunctive music can. Shak.

2. To be able to do; to have power or influence. [Obs.] The will of Him who all things can. Milton. For what, alas, can these my single arms Shak. Mæcænas and Agrippa, who can most with Cæsar. Beau. & Fl.

3. To be able; -- followed by an infinitive without to; as, I can go, but do not wish to.

Synonyms: Can but, Can not but. It is an error to use the former of these phrases where the sens requires the latter. If we say, "I can but perish if I go," "But" means only, and denotes that this is all or the worst that can happen. When the apostle Peter said. "We can not but speak of the things which we have seen and heard." he referred to a moral constraint or necessety which rested upon him and his associates; and the meaning was, We cannot help speaking, We cannot refrain from speaking. This idea of a moral necessity or constraint is of frequent occurrence, and is also expressed in the phrase, "I can not help it." Thus we say. "I can not but hope," "I can not but believe," "I can not but think," "I can not but remark," etc., in cases in which it would be an error to use the phrase can but. Yet he could not but acknowledge to himself that there was something calculated to impress awe, . . . in the sudden appearances and vanishings . . . of the masque De Quincey. Tom felt that this was a rebuff for him, and could not but understand it as a left-handed hit at his employer. Dickens.