them -I mean the passage, Luke x. 4. "Salute no man by the way."-Now the power by the word (aowaonobe) rendered" salute" implies, " to draw to one's self-to throw one's arms over another, and embrace him closely."-Less strictly taken, it signifies to salute, as rendered in our version; but, may not the prohibition in our Lord's directions to the seventy, have some reference to such a custom as we find among the Arabs of Yemen: ·9. d. Do not stop any man to ask him whence he comes, and whither he is going; do not loiter, and gossip with any, whom you may accidentally meet on your journey; do not stop strangers to receive information, of no value when you have received it'; but rather make all proper speed to the towns whither I have sent you, and there deliver your good tidings:" Seen in this light, there is no breach of decorum, of friendship, or of good manners, implied in this command: but, on the contrary, merely a very proper prohibition of what, at best, is impertinence, and what, under the then circumstances, would have been injurious to matters of real importance. Vide No. XCVII. Matt. v. 45. Is there any allusion to such intrusive inquisitiveness, John iii. 8.? q. d. " The wind travelleth in all directions; but it is of no avail to enquire of that, as you would of a person on the road, whence it comes, and whither it goes?"--or, John xvi. 5.?" None of you asketh me, Whither goest thou?"

No. XLI. TEMPORARY MARRIAGES IN THE EAST.

MR. HARMER has the following Observation, No. Ixiii. p. 513. vol. ii. on the contracts for temporary wives: "Sir J. Chardin observed in the East, that in their contracts for temporary wives (which are known to be frequent there) which contracts are made before the Kady, there is always the formality of a measure of corn mentioned over and above the sum of money that is stipulated."

It can scarcely be thought, that this formality is recent in the East; it may, possibly, be very ancient, as, apparently, connections of this description are; if it could be traced to patriarchal times, it would, perhaps, account for Hosea's purchasing a woman under this character, "for fifteen pieces of silver, and a certain quantity of barley," chap. iii. 2.

The observations of Baron Du Torr appear to illustrate, in some degree, the origin of this custom;, at least, his account is amusing, and may serve to complete the hints of Mr. HARMER: "I observed an old man standing, singly, before his door---The lot [by which was determined who should receive the newly-arrived guest] fell upon him--The ardour of my new host expressed his satisfaction; and, no sooner had he shown me into a clean lower apartment, than he brought his wife and daughter, both with their faces UNCOVERED [vide ABRAHAM, iii. ult.] the first carrying a bason, and a pitcher, and the second carrying a napkin, which she spread over my hands after I had washed them." The Baron adds in a note, "We may observe, that the law of Namakrem, of which I have spoken in my Preliminary Discourse, is not scrupulously observed by the Tartar women. We ought also to remark, that these people have many customs, which seem to indicate the origin of those that are analagous to them among us. May we not also trace the motive of the nuptial crown, and the comfits which are used at the marriages of Europeans, in the manner in which the Tartars portion out their daughters? They cover them with millet. In the origin of society, seed grain ought necessarily to be the representing token of all wealth. A dish, of about a foot in diameter, was placed on the head of the bride; over this a veil was thrown, which covered the face, and descended to the shoulders; millet then was poured upon the dish, which, falling, and spreading all around her, formed a cone, with a base corresponding to the height of the bride. Nor PART II. Edit. 5.

was her portion complete, till the millet touched the dish, while the veil gave her the power of respiration. This custom was not favourable to small people; and, at present, they estimate how many measures of millet a daughter is worth. The Turks and Armenians, who make their calculations in money, still preserve the dish and the veil, and throw coin upon the bride, which they call spilling the millet.' Have not the crown and the comfits the same origin?" Baron DU TOTT. vol. i. p. 212.

If this be accepted as a probable reference to the origin of the custom of purchasing wives with seed-corn, it may, undoubtedly, be very ancient; but whether it might not have some relation to good wishes for a numerous progeny, is submitted to the reader's judgment. So, among the Greeks, various fruits, as figs, or nuts, &c. were thrown by the youthful attendants upon the head of the bride, as an omen of fruitfulness (Vide Arist. in Plut. and Theopompus); and as good wishes of this kind were usual (see Rebekah's dismission, Gen. xxiv. 60.), could any thing more aptly allude to them? Its antiquity may be, at least, as remote under this idea, as under the other.

As the circumstances of Hosea's behaviour appear sufficiently strange to us, it may be worth while to add the BARON'S account of marriages by Capin;-which agrees with the relations of other Travellers into the East.

"There is another kind of marriage, which stipulating the return to be made, fixes likewise the time when the divorce is to take place. This contract is called Capin; and, properly speaking, is only an agreement made between the parties to live together, for such a price, during such a time." Preliminary Discourse, p. 23.

It is scarcely possible to expect more direct illustration of the prophet's conduct (Hosea iii.) than this extract from the Baron affords: from it we learn that this con tract is a regular form of marriage, and that it is so regarded, generally, in the East; consequently, such a connexion and agreement, could give no scandal, in the days of Hosea, though it would not be very seemly under Christian manners. Says the prophet-" So I bought her [my wife] to me, for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley. And I said unto her, Many days shalt thou abide for me [Heb. SIT with me. Vide FRAGMENT, No. XII.]-Thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man; so will I also be for thee." What was this but a marriage by Capin, according to the Baron's account above? and the Prophet carefully lets us know, that he honestly paid the stipulated price, that he was very strict in his agreement, as to the behaviour of his wife, and that he also bound himself to the same fidelity, during the time for which they mutually contracted. It inay easily be imagined that this kind of marriage was liable to be abused; and that it was glanced at, and included, in our Lord's prohibition of hasty divorces, need not be doubted. Had a certain writer proceeded no farther, than to consider the direction, "Let every man have [retain] his own wife, and every woman have [retain] her own husband," I Cor. vii. 2. as relating to marriages of such imperfect connection, (for this is not the only kind contracted without much ceremony, or delay) both his work and his principles would have been gainers by his prudence.

No. XLII. ON THE NATURE OF THE STREETS PROPOSED BY BENHADAD TO AHAB.

MR. HARMER, vol. ii. p. 259, has remarked, that "the proposal of Benhadad, 1 Kings xx. 34, as to the making and possession of Streets in Damascus, was better relished by Ahab, than understood by commentators;" some of whom have guessed that this expression meant, the erection of markets, or of courts of judicature, or of piazzas, or of citadels and fortifications, &c. Mr. H. then proceeds to narrate the privileges

granted to the Venetians, in recompence for their aid, by the states of the kingdom of Jerusalem; and he observes, that it was customary to assign churches, and to give streets, in their towns, to foreign nations, &c. His instances, however, are rather instances of rewards for services performed, than proofs of such terms as conditions of peace: probably, therefore, it will not be disagreeable to the reader, to see a passage still more applicable to the history of Benhadad, than any of those are, which Mr. HARMER has produced: it occurs in KNOLLES's" History of the Turks," p. 206.

" Baiazet having worthily relieued his besieged citie, returned againe to the siege of Constantinople, laying more hardly vnto it than before, building forts and bulwarks against it on the one side towards the land; and passing ouer the strait of Bosphorus, built a strong castle vpon that strait ouer against Constantinople, to impeach so much as was possible, all passage thereunto by sea. This streight siege (as most write) continued also two yeres, which I suppose by the circumstance of the historie, to haue been part of the aforesaid eight yeres. Emanuel, the besieged Emperor, wearied with these long wars, sent an ambassador to Baiazet, to intreat with him a peace; which Baiazet was the more willing to hearken vnto, for that he heard newes, that Tamerlane, the great Tartarian Prince, intended shortly to warre upon him. Yet could this peace not be obtained, but vpon condition that the Emperor should grant free libertie for the Turks to dwell together in one STREET of Constantinople, with free exercise of their own religion and lawes, vnder a judge of their own nation; and further, to pay vnto the Turkish King a yeerely tribute of ten thousand duckats. Which dishonourable conditions the distressed Emperor was glad to accept of. So was this long siege broken vp, and presently a great sort of Turks with their families were sent out of Bithynia, to dwell in Constantinople, and a church there built for them which not long after was by the Emperor pulled downe to the ground, and the Turks againe driuen out of the citie, at such time as Baiazet was by the mighty Tamerlane ouerthrowne and taken prisoner."

The circumstances of these two stories are so much alike, that it merely now remains to notice the propriety with which our translators have chosen the word streets, rather than any other proposed by commentators. See Coins of the Antiocheans, on Plate of PTOLEMAIS.

No. XLIII. ON THE HOUSE, AND THE HOUSEHOLDS, OF THE EAST. THE following extracts, as illustrating the passages to which they are referred, are submitted to the reader, without previous introduction.

"This Turk, accustomed to see me employed by the grand Seignior, entrusted me with all his intended military operations, and made no doubt but I should exert myself in the reduction of the rebels of the Morea. The army he had collected, the command of which he designed for me, was only composed of volunteers; HIS DOMESTICS Were of THE NUMBER; and this body appeared more animated with the expectation of plunder, than the love of glory." Baron DU TOTT, vol. ii. p. 152. Part iv.

This extract is greatly similar to the history, Gen. xiv. 14; “Abraham armed his trained servants, born in his house, [born among his property,] three hundred and eighteen:" the number of these domestics can occasion no difficulty: many Grandees in the East, have at least an equal number, in their households, or under their orders. A passage, Gen. xv. 2, has greatly perplexed commentators; it stands thus in our translation: "I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer, of Damascus :" but in the original it is—" And the son of the steward of my house, is this Damascus[born] Eliezer." [See ELIEZER in Dict.] Whence it appears, that our translators, thinking it could be of little consequence who was the son of this steward, considered

the passage as interpolated by the insertion of the word son, and, therefore, omitted that word. SCHULTENS renders it, filius pectinationis domus meæ; "the son of combing of my house," i. e. he who keeps it in order. Heb. Dict. 4to. p. 467. Mr. PARKHURST himself renders it, not without difficulty," the son of him who runs about my house [i. e. as overseer] is my help." p. 860. These harshnesses, with other differences of versions, shew that the passage is obscure. Now, if our translators had considered the word "steward," instead of the word "son," as supplementary, or rather explanatory, in the original, they would have been at least in perfect conformity to the Oriental usages, as they appear in the following extracts; and the passage would have stood thus: "I go childless; and the son of my house (the steward) is this Eliezer, of Damascus." What is meant by the phrase," son of my house," which has been the stumbling-block to translators, I proceed to show :

"

"Since the death of Ali Bey, the Beys and the Cachefs who owed their promotion to his HOUSE [that is to say, of whom he had been the patron: among the Mamlouks, the freed man is called the " CHILD OF THE HOUSE"], had repined, in secret, at seeing all the authority passed into the hands of a new faction." VOLNEY'S Travels, vol. i. page 153, and the note in the same page.

"He had so multiplied and advanced his free men, that of the twenty-four Beys which should be their number, no less than eight were of his HOUSEHOLD,"-" At his death, which happened in 1757, his HOUSE, that is, his enfranchised slaves, divided among themselves, but united against all others, continued to give the law." Page 112, 113. We infer from these extracts, that Eliezer, a native of Damascus, had been purchased as a slave by Abraham; and had behaved so well, that his master gave him his liberty, and at length promoted him to the superintendance of all his property (vide a similar occurrence in the case of Joseph, Gen. xxxix. not to quote the libertini, or freedmen of later ages). On the decease of his master, this chief over Abraham's property, would, naturally enough, succeed to that property; for who could be his competitor? Whether Eliezer might live so long as to be again mentioned, Gen. xxiv. 3, " Abraham said unto his eldest servant of his house, that ruled over all that he had," we cannot tell: by his fidelity, he seems likely to have been the same person, and it is usually so understood; but he is not there called the "son of the house," possibly, because Abraham had now sons of his own body, Ishmael as well as Isaac, who were his natural heirs. If it be supposed that this was not Eliezer, the omission of his name, &c. in the history, may countenance that supposition.

As to the numbers engaged by great men in the East, either in the household, or in other services, there is no room to doubt that they are very considerable, and much beyond what European manners are accustomed to.

"The most powerful HOUSE is that of Ibrahim Bey, who has about six hundred Mamlouks. Next to him is Manrod, who has not above four hundred; but who, by his audacity and prodigality, forms a counterpoise to the insatiable avarice of his rival. The rest of the Beys, to the number of eighteen or twenty, have each of them from fifty to two hundred. Besides these, there is a great number of Mamlouks who may be called individual, who, being sprung from HOUSES which are extinct, attach themselves sometimes to one, and sometimes to another, as they find it their interest, and are always ready to enter into the service of the best bidder." VOLNEY, vol. i. page 116. I add, translated from NIEBUHR, Descrip. Arab. p. 264, "Bel arrab ben Sultán, brother of Seif ben Sultán, two sons of Seif ben Sultan, and probably many other of the family of former Imams, live as private individuals in the country of the Imam; nevertheless, so sufficiently respectable, that Bel arrab is able to maintain, by his revenues, from three to four hundred slaves:"-consequently, he must have many " born in his

house:" and these he might arm on occasion; for NIEBUHR mentions, a few lines lower, that "the slaves and soldiers of Imam Seif ben Sultan had been infamous robbers." That the term house expresses property, see 1 Kings xiii. 8, compared with Psalm cv. 21, Joseph had been over Potiphar's house, i. e. his property generally; before he was placed by Pharaoh in the same office of superintendance over the Royal property, or house.

No. XLIV. ON THE FIGURATIVE APPLICATION OF THE LOCUST.

(WITH A PLATE.)

THERE is a remarkable passage, Eccl. xii. 5, where King Solomon, describing the infelicities of old age, says, according to our translation: "the grasshopper shall be a burden," but it is, I believe, generally admitted, that the words should be rendered "the locust shall burden itself." The word (2, CHaGаB) signifies a particular species of locust: in Arabic, the word implies to veil, or hide. It is, probably, a kind of hooded locust, or the lesser yellowish locust, and is among those that are eatable: it greatly resembles our grasshopper.

To this insect the preacher compares "a dry, shrunk, shrivelled, crumpling, craggy, old man, his back-bone sticking out, his knees projecting forwards, his arms backwards, his head downwards, and the apophyses, or bunching parts of the bones in general enlarged:" and from this exact likeness, says my learned author (Dr. SMITH), without all doubt, arose the fable of Tithonus, who, living to extreme old age, was at last turned into a grasshopper.

This poetical use of the Locust, as figurative of an old man, it is presumed may be justified by quoting the pictorial figurative application of the same insect, to the same purpose. In the capital collection of gems in the Florentine Gallery, Plate 96, appear several instances of (as I suppose) this allegory: they are copied on the plate annexed. Nos. 1, 2. As we know of no natural connection which the Locust can have with the lyre, or with the pastoral pipe of Pan (the syrinx), it is conceived that the author of these gems has employed a personification, concealed under this similitude: the Locust is no musical animal; it has neither voice for song, nor fingers adapted to play on any musical instrument: the natural Locust then, is not intended-but, the refer ence is to a somebody endeavouring to perform an impossibility, such as would be that of a Locust attempting to play on the lyre, or the flute. If we assume that this emblematized somebody is in fact an old man, then the design of this representation becomes evident, and includes this idea :-old age may attempt to be delighted by the charms of musical sounds, but the attempt is unavailable, and without fruition, as its faculties are incompetent to that pleasure.

No. 3, shows still more explicitly the meaning of its author, which is perfectly coincident with what is understood to be the true import of the royal preacher's expressions. It represents an old man, under the emaciated figure of a Locust, which has loaded his shrunk stature, his drooping wings, and his spindle shanks, with a supplicatory sacrifice to Venus. In this gem, the idea of an old man being signified by the Locust, is conspicuous: for he stands upright, so far as he can stand upright, on his hinder legs; over his shoulder he carries a kind of yoke, with a loaded basket of offerings at each end (a very common instrument in representations of sacrifice), which he grasps carefully with his two fore-legs (the other fore-legs of the locust being omitted for the sake of similarity: I do not recollect a Locust having only four legs; though such a species may exist); and he proceeds creeping, not flying, on tip-toe, staggering towards the column which is consecrated, as appears by evident insignia, to the divinity of his adoration.