(

GEREN).--We perceive, by our plate, how proper for such an attendance, &c. was a large Eastern threshing-floor; and how convenient, not merely to accommodate the two kings, with their retinue, but also to separate them from the populace, the gross of the army, &c.

It is impossible to attach any blame to our translators, for using such terms as were most intelligible, and best suited to their readers, either here or elsewhere; for had they said "threshing-floor," in many places, the idea of a barn, and its floor, would instantly have occurred to their readers-as in this passage, with its attendant difficulty, How could any barn be large enough to contain two kings, their courtiers, officers, prophets, &c. whereas, there is not only no difficulty in the original account, but there is every appearance of authenticity and verisimility.

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Moreover, we may observe after due consideration and inspection, circumstances very different from what are usually imagined in the history of Gideon, Judges vi. 11: "Gideon threshed wheat by the wine-press, to hide it from the Midianites."-Now, if this were in a place so large, (the situation, &c. of which was well known) and, consequently, exposed to view, as our threshing-floor is represented, how could he hide himself, his oxen, &c. In answer, we should note, that the original says, Gideon beat," as with a stick, or staff (a manner much nearer to the English mode of threshing, than in other passages of Scripture; and the result of necessity, not of choice) " corn" (a small quantity, doubtless) IN the wine-press," where he might be private enough; the press being used only in the time of vintage; at all other times offering to the Midianites, nothing worthy their rapacious inspection. Thus concealed, while employed in his drudgery, on his scanty pittance, he was accosted by the angel; whose discourse, freely taken, is, perhaps, to this effect :-" What a strong arm you have! I wish those powerful blows were equally well laid on the Midianites: it is to you, robust, industrious, hard-working men, the nation must owe its deliverance: &c. Go in this thy might: thou shalt save Israel."-Later in the story, Gideon says, " Behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor." Our translators might, without risk, have said threshingfloor; since that is the clear sense of the word ( GeReN) used, and since the circumstances of the story clearly infer a place exposed to the open air. Observe, too, the power of the contradictory signs; and how fit a threshing floor was, to determine the reality of that interference which Gideon requested, as a mark of special favour.

So much for the information derivable from this representation of a threshing-floor. We pass on to notice the business done there. Of Threshing, probably enough has been said, to illustrate the passages of Scripture which allude to it; but we may turn to some of those which relate to Winnowing-as for instance,

Psalm cxxxix. 2, "Thou compassest my path,"-margin, "Thou winnowest." What an accurate scrutiny is included in this expression of the Psalmist, may now appear to the reader, in its full force: q. d. "Thou art as well acquainted with all my proceedings, as he who throws up the corn, and carefully inspects it, to clear it from dirt, &c. is acquainted with the contents of the shovel with which he labours, and which it is his business to sift and to separate with the greatest attention."

How expressive is that passage, Jeremiah xv. 7: "I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land; I will bereave them of children; I will destroy my people!" or that, chap. li. 3; I will send unto Babylon-fanners that shall fan her, and shall empty her land!" But more applicable still, to the action of the figure seen in the distant part of the threshing-floor, in our print, is the passage, Matt. iii. 12: "His fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner (GEREN ;) but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." See also Luke, iii. 17.

The print seems to be a direct comment on the passage; since both the action of the winnower, and the situation of the garner, or barn, are coincident with it: the fire only, in which to consume the chaff, being wanting.

A word or two, in relation to the oxen employed in threshing, shall conclude this dissertation. We see the import of the phrase," thou shalt, not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn;" which the Apostle applies to ministers: q. d.-" it is not fit that he who contributes to prepare food for others, should be denied a portion of sustenance for himself."-Contrast this precept by Hosea, xi. 4; for it should appear, that however, to this day, the oxen which tread out corn are not muzzled, in other kinds of labour they were, and still are muzzled-(a print of one hood-winked, while turning a wheel, is given by NORDEN)" I was to them, as one that takes off the yoke from their jaws (or cheeks); and I laid meat (food) down before them :" certainly, then, they had been deprived of food during their labour. Micah iv. 13. "Arise, and thresh, O daughter of Zion! for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass; and thou shalt beat in pieces many people ;"-i. e. as oxen are driven "during four or five hours together," (as NIEBUHR relates, quoted above) and tread the corn, &c. so shalt thou tread many people. Isaiah xxx. 24. "The oxen ... shall eat clean provender, which hath been winnowed with the shovel, and with the fan."-Now the winnowing-fan is, perhaps, never mentioned, as used by Eastern nations, either in ancient or modern times; at least, I know of no clear quotation to that purpose: and the word (nm) rendered fan in this passage, by our translators, is not rendered fan, by the Lxx, or by the Vulgate; and if translated "breeze," or wind," as is its true import, it well agrees with the general scope of the passage ;-" clean provender, winnowed by being thrown up by the shovel and separated by the blowing wind:"-in perfect conformity to the customary mode of winnowing, &c. as appears from what has been offered.

*** The mode of treading out corn by the action of horses, is not entirely unknown in England; and is not uncommon in Scotland, where the animals move in a circle marked out for them, by appropriate machinery.

To complete this article, an enumeration of the names of the instruments might be added; but that is rather the province of the Etymologist, or the Grammarian, than of these remarks.

No. XLIX. THE POMP OF EASTERN MARRIAGE PROCESSIONS.

THE following extracts combine into one relation at least as many particulars of Oriental (occasional) pomp and stately manners, as most which can be selected; at the same time they explain or illustrate several passages (detached passages) of Holy Writ. No apology is necessary for introducing them at large. The Orientals value themselves on magnificence, on the number of their attendants, and the splendor of their equipage; if, in reading the incidental hints which occur in the Bible, on subjects of this kind, we are surprised at a splendor and expense, so different from our own, we may peruse these extracts with a full conviction, that what the Bible suggests even of the royal feast of Ahasuerus, or that of Belshazzar, is in perfect conformity to the modes of the times and places where the scenes of such histories are laid; that it is so far from exceeding the truth, that, in fact, it is a mere abridgment, far below what a literal account would justify-and certainly much below what Eastern imagination might have heightened, in relating the same stories.

PART II. Edit. 5.

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"With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought. "They shall enter the King's palace." Psalm xlv. 9, 13, 14, 15. Vide also Isaiah xlix. 18. lxi. 10. Jeremiah ii. 32.

* Caroches, from the French, carosses, COACHES. "And Ahasuerus gave to Esther, seven maidens meet to be given to her, out of the king's house." Esther ii. 9.

"After these Presents followed 11 caroches* full of yong maidens, slaues to serue the bride; these caroches were couered and shut, and either of them attended by eunuchs Moores: after these followed 28 virgins slaues, attired in cloth of gold, and accompanied by 28 blacke eunuches all on horsebacke, and richly clad. After which were seene 240 mules, loaden, with tents of tapestrie, cloath of gold, sattin, veluet, with the ground of gold, with many cushions, which are the chaires the Vide FRAGMENT, No. XII. ladies of Turkie vse, with many other rich and sumptuous moueables,

"The marriage day being come, the bride was conducted to her husband's lodging with no lesse pompe and state than her moueables. The Ianizaries marched first as they had formerly done, being followed by the grand Prouost, the Surueior their Aga, and many other officers of the Port. The Emirs (who are descended from Mahomet, and alone carrie greene turbants) marched after to the number of 80: this name of Emir is as much to say as lord: They which weare them answer not, and obey none but their chiefe, called Mirabachi, and their voice in judgment stands for two; they were followed, by the Talismans or Priests of Mahomet's law, and by a great number which studie it, and which aspire to the offices of Cadis or Iudges, of Cadilesquiers or Mufti. The Visiers or supreme Iudges of the Turks' estate, who judge of all affaires in counsell, came after with the grand Visier, who is Lieutenant Generall to the Turkish Emperor throughout his whole Empire, and keeps the scales of his Empire. He had on his left hand (which is the most honourable ranke in Turkie) the grand Mufti, or supreme Bishop of their Law. The musicke followed after on horsebacke consisting of thirtie men with drums and hoboies, being followed by eight Egyptians, which carried Biscaine tabors, and did a thousand apish trickes. These were followed by 40 musitians, marching two and two, some playing of citerns, others harps, and some of lutes, after the Turkish manner. A foole (held for a Saint amongst them) being muffled with a cap and a cloke couered with mutton bones, danced and sung with these instruments: 50 of the chiefe officers of the Arsenall marcht after them, and 30 men with hammers and other iron instruments, to breake down whatsoeuer aduanced too far in the streets, and might hinder the free passage of 2 trees of an immense height, laden with diuers sorts of fruits all of wax, carried by many men, and supported from the top and the midst with ropes. After these trees came 20 officers belonging to Achmet Bassa the high Treasurer, Godfather to the bride. And he himself alone richly attired, and proudly mounted: after which came 2 great torches light, carried by many slaues, & then a third torch of a wonderfall bignesse, all couered with plats of

"Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke: (occasioned by the dust of her attendants) herself perfumed with myrrh and frankincense?" &c. Cant. iii. 6.

"After this came word to Jonathan, and Simon his brother, that the children of Jambri made a great marriage, and were bringing the bride from Nadaba tha with a great train, as being the daughter of one of the great princes of Canaan.. Therefore they remembered John their brother, and went up, and hid themselves under the covert of the mountain : where they lifted up their eyes, and looked, and, behold, there was much ado, and great carriage: and the bridegroom came forth, and his friends and brethren, to meet them, with drums, and instruments of music, and many weapons. Then Jonathan, and they that were with him, rose up-and made slaughter of many, and the remnant fled. Thus was the marriage turned into mourning, and the noise of their melody into 1 Maccabees ix. 37–41. lamentation."

"My Beloved is white and ruddy, resplendent with the dazzle of ten thousand lamps, i, e. he it is for whom ten thousand standards of lights are carried in the nuptial procession." Cant. v. 10. N 2

gold, & shining more with precious stones than the flame which burnt. The Raisser Aga with 50 of the princesses' officers, followed these lights, and after them was carried a great canopie of crimson veluet, and after it another greater, couered with plates of gold, whose curtaines being shut on all sides, hung downe to the ground. Vnder this canopie was the princess on horsebacke, with some of her black eunuchs, her caroch followed couered with cloth of gold, and drawne by foure great white horses, wonderfull beautiful. Then followed eight other caroches, in which were a great number of the bride's maids, with many Negroes gelt; and finally, 25 virgin slaues, chosen amongst the fairest, all on horsebacke, hauing their haire confusedly hanging vpon their shoulders. Such was the pompe of this marriage: but many times the nuptiall feast is intermixt with funeral mourning. For not many daics after, the Sultan's second daughter, promised to Nassaf Bassa, was carried to her graue without any pompe or honour; for the Turks made no great esteeme of women." KNOLLES'S History of the Turks, p. 1311.

"King Solomon made himself a nuptial palanquin (i.e. that honourable conveyance in which he meant to bring home his bride; or to go and meet his bride, as the bridegroom did in the history in the Maccabees) of the wood of Lebanon (i. e. of cedar) the pillars silver, the feet gold, the covering purple, the carpet of it a love-gift, from the daughters of Jerusalem." Cant. iii. 9, 10.

"I have compared thee, O my love! to a company of horses in Pharaoh's chariots." Cant. i 9. Vide the Illustrations of Solomon's Song: Nos. CCCXLV. CCCCLIII.

Vide also FRAGMENT No. CLIV. Explanatory of the Plate of "MARRIAGE PROCESSIONS."

It it certainly due to the memory of the late Mr. HARMER, to acknowledge that he was the first who clearly saw, and explicitly noticed from the press, the propriety of referring those expressions used by the royal poets, which seem to describe parts of the person, to the dresses with which those parts respectively were clothed. In addition to what he has produced, many particulars in this extract contribute to strengthen that principle; and by the abundance of gold, pearls, and other decorations, which sparkles throughout it, it may lessen our wonder at the sumptuous descriptions of royal apparel, &c. which occasionally occur in Scripture.

It will be remembered, that this gold, pearls, turquoises, rubies, precious stones, diamonds, chrystal, &c. was a BRIDAL equipage. Now, if a city were to be represented under Eastern metaphors as a bride proceeding to her husband, in all imaginable and even heavenly pomp, might we not justly expect to find the parts of her person (i. e. of the dress which covers those parts) assimilated to the external parts of the city, her walls, her gates, &c. which first present themselves to observation? [This thought is not new: Alexander ordered cities to be dishevelled, as mourners, for the loss of his friend Hephestion; by lowering the towers of their walls, their battlements, and the ornaments of their gates, &c. as widows, relations, friends, &c. lay aside such ornaments in token of grief on occasions of mourning.] May not this procession, and bridal magnificence, by comparison, illustrate the passage in the Revelations, where the new Jerusalem is compared to a bride? "I will show thee the Bride, the Lamb's Wife :-having the glory of God-her resplendence like to most precious stone-jasper, chrystal-her gates, pearls-the wall jasper-the foundations precious stones-the streets of the city pure gold, transparent as glass," &c. &c. Rev. xxi. 9. &c. I say, if a City be compared to a Bride, splendidly adorned, what better points of comparison can be selected, and what more correspondent to Eastern ideas, than to compare her walls, &c. to parts of the dress and personal ornaments of an Eastern Bride?

This extract also illustrates the parable of the marriage of the king's son, Matt. xxii. 1-14; for we find "they gave presents to above 20,000 persons, besides the charge