informs us. "On the road from Acre to Seide we saw a herdsman eating his dinner, consisting of half-ripe ears of wheat, which he roasted and eat with as good an appetite as a Turk does his pillau. In Egypt such food is much eaten by the poor, being the ears of maize or Turkish wheat, and of their durra, which is a kind of millet. When this food was first invented, art was in a simple state; yet the custom is still continued in some nations, where the inhabitants have not even at this time learned to pamper nature." No. 866. xvii. 28, 29. And parched corn-for they said, the people is hungry, and weary, and thirsty in the wilderness.] The flour of parched barley is the chief provision which the Moors of West Barbary make for travelling. It is indeed much used as a part of their diet at home. "What is most used by travellers is zumeet, tumeet, or flour of parched barley for limereece. They are all three made of parched barleyflour, which they carry in a leathern satchel. Zumeet is the flour mixed with honey, butter, and spice: tumeet is the same flour done up with origan oil: and limereece is only mixed with water, and so drank. This quenches thirst much better than water alone, satiates a hungry appetite, cools and refreshes tired and weary spirits, overcoming those ill effects which a hot sun and fatiguing journey might occasion." Jones's Account of the Diet of the Moors of West Barbary, Miscell. Cur. vol. iii. p. 390. Mr. Harmer (vol. i. p. 275) proposes this extract as an illustration of the passage now cited. No. 867.-xviii. 11. I would have given thee ten shekels of silver and a girdle.] Rewards are both honorary and pecuniary, and a great distinction is with us carefully preserved. But in the East they are generally blended together. Du Tott did many great services to the Turkish empire in the time of their late war with Russia; and the Turks were disposed to acknowledge them by marks of honour. "His Highness," said the first minister, speaking of the grand signor, "has ordered me to bestow on you this public mark of his esteem ;" and, at the same time he made a sign to the master of the ceremonies to invest me with the pelisse, while the hasnadar (or treasurer) presented me with a purse of two huudred sequins. Memoirs, tom. iii. p. 127. Thus Joab would have rewarded an Israelitish soldier with ten shekels of silver and a girdle. The girdle would have been an honorary reward; the ten shekels would have been a pecuniary one. HARMER, Vol. iii. p. 363, No. 868.-xviii. 18. Now Absalom in his life-time had taken and reared up for himself a pillar, which is in the king's dale; for he said, I have no son to keep my name in remembrance.] There seems to have prevailed amongst almost all nations a common sentiment of respect for the dead. The Jews appear to have been inspired by it equally with other people. The following extract will furnish us with a curious illustration of the fact, and a singular coincidence of circumstances with thecase of Absalom. The Scythians and Indians are remarkable for the great veneration which they pay to the memory of their ancestors. "When upbraided by Darius for flying before his army, the former exclaim, Pursue us to the sepulchres of our ancestors, and attempt to violate their hallowed remains, and you shall soon find with what desperate valour the Scythians can fight. The Indians, we learn from Mr. Holwell, have so profound a veneration for the ashes of their progenitors, that on the fast of Callee worship and offerings are paid to their manes: and Mr. Wilkins, in a note upon the Heetopades, favours us with additional information, that the offerings consisted of consecrated cakes; that the ceremony itself is denominated stradha: and that a Hindoo's hopes of happiness after death greatly depend upon his having children to perform this ceremony, by which he expects that his soul will be released from the torments of naraka or hell. In his sixth note upon the text of the Geéta his account of this ceremony is still more ample for in that note he acquaints us that the Hindoos are enjoined by the vedas to offer these cakes to the ghosts of their ancestors, as far back as the third generation; that this greater ceremony of the stradha is performed on the day of the new moon in every month ; but that they are commanded by those books daily to 'propitiate them by an offering of water, which is called tarpan, a word signifying to satisfy, to appease. A speech of the Indian emperor Dushmanta, in the Sacontala, remarkably exemplifies this observation. That emperor, struck with horror at the idea of dying childless, exclaims, Ah me, the departed souls of my ancestors, who claim a share in the funeral cake which I have no son to offer, are apprehensive of losing their due honour when Dushmanta shall be no more on earth; who then, alas, will perform in our family those obsequies which the vedas prescribe? my forefathers must drink, instead of a pure libation, this flood of tears, the only offering which a man who dies childless can make them." MAURICE'S Ind. Ant. vol. ii. p. 80. N. 869.-xix. 8. Then the king arose, and sat in the gate.] This custom appears to have been very ancient, and is found in other writings than the sacred books, Homer thus represents Nestor. The old man early rose, walk'd forth, and sate On polish'd stone before his palace gate. But he descending to the infernal shade, Sage Nestor fill'd it, and the sceptre sway'd. Odyss. i. 518. These seats or thrones might be consecrated with oil, to draw reverence to the seats of justice by an act of religion. No. 870.-xix. 35. Can I hear any more the voice of singing men and singing women?] The Mahometan caliphs are represented as surrounded by young and handsome ladies in a morning, with all sorts of instruments of music in their hands, standing with great modesty and respect; who, on their sitting up in their beds, in order to rise, prostrate themselves, and those with instruments of music begin a concert of soft flutes, &c. In the halls in which they eat and drink, bands of musicians are supposed to attend them in like manner. (Arabian Nights' Entertainments, vol. ix. p. 20.) Theocritus has described the same custom as existing amongst the Greeks, and from the words of Barzillai to David it appears, that something of the kind was practised in the court of that king. No. 871.-xx. 3. They were shut up unto the day of their death, living in widowhood.] In China, when an emperor dies, all his women are removed to an edifice called the palace of Chastity, situated within the walls of the palace, in which they are shut up for the remainder of their lives. Macartney, p. 375. No. 872.-xx. 9. And foab took Amasa by the beard with his right hand to kiss him.] This is the custom still among the Eastern people. The Indians take one another by the chin, that is, the beard, when they would give a hearty salute to a person; at the same time saying, Bobba, i. e. father or Bii, brother. See Peter della Valle, Travels, p. 410. and Oriental Customs, Na. 104. and 109. No. 873.-xxiii. 15. And David longed, and said, Oh that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate!] Agathocles relates that there were certain fountains in those regions, to the number of seventy, whose waters were denominated golden, and of which it was death for any one to drink, except the king and his eldest son. This may explain the wish of king David for water from the well of Bethlehem, unless we suppose it to have arisen from a predi lection, like that of the Parthian monarchs for the water of Choaspes, which was carried with them whereever they went, and from that circumstance styled by Tibullus regia lympha, and by Milton, the drink of none but kings. Gillingwater, MS. |