time instructing the people in the court of one of these houses; and it is by no means improbable, that the quadrangle was to him and his apostles a favourite situation, while they were engaged in disclosing the mysteries of redemption. To defend the company from the scorching sun-beam, or "windy storm and tempest," a veil was expanded upon ropes from the one side of the parapet wall to the other, which might be folded or unfolded at plea sure. The Psalmist seems to allude either to the tents of the Bedoweens, or to some covering of this kind, in that beautiful expression of spreading out the heavens like a veil or curtain. We have the same allusion in the sublime strains of Isaiah: "It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in.o

"The court is for the most part surrounded with a cloister, over which, when the house has a number of sto ries, a gallery is erected of the same dimensions with the cloister, having a ballustrade, or else a piece of carved or latticed work, going round about, to prevent people from falling from it into the court." The doors of the enclosure round the honse, as already mentioned, are made very small, to defend the family from the insolence and rapacity of Arabian plunderers; but the doors of the houses very large, for the purpose of admitting a copious stream of fresh air into their apartments. The windows which look into the street, are very high and narrow, and defended by lattice work; as they are only intended to allow the cloistered inmate a peep of what is passing with

e

Forbes's Orient. Mem. vol. ii, p. 459. f Psa. civ, 2.

8 Isa. xl, 22.

out, while he remains concealed behind the casement. This kind of window the ancient Hebrews called Arubah, and is the same term which they used to express those small openings, through which pigeons passed into the cavities of the rocks, or into those buildings which were raised for their reception. Thus the prophet demands: "Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves (8x) el arubothehem, to their small or narrow windows." The word is derived from a root which signifies to lie in wait for the prey; and is very expressive of the concealed manner in which a person examines through that kind of window, an external object. Irwin describes the windows in Upper Egypt, as having the same form and dimensions; and says expressly, that one of the windows of the house in which they lodged, and through which they looked into the street, more resembled a pigeon hole, than any thing else. But the sacred writers mention another kind of window, which was large and airy; it was called () halon, and was large enough to admit a person of mature age being cast out of it; a punishment which that profligate woman Jezebel suffered by the command of Jehu, the authorised exterminator of her family.

These large windows admit the light and the breeze, into spacious apartments of the same length with the court, but which seldom or never communicate with one another. In the houses of the fashionable and the gay, the lower part of the walls is adorned with rich hangings of velvet or damask, tinged with the liveliest colours, suspended on hooks, or taken down at pleasure. A correct idea of

The lattices are so constructed," says Forbes, "as to prevent the rays of the sun, while they admit the light." Orient. Mem. vol. iv, p. 65. i P. 185 and 201. J Shaw's Trav. vol. i, p. 374, 375.

their richness and splendour may be formed from the description which the inspired writer has given of the hangings in the royal garden at Sushan, the ancient capital of Persia: "Where were white, green, and blue hangings, fastened with cords of fine linen and purple, to silver rings and pillars of marble." The upper part of the walls is adorned with the most ingenious wreathings and devices, in stucco and fret-work. The ceiling is generally of wainscot, painted with great art, or else thrown into a variety of pannels with gilded mouldings. In the days of Jeremiah the prophet, when the profusion and luxury of all ranks in Judea were at their height, their chambers were ceiled with fragrant and costly wood, and painted with the richest colours. Of this extravagance, the indignant seer loudly complains: "Woe unto him that saith, I will build me a wide house and large chambers, and cutteth him out windows: and it is ceiled with cedar, and painted with vermilion." The floors of these splendid apartments were laid with painted tiles, or slabs of the most beautiful marble. A pavement of this kind is mentioned in the book of Esther; at the sumptuous entertainment which Ahasuerus made for the princes and nobles of his vast empire, "the beds," or couches, upon which they reclined, "were of gold and silver, upon a pavement of red and blue, and white and black marble." Plaster of terrace is often used for the same purpose; and the floor is always covered with carpets, which are for the most part, of the richest materials. Upon these carpets, a range of narrow beds, or mattresses, is often placed along the sides of the wall, with velvet or damask bolsters, for the greater ease and convenience of the company. To these luxurious indul

1

j Esth. i, 6.

* Jer. xxii, 14.

1 Shaw's Trav. vol. i, p. 378.

gences, the prophets occasionally seem to allude; Ezekiel was commanded to pronounce a 66 woe to the women that sew pillows to all arm holes ;"m and Amos denounces the judgments of his God against them " that lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall."" At one end of each chamber is a little gallery, raised three or four feet above the floor, with a ballustrade in front, to which they go up by a few steps. Here they place their beds;° a situation frequently alluded to, in the holy Scriptures: Thus Jacob addressed his undutiful son, in his last benediction: "Thou wentest up to thy father's bed, --- he went up to my couch."p The allusion is again involved in the declaration of Elijah to the king of Samaria: "Now, therefore, thus saith the Lord, Thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die." And the Psalmist sware unto the Lord, and vowed unto the mighty God of Jacob, "Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house, nor go up into my bed, - - - until I find out a place for the Lord." This arrangement may likewise illustrate the circumstance of Hezekiah's "turning his face to the wall, when he prayed," that the greatness of his sorrow, and the fervour of his devotion, might as much as possible, be concealed from his attendants. The same thing is related of Ahab, although we have no reason to think it was upon a religious account, but in order to conceal from those about him the anguish he felt, for his late disappointment; or, perhaps, by so great a shew of sorrow,

m Ezek. xiii, 8. n Am. vi, 4.

r

to provoke them to devise some means to gratify his wishes: "And he laid him down upon his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no bread."t

The eastern beds consist merely of two thick cotton quilts, one of which, folded double, serves as a mattress, the other as a covering. Such was the bed of David, which could easily be carried with himself in it, to the presence of Saul: "Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may slay him :"" and that on which the paralytic was let down, seemed to be of the same kind. It was, therefore, no difficult task which our Lord imposed upon the latter, to take up his bed and go into his house; nor, when properly explained, does it present to our minds an absurd or incongruous idea. No doubt, however, can be entertained, that the number of their mattresses and coverlets was increased or diminished, as more or less warmth might be required, and the proprietors could afford. An eastern bed occasionally consists of four or five parts, richly ornamented Baron du Tott describes one in which he was expected to sleep, which had neither bedstead nor curtains; but consisted of many mattresses of quilted cotton, about three inches thick, placed one upon another, covered with a sheet of Indian linen, a coverlet of green satin, adorned with gold embroidery, in embossed work; two large pillows of crimson satin, covered with similar embroidery, and a profusion of gold and spangles, resting on two cushions, which served as a back, and were intended to support the head. The harlot's bed, of which she vaunted so greatly, was adorned after this manner: "I have decked

my

W

W

bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved work, ▾ Luke v, 19.

t 1 Kings xxi, 4.

u 1 Sam. xix, 15.

Memoirs, vol. i, p. 95. Buckingham's Trav. vol. i, p. 102.