The cycle or period of computation employed by the Tartars, was similar to that still used by the Chinese and Mongols, and contained twelve years, each successively marked by a different animal: 1. a mouse; 2. an ox; 3. a tyger; 4. a hare; 5. a crocodile or dragon; 6. a serpent; 7. a horse; 8. a lamb; 9. an ape; 10. a hen; 11. a dog; 12. a hog. Of these all but the crododile, the ape and the hare, appear on the (Russian) coins; and perhaps the Tartars who over-ran Russia, used instead of them, the swan, harpy, and syren. The (Russian) coins impressed with the figures. above-mentioned were probably struck in the corresponding years of the (Tartarian) cycle. The annual tribute paid by the Russians to the Tartars was marked by the animals which denote the particular year of the cycle; and, as in some coins two of these animals are represented at the same time, probably the tribute of two years was delivered at once. COXE.-Pinkerton's Coll. part xxvi. p. 829.

LE CLERC has favoured the public with a curious account of the Numismatic History of Russia, which he has rendered extremely valuable by engravings of one hundred and seventyseven of the most antient coins.

See Hist. de la Russ. Ane. vol. ii. pp. 527 to 529.

590. [Lev. v. 11.] At Atcheen, they have a small coin of leaden money called cash; of which from twelve to sixteen hundred are bat in value about twelve-pence English.

Captain HAMILTON.-Pinkerton's Coll. part xxxiii. p. 445:

591. [Luke ii. 24.] Several pieces of Jewish coin, executed by Simon the Just, are still preserved by the curious: the inscription on some of them is, The shekel, or Halfshekel of Israel; on others, the first or second, &c. year of the deliverance of Israel, of Sion, of Jerusalem, &c. Others again are inscribed, Simon prince of Israel. What is remarkable in these inscriptions is, that they are not in the new Assyrian characters, adopted by Ezra, but in the old Sa

maritan; for which no other reason can be assigned, but that Simon must have been willing to preserve the antient form of those that had been coined before the captivity, as well in the character, as the metal, and figure, and weight.

Accordingly these, like the old ones, have on the one side a cup or pitcher, supposed to be the pot of manna; and on the other a branch or the budding rod of Aaron, or a palmbranch; some have a vine, others a bunch of grapes, or a wheat-sheaf; some have two doves, others two towers, or the frout of an edifice supposed to be that of the Temple. Univer. Hist. vol. x. p. 63.

DINAH AND SHECHEM.

592. [Gen. xxxiv. 1, 2.] And Dinah the daughter of Leah went out to see the daughters of the land. And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, Prince of the country, saw her, he took her, and lay with her, and defiled her.

The Antients lay down, instead of sitting

at meat, on a sort of beds or couches denominated Triclinium. John xiii. 23.

Roman Antiquities, p. 200.

593. By the Laws of Menu, it is declared an adulterous act for a woman to sit on the same couch with a man (of a different religion), and is severely punishable. 1 Cor. viii. 10. x. 7. John viii. 3.

See No. 563. TENNANT'S Indian Recreations, p. 165.

594. [Gen. xx. 2.] The antient Heathens, the false Priests to their False Gods, performed, says HUTCHINSON, almost every individual article, I think, in the institution and exercise of the (true) priesthood.

Use of Reason recovered, p. 81.

595. [Gen. xxxiv. 2.] Among the true worshippers, the First-born, the priest, his sons, family and relations, as well before the apostacy of the Gentiles at Babel, as after it, till they were in Egypt; ate the sacrifice of the Paschal Lamb,-the bread, wine, &c.,-from the time the priesthood of the First-born was renewed, till Aaron was appointed; who with his line of chief-priests, priests and Levites,—their sons, families, and relations,-as also those of the other eleven tribes, all ate of the Passover. Much in the same manner, the Heathens' first-born, priest, and people, ate of of their sacrifice; had their bread, their cup,-drank the blood (of the grape), &c. Equally in both instances, the Passover was sacrificed and ate in private houses,―on altars, or tables raised on high for the purpose.-Since the re-union of Jews and Gentiles, we also, though of the line of the Heathens, as brethren, relations, of his family,-nay, sons

R

of our Chief Priest,-eat at his table, of his sacrifice, his bread and wine.

HUTCHINSON'S Use of Reason recovered, &c. pp. 314, 316.

596. [Gen. xxxiv. 1.] In India, dancing-girls are still attached to the Hindoo temples.

FORBES' Oriental Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 6.

597. [Judges xxi. 16-23.] When Romulus, the founder of Rome, had formed his infant republic, finding that he had no women, and that none of the neighbouring nations would give their daughters in marriage to his men; he proclaimed a solemn feast, and an exhibition of games in honor of Equestrian Neptune, and by that means gathered a great number of people together. On a signal given, the Romans, with drawn swords in their hands, rushed among the strangers, and forcibly carried away a great number of their daughters to Rome. The next day Romulus himself distributed them as wives to those of his citizens, who had thus by violence carried them away. (Dr. W. ALEXANDER'S Hist. of Women, vol. i. p. 137.)-"They were not," says PLUTARCH,“ incited to this violence (towards the Sabine women) by lust or injustice, but by their desire to conciliate and unite the two nations in the strongest ties." (See his Lives, vol. i. p. 94.) These dances (in rings), during which songs of praises were sung, formed a very antient part of the festal solemnities of the Hebrews.

See SMITH'S Michaelis, vol. iii. p. 189.

ONAN.

[Gen. xxxviii. 9.] And Onan knew that the seed corn would not be his, (as it was,) if he went in to his brother's wife and poured it on the ground, therefore he would not give seed for his brother. See Hosea iii. 2. Ruth iv. 5, 6, 10, 11.

601. [Ruth iii. 15.] The Hindoo women are not entitled to any inheritance. If a man die without male issue, his fortune descends to his adopted son; or, if he have noue, to his nearest kinsman, who is obliged to maintain the women that belonged to, and were maintained by, the deceased. And, if there should even be no property, that duty falls on those who enjoy the right of inheritance.

Sketches relating to the History,
Religion, and Learning of the
Hindoos. One vol. Svo, p. 250.

602. [Ruth i. 5.] At Athens, as well as at Jerusalem, the mother was excluded from the inheritance of her son.

Works of Sir W. JONES, vol. iv. p. 218.

603. [Ruth iii. 12, 13.] He who is the next in blood (says the Grecian law) to an orphan virgin, who hath no fortune, shall marry her himself, or settle a fortune on her, according to his quality; if there be many relations, all equally allied, all of them, according to their several qualities, shall contribute something towards her fortune. (Dr. W. ALEXANDER'S Hist. of Women, vol. i. p. 135.)—The customary law of the old Arabians obliged every brother to give his sister in marriage with a fortune. Ibid. vol. iv. p. 209.

600. [Gen. xxxviii. 9] In the origin of society, seedgrain would necessarily be the representing token of all wealth. We find accordingly, that the Tartars, in portioning out their daughters, covered them with millet. For this purpose 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 was then poured on the dish, which, falling and spreading around her, formed a cone, with a base corresponding to the height of the bride. Nor was her portion complete, till the millet touched the dish, while the veil gave her the power of respiration. The Turks and Armenians, who make their cal culations in money, still preserve the dish and the veil, and throw coin on the bride, which they call spilling the millet. -Have not the crown and the comfits, used at the marriages of Europeans, the same origin?

607.

BARON DU TOTT, vol. i. p. 213.

In celebrating a marriage after the manner of the Hindoos, two priests attend, one with the bride, the other with the bridegroom: these churchmen joining their hands, pray that they may live together in unity and peace; and then, scattering rice on the married couple, entreat God to make them fruitful in sending them many sons and daughters, that they may multiply as much as that seed does in the ears that bear it.

609. [Gen. xxxviii. 27.] This kind of religious woman, sent out into the highway side, at a small distance from an idol's temple, to induce strangers to come in and lie with her in eating at the sacramental table, was among the Hebrews, and previously among the Canaanites, termed Kedescha, that is, consecrated. In this way, says HERODOTUS, among the Babylonians, every native woman must once in her life [to make converts] prostitute herself to a stranger at the temple of Venus. Many however, he adds, who in the pride of wealth think it unbecoming to mingle with others, come to the Temple in close carriages, attended

by a number of servants, and stop hard by it; but the generality proceed thus: They sit within the temple, wearing on their heads garlands of flowers, intertwined with a thread. Some are ever coming, and others are going away [as during the Sacrament in some Christian Churches]. Between the places where they sit, there are long passages [or aisles], through which the strangers walk up and down, to pick out whomsoever they fancy. Having once taken her seat, a woman is never allowed to return home, until a stranger, throwing some money into her lap, say, "I invoke the goddess Mylitta," which is the Assyrian name of Venus. Whether the sum be great or small, she must not refuse it: for it is brought to the sacred treasury. She must follow the first man who offers her money, and not reject any one as unworthy of her. After she has paid [into the treasury] this tax of love, and so done honor to the goddess, she returns home. Book i. ch. 199.-Wesseling's Edition.

These women wear in all, four kinds of veils; two kinds at home, and two when they go abroad. The first kind is made as a kerchief falling on the back of the wearer by way of ornament. The second passes under the chin, and covers the bosom. The third is the white veil, which covers the whole of their persons. And the fourth is a kind of handkerchief which hangs as a curtain over the face this has a network at the place of the eyes, like point or thread lace, to facilitate the sight.

CHARDIN, Voy. en Perse, tom. ii. p. 50.

612. In Turkey, no woman, of what rank soever, is permitted to go into the streets without two

murlins, one that covers her face, all but her eyes; and another, that hides the whole dress of her head, and hangs half way down her back their shapes are also wholly concealed by a thing called a feugee, which so effectually disguises them, that there is no distinguishing the lady from her slave.

Lady WORTLEY MONTAGUE.

613. [Gen. xxxviii. 18.] In the East the Imans, the Kadis and other learned Arabs usually write their names with letters interlacing each other in cyphers, in order that their signature may not be imitated. Those who cannot write, cause their names to be written by others, and then stamp their name or their device with ink, at the bottom of the paper, or on the back of it. But usually they have their name or their device engraved on a stone, which they wear on their finger.

See No. 522:

NIEBUHR, p. 90. Fr. Edit.

JOSEPH'S COAT.

614. [Gen. xxxvii. 3.] Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colors.

This coat of divers colors, it is supposed, was made of cotton, and finer than those of his brethren. (Dr. W. ALEXANDER'S Hist. of Women, vol. ii. p. 91.) And denoted by its three colors of black, white, and purple, the three offices he was born to, as Jacob's heir; that is, when he became a patriarch in his father's stead, he was to be prophet, priest, and king. Prophets wore sackcloth that was black: The sun became black as sackcloth of hair, Rev. vi. 12. The priests were clothed in white cotton: No wool shall come on them, Ezek. xliv. 17. Kings were clothed in purple; Judg. viii. 26. Mark xv. 17, 20.

FAMINE IN EGYPT.

[Gen. xli. 27.] Ande seven empty ears blasted with the east wind shall be seven years of famine.

615. [Gen. xli. 5.] From one grain of Maize, or Indian wheat, shoot forth four, five, and sometimes six stems like reeds, that mount nearly seven feet high, and contain a sirupy pith, from which may be extracted a real sugar. Each stem regularly supports two, and sometimes three spikes, or large ears, enclosed in several teguments as tough almost as parchment.

Nat. Delin. vol. ii. p. 211.—See also Frag. to CALMET's Dict. 2d Hundred, p. 108.

617. [Gen. xli. 57.] However, the famine increased among the Egyptians; and this heavy judgment grew more oppressive to them, because neither did the river overflow the ground, for it did not rise to its former height (through the drought in Ethiopia), nor did God send rain upon it (even upon Lower Egypt, where it frequently rains); nor did they indeed make the least provision for themselves, so ignorant were they what was to be done; but Joseph sold them corn for their money. JOSEPH. Antiq. b. ii. c. vii. § 7.

618. [Gen. xli. 35, 36.] The university, at Malta, was enabled to build storehouses where a sufficient quantity of corn might always be kept, not only to ensure the inhabitants from the misery of famine, but at the same time to enable it to sell corn at a moderate price. The grain was preserved in extremely large pits hollowed in the rock: with beds of wood and straw placed at the bottom, on which it was spread. When these were entirely filled, they were closed by a large stone, which was plastered over with puzzolana; the corn thus kept from the air, might be preserved perfectly good for a hundred years.

BOISGELIN'S Malta, vol. i. p. 42.

619. [Gen. xli. 56.] Joseph's granary, still remaining at Old Cairo, is very large, and consists of seven compartments; each of which was full of wheat up to the verge of their walls, which are twenty-two feet high. When the compartments are quite full, they spread mats over the corn, which are all it has to defend it from the weather. Dr. PERRY says, he is well assured, that in the time of Joseph there were seven granaries, each like to what we now see. He likewise mentions, and partly describes, as remarkable pieces of antiquity now extant, Joseph's well, his hall, banqueting-house and dungeon, with the hall of his steward, &c. See his View of the Levant,

pp. 230, 233, 234.

together a provision sufficient to feed the People at least two years, in case of war or famine. They must take care to fill their magazines in times of the greatest plenty, that so they may afford provisions cheaper, and increase the public revenue at a small expense of its members. None of the three managers must, on any pretence, furnish the granaries from his own fields, that so they may have no temptation to pay too great a price, or put off any bad corn on the public. They must buy up no corn growing within twelve miles of Geneva, that so the filling of their magazines may not prejudice the market, and raise the price of their provisions at home. That such a collection of corn may not spoil in keeping, all the inns are obliged to furnish themselves out of it, by which means is raised the most considerable branch of the Public Revenues; the corn being sold out at a much dearer rate than it is bought up, to such as have money enough to spend at taverns and public-houses.

ADDISON'S Trav. p. 289.

622. [Gen. xli. 57.] About the year 1694, a time of scareity coming on in Egypt, Caciouch Mamet, who was then in the zenith of power at Grand Cairo, gave strict orders that nobody should sell wheat for more than sixty Medins the Ardeb, which is equal to four shillings and four-pence English. At which the great men of Cairo, who had corn to sell, being highly incensed, posted a fellow in a Mosque, who shot him dead as he passed by; and the very next day wheat was sold at a hundred and fifty medins the ardeb, rising to six hundred and sixty, so that the poor were starved to death, and many ate even their own children.

PERRY'S View of the Levant, pp. 161, 162, &c.

623. [Gen. xlvi. 27.] All the souls of the house of Jacob, which came into Egypt, were threescore and ten. In the above enumeration, either Jacob or Leah must be omitted: JOSEPHUS says, Jacob was not included in the seventy.

Antiq. b. ii. ch. vii. § 4.

624. [Gen. xlvi. 12.] As Pharez, Tamar's son, Gen. xxxviii, 29, could not be more than ten years of age, when Jacob went down into Egypt, it is impossible that Hezron and Hamel could be other than his adopted sons, or religious converts into the priesthood, as Timothy was Paul's son in the Gospel.

But to make all the souls of the house of Jacob which came into Egypt, threescore and ten, Dr. A. CLARKE | says, "it is very probable that what is called the going down into Egypt, includes the seventeen years which Jacob spent there"!-Very extraordinary indeed, that Jacob's family should increase so very little in Egypt during the first seventeen years, and so exceedingly fast in the hundred and

628. [Gen. xlix. 4: Thou wentest up to thy father's bed]-Though the eldest son had, by long continued custom, regularly succeeded the father in the Mogul's great empire, yet Achabar Shah, father of the late king, on high and just displeasure taken against his son for climbing up to the bed of Anarkalee, his father's most beloved wife, and for other base actions, resolved to break that antient custom; and therefore, often in his life time protested, that not he, but his grandchild Sultan Coobsurroo, whom he kept in his court, should succeed him in the empire.

Sir T. ROE's Embassy to the Great
Mogul, p. 470.

629. [Gen. xlix. 10. From between his feet], alluding to the ceremony of ADOPTION, which was the form of taking BY CHOICE. Accordingly, at the time the Redeemer came, the Roman governors were not imposed on the Jews, as a Conquered people, as many have imagined; but sent to them by Augustus Cæsar, pursuant to their own desire and petition, instead of their kings, from whose tyranny they requested, after Herod's death, to be delivered, and to be reduced into the form of a province, with their old constitution and laws.

JOSEPH. Antiq. b. xvii. ch. xi.