the Lord.] The present mode of swearing among the Mohammedan Arabs, that live in tents as the patriarchs did, according to de la Roque (Voy. dans la Pal. p. 152.) is by laying their hands on the Koran. They cause those who swear to wash their hands before they give them the book; they put their left hand underneath, and the right over it. Whether, among the patriarchs one hand was under, and the other upon the thigh, is not certain; possibly Abraham's servant might swear with one hand under his master's thigh, and the other stretched out to Heaven. As the posterity of the patriarchs are described as coming out of the thigh, it has been supposed, this ceremony had some relation to their believing the promise of God, to bless all the nations of the earth, by means of one that was to descend from Abraham.

HARMER, vol. iv. p. 477.

No. 14. xxvii. 39. Dew of Heaven.] Egypt, says. M. Savary, would be uninhabitable, did not the nocturnal dews restore life to vegetables. These dews are so copious, especially in summer, that the earth is deeply soaked with them, so that in the morning one would imagine that rain had fallen during the night. This is the reason why the scripture promises the Israelites, who inhabited a climate pretty similar to that of Egypt, the dew of heaven as a signal favour.

No. 15,-xxviii. 17. The gate of heaven.] After having described in what manner caverns were used as sacred temples, and the allegorical design of some. parts of their furniture, Mr. Maurice says, "In these caverns they erected a high ladder, which had seven GATES, answering to the number of the planets, through which, according to their theology, the soul gradually ascends to the supreme mansion of felicity. I must here observe that the word GATE, which is a

part of Asiatic palaces by far the most conspicuous and magnificent, and upon adorning of which immense sums are often expended, is an expression, that, throughout the East, is figuratively used for the mansion itself. Indeed it seems to be thus denominated with singular propriety, since it is under those GATES that conversations are holden, that hospitality to the passing traveller is dispensed, and the most important transactions in commerce are frequently carried on. Captain Hamilton (Voyage, vol. i. p. 368) giving an account of Fort St. George, observes, "that the GATE of that town, called the sea-gate, being very spacious, was formerly the common exchange, where merchants of all nations resorted about eleven o'clock, to treat of business or merchandize." Astronomy, deriving its birth in Asia, and exploring nature and language for new symbols, soon seized upon this allegorical expression as highly descriptive of romantic ideas; and the title was transferred from terrestrial houses to the spheres. It may here be remarked, that the expression occurs frequently in holy writ, often in the former sense, and sometimes even in the astronomical allusion of the word. In the former acceptation we read, (Esther ii. 19.) of the Jew, Mordecai, sitting in the king's GATE; in Lamentations v. 14. that the elders have ceased from the GATE; and, in Ruth iii. 11. it is used in a sense remarkably figurative, all the GATE, (that is house) of my people know thou art virtuous. In the se cond acceptation, the word as well as the attendant symbol itself, to our astonishment occur in the account of Jacob's vision of the LADDER, WHOSE TOP REACHED TO HEAVEN, and in the exclamation, THIS IS THE GATE OF HEAVEN. It is hence manifested to have been an original patriarchal symbol. A similar idea occurs in Isaiah xxxviii. 10. I shall go to the GATES of the grave; and in Matt. xvi. 18. The GATES of hell shall not prevail

against it. Nor is it impossible but our blessed Lord himself might speak in allusion to the popular notion of the two astronomical GATES, celestial and terrestrial, when in Matt. vii. 13. he said, Enter ye in at the strait GATE; for wide is the GATE, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are which go in thereat; because strait is the GATE, and narrow is the way that leadeth to life, and few there are that find it." Indian Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 241.

No. 16.-xxviii. 18. And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillow, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it.] One of the idols in the pagoda of Jaggernaut is described by Captain Hamilton, as a huge black stone, of a pyramidal form, and the sommona codom among the Siamese is of the same complexion. The ayeen Akbery mentions an octagonal pillar of black stone fifty cubits high. Tavernier observed an idol of black stone in the pagoda of Benares, and that the statue of Creeshna, in his celebrated temple of Mathura, is of black marble. It is very remarkable, that one of the principal ceremonies incumbent upon the priests of these stone deities, according to Tavernier, is to anoint them daily with odoriferous oils: a circumstance which immediately brings to our remembrance the similar practice of Jacob, who, after the famous vision of the celestial ladder, took the stone which he had put for his pillow, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. It is added, that he called the name of that place BETH-EL, that is the house of God. This passage evinces of how great antiquity is the custom of considering stones in a sacred light, as well as the anointing them with consecrated oil. From this conduct of Jacob, and this Hebrew appellative, the learned Bochart, with great ingenuity and reason, insists that the name and

veneration of the sacred stones, called bactyli, so celebrated in all pagan antiquity, were derived. These baetyli were stones of a round form; they were supposed to be animated, by means of magical incantations, with a portion of the deity: they were consulted on occasions of great and pressing emergency, as a kind of divine oracles, and were suspended, either round the neck, or some other part of the body. Thus the setting up of a stone by this holy person, in grateful memory of the celestial vision, probably became the occasion of the idolatry in succeeding ages, to these shapeless masses of unhewn stone, of which so many astonishing remains are scattered up and down the Asiatic and the European world.

MAURICE'S Indian Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 355.

No. 17. xxix. 2. A great stone was upon the well's mouth.] In Arabia, and other places, they cover up their wells of water, lest the sand, which is put into motion by the winds, should fill, and quite stop them up. (Chardin.) So great was their care not to leave the well open any length of time, that they waited till the flocks were all gathered together, before they began to draw water: and when they had finished, the well was immediately closed again. HARMER, vol. i. p. 113.

No. 18.-xxix. 24. And Laban gave unto his daughter Leah, Zilpah his maid, for an handmaid.] Chardin observes that none but very poor people marry a daughter in the East, without giving her a female slave for an handmaid, there being no hired servants there as in Europe. So Solomon supposes they were extremelypoor that had not a servant. Prov. xii. 9. HARMER, vol. ii. p. 366.

VOL. I.

No. 19.-xxx. 32. I will pass through all thy flocks to day, removing from thence all the speckled and spotted cattle, and all the brown cattle among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and of such shall be my hire.] The following extract from the Gentoo lares, p. 150, is remarkable for its coincidence with the situation and conduct of Jacob; and demonstrates that he acted with propriety, if the regulations here mentioned existed in his time; and of their very great antiquity there is no doubt. "If a person without receiving wages, or subsistence, or clothes, attends ten milch cows, he shall select, for his own use, the milk of that cow which ever produces most; if he attends more cows, he shall take milk after the same rate, in lieu of wages. If a person attends one hundred cows for the space of one year, without any appointment of wages, he shall take to himself one heifer of three years old; and also, of all those cows that produce milk, whatever the quantity may be, after every eight days, he shall take to himself the milk, the intire product of one day. Cattle shall be delivered over to the cowherd in the morning: the cowherd shall tend them the whole day with grass and water, and in the evening shall re-deliver them to the master, in the same manner as they were intrusted to him: if, by the fault of the cowherd, any of the cattle be lost, or stolen, that cowherd shall make it good. When a cowherd hath led cattle to any distant place to feed, if any die of some distemper, notwithstanding the cowherd applied the proper remedy, the cowherd shall carry the head, the tail, the forefoot, or some such convincing proof, taken from that animal's body, to the owner of the cattle; having done this, he shall be no farther answerable; if he neglects to act thus, he shall make good the loss." Probably this last circumstance is alluded to in Amos iii. 12.