No. 20.-xxxi. 27. Wherefore didst thou flee away secretly, and steal away from me, and didst not tell me, that I might have sent thee away with mirth and with songs, with tabret and with harp?] The Easterns used to set out, at least on their longer journeys, with music. When the prefetto of Egypt was preparing for his journey, he complains of his being incommoded by the songs of his friends, who in this manner took leave of their relations and acquaintance. These valedictory songs were often extemporary. If we consider them, as they probably were used not on common but more solemn occasions, there appears peculiar propriety in the complaint of Laban. HARMER, vol. i. p. 435.

No. 21.-xxxi. 34. The camel's furniture.] PocOCKE informs us, that "one method of conveyance, still used in the East, is by means of a sort of round basket, slung on each side of a camel, (with a cover) which holds all their necessaries, and on it (the camel) a person sits crossed-legged." Mr. Moryson, whose travels were printed in the year 1596, mentions (p. 247.) in his journey from Aleppo to Constantinople, "two long chairs, like cradles covered with red cloth, to hang on the two sides of the camel, which chairs the Turks used to ride in, and sleep upon camels backs." Mr. Hanway likewise mentions (Travels, vol. i. p. 190.) kedgavays, "which are a kind of covered chairs, which the Persians hang over camels in the manner of panniers, and are big enough for one person to sit in."

No. 22.—xxxi. 40. In the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night.] "In Europe the days. and nights resemble each other with respect to the qualities of heat and cold; but it is quite otherwise in the East. In the Lower Asía in particular, the day is always hot; and as soon as the sun is fifteen

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degrees above the horizon, no cold is felt in the depth of winter itself. On the contrary, in the height of summer the nights are as cold as at Paris in the month of March. It is for this reason that in Persia and Turkey they always make use of furred habits in the country, such only being sufficient to resist the cold of the nights." (Chardin in Harmer, vol. i. p. 74.) Campbell (Travels, part ii. p. 100,) says, sometimes we lay at night out in the open air, rather than enter a town; on which occasions I found the weather as piercing cold as it was distressfully hot in the day time." Hence we may clearly see the force and propriety of Jacob's complaint.

No. 23. xxxi. 46. And Jacob said unto his brethren, gather stones, and they took stones and made an heap, and they did eat there upon the heap.] Niebuhr relating his audience with the Imam of Yemen, says, "I had gone from my lodgings indisposed, and by standing so long found myself so faint, that I was obliged to ask permission to quit the room. I found near the door some of the principal officers of the court, who were sitting, in a scattered manner, in the shade, upon stones, by the side of the wall. Among them was the nakib (the general, or rather master of the horse), Cheir Allah, with whom I had some acquaintance before. He immediately resigned his place to me, and applied himself to draw together stones into an heap, in order to build himself a new seat." This management might be owing to various causes. The extreme heat of the ground might render sitting there disagreeable. The same inconvenience might arise also from its wetness. It was certainly a very common practice; and as it appears from the instance of Jacob, a very ancient one. HARMER, vol. iii. p. 215.

No. 24. xxxiii. 13. And he said unto him, my lord knoweth that the children are tender, and the flocks and herds with young are with me: and if men should overdrive them one day, all the flocks will die.] Prepared as the Arabs are for speedy flight, a quick motion is very destructive to the young of their flocks. "Their flocks," says Chardin, "feed down the places of their encampment so quick, by the great numbers which they have, that they are obliged to remove them too often, which is very destructive to their flocks, on account of the young ones, which have not strength enough to follow." This circumstance shews the energy of Jacob's apology to Esau for not attending him.

HARMER, vol. i. p. 126.

No. 25. xxxiii. 19. An hundred pieces of money.] There is very great reason to believe that the earliest coins struck were used both as weights and money: and indeed, this circumstance is in part proved by the very names of certain of the Greek and Roman coins. Thus the Attic mina and the Roman libra equally signify a pound; and the orare (stater) of the Greeks, so called from weighing, is decisive as to this point. The Jewish shekel, was also a weight as well as a coin: three thousand shekels according to Arbuthnot, being equal in weight and value to one talent. This is the oldest coin of which we any where read, for it occurs, Gen. xxiii. 16. and exhibits direct evidence against those who date the first coinage of money so low as the time of Croesus or Darius, it being there expressly said, that Abraham weighed to Ephron four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant.

Having considered the origin and high antiquity of coined money, we proceed to consider the stamp or impression which the first money bore. The primitive race of men being shepherds, and their wealth consisting

in their cattle, in which Abraham is said to have been rich, for greater convenience metals were substituted for the commodity itself. It was natural for the representative sign to bear impressed the object which it represented; and thus accordingly the earliest coins were stamped with the figure of an ox or a sheep: for proof that they actually did thus impress them, we can again appeal to the high authority of scripture; for there we are informed that Jacob bought a parcel of a field for an hundred pieces of money. The original Hebrew translated pieces of money, is kesitoth, which signifies lambs, with the figure of which the metal was doubtless stamped.

MAURICE'S Indian Antiquities, vol. vii. p. 470.

No. 26.--xxxvii. 34. Jacob rent his clothes.] This ceremony is very ancient, and is frequently mentioned in scripture. Levi (Rites and Ceremonies of the Jews, p. 174.) says, it was performed in the following manner: "they take a knife, and holding the blade downwards, do give the upper garinent a cut on the right side, and then rend it an hand's breadth. This is done for the five following relations, brother, sister, son, or daughter, or wife; but for father or mother, the rent is on the left side, and in all the garments, as coat, waistcoat, &c."

No. 27. xl. 13. Within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thine head.] "The ancients, in keeping their reckonings or accounts of time, or their list of domestic officers or servants, made use of tables with holes bored in them, in which they put a sort of pegs, or nails with broad heads, exhibiting the particulars, either number or name, or whatever it was. These nails or pegs the Jews call heads, and the sockets of the heads they call bases. The meaning therefore of Pharaoh's lifting up

his head is, that Pharaoh would take out the peg, which had the cup-bearer's name on the top of it, to read it, i. e. would sit in judgment, and make examination into his accounts; for it seems very probable that both he and the baker had been either suspected or accused of having cheated the king, and that, when their accounts were examined and cast up, the one was acquitted, while the other was found guilty. And though Joseph uses the same expression in both cases, yet we may observe that, speaking to the baker, he adds, that Pharaoh shall lift up thine head from off thee, i. e. shall order thy name to be struck out of the list of his servants, by taking thy peg out of the socket." Bibliotheca Bibl. in locum, cited in STACKHOUSE'S Hist. of the Bible, vol. i. p. 331.

No. 23. xli. 40. Thou shalt be over my house, and according to thy word shall all my people be ruled.] The Easterns kiss what comes from the hand of a superior. The editor of the Ruins of Balbec observed, that the Arab governor of that city respectfully applied the firman of the grand seignior (which was presented to him) to his forehead when he and his fellow travellers first waited on him, and then kissed it, declaring himself the sultan's slave's slave (p. 4.). Is not this what Pharaoh refers to in these words: Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word, or on account of thy word, shall all my people KISS (for so it is in the original) only in the throne will I be greater than thou; that is, I imagine, the orders of Joseph were to be received with the greatest respect by all, and kissed by the most illustrious of the princes of Egypt. HARMER, vol. ii. p. 48.

No. 29. xlii. 15. By the life of Pharaoh.] Extraordinary as the kind of oath which Joseph made use of may appear to us, it still continues in the East. Mr. HANWAY says, the most sacred oath among the Per