ed in countries, more to the east or south than Tyre and that the dye was by no means become common in the days of Ezekiel, though some that were employed in the construction of the tabernacle, and some of the Syrians in the time of Solomon, seem to have possessed the art of dyeing with blue. These blue cloths were manufactured in remote countries; and to them that wore scarcely any thing but woollens and linens of the natural colour, these blue calicoes formed very magnificent vestments. It does not appear, however, that the Jews ever wore garments wholly of this colour; and perhaps they abstained from it as sacred and mysterious, than which none was more used about the tabernacle and the temple, in the curtains, veils, and vestments belonging to these sacred edifices."

The Jewish nobles and courtiers, upon great and solemn occasions, appeared in scarlet robes, dyed, not as at present, with madder, with cochineal, or with any modern tincture, but with a shrub, whose red berries give an orient tinge to the cloth. Crimson or vermilion, a colour, as the name imports, from the blood of the worm, was used in the temple of Solomon, and by many persons of the first quality; sometimes they wore purple, the most sublime of all earthly colours, says Mr. Harmer, having the gaudiness of red, of which it retains a shade, softened with the gravity of blue. This was chiefly dyed at Tyre, and was supposed to take the tincture from the liquor of a shell fish, anciently found in the adjacent sea; though Mr. Bruce in his travels, inclines to the opinion, that the murex, or purple fish at Tyre, was only a concealment of their knowledge of cochineal, as, if the whole city of Tyre had applied to nothing else but fishing, they would not have coloured twenty yards of cloth in a year. The children of wealthy and noble families, were dressed in vestments of different colours. mark of distinction may be traced to the patriarchal age; for Joseph was arrayed by his indulgent and imprudent father, in a coat of many colours. A robe of divers colours, was anciently reserved for the king's

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daughters who were virgins; and in one of these was Tamar, the virgin daughter of David arrayed, when she was deflowered by her own brother.

In these parts of the world, the fashion is in a state of almost daily fluctuation, and different fashions are not unfrequently seen contending for the superiority; but in the east, where the people are by no means given to change, the form of their garments continues nearly the same from one age to another. The greater part of their clothes are long and flowing, loosely cast about the body, consisting only of a large piece of cloth, in the cutting and sewing of which, very little art or industry is employed. They have more dignity and gracefulness than ours, and are better adapted to the burning climates of Asia. From the simplicity of their form, and their loose adaptation to the body, the same clothes might be worn with equal ease and convenience by many different persons. The clothes of those Philistines whom Samson slew at Askelon, required no altering to fit his companions; nor the robe of Jonathan, to answer his friend. The arts of weaving and fulling, seemed to have been distinct occupations in Israel, from a very remote period, in consequence of the various and skilful operations which were necessary to bring their stuffs to a suitable degree of perfection; but when the weaver and the fuller had finished their part, the labour was nearly at an end; no distinct artisan was necessary to make them into clothes; every family seems to have made their own. Sometimes, however, this part of the work was performed in the loom; for they had the art of weaving robes with sleeves all of one piece; of this kind was the coat which our Saviour wore during his abode with men. These loose dresses, when the arm is lifted up, expose its whole length: To this circumstance, the prophet Isaiah refers: "To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed"—uncovered-Who observes that he is about to exert the arm of his power ?*

The chosen people were not allowed to wear clothes Taylor's Calmet, vol. 3.

of any materials or form they chose; they were forbidden by their law, to wear a garment of woollen and linen. This law did not prevent them from wearing many different substances together, but only these two; nor did the prohibition extend to the wool of camels and goats (for the hair of these animals they called by the same name), but only to that of sheep. It was lawful for any man, who saw an Israelite dressed in such a garment, to fall upon him and put him to death, The design of Moses, according to some writers, was to preserve the chosen and holy people from the horrid confusion, by incestuous and unnatural mixtures, which prevailed among the heathen. But, in the opinion of Maimonides, it was principally intended as a preservative from idolatry; for the heathen priests of those times, wore such mixed garments of woollen and linen, in the superstitious hope, it was imagined, of having the beneficial influence of some lucky conjunction of the planets or stars, to bring down a blessing upon their sheep and their flax.

The second restraint referred to the sexes, of which one was not to wear the dress appropriated to the other. This practice is said to be an abomination to the Lord; which plainly intimates, that the law refers to some idolatrous custom, of which Moses and the prophets always spake in terms of the utmost abhorrence. Nothing, indeed, was more common among the heathen, in the worship of some of their false deities, than for the males to assist in women's clothes, and the females in the dress appropriated to men; in the worship of Venus, in particular, the women appeared before her in armour, and the men in women's apparel; and thus the words literally run in the original Scriptures, ❝ Women shall not put on the armour of a man, nor a man the stole of a woman." Maimonides says, he found this precept in an old magical book, "That men ought to stand before the star of Venus in the flowered garments of women, and women to put on the armour of men before the star of Mars." But whatever may be in these observations, it is certain, if there were no

distinction of sexes made by their habits, it would be in danger of involving mankind in all manner of licentiousness and impurity.*

The ancient Jews very seldom wore any covering upon their head, except when they were in mourning, or worshipping in the temple, or in the synagogue. To pray with the head covered, was, in their estimation, a higher mark of respect for the majesty of heaven, as it indicated the conscious unworthiness of the suppliant to lift up his eyes in the divine presence. To guard themselves from the wind or the storm, or from the still more fatal stroke of the sun beam, to which the general custom of walking bare-headed particularly exposed them, they wrapped their heads in their mantles, or upper garments. But during their long captivity in Babylon, the Jews began to wear turbans, in compliance with the customs of their conquerors; for Daniel informs us, that his three friends were cast into the fiery furnace with their hats, or, as the term should be rendered, their turbans. It is not, however, improbable, that the bulk of the nation continued to follow their ancient custom; and that the compliance prevailed only among those Jews who were connected with the Babylonish court; for many ages after that, we find Antiochus Epiphanes introducing the habits and fashions of the Grecians among the Jews; and, as the history of the Maccabees relates, be brought the chief young men under his subjection, and made them wear a hat. Their legs were generally bare, and they never wore any thing upon the feet, but soles fastened in different ways according to the taste or fancy of the wearer.

The Talmudists enumerate eighteen several garments, which belonged to the full dress of an ancient Jew. A woollen shirt was worn next the skin, although some had shirts of linen in which they slept, becausethese were more cleanly and wholesome. But this part of their dress is to be distinguished from the caffetan, or shirt, which the bridegroom and the bride sent to each other; which they wore over their clothes Lewis' Heb. Antiquities.

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at their solemn festivals, and in which they were at last buried. Next to it was the coat, which reached to their feet, and was accounted a modest and honourable article of dress. This greatly aggravated the indignity which the king of Ammon offered to the ambassadors of David, by cutting off their garments in the middle to their buttocks: he insulted them, by spoiling the most esteemed part of their dress; he exposed them to shame, by uncovering their nakedness, as they seem to have worn no breeches under their upper garments. The tunic was the principal part of the Jewish dress; it was made nearly in the form of our present shirt. A round hole was cut at top, merely to permit the head to pass through. Sometimes it had long sleeves, which reached down to the wrists; at other times short sleeves, which reached to the elbow; some had very short sleeves, which reached only to the middle of the upper arm, and some had no sleeves at all. The tunic was nearly the same with the Roman stola; and was, in general, girded round the waist, or under the breast, with the zona or girdle. Descending to the ground, and floating round the feet, it was, in the days of our Lord, a distinguishing badge of the proud Pharisee: "Beware of the scribes," said he, who love to walk in long robes;" in tunics at full length, and reaching to the ground. These coats were collared at the neck, and fringed at the bottom. Over the tunic they wore a blanket, which the Arabs call a hyke, and is the very same with the plaid of the Scotch Highlanders. These hykes are of different sizes, and of different quality and fineness. They are commonly six yards long, and five or six feet broad; serving the Kabyle and Arab for a complete dress_in the day; and as they sleep in raiment," like the Israelites of old, it serves likewise for their bed and covering by night.* It is a loose, but troublesome garment, frequently discomposed, and falling upon the ground; so that the person who wears it, is every moment obliged to tuck it up, and fold it anew about his body. This shows the great use of a girdle whenever

* Deut. xxiv. 13.