m breaches of faith, under the figure of a husband, who has brought his wife out of the greatest misery to heap blessings upon her, says, by the prophet Ezekiel, that he has given her very fine stuffs, and of different colours, a silken girdle, purple shoes, bracelets, a neck-lace, ear-rings, and a crown or rather mitre, such as the Syrian women used a great while after;" that he adorned her with gold and silver, and the most costly raiment. When Judith dressed herself to go to Holofernes, it is said that she washed and anointed herself; that she braided her hair, and put attire upon her head; that she put on her garments of gladness, with sandals upon her feet, and adorned herself with bracelets, ear-rings, and rings upon her fingers. In a word, we cannot desire a more particular account of these female ornaments than what we read in Isaiah, when he reproaches the daughters of Sion with their vanity and luxury; for corruption was then got to the highest pitch. "Ezek. xvi. 10, 11, &c. D Ite, quibus grata est pictá lupa barbara mitrú. Juv. Sat. iii. ver. 66. The barbarous harlots crowd the public place : DRYDEN. Mitres, variously painted and ornamented, are still used by the women of the East. CHAP. VII. Their Houses and Furniture. THERE was occasion for much less furnituré in those hot countries, than in our's: and their plainness in all other respects gives us reason to think they had but little. The law often speaks of wooden and earthen vessels; and earthenware was very common among the Greeks and Romans before luxury had crept in among them. They are mentioned among the things that were brought for the refreshment of David, during the war with Absalom, We see the furniture that was thought necessary, in the words of the Shunamite woman who lodged the prophet Elisha: Let us make, said she to her husband, a little chamber for the man of GOD, and set for him there a bed, a table, a stool, and a candlestick. Their beds were no more than couches without curtains, except they were such light coverings as the Greeks called canopies," That the Greeks and Romans had arrived at great perfection in pottery, is evident from the very elegant vessels dug up from the ruins of Herculaneum and Pompeii. An elegant and invaluable collection of such, made by the late Sir William Hamilton, is now in the British Museum. There are also some rare and valuable vases of this sort in Warwick castle. because they served to keep off the gnats. The great people had ivory bedsteads, as the prophet Amos reproaches the wealthy in his time; and they that were most delicate made their beds very soft, decked them with rich stuffs, and sprinkled them with odoriferous waters. They placed the beds against the wall; for it is said, when Hezekiah was threatened that he should die soon, he turned his face to the wall to weep.5 h The candlestick mentioned among Elisha's furniture was probably one of those great ones that were set upon the ground to hold one or more lamps. Till then, and a long while after, even in the time of the Romans, they burnt nothing but oil to give light. Thence it is so common in Scripture to call every thing that enlightens the body or mind, whatever guides or refreshes, by the name of lamp. There is not much reason to think they had tapestry in their houses. They have occasion for little in hot countries, because bare walls are cooler. They make use only of carpets to sit and e Amos vi. 4. * 2 Kings xx. 2. ' Prov. vii. 16, 17. I have now before me a cast from a lamp, brought by Mr. Jackson, (author of A Journey from India overland, &c. 8vo. Lond. 1799,) from the Ruins of Herculaneum. It is circular, 22 inches in diameter, and contains places for twelve lights. The oil is put into a large cavity in the centre, which is covered with a lid; and with this cavity all the wick places communicate. It is finely ornamented on the top with the thyrses and masks alternately placed. As there are no ornaments on the under side, it is evidently one of that kind mentioned above, which stood upon a table, or was placed on the ground. F lie upon; and Ezekiel speaks of them among the merchandise which the Arabians brought to Tyre.' They are also mentioned among the things provided for David's refreshment, which would incline one to think the Israelites used them in camp, for in houses they had chairs.* Their houses differed from ours in all that we see still in hot countries. Their roofs are flat, the windows closed with lattices or curtains; they have no chimnies, and lie for the most part on a ground floor. We have a great many proofs in Scripture that roofs were flat in and about the land of Israel. Rahab hid the spies of Joshua upon the roof of the house. When Samuel acquainted Saul that GoD had chosen him to be king, he made him lie all night upon the roof of the house, which is still usual in hot countries." David was walking upon the roof of his palace, when he saw Bathsheba bathing." When Absalom had rebelled against his father, he caused a tent to be raised upon the roof of the same palace, where he lay with his father's concubines. This action was in a manner taking possession of the kingdom; and made public, to shew that he was determined never to return to his duty. They ran to the tops of their houses upon great alarms, as is plain from two passages in Ezek. xxvii. 24. * 2 Sam. xvii. 28, where they are termed beds or couches. * 2 Sam. xi. 2. Isaiah. All this shews the reason of the law, that ordered a battlement to be raised quite round the roof, lest any body should fall down and be killed;" and explains the expression in the Gospel, what you have heard in the ear publish on the housetops. Every house was a scaffold ready built for any one that had a mind to make himself heard at a distance. The casements of windows are taken notice of in the Proverbs,' the Song of Solomon," and the story of the death of Ahaziah king of Israel. When king Jehoiakim burnt the book which Jeremiah had written by the order of God, he was sitting in his winter-house, with a fire on the hearth burning before him: whence one may judge they had no chimnies; which indeed are the invention of cold Isaiah xv. 3, and xxii. 1. r Prov. vii. 6. W 2 Kings i. 2. The fire, which the king had before him, is supposed to have been in a moveable stove, whence the Vulgate translates it arula coram eo, plena prunis; and therefore had no fixed chimney to it. And that the antients had none has been asserted by several of the learned, particularly by Manutius, in Cic. Fam. 1. vii. ep. x. and Lipsius, Ep. ad Belgas, iii. 75. and that the smoke went out at the windows, or at the tops of the houses. Cato, de Re Rust. c. xviii. says, focum purum circumversum, priusquam cubitum eat, habeat. The hearth could not be swept round, if it was, as with us, built in a chimney. Columella, 1. xi. c. ult. speaks of the smoke adhering to the ceilings, over the hearth: Fuligo, quæ supra focos tectis inhæret, colligi debet. Seneca, Ep. 90, describes stove tubes, then lately invented, placed round the walls of the rooms, to throw an equal warmth into them. On the other hand Dan. Barbarus, in his Comment |