No. 49.-LEVITICUS ii, 4.

Unleavened cakes of fine flour.

D'ARVIEUX relates, that the Arabs about Mount Carmel make a fire in a great stone pitcher, and when it is heated, mix meal and water, which they apply with the hollow of their hands to the outside of the pitcher, and this soft paste, spreading itself upon it, is baked in an instant, and the bread comes off thin as our wafers. (Voy. dans la pal. p. 192.) Stones or copper plates were also used for the purposes of baking. (POCOCKE, vol. ii. p. 96.) Upon these oven-pitchers probably the wafers here mentioned were prepared.

HARMER, vol. i. p. 235.

No. 50.-ii. 13. With all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt.] Salt amongst the ancients was the emblem of friendship and fidelity, and therefore was used in all their sacrifices and covenants. Bruce mentions a kind of salt so hard, that it is used as money, and passes from hand to hand no more injured than a stone would be. A covenant of salt seems to refer to the making of an agreement wherein salt was used as a token of confirmation. Baron Du Tott, speaking of one who was desirous of his acquaintance, says, upon his departure,

he promised in a short time to return. I had already attended him half way down the stair-case, when stopping, and turning briskly to one of my domestics, bring me directly, said he, some bread and salt. What he requested was brought; when taking a little salt between his fingers, and putting it with a mysterious air on a bit of bread, he eat it with a de vout gravity, assuring me that I might now rely on him." (part i. p. 214.) Among other exploits which are recorded of Jacoub Ben Laith,

he is said to have broken into a palace, and having collected a very large booty, which he was on the point of carrying away, he found his foot kicked something which made him stumble; putting it to his mouth, the better to distinguish it, his tongue soon informed him it was a lump of salt; upon this, according to the morality, or rather superstition of the country, where the people considered salt as a symbol and pledge of hospitality, he was so touched that he left all his booty, retiring without taking away any thing with him. (D'HERBE LOT, Bibl. Orient. p. 466.) This use of salt is also evident from Homer:

No. 51.-vi. 13. The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out.] A ceremony remarkably similar to this institution is mentioned by Sir W. Jones, in his discourse on the Persians. "The Sagnicas, when they enter on their sacerdotal office, kindle, with two pieces of the hard wood semi, a fire, which they keep lighted through their lives, for their nuptial ceremony, the performance of solemn sacrifices, the obsequies of departed Ancestors, and their own funeral pile."

Asiatic Researches, vol. ii. p. 60.

No. 52.-xi. 35. Ranges for pots.] The scarcity of fuel in the East induces the people to be very frugal in using it, Rauwolff (p. 192.) gives the following account of their management: "They make in their tents or

houses an hole about a foot and a half deep, wherein they put their earthen pipkins or pots, with the meat in them, closed up, so that they are in the half above the middle. Three-fourth parts thereof they lay about with stones, and the fourth part is left open, through which they fling in their dried dung, which burns immediately, and gives so great an heat that the pot groweth so hot as if it had stood in the middle of a lighted coal heap, so that they boil their meat with a little fire, quicker than we do ours with a great one on our hearths." As the Israelites must have had as much occasion to be sparing of their fuel as any people, and especially when journeying in the wilderness, Mr. Harmer (vol. i. p. 268.) considers this quotation as a more satisfactory commentary on this passage than any which has been given.

No. 53. xvi. 22. And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited; and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.] The AswAMEDHA JUG is an ancient Indian custom, in which a horse was brought and sacrificed, with some rites similar to those prescribed in the Mosiac law. "The horse so sacrificed is in place of the sacrificer, bears his sins with him into the wilderness, into which he is turned adrift, (for, from this particular instance it seems that the sacrificing knife was not always employed) and becomes the expiatory victim of those sins." Mr. Halhead observes, (Preface to the Code of Gentoo Laws, p. 9.) that this ceremony reminds us of the scape goat of the Israelites; and indeed it is not the only one in which a particular coincidence between the Hindoo and Mosiac systems of the ology may be traced. To this account may be subjoined a narrative in some measure similar from Mr. Bruce. "We found, that upon some dissension, the garrison and townsmen had been fighting for several days, in which disorders the greatest part of the ammu

nition in the town had been expended, but it had since been agreed on by the old men of poth parties, that nobody had been to blame on either side, but the whole wrong was the work of a camel. A camel, therefore, was seized, and brought without the town, and there a number on both sides having met, they upbraided the camel with every thing that had been either said or done. The camel had killed men; he had threatened to set the town on fire; the camel had threatened to burn the aga's house and the castle; he had cursed the grand signior and the sheriffe of Mecca, the sovereigns of the two parties; and, the only thing the poor animal was interested in, he had threatened to destroy the wheat that was going to Mecca. After having spent great part of the afternoon in upbraiding the camel, whose measure of iniquity, it seems, was near full, each man thrust him through with a lance, devoting him, diis manibus et diris, by a kind of prayer, and with a thousand curses upon his head, after which every man retired, fully satisfied as to the wrongs he had received from the camel!"

No. 54.-xviii. 21. Thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Moloch.] Horrid as is the practice prohibited in these words, we have irresistible evidence of its prevalence. The manner in which it was performed has been variously described, especially by the rabbins. SONNERAT (Trav. vol. i. p. 154) gives the following account of this custom : "A still more astonishing instance of the superstition of the ancient Indians, in respect to this venerated fire, remains at this day, in the grand annual festival holden in honour of Darma Rajah, and called the FEAST OF FIRE, in which, as in the ancient rites of Moloch, the devotees walk. barefoot over a glowing fire, extending forty feet. It is called the feast of fire, because they then walk on that

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element. It lasts eighteen days, during which time, those who make a vow to keep it, must fast, abstain from women, ie on the bare ground, and walk on a brisk fire. The eighteenth day they assemble, on the sound of instruments, their heads crowned with flowers, the body bedaubed with saffron, and follow in cadence the figures of Darma Rajah, and of Drobede, his wife, who are carried there in procession. When they come to the fire they stir it, to animate its activity, and take a little of the ashes, with which they rub their foreheads, and when the gods have been three times round it, they walk either fast or slow, according to their zeal, over a very hot fire, extended to about forty feet in length. Some carry their children in their arms; and others lances, sabres, and standards. The most fervent devotees, walk several times over the fire. After the ceremony, the people press to collect some of the ashes to rub their foreheads with, and obtain from the devotees some of the flowers with which they were adorned, and which they carefully preserve."

No. 55.-xxvi. 26. Ten women shall bake your bread in one oven.] An oven was designed only to serve a single family, and to bake for them no more than the bread for one day. This usage still continues in some places, and gives peculiar force to these words.

HARMER, vol. i. p. 269.