tines had in the house of Dagon. Upon a supposition therefore that in the house of Dagon there was a cloistered structure of this kind, the pulling down of the front or centre pillars only, which supported it, would be attended with the like catastrophe that happened to the Philistines." SHAW's Travels, p. 283.

No. 87.-xxi. 18. Cursed be he.] The ancient manner of adjuring subjects or inferiors to any conditions, was by their superiors denouncing a curse on them, in case they violated those conditions. To this manner of swearing our blessed Lord himself submitted, Matt. xxvi. 63. It may be further remarked, that when the curse was expressed in general terms, as cursed be he, i. e. whosoever doth so or so, the superior who pronounced it was as much bound by it as the inferior who heard it; thus there can be no doubt but the curses pronounced, Deut. xxvii. 14, obliged the Levites who pronounced them; and those also, Joshua vi. 26, and 1 Sam. xiv. 24, obliged Joshua and Saul, who pronounced them, as much as the other people. They therefore by pronouncing those curses, sware or took an oath themselves. PARKHURST'S Heb. Lex. p. 20, 3d. Ed.

ment.

No. 88.-1 SAMUEL. iii. 21.

The word of the Lord.

WITHOUT recurring to the learned explanations which have been given of this expression, it may possibly receive an agreeable illustration from the following extracts. "In Abyssinia there is an officer named KAL HATZE, who stands always upon steps at the side of the lattice window, where there is a hole covered in the inside with a curtain of green taffeta; behind this curtain the king sits." (BRUCE's Trav. vol. iv. p. 76.) The king is described in another place as very much concealed from public view. He even "covers his face on audiences, or public occasions, and when in judgOn cases of treason he sits within his balcony, and speaks through a hole in the side of it, to an officer called KAL HATZE, the voice or word of the king, by whom he sends his questions, or any thing else that occurs to the judges, who are seated at the council table." (BRUCE's Trav. vol. iii. p. 265.) If such a custom ever obtained among the Jews, the propriety of the expression the word of the Lord, is obvious, as the idea must have been very familiar to them. This clearly appears to have been the case as to Joseph and his bre thren, Gen. xlii. 23. Joseph spake by an interpreter, not of languages, but of dignity and state. Other instances of the same nature may probably be traced in 2 Kings v. 10; Job. xxxiii. 23.

No. 89. ix. 7. A present.] Presenting gifts is one of the most universal methods of doing persons honour in the East. MAUNDRELL (Journey, p. 26.) says, "Thursday, March 11, this day we all dined at ConBul Hastings's house, and after dinner went to wait upon

Ostan, the bassa of Tripoli, having first sent our present, as the manner is among the Turks, to procure a propitious reception. It is counted uncivil to visit in this country without an offering in hand. All great men expect it as a kind of tribute due to their character and authority, and look upon themselves as affronted, and indeed defrauded, when this compliment is omitted. Even in familiar visits amongst inferior people, you shall seldom have them come without bringing a flower, or an orange, or some other such token of their respect to the person visited; the Turks in this point keeping up the ancient oriental custom hinted 1 Sam. ix. 7. If we go (says Saul,) what shall we bring the man of God? there is not a present, &c. which words are questionless to be understood in conformity to this eastern custom, as relating to a token of respect, and not a price of divination." To this account it may be added, that when Lord Macartney had his interview with the Emperor of China, in his embassy to that prince, in 1793, the receiving and returning of presents made a considerable part of the ceremony.

No. 90.-xiv. 9. This shall be a sign unto us.] Archbishop Potter (in his Archæologia Græca, vol. i. p. 344.) has some curious reflections on the custom of catching omens, which was common amongst the Greeks, and which he conceives to be of great antiquity, and also of eastern origin. "That it was practised by the Jews, is by some inferred from the story of Jonathan, the son of king Saul, who going to encounter a Philistine garrison, thus spoke to his armour-bearer, If they say unto us, tarry until we come unto you; then we will stand still in our place, and will not go up unto them. But if they say thus, come up unto us, then we will go up; for the Lord hath delivered them into our hand, and this shall be a sign unto us." A remarkable instance of this super

L

stition is found in the following passage of Virgil: "he introduces Eneas catching Ascanius's words from his mouth; for the Harpies, and Anchises also having foretold that the Trojans should be forced to gnaw their very tables for want of other provisions, when they landed in Italy; happening to dine upon the grass, instead of tables or trenchers, which their present circumstances did not afford, they laid their meat upon pieces of bread, which afterwards they eat up; whereupon,

Heus! etiam mens as consumimus? inquit Iulus.

See, says Iulus, we our tables eat.

Eneas presently caught the omen, as the poet subjoins:

Ea vox audita laborum

Prima tulit finem: primumque loquentis ab ore
Eripuit pater, ac stupefactus numine pressitt.

The lucky sound no sooner reach'd their ears,
But strait they quite dismiss'd their former cares :
His good old sire with admiration struck,
The boding sentence, when yet falling, took,
And often roll'd it in his silent breast,"

Eneid 7. 1.116.

No. 91.-xvii. 6. Greaves of brass.] These were necessary to defend the legs and feet from the iron stakes placed in the way by the enemy, to gall and wound their opponents. They were a part of ancient military harness, and the artifices made use of by contending parties rendered the precaution important.

No. 92.-xviii. 4. Stripped himself of the robe.] D'Herbelot (vol. ii. p. 20.) says, that when Sultan Selim had defeated Causou Gouri, he assisted at prayers in a mosque at Aleppo, upon his triumphant return to Constantinople, and that the imam of the mosque, having added at the close of the prayer these words: "May God preserve Selim Khan, the seryant and minister of

the two sacred cities of Mecca and Medinah," the title was so very agreeable to the sultan that he gave the robe that he had on to the imam. Just thus Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him, and gave it to David. HARMER, vol. ii. p 94.

No. 93.-xx. 5. New moon.]" As soon as the new moon was either consecrated or appointed to be ob served, notice was given by the sanhedrim to the rest of the nation, what day had been fixed for the new moon, or first day of the month, because that was to be the rule and measure, according to which they were obliged to keep their feasts and fasts in every month respectively. This notice was given to them in time of peace, by firing beacons set up for that purpose, (which was looked upon as the readiest way of communication,) but in time of war, when all places were full of enemies, who made use of beacons to amuse our nation with, it was thought fit to discontinue it, and to delegate some men on purpose to go and signify it to as many as they possibly could reach, before the time commanded for the observation of the feast or fast was expired."

LEVI'S Rites and Ceremonies of the Jews, p. 25.

No. 94.-xx. 30. Thou son of the perverse rebellious woman.] In the East, when they are angry with a person, they abuse and vilify his parents. Saul thought of nothing but venting his anger against Jonathan, nor had any design to reproach his wife personally; the mention of her was only a vehicle by which, according to oriental modes, he was to convey his resentment against Jonathan into the minds of those about him. HARMER, vol. ii. p. 492.

No. 95.-xxii. 6. Under a tree.] However common it might be for the generality of persons, when travel