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for eating this facred flesh, that I have any where obferved; and it appears by the collections of d'Herbelot, that they often dry a good deal of this kind of flesh. Dhoulbegiak, the last month of the Arabic year, is, according to d'Herbelot, almost entirely confecrated to the performing certain folemnities and ceremonies, which are practifed at Mecca, and the neighbouring mountain of Arafah. The tenth day, in particular, is called the Festival of the Victim or Sacrifice, there being few Mohammedans but what facrifice one or more fheep that day'. The 11th, 12th, and 13th days are called Tafchrie, in which they dry the flesh of thefe victims".

I have elsewhere' given an account of the Eaftern way of drying their meat, and that it is faid that fo dried it will keep two years. Confequently this facred flesh may be frequently eaten in the deferts in their return, and even prefented to their friends refiding in their feveral countries, as a religious curiofity, as Pitts tells us is done with the water of the Sacred Well in the temple of Mecca, which, though diftributed in very finall portions, on their return, is received with great care, and abundance of thanks.

The Mecca pilgrimage, and many of it's ceremonies, are very well known to be of great antiquity, (far more ancient than the time of

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Mohammed,) and to be the remains of Arab heathenifm. Something of the fame kind might obtain as early as the time of Mofes, and be the occafion of the prohibition. It would not have fuited the genius of the Mofaic difpenfation, to have allowed them to have dried the flesh of their peace-offerings, whether for thanksgiving, in confequence of a vow, or merely voluntary, and have afterwards eaten the flesh very commonly in a fparing manner, or communicated only fome fmall portion of it to their particular friends : their peace-offerings were to be eaten, on the contrary, with festivity, communicated to their friends with liberality, and bestowed on the poor with great generofity, that they might partake with them on these facred repafts with joy before the Lord'. To answer these views, it became requifite to eat this flesh while it was fresh; and these confiderations are fufficient to account for the precept, without recurring to thofe moral and evangelical reafons that are affigned by the learned and devout Mr. Ainsworth for the command. How benevolent and chearful the defign of this inftitution!

OBSERVATION XLVII.

When Boaz is represented as having provided vinegar for his reapers, into which they

Deut. 16. II,

might dip their bread', and kindly invited Ruth to share with them in the repast, we are not to understand it of simple vinegar, but vinegar mingled with a small portion of oil, if modern managements in the Levant be allowed to be the most natural comment on those of antiquity.

For even the Algerines indulge their miserable captives with a small portion of oil to the vinegar they allow them with their bread, according to the account Pitts gives of the treatment he and his companions received from them, of which he complains with fome afperity.

I remember to have cited this paffage in a preceding volume, but without confidering it there, as giving a full view of what the facred hiftorian is to be understood, I apprehend, to have expreffed in fhort, and therefore fhall only here fay, that Pitts's allowance was nothing but a little vinegar, (about five or fix Spoonfuls,) half a spoonful of oil, with a small quantity of black biscuit, and a pint of water a day, together with a few olives.

What the quality of the bread was, that the reapers of Boaz had, may be uncertain, but there is all imaginable reafon to suppose the vinegar, into which they dipped it, was made more grateful by the addition of oil.

Ruth 2. 14. 3 P. 6.

2 Vol. 1. ch. 4. obf. 52.

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OBSERVATION XLVIII,

When our Lord faid, "Whofoever shall give you a cup of water to drink, in my name, becaufe ye belong to Christ, verily I fay unto you, he fhall not lofe his re"ward'," the general thought is plain to every Reader-that no fervice performed to a difciple of Chrift, out of love to their Mafter, though comparatively fmall, fhould pass away unrewarded; but we, in thefe more temperate climates, are fometimes ready to think, that the inftance our Lord mentions is of fo very trifling a nature, that it appears almost ludicrous. But it certainly would not appear fo now to an inhabitant of the Eaft, nor did therefore, we have reason to believe, appear in that light to them to whom he immediately made that declaration-A cup of cold water is to them a refreshment not unworthy of notice, though there are now, and were then, refreshments that might be given of a very fuperior kind.

The furnishing travellers with water, is at this time thought a matter of fuch confideration, that many of the Eastern people have been at confiderable expence to procure paffengers that refreshment.

"The reader, as we proceed," fays Dr.

VOL. III.

• Mark. 9. 41.
M

Chandler,

66

Chandler', "will find frequent mention of fountains. Their number is owing to the "nature of the country and the climate. "The foil, parched and thirsty, demands "moisture to aid vegetation; and a cloud"less fun, which inflames the air, requires "for the people the verdure, fhade, and cool"nefs, it's agreeable attendants. Hence they "occur not only in the towns and villages, "but in the fields and gardens, and by the

fides of the roads and of the beaten tracks "on the mountains. Many of them are the "ufeful donations of humane perfons, while "living; or have been bequeathed as legacies "on their deceafe. The Turks efteem the

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erecting them as meritorious, and feldom go away, after performing their ablutions (6 or drinking, without gratefully bleffing the "name and memory of the founder."

Then, after obferving, that the method used by the antients of obtaining the neceffary fupplies of water ftill prevails, which he describes as done by pipes, or paved channels, he goes on, "When arrived at the destined "fpot, it is received by a ciftern with a "vent; and the wafte current paffes below "from another ciftern, often an ancient far"cophagus. It is common to find a cup of "tin or iron hanging near, by a chain; or a "wooden scoop with an handle, placed in a "niche in the wall. The front is of stone

• Travels in Asia Minor, p. 20.

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