Jeremiah, and the prophet that wrote the history of the Jewish kings'.

But can it be fuppofed that fuch forced. hofpitality, it may be asked, came under the notice of Solomon; or at leaft was requifite. to be mentioned by him in his inftructions given the Jewish people? I would anfwer, many people refided at that time in his kingdom, who, we have reafon to think, were on much the fame footing with the conquered inhabitants of Barbary, of whom we read, 2 Chron. ii. 17, 18, where they are called Strangers, and were employed in works of bard labour, from which the Ifraelites were free. Now fuch might be under the like Eaftern obligation to entertain those they lived under, in their travelling up and down; as also might the people of the adjoining countries, who are faid to have been under the dominion of King Solomon. And as fome might be courteous and fubmiffive, others might be rugged, and refuse to kill a kid or a lamb for them, and endeavour to put off these undefired guests with meaner diet.

Nor would it have been a maxim unworthy of the care of Solomon, to inftil into the minds of the Jewish people not to infift too harshly on thefe Eastern ufages, with refpect to the ftrangers that lived among them, or the conquered about them, from motives of tendernefs for the honour of the Jewish religion, as

well as those of true policy-Content yourfelves with the refreshment derived from a repaft of herbs, if they only are offered you; . rather than strive to force them to give you a more honourable entertainment: for better is a repaft on herbs with good-will and friendlinefs, than a feast on a fatted calf, wrung from them by severity and violence.

It is indeed univerfally true, that a mean meal, where peace and friendship reign, is better than a magnificent entertainment attended with ftrife; but as Solomon seems to fpeak of a repaft in a journey, the explanation I have been giving appears to me to be

the most natural.

It only remains to enquire, what the herbs may be fuppofed to have been, which it may be imagined might be set before a stranger of fuch a character, when on a journey; as for the oppofite, the flesh of a calf, we know, from feveral places of Scripture, it was looked upon to be a moft delicious and honourable difh'.

Solomon doth not appear to have any particular fpecies of herbs in view, and therefore it may be agreeable only just to give an account of what travellers, in the Levant, have actually feen made ufe of on fuch occafions.

When Dr. Chandler was in the Eaft, bread, fruit of various kinds, honey, eggs, fowls,

Gen. 18. 7. 1 Sam. 28. 24, &c.

kids, were what he often procured; while fome of his Eastern attendants were fatisfied with fome four curds, falt cheese, and hard brown bread; feldom mentioning any herbs as eaten by him or them in his excurfions, and which therefore may fignify that they were reckoned a ftill meaner diet: but in one place, in Greece, he gives us an account of fome green Samphire, which was gathered from a rock, and made part of his noon-tide repast'.

The Baron de Tott, fpeaking of his going along with fome natives of the country on a party of pleasure, from Conftantinople to the Afiatic fide of the Straits, where, in a beautiful meadow, coffee was taken in the Turkish manner, after covered chariots drawn by small buffaloes had well jolted the ladies, &c, tells us, they brought back with them, from this excurfion, fome curds, and water-creffes gathered from the fide of a spring 2.

Dandelion, according to Dr. Ruffell, is ufed at Aleppo in falading; and fummer favory, which being dried and powdered, and mixed with falt, is often eaten as a relifher with bread, ferves many of the natives by way of breakfast in the winter feafon 3.

But M. Doubdan gives an account of a repast still more humble than what I have been mentioning. Making an excurfion with fome Christians, he went from Jerufalem to

• Trav. in Greece, p. 198. 3 P. 27.

p. 97.

VOL. III.

2 Trav. part 1,

a village

a village called St. Samuel, because the fepulchre of that prophet is fuppofed to be there. Leaving this town to the left, and going on a little farther, they arrived at an excellent fountain, called by the fame name, fpringing out of an huge rock, and shaded with fmall fhrubs, where they stopped to dine in the fresh air on the grass: I admired, while I was dining, fays this writer, the fobriety of the Armenian bishops and the Maronite monk, who would eat nothing, notwithStanding all our entreaty, but salading, without falt, without oil, or vinegar, at the fame time refufing to drink a fingle drop of wine, but contenting themfelves with merely the addition of bread and water; excepting the Maronite, who drank a little wine, and eat an egg; but would not refresh himself with meat as we did'.

It is true, this extreme lowness of living in these Armenian ecclefiaftics was owing to fuperftition, but a fecret hatred to their conquerors might produce a like effect, and difpose the strangers that dwelt in Judæa, or in the neighbouring countries, to treat their Jewish fuperiors, when they journied among them, in much the fame manner, when they thought they could give vent to their illnature with fafety feeding them with watercreffes, with dandelion, with powdered fummer favory mixed with falt, or even with falading without falt, oil, or vinegar, instead

! Voy, de la Terre-Sainte, p. 98.

of

of killing for them a calf, a kid, or a lamb. With fuch humble repafts, it should seem Solomon would have his fervants and men of war occafionally content themselves, if they could not obtain better accommodations with peace; rather than ftrive by bitter contention and violence to procure better cheer, though by that means they might, poffibly, gain fome delicacy. How humane the royal instruction to his people, in that time of national profperity! It at once did honour to his government, and his religion, which forbad the vexing and oppreffing strangers'.

If this is the true explanation of this paffage, it was not understood with exactness by the authors, or at least the correctors of the vulgar Latin tranflation, for they understood the words to refer to the being invited to a repaft by their neighbours and countrymen, and confequently have loft what, I apprehend, may be the peculiar force of the precept: but Proteftants believe neither the infallibility of Sixtus V, nor Clement VIII.

The account of Dr. Shaw, that they were wont to reserve some part of what was provided for them, by those that received them over-night, for their breakfast or dinner the next day, may perhaps afford the simplest, and

• Exod. 22. 21, ch. 23. 9. Lev. 19. 33, 34, &c. 2 Melius eft vocari ad olera cum charitate, quam ad vitulum faginatum cum odio, are the words of that tranflation.