places where it is plentiful,) butter, gardenftuff, fruit, fowls, and fewel. As for butcher's meat, they muft fetch it from fome neighbouring village, or the encampments of thofe that feed the flocks and herds of the adjoining country.

Such well-furnished refting-places appear to have been known in Judæa, in the time of our Lord, fince he supposes the good Samaritan committed the poor wounded man to the care of the hoft, or keeper of the caravanferai, and promised at his return to pay him for whatever things his ftate required, and that the keeper should furnish him with, Luke x. 34, 35. This could not be a place like fome of the Eaftern caravanferais in which nothing is to be found but bare walls.

OBSERVATION LXVII.

There is a great deal of difference in these countries, between the feveral nations that inhabit them, with refpect to the readiness of communicating of their provifions to their fellow-travellers: the Arabs are very communicative; the Turks of a more four and clofe difpofition.

I have fomewhere met with a place, in our

Voy. de Chardin, tome 1, p. 148.

Or rather Turkish kanes, of many of which M. Maundrell gives this description, p. 2.

books

books of travels, where the writer was ftruck with the liberality of a poor muleteer or cameldriver, who with all chearfulness made an offer of fome of his bread and dates to those with whom he travelled, though the quantity that he had with him was very moderate; while some rich Turks were very careful to take their repaft in concealment and filence.

I cannot now point out the place, but I well remember, that as this was the fubftance of the account, fo the writer was greatly ftruck with the friendlinefs and liberality of the poor fellow; while he could not forbear expreffing his feelings of dislike, of the contracted and unfociable behaviour, and penuriousness of the others.

66

66

This is precifely, I fhould imagine, what the author of Ecclefiafticus had in view, when, after having spoken of thievishness in travellers as a juft ground of fhame, he goes on to add," and to lean with thine elbow upon the meat," or on the loaves of bread," Ecclus. xli. 19. For he had been speaking immediately before of travellers; what follows then may be naturally supposed to be nearly related to them, as certainly the first clause of the next verse has a very intimate connexion with people in that fituation: Be ashamed-" of "filence before them that falute thee."

The attitude in which the fon of Sirach represents the man he is pointing out, is exactly defcriptive of a traveller difmounted from his camel, his horse, or his ass, and

fitting

fitting upon the ground, leaning with his elbow on his faddle, and fo covering with his large fleeve the provifions he had in his lap, and eating his morfel alone, without the least notice of thofe about him.

The leaning with the elbow on the faddle is precisely the posture in which the Baron de Tott represents Ali Aga, his conductor, as fitting when dismounted, not eating indeed, but waiting for his fupper'; but might as well be reprefented as the pofture of one taking his repaft, especially if of an unfociable turn.

We have an inftance of this exchange of food in travelling, in the account Irwin has given of his paffing through the deserts of Upper Egypt. There, he tells us, The captain of the robbers (he means the wild Arabs) made them a prefent of a bag of flour, which he understood they wanted; and, when he would not accept a pecuniary return, they fent him half the rice they had, which proved a new and acceptable food to him.

At

Such an intercourse appears amiable, while the contrary management is what this Jewish writer thinks may well occafion fhame. leaft this is, I think, the most natural interpretation of this claufe.

Mem. tome 2, p. 19.

2 P. 322.

OBSER

OBSERVATION LXVIII.

The learned have been greatly divided' in their opinions, concerning the true meaning of the particle 87ws, in John iv. 6, which is rendered thus in our verfion: “ Jefus there"fore being wearied with his journey, fat "thus on the well: and it was about the "fixth hour," which every body knows with the Jews meant noon. But an attention to the ufages of the Eaft, and of antiquity, might, I should think, ascertain it's meaning with a good deal of exactnefs.

Our version of the word (thus) gives no determinate idea. We know, on the contrary, what is meant by the translation of a celebrated writer, who renders the word by the English term immediately, but that tranflation, I think, by no means the happiest he has given us. It conveys the idea of extreme weariness: but nothing in the after part of the narration leads to fuch an inter-pretation; nor can I conceive, for what imaginable purpose the circumstance of his immediate throwing himself down near the well, before the woman came up, and which, confequently, it is to be supposed she knew nothing

1

If any fhould doubt the truth of this fact, they may be abundantly fatisficd by the collections of the learned Wolfius, of Hamburg, upon this verse.

2

* See Doddridge's Exp.

of,

of, is mentioned by the Evangelift. Not to fay that the paffage cited in proof of this interpretation, (Acts xx. 11,) which instead of fo be departed, he thought fignified the immediateness of his departure, by no means gives fatisfaction. It is not fo expreffed in his own tranflation of that paffage, nor does it appear so to fignify.

The fimple meaning, I fhould apprehend, of the particle is, that Jefus, being wearied with his journey, fat down by the well, like a perfon fo wearied, as to defign to take fome repofe and refreshment there: to which St. John adds, it was about the fixth hour. If this is juft, the tranflation fhould have been fomething like this: Jefus therefore being wearied with his journey, fat down accordingly, (or like fuch an one,) by the well. It was about the fixth hour.

The particle certainly expreffes conformity to an account to be given after; fo John xxi. 1, "Jefus fhewed himself again to his difciples

at the fea of Tiberias; and on this wife "fhewed he himself," referring to the account about to be given. And fometimes it fignifies conformity to an account that had been before given: fo, John xi. 47, 48,

1

Candor, however, here obliges me to obferve, that great liveliness of thought and recollection, joined with great diligence, could not be imagined to be fufficient to preferve from fuch inaccuracies as thefe, more efpecially in a perfon honoured indeed, but oppressed, with a vast variety of cares.

"What