friendship. What is very pleasant, is to "fee the country-people reciprocally clapping each other's hands very fmartly, twenty or thirty times together, in meeting, without faying any thing more than Salamat aiche "balcom; that is to fay, How do do? I "wish you good health. If this form of compli

you

menting must be acknowledged to be fimple, "it must be admitted to be very affectionate. "Perhaps it marks out a better difpofition "of heart, than all the ftudied phrafes which "are in use among us, and which politeness "almost always makes ufe of at the expence "of fincerity. After this first compliment

many other friendly queftions are asked, "about the health of the family, mentioning each of the children diftinctly, whofe "names they know, &c, &c '.'

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"

If the forms of falutation among the ancient Jewish peasants, took up as much time as thofe of the modern Ægyptians that belong to that rank of life, it is no wonder the prophet commanded his fervant to abftain from faluting those he might meet with, when sent to recover the child of the Shunamitefs to life: they that have attributed this order to hafte have done right; but they ought to have shown the tedioufnefs of Eastern compliments.

But I very much question whether this was the caufe of our Lord's forbidding the Seventy to falute, when he fent them forth to preach

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Maillet, Defcript. de l'Egypte, let. 11, p. 137, 138.

VOL. III.

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the

the Gospel, Luke x. 4, Carry neither purse, nor fcrip, nor fhoes, and falute no man by "the way. Was the not making use of fhoes expreffive of greater expedition in travelling? I fhould rather fuppofe that either it fignifies not faluting any in their journey, in the fame fenfe as David faluted Nabal, 1 Sam. xxv: 5, 6, 14', when he applied to him for fome refreshment in the wilderness, leaving it to them to whom they preached to invite them to their houses, from firft to laft, in this journey; or else that it was, fomehow or other, a part of that meanness in which they were to appear, not to falute those they

met.

Niebuhr tells us a ftory that is rather remarkable, relating to falutations among the Arabs of the defert of Mount Sinai he fays, that a woman who was on foot (and fhould therefore seem to be a perfon in low life) meeting him in a strait paffage in the valley of Génne, fhe fat down by the fide of the way, turning her back 'till they were paft, but as he wifhed this woman peace, (which is their form of faluting,) and his Arab guides perceived by that he was not acquainted with their customs, they informed him that it was out of respect to

"David sent out ten young men, and David faid to "the young men... go to Nabal, and greet him in my cc name;" after which we are informed that Abigail, Nabal's wife, was told by a fervant, "David fent meffengers "out of the wilderness to falute our mafter, and he railed "on them."

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Strangers

Strangers that he had turned her back, and that, according to their ufages, he should not have faluted her at all'.

His faluting her was, it seems, contrary to their ufages, on what account is not per fectly clear if it was on account of a fuppofed great difproportion of rank, our Lord might command them to affume this among other expreffions of meannefs, in oppofition to those appearances of wordly grandeur the Jews expected to fee, whenever the kingdom of God came-the kingdom of the Meffiah 2.

OBSERVATION LXXIII.

It is undoubtedly true, that the alighting from a beast on which one is riding, is, and was anciently, a mark of great refpect. I have found proofs of it fince the publication of the two first volumes, with respect to late times ; and the 43d obf. of ch. vi, contains evidences of this ufage in ancient times, which cannot, I apprehend, be controverted: the cafe however of Achfah I now believe is to be differently understood. Of these matters fome account ought here to be given.

We met a Turk, fays Dr. Richard Chandler in his Afiatic Travels, "a perfon of diftinction, as appeared from his turban. "He was on horseback with a fingle attend"ant. Our janizary and Armenians refpect

fully alighted, and made him a profound "obeifance, the former kiffing the rim of "his garment."

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So Niebuhr tells us, that at Káhira (Grand Cairo)" the Jews and Christians who, it may be, alighted at first through fear or refpect, when a Mahometan with a great "train on horfeback met them, are now obliged to pay this compliment to above thirty of the principal people of that city. "When these appear in public, they always "caufe a domeftic to go before to give no"tice to the Jews and Greeks, and even the

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Europeans that they meet with, to get off "their affes as foon as poffible, and they "are qualified, on occafion, to force them "with a great club, which they always carry "in their hands'.

The fact is certain, but, probably, is not applicable to the cafe of Achiah. Our tranflators fuppofe that like Abigail fhe alighted from her afs, when the preferred her request to Caleb her father, begging for the addition of fome fprings of water to her portion; but it is a quite different word, never used but in reciting her ftory, excepting once in the book of Judges, where it is used to exprefs Jael's faftening one of the pins of her tent in the ground, after having driven it through Sifera's temples. The word then fhould feem to fignify her continuing upon

• Description de l'Arabie, p. 39.

2 Ch. 4, ver. 21. the

the afs ftanding fill, as if fastened to the ground. This would naturally occafion Caleb to enquire into the reafon of this ftop in the marriage-proceffion, and brought on an explanation, which terminated in her obtaining what the defired.

Both the Septuagint and the vulgar Latin fuppofe fhe continued fitting on the ass, but the firft fuppofes fhe cried to her father for this favour; the fecond, that the fighed": but the original mentions neither, nor do either appear neceffary. The mere stopping in fo folemn a cavalcade as this, which feems to have been the conveying her with pomp to Othniel's house, as his bride, must have been fufficient to occafion the enquiry.

OBSERVATION LXXIV.

The prefent female way of expreffing joy in the Eaft, by gently applying one of their hands to their mouths, feems to have obtained in the times of remote antiquity, and to be meant in feveral places of Scripture.

What their prefent cuftom is, appears in the following paffage of Pitts, defcribing the joy with which the leaders of their facred caravans are received, in the feveral towns of Barbary through which they país: "This "Emmir Hagge, into whattoever town he

* Εβοησεν εκ τε Ονε.

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2 Cum fufpiraffet fedens in afino.

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"comes,