particularly on a return from thence. It is farther practifed at the time of the baptifm "of Chriftians, and of the circumcifion of the "Turks, which are the principal ceremonies "of the two religions. It is true, that there " is no difhonour attends the receiving these prefents, for a return never fails of being "made on the like occafions. Finally, it is "above all made use of at the times of vifiting each other, which is very frequently "in the courfe of the year, and which are always preceded by presents of fowls, sheep, "rice, coffee, and other things of the like 66 This last article is very different from the ufages that obtain in Europe, but shows their great use in the intercourfes of focial life in Ægypt. In his laft letter he takes notice of the prefents made to the conductor of the pilgrims going to Mecca, and fays, that during his continuance at Cairo, after his entering upon his office in form, "there are none of his friends, none of the rich men, or peo ple of confideration at Cairo, but what "make him a prefent of eatables, that may "be of ufe to him in his journey; fo that "he has no occafion to be at much expence "in providing for what may be wanting in "the defert. However this is only advanc • Defcript. de l'Egypte, let. 11, p. 137. sing fums of money, which he takes care "to repay at his return. Accordingly, that "he may not be duped by this interested kind "of generolity, he keeps an exact register of "all the prefents that have been made him, "that he may make a return precifely of the "fame value, and no more, to thofe from "whom he received them." It is certain that there can be little virtue in fuch an intercourfe, however it may be cuf tomary, and therefore hardly worthy of the notice of this very moral Jewish writer. I would therefore fet down the following paragraph, which it is to be imagined better coincides with what the fon of Sirach had in view. "It must however be acknowledged that the Turks and the Arabs are very li "beral on thefe occafions, and that they infpire them to act in a very noble and gene"rous manner, which appears not to have the leaft of that fordid interestedness with which they are juftly reproachable in every thing elfe. It is fufficient to be merely "the neighbour of one that is going in pilgrimage to Mecca, to engage him to send a prefent, as foon as he is told of it. It is "true alfo, that this prefent never fails of having an equivalent return made, if the 66 66 66 perfon furvives the journey, and his cir"cumftances will admit of it. But if he "finds himself in fuch a ftate as not to be "well able to do it, the leaft trifle, if not worth three pence, will be received with pleafure, pleasure, and they are perfectly fatisfied " with the fmalleft token of gratitude and re"membrance." This enables us very perfectly to apprehend the thought of this paffage of Ecclefiafticus: a readiness to receive every token of refpect that appears to come from the heart, and to make all the return true gratitude mingled with discretion will admit of. pro The custom alfo at firft might, and bably did arife from beneficence, though in time it might become little better than traffick. OBSERVATION CII. Biddulph, the chaplain to the English factory at Aleppo in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, was greatly furprised at obferving, that the women in the Holy-Land used inftruments of mufic in their lamentations, and that before the melancholy event happened to which their wailing referred'; he would have been equally furprised, I imagine, if he had met the companions of the daughter of Jephthah, while she wandered up and down the mountains bewailing her virginity. 2 "While I was at Saphetta," fays this traveller, "many Turks departed from thence 2 • Collection of Voyages and Travels from the Earl of Oxford's Library, vol. 1, p. 814. Saphet in Galilee. "towards Bb 4 "towards Mecca in Arabia. And the fame "morning they went, we faw many women playing with timbrels as they went along "the streets, who made a yelling or fhriek"ing noife as if they cried. We afked what "they meant in fo doing? It was answered us, that they mourned for the departure of "their husbands, who were gone that morn"ing on pilgrimage to Mecca, and they feared "that they should never fee them again, be"cause it was a long way, and dangerous, "and many died there every year. It seemed ftrange to us, that they should mourn with "mufic about the ftreets, for mufic is ufed "in other places at times of mirth, and not "at times of mourning',' The circumstances were confiderably alike, though not exactly fimilar.-The female relations and friends, in both cafes, lamented those that were dear to them, though not at that time dead, yet fuppofed to be in great danger of death; but the bewailing the daughter of Jephthah must be supposed to have been much the more bitter, as her danger muft have been apprehended to have been greater than that of the people of Saphetta, that had to travel through the deferts of Arabia, for many of those pilgrims return. Both arofe from religious confiderations; but ill-directed in both cafes. In both, it should seem, they This gentleman feems to have forgotten the manner in which the daughter of Jairus was lamented, Matt. 9. were were lamented in melancholy proceffions, and with mournful mufic. OBSERVATION CIII. The ancient Greeks, we are told', ufed to place their dead near the doors of their houses, and to attend them there with mourning: the fame cuftom ftill continues among the Greeks; and might, perhaps, obtain among the ancient Jews. Dr. Richard Chandler obferved the continuance of this cuftom among the people of the first nation, when he was lately travelling in Greece. A woman was fitting, he tells us, at Megara," with the door of her cottage open, lamenting her dead husband "aloud "." And again he tells us, that when he was at Zante, he faw " a woman in an houfe, with the door open, bewailing her "little fon, whofe body lay by her, dreffed, "the hair powdered, the face painted and "bedecked with leaf-gold"," 2 The decorating the forehead and the cheeks of a Grecian bride with leaf-gold, which he mentions p. 135, appears to us odd; the adorning a corpfe after this manner may appear more ftrange: nor do I recollect any allufion to this custom among the Jews in the Old Potter's Antiq. book 4, ch. 3. 3 P. 300. Teftament; |