Irwin has given us a very amufing account of a mourning of this fort, in a town of Upper Egypt, which happened to be celebrated there while he was detained in it.

One of the inhabitants of this town of Ghinnah, who was a merchant by profeffion, being murdered in the defert between Ghinnah and Cofire, in a journey he was making to this last-mentioned place, he tells us, "The tragedy which was lately acted near

Cofire, gave birth to a mournful procef"fion of females, which paffed through the "different streets of Ghinnah, this morning, "and uttered difmal cries for the death of "Mahomet'. In the center was a female of "his family, who carried a naked sword in “her hand, to imitate the weapon by which "the deceased fell. At fundry places the proceffion stopped, and danced around the Sword, to the mufic of timbrels and tabors. They paufed a long time before our house', "and fome of the women made threatening

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figns to one of our fervants; which agrees "with the caution we received to keep within "doors. It would be dangerous enough to "face this frantic company; whose constant "clamour and extravagant geftures give them "all the appearance of the female Bacchanals "of Thrace, recorded of old.” P. 254.

'The name of the merchant that was murdered. The writer and his companions had been upon very ill terms with him.

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This, it seems, was on the 25th of Auguft, On the 27th his journal has these words: "I was awakened before day-break by the "fame troop of women, which paffed our "house the other day in honour to the memory of Mahomet. Their difinal cries "fuited very well with the lonely hour of "the night and I understand that this "relic of the Grecian cuftoms lafts for the fpace of feven days; during which interval "the female relations of the deceased make a "tour through the town, morning and night,. beating their breafts, throwing ashes on "their heads, and difplaying every artificial "token of forrow." P. 257, 258.

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How Mr. Irwin came to defcribe this as a relick of Grecian customs, it is not for me to fay; but I prefume it was not only an unneceffary addition, but an inaccurate appropriating to Greece, what was common to many' Eastern countries. Several Greek ufages may be fuppofed to have been introduced into Egypt, after it's conqueft by Alexander, and the affumption of it's government by the Ptolemies; but the Arabs are known to be as little altered by the adoption of foreign ufages as any nation whatfoever, and this Mahomet was an Arab, as were most of the inhabitants of Ghinnah. It is more natural then to believe it an ancient Arab or Ægyptian custom, to mourn after this manner for the dead, whofe relations had not the opportunity of teftifying their regard to them in their other forms

forms of mourning, that is, their lamenting with cries, or with mufic, their departure, presently after their death; their bewailing them, with the affiftance of mourning women, trained up in this profeffion, as they attended them to the grave; and folemnly vifiting their tombs, from time to time afterwards,

It should feem, from a paffage of Jofephus, which the learned have not let país totally unobserved, that this kind of mourning the abfent dead was a Jewish custom, for he mentions it as practifed by them, at a time when they were fo far from being difpofed to adopt foreign rites, that they were engaged, with great bitternefs, in a war with the heathen nations about them, having refused to suffer the wonted facrifices to be offered in the Temple for the fafety of the Roman emperors, as being of a different religion from themselves.

The paffage of Jofephus is in the 3d book of his Jewish war: in which he tells us, that upon the facking Jotapata, it was reported that he, (who was at that time a great captain among them, as he was afterwards celebrated as an author in the world,) was flain, and that thefe accounts occafioned very great mourning at Jerufalem, which was many miles off, and in another divifion of the Jewish country, Jotapata being a city of Galilee. In defcribing this mourning at Jerufalem, for Jofephus and the people of Jotapata, he fays, "there

" was

"was mourning in fingle houses, and in fa"milies of kindred, as each of the flain had "connexions. Some mourned their guests," (he meant, I prefume, thofe that had been wont to take up their lodgings at the houses of these mourners, when they came up to Jerufalem, at their facred feafts ;) "fome "their relations; others their friends; others "their brethren. All Jofephus. So that for thirty days there was no ceffation of their "lamentations in the city. And many hired pipers, who led the way in these wailings'.

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I fhould imagine that the paffage I have tranfcribed from Irwin, relating to the mourning of thofe Ægyptian Arabs, for that merchant that was flain in the defert, furnishes an extreme good note on this paffage of Jofephus, according to whom it should feem, that fingle families mourned the death of fome; bodies of kindred others; and the city in general Jofephus, in folemn mournful proceffions about Jerufalem, making ufe of fongs of lamentation, and fometimes the additional found of mufical inftruments of the melancholy kind, fuch as were wont to be ufed in the houses of thofe that had juft expired, of which kind of mufic we read, Mat

* Καλα μεν γε οικες, καὶ κατα συγγενείας οις προσήκων ην εκασίας των απολωλότων εθρηνείτο και οι μεν ξενες, οι δε συγγενεις, οι δε φίλες, οι δε αδελφες εθρήνων τον Ιώσηπον δε πανίες ως επι τριακοσην μεν ημεραν μη διαλιπειν τας ολοφύρσεις εν τη πόλει" πλείσοις δε μισθέσθαι της αυλητας, οι θρήνων εξήρχον αύλοις.

thew

thew ix. 23, where the fame word occurs which appears in Jofephus, but is there tranflated minstrels: "When Jefus came into the "ruler's houfe, and faw the minstrels and the "people making a noife, he faid unto them, "Give place, for the maid is not dead, but fleepeth."

Whether the word minstrel, which our tranflators have made ufe of here, is proper or not, I will not take upon me to determine, but would leave that to the gentlemen of the Antiquarian Society. The minstrels of former times are often defcribed as playing upon harps; while the original word used here certainly fignifies people that played on the pipe, and is accordingly tranflated pipers, Rev. xviii. 22, the only place elfe in which the original word occurs in the New Testament.

If our old minstrels were never employed in the funeral folemnities of the times in which they lived, but only on joyous occafions, the impropriety is more ftriking ftill.

But be it as it may, to keep to the point I have at prefent in view, as mournful mufic'

was

When I fay mournful mufic, I would not be underfood to fuppofe, the found of the ancient pipe was effentially, or at all times, melancholy. Pipes certainly were made ufe of on joyous occafions, as well as thofe that were melancholy, as is evident from the ufe of the kindred verb, Matt. II. 17, "We have piped unto you, and ye have not "danced: we have mourned unto you, and ye have not "lamented." Where we fee the contrary ules to which thefe pipes of antiquity were put is pointed out: We piped

to