but the inftances Dean Addifon has given, as proofs of the continuance of that cuftom in thefe countries, do not feem to me to be happily chofen: the chief mourner, who receives them with his jaws tied up with a linen cloth, after the fame manner as they bind bind up

the

"business it is to fing mournful airs to the found of this "inftrument, which they accompany with a thoufand dif"tortions of their limbs, as frightful as thofe of people "poffeffed by the devil. Thefe women attend the corpfe "to the grave, intermixed with the female relations and

friends of the deceafed, who commonly have their hair "in the utmoft diforder, like the frantic Bacchanalian "women of the ancient heathens, their heads covered "with duft, their faces daubed with indigo, or at least "rubbed with mud, and howling like mad people. This "way of bewailing the dead has obtained even among the "Chriftians of Egypt. I myself have feen a young wo

man here, who was a Catholic, and who, having loft "her mother, who had refided in the quarter of the Franks, "fent for thefe tabor-players to come and lament her, "Scarcely could the Capuchins prevail upon her to dismiss "thefe Mohammedan women, who were wont to fing on "fuch occafions." Let. 10, p. 89*. What this writer fays fhows the attachment of the Eaftern people to this custom, fince the Capuchins of Grand Cairo, who with fome other religious orders that are fettled there, and with great zeal are laid by him to labour for the propagation of the Roman faith, had fo much ado to prevail on one of their own church, not to employ Mohammedan hired mourners to lament her deceased parent, inftead of recurring to thofe good fathers to fing a Requiem to her foul, according to the papal mode. We proteftants may suppose the finging of the one as efficacious as that of the other, and the motives of the one as pure and difinterested as thefe of the other; but this conduct of a member of the Romish communion, for fome time obftinately perfifted in, fhows the great force of the cuftom, and confequently the univerfality of the practice among other people there.

dead,

dead, appears to have been one of the nearest relations, not one hired to perfonate another in affliction; as those that go now every week, (and I may add, often more frequently,) certainly are not hired people, but relations, that go to weep there, as Mary the fifter of Lazarus was fuppofed by the Jews to design to do, when the rose up haftily, and went out of the town, where Jefus indeed was, but near to which place was alfo the grave of her brother, John xi. 31.

And as the Jews now, as well as the Mohammedans, are wont to carry their dead to the grave with devout finging, it cannot be unlikely that it was the common custom in the Eaft anciently, for hymns to be fung by the more fedate part of the company, as for the female relations, with their hired companions the finging-women, to make use of very violent lamentations. It is admitted by all, that this laft practice obtained, and the following paffages are proofs of it, Jer. ix. 17, 18:

66

66

Call for the mourning-women, that they may "come; and fend for cunning women, that they may come. And let them make hafte, " and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eye-lids gush out with waters." To which may be added ver. 20. Can it then be thought difficult to admit the fuppofition, that the laft clause of Amos vi. 10, is to be understood of the more fedate finging of parcels of holy writ, according to the modern practice of these

countries:

countries: A man's uncle fhall take him

up, and he that burneth him, to bring out "the bones out of the house, and fhall fay "unto him that is by the fides of the house, "Is there yet any with thee? and he fhall fay, "No. Then fhall he fay, Hold thy tongue; for we may not make mention of the name of "the Lord,"

The 8th chapter of that prophet, ver. 3, speaks of dead bodies in every place, many and fays, "They fhall caft them forth with filence:" that however may be understood of neglecting the fending for hired mourners to lament over them; but this other paffage fpeaks of the "not mentioning the name of the "Lord," which feems to refer to fomething very different from the extravagant female lamentations of the East, of these modern times; and most probably from the exclamations of ancient hired mourners.

The Jews of Barbary, of the laft century, were wont to fing in their funeral proceffions the 49th Pfalm. It cannot, I apprehend, be pofitively determined, what the portion of holy writ was that they were wont to recite when carrying their dead to the grave, in the time of the prophet Amos, but it might as well be the 49th Pfalm, as any other part of Scripture; and as it was actually made use of in Barbary an hundred years ago, it is, perhaps, most likely to have anciently been made ufe of in the Eaft. Now in that Pfalm God is celebrated, as he that would raise his people

from

from the grave to life, after having long laid there. "The upright fhall have dominion "over them in the morning; and their beauty "fhall confume in the grave, from their "dwelling. But God will redeem my foul "from the power of the grave; for he fhall "receive me." Ver. 14, 15. But he had been celebrated by them as the God that chaftifed the heathen, but would not caft off his people, or for fake his inheritance, in this prefent life when then appearances seemed contrary to this, the heathen were ready to say, "Where is their God?" and Ifrael were ready to be ashamed of avowing their hope in him as to a refurrection from the dead, in a future ftate of things, which the 49th Pfalm celebrated, when appearances in this prefent ftate were fo contrary to their expectations, and their fongs of hope, as they were, when in an house se crowded with inhabitants, that there fhould be ten men in it, all fhould perifh, by the word, by famine, or peftilence, fo that not one fhould remain, was it not natural, that in such a state of things, he that fearched through fuch a defolated boufe, should say, at carrying away the laft dead body for interment, Be filent, it doth not become us to make mention of God's care of Ifrael in here

1 Pf. 94. 10.

2 Ver. 14.

3 Pf. 79. 9, 10: "Help us, O God of our falvation, for "the glory of thy name: and deliver us, and purge away our fins, for thy name fake. Wherefore thould the "heathen fay, "Where is their God?"

after

after raifing us from the dead, in carrying them to the grave, when he is thus vifibly abandoning his mercy towards his people? or, in the words of our translation, "Hold thy tongue, for "we may not make mention of the name of "the Lord."

The bishop of Waterford, in his most laudable attempt to illuftrate the twelve minor prophets, which have fo many obfcure paffages in them, thus tranflates this part of the verfe,

"Then fhall he fay, Be filent, "Because they fet not themselves to men"tion the name of Jehovah."

And in his comment on this verfe, which he confiders as obfcure, reprefents this part of it as probably fignifying, "Solitude shall reign "in the house: and if one is left, he must "be filent [See ch. viii. 3.] and retired, lest "he be plundered of his fcanty provifions."

It is certain that thofe afflictions of the Jewish nation were confidered by the prophet, as the effect of their forgetfulness of God; but the interpretation I am propofing will readily be acknowledged to be more pointed and lively, if it be admiffible. Whether it be, or not, must be left to my Reader to de

termine.

OBSER