OBSERVATION CXIII. St. Jerome affirms that the Jews of his time, in mourning their dead, wept, rolled themselves in afhes, having their feet bare, and laid in fackcloth: to which he adds, that, according to the vain rites of the Pharifees, lentiles were the first things of which they eat in their mourning. He gives us an explanation of this usage, (which certainly was never derived from the Jews, but from his own lively fancy, which furnifhed him with an inexhaustible store of interpretations of the myftic kind,) namely, that this cuftom marked out their lofs of the birth-right". Dean Addifon has mentioned nothing of their eating lentiles, in Barbary, after the interment of their dead, or any other fixed and ftated kind of food; but he says that, in fome places, "the mourners use to eat eggs, out "of no lefs emblem, than that death is vo"luble as an egg, and to-day takes one, and "another to-morrow, and fo will come round upon all3. But perhaps a more probable reafon may be affigned for this ufage*. 1 p. 159. 2 Gen. 25. 34. Ep. ad Paulam, fuper obitu Blefillæ filiæ, tome I, Ch. 26, p. 224. Namely, the hope of the refurrection: on which account, it is faid, the Oriental Chriftians make prefents to each other of eggs at Eafter, richly adorned with painting and gilding. E e 4 The The eating of lentiles on these occafions, by the Jews of the age of St. Jerome, was merely, I fhould imagine, to express affliction, and even not only inattention to, but a disgust against, the delicacies of life. So in the account of the life of Hilarion, a celebrated hermit of that time, that auftere reclufe is faid for three years to have eaten nothing but half a fextary' of lentiles, moistened with cold water; and for other three years only dry bread with falt, and fome water. This then fhows the eating of lentiles was thought to be very poor living, though much eaten in thofe countries; and fometimes fent to foldiers attending their prince". It shows alfo, in a very ftrong point of light, the profaneness of Efau, who defpifed his birthright to fuch a degree, as to part with it for a mefs of lentile pottage. OBSERVATION CXIV. Windus', fpeaking of the reverencing idiots as faints among the Mohammedans, their kiffing their garments, and giving them every thing but money, which they are not to take, adds, "And after their death, fome great man hears of their fame, and makes it an "act of devotion to beautify their tombs; 66 17. 28. About a pint. 66 or, if they had none, to build one over "their grave, wherein they are laid." 66 He had a little before obferved, that their tombs are generally cupolas built with an entrance as wide as the building; and that they are of feveral forms-fome are low pyramids, others fquare, and the body put in the middle. But there is no rule, for "Alcayde Ally Ben Abdallah's is a great fquare of thirty foot at least '.' 86 Thefe paffages naturally lead us to recollect the words of our Lord, Matt. xxiii. 29, 30, "Woe unto you, fcribes and Pharifees, "hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of "the prophets, and garnish the fepulchres of "the righteous, and fay, If we had been "in the days of our fathers, we would not "have been partakers with them in the blood "of the prophets;" and alfo to make fome obfervations on the matters there mentioned. I would take notice, in the first place, of the numerousness of these Mohammedan facred fepulchres. This writer having occafion to mention Sidi Caffem, in the road from Tetuan to Mequinez, tells us, "The town takes it's "name from a faint, who has a monument " in it, to which the Moors with great fuper"ftition refort to fay their prayers;" to which he adds, that "a great many more faints are bu"ried in the road to Mequinez, having little • P. 53, 54. monuments "monuments over them, which the Moors "will feldom pafs without praying at '.” He had a little before, in the plate he has given us of Alcaffar, p. 78, marked distinctly the monument of a faint much reforted to; as a little after his account of Sidi Caffem, he mentions a plain called Muley Idris, from a faint who has a monument hard by, which it feems is treated with fuch veneration, that the travellers to Mequinez go confiderably out of their way to pray at it; to which he adds, that the emperor himself often pays his de votions there. Since the fame principle, which has-produced fuch numerous effects in late times in Barbary, is fuppofed, by our Lord, to have operated with great vigour among the Jews of his time, I cannot but imagine there were then many more of these fepulchres, in the neighbourhood of Jerufalem, than now appear. Travellers are fhown an handsome. ftructure, which is fuppofed to be the tomb of Zacharias, flain between the temple and the altar'; befides which there is only one more fepulchral ftructure above ground, I think, relating to thofe of the Old Tefta · P. 82, 83. 2 Since there, according to Luke 13. 33, most of those of whofe tombs our Lord is fpeaking loft their lives: “It "cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerufalem;" of course there we naturally expect to find their fepulchres. 3 Matt. 23. 35. ment, ment', which is called the fepulchre of Abfalom, against which both Jews and Mohammedans are faid to throw ftones, to exprefs their deteftation of him, of which there is a confiderable heap. Suppofing this to be a mistake, as it cannot be imagined to be the tomb Abfalom built for himself in his life-time; and it can hardly be believed to have been raised in honour of him in any fucceeding age; yet ftill this would make but two tombs of ancient Jewish righteous men, fuffering for truth and virtue, if instead of being a memorial of an unnatural fon, it should be understood to be the reftingplace of a prophet, or martyred faint, whereas this fame principle has made Mohammedan ftructures of this kind very numerous. Numerous however as these Mohammedan ftructures are, all their faints, it should seem, have not received this honour, for this writer tells us, that those whom they reverence as faints are led about, the people kissing their garments, &c, and after their death, fome great man hears of their fame, and makes it an act of devotion to beautify their tombs; or, if they had none, to build one over their grave, wherein they are laid. Every one then of these faints has not a tomb immediately erected over him, though their fanctity was acknowledged and * Rachel's fepulchre feems to be too far off to come into the account, not to say that she died not a death of violence. 2. P. 55. honoured |