no part of the splendor of interment among the Arabs, who were wont rather to choose elevated places for the fepulture of princes, and people of high diftinction. How then, it is natural to ask, came Job to speak of the clods of the valley, when defcribing magnificence of burial? I should suppose, in answer to this ques tion, that Job is to be understood, not as intending to mark out the wonted places of their interment, but the manner of ornamenting their fepulchres-planting flowers and odoriferous herbs or fhrubs, on or about their graves Clods like those of a valley or torrent, (verdant and flowery,) fhall furround him, and be pleasing to him. The livelinefs of Eastern poetry here reprefenting the dead, as having the fame perceptions as if they were alive in their fepulchres: He fhall be brought with pomp to the grave; he shall watch in the heap (of earth or stones that cover him), for fuch, the margin of our tranflation tells us, is the more exact import of the Hebrew; the clods around him, like those in some pleasant valley, or on the border of fome torrent, fhall be fweet unto him.

Thus when it is faid, "the defert fhall "rejoice, and bloffom as the rofe. It shall "bloffom abundantly, and rejoice even with

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joy and finging: the glory of Lebanon shall "be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel "and Sharon: they shall see the glory of the "Lord, and, the excellency of our God":"

• If. 35. I, 2.

it is visible that a glory like that of Lebanon, an excellency like that of Carmel and Sharon, is the thing that is meant; not that the trees of Lebanon were to be removed into the defert, and the verdure and flowers of the two other places. The clods of the valley are to be understood, I apprehend, after the fame manner-Clods like thofe of the vallies where torrents run, which are verdant and flowery, shall be pleafing to him.

So Dr. Shaw has told us, that a great extent of ground being allotted without their cities, for the burial of their dead, "each "family has a proper portion of it, walled "in like a garden; where the bones of their " ancestors have remained undisturbed for many generations. In these inclo

"fures the graves are all diftinct and separate... whilst the intermediate fpace is "either planted with flowers; bordered round "with stone; or paved with tiles '.

Mr. Blunt mentions an obfervation relating to this matter, which he made, and which I do not remember to have met with any where else it is given us in thefe words. "Thofe who beftow a marble ftone over "them, have it in the middle cut through "about a yard long, and a foot broad; there "in they plant fuch kind of flowers as en"dure green all the year long; which feem "to grow out of the dead body, thinking

i thereby to reduce it again into play, though "not in the fcene of fenfible creatures, yet "of thofe vegetable, which is the next degree, and perhaps a preferment beyond the "duft '."

OBSERVATION CXVIII.

As they fometimes plant herbs and flowers about the graves of the dead, fo Dr. Addison observed, that the Jews of Barbary adorned the graves of their dead in a lefs lafting manner, with green boughs brought thither from time to time'; might not this practice originate from the doctrine of the refurrection? perhaps from that well-known paffage of a prophet, "Thy dead men shall live, together with 66 my dead body fhall they arise. Awake and fing, ye that dwell in duft: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth fhall "caft out the dead," If. xxvi. 19; or if it was practifed ftill earlier, might not this paffage have fome reference to that custom?

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It is admitted, that the practice obtained among those that entertained no expectation of a refurrection, but in the language of St. Paul forrowed as people that had no fuch hope'. The ancient Greeks practifed this

1

Voy. p. 197, reprinted in the Collect. of Voy. and Travels from the Library of the Earl of Oxford, vol. I, p. 547. 2 P. 220, 221. I Theff. 4. 13.

decking

decking the graves of their dead, but it might notwithstanding originate from that doctrine, and be adopted by those of a different belief, as having fomething in it softening the horrors of viewing their relatives immersed in the duft; and might be thought to be agreeable by those that entered into medical confiderations, as correcting thofe ill-fcented and noxious exhalations that might arise in those burial-places, to which their women, more especially, were frequently induced to go, to express their attachment to the departed.

Maillet fuppofes the modern Ægyptians lay leaves and herbs on the graves of their friends, from a notion that this was a confolation to the dead, and believed to be refreshing to them from their SHADE'. This must indeed be admitted to be truly ridiculous-the fuppofing a body covered with many inches of earth fhould receive any benefit from the thin fhade afforded by a few leaves, fuppofing the fenfe of feeling ftill continued, which fuperftition itself can hardly imagine.

But was this lively French gentleman fure of the fact? I should hardly think it of the Mohammedan inhabitants of the Eaft, who believe a refurrection. As their As their prayers for the dead, as well as thofe of the Jews, have

1 Cette verdure n'eft pas au refte, comme on pourroit peut-être le penfer, une offrande faite aux morts. Le motif de cet ufage eft encore plus ridicule, puifque par-là on cherche à foulager les défunts, qu'on croit refraîchir, en leur procurant de l'ombrage. Let. 10, p. 91.

a reference

a reference to the refurrection; why may not thefe vegetable ornaments of their fepulchres be understood to relate to that doctrine ?

I leave, at prefent, the examination of the opinion of the Greeks and Romans, as to the ftrewing leaves and flowers on the graves of those they lamented; but would, instead of that, enquire a little, whether there is any difference as to the plants made use of now in the Eaft for this purpose, and, if there be, what thofe differences are. A fpeculation of fome curiofity, and what must be amusing.

What the plants are that are used by the Barbary Jews Dr. Addifon has not told us. All that he fays on that fubject is this. “En

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quiring after infcriptions or epitaphs, and "though often in the burying-place for that "end, I could fee none, nor any other state "about the graves than green turf and boughs. "But this remark refpects the Jews in Bar

bary, whom I conceive to come far short "of thofe of other countries, in this fort of "funeral pomp." P. 220, 221.

But as it is a matter of fome curiofity, and may be amufing to fome minds, I would fet down what I have met with in travellers, relating to this fubject.

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The women in Egypt, according to Maillet, go, at least two days in the week, to pray and weep at the fepulchres of the "dead; and the custom then is to throw upon the tombs a fort of herb which the "Arabs call riban, and which is our Sweet "bafil.