wife might have had carried with him, to repofe under when he chofe to reft himfelf. Oriental manners are very different from our's. OBSERVATION XVI. Abraham is described, on a particular occafion, as fitting at the door of his tent, in the heat of the day, Gen. xviii. 1; and it should feem, from Dr. Richard Chandler's account, thofe that lead a paftoral life in the East, at this day, frequently place themselves in a fimilar fituation. "At ten minutes after ten" (in the morning) we had in view," fays this writer, "feveral fine bays, and a plain full of booths, "with the Turcomans fitting by the doors, "under sheds refembling porticoes; or by fhady trees, furrounded with flocks of goats 66 This gentleman frequently met with these people in his journies in Afia: fometimes he describes them as living in black booths, which, I fhould fuppofe, means tents of black goats-hair cloth, like the tents of the Arabs; at other times, he evidently means habitations formed of boughs of trees: thus he fays, p. 184, "We came to a level green, occupied by Turcomans. Their flocks and "their cattle were feeding round the scattered "booths; and cotton, recently gathered from "the pods, was expofed on the ground to dry, or on the tops of the fheds, which are flat and covered with boughs '." 66 66 As these people feem to change their habitations, as the weather, or their fancies may difpofe them, it is not impoffible that Abraham might dwell in both thefe kinds of habitation, and might be fitting in the portico of one of thefe extemporaneous structures, formed of the boughs of trees, as the word rendered tent is ufed in a large fenfe in Scripture; but if not, if it was a tent strictly fpeaking, he might be fitting under the outfkirts of his tent, near the door, to enjoy the fresh air, as Chandler faw the Turcoman fhepherds fitting under their sheds, watching their cattle. It was not the hotteft part of the day, when Chandler faw thefe people fitting at the doors of their booths, it was foon after ten in the morning; and when Abraham was fitting at his tent-door, it might be nearly at the fame hour. Travelling in the hottest part of all might have been dangerous, and according to the modern cuftoms of these countries Abraham then would have been retired to reft. According to this defcription, Abraham had not far to go to fetch a calf; his cattle were feeding by his tent. This being fome time in October. OBSER OBSERVATION XVII. Sometimes thofe that have no tents, fhelter themselves from the inclemency of the night-air in holes and caverns, which they find in their rocky hills, where they can kindle fires to warm themselves, as well as to dress their provifions; to which may be added, that doves alfo, in those countries, frequently haunt fuch places, as well as fome other birds. Dr. Richard Chandler, in his travels in Afia Minor, has both taken notice of the doves there lodging in holes of the rocks'; and of the fhepherds and fishermen being wont to make ufe of fuch retreats, and of their kindling fires in them, by which practice those doves must be frequently very much fmutted, and made not a little filthy. And I have been fometimes ready to imagine, that an attention to these circumstances may afford as eafy and natural an account as any that has been given, of that affociation of fuch very different things as doves and fmoky places, which we meet with in the 68th Pfalm3. It is certain the people of Ifrael are compared to a dove, in the book of Pfalms; "O "deliver not the foul of thy turtle-dove unto "the multitude of the wicked; forget not the "congregation of thy poor for ever," Pf. • P. 19. 2 P. 55, E 4 V. 13. lxxiv. lxxiv. 19; and the fame image appears to have been made use of in this 68th Pfalm. If it was made ufe of, it was not unnatural to compare Ifrael, who had been in a very afflicted ftate in Egypt, to a dove making its abode in the hollow of a rock, which had been fmutted by the fires of fhepherds, made in it for the heating their milk, or other culinary purpofes, which led them to make fuch little heaps of ftones, on which they might fet their pots, having an hollow under them, in which they put the fewel, according to the Eaftern mode, of which I have given an account elsewhere, and which little buildings are meant by the word here translated pots. This image might very agreeably be made ufe of to exprefs any kind of affliction Ifrael might have fuffered, when they are compared as a body of people to a dove; and certainly not lefs fo, when they had been forced to work without remiffion in the brick-kilns of Egypt. For fo the fenfe will be fomething like this; O my people! though ye have been like a dove in an hole of a rock, that hath been blackened by the fires of the shepherds for the boiling their pots; yet on this joyous occafion did you appear as the most beautiful of that fpecies, whofe wings are like filver, and the more mufcular parts, from whence the ftrength of the wings is derived, like the fplendor of gold. The The colour of their common pigeons feems to be like that of the dove-houfe pigeons of our country, blue or afb-colour, from a circumftance mentioned by Pitts'; for he fays, "In Mecca there are thousands of blue pigeons, which none will none will affright, or abuse, much less kill them; and they "are therefore fo very tame, that they'll pick meat out of one's hand. . . . . They "come in great flocks to the Temple, where they are ufually fed by the bagges. For "the poor people of Mecca come to them "with a little fort of a difh made with "rushes, with fome corn in it, begging "them to bestow fomething on Hammamet "metta nabee, i. e. the pigeons of the Prophet." 66 But though pigeons or doves are in common blue in the Eaft', yet there were fome, even anciently, that were more beautiful; witness thofe lines of Tibullus, which have been cited by Commentators on this paffage, Quid referam, ut volitet crebras intacta per urbes -Why fhould I fay, How through the crowded towns the milk-white dove, · P. 127. 2 The pilgrims. 3 I have been affured by the gentleman who was at Jerufalem in 1774, the pigeons of that country too are like our common pigeons, though he fancied fomewhat larger. Here |