Ezek. xxxiv. 25: "I will make with them a 66 covenant of peace, and will cause the evil "beafts to ceafe out of the land and they "shall dwell fafely in the wilderness, and fleep "in the woods."

The account Chandler has given is extremely amufing to the imagination, and is, I doubt not, a faithful reprefentation of the ftate of many of the ancient Ifraelitifh fhepherds; but this management must have expofed them to many dangers, if their country, at any time, fhould be over-run with beats of prey. The prophet declares, on the part of God, thofe deftructive beafts fhould be taken away at the time he refers to.

OBSERVATION XXI.

The fame caution that has engaged the Eaftern people in general, that tend cattle, not to fleep in the open air, but to make ufe of tents, it fhould feem, engages them not to fit or lie in their tents on the moist ground, but to make ufe of fome kind of carpeting.

The poorer fort of Arabs of our times make ufe of mats in their tents '; and other inhabitants of thefe countries, who affect ancient fimplicity of manners, make ufe of goat-fkins, in a way that may afford an

Voy. dans la Palestine, par de la Roque, p. 176.

amufing

amufing illuftration of fome paffages of the Pentateuch, which relate to the mode of living obferved by the Ifraelites in the Wildernefs.

Dr. Richard Chandler, in his Travels in Greece, tells us, that he faw fome dervishes at Athens fitting on goat-jkins; and that he was afterwards conducted into a room furnished in like manner, with the fame kind of carpeting, where he was treated with a pipe and coffee by the chief dervish'..

Those that are at all acquainted with Oriental manners, in these later times, know that their dervishes (who are a fort of Mohammedan devotees, a good deal resembling the begging friars of the church of Rome) affect great fimplicity, and even fometimes aufterity, in their drefs and way of living. As these dervishes then, that Dr. Chandler vifited, fat on goat-fkins, and ufed no other kind of carpet for the accommodation of them that vifited them; fo it fhould feem that the Ifraelites in the Wilderness made ufe of fkins for mattreffes to lie upon, and confequently we may equally fuppofe to fit upon in the day-time, instead of a carpet.

Skins then of goats, as well as of sheep and bullocks, must have been among them very valuable things, and as fuch the priest that offered any burnt-offering was to have it's fkin, Lev. vii. 8.

2 See Lev. 15. 17.

P. 103, 104.

F 3

The

The Bedouin Arabs, however, are nôt now unacquainted with thofe more beautiful carpets that are used in the houses of rich people in those countries, but their princes make use of them in their tents. So d'Arvieux found the Great Emir of Mount Carmel fitting in his tent upon a Turkey carpet, when he paid him a vifit by order of the king of France'; and de la Roque, in giving an account of this journey, describes the Arab princes as ufing mattresses, carpets, &c'; but how long they have made use of them in their tents may be difficult to determine.

2

1

OBSERVATION XXII.

I have, in a preceding volume of Observations, fuppofed that the precious clothes for chariots, mentioned by the prophet Ezekiel, as carried from Dedan to Tyre, meant carpets; and in another work I have fup-. pofed carpets to have been as ancient as the time of Solomon, and thofe richly wrought with pertinent or useful fentences, agreeable to the present taste of the inhabitants of the Eaft but perhaps it may be imagined, that all this is rather inconfiftent with a

1

Voy. dans la Paleftine, p. 6. 2 P. 177. • Vol. 2. 4 Ch. 27. 20.

P. 523.

5 Outlines of a New Commentary on Solomon's Song,

P. 175, &c.

paffage

paffage in the book of Judith, and therefore hardly to be admitted.

The paffage I refer to is as follows: "So fhe arofe, and decked herself with her

66

apparel, and all her woman's attire, and her "maid went and laid foft fkins on the ground "for her, over against Holofernes, which the "had received of Bagoas for her daily use, "that she might fit and eat upon them." Ch. xii. 15.

Now it may be faid, fuppofing he was no infpired, or even accurate writer, which qualities can neither of them be with truth applied to him, yet as an ancient author, and one who appears in fome other instances to be tolerably well versed in the affairs of the Eaft, one can hardly imagine carpets were of that high antiquity I have formerly fuppofed, fince he fuppofes they were nothing more than skins properly prepared, which were used in the tent of Holofernes himself. Confequently, in his time, we may believe carpets were not known, for if they had, he would have introduced them into the tent-equipage of this great general of Nabuchodonofor, that mighty and fplendid Eastern conqueror, and not described Holo

Such as the heat's being fometimes fo extreme in the time of barley-harveft, in Judæa, as to be fatal, ch. 8. 2, 3, which has been verified by recent inftances; and that rain might be hoped for in an extraordinary cafe fo early as September, after the fummer's drought, though in common they fall not 'till October, ch. 8. 31.

fernes rather like a Tartar warrior, than generaliffimo of the Affyrians'.

It may be faid that fo general, fo univerfal is the use of carpets now, that even the great Arab Emir of Mount Carmel was found by d'Arvieux fitting in his tent on a Turkey carpet; and they have fo entirely driven out the use of inferior coverings of the earth to fit upon, that we cannot but fuppofe they would have fo far produced a like effect, as to have been used by Holofernes, if rich carpets had been as ancient as the time of Solomon. Or if this hiftory should be found to be fabulous, yet ftill the author, who must be fuppofed to have lived later than the times of which he pretended to write the hiftory, confequently would, without fail, have introduced beautiful carpets as one of his decorations, if they had been in frequent ufe in the time in which he lived.

But I would obferve, that though writers. take little notice of them, Sir John Chardin affures us, that it is common in Perfia, which yet he defcribes as being in general a very dry country, to place a covering of felt over the ground on which the carpet is laid. "The floors are covered first with a great thick felt, and over that a beauti"ful carpet, or two, according to the fize

I fay of the Affyrians, for Nabuchodonofor, whose general he was, is called king of the Affyrians in the book of Judith. Voy. dans la Palestine, p. 6.

2

" of