N° XIII. Our tranflation of the book of Judges, from the Hebrew, reprefents Zebul as faying to Gaal, upon his being alarmed at feeing troops of men making to him, "Thou feeft the fhadow "of the mountains, as if they were men';' whereas Jofephus reprefents him as telling him, he mistook the shadow of the rocks for men 2 A commentator might be at a loss to account for this change, that had not read Doubdan's reprefentation of fome part of the Holy-Land, in which he tells us, that in thofe places there are many detached rocks feattered up and down, fome growing out of the ground, and others are fragments, broken off from rocky precipices, the fhadow of which, it fhould feem, Jofephus thought might be most naturally imagined to look like troops of men at a distance, rather than the fhadow of the mountains. N' XIV. In St. Jerome's Hiftory of the Life of Malchus, we have an account of some particulars that are new, in the clothing of those wild 1 Arabs, or Ifhmaelites, as he terms them. They are faid to be half naked, but however to have worn cloaks and broad coverings for their legs "Seminudo corpore, pallia & latas caligas "trahentes." Cloaks, kept faft by a button, on the upper part of the breaft, are ftill worn by the Arab horsemen, according both to the description and the copper-plate de la Roque has given us of them. This, he fays, is properly their riding-drefs. The defcription de la Roque gives of these vestments is to this purpose: Doubling a piece of cloth, they few the edges together, as if they were going to make a jack, leaving an hole at each of the corners to put their arms through; that then they cut open the fore part, to put it on their fhoulders, cutting away a round place for the neck; and this is properly the dress for wearing on horfeback. This is what de la Roque calls an abas, St. Jerome a pallium. But the account de la Roque gives of the covering of their feet, when they ride, doth not fo well agree with the term latas caligas, or broad caligas. The word caliga is ufed by St. Jerome, to exprefs that covering for the feet which Chrift forbad his difciples to wear, when he fent them to preach the gospel in his life-time, and which are opposed to fandals, Mark vi. 9; though Voy. dans la Pal. p. 3, 4 2 P 208. Euftochium, de Cuftodia Virg. tome 1, p. 140. • Ad St. Jerome, in the impetuofity of his zeal, supposes the apostles were to walk at times abfolutely barefoot. These caligas then seem to mean bufkins, or rather fhort boots, defigned to cover the feet fo entirely, as to guard them, as well as the lower part of the leg, from injury from stones, thorns, &c; whereas fandals confifted merely of foles at the bottom of the feet, faftened by leathern thongs, which left the foot very much uncovered, and open to injuries. But what the term broad has to do with these boots, is very difficult to fay. It will not be disagreeable, on this occafion, to give de la Roque's account of the Arab riding boots. "They never carry a fabre, "but when they go out upon an expedition; they mount on horseback with small boots, of yellow morocco, without ftockings, very light, and fewed within, with which they "can march on foot, and even run, without any penetration of water through them." As the motions of these Arabs are known to be very rapid, and their horfes and every thing about them fitted for fpeed, there is the utmost difficulty in conceiving, for what reafon they should make their boots fo broad as to be one part of their defcription; at the fame time we find, that they are now very fmall, and light. They are however ftill defcribed as being of yellow leather, as a re markable circumftance: it would be then, I fhould apprehend, as natural to fuppofe there is a corruption in the prefent reading, and that it ought to be luteas (yellow), instead of latas (broad), as to admit fome gueffes of the critics. Whether the traces of fuch a reading may be found in any of the manufcript copies of St. Jerome, I am not able to fay: I have no opportunity of confulting them '. The colour of the leather of the shoes of the Roman nobility themselves was, in the time of Juvenal, black as with us, as appears from verses 191, 192, of his 7th fatire : "Felix, & fapiens, & nobilis, & generofus ૬ Adpofitam nigra lunam fubtexit alutæ.” And though they might afterwards use red leather, yet very probably thofe of the lower clafs did not, which must have made the colour of the Arab boots remarkable: fufficiently fo to have this circumftance mentioned, in the defcription of the furprise Malchus was thrown into, when he faw them coming in fo unufual a drefs. For though the pallium or cloak was worn by other people, particularly by the philofophers, and after them So Catullus defcribes Hymen, in his Epithalamium on the marriage of Julia and Manlius, as wearing yellow fhoes, and makes use of the term luteum to defcribe that circumftance: "Cinge tempora floribus "Luteum pede foccum,” by by the Chriftians, it should feem not to have been worn commonly on horfeback, fince it is mentioned here, as fomething striking in the appearance of these Arabs. The word trahentes (drawing forward what feems inclined to hang back) expreffes, in a lively manner, the flying back of the abas of the Arab horsemen, and the position of their feet, held back while in purfuing their prey with eagerness. N° XV. St. Jerome, fuppofed, that millet was used, in the time of the prophet Ezekiel, for the food of the meaneft fort of people, and for the fattening of cattle or fowls ; which shows, it was probably used for thofe purposes in Judæa, in his time. It is certain it is now used there. For we find millet continues to be fown in the Holy-Land. Dr. Rauwolff found Indian millet, along with corn and cotton, in the fruitful and well-tilled fields about Rama". Niebuhr complains of the bread made of millet by the Arabs, who, he tells us, eat fcarce any thing else but bad new-made millet bread, kneaded with camel's milk, or with oil, with butter, or fat. He found it fo difagreeable and • Milium rufticorum & agreftium & altilium cibus eft, Com. in Ezekielem, cap. 4. Ray's Trav. p. 229. VOL. III. bad, |