be proposed. The refcripts of authority are wont to be kiffed whether they are believed to be just or not, except in cafes where perfons affume fomething of independence; nay, the letters of people of figure are treated after this manner by perfons over whom they have no authority, and who know not the contents of them, merely because they are letters of people of figure*; it is poffible therefore these words may rather refer to another Eastern cuftom, which d'Arvieux gives an account of in his description of the Arabs of Mount Carmel, who, when they prefent any petition to their Emir for a favour, offer their billets to him with their right-hands, after having firft kiffed the papers. The Hebrew manner of expreffion is fhort, and Proverbs have a peculiar fhortnefs: Every lip fhall kifs, one maketh to return a right anfwer, that is, every one shall be ready to prefent the state of his cafe, kiffing it as he delivers it, when there is a judge whofe decifions are celebrated for their being equitable. So another of these apophthegms of Solomon is delivered with

* So la Roque, in his Syrian travels, tells us, that as he and his companions drew near Balbec, two Arab horsemen accofted them very roughly; but on being told they had a letter for the Scheik of Balbec, which had been given them, it seems, by a Maronite Scheik, with both of which Scheiks these Arabs had a good understanding," they, after having looked at the letter, lifted it to their heads, and kiffing it, civilly difmiffed them. Tom. I. p. 94, 95.

Voy. dans la Pal. p. 155.

fomething

fomething of the like turn of expreffion, A crown of glory the hoary head, in the way of righteousness it shall be found: that is, the hoary head is a crown of glory, when it is found in the way of righteousness.

OBSERVATION XXI.

They that are more intimately acquainted, or of equal age and dignity, mutually kifs the hand, the head, or shoulder of each other, Dr. Shaw fays".

It is a rule with me not to repeat any of this learned author's obfervations on Scripture, as I fuppofe my curious readers acquainted with his book; but as he has not applied this obfervation to any paffage in the Bible, it cannot be amifs to remark, that those paffages there, which speak of falling on the neck and kiffing a person, seem to have a reference to this Eastern way of kiffing the fhoulder in an embrace'.

OBSERVATION XXII.

XIV.

Dr. Shaw takes no notice of their taking hold of the beard in order to kiss, but Thevenot doth', faying, that faying, that among the Turks it is a great affront to take one by the beard, unless it be to kiss him, in which cafe they often do it.

6 P. 237.

7 Gen. 33. 4, ch. 45. 14, 15, Acts 20. 37, Luke 15. 20. 1 Part I. p. 30.

E 3

Whether

XV.

Whether he means by kiffing him, kissing his beard, or not, I do not know; but Joab's taking Amafa by the beard to kifs him, 2 Sam. xx. 9, feems to be defigned to exprefs his taking his beard to kifs it, at least this is agreeable to the customs of those that now live in that country: for d'Arvieux, defcribing the affembling together of several of the petty Arab princes at an entertainment, telleth us that "All the Emirs came juft

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together a little time after, accompanied by their friends and attendants, and after "the usual civilities, careffes, kiffings of the beard, and of the hand, which every one gave and received according to his rank "and dignity, they fat down upon mats.

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46

3

4

He elsewhere fpeaks of the women's kiffing their husbands beards, and children thofe of their fathers, and friends reciprocally faluting one another in this manner but the doing it by their Emirs more exactly answers this hiftory of Joab and Amafa, and in this stooping pofture he could much better fee to direct the blow, than if he had

3. P. 1442

2 Voy. dans la Pal. par la Roque, p. 71. 145. [4 The wives in that country are held in fuch fubmiffion, that it is reasonable to think, their careffes are mingled with more humiliating marks of refpect than kiffing the beard the Pfalmift feems to fuppofe fo, when he fays, (Pf. xlv. 11,) “So fhall the king greatly defire thy beauty: " for he is thy Lord, and worship thou him," on which the manufcript I have fo often quoted obferves, that this alludes to the great refpect and fubmiffion of women towards their husbands in thefe countries.

only

only held his beard, and raised himself to kifs his face.

OBSERVATION XXIII.

The indignity, on the other hand, offered to David's ambaffadors by Hanun, might perhaps be better illuftrated by what the fame author tells us of the prefent ufages of the inhabitants of this country, than by those examples that Bishop Patrick has brought from more diftant nations, and in particular from the Indians, and the Germans.

It is a greater mark of infamy, he affures us, among the Arabs that he vifited, to cut off any one's beard, than whipping and branding with the flower-de-luce among the French '. Many people in that country, he tells us, would prefer death to this kind of punishment.

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XVI.

And as they would think it a grievous punishment to lofe it, fo they carry things fo far as to beg for the fake of it, by your In "beard, by the life of your beard do." like manner fome of their benedictions are, "God preferve your bleffed beard, God

66

pour his bleffings on your beard." And when they would exprefs their value for a

'Mos enim eft Orientalibus, tam Græcis quam aliis nationibus, barbas totâ curâ & omni folicitudine nutrire; pro fummoque probro & majori quæ unquam irrogari poffit ignominia reputare, fi vel unus pilus quocunque fibi de cafu barba cum injuria detrahatur, fays William of Tyre, an Eaftern archbishop, Gefta Dei. p. 802.]

XVII.

thing, they fay, "it is worth more than his "beard".

I never had fo clear an apprehenfion, I must confefs, as after I had read thefe accounts, of the intended energy of that thought of Ezekiel, where the inhabitants of Jerufalem are compared to the hair of the Prophet's head and beard3. That paffage feems to fignify, that though the inhabitants of Jerufalem had been dear to God as the hair of an eastern beard to its owner, yet that they fhould be taken away and confumed, one part by peftilence and famine, another part by the fword, and the third by the calamities. of an exile.

4

[Niebuhr has given us an account of a modern Arab prince's treating a, Perfian envoy, in the fame manner as Hanun treated the beards of David's ambaffadors, which brought a powerful Perfian army upon him, in 1765; but it feems, he was a very brutal prince, and bore a most deteftable character.]

OBSERVATION XXIV.

Our Lord reproaches the Pharifee who invited him to eat bread, Luke vii, that he had given him no kifs, whereas the person he had been cenfuring in his heart had not ceased kiffing his feet from her entrance into the houfe. It is vifible, by the contrast our • P. 275.

2 Ch. 7.

3 Ezek. 5.
::.

Lord