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people of Jabesh-Gilead, in commemoration of the narrow escape they had from Nahash the Ammonite, I Sam. xi.; or a more faulty solemnity, which arose from an old heathenish custom, that had long been established in Shiloh, in honour of some of their idols, or in consequence of some vain opinion that had prevailed in that place.

So Dr. Chandler has given us, in the same volume, many instances of the Greek Christians retaining many of the old practices of their idolatrous ancestors, only making some little changes, requisite for their more easy naturalization in the Christian church. Thus, as "Athens was anciently enlivened by the choruses singing and dancing in the open air, in the front of the temples of the gods and round their altars, at the festivals of Bacchus and other holy days;" so "the Greeks are frequently seen engaged in the same exercises, generally in pairs, especially on the anniversary of their saints, and often in the areas before their churches," p. 113. In p. 220, speaking of a temple of Minerva, in which the virgins of Troezen consecrated their zones before marriage, he tells us, "the same offering is still seen in the churches at Athens, with towels richly embroidered, and various other articles." Upon speaking of Esculapius, a few pages after, he informs us, that since he has failed, saints have succeeded to the business: "I have seen," this writer adds, "pa

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tients lying in beds in their churches at Athens.

If Shiloh was, at this very time, the place of their religious solemnities, this, though a relique of heathen idolatry or superstition, might be practised there. Jerusalem afterwards did not maintain the purity of Mosaic institutions at all times; if it was a memorial of some deliverance, and perfectly innocent, it might, certainly, be as well practised at Shiloh as in any other Jewish district.

I will only add, that it seems by their lying hid in the vineyards, that the vineyards were then in leaf, and that this solemnity at Shiloh was between the time that leaves first appeared on their vines, that is, in that country about the beginning of March, and the time of vintage in September; for we find by Dr. Chandler, that the cattle in the Lesser Asia are turned into the vineyards immediately after the vintage is over, and prematurely strip off the leaves. More exactly the time of this event cannot, I imagine, be determined by us in this remote age.

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OBSERVATION XIX.

Curious Explanation of Gen. xlix. 22, 23.

I HAVE shewn, in my preceding Observations, that vines in Judea sometimes grow against low stone-walls; but I do not apprehend the

Travsls in Asia. p. 142.

ingenious Mr. Barrington can be right, when he supposes, in a paper of his on the patriarchal customs and manners, that Joseph is compared to a vine growing against the wall, Gen. xlix. 22.

As vines are sometimes planted against a low wall, they might possibly be planted against a low wall surrounding a well: though it is difficult to guess, why a wall' should be built round a well, in a vineyard, of such a height as to be proper for the support of a vine; and if it were, why archers direct their arrows against it, when it would be so easy to gather the fruit by hand, without injury. But I suppose this is not an exact representation.

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In the first place, a vine is not mentioned; it is only a fruitful tree, in general, to which Joseph is compared.

Secondly, The being situated near water is extremely conducive, in that dry and hot country, to the flourishing of vegetables in general; and trees among the rest. "We came," says Maundrell, to the fountain of Elisha. Close by the fountain grows a large tree, spreading into boughs over the water, and here" in the shade we took a collation." A tree, we find, planted near plenty of water, grows there to a large size.

Thirdly, The wild Arabs of those countries are great plunderers of fruit. Maillet assigns Archæologia, vol. v. p. 122. Page 80, ed. 5.

that as the reason why the fruit of the land of Egypt, in these later times, is not better, namely, that they are wont to gather it before it is properly ripened, on account of the Arabs, who would otherwise rob them of it.

Fourthly, It is very well known, that walls easily stop Arabs, who are continually on horseback in their roving about, and do not care to quit them, nor are used to climb walls. They had no better way then to get the fruit of those trees, whose luxuriant boughs ran over the walls of their inclosures, than by throwing their bludgeons at them, and gathering up the fruit that fell on the outside of the wall. To these things should be added,

Fifthly, That the word translated arrows, means not only those things that we are wont to call arrows, but such sticks as are thrown by the hand, as well as those missile weapons that are darted by means of a bow; for we find the word is made use of to express the staff of a spear, 1 Sam. xvii. 7, and consequently any piece of wood long in proportion to its diameter, especially if used as a missile instrument. The lords of arrows on baalee chitseem, for that is the Hebrew expression, (conformable to an Eastern mode of speech,) which we translate archers, is a natural description of the wild Arabs, those lords of bludgeons, in committing their depredations on the Eastern gardens and vineyards.

But this manner of treating the vine would not be advantageous; bunches of grapes are

by no means thus to be dislodged; and the fall would spoil the fruit. But there are other trees whose fruit might thus be gathered; among the rest, I suppose the pomegranate, whose fruit has so hard a shell, as neither to be injured by the fall, or destroyed by an accidental blow of the sticks they used for pelting the tree.

The destroying a man is sometimes compared to the cutting down a tree: I knew not, said the Prophet Jeremiah, that they had devised devices against me saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered, Jer xi. 19. But the envious brethren of Joseph did not imbrue their hands in his blood, they did not destroy him as men destroy a tree when they cut it down, but they terribly distressed him--they sold him for a slave into Egypt: he had flourished in the favour of his father and of his GOD, like a tree by a reservoir of water; but they for a time dishonoured him, as a tree is disgraced by the breaking its boughs, and knocking off its leaves, by the wild Arabs, who want to derive some advantage from battering it after this manner, when they cannot come at it to destroy it.

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