sacrifice upon the occasion) into two parts, and so placing each half upon two different altars, to cause those who contracted the covenant to pass between both. (Gen. xv. 9, 10, 17.) This rite was practised both by believers and heathens at their solemn leagues; at first doubtless with a view to the great sacrifice, who was to purge our sins in his own blood: and the offering of these sacrifices, and passing between the parts of the divided victim, was symbolically staking their hopes of purification and salvation on their performance of the conditions on which it was offered.

This remarkable practice may be clearly traced in the Greek and Latin writers. HoMER has the following expression:

Ορχια περὰ ταμόντες.

Iliad ii. ver. 124.

Having cut faithful oaths; Eustathius explains the passage by saying, they were oaths relating to important matters, and were made by the division of the victim. See also Virgil, Æn. viii. ver. 640.

15.

The editor of the fragments supplementary to Calmet (No. 129.) is of opinion that what is yet practised of this ceremony may elucidate that passage in Isaiah xxviii. We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us, for we have made lies our refuge, and under falshood have we hid ourselves. q.d. We have cut off a covenant sacrifice, a purification offering with death, and with the grave we have settled, so that the scourge shall not injure us. May not such a custom have been the origin of the following superstition related by PITTS?" If they (the Algerine corsairs) at any time happen to be in a very great strait or distress, as being chased, or in a storm, they will gather money, light up candles in remembrance of some dead marrabot (saint) or other, calling upon

him with heavy sighs and groans. If they find no succour from their before-mentioned rites and superstitions, but that the danger rather increases, then they go to sacrificing a sheep, (or two or three upon occa sion, as they think needful) which is done after this manner: having cut off the head with a knife, they immediately take out the entrails, and throw them and the head over-board; and then, with all the speed they can (without skinning) they cut the body into two parts by the middle, and throw one part over the right side of the ship, and the other over the left, into the sea, as a kind of propitiation. Thus those blind infidels apply themselves to imaginary intercessors, instead of the living and true God." (Travels, p. 18.) In the case here referred to, the ship passes between the parts thus thrown on each side of it. This behaviour of the Algerines may be taken as a pretty accurate counterpart to that of making a covenant with death, and with imminent danger of destruction, by appeasing the angry gods.

Festivities, always accompanied the ceremonies attending oaths. Isaac and Abimelech feasted at making their covenant, Gen. xxvi 30. and he made them a feast, and they did eat and drink, Gen. xxxi. 54. Jacob offered sacrifice upon the mount, and called his brethren to eat bread. This practice was also usual amongst the heathen nations.

No. 295.-xxxvi. 22. Now the king sat in the winterhouse, in the ninth month, and there was a fire on the hearth burning before him.] In all probability the word translated hearth means a kind of brasier, or portable machine, to keep fuel together for burning, such as are still used in the East to keep their rooms warm in winter. Such contrivances were in use among the ancient Greeks, and are called by Homer Aaμπtypes, Odyss. xix. lin. 63, 64. where he says that Penelope's

maids "threw the embers out of the brasiers upon the floor, and then heaped fresh wood on them to afford both light and warmth." (Comp. Odyss. xviii. lin. 306— 310, 342) The modern Greeks imitate their ancestors. "There are no chimneys," says Mons, de Guys, "in the Greek houses. A brasier is placed in the middle of the room, that those who are not sufficiently warmed at a distance may more conveniently draw near it. This is a very ancient custom all over the East. The Romans had no other, and the Turks adhere to it. This brasier, called AauTTP, says Hesychius, quoted by Madam D'Acier, was placed in the middle of the chamber, on which they burnt wood to heat the room, and torches to light it. It stood on a tripod, as at present. Lamps were not used till a long time after." (PARKHURST's Heb. Lex. p. 12, 3d edit.)

No. 296. xxxvii. 15. Wherefore the princes were wroth with Jeremiah, and smote him, and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe, for they had made that the prison.] "The eastern prisons are not public buildings erected for that purpose, but a part of. the house in which their criminal judges dwell. As the governor and provost of a town, or the captain of the watch, imprison such as are accused, in their own houses, they set apart a canton of them for that purpose, when they are put into these offices, and choose for the jailor the most proper person they can find of their domestics." (Chardin.) Here the prisoners were treated according to the will of the jailor, with greater or less severity, according as they were able by presents to purchase his favour. When, through the vindictive spirit of the prosecutors, large gifts were made by them to the keeper of the prison, to induce him to adopt harsh measures with the prisoners, their sufferings were often extremely great. These circumstances place in

a strong light those passages which speak of the sighing of the prisoner, and its coming before God.

HARMER, vol. ii. p. 273.

No. 297.-xliv. 17. To pour out drink offerings to the queen of heaven.] Chardin says, that it is the custom in Mingrelia and Georgia, and some other eastern countries, for people, before they begin a feast, to go out abroad, with eyes turned to heaven to pour out a cup of wine on the ground. From the Ethiopic version it is probable that the same custom prevailed in Ethiopia. This may be considered as a picture of what the idolatrous Israelites did when they poured out drink offerings to the queen of heaven: what Jacob did more purely in the patriarchal times, when he poured out a drink offering on the pillar he set up: (Gen. xxxv. 14.) but it does not follow that any thing of this sort was done in their common feasts. The modern Jews, when they annually celebrate the deliverance of their forefathers in Egypt, take a cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord, singing a portion of the book of Psalms; but they drink the wine, and do not pour it upon the ground; nor do they practise this effusion of wine in their more common feasts. BUXTORFII Syn. Jud, cap. 12.

HARMER, vol. i. p. 391.

No. 298.-xlviii. 11. Emptied from vessel to vessel.] From a remark of the Abbé Mariti, it appears to be an usual practice in Cyprus to change the vessels in which their wine is kept. This is done to improve it. He says, (Travels, vol. i. p. 227.) "these wines are generally sold on the spot, at the rate of so much per load. Each load contains sixteen jars, and each jar five bottles Florence measure. When the wine is brought from he country to town, it must be put into casks, in which

there are dregs, and it is to be remarked that nothing tends more to bring it to perfection, than to draw it off into another vessel, provided this is not done until a year after it has been put into the casks."

Chardin says, "they frequently pour wine from vessel to vessel in the East; for when they begin one, they are obliged immediately to empty it into smaller vessels, or into bottles, or it would grow sour."

HARMER, vol. i. p. 392.

No. 299.-xlviii. 28. Like the dove that maketh her nest in the sides of the hole's mouth.] Where art intervenes not, pigeons build in those hollow places nature provides for them. A certain city in Africa is called Hamam-et, from the wild pigeons that copiously breed in the adjoining cliffs; and in a curious paper relating to Mount Etna (Phil. Trans. vol. lx.) which mentions a number of subterraneous caverns there, one is noticed as being called by the peasants, la Spelonca della Palomba, from the wild pigeons building their nests therein. (Sol. Song ii. 14.) Though Ætna is a burning mountain, yet the cold in these caverns is excessive: this shews that pigeons delight in cool retreats, and explains the reason why they resort to mountains which are known to be very cold even in those hot countries, The words of the Psalmist, flee as a bird to your mountain, without doubt refer to the flying of doves thither when frightened by the fowler. Dove-houses, however, are very common in the east. Of Kefteen, a large village, Maundrell (p. 3.) says, there are more dove cotes than other houses. In the southern part of Egypt, the tops of their habitations are always terminated by a pigeon house. Isaiah lx. 8. HARMER, Vol. i. p. 222.

No. 300.-xlix. 8. Dwell deep.] When the Arabs have drawn upon themselves the resentment of the