ORIENTAL CUSTOMS.

VOLUME I.

THE FOURTH EDITION.

ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL.

OR AN

ILLUSTRATION

OF THE

SACRED SCRIPTURES,

BY AN
EXPLANATORY APPLICATION

OF THE
CUSTOMS AND MANNERS OF THE EASTERN NATIONS,

AND ESPECIALLY
THE JEWS, THEREIN ALLUDED TO.

COLLECTED FROM THE MOST
CELEBRATED TRAVELLERS, AND THE MOST EMINENT CRITICS,

BY
THE REV. SAMUEL BURDER, A. M.
OP CLARE-HALL, CAMBRIDGE; LECTURER OF THE UNITED PARISHES OF CHRIST-
CHURCH, NEWGATE-STREET, AND ST. LEONARD, POSTER-LANE, LONDON ;

AND CHAPLAIN TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE DUKE OP KENT.

VOLUME I.
FOURTH EDITION.

An obsolete custom, or some forgotten circumstance opportunely adverted to, will
sometimes restore its true perspicuity and credit to a very intricate passage.

BISHOP LOWTH.

LONDON:
PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN,

PATERNOSTER-ROW.

PREFACE.

ne

OUR estimation of the holy scriptures should be proportionable to their importance and exa cellence. That ignorance of spiritual things, which is so natural to all men, demonstrates their necessity; and the happy influence which they have upon the mind in seasons of adversity and distress, proves their value and utility. They are admirably adapted to our circumstances, as they present us with a complete system of truth and a perfect rule of conduct, and thus make those who properly understand them wise unto salva

tion.

But whatever relates either to faith or to practice, was delivered in ages very distant from the present, in places very remote from the spot which we inhabit, and by persons of habits and manners materially different from those with which we are familiar. General and permanently established usages, to which persons conformed themselves