mark of respect for the majesty of heaven, as it indicated the conscious unworthiness of the suppliant to lift up his eyes in the divine presence. To guard themselves from the wind or the storm, or from the still more fatal stroke of the sun-beam, to which the general custom of walking bare-headed particularly exposed them, they wrapped their heads in their mantles, or upper garments. But during their long captivity in Babylon, the Jews began to wear turbans, in compliance with the customs of their conquerors; for Daniel informs us, that his three friends were cast into the fiery furnace with their hats, or, as the term should be rendered, their turbans. It is not, however, improbable, that the bulk of the nation continued to follow their ancient custom; and that the compliance prevailed only among those Jews who were connected with the Babylonish court; for many ages after that, we find Antiochus Epiphanes introducing the habits and fashions of the Grecians among the Jews; and as the history of the Maccabees relates, he brought the chief young men under his subjection, and made them wear a hat. Their legs were generally bare, and they never wore any thing upon the feet, but soles fastened in different ways, according to the taste or fancy of the wearer. The Talmudists enumerate eighteen several garments, which belonged to the full dress of an ancient Jew. A woollen shirt was worn next the skin, although some had shirts of linen in which they slept, because these were more cleanly and wholesome. But this part of their dress is to be distinguished from the caffetan, or shirt, which the bridegroom and the bride sent to each other; which they wore over their clothes at their solemn festivals, and in which they were at last buried. Next to it was the coat, which reached to their feet, and was accounted a modest and honourable article of dress. This greatly aggravated the indignity which the king of Ammon offered to the ambassadors of David, by cutting off their garments in the middle to their buttocks; he insulted them by spoiling the most esteemed part of their dress; he exposed them to shame, by uncovering their nakedness, as they seem to have worn no breeches under their upper garments. The tunic was the principal part of the Jewish dress; it was made nearly in the form of our present shirt. A round hole was cut at top, merely to permit the head to pass through. Sometimes it had long sleeves, which reached down to the wrists; at other times short sleeves, which reached to the elbow; some had very short sleeves, which reached only to the middle of the upper arm, and some had no sleeves at all. The tunic was nearly the same with the Roman stola; and was, in general, girded round the waist, or under the breast, with the zona or girdle. Descending to the ground, and floating round the feet, it was, in the days of our Lord, a distinguishing badge of the proud Pharisee: "Beware of the scribes,” said he, "who love to walk in long robes," in tunics at full length, and reaching to the ground. These coats were collared at the neck, and fringed at the bottom. Over the tunic they wore a blanket, which the Arabs call a hyke, and is the very same with the plaid of the Scotch Highlanders. These hykes are of different sizes, and of different quality and fineness. They are commonly six yards long, and five or six feet broad; serving the Kabyle and Arab for a complete dress in the day; and 66 as they sleep in raiment," like the Israelites of old, it serves likewise for their bed and covering by night.h h Deut. xxiv, 13.. It is a loose, but troublesome garment, frequently discomposed, and falling upon the ground; so that the person who wears it, is every moment obliged to tuck it up, and fold it anew about his body. This shews the great use of a girdle whenever they are concerned in any active employment, and by consequence the force of the Scripture injunction, alluding to that part of the dress, to have our loins girded, in order to set about it with any reasonable prospect of success. The method of wearing these garments, and the use they are put to at other times in serving as coverlets to their beds, should induce us to take the finer sorts of them, at least such as are worn by the ladies and persons of distinction, to be the peplus of primitive times. Ruth's veil, which held six measures of barley, might be of a similar fashion, and have served, upon extraordinary occasions, for the same use; as were also the clothes, or upper garments, worn by the Israelites, in which they folded up their kneading troughs, as the Arabs and others do to this day, things of similar burden and incumbrance, in their hykes. It is very probable, likewise, that the loose folding garment, the toga of the Romans, was of this kind; for if we may form our opinion from the drapery of their statues, this is no other than the dress of the Arabs, when they appear in their hykes. Instead of the fibula that was used by the Romans, the Arabs join together with thread,' or with a wooden bodkin, the two upper corners of this garment; and after having placed them first over one of their shoulders, they then fold the rest of it about their bodies. The outer fold i Luke xvii, 8. j Shaw's Trav. vol. i, p. 403, 404, 405. * Exod. xii, 13. 1 In the days of Hesiod the Greeks sewed their garments with thread made of the sinews of oxen. Opera et Dies. 1..544. m serves them frequently instead of an apron, in which they carry herbs, loaves, corn, and other articles, and may illustrate several allusions made to it in Scripture: Thus, "One of the sons of the prophets went out into the field, to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered there of wild gourds, his lap full." And the Psalmist offers up his prayer, that Jehovah would "render unto his neighbours seven-fold into their bosom, their reproach."" The same allusion occurs in our Lord's direction to his disciples: "Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom." It was also the fold of this robe which Nehemiah shook before his people, as a significant emblem of the manner in which God should deal with the man who ventured to violate his oath and promise, to restore the possessions of their impoverished brethren: "Also, I shook my lap, and said, So God shake out every man from his house, and from his labour, that performeth not this promise, even thus be he shaken out, and emptied."" Among the Arabs, a burnoose, which answers to our cloak, is often for warmth, worn over these hykes. It is wove in one piece, strait about the neck, with a cape or Hippocrates' sleeve, for a cover to the head, and wide below like a cloak. Some of them are fringed round the bottom; those without the cape seem to answer to the Roman pallium; and with it, to the bardocucullus. The cloak was also a common article of dress among the Jews, and is occasionally mentioned in the New Testament. m 2 Kings iv, 39. n Psa. lxxix, 12. P Neh. ix, 13. Shaw's Trav. vol. i, p. 406. • Luke vi, 38. If we except the cape of the burnoose, which is only used in a shower of rain, or in very cold wether, several Arabs and Kabyles go bare-headed all the year long, as Cicero states Masinissa did, equally regardless of the summer's heat, or winter's cold: Nullo frigore adduci, ut capite operto sit. To prevent their locks from being troublesome, they bound their temples with a narrow fillet; which is of the same fashion, and serves the same purpose, as the ancient diadem. But the moors and Turks, with some of the principal Arabs, wear upon the crown of the head, a small hemispherical cap of scarlet cloth, round the bottom of which, the turban, as they call a long narrow web of linen, silk, or muslin, is folded. The diadem was also a part of the Jewish head-dress, and is mentioned by the prophet : In that day, shall the Lord of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people." The (nn) mitsnepheth, or turban, was used in the east as early as the days of Job; for the afflicted man declares: "I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my judgment was as a robe, and a diadem,” or turban." In the prophecies of Ezekiel, it denotes the turban of the king : "Thus saith the Lord God, Remove the diadem, and take away the crown," or turban; in Exodus, it signifies the turban of the high priest, in our translation, his mitre." 66 (מצנפת) These cloaks and plaids they usually throw off, when they engage in any labour or exercise, and remain only in their tunics." Thus, when our Lord laid aside his upper garments, in order to wash the disciples' feet, he re r Cicero de Senectute. u Job xxix, 4. ▾ Exod. xxviii, 4. w Shaw's Trav. vol. i, p. 408. |