Ostan, the bassa of Tripoli, having first sent our present, as the manner is among the Turks, to procure a propitious reception. It is counted uncivil to visit in this country without an offering in hand. All great men expect it as a kind of tribute due to their character and authority, and look upon themselves as affronted, and indeed defrauded, when this compliment is omitted. Even infamiliar visits amongst inferior people, you shall seldom have them come without bringing a flower, or an orange, or some other such token of their respect to the person visited; the Turks in this point keeping up the ancient oriental custom hinted 1 Sam. ix. 7. If we go (says Saul,) what shall we bring the man of God? there is not a present, &c. which words are questionless to be understood in conformity to this eastern custom, as relating to a token of respect, and not a price of divination." To this account it may be added, that when Lord Macartney had his interview with the Emperor of China, in his embassy to that prince, in 1793, the receiving and returning of presents made a considerable part of the ceremony.

No. 90.-xiv. 9. This shall be a sign unto us.] Archbishop Potter (in his Archæologia Græca, vol. i. p. 344.) has some curious reflections on the custom of catching omens, which was common amongst the Greeks, and which he conceives to be of great antiquity, and also of eastern origin. "That it was practised by the Jews, is by some inferred from the story of Jonathan, the son of king Saul, who going to encounter a Philistine garrison, thus spoke to his armour-bearer, If they say unto us, tarry until we come unto you; then we will stand still in our place, and will not go up unto them. But if they say thus, come up unto us, then we will go up; for the Lord hath delivered them into our hand, and this shall be a sign unto us." A remarkable instance of this super

L

stition is found in the following passage of Virgil: "he introduces Eneas catching Ascanius's words from his mouth; for the Harpies, and Anchises also, having foretold that the Trojans should be forced to gnaw their very tables for want of other provisions, when they landed in Italy; happening to dine upon the grass, instead of tables or trenchers, which their present circumstances did not afford, they laid their meat upon pieces of bread, which afterwards they eat up; whereupon,

Heus! etiam mens as consumimus? inquit Iulus.

See, says Iulus, we our tables eat.

Æneas presently caught the omen, as the poet subjoins:

Ea vox audita laborum

Prima tulit finem: primumque loquentis ab ore
Eripuit pater, ac stupefactus numine pressitt.

The lucky sound no sooner reach'd their ears,
But strait they quite dismiss'd their former cares :
His good old sire with admiration struck,
The boding sentence, when yet falling, took,
And often roll'd it in his silent breast."

Eneid 7.1.116.

No. 91.-xvii. 6. Greaves of brass.] These were necessary to defend the legs and feet from the iron stakes placed in the way by the enemy, to gall and wound their opponents. They were a part of ancient military harness, and the artifices made use of by contending parties rendered the precaution important.

No. 92.-xviii. 4. Stripped himself of the robe.] D'Herbelot (vol. ii. p. 20.) says, that when Sultan Selim had defeated Causou Gouri, he assisted at prayers in a mosque at Aleppo, upon his triumphant return to Constantinople, and that the imam of the mosque, having added at the close of the prayer these words: "May God preserve Selim Khan, the servant and minister of

the two sacred cities of Mecca and Medinah," the title was so very agreeable to the sultan that he gave the robe that he had on to the imam. Just thus Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him, and gave it to David. HARMER, vol. ii. p 94.

No. 93.-xx. 5. New moon.] "As soon as the new moon was either consecrated or appointed to be observed, notice was given by the sanhedrim to the rest of the nation, what day had been fixed for the new mɔon, or first day of the month, because that was to be the rule and measure, according to which they were obliged to keep their feasts and fasts in every month respectively. This notice was given to them in time of peace, by firing beacons set up for that purpose, (which was looked upon as the readiest way of communication,) but in time of war, when all places were full of enemies, who made use of beacons to amuse our nation with, it was thought fit to discontinue it, and to delegate some men on purpose to go and signify it to as many as they possibly could reach, before the time commanded for the observation of the feast or fast was expired."

LEVI's Rites and Ceremonies of the Jews, p. 25.

No. 94.-xx. 30.

Thou son of the perverse rebellious woman.] In the East, when they are angry with a person, they abuse and vilify his parents. Saul thought of nothing but venting his anger against Jonathan, nor had any design to reproach his wife personally; the mention of her was only a vehicle by which, according to oriental modes, he was to convey his resentment against Jonathan into the minds of those about him. HARMER, vol. ii. p. 492.

No. 95.-xxii. 6. Under a tree.] However common it might be for the generality of persons, when travel.

ling, to take up with a temporary residence under a tree, it seems extraordinary that kings and princes should not be better accommodated; yet according to easterns customs it is perfectly natural. Thus when Pococke was travelling in the company of the Governor of Faiume, who was treated with great respect as he passed along, they spent one night in a grove of palmHARMER, vol. ii. p. 127.

trees.

No. 96.-xxii. 17. The king said unto the footmen.] "In ancient times it was as much a custom for great men to do execution upon offenders, as it is now an usual thing for them to pronounce sentence. They had not then (as we have now) such persons as the Romans called carnifices, or public executioners; and therefore Saul bade such as waited on him to kill the priests, and Doeg, one of his chief officers, did it."

PATRICK'S Commentary.

No. 97.-xxiv. 12. The Lord Judge between me and thee.] Full of reverence as the eastern addresses are, and especially those to the great, in some points they are not so scrupulous as we are in the West. An inferior's mentioning of himself before he names his superior is an instance of this kind. Chardin assures us, that it is customary among the Persians for the speaker to name himself first. Thus David spoke to Saul, even when he so reverenced him, that he stooped with his face to the earth, and bowed himself. (Gen. xx. iii. 15. compared with ver. 6. is a similar instance.)

HARMER, vol. ii. p. 41.

No. 98.-xxvi. 20. Hunt a partridge.] The account, given by Dr. SHAW, (Travels, p. 236.) of the manner of hunting partridges and other birds by the Arabs, affords an excellent comment on these words: "The

Arabs have another, though a more laborious method of catching these birds; for observing that they become. languid and fatigued after they have been hastily put up twice or thrice, they immediately run in upon them, and knock them down with their zerwattys, or bludgeons, as we should call them." It was precisely in this manner that Saul hunted David, coming hastily upon him, and putting him up from time to time, in hopes that he should at length, by frequent repetitions of it, be able to destroy him. HARMER, Vol. i. p. 318.

No. 99.-xxxi. 10. They fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan.] After the death of Saul, we are informed that they fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shanCapital offences were sometimes punished by throwing the criminal upon hooks that were fixed in the wall below, where frequently they hung in the most exquisite agonies thirty or forty hours, before they expired. The exposure of the body of Saul might be nothing more than the fixing of it to such hooks as were placed there for the execution of their criminals.