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year after, upon the return of the pilgrims, fatigued with their journey, and many of them. having sold their arms on account of their expences, the Arabs assembled, to the number it is said of 80,000, and pillaged the whole caraFrom that time the Turks have submitted to pay the Arabs of that country the ordinary tribute, and perhaps more than that.'

van.

Here is no account of preventing the pilgrimage, by filling up the wells. As the Arabs themselves believe it to be a duty of religion, it would have been impious in them to have done it. They therefore contented themselves with punishing the Turks, who they thought had defrauded them, and making themselves ample amends, for the loss of two years' tribute.

So we

But we have accounts of the wells being actually filled up in some other cases. find in d'Herbelot, that Gianabi, a famous kharegite or rebel in the 10th century, gathering a number of people together, seized on Bassora and Coufa, (two considerable cities;) afterwards insulted the then reigning khalif, by presenting himself boldly before Bagdat, his capital; after which he retired by little and little, filling up all the pits with sand which had been dug in the road to Mecca, for the benefit of the pilgrims.'

We may be perhaps surprised, that the Philistines should treat such friendly and upright

i P. 330, 331.

k Nor would it have been politic, since they did not want to prevent their making use of that road, but to make the Turks pay them well for that liberty. P. 396.

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people as Abraham and Isaac after this sort: but they were afraid of their power, and wished to have them removed to a distance,TM and the filling up the wells they dug for their cattle, however useful they might be to themselves, they thought the best expedient to keep them at a distance.

OBSERVATION LXIX.

Curious Illustration of 1 Sam. v. 1-10.

THE account that Pietro della Vallé gives, of the manner of carrying two of the bells of the church of Ormuz into Persia in triumph, affords us a pleasing illustration, of what is said of the carrying about the captive ark, by the Philistines, in the time of the Judges.

Every body knows, that bells are considered as sacred things among the Roman Catholics, and as much disliked among the Mohammedans, who will not allow them to be used by Christians that live among them, except in a very few extraordinary cases. The Portuguese had possessed themselves of a small island called Ormuz, in the Persian gulf, belonging properly to an Arab prince, from whence they were so troublesome to the Persians, that the celebrated Persian king Abbas was determined to dislodge them thence, which at last he effected by the

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help of some English ships; and when della Vallé was in the southern part of Persia, he saw the spoils of Ormuz carried with great triumph to be presented to Abbas: there was a good deal of solemnity made use of, as they were carried from town to town in their way to the capital.

Della Valle tells us, that when he was at Lar, the 28th of May, 1622, he saw arrive there two bells of the church of Ormuz, which were carrying in triumph to the king of Persia, with the rest of the booty of that place, where they were received with great solemnity; the calenter, with his attendants, going to meet them, and receiving them with the music of fifes and drums, amidst a great concourse of people. They were placed upon two small waggons made for that purpose, with very low wheels; most probably the ark was in a like triumphant manner carried from Ebenezer to Ashdod, and from thence to Gath. Whether they continued their triumph, when they removed it to Ekron, may be more doubtful: but we can hardly suppose but that, upon its first being carried into the land of the Philistines, it was in a triumphant manner; and the word that is made use of to express its removal to Gath, seems to intimate its being surrounded by great crowds of people, as the bells of Ormuz were by crowds of Persians.

The Hebrew word yisob, is translated in our version carried about, but elsewhere is A great officer in the Persian cities.

used to express the surrounding a thing; and it is used, I Chron. xiii. 3, to express the bringing the ark of GOD from Kirjath-jearim to the city of David, attended by all Israel, with music and with songs; and after the like manner, I should think, the ark was carried to Gath from Ashdod, as to external appearances, but with this difference, that the compassing it about with music and with songs, by David, expressed the reverence of religion; by the Philistines, as among the Persians, the triumph of victory.

The construction of the Hebrew words will accordingly be more regular, if understood after this manner: Let Gath compass about the ark of God, and they compassed about the ark of GoD: And it came to pass, after they had compassed it about, the hand of the LORD was also upon the city, &c. The men of Ashdod were so intimidated, that they did not care to carry away the ark of God in triumph to another city, they left it to the lords of the Philistines to appoint some other of their towns to receive it, who directed that the people of Gath should do it, who accordingly went and fetched it away, to their sorrow, or at least met it as a captive in solemn pomp. Its being carried to Ekron from Gath, is expressed in very different terms: They sent ( va yishalachoo,) the ark of God to Ekron, and when the Ekronites saw it, they cried out with fear.

So it is used four times just together in the 118th Psalm, to express the compassing the Psalmist about like bees, ver. 10, 11, 12.

OBSERVATION LXX.

Manner of introducing a Captive Prince into the Towns of a victorious Kingdom.

THE same celebrated traveller gives such an account, of the manner of introducing a captive prince into the towns of the victorious kingdom, as may serve to illustrate another passage of Scripture.

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When della Vallé was at Lar, in Persia, he not only saw two of the bells of a Christian church at Ormuz brought thither in triumph, but the Arab king of Ormuz himself conducted thither, a few days before, in the same triumphant manner, "This poor unfortunate king, (he tells us,) entered Lar, with his people, in the morning, music playing, and girls and women of pleasure singing and dancing before him, according to the custom of Persia, and the people flocking together with a prodigious concourse, and conducting him in a pompous and magnificent manner, particularly with colours displayed, like what the Messenians formerly did to Philopomen, the general of the Achæans, their prisoner of war, according to the report of Justin. . . . . The king of Ormuz appeared at this time with a very melancholy countenance, dressed in a rich Persian habit of gold and silk, with a upper garment on his back, of much the same form

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