the two Dragomen (or interpreters of the Conful) kiffed the Pafha's garment, and put it to their foreheads, as foon as he was feated, when he granted a request that was made, and when they went away. Pitts, le Bruyn, and Thevenot', agree with Sandys alfo in the accounts they give of the common falutation. Which compliment the laft-mentioned author tells us, he saw the Grand Signior himfelf pay the people, when he rode through the treets of Conftantinople in great state, "He faluted all the people, having his

66

right-hand constantly on his breast, bowing first to one fide, and then to the “other; and the people with a low and reSpectful voice wished him all happiness and profperity. This form of falutation then between equals is what fuperiors also fometimes use to those that are much below them.

[+ When then fome Commentators tell us the ten mens taking hold of the fkirt of him that was a few, Zech. 8. 23, is to be confidered as a gefture of intreating friendly affiftance, they seem to be under a mistake: it is rather to be understood as an application of a moft fubmiffive kind, to be taken under his protection, or received among his dependants. Such an explanation of this gefture perfectly fuits the interpretation of thofe, that fuppose these words point out those acceffions to the Jewish Church and Nation, under the Afmonæan Princes, when feveral tribes of the Gentile world fubmitted to be circumcifed, and were incorporated with the Jews. Of these the Idumæans were the most celebrated; but there were others that thus united themselves with the Jewish nation. If. 3. 6. and 4. 1. are to be explained after the fame manner.]

5 Pitts, p. 66. Le Bruyn, Tom. I. p. 422. Thevenot, p. 30. Part 1. p. 87.

Shaw's

Shaw's account of the Arab compliment, Peace be unto you, or common falutation, agrees with what has been mentioned; but he farther tells us, that inferiors, out of deference and refpect, kifs the feet, the knees, or the garments of their fuperiors'; he might have added, or the bands; for d'Arvieux tells us, that though the Arab Emir he vifited withdrew his hand when he offered to kifs it, he frequently offered it to people to kiss when he had a mind to oblige them to do him that homage. They are not, however, expreffions of equal fubmiffion: the kiffing the band is not only apparently lefs lowly than that of the feet; but d'Arvieux exprefsly tells us fo in another passage", where he says, the women that wait on the Arab princeffes kifs their hands, when they do them the favour not to fuffer them to kifs their feet, or the border of their robe.

Dr. Shaw obferves, that in these respects the Arabs were juft the famę two or three thousand years ago as they are now and ceremonies of the like kind, we may believe, were used anciently among the neighbouring people too, as they are at this time. So our Lord represents a fervant as falling down at his mafter's feet when he had a favour to beg; and an inferior fervant as paying the fame compliment to the first, who was, it feems, a fervant of an higher class, Matt. xviii. 26, 29. In

like man

ner the Evangelift Luke tells us, that Jairus fell down at our Lord's feet, when he begged he would go and heal his daughter, chap. viii. 41; that St. Peter fell at the knees of Jefus, after the prefent Arab mode, I prefume, chap. v. 8; and he represents the woman, troubled with the iffue of blood, as touching the hem of his garment, which, I fuppofe, means kiffing it, Luke viii. 44. The other inhabitants of that country, we find, ufed the fame ceremonies: fo the SyroPhenician woman fell at our Lord's feet, Mark vii. 25, 26; not to mention the instances of remoter antiquity in the Old Tef

tament.

It is agreed, that there is fomething very graceful and noble in the forms of Eaftern falutation; fome of them however have appeared too low, and expreffive of too much difproportion. The natives of the Weft therefore, even when they have been in these Eastern countries, have not been wont to adopt these profound expreffions of respect. So Conon the Athenian, on account of that kind of adoration the kings of Perfia exacted of every one that came into their prefence, which the next citation will explain, declined perfonal converfe with that prince, and chose to tranfact his bufinefs with him by writing; not, he faid, that he was himSelf unwilling to pay any kind of honour to the king, but because he thought it might

See Rauwolff, p. 42. Pococke, vol. 1. p. 182.

be

be a difgrace to the ftate to which he belonged, if he fhould rather obferve, on this occafion, the ufage of thofe they called barbarians, than the forms of his countrymen. They however fometimes feem to have thought thefe expreflions of reverence too great for mortals, at least they fometimes fpoke of them in that strain: so Curtius tells us, that Alexander thought

12

the habit and manners of the Macedonian kings unequal to his greatness, after the conqueft of Afia, and was for being treated according to the modes of Perfia, where kings were reverenced after the manner of the Gods: he therefore fuffered people, in token of their refpect, to lay upon the ground before him, &c.

This was enough to lead St. Peter to say to Cornelius, a Roman, who received him with a reverence esteemed the lowest and moft fubmiffive even in the ceremonious Eaft, and which the Romans were wont to fpeak of as too folemn to be paid to mere men, "Stand up, I myself also am a man,' Acts x. 26; though Cornelius intended nothing idolatrous, nor did St. Peter fuppofe he did. In truth, there was fomething extraordinary in this proftration of Cornelius, but without any thing of idolatry. He was a perfon of rank, St. Peter made no figure in civil life, yet Cornelius received him not only with refpect, but as his fuperior; not only as his fuperior, but with the greatest "Corn. Nep. in Vitâ Con. 12 Lib. 6. c. 6

degree of reverence; not only with the greatest degree of reverence, according to the ufages of his own nation, but with an expreffion of veneration, which, though common in the country where Cornelius then refided, his countrymen were ready to fay ought to be appropriated to those that were more than men: but it feems he felt the greatest degree of reverence and awe at the fight of the Apostle, and thofe emotions threw him into the attitude he had frequently feen the inhabitants of Syria put themfelves in, when they would exprefs the greateft refpect, the rather as the Apostle was a native of that country.

The cafe of St. John's throwing himself at the feet of the Angel ", is to be viewed in a fomewhat different light. St. John did nothing at all but what was conformable to the ufages of his own country, when the people of it defigned innocently to exprefs great reverence and gratitude. It is aftonishing then that so many learned men should have looked upon it as an idolatrous proftration. Nothing however is more certain than this fact and it has been thus understood, not only by controverfial writers, when difputing with heat against their antagonists; but by the more cool and difpaffionate commentators. That they should not at all confider the Eastern ufages, is no wonder, they have been in common most unhappily ne13 Rev. 19. 10, and c. 22, 8.

glected;