be proposed. The rescripts of authority are wont to be kissed whether they are believed to be just or not, except in cases where persons assume something of independence; nay, the letters of people of figure are treated after this manner by persons over whom they have no authority, and who know not the contents of them, merely because they are letters of people of figure *; it is possible therefore these words may rather refer to another Eastern custom, which d'Arvieux gives an account of in his description of the Arabs of Mount Carmel, who, when they present any petition to their Emir for a favour, offer their billets to him with their right-hands, after having first kissed the papers. The Hebrew manner of expression is short, and Proverbs have a peculiar shortness: Every lip shall kiss, one maketh to return a right answer, that is, every one shall be ready to present the state of his cafe, kissing it as he delivers it, when there is a judge whose decisions are celebrated for their being equitable. So another of these apophthegms of Solomon is delivered with

+ So la Roque, in his Syrian travels, tells us, that as he and his companions drew near Balbec, two Arab horsemen accosted them very roughly; but on being told they had a letter for the Scheik of Balbec, which had been given them, it seems, by a Maronite Scheik, with both of which Scheiks these Arabs had a good understanding, they, after having looked at the letter, lifted it to their heads, and kiffing it, civilly dismissed them. Tom. 1. p. 94, 95.

Voy. dans la Pal. p. 155.

fomething something of the like turn of expression, A crown of glory the hoary head, in the way of righteousness it shall be found: that is, the hoary head is a crown of glory, when it is found in the way of righteousness.

OBSERVATION XXI.

They that are more intimately acquainted, or of equal age and dignity, mutually kiss the hand, the head, or shoulder of each other, Dr. Shaw says *.

It is a rule with me not to repeat any of this learned author's obfervations on Scripture, as I suppose my curious readers acquainted with his book; but as he has not applied this observation to any passage in the Bible, it cannot be amiss to remark, that those passages there, which speak of falling on the neck and kiffing a person, seem to have a reference to this Eastern way of kissing the shoulder in an embrace '.

OBSERVATION XXII.

Dr. Shaw takes no notice of their taking hold of the beard in order to kiss, but Thevenot doth', saying, that among the Turks it is a great affront to take one by the beard, unless it be to kiss him, in which cafe they often do it.

XIV.

XV.

Whether he means by kissing him, kiffing his beard, or not, I do not know; but Joab's taking Amasa by the beard to kiss him, 2 Sam. xx. 9, feems to be designed to express his taking his beard to kifs it, at least this is agreeable to the customs of those that now live in that country: for d'Arvieux, describing the assembling together of several of the petty Arab princes at an entertainment, telleth us that "All the Emirs came just " together a little time after, accompanied

by their friends and attendants, and after " the usual civilities, caresses, kissings of the "beard, and of the hand, which every one

gave and received according to his rank " and dignity, they fat down upon mats."

He elsewhere speaks of the women's kiffing their husbands beards, and children those of their fathers, and friends reciprocally faluting one another in this manner; but the doing it by their Emirs more exactly answers this history of Joab and Amasa, and in this stooping posture he could much better see to direct the blow, than if he had

2

* Voy. dans la Pal. par la Roque, p. 71.

3 P. 144,

145. [+ The wives in that country are held in fuch fubmiffion, that it is reasonable to think, their, caresses are mingled with more humiliating marks of respect than kiffing the beard: the Pfalmist seems to suppose so, when he says, (Pf. xlv. 11,) So shall the king greatly defire thy beauty: " for he is thy Lord, and worship thou him," on which the manufcript I have so often quoted observes, that this alludes to the great respect and submission of women towards their husbands in these countries.

only

only held his beard, and raised himself to kiss his face.

OBSERVATION XXIII.

The indignity, on the other hand, offered to David's ambassadors by Hanun, might perhaps be better illustrated by what the fame author tells us of the present usages of the inhabitants of this country, than by those examples that Bishop Patrick has brought from more distant nations, and in particular from the Indians, and the Ger

mans.

It is a greater mark of infamy, he affures us, among the Arabs that he visited, to cut off any one's beard, than whipping and branding with the flower-de-luce among the French, Many people in that country, he tells us, would prefer death to this kind of punishment.

And as they would think it a grievous punishment to lose it, so they carry things fo far as to beg for the fake of it, "by your "beard, by the life of your beard do." like manner some of their benedictions are, "God preserve your blessed beard, God

In

pour his blessings on your beard." And when they would express their value for a

Mos enim est Orientalibus, tam Græcis quam aliis nationibus, barbas totâ curâ & omni folicitudine nutrire; pro fummoque probro & majori quæ unquam irrogari poffic ignomia reputare, fi vel unus pilus quocunque fibi de cafu barba cum injuria detrahatur, says William of Tyre, an Eastern archbishop, Gesta Dei. p. 802.]

E 4

thing,

XVI. XVII.

thing, they say, "It is worth more than his " beard."

I never had so clear an apprehenfion, I must confefs, as after I had read these accounts, of the intended energy of that thought of Ezekiel, where the inhabitants of Jerufalem are compared to the hair of the Prophet's head and beard'. That passage seems to fignify, that though the inhabitants of Jerufalem had been dear to God as the hair of an eastern beard to its owner, yet that they should be taken away and confumed, one part by pestilence and famine, another part by the sword, and the third by the calamities of an exile.

[Niebuhr has given us an account of a modern Arab prince's treating a Perfian envoy, in the same manner as Hanun treated the beards of David's ambassadors, which brought a powerful Persian army upon him, in 1765; but it seems, he was a very brutal prince, and bore a most detestable character.}

OBSERVATION XXIV.

Our Lord reproaches the Pharisee who invited him to eat bread, Luke vii, that he had given him no kiss, whereas the perfon he had been cenfuring in his heart had not ceased kissing his feet from her entrance into the house. It is visible, by the contraft our

Ch, 7.

3 Ezek. 5.

4

P. 275.

Lord