a musical instrument, perfectly well preserved. From hence I should conclude, that this was the body of a person that used to play on this instrument, or at least of one that had a great taste for music. I am persuaded that if every mummy were examined with the like care, we should find some sign or other by which the character of the party would be known." The burying of those knives of flint with Joshua, must have been done, or supposed to have been done, as a mark of an event the most remarkable of his life, in conformity to the Egyptian modes of distinguishing the dead, by tokens of a similar HARMER, Vol. 4. p. 398.

nature.

No. 77.-JUDGES iii. 18.

When he had made an end to offer the present.

THERE is often in the east a great deal of pomp and parade in presenting their gifts. "Through ostentation," says MAILLET, (Lett. x. p. 86.) "they never fail to load upon four or five horses what might easily be carried by one. In like manner as to jewels, trinkets, and other things of value, they place in fifteen dishes, what a single plate would very well hold." Something of this pomp seems to be referred to in this passage, where we read of making an end of offering the present, and of a number of people who conveyed it. This remark also illustrates 2 Kings, viii. 9. So Hazael went to meet him, and took a present with him, even of every good thing of Damascus, forty camels burden.

HARMER, vol. ii. p. 18.

No. 78.-iii. 19. All that stood by him went out from him.] From a circumstance mentioned by Mr. BRUCE, it appears that Ehud acted in strict conformity to the customs of the time and place, so that neither the suspicion of the king nor his attendants should be excited by his conduct. It was usual for the attendants to retire when secret messages were to be delivered. "I drank a dish of coffee, and told him, that I was a bearer of a confidential message from Ali Bey of Cairo, and wished to deliver it to him without witnesses, whenever he pleased. The room was accordingly cleared without delay, excepting his secretary, who was also going away, when I pulled him back by the clothes, saying, stay, if you please; we shall need you to write the answer." (Travels, vol. i. p. 153.)

No. 79,-iii, 31. And after him was Shamgar, the son of Anath, which slew of the Philistines six hundred men with an ox-goad.] Mr. MAUNDRELL, (Journey at April, 15.) has an observation which at once explains this transaction, and removes every difficulty from the passage. He says, "the country people were now every where at plough in the fields, in order to sow cotton. It was observable, that in plowing they used goads of an extraordinary size; upon measuring of several, I found them about eight feet long, and at the bigger end six inches in circumference. They were armed at the lesser end with a sharp prickle for driving the oxen, and at the other end with a small spade, or paddle of iron, strong and massy, for cleansing the plough from the clay that encumbers it in working. May we not from hence conjecture, that it was with such a goad as one of these, that Shamgar made that prodigious slaughter related of him, Judges iii. 21. I am confident that whoever should see one of these instruments, would judge it to be a weapon not less fit, perhaps fitter, than a sword for such an execution. Goads of this sort I saw always used hereabouts, and also in Syria; and the reason is, because the same single person both drives the oxen, and also holds and manages the plough; which makes it necessary to use such a goad as is above described, to avoid the incumbrance of two instruments."

No. 80.-iv. 17-20.] PococKE, giving an account of the manner in which he was treated in an Arab tent, in his journey to Jerusalem, says his conductor led him two or three miles to his tent, and that there he sat with his wife and others round a fire. "The Arabs are not so scrupulous as the Turks about their women, and though they have their harem, or women's part of

the tent, yet such as they are acquainted with come into it. I was kept in the harem for greater security; the wife being always with me, no stranger ever daring to come into the women's apartment, unless introduced." Vol. ii. p. 5. Nothing can be a better comment on this passage than this story.

No. 81. iv. 21. A nail of the tent.] SHAW, describing the tents of the Bedoween Arabs, (p. 221.) says, "these tents are kept firm and steady, by bracing or stretching down their eves with cords tied down to hooked wooden pins well pointed, which they drive into the ground with a mallet; one of these pins answering to the nail, as the mallet docs to the hammer, which Jael used in fastening to the ground the temples of Sisera."

No. 82. v. 6. In the days of Shamgar, the son of Anath, the highways were unoccupied, and the travellers walked through by-ways.] Though there are roads in the eastern countries, it is very easy to turn out of them, and to go to a place by winding about over the lands when that is thought safer. Shaw took notice of this circumstance in Barbary, where he says they found no hedges, or mounds, or inclosures, to retard or molest them. (Travels, pref. p. 14.) To this Deborah doubtless refers, when she says, In the days of Shamgar, the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied, and the travellers walked through by-ways. The account Pococke gives of the manner in which the Arab, under whose care he had put himself, conducted him to Jerusalem, greatly illustrates this circumstance; he says, "It was by night, and not by the high road, but through the fields; and I observed that he avoided as much as he could going near any village or encampment, and some-- ·

times stood still, as I thought, to hearken." Just in that manner people were obliged to travel in Judea in the days of Shamgar and Jael. HARMER, vol. i. p. 452.

No. 83. v. 25. Butter.] D'ARVIEUX informs us (Voy. dans la Pal. p. 200.) that the Arabs make butter by churning in a leathern bottle. Hence Jael is said to have opened a bottle of milk for Sisera, Judges iv. 19. Mr. HARMER (vol. i. p. 281.) supposes that she had just been churning, and pouring out the contents of her bottle into one of the best bowls or dishes she had, presented this butter-milk to him to quench his thirst.

No. 84. vi. 38. And it was so; for he rose up early on the morrow, and thrust the fleece together, and wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water.] It may seem a little improbable to us who inhabit these northern climates, where the dews are inconsiderable, how Gideon's fleece, in one night, should contract such a quantity, that when he came to wring it, a bowl full of water was produced. Irwin, in his voyage up the Red Sea, when on the Arabian shores, says, "difficult as we find it to keep ourselves cool in the day time, it is no easy matter to defend our bodies from the damps of the night, when the wind is loaded with the heaviest dews that ever fell; we lie exposed to the whole weight of the dews, and the cloaks in which we wrap ourselves, are as wet in the morning as if they had been immersed in the sea." p. 87.

No. 85.-ix. 27. Trod the grapes.] In the east they still tread their grapes after the ancient manner. August 20, 1765, the vintage (near Smyrna) was now be gun, the juice (of the grapes) was expressed for wine; a man, with his feet and legs bare, was treading the fruit in

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