after nature by Virgil in the eighth book of his Æneid. I have a living portrait of the same kind constantly before my eyes. The lamp of a pretty neighbour of mine, who follows that trade, is always lighted before day, and her young assistants are all at work betimes in the morning." No. 215.-ECCLESIASTES iii. 7. A time to sew. PUTTING on new clothes is thought by the people of the East very requisite for the due solemnization of a time of rejoicing. Hasselquist says (p. 400.) "The Turks, even the poorest of them, must absolutely have new clothes at the bairam," or great festival. The rending mentioned in this verse, undoubtedly refers to the oriental mode of expressing sorrow: the sewing is designed as an opposite to it: it appears then from this consideration, connected with the custom now mentioned, to intend a time of making up new vestments, rather than, as has been commonly understood, the reparation of old ones. HARMER, vol. ii. p. 119. No. 216.-vii. 6. The crackling of thorns under a pot.] Cow-dung dried was the fuel commonly used for firing, but this was remarkably slow in burning. On this account the Arabs would frequently threaten to burn a person with cow-dung as a lingering death. When this was used it was generally under their pots. This fuel is a very striking contrast to thorns and furze, and things of that kind, which would doubtless be speedily consumed, with the crackling noise alluded to in this passage. Probably it is this contrast which gives us the energy of the comparison. HARMER, vol. i. p. 261. No. 217.-x. 7. I have seen servants riding upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth.] Riding on an horse is a very honourable thing in the East, and what Europeans are not in common permitted to do. They are ridden in a very stately manner. It is contrary to the Turkish dignity to go on an horse faster than a foot pace in the streets. When they appear thus abroad they are attended with a number of servants. Ideas of stateliness consequently attach themselves to riding on horseback. In other instances, asses were very much used both by the men and by the women, but the former practice became so prevalent in the time of Solomon, that speaking of state and pomp, he says, I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth. HARMER, vol. ii. p. 104. No. 218. xii. 4. The doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low.] The people in the East bake every day, and usually grind their corn as they want it. The grinding is the first work in the morning. This grinding with their mills makes a considerable noise, or rather, as Sir John Chardin says, "the songs of those who work them." May not this help to explain the meaning of this passage, in which the royal preacher, describing the infirmities of old age, among other weaknesses, says, the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low? that is, the feeble old man shall not be able to rise from his bed early in the morning to attend that necessary employment of grinding corn, consequently his doors shall be shut; neither will the noise of their songs, which are usual at that employment, be heard, or when it is heard, it will be only in a low feeble tone. No. 219.-SOLOMON's SONG i. 9. I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses. THIS appears a very coarse compliment to a mere English reader, arising from the difference of our manners; but the horse is an animal in very high estimation in the East. The Arabians are extravagantly fond of their horses, and caress them as if they were their children. D'Arvieux gives a diverting account of the affectionate caresses an Arab used to give a mare which belonged to him. He had sold it to a merchant at Rama, and when he came to see it, (which he very frequently did) he would weep over it, kiss its eyes, and when he departed, go backwards, bidding it adieu in the most tender manner. The horses of Egypt are so remarkable for stateliness and beauty, as to be sent as presents of great value to the sublime porte; (MAILLET, Lett. ix. and xiii.) and it appears from sacred history, that they were in no less esteem formerly among the kings of Syria, and of the Hittites, as well as Solomon himself, who bought his horses at 150 shekels, which (at Dean Prideaux's calculation of three shillings the shekel) is £. 22. 10s. each, a very considerable price at which to purchase twelve thousand horses together. The qualities, which form the beauty of these horses, are tallness, proportionable corpulency, and stateliness of manner; the same qualities which they admire in their women, particularly corpulency, which is known to be one of the most esteemed characters of beauty in the East. Niebuhr says, as plumpness is thought a beauty in the East, the women in order to obtain this beauty, swallow, every morning and every evening, three of these insects, (a species of tenebriones) fried in butter." Upon this principle is founded the compliment of Solomon; and it is remarkable that the elegant Theocritus, in his epithalamium for the celebrated queen Helen, whom he described as plump and large, uses exactly the same image, comparing her to the horse in the chariots of Thessaly. (Idyl. xviii. ver. 29.) WILLIAMS's New Translation of Solomon's No. 220.-i. 13. A bundle of myrrh is my well beloved unto me, he shall lie all night between my breasts.] The eastern women amongst other ornaments used little perfume boxes, or vessels filled with perfumes, to smell at, These were worn suspended from the neck, and hanging down on the breast. This circumstance is alluded to in the bundle of myrrh. These olfactoriola or smelling boxes, (as the Vulg. rightly denominates them) are still in use among the Persian women, to whose "necklaces, which fall below the bosom, is fastened a large box of sweets; some of these boxes are as big as one's hand; the common ones are of gold, the others are covered with jewels. They are all bored through, and filled with a black paste very light, made of musk and amber, but of very strong smell." Complete System of Geography, vol. ii. p. 175. - No. 221. ii. 3. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.] "Shade, according to Mr. Wood, in his description of the ruins of Balbec (p. 5.) is an essential article in oriental luxury. The greatest people seek these refreshments as well as the meaner. So Dr. Pococke found the patriarch of the Maronites (who was of one of their greatest families) and a bishop sitting under a tree. (Travels, vol. ii. p. 95.) Any tree that is thick and spreading doth for them; but it must certainly be an addition to their enjoying of themselves, when the tree is of a fragrant |