of the same length with the square court on the sides of which they are built, he adds, "at one end of each chamber there is a little gallery raised three, four, or five feet above the floor, with a balustrade in the front of it, with a few steps likewise leading up to it. Here they place their beds; a situation frequently alluded to in the Holy Scriptures, which may likewise illustrate the circumstance of Hezekiah's turning his face, when he prayed, towards the wall (i. e. from his attendants), 2 Kings, xx. 2., that the fervency of his devotion might be the less taken notice of and observed. The like is related of Ahab, 1 Kings, xxi. 4.; though probably he did thus, not upon a religious account, but in order to conceal from his attendants the anguish he was in for his late disappointment.

RUSSELL (Nat. Hist. of Aleppo, p. 4.) gives a similar account. He says, that the oriental divan or sophy is 66 a part of the room raised above the floor, and spread with a carpet in winter, in summer with fine mats; along the sides are thick mattresses about three feet wide, covered commonly with scarlet cloth, and large bolsters of brocade, hard-stuffed with cotton, are set against the walls (or rails, when so situated as not to touch the wall) for the conveniency of leaning. As they use no chairs, it is upon these they sit; and all their rooms are so furnished."

2 KINGS, Xi. 2. Bed-chamber.] A bed-chamber does not, according to the usage of the East, mean a lodging room, but a repository for beds. Chardin says, “In the East beds are not raised from the ground with posts, a canopy, and curtains; people lie on the ground. In the evening they spread out a mattress or two of cotton, very light, of which they have several in great houses, against they should have occasion, and a room on purpose for them." From hence it appears that it was in a chamber of beds that Joash was concealed.

1 CHRON. ix. 18. The king's gate.] This gate was so called because Solomon built it and the rest of the wall on that side at an extraordinary trouble and ex

pense, raising the foundation four hundred cubits, or seven hundred and twenty nine feet seven inches from the bottom of the deep valley of Kidron, by means of large stones, twenty cubits, or thirty-six feet five inches long, and six cubits, ten feet or ten inches high (JOSEPHUS, Ant. xx. 9.), so as to be on an equality with the rest of the surface. When Captain LIGHT visited Jerusalem, in 1814, some of these large stones seem to have been remaining; for when describing the Turkish aga's house, which is built on the spot where the house of Pontius Pilate formerly stood, he says, p. 157., "What attracted my observation most, were three or four layers of immense stones, apparently of the ancient town, forming part of the walls of the palace." The ancients delighted in building with these large kind of stones; for, in the ruins which we have of ancient buildings, they are often to be found of great magnitude. Mr. WOOD, in his Ruins of Palmyra and Balbec, states, "that the stones which compose the sloping wall of the latter are enormous; some are from twenty-eight to thirty-five feet long, and nine feet high. There are three of the following dimensions : fifty-eight feet high, and twelve thick: they are of white granite, with large shining flakes like gypsum."

At Bagdad, the gate Al Talism is " now bricked up, in honour of its having been entered in triumph by the sultan Murad, after his having recovered Bagdad from the Persians, and the weak grasp of the unworthy son of the great Abbas. In consequence of this signal event, the portal was instantly closed on the victor having marched through, and, from that day, has never been re-opened. This custom of shutting up any passage that has been peculiarly honoured, that it may not be profaned by vulgar footsteps, appears to have prevailed very generally over the East. I found an instance of it at Ispahan, where the Ali Copi gate is, in like manner, held sacred for a similar reason.' Sir R. K. PORTER'S Travels in Persia, vol. ii. p. 262.

ESTHER, i.-6. The beds were of gold and silver.] The

beds of silver and gold may receive illustration from modern Asiatic furniture: the divan, or hall of audience, as also the room for receiving guests in private houses, is generally covered with a Persian carpet; round which are placed cushions of different shape and size, in cases of gold and silver kincob, or of scarlet cloth embroidered; these are occasionally moved into the courts and gardens, and placed under the shahmyanah for the accommodation of company. FORBES's Oriental Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 191.

"The internal materials of the destroyed palace, according to Q. CURTIUS (lib. v.), were cedar and other combustible substances: these, with the splendid hangings and carpets on the walls and floors, with the more ample draperies suspended over the usual openings in the sides of the grand saloons, for the double purpose of air and to shield them from the sun, would, altogether, when once the brand was set to the building, hasten its destruction. Such veils were of ancient use in Persia." Sir R. K. PORTER's Travels in Persia, vol. i. p. 648.

JOB, Xxiv. 16. Dig through houses.] The houses were built of mud, or at best with bricks formed from it, of a very soft texture, which rendered them liable to such an assault; the thickness of the walls, however, would require considerable labour to penetrate, and consequently digging would be requisite to effect a breach.

"Thieves in Bengal very frequently dig through the mud walls, and under the clay floors of houses, and entering unperceived, plunder them, while the inhabitants are asleep." WARD's View of the Hindoos, vol. ii. p. 325.

PROV. vii. 16. I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works.] What this bed was, and the manner in which it was ornamented, will clearly appear from the following extracts. "The time for taking our repose was now come, and we were conducted into another large room, in the middle of which was a kind of bed, without bedstead or curtains, though the coverlet and pillows exceeded in magnificence the rich

ness of the sofa, which likewise ornamented the apartment. I foresaw that I could expect but little rest on this bed, and had the curiosity to examine its make in a more particular manner. Fifteen mattresses, of quilted cotton, about three inches thick, placed one upon another, formed the groundwork, and were covered by a sheet of Indian linen, sewed on the last mattress. A coverlet of green satin, adorned with gold embroidery in embossed work, was in like manner fastened to the sheets, the ends of which, turned in, were sewed down alternately. Two large pillows of crimson satin, covered with the like embroidery, in which there was no want of gold or spangles, rested on two cushions of the sofa, brought near to serve for a back, and intended to support our heads. The taking of the pillows entirely away would have been a good resource if we had had any bolster ; and the expedient of turning the other side upwards having only served to show they were embroidered in the same manner on the bottom, we at last determined to lay our handkerchiefs over them, which, however, did not prevent our being very sensible of the embossed ornaments underneath." Du Toтt, vol. i. p. 95. “On a rich sofa was a false covering of plain green silk, for the same reason as that in the hall; but I lifted it up, while the two eunuchs who were with us had their backs turned, and I found that the makass of the minders was of a very rich brocade, with a gold ground, and flowered with silk of several colours, and the cushions of green velvet also, grounded with gold, and flowered like them." DE LA MOTRAVE, p. 172.

PROV. xxi. 9. In a wide house.] This expression the Lxx render εν οικω κοινω. The Vulgate, "in domo communi," in a common house; that is, in a house common or shared out to several families. Dr. SHAW (Travels, p. 207.) says, that "the general method of building both in Barbary and the Levant seems to have continued the same from the earliest ages down to this time, without the least alteration or improvement: large doors, spacious chambers, &c. The court is for the

most part surrounded with a cloister, over which, when the house has one or more stories, there is a gallery erected. From the cloisters or galleries we are conducted into large spacious chambers of the same length with the court, but seldom or never communicating with one another. One of them frequently serves a whole family; particularly when a father indulges his married children to live with him, or when several persons join in the rent of the same house." See also WARD'S View of the Hindoos, vol. iii. p. 196.

SOL. SONG, i. 5. I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.] Modern tents are sometimes very beautiful. "The Turks spare for nothing in rendering their tents convenient and magnificent. Those belonging to the Grand Signior were exceedingly splendid, and covered entirely with silk; and one of them lined with a rich silk stuff, the right side of which was the apartment for the eunuchs. But even this was exceeded by another, which I was informed cost twenty-five thousand piastres: it was made in Persia, and intended as a present to the Grand Signior; and was not finished in less than three or four years. The outside of this tent was not indeed remarkable; but it was lined with a single piece made of camels' hair, and beautifully decorated with festoons and sentences in the Turkish language." Travels, by EGMONT and HEYMAN, vol. i. p. 212.

Nadir Shah, out of the abundance of his spoils, caused a tent or tabernacle to be made of such beauty and magnificence as were almost beyond description. The outside was covered with fine scarlet broad cloth, the lining was of violet-coloured satin, on which were representations of all the birds and beasts in the creation, with trees and flowers, the whole made of pearls, diamonds, rubies, emeralds, amethysts, and other precious stones and the tent poles were decorated in like manner. On both sides of the peacock-throne was a screen, on which were the figures of two angels in precious stones. The roof of the tent consisted of seven pieces;