of the temple of Mecca, to render it more venerable. D'HERBELOT, Bibl. Orient.

"On entering the first large hall we were stopt by a silver grating, where we were obliged to take off our shoes and here we remarked the veneration of the Persians for the threshold of a holy place; a feeling that they preserve in some degree even for the threshold of their houses. Before they ventured to cross it, they knelt down and kissed it, whilst they were very careful not to touch it with their feet. In writing to a prince, or a great personage, it is common for them to say, let me make the dust of your threshold into Surmeh (Collyrium) for my eyes." MORIER's Second Journey through Persia, p. 254.

In a chapel adjoining to that in which the saint lies, in which one of the late kings of that country has a superb tomb, and is supposed to lie interred, are seven sacred songs, written in large letters of gold, on a blue ground, in so many distinct panels, in honour of Aaly, Mohammed's son-in-law, and the great saint of the Persians, as also the ancestor of that female saint that lies entombed there. Among other extravagant expressions of praise, there is this distich in the fourth hymn: "The angelic messenger of the truth, Gabriel, kisses every day the threshold of thy gate, because it is the only way to arrive at the throne of Mohammed."

AMOS V. 19. As if he leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him.] Serpents sometimes concealed themselves in the holes and chinks of the walls of the Eastern houses. This is confirmed by a remarkable story related by D'HERBELOT:-Amadeddulat, who reigned in Persia in the tenth century, found himself reduced to great difficulties, arising from want of attention to his treasury. Walking one day in one of the rooms of his palace, which had been before that time the residence of Jacout, his antagonist, he perceived a serpent, which put its head out of a chink in the wall; he immediately ordered that the place should be searched, and the serpent killed. In opening the wall there, they found a secret

place, in which they could not discover the serpent, but a treasure which was lodged in several coffers, in which Jacout had deposited his most precious effects.

AMOS ix. 6. It is he that buildeth his stories in the heaven.] The chief rooms of the houses of Aleppo at this day are those above, the ground floor being chiefly made use of for their horses and servants. Perhaps the prophet referred to this circumstance, when he spoke of the heavens as God's chambers, the most noble and splendid apartments of the palace of God, where his presence is chiefly manifested, and the collection of its offices, its numerous little mean divisions of this earth.

"In this country it is uncommon, except with the lower classes, to live upon the ground floor, which is, therefore, generally occupied as out-buildings: the first floor being that always inhabited by the family." HOLLAND's Travels in Albania, p.158.

MATT. vii. 26. A foolish man which built his house upon the sand.] The fishermen in Bengal build their huts in the dry season on the beds of sand, from which the river has retired. When the rains set in, which they often do very suddenly, accompanied by violent north-west winds, the water pours down in torrents from the mountains. In one night multitudes of these huts are frequently swept away, and the place where they stood is the next morning undiscoverable. WARD's Hindoos, vol. ii. p.335. į

"It so happened, that we were to witness one of the greatest calamities that have occurred in Egypt in the recollection of any one living. The Nile rose this season three feet and a half above the highest mark left by the former inundation, with uncommon rapidity, and carried off several villages, and some hundreds of their inhabitants. I never saw any picture that could give a more correct idea of a deluge than the valley of the Nile in this season. The Arabs had expected an extraordinary inundation this year, in consequence of the scarcity of water the preceding season; but they did not apprehend it would rise to such a height. They generally erect fences of earth and reeds around their villages, to keep

the water from their houses; but the force of this inundation baffled all their efforts. Their cottages, being built of earth, could not stand one instant against the current; and no sooner did the water reach them, than it levelled them with the ground. The rapid stream carried off all that was before it; men, women, children, cattle, corn, every thing was washed away in an instant, and left the place where the village stood without any thing to indicate that there had ever been a house on the spot." BELZONI's Researches in Egypt, p. 299.

MATT. XX. 6, 7. And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us.] "The most conspicuous building in Hamadan is the Mesjid Jumah, a large mosque now falling into decay, and before it a maidan or square, which serves as a market-place. Here we ob

served every morning before the sun rose, that a numerous band of peasants were collected with spades in their hands, waiting, as they informed us, to be hired for the day to work in the surrounding fields. This custom, which I have never seen in any other part of Asia, forcibly struck me as a most happy illustration of our Saviour's parable of the labourers in the vineyard in the 20th chapter of Matthew, particularly when, passing by the same place late in the day, we still found others standing idle, and remembered his words, Why stand ye here all the day idle? as most applicable to their situation; for in putting the very same question to them, they answered us, Because no man hath hired us." MORIER'S Second Journey through Persia, p. 265.

The ayopa at Athens seems to have been in many respects similar to the forum at Rome; much business was transacted there, and the courts of justice held. Thither many resorted to hear the news, and the discourses of the philosophers. In the porticos there were many statues. XENOPHON in HIPPARCH. p. 560. ed. 1581. ESCHINES in Or. pro CTESIPH. CORN. Nepos, Vit. Miltiades, c. 6.

MARK ii. 4. They uncovered the roof where he was.] The most satisfactory interpretation of this passage may be obtained from Dr. SHAW, who acquaints us, that "the houses throughout the East are low, having generally a ground floor only, or one upper story, and flat roofed, the roof being covered with a strong coat of plaster of terrace. They are built round a paved court, into which the entrance from the street is through a gateway or passage-room furnished with benches, and sufficiently large to be used for receiving visits or transacting business. The stairs which lead to the roof are never placed on the outside of the house in the street, but usually in the gateway, or passage-room to the court, sometimes at the entrance within the court. This court is now called in Arabic, el woost, or the middle of the house; literally answering to To μEGOV of St. Luke, v. 19. It is customary to fix cords from the parapet walls, Deut. xxii. 8., of the flat roofs across this court, and upon them to expand a veil or covering, as a shelter from the heat. In this area probably our Saviour taught. The paralytic was brought on to the roof by making a way through the crowd to the stairs in the gateway, or by the terraces of the adjoining houses. They rolled back the veil, and let the sick man down over the parapet of the roof into the area or court of the house, before Jesus.' Trav. p. 277.

JOHN iv. 9. The Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.] "Nablous is now the principal city of Samaria: its walls are not very formidable, for I saw several inhabitants enter by climbing over them; and it has two gates. It contains about 1200 houses, nearly all Turks, there being very few Christians, and some Jews; which latter, here, and all through Samaria, are still divided from their brethren by the same schism which distinguished them of old." TURNER's Tour in the Levant, vol. ii. p. 156.

JOHN Xviii. 3. Lanterns.] NORDEN, among other particulars, has given some account of the lamps and anterns that they make use of commonly at Cairo.

"The lamp is of the palm-tree wood, of the height of twenty-three inches, and made in a very gross manner. The glass that hangs in the middle is half filled with water, and has oil on the top, about three fingers in depth. The wick is preserved dry at the bottom of the glass, where they have contrived a place for it, and ascends through a pipe. These lamps do not give much light, yet they are very commodious, because they are transported easily from one place to another.

"With regard to the lanterns, they have pretty nearly the figure of a cage, and are made of reeds. It is a collection of five or six glasses, like to that of the lamp which has been just described. They suspend them by cords in the middle of the streets, when there is any great festival at Cairo, and they put painted paper in the place of the reeds." Part i. p. 83.

Were these the lanterns that those who came to take Jesus made use of? or were they such lamps as these that Christ referred to in the parable of the virgins? or are we rather to suppose that these lanterns are appropriated to the Egyptian illuminations, and that Pococke's account of the lanterns of this country will give us a better idea of those that were anciently made use of at Jerusalem? Speaking of the travelling of the people of Egypt, he says, "By night they rarely make use of tents, but lie in the open air, having large lanterns made like a pocket paper-lantern, the bottom and top being of copper tinned over, and instead of paper they are made with linen, which is extended by hoops of wire, so that when it is put together it serves as a candlestick, &c. and they have a contrivance to hang it up abroad by means of three staves."

ACTs ix. 34. Arise, and make thy bed.] Mattresses, or something of that kind, were used for sleeping upon. The Israelites formerly lay upon carpets. Amos ii. 8. RUSSELL (p. 90.) says, the "beds consist of a mattress laid on the floor, and over this a sheet (in winter, a carpet or some such woollen covering), the other sheet being sewed to the quilt. A divan cushion often serves for a pil,