low and bolster." They do not now keep their beds made: the mattresses are rolled up, carried away, and placed in cupboards till they are wanted at night. Hence we learn the propriety of our Lord's address to the paralytic, Arise, take up thy bed, and walk. Matt. ix. 6.

"Bed-chambers are not to be sought for in Greek or Turkish habitations. The sofas of their living apartments are the places of nightly repose with the higher classes the floor with those of inferior rank. Upon the sofas are spread their cotton or woollen mattresses, cotton sheets, sometimes with worked muslin trimmings, and ornamented quilts. Neither men nor women take off more than a small part of their dress; and the lower classes seldom make any change whatever, before throwselves down among the coarse woollen cloaks, which form their nightly covering." HOLLAND'S Travels in

Albania, p. 158.

ACTS xx. 8, 9. And there were many lights in the upper chamber where they were gathered together. And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep; and as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead.] “The house in which I am at present living gives what seems to me a correct idea of the scene of Eutychus's falling from the upper loft while Paul was preaching. Acts xx. 6. 12. According to our idea of houses, the scene is very far from intelligible: and, besides this, the circumstance of preaching generally leaves on the mind of cursory readers the notion of a church. To describe this house, which is not many miles distant from the Troad, and perhaps, from the unchanging character of Oriental customs, nearly resembles the houses then built, will fully illustrate the narrative. On entering my host's door, we find the first floor entirely used as a store; it is filled with large barrels of oil, the produce of the rich country for many miles round: this space, so far from being habitable, is sometimes so dirty with the dripping of the oil, that it is difficult to pick out a clean footing from

On ascend

the door to the first step of the staircase. ing, we find the first floor, consisting of an humble suite of rooms, not very high; these are occupied by the family, for their daily use. It is on the next story that all their expense is lavished: here my courteous host has appointed my lodging: beautiful curtains and mats, and cushions to the divan, display the respect with which they mean to receive their guest. Here, likewise, their splendour, being at the top of the house, is enjoyed by the poor Greeks, with more retirement, and less chance of molestation from the intrusion of Turks; here, when the professors of the college waited upon me to pay their respects, they were received in ceremony, and sat at the window. The room is both higher and also larger than those below; it has two projecting windows; and the whole floor is so much extended in front beyond the lower part of the building, that the projecting windows considerably overhang the street. In such an upper room, secluded, spacious, and commodious, St. Paul was invited to preach his parting discourse. The divan, or

raised seat, with mats or cushions, encircles the interior of each projecting window; and I have remarked, that, when the company is numerous, they sometimes place large cushions behind the company seated on the divan; so that a second tier of company, with their feet upon the seat of the divan, are sitting behind, higher than the front row. Eutychus, thus sitting, would be on a level with the open window; and, being overcome with sleep, he would easily fall out from the third loft of the house into the street, and be almost certain, from such a height, to lose his life. Thither St. Paul went down, and comforted the alarmed company by bringing up Eutychus alive. It is noted, that there were many lights in the upper chamber. The very great plenty of oil in this neighbourhood would enable them to afford many lamps; the heat of these and so much company would cause the drowsiness of Eutychus, at that late hour, and be the occasion likewise of the windows being open." JoWETT'S Christian Researches in the Mediterranean, p. 66.

PHIL. ii. 15. Among whom ye shine as lights in the world.] This metaphor has an allusion to the buildings which we call light-houses, the most illustrious of which was raised in the island of Pharos, when Ptolemy Philadelphus built that celebrated tower, on which a bright flame was always kept burning in the night, that mariners might perfectly see their way, and be in no danger of suffering shipwreck. Some of these lighthouses were constructed in the form of human figures. The colossus at Rhodes held in one hand a flame which enlightened the whole port. These lights were also sometimes moveable, and were used to direct the marches of the caravans in the night. Pitts thus describes them :"They are somewhat like iron stoves, into which they put short dry wood, which some of the camels are loaded with. Every cotter hath one of these poles belonging to it, some of which have ten, some twelve of these lights on their tops, and they are likewise of different figures, one perhaps oval, another triangular, or like an N or M, &c. so that every one knows by them his respective cotter. They are carried in the front, and set up in the place where the caravan is to pitch, before that comes up, at some distance from one another." Dr. PoCOCKE, Travels, vol. i. p. 33.

CHAP. II.

MARRIAGE.

GEN. xxiv. 4. Thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac.] A young person in Bengal is like Isaac; he has nothing to do in the choice of his wife. Parents employ others to seek wives for their sons. Those who leave their homes in search of employment, always marry their children in their country, and among their acquaintance at home;

never among the people with whom they reside. WARD'S View of the Hindoos, vol. ii. p. 315.

"The retired life of the Eastern women, which seldom allows a young man to make a free choice, as he cannot judge of the temper of the young woman, nor of their mute, but significant expression, under the veil, had introduced the custom, that the parents took it upon them to choose wives for their sons. We have seen that Hagar gave Ishmael an Egyptian woman for his wife. In the first heroic times of Greece, the same custom prevailed, and on the same grounds. As many wars had arisen from violently carrying off women or virgins, it was thought they could not be guarded with sufficient care. Hence the youth was seldom acquainted with the bride, whom the father had asked for him. Achilles refused the offered choice of the three daughters of Agamemnon, and said that his father Peleus would give him a wife." STOLLBERG'S History of Religion, part i. p. 141.

GEN. xxix. 20. And Jacob served seven years for Rachel: and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her.] HERODOTUS (Clio, p. 82. edit. Gale,) mentions a very singular custom among the Babylonians, which may serve to throw light on the conduct of Laban towards Jacob. "In every district they annually assemble all the marriageable virgins on a certain day; and when the men are come together, and stand round the place, the crier, rising up sells one after another, always bringing forward the most beautiful first and having sold her for a great sum of gold, he puts up her who is esteemed second in beauty. On this occasion, the richest of the Babylonians used to contend for the fairest wife, and to outbid one another; but the vulgar are content to take the ugly and lame with money for when all the beautiful virgins are sold, the crier orders the most deformed to stand up, and after he has openly demanded who will marry her with a small sum, she is at length given to the man that is contented to marry her with the least. In this manner, the money arising from the sale of the handsome, serves

D

for a portion to those whose look is disagreeable, or who have any bodily imperfection. A father was not permitted to indulge his own fancy in the choice of a husband for his daughter, neither might the purchaser carry off the woman which he had bought, without giving sufficient security that he would live with her as his own wife. Those also who received a sum of money with such as could bring no price in this market, were obliged to give sufficient security that they would live with them; and if they did not, they were compelled to refund the money."

In Java, the consent of the relations being obtained, the bridegroom is bound to serve the parents of the bride for a year. RAFFLES's History of Java, vol. i. p. 325.

"The Naudowesies have a singular method of celebrating their marriages, which seems to bear no resemblance to those made use of by any other I passed through. When one of their young men has fixed upon a young woman he approves of, he discovers his passion to her parents, who give him an invitation to come and live with them in their tent: he accordingly accepts the offer, and by so doing engages to reside in it for a whole year in the character of a menial servant; during this time he hunts, and brings all the game he kills to the family: by which means the father has an opportunity of seeing, whether he is able to provide for the support of his daughter, and the children that may be the consequence of their union. This, however, is only done whilst they are young men, and for their first wife, and not repeated like Jocob's servitude. When this period is expired, the marriage is solemnized after the custom of the country." CLARK and LEWIS's Tr. to the Missouri, p. 101.

"In the mode of marriage by Ambel Ana, the father. of a virgin makes choice of some young man for her husband, generally from an inferior family, who renounces all farther right to, or interest in him, and he is taken into the house of his father-in-law, who kills a buffaloe on the occasion, and receives twenty dollars from the son's relations; after this, the booroo bye'nya (the good and bad of him) is vested in the wife's family. If he