agreeably to the fashion of the country." SALT's Voyage to Abyssinia, p. 115.

"As soon as we arrived at the village of Howakil, a very neat hut was prepared for me; and as the evening was far advanced, I consented to stay for the night. Nothing could exceed the kindness of these good people; a kid was killed, and a quantity of fresh milk was brought and presented in straw baskets made of the leaves of the doom-tree, seared over with wax, a manufacture in which the natives of these islands particularly excel.” Ibid. p. 188.

JOHN, xiii. 23. Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved.] Light is thrown on this passage by what D'ARVIEUX Says of the mode in which the Arabs eat. "They seat themselves at table, so that the shoulders of one are turned towards the breast of the other, all the right hands are turned towards the dishes, the left hands are away from them, and they use them only to lean upon them, when the great number of persons at table obliges them to be in this inconvenient posture."

CHAP. VI.

DRESS AND CLOTHING.

GEN. xxiv. 65. She took a veil and covered herself.] Covering the head was practised on three occasions. In cases of grief and mourning, 2 Sam. xix. 2., as an expression of reservedness and modesty, Gen. xxiv. 65., and as a testimony or token of the greatest respect and reverence, or when an inferior was unable to bear the sight and splendour of another's majesty and greatness. Thus Elijah (1 Kings, xix. 43.), when he heard the voice of God on Mount Horeb, wrapped his face in his mantle.

Covering the face with a veil, was the practice of all nations. The Romans, in particular, were so strict and punctual in the use of it, that when C. Sulpitius Gallus knew his wife had appeared abroad without it, he divorced her only on that account.

The veiling of the bride was a very ancient custom, as PLINY also says, (Nat. Hist. b. xxi. chap. 8.) TERTULLIAN (de Virginibus, velandis, c. ii.), when speaking of Rebecca, who went to meet her bridegroom veiled, observes, as a custom still existing in his time, that the heathen brides were also conducted to their intended husbands, covered with a veil. Hence the Romans used the word nuptiæ, for marriage, which is derived from nubere, to cover, to veil. OLEARIUS says,

in his Travels in Persia, (p. 108.), that in Russia, Persia, and Armenia, the bride, while sitting at table, has a handkerchief thrown over her head, which covers her face.

GEN. XXVii. 27. The smell of his raiment.] The Orientals endeavour to perfume their clothes in various ways. They sprinkle them with sweet-scented oils, extracted from spices; they fumigate them with the most valuable incense or scented wood, and also sew the wood of the aloe in their clothes. By some of these means, Jacob's clothes were perfumed. PLINY observes, (Nat. Hist. b. xvii. chap. 5.) "that the land, after a long drought, moistened by the rain, exhales a delightful odour, with which nothing can be compared:" and soon after he adds, that "it is a sign of a fruitful soil, when it emits an agreeable smell, when it has been ploughed."

"that

GEN. XXXVii. 3. He made him a coat of many colours.] RAUWOLF (Travels, part i. p. 89.) says, Turks of rank at Aleppo dress their sons, when they are a little grown, and can walk, in loose coats of a fine texture, in which various colours are woven, and which look very handsome.

"The service (in the church at Assalt) appeared to me nearly the same as I had before witnessed in the Greek churches of Asia Minor, and differed only in being

performed in the Arabic instead of the Greek language. The priest wore a coat of many colours; a garment apparently as much esteemed throughout these parts in the present day, as it was in the days of the patriarch Jacob, who had one made for his favourite son Joseph: or in the time of Sisera, when a coat of divers colours was enumerated among the rich trophies and spoils of the battle of Tabor or Kishon." BUCKINGHAM's Travels

among the Arab Tribes, p. 31.

GEN. XXXIX. 12.

And he left his garment in her hand, and fled.] "The practice of tying the garments of offenders, I may here take occasion to mention, appears to elucidate very clearly a passage in the Old Testament, which always struck me before, as attended with considerable obscurity. The circumstance I allude to, relates to the story of Potiphar's wife and Joseph, in which it is mentioned, that, when she could not prevail upon him to comply with her desires, she caught him by the garment, and said, Lie with me; and he left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out: and when she accused Joseph to her husband, she produced the garment as an evidence of his guilt, saying, the Hebrew servant which thou hast brought unto us, came in unto me to mock me; and it came to pass, as I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment with me and fled out: and immediately on hearing these words, Potiphar's wrath was kindled, and Joseph was consigned to a prison. Now, it appears, upon reading this without explanation, that Potiphar, who seems to have been a good man, acted on this occasion with extreme injustice, as he does not seem to have made any inquiry into Joseph's guilt, but at once, on the assertion of his wife, commits him to a prison. On the contrary, if the same custom as the one which is now general in Abyssinia, at that time prevailed in Egypt, it will be seen that Potiphar acted justly, according to the established rule of the country, it being always considered as a sure proof of guilt, which requires no further evidence to be adduced, if a man, after being once laid hold of, runs away

and leaves his garment behind." SALT'S Voyage to Abyssinia, p. 409. GEN. xlv. 22. To all of them he gave each man. changes of raiment.] Presents of garments appear to have been common amongst all ranks of people in the East. The passage now cited is an instance in point. See also 2 Chron. ix. 24. This custom is still preserved. DE LA MOTRAVYE furnishes us with some particular information on this subject. "The vizier entered at another door, and their excellencies rose to salute him after their manner, which was returned by a little inclining of his head after which he sat down on the corner of his sofa, which is the most honourable place: then his chancellor, his kiahia, and the chiaouz bashaw came and stood before him, till coffee was brought in; after which, M. de Châteauneuf presented M. de Ferriol to him, as his successor, who delivering him the king his master's letters, complimenting him as from his majesty and himself, to which the vizier answered very obligingly: then, after some discourse, which turned upon the reciprocal readiness of propension towards the continuance of good intelligence between the Porte and the court of France, which M. de Ferriol assured them that the king his master was well disposed to cultivate sincerely, they gave two dishes of coffee to their excellencies, with sweetmeats, and after that perfumes and sherbet. Then they clothed them with caffetans of a silver brocade, with large silk flowers; and to those that were admitted into the apartments with them, they gave others of brocade, almost all silk, except some slight gold or silver flowers, according to the custom usually observed towards all foreign ministers." Travels, p. 199. Caffetans are long vests of gold or silver brocade, flowered with silk. See also Ezra, ii. 69. Neh. vii. 70.

EXOD. XXV. 4. Fine linen.] Under this term it has been supposed that cotton is spoken of. Cotton grows in the forests of the torrid regions of Africa and America, on tall thorny trees; in India on a lofty shrub; and in

Malta and the islands of the Archipelago on an herbaceous plant.

In Guzerat, the rice and cotton fields are both planted at the commencement of the rainy season, in June. The former is sown in furrows, and reaped in about three months the cotton-shrub, which grows to the height of three or four feet, and in verdure resembles the currant-bush, requires a longer time to bring its delicate produce to perfection. These shrubs, planted between the rows of rice, neither impede its growth nor prevent its being reaped. Soon after the rice harvest is over, they put forth a beautiful yellow flower, with a crimson eye in each petal; this is succeeded by a green pod, filled with a white stringy pulp; the pod turns brown and hard as it ripens, and then separates into two or three divisions containing the cotton. A luxuriant field, exhibiting at the same time the expanding blossom, the bursting capsule, and the snowy flakes of ripe cotton, is one of the most beautiful objects in the agriculture of Hindostan. Herodotus says, the Indians in his time possessed a kind of plant, which, instead of fruit, produced wool of a finer and better quality than that of sheep, of which the natives made their clothes: this plant was, no doubt, the same as the modern cotton of India. FORBES'S Oriental Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 405.

EXOD. XXXV. 35. The weaver.] In the cotton manufacture of India, the loom is fixed under a tree, and the thread laid the whole length of the cloth. The Hindoo weaver is not a despicable caste: he is next to the scribe, and above all mechanics. These people produce works of extraordinary niceness; and as much as an Indian is born deficient in mechanical strength, so much is his whole frame endowed with an exceeding degree of sensibility and pliantness. FORBES's Orient. Mem. ii. 502. A laver of

EXOD. XXXviii. 8. Looking-glasses.]

brass was made of the mirrors of the women who thus assembled. Some have derived this from a custom of the Egyptian women, who used to go to the temple with