D ON DIVERS Paffages of Scripture. Placing many of them in a Light altogether new; Ascertaining the Meaning of several not determinable by the Methods commonly made use of by the Learned; Propofing to Confideration probable Conjectures on others, different from what have been hitherto recommended to the Attention of the Curious; And more amply illuftrating the Reft than has been yet done, by Means of Circumstances incidentally mentioned IN BOOKS OF VOYAGES AND TRAVELS INTO THE EAST: IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II, RELATING TO VIII. The Natural, Civil, and Military State of JUDEA. IX. EGYPT. X. Mifcellaneous Matters. THE SECOND EDITION, Corrected with Care, and enlarged with many new Obfervations: Numbers of them taken from fome MS. Papers of the celebrated SIR JOHN CHAR DIN. Impellimur autem Naturâ, ut prodeffe velimus quamplurimis imprimifque docendo, Itaque non facile est invenire, qui quod fciat ipfe, non tradat alteri. CIC. de fin. lib. iii. ..... LONDON: Printed for J. JOHNSON, No. 72, St. Paul's Church-yard. M DCC LXXVI. CHAP. VI. C Of the Eastern Methods of doing Perfons Ho Ο nour. OBSERVATION I. F these the prefenting gifts is one of the most universal; and the ufe of them was, as well as is, much more extenfive in the East than with us. Such as are prejudiced against the Sacred Hiftory, and unacquainted with Eastern cuftoms, may be ready, from the donations to the Prophets, to imagine they were a merce nary set of people, and rudely to rank them with cunning-men and fortune-tellers, who will not from principles of benevolence reveal thofe fecrets, or foretell thofe future events, of the perfect knowledge of which they are fuppofed to be poffeffed, but demand of the anxious enquirer a large reward. This, however, will make impreffions on none but those who know not the oriental ufages, which Maundrell long fince applied, with fuch clearness and force, to one of the most exceptionable paffages of the Old Testament, that he has fufficiently fatisfied the mind VOL. II. B upon |