been obliged, by domiciliated encampments in the territory of other powers, to conform to their laws and regulations, yet we see that they still retain unsophisticated their own unique customs and manners to this day!

Matt. v. 13. "Ye are the salt of the earth; but if the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted; it is thence;. forth good for nothing."

Salt is a figurative expression, much used at this day in the East. Salt is called in Arabic Millah. The Arabs figuratively call seasoned food Tâam Mill'h, which, literally translated, is salt provisions. A woman who possesses physiognomical character is called Zin Mill'h, which figuratively means an animated beauty, but literally, a salt beauty. Pepper, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, or other condiment, when mixed with food, are called Millah, which evidently means seasoned, and not salt. Thus it is evident, in this instance, as in many others, that it is almost impossible to translate literally the Oriental expressions into the dialects of the West, and retain, at the same time, their spirit and meaning. The French have an idiomatical expression which conveys the same meaning with the Zin Mill'h of the Arabs: they call this animated beauty "une femme piquante."

Psalm xcii. 13. "Those that be planted in the house of the Lord, shall florish in the courts of our God."-" In a wide ohuse," Prov. xxi. 9.

The custom of planting trees in the interior square or courtyard of the houses in the East, is still practised. The exterior walls of the house describe a square or oblong form, in the inside of which is built another quadrangular wall, leaving an opening in the centre: the apartments which are between the two walls above described, are generally long and narrow, having a flat roof or terrace to cover them: the interior square is often surrounded, but sometimes one side only is covered, forming a piazza. This interior quadrangle is often converted into a garden, planted with cypress, cedars of Lebanon, orange, lemon, citron, and other trees. In the city of Fas some of the houses have delightful gardens of this description, with fountains of water in the centre. The Jews also, in Africa, when they inhabit spacious houses in which such gardens can be made, celebrate the Feast of the Tabernacles for seven days in them, living during that period under the canopy of heaven. A whole family sometimes occupy a single room in these wide houses, having the end partitioned off for a bed-place, which being elevated, the part beneath is used as a closet."

St. Luke xxiv. 36. "Peace be unto you."

This antient Oriental salutation is used to this day throughout all countries where the Arabic or Syriac languages are spoken. Salamu Alíkume are the terms used since the days of Abraham ; in Syria, in Arabia, in Egypt, in many parts of our Indian empire, in several countries on the eastern coast of Africa, in Barca, Tunis, Tripoli, Algiers, Marocco, and Bled-el-jereede, and in many countries of Sudan this is the universal salutation. Is it not preferable to the modern expression of the West, How do you do?

Joshua xviii. 17. "The border went up to the stone of Bohan."

The custom of placing border stones at the corners of fields and plantations, to ascertain the property of each individual, is practised to this day among the domiciliated Arabs of Africa: these boundary stones are placed at each corner of a fedan,' or field; they are held, in a manner, sacred; insomuch, that he that should presume to move one of them, would be excommunicated as a disturber of order in the community. According to this mode for the separation of property, no ground whatever is lost, as is the case with hedges and ditches, and the boundary stones are discovered only when the corn is reaped; a line is then drawn from stone to stone, by which the respective property of each individual is ascertained.

Deut. xv. 8. The Jews in Africa have not the Bible translated into Arabic, (a language which is, in Africa, what the Latin is in Europe: it is also the vernacular language of many countries of that continent,) as the Jews of England, France, Holland, and other European countries, have it translated into the language of those countries respectively in consequence of this deprivation, the Jew of Barbary or Africa must either understand Hebrew, or remain ignorant of the contents of his Bible. This circumstance acts as a stimulus upon that curious and investigating people; and accordingly, the Hebrew tongue is there studied and understood much more generally than it is in Europe, and most of the Jewish Rabbis converse together in Hebrew, when they do not wish their persecutors, the

Those who have superintended the translation of the Arabic words and sentences in the lately published and interesting travels of Louis Burkhardt in Nubia, have translated this word Faden, acre; but they have been incorrect; the word fedan does not denote a definite extent of surface of ground; it is an indefinite term as to extent, and is aptly, as I conceive, translated by the word field, which may be great or small, and determined by boundary stones instead of hedge or ditch.

Muselmen, to know the subject of their discourse. A well-educated person, who had leisure and time to spare, might occasionally collect much valuable information among the most learned Rabbis of this people, respecting various passages in the Bible, which appear to have been either loosely or inaccurately translated by the Septuagint or the spurious copies of that translation, For the purpose of elucidation I will relate a case in point. The African Jews in discussing passages in the Bible, which they never object to do, speak of a man unloosing or opening his girdle or sash to give money to those who are in want of it. In describing this unloosing of the girdle, in which they carry their money as we do ours in our pockets or purses, they refer to Deut. xv. 8, wherein our authorised version does not mention the money as being in the girdle. But when we contemplate the costume of the Jews, which in that country is the same that it was in the days of Abraham and Moses, and that the girdle or sash has been during so many ages the place of deposit for their money for daily use, common sense will scarcely allow us to think that this circumstance (demonstrative of a Hebrew custom) has not been omitted in our authorised version, which runs thus: "But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need in that which he wanteth." Here is no mention of the purse or of the girdle, which latter to this day is used as the deposit of their money; and we know that travellers do not carry their money in their hands, as we might, from the above translation, be disposed to think they did in those remote times. This being premised, there is reason to suppose that the late translation of the Pentateuch, from the original Hebrew, by John Bellamy, is the true one as far as regards this passage, or at least a manifest improvement on this passage in the authorised version. It is as follows: "When ungirding, thou shalt open thine hand for him, likewise," &c.

JAMES G. JACKSON.