bread with camels milk, oil, butter, or grease, is almost the only food which is eaten by the common people in Arabia Felix. He further says, "I found it so disagreeable, that I should willingly have preferred to it plain barley bread." (Description de l'Arabie, p. 45, 135.) This remark appears to illustrate the passage of Ezekiel here referred to.

No. 307.-viii. 7. A hole in the wall.] Caves, and other similar subterraneous recesses, consecrated to the worship of the sun, were very generally, if not universally, in request among nations where that superstition was practised. The mountains of Chusistan at this day abound with stupendous excavations of this sort. Allusive to this kind of cavern temple, and this species of devotion, are these words of Ezekiel. The prophet in a vision beholds, and in the most sublime manner stigmatizes the horrible idolatrous abominations which the Israelites had borrowed from their Asiatic neighbours of Chaldæa, Egypt, and Persia. And he brought me, says the prophet, to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold, A HOLE IN THE WALL. Then said he unto me, son of man, dig now in the wall; and, when I had digged in the wall, behold, a door. And he said unto me, go in, (that is, into this CAVERN TEMPLE) and behold the wicked abominations that they do there. So I went in, and saw, and behold, every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and ALL THE IDOLS of the house of Israel, were PORTRAYED UPON THE WALL ROUND ABOUT. In this subterraneous temple were seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel, and their employment was of a nature very nearly similar to that of the priests in Salsette. THEY STOOD WITH EVERY MAN HIS CENSER IN HIS HAND, AND A THICK CLOUD OF INCENSE WENT Up.

Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do IN THE DARK, every man VOL. I.

P

in the CHAMBERS OF HIS IMAGERY? In Egypt, to the particular idolatry of which country, it is plain, from his mentioning every form of creeping things and abominable beasts, the prophet in this place alludes, these dark secluded recesses were called MYSTIC CELLS, and in them were celebrated the secret mysteries of Isis and Osiris, represented by the quadrupeds sacred to those deities. MAURICE'S Indian Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 212.

No. 308.-viii. 14. Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord's house, which was toward the north, and behold there sat women weeping for Tammuz.] The ancient Greeks used to place their dead near the doors of their houses, and to attend them there with mourning. (POTTER'S Archaeol. Græc. b. iv. cap. 3.) Chandler observed the continuance of this custom when travelling in Greece. "A woman was sitting at Megara, with the door of her cottage open, lamenting her dead husband aloud." (p. 195.) The weeping for Tammuz is described as performed near a door of the temple, perhaps with a view to such a custom. Possibly the mourning of Israel at the door of each of their tents, in the wilderness, which so much displeased Moses, was a bewailing of their relations, as if actually dead, which they might apprehend would be the sure consequence of their wandering there without any support but manna. HARMER, vol. iii. p. 378.

No. 309.-viii. 17. They put the branch to their nose. This expression undoubtedly alludes to some particular ceremony belonging to their idolatrous worship. Mr. Lowth (on the prophets) says, the words may refer to a custom among the idolaters of dedicating a branch of laurel, or some other tree, to the honour of the sun, and carrying it in their hands at the time of their worship. LEWIS (Origines Hebrææ, vol. iii. p. 4.)

observes, that the most reasonable exposition is, that the worshipper, with a wand in his hand, would touch the idol, and then apply the stick to his nose and mouth, in token of worship and adoration.

No. 310.-ix. 4. Mark upon the foreheads.] Mr. Maurice, speaking of the religious rites of the Hindoos, says, before they can enter the great pagoda, an “indispensible ceremony takes place which can only be performed by the hand of a brahmin; and that is, the impressing of their foreheads with the tiluk, or mark of different colours, as they may belong either to the sect of Vecshnu, or Seeva. If the temple be that of Veeshnu, their foreheads are marked with a longitudinal line, and the colour used is vermilion. If it be the temple of Seeva, they are marked with a parallel line, and the colour used is turmeric, or saffron. But these two grand sects being again subdivided into numerous classes, both the size and the shape of the tiluk are varied in proportion to their superior or inferior rank. In regard to the tiluk, I must observe, that it was a custom of very ancient date in Asia, to mark their servants in the forehead. It is alluded to in these words of Ezekiel, where the Almighty commands his angels to go through the midst of the city, and set a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh for the abominations committed in the midst thereof. The same idea occurs also in Rev. vii. 3.

Indian Antiquities, vol. v. p. 82.

No. 311.-xiii. 18. That sew pillows to arm-holes.] In Barbary and the Levant they "always cover the floors of their houses with carpets; and along the sides of the wall or floor, a range of narrow beds or mattrasses is often placed upon these carpets; and, for their further ease and convenience, several velvet or damask bolsters are placed upon these carpets or mattrasses

indulgences that seem to be alluded to by the stretching of themselves upon couches, and by the sewing of pillows to arm-holes." (Amos vi. 4. SHAW's Trav. p. 209. 2d edit.) But Lady M. W. Montague's description of a Turkish lady's apartment throws still more light on this passage. She says, (Letter 32. vol. ii. p. 55.) " The rooms are all spread with Persian carpets, and raised at one end of them, about two feet. This is the sopha, which is laid with a richer sort of carpet, and all round it, a sort of couch, raised half a foot, covered with rich silk according to the fancy or magnificence of the owner. Round about this are placed, standing against the walls, two rows of cushions, the first very large, and the rest little ones. These seats are so convenient and easy, that I believe I shall never endure chairs again as long as I live." And in another place (Letter 33, vol. ii. p. 68.) she thus describes the fair Fatima: "On a sopha raised three steps, and covered with fine Persian carpets, sat the kahya's lady, leaning on cushions of white satin embroidered. She ordered cushions to be given me, and took care to place me in the corner, which is the place of honour."

No. 312.-xiii. 19. Pieces of bread.] At Algiers they have public bakehouses for the people in common, so that the women only prepare the dough at home, it being the business of other persons to bake it. Boys are sent about the streets to give notice when they are ready to bake bread; "upon this the women within come and knock at the inside of the door, which the boy hearing makes towards the house. The women open the door a very little way, and hiding their faces, deliver the cakes to him, which, when baked, he brings to the door again, and the women receive them in the same manner as they gave them." This is done almost every day, and they give the boy a piece, or little cake, for the

baking, which the baker sells. (PITTS's Travels, p. 65.) This illustrates the account of the false prophetesses receiving as gratuities pieces of bread: they are compensations still used in the East, but are compensations of the meanest kind, and for services of the lowest sort. HARMER, vol. i. p. 270.

No. 313.-xxi. 21. For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way.] Heb. mother of the way. It is a common thing among the people of the East to denominate a man the father of a thing for which he is remarkable. It appears also that both people and places may in like manner be called the mother of such things for which they are particularly noticed. Thus Niebuhr tells us, that the Arabs call a woman that sells butter omm es sübbet, the mother of butter. He also says, that there is a place between Basra and Zobeir, where an ass happened to fall down, and throw the wheat with which the creature was loaded into some water, on which account that place is called to this day, the mother of wheat. (Voy. en Arabie, tom. i. p. 263.)

In like manner, in the Bibliotheque Orientale of D'Herbelot, (p. 686, 358.) omm alketab, or the mother of books, signifies the book of the divine decrees: and at other times the first chapter of the Koran. The mother of the throat is the name of an imaginary being (a fairy) who is supposed to bring on and cure that disorder in the throat, which we call the quinsy. In the same collection we are told, that the acacia, or Egyptian thorn, is called by the Arabians the mother of satyrs, because these imaginary inhabitants of the forests and deserts were supposed to haunt under them. After this we shall not at all wonder when we read of Nebuchadnezzar's standing in the mother of the way, a remarkable place in the road, where he was to determine whether