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FORMS OF ANCIENT EGYPTIAN CAKES.

It is not unusual in times of great mortality for the ordinary place of burial to be so full that (as the Orientals never bury twice in the same grave) there is no more room in the cemeteries, and new ground has to be opened, or the burial of the dead abandoned altogether. During the great plague of Baghdad, in 1831, we were ourselves grieved and horror-struck by observing a number of dead bodies continually brought into a horse-yard next our house for burial-and this continued for two days till there was no room left for another grave. Eventually the dead were left unburied altogether, as the prophet indicates here, and were left to be devoured by the fowls of heaven and the beasts of the earth-till at last, as mentioned on a former occasion, it was concluded daily to collect the exposed dead and cast them into the river. In Europe it has been more usual, under the like circumstances, to dig large pits and cast the dead into them till filled up. During the last great London plague, in 1665, one pit to receive the dead was dug in the Charter-House forty feet long, sixteen feet wide, and twenty feet deep, and in the course of two weeks it received 1114 dead bodies. During that dire calamity there were instances of mothers carrying their own children to these public graves; and of people, delirious or in despair for the loss of friends, who threw themselves alive into these pits.

34. Then will I cause to cease...from the streets of Jerusalem...the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.' -From this and other passages it is clear that the noisy marriage processions which at this day perambulate the streets of Western Asia were not unknown in the cities of the Jews. This is now best seen in Egypt, the usages of which country do not however materially differ from those of Syria and Turkey, or even Persia. On the third day, before the final conclusion of the marriage, the midwife of the bride's family, her nurse, and the female of the bath, proceed on asses, with two or more men before them beating kettle-drums or tabors, to the houses of all the friends of the bride, to invite them to accompany her on the next day to the bath, and to partake of the evening entertainment. Sometimes they go on foot, and without the drums before them, but making up for the want of these instruments by shrill quavering cries of joy, called zughareet. These cries of the women, which are heard on various occasions of rejoicing in Egypt and other eastern countries, are produced by a sharp utterance of the voice, accompanied by a quick tremulous motion of the tongue. This is the first of the bridal sounds by which the streets of the East are enlivened. Next day follows the procession to the bath, when the bride, wrapped up in a peculiar manner, and accompanied by her friends, proceeds through the principal streets of the city (by a circuitous route if the actual distance be inconsiderable) to the bath. She walks under a canopy (see Sol. Song, ii.) with two of her relations. The procession is opened and closed by men with drums and hautboys, and besides the

noisy music they afford, the women of the party give vent at intervals to the shrill cries of joy which have been already mentioned. After a good time spent in the bath the procession returns in the same manner. The next day the bride is conducted with the same state, and with the same notes of joy, to the house of her husband. They proceed at a slow pace; and if the house be near, they take a circuitous route through the principal streets for the sake of display, so that the procession is usually three or more hours on the road. Then it is the bridegroom's turn. In the third or fourth hour of the night, after he has received the bride into his house, and has supped with his own friends, he sets out in their company to some celebrated mosque, there to say his prayers. He is attended by men with drums and hautboys, and by others bearing cylindrical iron cressets, filled with flaming wood, to give light. The party usually proceeds at a quick pace, and without much order, to the mosque-but the return thence to the house is more slow and orderly-and with an added display of lamps and wax candles which illuminate the streets through which the procession passes. At frequent intervals the party stops for a few minutes, the music ceases, and a man or boy sings some words of an epithalamium. Under a very different condition of Eastern life, rejoicing noises are also considered essential to nuptial processions. When the bride is carried home to her husband, she is placed in a frame upon the back of a camel,

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and is housed over with carpets, shawls, and ostrich feathers. The camel is led by a relation of the bride, preceded by dancing people, music, mounted and dismounted Arabs, who shout and fire their guns, running backward and forward in the procession.

Such, or in some degree like to them, were doubtless the rejoicing sounds which the prophet indicates as 'the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride,' which in prosperous times were wont to be heard in the cities of Israel, but which in the time of desolation should no more be heard. This statement will doubtless suggest many analogies to the wedding procession mentioned in Matt. xxv., and others will be indicated under that text. It is worthy of notice that these nuptial celebrations are, in all Moslem countries, discouraged during times of public mourning or humiliation-and do not occur during the Bairam or Moslem Lent, nor in Persia during the Moharrem, or public mourning for the sons of Ali.

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CHAPTER VIII.

1 The calamity of the Jews, both dead and alive. 4 He upbraideth their foolish and shameless impenitency. 13 He sheweth their grievous judgment, 18 and bewaileth their desperate estate.

Ar that time, saith the LORD, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves:

2 And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth.

3 And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the places whither I have driven them, saith the LORD of hosts.

4 ¶ Moreover thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD; Shall they fall, and not arise? shall he turn away, and not return?

5 Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.

6 I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright: no man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? every one turned to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle.

7 Yea, 'the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the LORD.

8 How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain.

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herit them for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to "covetousness, from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.

11 For they have 'healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, "Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

12 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the LORD.

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I will surely consume them, saith the LORD there shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them.

14 Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the defenced cities, and let us be silent there: for the LORD our God hath put us to silence, and given us 13water of "gall to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.

15 We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, and behold trouble!

16 The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan: the whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones; for they are come, and have devoured the land, and all that is in it; the city, and those that dwell therein.

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17 For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the LORD.

18 When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in me.'

19 Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people because of them that dwell in a far country: Is not the LORD in Zion? is not her king in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with strange vanities?

20 The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.

21 For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me.

22 Is there no "balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?

2 Or, the false pen of the scribes worketh for falsehood.
6 Isa. 56. 11. Chap. 6. 13.
10 Or, in gathering I will consume.
15 Chap. 14. 19.

13 Chap. 9. 15, and 23. 15. 18 Psal. 58. 4, 5.

14 Or, poison.

19 Heb. upon.

4 Or, have they been ashamed, &. a Ezek. 13. 10. 12 Matt. 21. 19. Luke 13. 6, &c. 21 Chap. 46. 11.

3 Chap. 6. 15. 7 Chap. 6. 14. 11 Isa. 5. 1, &c. 16 Chap. 4. 15. 20 Heb. because of the country of them that are far off. 22 Heb. gone up.

17 Heb. the fulness thereof.

Verse 7. Stork.'-See the notes on Lev. xi. 19, Ps. civ. 17, and the figure under Job xxxix.

Turtle' (tur).-The Columba turtur is found in all the warmer climates, from whence it follows the sun in his progress towards the tropic, and visits higher latitudes, to adorn and usher in the spring. The turtle is remarkable for the elegance and delicacy of its form, and is from ancient usage associated in our minds with everything that is tender, chaste, and attractive. It is a bird of passage, hence its appearance in certain places is among the indications of spring-a circumstance interwoven in that charming description of that season which occurs in Canticles ii. 11-13. The turtle visits this country, and after having reared her young in the seclusion of our woods, retires, in September, to pass the winter under softer skies.

'Crane.'-The Hebrew word is D'D sis, respecting the meaning of which there is some doubt. The Rabbinical commentators make it the crane, as do most of the versions, and we are disposed to accept this as the most probable conclusion. Yet there are objections to the common crane, arising from the fact that, although occasionally seen in Palestine, it does not assemble in Syria in flocks for migration, and that its clamorous voice does not correspond to the chatter' or twitter which is in Isa. xxxviii. 14 ascribed to it. The stork might seem probable, had it not a distinct name of its own in Scripture

NUMIDIAN CRANE.

different from this, and did we not find another bird which more completely answers the required conditions: this is the Grus virgo, or Numidian crane, which is, properly speaking, neither a genuine crane, a stork, nor a heron, and which has a feeble voice, but striking and distinct manners, and is remarkable for its beauty, numbers, and its periodical arrival and departure. This bird is not more than three feet in length; it is of a beautiful bluish grey, with the cheeks, throat, breast, and tips of the long hinder feathers and quills, black, and a tuft of delicate white plumes behind each eye. It has a peculiar dancing walk, which gave rise to its French denomination of Demoiselle. It comes from Central Africa down the Nile, and in spring arrives in Palestine, while troops of them proceed to Asia Minor, and some go as far north as the Caspian. Hasselquist, who first saw them on the Nile, afterwards shot one near Smyrna. They are found

in considerable numbers in the swamp above that city, and, in Palestine, upon the borders of the lakes Huleh and Tiberias. In the autumn they return to Africa; but they do not utter the clangor of the common crane, nor, like it, fly in two columns, forming an acute angle, the better to cleave the air.

Swallow' (agur; Sept. xeλidav ȧypoù).—Probably the Hirundo rustica of Linnæus, which is too well known, in form and habits, to render a particular notice necessary on this occasion. This bird, which remains with us till October, is said to winter in Africa, so that its object is evidently a warmer climate. It is remarkable that the birds of this tribe, when they revisit us in spring, return to their old haunts. Dr. Jenner ascertained this by cutting off two claws from the foot of a certain number, several of which were found in the following year, and one was met with after the expiration of seven years. (See Kirby's Bridgewater Treatise.) This is true also of the storks, as we observed the same pair return, in successive years, to the nest they had constructed upon the wind-chimney of a house we inhabited at Baghdad.

The subject of the migration of birds, which is several times referred to in the Scripture, is one of great interest; and has been employed by writers on natural theology, as furnishing striking evidence of design and wisdom in the creation and organization of living things. The devout reader of the Bible needs no such evidence; yet even to him there is much in it that may be made valuable, and which he will feel to be beautiful. As Mr. Kirby, in his Bridgewater Treatise, has taken up the subject with this view, we have judged it proper to derive from him the substance of the few observations for which we can find room.

Although the instances of migration here mentioned by the prophet, are those most popularly known, the practice operates to a far greater extent than is usually supposed; and if Dr. Richardson's scale for North America be taken as a rule of more extended application, it may be estimated that the number of the birds which migrate, as compared with those which reside the whole year in a country, is about five-sixths; a very large proportion, but which is doubtless less in some latitudes than in others. As the summer residents are replaced by winter ones, the desertion is less apparent and annoying than it would be otherwise. It has usually been conceived that the cause of such extensive migration was to be sought no further than in the changes of temperature, gradually produced by the progress of the seasons, and the growing scarcity of food resulting from it. But this cannot be the sole or universal cause, since there are birds which leave us early in the year, when no cold can be felt, and even when the food of the particular species is most abundant. From such and other observations, Dr. Jenner arrived at the conclusion (stated in a posthumous paper, published in the Philosophical Transactions, 1824) that the periodical migrations of birds are the result, not of the approach of the cold or hot seasons, but of the absence or presence of a stimulus connected with the original law, Increase and multiply;'-and that when they feel this stimulus, they seek their summer, and when it ceases its action, their winter quarters-in one case, the bird winging its way to a climate and country best suited to the great purpose impressed upon it by the Creator, of producing and rearing a progeny; and, in the other, returning to a home most congenial to its nature and best supplying its wants.

Mr. Kirby thus concludes his general view of this instructive and interesting subject:

'If we give the subject of the migration of animals due consideration, and reflect what would be the consequence if no animals ever changed their quarters, we shall find abundant reason for thankfulness to the Almighty Father of the Universe, for the care he has taken of his whole family, and of his creature man in particular, consulting not only his sustentation and the gratification of his palate, by multiplying and varying his food, but also that of his other senses, by the beauty, motions, and music of

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the animals that are his summer or winter visitors: did the nightingale forsake our groves; the swallow our houses and gardens; the cod-fish, mackerel, salmon, and herring, our seas; and all the other animals that occasionally visit their several haunts, how vast would be the abstraction from the pleasure and comfort of our lives!

"By means of these migrations the profits and enjoyments derivable from the animal creation are also more equally divided-at one season visiting the south and enlivening their winter; and at another adding to the vernal and summer delights of the inhabitants of the less genial regions of the north, and making up to them for the privations of winter. Had the Creator so willed, all these animals might have been organized so as not to require a warmer or a colder climate for the breeding or rearing of their young: but his will was, that some of his best gifts

should thus oscillate, as it were, between two points, that the benefits they conferred might be the more widely distributed, and not become the sole property of the inhabitants of one climate: thus the swallow gladdens the sight both of the Briton and African; and the herring visits the coasts, and the salmon the rivers of every region of the globe. What can more strongly mark design, and the intention of an all-powerful, all-wise, and beneficent Being, than that such a variety of animals should be so organized and circumstanced as to be directed annually, by some pressing want, to seek distant climates; and, after a certain period, to return again to their former quarters; and that this instinct should be productive of so much good to mankind, and at the same time be necessary, under its present circumstances, for the preservation or propagation of the species of these several animals.'

CHAPTER IX.

1 Jeremiah lamenteth for the Jews' manifold sins, 9 and for their judgment. 12 Disobedience is the cause of their bitter calamity. 17 He exhorteth to mourn for their destruction, 23 and to trust not in themselves, but in God. 25 He threateneth both Jews and Gentiles.

'Он that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!

2 Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous

men.

3 And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the LORD.

4 Take ye heed every one of his 'neighbour, and trust ye not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbour will walk with slanders.

5 And they will 'deceive every one his neighbour, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity.

6 Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, saith the LORD.

7 Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how shall I do for the daughter of my people?

8 Their tongue is as an arrow shot out; it speaketh 'deceit: one speaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth, but in heart he layeth his wait.

Heb. Who will give my head, &c. 5 Or, mock.

10 Chap. 5. 9, 29.

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9 ¶ Shall I not visit them for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

10 For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the "'habitations of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are 12burned up, so that none can pass through them; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the fowl of the heavens and the beast are fled; they are gone.

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11 And I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah "desolate, without an inhabitant.

12 Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD hath spoken, that he may declare it, for what the land perisheth and is burned up like a wilderness, that none passeth through?

13 And the LORD saith, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein;

14 But have walked after the imagination of their own heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them:

15 Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.

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17.

16 I will "scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them.

17 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for cunning women, that they may come:

2 Isa. 22. 4. Chap. 4. 19. 6 Psal. 12. 2, and 120, 3. 7 Psal. 28. 3. 11 Or, pastures. 12 Or, desolate, 16 Or, stubbornness.

15 Heb. desolation.

18 And let them make haste,

3 Chap. 12. 6. Mic. 7. 5, 6. 8 Heb. in the midst of him. 18 Heb. from the fowl even to, &c. 17 Chap. 8. 14, and 23. 15.

and take up

4 Or, friend.

9 Or, wait for him. 14 Chap. 10. 22. 18 Levit. 26. 33.

a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with

waters.

19 For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we spoiled! we are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because our dwellings have cast us out. 20 Yet hear the word of the LORD, O ye women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth, and teach your daughters wailing, and every one her neighbour lamentation.

21 For death is come up into our windows, and is entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from without, and the young men from the streets.

22 Speak, Thus saith the LORD, Even the carcases of men shall fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the harvestman, and none shall gather them.

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23 Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches:

24 But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD.

25 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised;

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Verse 17. Call for the mourning women.'-This, with several other passages of Scripture, evidently refers to the very ancient and still subsisting custom of hiring professed mourners to lament over the dead. The Jewish doctors acknowledge the custom, and inform us that it was so common, that the poorest man in Israel, when his wife died, never had less than two pipes and one mourning woman. The root of this rather singular though very prevalent custom seems to be, that the eastern nations require manifestations of strong feeling to be marked, palpable, and exaggerated. Hence their emotions, particularly those of grief, have a most violent and loud expression; and still unsatisfied and apprehensive that their own spontaneous manifestations of sorrow, when a death occurred, were inadequate to the occasion, and rendered insufficient honour to the dead, they thought of employing practised women to add their distinct and effective tributes of apparent grief. Thus mourning became an art, which devolved on women of shrill voices, copious of tears, and skilful in lamenting and praising the dead in mournful songs and eulogies. When a person in a family died, it was customary for the female relatives to seat themselves upon the ground in a separate apartment, in a circle, in the centre of which sat the wife, daughter, or other nearest relative, and thus, assisted by the mourning women, conducted their loud and piercing lamentations. At intervals the mourning women took the leading part on a signal from the chief mourner; and then the real mourners remained comparatively silent, but attested their grief by sobs, by beating their faces, tearing their hair, and sometimes wounding their persons with their nails, joining also aloud in the lamenting chorus of the hired mourners. Mr. Lane's account of the existing practice in Egypt is very illustrative. The family of the deceased generally send for two or more neddábehs (or public wailing women); but some persons disapprove of this custom; and many, to avoid unnecessary expense, do not conform with it. Each neddábeh brings with her a tár (or tambourine), which is without the tinkling plates of metal that are attached to the hoops of the common tár. The neddábehs, beating their társ, exclaim several times, "Alas for him!" and praise his turban, his handsome person, etc.; and the female relations, domestics, and friends of the deceased

(with their tresses dishevelled, and sometimes with rent clothes), beating their own faces, cry in like manner, "Alas for him!" This wailing is generally continued at least an hour.' It is of course resumed at intervals. The details vary in different parts of the East, and in some places the musicians form a separate body, as they did among the Hebrews.

The custom of employing hired mourners was also in use among the Greeks and Romans, who probably borrowed it from the East. Some of the Roman usages may contribute to illustrate those of Scripture. When a person expired whom his relatives or friends wished to honour by every external testimony of grief, some mourners were called, who were stationed at the door, and who, being instructed in the leading circumstances of the life of the deceased, composed and chanted eulogies having some reference to these circumstances, but in which flattery was by no means spared. Then, when the time arrived for the body to be carried to the funeral pile, a choir of hired mourners attended, who by their bare breasts, which they often smote, their dishevelled hair, their mournful chants, and profuse tears, moved, or sought to move, the minds of the spectators in favour of the deceased, and to compassion for his bereaved friends, whose respect for his memory their own presence indeed indicated. These women were under the direction of one who bore the title of prafica, who regulated the time and tone of their lamentations. They were attired in the black robe of mourning and affliction called by the Romans pulla. It will be observed that, as intimated by the prophet in the next verse, a principal object of the displays of the hired mourners was to rouse the sorrow of the bereaved relatives, maintaining the excitement of affliction by enumerating the virtues and qualities of the deceased, as well as, by the same means, to excite the sympathising lamentations of those not immediately interested in the event. It needs actual observation of the levity or indifference which these hired mourners resume, when their service is ended, to be convinced that there was nothing sincere in the real tears which they shed, and in the lamentation, mourning, and woe' which they pour forth in the chamber of grief, or when following the dead one to the grave.

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