gold ;" and of the fair Fatima,*" her slippers were white satin, finely embroidered." On the ancient sandals there appears, however, to have been something more than embroidery; for they rather seem to have resembled the sandals of the Hindoos, which frequently make a tinkling noise by reason of the ornaments that are attached to them, since we read of tinkling ornaments for the feet, as well as rings on the legs. In Ezek. xvi. 10, mention is made of sandals, of badgers' skins, which were accounted a luxury. When tanned they resemble Turkey leather, and were probably used as a substitute. Mr. Harmer tells us that they are less exposed to crack than most kinds of leather, and more durable. Thus have we attended to those parts of the house dress which may be considered as common, but there were several other which were occasionally added. It was their usual practice, for instance, when they went abroad, to wear something to cover all the face except the eyes, and that hid the whole dress of the head: this is translated "mantles," in Is. iii. 22. It consisted in a large veil, and in cold weather in a burnoose, or cloak; and when they sat in the house, perfume boxes were almost their constant companions. Some of these in present use are as large as the hand; the common ones are of gold; the others are covered with jewels. They are full of holes, and filled with black paste, very light, made of musk and amber, but of a very strong smell." It is to these that the spouse alludes when she says, Cant. i. 13, "A bundle of myrrh is my well beloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts;" for a bundle, or small casket of myrrh, is the same part of dress as the perfume boxes of the ancient eastern ladies, which were often of gold, covered with jewels, and suspended from the neck by a gold chain, so as to fall down upon the breast as low as the girdle. In this point of view the words have nothing indelicate, but mean that he was dear to her as the casket of myrrh, which remained always in her bosom. But if they used perfume boxes to destroy the effects of a profuse perspiration, so did they almost always appear with a handkerchief; at least we may conjecture this from the universality of the present practice. Sir John Chardin tells us, that "the fashion of wearing wrought handkerchiefs is general in Arabia, Syria, Palestine, and generally in all the Turkish empire. They are wrought with the needle, and it is the amusement of the fair sex to make them for their relations or favourites. They have them almost constantly in their hands, in these warm countries, to wipe off sweat.” This custom of using handkerchiefs is as ancient as it is universal, for Niebuhr, when examining the antiquities of the island of Elephanta, near Bombay, says, "in many places the handkerchief, still used through all India, is observable in the hands of the inferior figures." Another accompaniment of female dress was the hand mirror. We find the first mention of them in Exod. xxxviii. 8. They were evidently specula, or metallic mirrors, for Moses made the foot of the laver of the looking glasses of the women, who appeared at the door of the tabernacle. Bishop Lowth tells us that he had a metalline mirror found in Herculaneum, which was not above three inches square; and we are informed by Dr. Shaw, p. 241, that looking glasses are still part of the dress of the Moorish women in Barbary; that they a MS. vol. vi. ↳ Heron's Edit. vol. ii. p. 322. • Notes on Is. ch. viii, 1. hang them constantly upon their breasts, and do not lay them aside even in the midst of their most laborious employments. The doctor does not tell us of what metal they are composed; but Chardin says they are steel, and for the most part convex. Perhaps the generality of those used by the Jewish women were of this metal, although the first that we read of were of brass; for we find the sky in Job xxxvii. 18, compared to a molten looking glass, or to a speculum of polished steel. Having thus attended to the different parts of female dress, I may conclude the subject by remarking, that we have an instance of a full dressed woman in Judith, when she went to attract the notice of Holofernes.a b It will be in the recollection of all, that the fashion of the dresses of both sexes among the Jews was very stationary, and, therefore, that wardrobes were accounted family riches, and descended from generation to generation. This accounts for the ease with which Jehu's mandate was obeyed, when he ordered 400 vestments for the priests of Baal, that none might escape. And the classic scholar will instantly recollect the 5000 chlamydes or cloaks which Lucullus could furnish those who asked him." Every age also hath had its favourite colour, some being accounted more distinctive of rank than others. Thus blue or purple, as having a shade of blue, was anciently accounted honourable; whereas blue is now the common colour of the lower ranks in the East. The reason is, that the ancient purple was obtained from the - Judith x. 3, 4. xii. 15. For farther information, consult Bishop Lowth's new translation of Isaiah, ch. iii. 18-24: Fleury's Manners of the ancient Israelites, part ii. ch. 6: and Schroederi Commentarius philologico-criticus de Vestita mulierum Hebræarum. b Matt. vi. 19-21. < 2 Kings x. 22. ⚫ Ezek. xxiii. 6. f Acts xvi. 14. d Hor. Epist. Lib. i. Ep. 6. Hasselquist, p. 244, 245. b murex, à species of shell-fish, particularly described by Pliny,* very rare, and only to be found in the neighbourhood of Tyre; hence the Tyrian purple, which could only be purchased by emperors, and was worth its weight in gold; whereas the present blue colour is procured from indigo. The scarlet and crimson of the ancients were different from the purple; for these were produced from a worm or insect, which grew in a coccus or excrescence of a shrub of the ilex kind, like the cochineal worm in the opuntia of America. There is a shrub of this kind, says Lowth, on Is. i. 18, that grows in Provence and Languedoc, and produces the like insect, called the kermes oak, from kermez, the Arabic word for this colour; whence our word crimson is derived.-Mr. Bruce, when at Tyre, on his way to the source of the Nile, tried to obtain some of these purple fishes, but could find none after diligent fishing; and is inclined to think that the whole is fabulous, and that it was intended to conceal their knowledge of cochineal. Before finishing the article, I shall add a few short notices. Woollen garments were not much esteemed by the ancient Jews, Ezek. xliv. 17, 18. John the Baptist's garment was a coarse cloth of camel's hair, not unlike that of the two dervishes which Captain Light saw in Egypt, who had a cloak of that material thrown over their shoulders, and tied in front to their breast, with a girdle of skin round their loins. Bishop Pococke, when describing the dresses of Egypt, says, that when riding they drop their upper garment around them on the saddle, and La Roque tells us, that the riding dress of the Arabs is a piece of cloth doubled for a cloak, and Hist. Nat. Lib. ix. cap. 36. • See Ulloa's Voyage, b. v. ch. 2. b Plin. Hist. Nat. Lib. xvi. cap. 8. sewed at the edges like a sack, leaving a hole at the corners for the arms, and the fore part is cut open, and a place cut out for the neck. Small boots of yellow morocco, without stockings, cover the legs. These may, perhaps, give us an idea of the Israelitish horsemen; and as Daniel and the Jews lived long in Babylon, Herodotus's account of the Babylonian dress may serve to explain a passage of Scripture. Thus he tells us that in his time, which was about a hundred years after the events recorded in Dan. chap. iii. the dress of the Babylonians consisted of a tunic of linen, reaching down to the feet, over this another tunic of woollen, and over all, a white short cloak or mantle, and that on their heads they wore turbans. This Parkhurt applies, Lex., to the explanation of Dan. iii. 21. "Then these three men were bound in their cloaks, their turbans and their upper woollen tunics, and their under linen tunics ;" and as, according to this interpretation, outer garments are particularly described, we see the propriety with which it is observed in verse 27, that these were not changed by the fire. SECT. V. Entertainment of the Jews. Testimony of travellers. Furniture of an eastern kitchen. Fire-places; fuel, either wood, grass, or dried cow-dung. Bread, how baked, leavened, toasted. Public ovens, their way of sending bread to them. above a day. Their better kind of cakes; their cracknels. Bread their principal food, eaten with oil, &c.; wheat, parched corn, barley, beans, summer fruits, roots; milk. Butter, how made by them; butter-milk a luxury; laban, how prepared; cheeses of the East, how made, not good. The general diet at Aleppo, and of the Arabs. An eastern breakfast, dinner, and supper. They use no spoons; are careful how they drink water; have wine at table. their wine often muddy; the cup-bearer's office; banqueting cups. Manner |