makes travelling in the night there very dangerous, the entry into them being often left open when they are empty. HARMER, vol. ii. p. 452. No. 1104.-xliv. 17. To pour out drink-offerings.] When the ancient idolaters made their libations, they usually filled the cup entirely full, and crowned it with flowers. Servius on the first book of the Æneid says, antiqui coronabant pocula, et sic libabant, the ancients crowned their cups (with flowers) and then made libations. Thus Virgil, speaking of Anchises, says, Magnum cratera coronâ Induit, implevitque mero. He adorned the great cup with a crown (of flowers) and filled it with wine. See also Horace, B. iii. Od. 13. I. 2. No. 1105.-xlviii. 37. Upon all the hands shall be cuttings.] "We find Arabs," La Roque tells us from D'Arvieux," who have their arms scarred by the gashes of a knife, which they sometimes give themselves, to mark out to their mistresses what their rigor and the violence of love make them suffer." From this extract we learn what particular part of the body received these cuttings. The Scripture frequently speaks of them in a more general manner. HARMER, vol. ii. p. 516. No. 1106.-xlix. 3. Lament, and run to and fro by the hedges.] The places of burial in the East are without their cities, as well as their gardens, and consequently their going to them must often be by their garden walls, (not hedges). The ancient warriors of distinction, who were slain in battle, were carried to the sepulchres of their fathers; and the people often went to weep over the graves of those whom they would honour. These observations put together sufficiently account for this HARMER, Vol. i. p. 464. passage. α No. 1107.-xlix. 19. Behold, he shall come up like lion from the swelling of Jordan against the habitation of the strong.] The comparison used by the prophet in these words will be perfectly understood by the account which Mr. Maundrell gives of the river Jordan. "After having descended," says he, "the outermost bank of Jordan, you go about a furlong upon a level strand, before you come to the immediate bank of the river. This second bank is so beset with bushes and trees, such as tamarisks, willows, oleanders, &c. that you can see no water till you have made your way through them. In this thicket anciently, and the same is reported of it at this day, several sorts of wild beasts were wont to harbour themselves, whose being washed out of the covert by the overflowings of the river gave occasion to that allusion, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan." (Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem, p. 82.) Correspondent with this account, Ammianus Marcellinus (lib. 18. cap. 17.) tells us, that "lions without number range through the reeds and shrubs of the rivers of Mesopotamia." No. 1108.-1. 15. Her foundations are fallen, her walls are thrown down.] Though this could not be the case with foundations in general, it might be with those of Babylon: for Herodotus, who had himself been there, informs us (lib. i. c. 178.) that it was surrounded first by a deep and wide ditch full of water, and then by its stupendous walls, fifty royal cubits broad and two hundred high; that the earth thrown out of the ditch was made into bricks, with which they first lined both sides of the ditch, and then built the wall in the same manner. Supposing then that the scarp, or inner wall of the ditch, served for a foundation to the wall of the city, it is very easy to conceive how such foundations, being built in a marshy soil, and continually exposed to the undermining power of the water in the ditch, and pressed by such a prodigious weight, might give way and fall. PARKHURST, Heb. Lex. p. 48. No. 1109.-li. 41. How is Sheshach taken !] It is conceived that Babylon is called Sheshach from one of her idols, and that the term is used by way of opprobrium. The idol Shach was worshipped there, and had a festival kept for five days together. It is said that during this festival Cyrus took Babylon. Athenæus speaks of this feast, (Deipnosophista, lib. xiv. cap. 17.) saying, Berosus in the first book of the Babylonish History relates, that on the sixteenth of the calends of September the feast Saicea was celebrated at Babylon for five days; during which time it was customary for masters to obey their servants; one of them, being master of the house, was clothed in a royal garment, and called Zoganez. See some curious particulars about Sheshach in Assembly's Annotations on Jer. xxv. 26. No. 1110.-LAMENTATIONS ii. 1. And remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger. THE footstool was not only a great convenience as an appendage to the throne, but was a peculiar mark of regal honour: on this account the earth is called the footstool of the throne of God. In this manner it is mentioned by Homer: A splendid footstool, and a throne, that shine Il. xiv. 273. POPE. No. 1111. v. 10. Our skin was black like an oven,] Portable ovens were frequently used in the East, and were part of the furniture of eastern travellers. These ovens appear to have been formed of different materials, according to the rank of the several owners. Those that are alluded to by the prophet Jeremiah, when describing the distresses of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine, seem to be of an inferior kind, and belonged most probably to the ordinary class of travellers. Nevertheless there were others of a far superior nature, even of very valuable metals. Thus we are informed from an Arabian tale, translated in 1786 from an unpublished MS. that part of the food of the caliph Vathek on his travels was delicate cakes, which had been baked in silver ovens. St. Jerome describes an eastern oven as a round vessel of brass, blackened on the outside by the surrounding fire which heats it within. No. 1112.-EZEKIEL ix. 2. And one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer's ink-horn by his side. D'ARVIEUX informs us, that "the Arabs of the desert, when they want a favour of their emir, get his secretary to write an order agreeable to their desire, as if the favour were granted; this they carry to the prince, who, after having read it, sets his seal to it with ink, if he grant it; if not, he returns the petitioner his paper torn, and dismisses him. These papers are without date, and have only the emir's flourish or cypher at the bottom, signifying the poor, the abject Mahomet, son of Turabeye." (Voy. dans la Pal. p. 61, 154.) Pococke says (Trav. vol. i. p. 186, note,) that “ they make the impression of their name with their seal, generally of cornelian, which they wear on their finger, and which is blacked when they have occasion to seal with it." The custom of placing the inkhorn by the side, Olearius says, continues in the East to this day. HARMER, vol. ii. p. 458. No. 1113.-xii. 3. Prepare thee stuff for removing, and remove by day in their sight.] "This is as they do in the caravans, they carry out their baggage in the day-time, and the caravan loads in the evening; for in the morning it is too hot to set out on a journey for that day, and they cannot well see in the night. However, this depends on the length of their journeys; for when they are too short to take up a whole night, they load in the night, in order to arrive at their journey's end early in the morning; it being a greater inconvenience |