served nor exhibited as reliques, but lying about, disregarded by the present inhabitants, as antiquities with whose original use they were unacquainted. From their appearance, and the number of them, it was quite evident that the practice of keeping water in large stone pots, each holding from eighteen to twenty-seven gallons, was once common in the country. Cups and drinking vessels of gold and silver, it appears from 1 Kings x. 21. were used in the courts of princes; but the modern Arabs, as the Jewish people antiently did, keep their water, milk, wine, and other liquors, in bottles made of skins. These bottles, when old, are frequently rent, but are capable of being repaired, by being bound up or pieced in various ways. Of this description, were the wine bottles of the Gibeonites, old and rent, and bound up. (Josh. ix. 4.) As new wine was liable to ferment, and consequently would burst the old skins, all prudent persons would put it into new skins. To this usage our Lord alludes in Matt. ix. 17. Mark ii. 22. and Luke v. 37, 38. Bottles of skin, it is well known, are still in use in Spain, where they are called Borrachas. As the Arabs make fires in their tents, which have no chimnies, they must be greatly incommoded by the smoke, which blackens all their utensils, and taints their skins. David, when driven from the court of Saul, compares himself to a bottle in the smoke. (Psal. cxix. 83.) He must have felt acutely, when he was driven from the vessels of gold and silver, in the palace of Saul, to live like an Arab, and drink out of a smoky leathern bottle. His language is, as if he had said,-"My present appearance is as different from what it was when I dwelt at court, as the furniture of a palace differs from that of a poor Arab's tent." IV. In progress of time, as men increased upon the earth, and found themselves less safe in their detached tents, they began to live in society, and fortified their simple dwellings by surrounding them with a ditch, and a rude breast-work, or wall, whence they could hurl stones against their enemies. Hence arose villages, towns, and cities, of which Cain is said to have been the first builder. In the time of Moses, the cities of the Canaanites were both numerous and strongly fortified. (Numb. xiii. 28.) In the time of David, when the number of the Israelites was greatly increased, their cities musi. have proportionably increased; and the vast population, which (we have already seen) Palestine maintained in the time of the Romans, is a proof both of the size and number of their cities. The streets, in the Asiatic cities, do not exceed from two to four cubits in breadth, in order that the rays of the sun may be kept off; but it is evident that they must have formerly been wider, from the fact that carriages were driven through them, which are now very seldom, if ever, to be seen in the East. The houses, however, rarely stand together, and most of them have spacious gardens annexed to them. It is not to be supposed that the almost incredible 1 Harmer's Observations, vol. i. p. 217. See also vol. ii. pp. 135-138. for various remarks illustrative of the nature of the drinking-vessels antiently in use among the Jews tract of land, which Nineveh and Babylon are said to have covered could have been filled with houses closely standing together: antient writers, indeed, testify that almost a third part of Babylon was occupied by fields and gardens. In the early ages of the world, the Markets were held in the Gates of the Cities (which, we have already seen,' were the seats of justice), generally within the walls, though sometimes without them. Here commodities were exposed to sale, either in the open air or in tents (2 Kings vii. 18. 2 Chron. xviii. 9. Job xxix. 7.): but in the time of Christ, as we learn from Josephus, the markets were enclosed in the same manner as the modern eastern bazaars, which are closed at night, and where the traders' shops are disposed in rows or streets; and (in large towns) the dealers in particular commodities are confined to particular streets. The Gates of the Cities, and the vacant places next adjacent to them, must have been of considerable size : for we read that Ahab king of Israel assembled four hundred false prophets before himself and Jehoshaphat king of Judah, in the Gate of Samaria. (1 Kings xxii. 10.) And, besides these prophets, we may readily conclude that each of these monarchs had numerous attendants in waiting. 1 See p. 107. supra CHAPTER II.. ON THE DRESS OF THE JEWS. 1. Dress in the early Ages.-Upper Garments.-II. Tunic.—III. Dress of the Women.-IV. Distinction between the 'Ipariov or upper Garment and the Xirwv or Tunic.-Mode of dressing the Hair.-VI. Sandals.-VII. Some articles of Female Apparel elucidated.-Complexion of the Women.-VIII. Rending of Garments, a sign of mourning.—IX. Numerous changes of Apparel, deemed a necessary part of their treasures. I. IN the early ages, the dress of mankind was very simple. Skins of animals furnished the first materials, which, as men increased in numbers and civilisation, were exchanged for more costly articles, made of wool and flax, of which they manufactured woollen and linen garments (Levit. xiii. 47. Prov. xxxi. 13.); afterwards fine linen, and silk, dyed with purple, scarlet, and crimson, became the usual apparel of the more opulent. (2 Sam. i. 24. Prov. xxxi. 22. Luke xvi. 19.) In the more early ages, garments of various colours were in great esteem: such was Joseph's robe, of which his envious brethren stripped him, when they resolved to sell him. (Gen. xxxvii. 23.) The daughters of kings wore richly embroidered vests. (Psal. xlv. 13, 14.) It appears that the Jewish garments were worn pretty long; for it is mentioned as an aggravation of the affront done to David's ambassadors by the king of Ammon, that he cut off their garments in the middle even to their buttocks. (2 Sam. x. 4.) The dress of the Jews, in the ordinary ranks of life, was simple and nearly uniform. John the Baptist had his raiment of camels' hair,-not of the fine hair of that animal which is wrought into camlets (in imitation of which, though made of wool, is the English camlet), but of the long and shaggy hair of camels, which in the East is manufactured into a coarse stuff like that antiently worn by monks and anchorets.1 Dr. Shaw, whose critical observation and long residence in the East, eminently qualified him for illustrating the sacred records, has given an interesting account of the oriental dress, which elucidates many passages in a very pleasing manner. He observes that the Barbary women are employed in making hykes or blankets, as Andromache and Penelope were of old, and that they do not use the shuttle, but conduct every thread of the woof with their fingers. He informs us that the usual size of the hyke is six yards long, and five or six feet broad, serving the Kabyle or Arab for a complete dress in the day: and, as they sleep in their raiment, as the Israelites did of old (Deut. xxiv. 13.), it likewise serves for his bed and 1 On this subject see Capt. Light's Travels in Egypt, &c. pp. 135., and Mr. Morier's Second Journey in Persia, p. 44 covering in the night. It is a loose, but troublesome kind of garment, being frequently disconcerted and falling to the ground, so that the person who wears it is every moment obliged to tuck it up, and fold it anew around his body. This shows the great use of a girdle whenever they are engaged in any active employment, and the force of the Scripture injunction alluding to it, of having our loins girded, in order to set about it. The method of wearing these garments, with the use to which they are at other times put, in serving for coverlids to their beds, leads us to infer that the finer sort of them (such as are worn by the ladies and by persons of distinction) are the peplus of the antients. Ruth's veil, which held six measures of barley, (Ruth iii. 15.) might be of the like fashion, and have served extraordinarily for the same use; as were also the clothes (sa iparia, the upper garments) of the Israelites, (Exod. xii. 13.) in which they folded up their kneading-troughs: as the Moors, Arabs, and Kabyles do, to this day, things of the like burden and incumbrance in their hykes. Their burnooses also are often used upon these occasions. It is very probable, likewise, that the loose-folding garment, the toga of the Romans, was of this kind. For if the drapery of their statues is to instruct us, this is actually no other than the dress of the Arabs, when they appear in their hykes. The plaid of the High landers in Scotland is the very same. "Instead of the fibula that was used by the Romans, the Arabs join together with thread or a wooden bodkin the two upper corners of this garment and after having placed them first over one of their shoulders, they then fold the rest of it about their bodies. The outer fold serves them frequently instead of an apron, wherein they carry herbs, leaves, corn, &c. and may illustrate several allusions made thereto in Scripture; as gathering the lap full of wild gourds, (1 Kings iv. 19.) rendering seven-fold, giving good measure into the bosom, (Psalm cxxix. 12. Luke vi. 28.) shaking the lap, (Matt. v. 13.) &c. &c. "The burnoose, which answers to our cloak, is often for warmth worn over these hykes. It is wove in one piece, and shaped exactly like the garment of the little god Telesphorus, viz. strait about the neck, with a cape for a cover to the head, and wide below like a cloak. Some of them are fringed round the bottom, like Parthenaspa's and Trajan's garment upon the basso-relievos of Constantine's arch. The burnoose, without the cape, seems to answer to the Roman pallium: and with it, the bardocucullus. "If we except the cape of the burnoose, which is only occasionally used during a shower of rain, or in very cold weather, several Arabs and Kabyles go bare-headed all the year long, as Massinissa did of old, binding their temples only with a narrow fillet, to prevent their locks from being troublesome. As the antient diadema might originally serve for this purpose, so it appears from busts and medals to have been of no other fashion. But the Moors and Turks, with some of the principal Arabs, wear upon the crown of the head a small hemispherical cap of scarlet cloth. The turbant, as they call a long narrow web of linen, silk, or muslin, is folded round the bottom of these caps, and very properly distinguishes, by the number and fashion of the folds, the several orders and degrees of soldiers, and sometimes of citizens, one from another. We find the same dress and ornament of the head, the tiara, as it was called, upon a number of medals, statues, and basso-relievos of the antients. The shaving of the razor that is hired (Isa. vii. 20.) is illustrated by the remarkable nicety with which the head is still shaved in the eastern countries. From the custom of wearing the turban, this operation is very frequently performed; and after it, the head is so smooth to the touch, that it seems as if hair had never grown there.1 II. "Under the hyke some wear a close-bodied frock or tunic (jillibba they call it) either with or without sleeves, which differs little from the Roman tunica, or habit in which the constellation Boötes is usually painted. The xirov, or coat of our Saviour, which was woven without seam from the top throughout (John xix. 23.) might be of the like fashion. This too, no less than the hyke, is to be girded about their bodies, especially when they are engaged in any labour, exercise, or employment, at which time they usually throw off their burnooses and hykes, and remain only in their tunics: and of this kind, probably was the habit wherewith our Saviour might still be clothed, when he is said to lay aside his garments (iparia, pallium scilicet et peplum; or burnoose and hyke) and to take a towel and gird himself (John xiii. 4.); as was likewise the fisher's coat which St. Peter girded about him, when he is said to be naked. (John xxi. 7.) This also was what the same Peter, at the command of the angel, might have girded upon him, before he is enjoined to cast his garment (iariov) about him. Now the hyke or burnoose, or both, being probably at that time (iuariov or iuaria) the proper dress, clothing, or habit of the eastern nations, as they still continue to be of the Kabyles and Arabs; when they laid them aside, or appeared without the one or the other, they might very properly be said to be undrest or naked, according to the eastern manner of expression. This same convenient and uniform shape of these garments, which are made to fit all persons, may well illustrate a variety of expressions and occurrences in Scripture, which to ignorant persons, too much misled by our fashions, may seem difficult to account for. Thus, among many other instances, we read, that the goodly raiment of Esau was put upon Jacob; that Jonathan stript himself of his garments; that the best robe was brought out and put upon the prodigal son; and that raiment and changes of raiment were often given, and immediately put on, (as they still continue to be in these eastern nations) without such previous and occasional alterations as would be required amongst us in the like distribution or exchange of garments. VOL. III. 1 Jowett's Christian Researches, p. 168. 51 |