right hand, saying, Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, king of the world, who hast produced the fruit of the vine. They then repeat the 23d Psalm." They take care, that after meals there shall be a piece of bread remaining on the table; the master of the house orders a glass to be washed, fills it with wine, and elevating it, says, Let us bless him of whose benefits we have been partaking; the rest answer, Blessed be he, who has heaped his favours on us, and by his goodness has now fed us. Then he recites a pretty long prayer, wherein he thanks God for his many benefits vouchsafed to Israel: beseeches him to pity Jerusalem and his temple, to restore the throne of David, to send Elias and the Messiah, to deliver them out of their long captivity. All present answer, Amen. They recite Psal. xxxiv. 9, 10.; and then after passing the glass with the little wine in it round to those present, he drinks what is left, and the table is cleared. V. When persons journeyed, they provided themselves with every necessary, as there were no inns for the reception of travellers. Women and rich men frequently travelled on asses or camels, which carried not only their merchandise, but also their household goods and chattels. And it appears that the Jews often travelled in caravans or companies (as the inhabitants of the East do to this day), especially when they went up to Jerusalem at the three great annual festivals. The Psalms of ascensions, or of degrees as they are commonly entitled (cxx.—cxxxiv.), are supposed to have received this appellation from the circumstance of their being sung by the more devout Jews, when they were ascending or travelling up to the Holy city on these occasions. The company, among which Joseph and Mary supposed Jesus to have been on their return from the passover, when he was twelve years old (Luke ii. 42—44.), was one of these caravans.” VI. In the East, antiently, as well as in modern times, there were no inns, in which the traveller could meet with refreshment. Shade from the sun, and protection from the plunderers of the night, is all that the caravansaries afford. Hence hospitality was deemed a sacred duty incumbent upon every one. The sacred writings exhibit several instances of hospitality exercised by the patriarchs, and the writings of modern travellers show that similar hospitality still exists in the East.” Abraham received three angels, invited them, served them himself, and stood in their presence; Sarah his wife took care of the kitchen, and baked bread for his guests. (Gen. xviii. 2, 3, &c.) Lot waited at the city-gate to receive guests. (Gen. xix. 1.) When the inhabitants of Sodom meant to insult his guests, he went out, he spoke to them, he exposed himself to their fury, and offered rather to give up his own daughters to their brutality, than his guests. (Gen. xix. 1, 2, 3.) The same is observable in the old man of Gibeah, who had received the young Levite, and his wife. (Judg. xix. 16, 17.) St. Paul (Heb. xiii. 2.) uses Abraham's and Lot's example to encourage the faithful to the exercise of hospitality, saying, that they who have practised it, have merited the honour of receiving angels under the form of men. The primitive Christians made one principal part of their duty to consist in the exercise of this virtue. Our Saviour tells his apostles, that whoever received them, received him himself; and that whosoever should give them even a glass of water, should not lose his reward. (Matt. xxv. 41. 45.) At the day of judgment, he will say to the wicked, Depart ye cursed, into everlasting fire: I was a stranger, and ye received me not;.... inasmuch as ye have not done it unto the least of these, ye have not done it unto me. St. Peter (1 Ep. iv. 9.) requires the faithful to use hospitality to their brethren without murmuring and complaint. St. Paul in several of his Epistles recommends hospitality. But he recommends it particularly to bishops. (1 Tim. iii. 2. Tit. i. 8.) The primitive Christians were so ready in the discharge of this duty, that the very heathens admired them for it. They were hospitable to all strangers, but especially to those of the same faith and communion. Believers scarcely ever travelled without letters of communion, which testified the purity of their faith: and this procured them a hospitable reception wherever the name of Jesus Christ was known. Calmet is of opinion, that the two last Epistles of St. John may be such kind of letters of communion and recommendation, as were given to Christians who travelled. Instances of hospitality among the early Greeks, abound in the writings of Homer, whose delineations of manners and customs reflect so much light on the Old Testament, especially on the Pentateuch; and that antient hospitality, which the Greeks considered as so sacred and inviolable, is still partially preserved. When the traveller makes a second tour through the country, he can hardly do any thing more offensive to the person by whom he was entertained in his first journey, than by not again having recourse to the kindness of his former host. Travelling would indeed be impracticable in Greece, if it were not facilitated by this noble sentiment; for the Protogeroi are not found in all parts of the country, and the miserable Khans or Karavanserais, are generally constructed only in towns or on highways. Travelling, in the greater part of Greece, seems to have been antiently at least, as difficult as it is at the present day: and that circumstance gave rise to the laws of hospitality. This reciprocal hospitality became hereditary in families; and the friendship which was thus contracted, was not less binding than the ties of affinity; or of blood. Those between whom a regard had been cemented by the intercourse of hospitality, were provided with some particu, lar mark, which, being handed down from father to son, established a friendship and alliance between the families, for several genera

tions. This mark was the cup.86).ow #vixow of the Greeks, and the
tessera hospitalis of the Latins. The opow was sometimes an
astragal, probably of lead, which, being cut in halves,” one half
was kept by the host, and the other by the person whom he had en-
tertained. On future occasions they or their descendants, by whom
the symbol was recognised, gave or received hospitality on comparing
the two tallies. Mr. Dodwell found some half astragals of lead in
Greece, which had probably served for this purpose.”
The antient Romans divided a tessera lengthwise, into two equal
parts, as signs of hospitality, upon each of which one of the parties
wrote his name, and interchanged it with the other. The produc-
tion of this, when they travelled, gave a mutual claim to the con-
tracting parties and their descendants, for reception and kind treat-
ment at each others’ houses, as occasion offered. These tesserae
were sometimes of stone, shaped in the form of an oblong square :
and to them some critics have supposed that an allusion is intended in
Rev. ii. 17. where it is said, To him that overcometh, will I give a
white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man know-
eth, saving he that receiveth it. (Compare, however, p. 113. supra.)
In this passage, the venerable translators of our authorised version,
by rendering it a white stone, seem to have confounded it with the
calculus or small globular stone, which was commonly used for bal-
lotting, and on some other occasions. The original words are
Jonpoy Asukov, which do not specify either the matter or the form, but
only the use of it. By this allusion, therefore, the promise made
to the church at Pergamos seems to be to this purpose :—That the
faithful among them should hereafter be acknowledged by Christ,
and received into a state of favour and perpetual friendship And

to this sense the following words very well agree, which describe this stone or tessera, as having in it a new name written, which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it. For, as the name in the Roman tessera was not that of the person who wrote it, but of his friend who possessed it, so it was only known to the possessor, who doubtles kept it both privately and with great care, that no other person might enjoy the benefit of it, which was designed only for himself and his family."

1 Ward's Dissertations upon several passages of the Sacred Scriptures, pp. 22– 232. London, 1759. 8vo.

CHAPTER VII.

ON THE OCCUPATIONS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES OF THE
HEBREWS.

SECTION I.
AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE OF THE JEws.

I. Agriculture of the Jews.--II. Manures known and used by them. -III. Their unode of ploughing, sowing, and reaping.—IV. Dif: ferent ways of threshing out Črn.-W. W.ineyards, and the Culture of the Pine and Ólive—Gardens.

I. J UDAEA was eminently an agricultural country; and all the Mosaic statutes were admirably calculated to encourage agriculture as the chief foundation of national prosperity, and also to preserve the Jews detached from the surrounding idolatrous nations." After they had acquired possession of the promised land, the Jews applied them. selves wholly to agriculture and the tending of cattle, following the example of their ancestors, the patriarchs, who (like the Arabs, Bedouins, Turcomans, and numerous tribes of eastern Asia,) were generally husbandmen and shepherds, and whose chief riches consisted in cattle, slaves, and the fruits of the earth. Adam brought up his two sons to husbandry, Cain to the tilling of the ground, and Abel to the feeding of sheep. (Gen. iv. 2.) Jabal was a grazier of cattle, of whom it is said, that he was the father of such as dwell in tents, (ver. 20.), that is, he travelled with his cattle from place to place, and for that end invented the use of tents, which he carried with him for shelter. Abraham and Lot must have had vast herds of cattle, when they were obliged to separate because the land could not contain them (Gen. xiii. 6.); and strises between the different villagers and herdsmen of Syria still exist, as well as in the days of those patriarchs.1 Jacob also must have had a great number, since he could afford a present to his brother Esau of five hundred and eighty head of cattle. (Gen. xxxii. 13–17.)" It was their great flocks of cattle which

1 Richardson's Travels along the Mediterranean, vol. ii. p. 106.

2 The following description of the removal of an Arab horde will afford the reader a lively idea of the primitive manners of the patriarchs. “It was entertaining enough to see the horde of Arabs decamp, as nothing could be more regular. First went the sheep and f. each with their flocks in divisions, accordin as the chief of each family directed ; then followed the camels and asses, load with the tents, furniture, and kitchen utensils; these were followed by the old men, women, boys, and girls, on foot. The children that cannot walk are carried on the backs of the young women, or the boys and girls; and the smallest of the lambs and kids are carried under the arms of the children. To each tent belong many dogs, among which are some greyhounds; some tents have from ten to fourteen dogs, and from twenty to thirty men, women and children, belonging to it. The procession is closed by the chief of the tribe, whom they call Emir and Father

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