employed for the meanest purposes of life, forbids us to consider it as the material of which the elegant shoes of an oriental lady are formed. When the prophet says in the name of the Lord, "I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badgers' skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk," he certainly meant, that the shoes, corresponding to the other parts of the dress, were formed of costly materials. The Targum accordingly translates the passage, "I put precious shoes upon thy feet;" but this could be said with no propriety of shoes made of badgers' skins. Nor can it be supposed, that the skin of an animal, which the law of Moses pronounces unclean, strictly enjoins the people of Israel not to touch, or if they did happen to touch it, not to worship at the tabernacle, till the ceremonial pollution which they accidentally contracted was removed according to the precept, would be employed to cover that sacred structure, and its consecrated utensils, and that the Levites should be obliged ften to handle it in performing the duties of their office. The sacred implements of Jewish worship, certainly were defended from the injuries of the weather by the skins of clean beasts, which were easily procured, and that in sufficient numbers, even in the wilderness. This idea, so conformable to the spotless purity required in the ceremonial law, has been adopted and maintained by all the earlier Jewish writers, whose authority in matters of this kind is entitled to great respect. Many disputes indeed have been agitated among them, in relation to the particular animal employed; but none of them before the time of Jarchi, who flourished about the middle of the eleventh century, supposed that it was the skin of the badger. These considerations leave no room for doubt in the mind of the writer, that the original term denotes neither the badger, nor any other animal, but merely a colour. What particular colour is meant, it may not be easy to ascertain; but when it is considered, that the people of rank and fashion in the East, were accustomed to appear in purple shoes, it is extremely probable, that purple was the colour intended by the sacred writer. The Chaldee Paraphrast accordingly, expounds the words of the Song, "How beautiful are thy feet with shoes," how beautiful are the feet of Israel, when they go up to appear three times before the Lord in purple sandals! The Roman emperors, and the kings of Persia, reserved by a formal edict, shoes of a purple colour for their own use; and it is said, red shoes were among the insignia of the ancient kingdom of Bulgaria. Hence, Isaac Comnenus, the Roman emperor, deprived the patriarch of Constantinople of his dignity, because he presumed to put on shoes of a crimson colour, although these were formerly worn at Rome by persons of the senatorial order.-PAXTON. Ver. 10. And they shall make an ark of shittimwood: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof. Concerning the shitta tree, mentioned by the prophet Isaiah with the cedar and the myrtle, different opinions are entertained by commentators. The name is derived from the Hebrew verb Shata, to decline or turn to and fro, having for the plural Shittim. It is remarkable for being the wood of which the sacred vessels of the tabernacle were made. The Seventy interpreters generally render it by the term asia, incorruptible. Theodotion, and after him the Vulgate, translate it by Spina, a thorn. The shittimwood, says Jerome, resembles the white thorn in its colour and leaves, but not in its size; for the tree is so large, that it affords very long planks. Hasselquist also says it grows in Upper Egypt, to the size of a large tree. The wood is hard, tough, smooth, without knots, and extremely beautifal. This kind of wood grows only in the deserts of Arabia; but in no other part of the Roman empire. In another place he remarks, it is of an admirable beauty, solidity, strength, and smoothness, It is thought he means the black acacia, the only tree found in the deserts of Arabia. This plant is so hard and solid, as to become almost incorruptible. Its wood has the colour of the Lotus tree; and so large, that it furnishes plank twelve cubits long. It is very thorny, and even its bark is covered with very sharp thorns; and hence it perhaps had the Hebrew name Shata, from making animals decline or turn aside by the sharpness of its spines. The interpretation now given, seems to be confirined by the following remark of Dr. Shaw: "The acacia being by much the largest and the most common tree of these deserts, we have some reason to conjecture, that the shittim-wood, of which the several utensils of the tabernacle were made, was the wood of the acacia. This tree abounds with flowers of a globular figure, and of an excellent smell; which is another proof of its being the shitta tree of the scriptures, which, in the prophecies of Isaiah, is joined with the myrtle and other sweet-smelling plants." Besides, we have no reason to conclude, that the people of Israel possessed any species of wood for making the utensils of the tabernacle, but what they could procure in the desert; but the desert produces none in the quantity required, except the acacia. In one place they found seventy-two palm-trees: but the sacred writer distinguishes them by their vulgar name; therefore they could not be the same tree; nor is the palm, which is a soft spongy wood, at all fit for the purpose,-for the nature of the utensils, as the ark of the testimony and the mercy-seat, required wood of a fibre the hardest, the most beautiful and durable which could be found, had it been in their power to make a choice; and these are the very characters of the acacia. To these important qualities may be added, the fragrant odour emitted by this wood, which to Orientals who delight in rich perfumes, must have been a powerful recommendation. But if the acacia was perfectly suited to the purpose of Moses, and if the desert produces no other, as Dr. Shaw declares, the shittim-wood mentioned in the scriptures must be the acacia of the natural historian.--PAXTON. CHAP. 26. ver. 1. Moreover, thou shalt make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet: with cherubims of cunning work shalt thou make them. It seems that the tabernacle, as it was ordered in the plan given, might be called a tent or a house, because it had wooden walls or partitions like a house, and curtains and hangings like a tent; but as it externally resembled a tent, and that a common oblong tent, such as those of the Arabs, for the most part, now are, and the wooden walls were without a roof, and properly only supports for the many curtains and hangings which spread over them, it is better and more properly called a tent. Even the ordinary tents of the wandering tribes of the East have at least two main divisions; the innermost or hindmost is for the women; and, among the Orientals, it is in this sense sacred, i. e. parted off, inaccessible. The first space is divided from the innermost only by a curtain, and is for the men; what is found in the tents of the common people is found also, but far more rich and splendid, in the tents of the men of rank. The tent of an emir or prince has more conveniences; the innermost space is only accessible to himself, or to those whom he especially honours: into the first space, or outer tent, others may come. The furniture is costly, the floor is covered with a rich carpet, and a stand, with the censer and coals, on which incense is strewed. Here we have the simple idea after which this royal tent, this abode of God, who was at the same time king of the Hebrew people, was made. It was not to be a house or a palace, but a tent, and that with all the magnificence which the skill of the Hebrews in architecture could erect. The boards for the standing walls were covered with plates of gold; twenty boards, which served as pillars to the supporters, standing upright, joined together, each three feet broad and twenty high, made on each side the length, and eight the breadth, so that eight-and-forty such boards, twenty in the length on each side, and eight for the breadth of the back wall, (for the front side had only a curtain,) resting upon two silver sockets, formed the partition. This oblong quadrangle was separated into two parts or divisions; the innermost, or the most holy; and the front, or the holy. The innermost was properly the dwelling of the Lord, the front one was more for his service. The inner division was very considerable, sixty feet long, twenty feet broad, and twenty high; and, as over this extensive frame-work several covers were spread, which hung down on three sides, (that is, all round except at the entrance,) this also gave the tent a greater appearance, so that it was undoubtedly distinguished by " its size. In the coverings of the tents, the Orientals, who are fond of magnificence, regard both the stuff and the colour: this royal tent was to be distinguished in both par-, ticulars. The curtain, which lay immediately under the beams, was the most beautiful and the most costly. On the finest linen stuff were embroidered cherubims of the most beautiful colours, dark blue, purple, and scarlet. Thus the tents of eastern princes, even in our days, are distinguished by most beautiful colours. Olearius, accompanying the ambassadors of Holstein Gottorf, who were invited by the Persian monarch to a hunting party, found in an Armenian village many tents, ready for the reception of the company, which afforded a pleasing sight on account of their manifold colours. Over the under curtain a covering of goats' hair was spread, which is the usual covering of the Arabian tents, commonly coarse, but here of the finest texture; and, that these coverings might not be injured by the sand or dust, two others; made of skins, were laid over them. The portable temple of the Israelites had, indeed, in its whole arrangement, a resemblance with the temples of other nations of antiquity. As they had spacious forecourts, so had the tabernacle an oblong quadrangular forecourt, two hundred feet long, and one hundred broad, which was formed by the hangings or curtains which hung on pillars. The tabernacle itself was divided into two parts, the holy and the most holy; in the latter was the ark of the covenant, with the symbols of the divine qualities, the cherubims; and no human being dared to enter this especially sanctified place, except the high-priest, once a year, (on the feast of reconciliation.) Thus, also, in many Grecian temples, the back part was not to be entered by anybody. (Lackemacher's Antiq. Græcor. Saer.) This part, where, in the heathen temples, the statue of the deity was placed, was generally towards the west, and the entrance towards the east. (Spencer de Leg. Hebræor. Ritual.) In the same manner the entrance of the tabernacle was towards the east, and, consequently, the most holy place to the west. In the most holy, a solemn darkness reigned, as in most of the ancient temples. A richly-worked curtain divided the most holy from the holy, and thus, in the Egyptian temples, the back part, where the sacred animal to which the temple was dedicated, was kept, was divided from the front part by a curtain embroidered with gold.— ROSENMULLER. Ver. 36. And thou shalt make a hanging for the door of the tent, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, wrought with needlework. We passed Lahar, close to a small valley, where we found several snug encampments of the Eelauts, at one of which we stopped to examine the tent of the chief of the obah, or family. It was composed of a wooden frame of circular laths, which were fixed on the ground, and then covered over with large felts, that were fastened down by a cord, ornamented by tassels of various colours. A curtain, curiously worked by the women, with coarse needle-work of various colours, was suspended over the door. In the king of Persia's tents, magnificent perdahs, or hangings of needle-work, are suspended, as well as on the doors of the great mosques in Turkey; and these circumstances combined, will, perhaps, illustrate Exodus xxvi. 36.-MORIER. CHAP. 27. ver. 20. And thou shalt command the children of Israel, that they bring thee pure oil-olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamp to burn always. By the expression oil-olive, this oil is distinguished from other kinds. The addition beaten, indicates that it is that oil obtained from olives pounded in a mortar, and not pressed from olives in the oil-mill. The oil obtained from pounded olives is, according to Columella's observation, much purer and better tasted, does not emit much smoke, and has no offensive smell.-BURDER. CHAP. 28. ver. 33. And beneath, upon the hem of it, thou shalt make pomegranates of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, round about the hem thereof; and bells of gold between them round about. The bell seems to have been a sacred utensil of very ancient use in Asia. Golden bells formed a part of the ornaments of the pontifical robe of the Jewish high-priest, with which he invested himself upon those grand and peculiar festivals, when he entered into the sanctuary. That robe was very magnificent, it was ordained to be of sky-blue, and the border of it, at the bottom, was adorned with pomegranates and gold bells intermixed equally, and at equal distances. The use and intent of these bells is evident from these words: "And it shall be upon Aaron to minister, and his sound shall be heard when he goeth in unto the holy place before the Lord, and when he cometh out, that he die not." The sound of the numerous bells that covered the hem of his garment, gave notice to the assembled people that the most awful ceremony of their religion had commenced. When arrayed in this garb, he bore into the sanctuary the vessel of incense; it was the signal to prostrate themselves before the Deity, and to commence those fervent ejaculations which were to ascend with the column of that incense to the throne of heaven. "One indispensable ceremony in the Indian Pooja is the ringing of a small bell by the officiating brahmin. The women of the idol, or dancing girls of the pagoda, have little golden bells fastened to their feet, the soft harmonious tinkling of which vibrates in unison with the exquisite melody of their voices." (MAURICE'S Indian Antiquities.) The ancient kings of Persia, who, in fact, united in their own persons the regal and sacerdotal office, were accustomed to have the fringes of their robes adorned with pomegranates and golden bells. The Arabian courtesans, like the Indian women, have little golden bells fastened round their legs, neck, and elbows, to the sound of which they dance before the king. The Arabian princesses wear golden rings on their fingers, to which little bells are suspended, as well as in the flowing tresses of their hair, that their superior rank may be known, and they themselves, in passing, receive the homage due to their exalted station."-CALMET. Ver. 41. And thou shalt put them upon Aaron thy brother, and his sons with him; and shalt anoint them, and consecrate them, and sanctify them, that they may minister unto me in the priest's office. The Hebrew has for " consecrate," "fill their hands." See also Judges xvii. 5, 12, and 1 Kings xiii. 33, and many other places where the word "consecrate" is in the margin rendered "fill the hand." Is it not a remarkable fact that the word Kai-Reppi, which signifies, in Tamul, to consecrate a priest, also means to fill the hand? When a layman meets a priest, he puts his hands together as an act of reverence, and the priest stretches out his right hand, as if full of something, and says, "Blessings."-ROBERTS. CHAP. 29. ver. 22. Also thou shalt take of the ram the fat and the rump. Or the large tail of one species of the eastern sheep. Russell, (Hist. of Aleppo, p. 51,) after observing that they are in that country much more numerous than those with smaller tails, adds, "this tail is very broad and large, terminating in a small appendix that turns back upon it. It is of a substance between fat and marrow, and is not eaten separately, but mixed with the lean meat in many of their dishes, and also often used instead of butter. A common sheep of this sort, without the head, feet, skin, and entrails weighs about twelve or fourteen Aleppo rotoloes, of which the tail is usually three rotoloes or upwards; but such as are of the largest breed, and have been fattened, will sometimes weigh above thirty rotoloes, and the tail of these ten. yards, are in no danger of injuring their tails: but in some These very large sheep, being about Aleppo kept up in other places, where they feed in the fields, the shepherds their tail, to prevent its being torn by bushes and thistles, are obliged to fix a piece of thin board to the under part of as it is not covered underneath with thick wool like the upper part. Some have small wheels to facilitate the I find in Exod. xxxiv. 21, a very remarkable promise of God, which could hardly have been fulfilled in the common course of providence, and without a miracle, unless the Israelites and other neighbours had in their wars observed a certain law of truce, quite strange to us, and which I only know from the customs of the Arabs. Moses commands all the males of Israel to leave their homes thrice a year, and celebrate a festival for a week at the place where the tabernacle should be erected; assuring them, withal, that during this period, no man should desire their land; and that, therefore, however distant their abodes might be from the sanctuary, they might undertake this journey with perfect safety. According to the present course of things in the world, this is quite incomprehensible. Were all the males to leave certain parts of the country, and still more, the fortified cities, the greatest of all wonders would be, the enemy with whom the nation happened to be at war, refraining frem seizing the opportunity to occupy the fortresses,-to plunder and burn the open country,-and to forage the corn-fields. And it is most obvious, that the danger of all this will be still greater among nations who do not maintain settled peace with each other; of which description were the marauding Arabs: or who carry on war rather by incursions than regular campaigns, and have no other object than to make booty in money, produce, women, and children. Shall we then venture so to expound the words of Moses, as if he had promised a periodical miracle from God, which should, for three weeks every year, convert all the enemies of the Israelites into statues A promise so incredible, will, perhaps, not appear to be necessary, when, to illustrate this point, we call in the aid of the customs of the Arabs, who are Abraham's descendants, and the immediate brethren of the Israelites. In all their wars, and even amid their family feuds, during the holy month, in which they solemnized the festival at Mecca, they had a truce. Mohammed's greatest transgression is, that he is said to have broken this truce. Yet, in the Koran, he has commanded his followers to keep it only when their adversaries keep it; and he permits them to fight against the enemy during the holy month, only when he makes the first attack. Thus we see, in like manner, from 1 Kings xii. 27, that among the Israelites, during the high festivals, a suspension of arms took place; and the ten tribes who had revolted from the family of David, might, without hinderance, have kept the feast at Jerusalem, and would have done so, had not Jeroboam, for political reasons, endeavoured to prevent them. The Judahites, therefore, did not put any obstacle in their way; and they would then have been in as perfect security at Jerusalem, as, before Mohammed's time, every Arab during the holy month was at Mecca. It would ap pear, then, that the nations related to the Israelites, paid equal respect to the worship of God, and made a truce during war, whenever the people celebrated a festival. But probably the Canaanites were, both in religion and manners, so different from the Israelites, that they did not observe any such truce; for Moses expressly says on this occasion, that God would destroy the Canaanites; and then, no other people would conceive any desire to attack the land of Israel during the seasons of the festivals. Now such a law of nations once introduced, God might fulfil his promise in the common course of providence, and without the aid of a miracle. This sacred truce, which is, however, quite unsuitable to the more connected operations of modern warfare, was likewise probably the cause, wherefore the commandment respecting the Sabbath could be given without any particular limitation. For on that day, all labour was prohibited. Moses does not, indeed, expressly specify fighting, marching, intrenching; but neither does he expressly except them. Now although, in a rational consideration of the matter, the justice of these exceptions, in cases of necessity, is manifest; this silence seems, nevertheless, to be a'defect in the law; and a nation who in this point had even the smallest scruple of conscience, would make but a poor figure in war. We see, in fact, that after the Babylonish captivity, when, as St. Paul says, (Heb. viii. 7-13,) the law began to be useless from its antiquity, the observance of the Sabbath became very prejudicial to the Jews in their wars with the Syrians and Romans. For the former on the Sabbath attacked them, and burnt thousands of them in a cave, without their making any resistance: and the latter, in their first siege of Jerusalem under Pompey, carried on the works of investment undisturbed, and only guarded against attempting to storm the city, because against a storm the Jews defended themselves even on the Sabbath. But since, before the captivity, we never find, that in their numerous wars, the Sabbath had been detrimental to the Jews, or that any of their enemies availed himself of the advantage it gave him; the Israelites must either, from ancient and undoubted usage, have known that the commandment concerning the Sabbath did not extend to the operations of war; or else, betwixt them and all the neighbouring nations there must on this day have been a sacred truce. Among the latter, this day, which the Israelites dedicated to the Creator of the heavens and the earth, was probably sacred to Saturn, to whom the Phoenicians paid the highest veneration; because, before his being raised to divine honours, or numbered among the stars, he is said to have been king of their country. According to the testimony of Diodorus Siculus, they accounted him the chief of the planets; and the Arabians had, in like manner, dedicated to him their national temple, the Caaba at Mecca.-MICHAELIS. CHAP. 38. ver. 8. And he made the laver of brass and the foot of it of brass, of the looking-glasses of the women assembling, which assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. The eastern mirrors were made of polished steel, and for the most part convex. If they were thus made in the country of Elihu, the image made use of by him will appear very lively. "Hast thou with him spread out the sky, which is strong, and as a molten looking-glass?" (Job xxxvii. 18.) Shaw informs us, that "in the Levant looking-glasses are a part of female dress. The Moorish women in Barbary are so fond of their ornaments, and particularly of their looking-glasses, which they hang upon their breasts, that they will not lay them aside, eyen when, after the drudgery of the day, they are obliged to go two or three miles with a pitcher, or a goat's skin, to fetch water." The Israelitish women used to carry their mirrors with them, even to their most solemn place of worship. The word mirror should be used in the passages here referred to, rather than those which are inserted in the present translation of the Bible. To speak of looking glasses made of steel, and glasses molten, is palpably absurd; whereas the term mirror obviates every difficulty, and expresses the true meaning of the original.-BURDER. LEVITICUS. CHAPTER II. Ver: 4. And if thou bring an oblation of a meatoffering baken in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, or unleavened wafers anointed with oil. What attracted our attention most this stormy day, was the apparatus for warming us. It was the species of oven called tannoor, common throughout Armenia and also in Syria, but converted here for purposes of warmth into what is called a tandoor. A cylindrical hole is sunk about three feet in the ground in some part of the room, with a flue entering it at the bottom to convey a current of air to the fire which heats it. For the emission of smoke no other provision is made than the open sky-light in the terrace. When used for baking bread, the dough, being flattened to the thickness of common pasteboard, perhaps a foot and a half Long by a foot broad, is stuck to its smooth sides by means of a cushion, upon which it is first spread. It indicates, by cleaving off, when it is done, and being then packed down in the family chest, it lasts at least a month in the winter, and ten days in the summer. Such is the only bread known in the villages of Armenia; and even the cities of Erivan and Tebriz offer no other variety than a species perhaps only twice as thick, and so long that it might almost be sold by the yard. To bake it, the bottom of a large oven is covered with pebbles, (except one corner, where a fire is kept constantly burning,) and upon them when heated, the sheets of dough are spread. The convenience of such thin bread, where knives and forks are not used, and spoons are rare, is, that a piece of it doubled enables you to take hold of a mouthful of meat more delicately than with your bare fingers; or, when properly folded, helps you to convey a spoonful safely to your mouth, to be eaten with the spoon itself. When needed for purposes of warmth, the tannoor is easily transformed into a tandoor. A round stone is laid upon the mouth of the oven, when well heated, to stop the draught; a square frame, about a foot in height, is then placed above it; and a thick coverlet, spread over the whole, lies upon the ground around it, to confine the warmth. The family squat upon the floor, and warm themselves by extending their legs and hands into the heated air beneath it, while the frame holds, as occasion requires, their lamp or their food. Its economy is evidently great. So full of crevices are the houses, that an open fireplace must consume a great quantity of fuel, and then almost fail of warming even the air in its immediate vicinity. The tandoor heated once, or at the most twice in twenty-four hours, by a small quantity of fuel, keeps one spot continually warm for the relief of all numb fingers and frozen toes. The one The house, apparently the best in the village, was built throughout, floor, walls, and terrace, of mud. Fortunately, as its owner had two wives, it had two rooms. assigned us, being the principal family apartment, was of course filled with every species of dirt, vermin, and litter; and withal, as they were in the midst of the process of baking, the insufferable smoke of the dried cow-dung which heated their tannoor, or cylindrical oven, detained us a long time before we could take possession. Persuaded at last by impatience that the bread must be done, I entered, and found our host and chief muleteer shaking their shirts in the oven, to dislodge the "crawling creatures" that inhabited them. Though new to us then, we afterward found reason to believe that this use of the tannoor is common, and for it alone we have known it to be heated. In such ovens was our bread baked, by being stuck upon their sides, and though we would fain have quieted our fastidiousness by imagining that they were purified by fire, the nature of the fuel of which that was almost invariably made, left little room upon which to found such a conception. And as for the loathsome company of which our host and muleteer had thus attempted to rid themselves, we found them too constantly affecting our senses to think of imagining them away; for the traveller can hardly journey a day here, or in any part of Turkey, without their annoying him, and his only relief is in a constant change of his linen. The apartment was finally cleared and swept, but the old man could give us neither carpet nor mat, and our own painted canvass and travelling carpets were all that covered the ground on which we sat and slept.-Smith and DWIGHT. Mr. Jackson, in his Journey over land from India, gives an account of an eastern oven, equally instructive and amusing, as it confirms the statements of ancient travellers, and shows the surprising expertness of the Arabian women in baking their bread. They have a small place built with clay, between two and three feet high, having a hole at the bottom for the convenience of drawing out the ashes, something similar to a lime-kiln." The oven, (which he thinks the most proper name for this place,) is usually about fifteen inches wide at top, and gradually widening to the bottom. It is heated with wood; and when sufficiently hot, and perfectly clear from the smoke, having nothing but clear embers at the bottom, which continue to reflect great heat, they prepare the dough in a large bowl, and mould the cakes to the desired size on a board, or stone, placed near the oven. After they have kneaded the cake to a proper consistence, they pat it a little, then toss it about with great dexterity in one hand, till it is as thin as they choose to make it. They then wet one side of it with water, at the same time wetting the hand and arm with which they put it into the oven. The side of the cake adheres fast to the side of the oven, till it is sufficiently baked, when, if not paid proper attention to, it would fall down among the embers. If they were not exceedingly quick at this work, the heat of the oven would burn their arms; but they perform it with such an amazing dexterity, that one woman will continue keeping three or four cakes in the oven at once, till she has done baking. This mode, he adds, requires not half the fuel that is consumed in Europe.-PAXTON. CHAPTER VII. Ver. 9. And the meat-offering that is baken in the oven, and all that is dressed in the fryingpan, and in the pan, shall be the priest's that offereth it. Our translation of this passage, presents a confusion more easily perceived than regulated by the general reader:-" And all the meat-offering that is baken in the oven, and all that is dressed in the fryingpan, and in the pan, shall be the priest's that offers it." It is evident that here are three terms used, implying three different manners of dressing food.-Do we understand them? The term, "meat-offering" is certainly unfortunate here, as it raises the idea of flesh-meat, without just reason, to say the least, especially as it stands connected with baking in the oven, . Passing this, the following sentence, also, as it stands connected, expresses a meat-offering, dressed in a fryingpan, ; and then we have another kind of meat-offering, dressed in the pan, n. Of what nature is this pan? To answer this question, we must dismiss the flesh-meat. Whether the following extract from Denon may contribute assistance on this subject, is submitted with great deference. It is his explanation of his plate LXXXV. manner of making macaroni, in Egypt.-The manufactory, and the shop for selling it, are both at once in the street ;an oven, over which a great plate of copper is heated; the maker sheds on it a thin and liquid paste, which is strained through the holes in a kind of cup which he passes up "The and down on the plate after a few minutes, the threads of paste are hardened, dried, and baked, by a uniform degree of heat, maintained without intermission, by an equal quantity of branches of palm-tree, by which the oven is kept constantly heated. The same degree of heat is given in the same space of time to an equal quantity of macaroni; which is perpetually renewed on the plate, and sold directly as it is made."-TAYLOR IN CALMET. Ver. 12. If he offer it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer with the sacrifice of thanksgiving unleavened cakes mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and cakes mingled with oil, of fine flour, fried. With the exception of two rare cases, oil was ordered to accompany every meal-offering, in order to its being therewith prepared, and baked into cakes. With this law, in so far as it is perhaps typical, and regards a holy ceremony, I have here nothing to do, because I consider it merely with respect to its political influence in the state; and that, among a people brought out of Egypt into Palestine, and still always hankering after Egypt, was important. It imperceptibly attached them to their new country, and served to render even the idea of a future residence in Egypt, irksome; while it also imperceptibly gave them an inclination to cultivate the olive-tree, for which nature seems to have pre-eminently adapted Palestine. In the greatest part of Egypt, according to Strabo, no olives were cultivated. It was only in the Heracleotic canton, that they came to such perfection as that oil could be made from them. In the gardens around Alexandria, (which, however, did not exist in the time of the ancient kings, that part of the country being an uncultivated waste till the reign of Alexander the Great,) there were olive-trees, but no oil was made. The consequence of this want of oil was, (as it still is,) that in Egypt they made use of butter, as we do, and also of honey, in their pastry: and even at this day, travellers, going from Egypt into Arabia, carry butter along with them; although, indeed, it is not very tempting to the appetite, because, in consequence of the great heat, it generally melts in the jars by the way. In those parts of Arabia likewise, which the Israelites traversed, and in which they might, perhaps, have thought of settling as wandering herdsmen, scarcely any olives were produced. The oil of Palestine, on the other hand, was not only most abundant, but also peculiarly excellent; and Hasselquist prefers it even to that of Provence. By this gift of nature, stony places and mountains, which would otherwise have been barren, became not only useful, but even more productive, than the best fields could be made. The only part of Palestine which Strabo, that much misquoted author, describes as unfruitful, is that about Jerusalem; and it really is so, in regard to the production of grain': but still the Jews say, that an aere about Jerusalem was formerly of much more value that in any other part of Palestine. This I should not believe on their word, if any degree of improbability attached to it; for Jewish accounts from hearsay and oral tradition, have little weight with me. But as long as Palestine was properly cultivated, an acre near Jerusalem, from its produce in wine and oil, must naturally have been more profitable, than as a cornfield. We need only call to mind the Mount of Olives, which lay to the east of the city. An acre planted with olives or vines, however rocky and arid the soil may be, will very easily be made worth ten times as much as an acre of the richest corn-land.-The account given by Abulfeda, in his Description of Syria, confirms this statement; for he says, that the country about Jerusalem is one of the most fertile in Palestine. Let us now represent to ourselves the effects of a law which enjoined, that the pastry of offerings should be baked with oil, (and, therefore, not with butter,) and that to every meal-offering so much oil should be added. The priests, who, among the Hebrews, were persons of distinction by birth, were accustomed to oil-pastry; and as their entertainments were generally offeringfeasts, the people thus became acquainted with it. Now, what people have once tasted as a luxury at a feast, and found savoury, or heard of as eaten by the great, they begin first to imitate sparingly, and then, if they can, more and more frequently in their daily meals. This was an infallible means to accustom the Israelites to oil-pastry, with which, whoever is once acquainted, will always prefer it to that made with butter. For if the oil is fresh and good, it tastes much better; to which add, that as butter is very liable to spoil, it then communicates to pastry, and every other sort of meat, a disagreeable by-taste.-The worst faults in cookery arise from bad butter. This is a general maxim with our German housewives, particularly in Southern Germany. The natural consequences, then, of the use of oil-pastry, as now mentioned, were, in the first place, that the olive-tree, which formed so principal a source of the riches of the new country of the Israelites, came to be more carefully cultivated, and thus its natural treasures properly improved; and, in the next place, that the people at length lost their desire of returning back to Egypt. That in the time of Moses, they often thought of Egypt with regret, and were even inclined to return to their ancient bondage, we know from his own accounts. Indeed, their penchant for this their ancient country was so strong and permanent, that he found it necessary to introduce into the fundamental and unalterable laws of the government, as affecting the king, an express ordinance against all return to Egypt, Deut. xvii. 16. No sooner, however, would the Israelite become rightly acquainted with the chief of nature's gifts to his new country, and accustomed to the use of wine and oil, than his longing after a country, which produced neither, would totally cease. In fact, the object which the statutes, now considered, most probably had in view, was so completely attained, that, 1. Butter was entirely disused among the Israelites. In the whole Hebrew Bible, which contains so many other economical terms, we do not once find the word for butter; for Non, which in Job xx. 17. xxix. 6. Deut. xxxii. 14. Judg. v. 25. Isa. vii. 15, 16, 22, is commonly so translated, does not mean butter, but thick milk. It would therefore appear, that butter had been as rarely to be seen in Palestine, as it now is in Spain; and that the people had made use of nothing but oil in their cookery, as being more delicious. The reason why the LXX. have improperly rendered it butler, was this; that their Greek version was made by Egyptian Jews, who, from the want of oil in their " new country, were accustomed to the use of butter only. 2. From the time of Joshua until the destruction of their government, the desire of returning to Egypt never once arose among the Israelites. It was only after Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed Jerusalem, and when the remnant of the people no longer thought themselves secure against similar disasters within Palestine, that, contrary to the divine prohibition, the Jews took refuge in Egypt, Jer. xlii. xliv.; and when the kingdom of the ten tribes was destroyed, and Samaria conquered by the Assyrians, many of the Israelites, as we must infer from Hosea, in like manner withdrew thither.-MICHAELIS. Ver. 26. Moreover, ye shall eat no manner of blood, whether it be of fowl, or of beast, in any of your dwellings. With the prohibition of fat, we find in two passages (Lev. iii. 17, and vii. 26, 27,) another prohibition joined, that of eating blood; which, however, occurs also in five other passages, (Lev. xvii. 10-14. xix. 26. Deut. xii. 16, 23, 24. xv. 23;) and was binding, not only on the Israelites themselves, but also on all foreigners living among them, under the penalty of death: Lev. xvii. 10. This unusually frequent recurrence of the prohibition, together with the punishment of extirpation from among the people, annexed to the transgression of it; and the denunciation of God's peculiar vengeance against every man who should eat blood, is quite sufficient to show, that the legislator must have been more interested in this, than in the other prohi bitions relative to unclean meats, and likewise that the Israelites had had peculiar temptations to transgress it. These we really should not have, were blood forbidden to us; and one should think that the person who had not, from infancy, eaten blood, would rather have an antipathy at it. Bloodpuddings, it is true, (like goose and hare,) boiled black, we eat with great relish; but I cannot recollect to have found any person pre-eminently fond of them, but in the single case of their being quite fresh; and that would be the precise case, in which, to a person not previously accustomed to eat them, they would at first be most likely |