Ver. 8. The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.

See on Ps. 18. 33.

Ver. 8. The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. 9. My beloved is like a roe, or a young hart: behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the window, showing himself through the lattice.

Mr. Harmer thinks this means the green wall, as it were, of a kiosque, or eastern arbour, which is thus described by Lady M. W. Montague: "In the midst of the garden is the kiosque, that is, a large room, commonly beautified with a fine fountain in the midst of it. It is raised nine or ten

steps, and enclosed with gilded lattices, round which vines, jessamines, and honeysuckles, make a sort of green wall; large trees are planted round this place, which is the scene of their greatest pleasures."—Burder.

In the Song of Solomon, the spouse more than once compares her beloved to the antelope, particularly alluding to the wonderful elasticity of its limbs, and the velocity with which, by a few leaps, it scales the loftiest precipice, or bounds from one cliff to another. Waiting with eager expectation his promised coming, she hears him at last speaking peace and comfort to her soul; and instantly describes him as hastening, in the ardour of his love, to her relief, and surmounting with ease every obstruction in his way.

ΡΑΧΤΟΝ.

Dr. Russel observes, that the two species of antelopes about Aleppo, in Syria, are so extremely fleet, that the greyhounds, though very good, can seldom take them, without the assistance of a falcon, unless in soft, deep ground." The following occurrence proves the strong attachment which some of the Arabs cherish for these animals: "A little Arab girl brought a young antelope to sell, which was bought by a Greek merchant, whose tent was next to me, for half a piaster. She had bored both ears, into each of which she had inserted two small pieces of red silk riband. She told the purchaser, that as it could run about and lap milk, he might be able to rear it up; and that she should not have sold it, but that she wanted money to buy a riband, which her mother could not afford her: then almost smothering the little animal with kisses, she delivered it, with tears in her eyes, and ran away. The merchant ordered it to be killed and dressed for supper. In the close of the evening, the girl came to take her last farewell of her little pet, knowing that we were to decamp at daybreak. When she was told that it was killed, she seemed much surprised, saying that it was impossible that anybody could be so cruel as to kill such a pretty creature. On its being shown to her, with its throat cut, she burst into tears, threw the money in the man's face, and ran away crying." (Parson's Travels.)-BURder.

Ver. 10. My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. 11. For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over

and gone.

The Orientals distinguish their winter into two parts, or rather the depth of winter, from the commencement and termination of the season, by the severity of the cold. This, which lasts about forty days, they call Murbania. To this rigorous part of the season, the wise man seems to refer, in that beautiful passage of the Song: "Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth: the time of the singing of birds is come; and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land." If we explain this text by the natural phenomena, these words, "the rain is over and gone," cannot be considered as an exposition of the preceding clause, "for, lo, the winter is past;" and as denoting, that the moist part of the year was entirely gone, along with

the plains of Syria: but the meaning is, that the Murbania, the depth of winter, is past and over, and the weather become agreeably warm; the rain has just ceased, and consequently, has left the sure and agreeable prospect of undisturbed and pleasant serenity, for several days. It had been no inducement to the spouse to quit her apartments with the view of enjoying the pleasures of the country, to be told, that the rainy season had completely terminated, and the intense heats of summer, under which almost any

plant and flower sickens and fades away, had commenced.

-PAXTON.

Ver. 12. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.

The inhabitants of the great towns of Syria, during the

pleasant weather in winter, frequently leave their homes, and give entertainments to their friends under tents, pitched in the country for that purpose. In April, and part of May, they retire to the gardens; and in the heat of summer, receive their guests in the summer-houses, or under the shade of the trees. The same custom seems, from the invitation of the bridegroom, to have prevailed in the land of Canaan in the time of Solomon. The inhabitants of Aleppo make their excursion very early in the season; and the cold weather is not supposed by Solomon to have ceased long before, since it is distinctly mentioned. In Syria, the narcissus flowers during the whole of the Murbania; hyacinths and violets, at latest, before it is quite over. Therefore, when Solomon says the flowers appear on the earth, he does not mean the time when the earliest flowers disclose their bloom, but when the verdant turf is thickly studded with all the rich, the gay, and the diversified profusion of an Aleppo about the middle of February, by the appearance oriental spring. This delightful season is ushered in at

of a small cranes-bill on the bank of the river, which meanders through its extensive gardens; and a few days after, so rapid is the progress of vegetation, all the beauty of spring is displayed: about the same time, the birds renew their songs. When Thevenot visited Jordan, on the sixteenth of April, he found the little woods on the margin of the river, filled with nightingales in full chorus. This is rather earlier than at Aleppo, where they do not appear till nearly the end of the month. These facts illustrate the strict propriety of Solomon's description, every circumstance of which is accurately copied from nature.-PAXTON.

Ver. 14. O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.

See on Ps. 68. 13.

The Tamul translation has, instead of "countenance," "form:" "Thy form is comely." Dr. Boothroyd says, "stairs" is certainly improper; but may there not be here an allusion to the ancient custom of building towers in the East, for the purpose of accommodating doves? I have seen one which had stairs inside, (probably to enable a person to ascend and watch for the approach of strangers;) on the outside were numerous holes, in regular order, where the doves concealed themselves, and brought up their young. It is common to call a female by the name of dove, but it refers more to secrecy than beauty. The mother of Ramar said it was necessary for him to go to the desert, but she did not mention the reason to her husband; upon which he said, by way of persuading her to tell him, "Oh! my dove, am I a stranger ?"-ROBERTS.

The phrase, which we render the secret places of the stairs, may, with more propriety, be translated, the secret crevices of the precipitous rocks; for the original term signifies a place so high and steep, that it cannot be approached but by ladders. So closely pursued were the people of Israel, and so unable to resist the assault of their enemies, that, like the timid dove, they fled to the fastnesses of the mountains, and the holes of the rocks.PAXTON.

Ver. 15. Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines; for our vines have tender grapes. Foxes are observed by many authors to be fond of grapes, and to make great havoc in vineyards. Aristophanes (in his Equites) compares soldiers to foxes, who spoil whole countries, as the others do vineyards. Galen (în his book of Aliments) tells us, that hunters did not scruple to eat the flesh of foxes in autumn, when they were grown fat with feeding on grapes.-BURDER.

The use of perfumes at eastern marriages is common; and upon great occasions very profuse. Not only are the garments scented till, in the Psalmist's language, they smell of myrrh, aloes, and cassia; it is also customary for virgins to meet, and lead the procession, with silver gilt pots of perfumes; and sometimes aromatics are burned in the windows of all the houses in the streets through which the procession is to pass, till the air becomes loaded with fragrant odours. In allusion to this practice it is demanded, "Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense?" So liberally were these rich perfumes burned on this occasion, that a pillar of smoke ascended from the censers, so high, that it could be seen at a considerable distance; and the perfume was so rich, as to equal in value and fragrance all the powders of the merchant. The custom of burning perfumes on these occasions still continues in the East; for Lady Mary Wortley Montague, describing the reception of a young Turkish bride at the bagnio, says, "Two virgins met her at the door; two others filled silver gilt pots with perfumes, and began the procession, the rest following in pairs, to the number of thirty. In this order they marched round the three rooms of the bagnio." And Maillet informs us, that when the ambassadors of an eastern monarch, sent to propose marriage to an Egyptian queen, made their entrance into the capital of that kingdom, the streets through which they passed were strewed with flowers, and precious odours burning in the windows, from very early in the morning, embalmed the air.-PAXTON.

Ver. 11. Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold King Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart.

Such a ceremony as this was customary among the Jews at their marriages. Maillet informs us the crowns were made of different materials. Describing the custom, as practised by the members of the Greek church, who now live in Egypt, he says, "that the parties to be married are placed opposite to a reading-desk, upon which the book of the gospels is placed, and upon the book two crowns, which are made of such materials as people choose, of flowers, of cloth, or of tinsel. There he (the priest) continues his benedictions and prayers, into which he introduces all the patriarchs of the Old Testament. He after that places these crowns, the one on the head of the bridegroom, the other on that of the bride, and covers them both with a veil." After some other ceremonies, the priest concludes the whole by taking off their crowns, and dismissing them with prayers.-Burder.

CHAPTER IV.

Ver. 9. Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister,

my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck.

There is a singularity in this imagery, which has much perplexed the critics; and perhaps it is not possible to ascertain the meaning of the poet beyond a doubt. Supposing the royal bridegroom to have had a profile, or side view of his bride, in the present instance, only one eye, or one side of her necklace, would be observable; yet this charms and overpowers him. Tertullian mentions a custom in the East, of women unveiling only one eye in conversation, while they keep the other covered: and Niebuhr mentions a like custom in some parts of Arabia. This brings us to nearly the same interpretation as the above. (Williams.)-BURDER.

Ver. 12. A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.

This morning we went to see some remarkable places in the neighbourhood of Bethlehem. The first place that pools, and gardens, about an hour and a quarter distant we directed our course to, was those famous fountains, from Bethlehem, southward, said to have been the contrivance and delight of King Solomon. To these works and places of pleasure, that great prince is supposed to allude, Eccl. ii. 5, 6, where, among the other instances of his magnificence, he reckons up his gardens, and vineyards, lying in a row above each other, being so disposed that the and pools. As for the pools, they are three in number, waters of the uppermost may descend into the second, and those of the second into the third. Their figure is quadrangular; the breadth is the same in all, amounting to about ninety paces; in their length there is some difference between them, the first being about one hundred and sixty paces long, the second two hundred, the third two hundred and twenty. They are all lined with wall, and plastered, and contain a great depth of water. Close by the pools is a pleasant castle of a modern structure; and at about the fountain, from which, principally, they derive their waters. distance of one hundred and forty paces from them is a This the friars will have to be that sealed fountain, to which the holy spouse is compared, Cant. iv. 12, and, in confirmation of this opinion, they pretend a tradition, that King Solomon shut up these springs, and kept the door of them sealed with his signet, to the end that he might preserve the waters for his own drinking, in their natural freshness and purity. Nor was it difficult thus to secure them, they rising under ground, and having no avenue to them but by a little hole, like to the mouth of a narrow well. Through this hole you descend directly down, but not without some difficulty, for about four yards, and then arrive in a vaulted room, fifteen paces long, and eight broad. Joining to this is another room, of the same fashion, but somewhat less. Both these rooms are covered with handsome stone arches, very ancient, and perhaps the work of Solomon himself. Below the pools here runs down a narrow rocky valley, enclosed on both sides with high mountains. This the friars will have to be the enclosed garden alluded to in the same place of the Canticles before cited. What truth there may be in this conjecture, I cannot absolutely pronounce. As to the pools, it is probable enough they may be the same with Solomon's; there not being the like store of excellent spring-water to be met with anywhere else throughout all Palestine. (Maundrell.)-BURDER.

Féirouz, a vizier, having divorced his wife Chemsennissa, on suspicion of criminal conversation with the sultan, the brothers of Chemsennissa applying for redress to their judge, "My lord," said they, "we had rented to Féirouz a most delightful garden, a terrestrial paradise; he took possession of it, encompassed with high walls, and planted with the most beautiful trees, that bloomed with flowers and fruit. He has broken down the walls, plucked the tender flowers, devoured the finest fruit, and would now restore to us this garden, robbed of every thing that contributed to render it delicious, when we gave him admission to it." Féirouz, in his defence, and the sultan in his attention to Chemsennissa's innocence, still carry on the same allegory of the garden, as may be seen in the author.-BURDER.

Ver. 16. Awake, O north wind, and come, thou

south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.

The suffocating heats wafted on the wings of the south wind from the glowing sands of the desert, are felt more or less in all the oriental regions; and even in Italy itself, although far distant from the terrible wastes of the neighbouring continents, where they produce a general languor, and difficulty of respiration. A wind so fatal or injurious to the people of the East, must be to them an object of alarm or dismay. Yet, in the Song of Solomon, its pestilential blast is invited by the spouse to come and blow upon her garden, and waft its fragrance to her beloved. If the south winds in Judea are as oppressive as they are in Barbary and Egypt, and as the winds from the desert are at Aleppo, (which, according to Russel, are of the same nature as the south winds in Canaan;) or if they are only very hot, as Le Bruin certainly found them in October, would the spouse have desired the north wind to depart, as Bochart renders it, and the south wind to blow? The supposition cannot be admitted. An inspired writer never departs from the strictest truth and propriety in the use of figures, according to the rules of oriental composition; and therefore a meaning directly opposite must be the true one, to correspond with the physical character of that wind. The nature of the prayer also requires a different version; for is it to be supposed that the spouse, in the same breath, would desire two directly opposite winds to blow upon her garden? It now remains to inquire, if the original text will admit of another version; and it must be evident, that the only difficulty lies in the term which we render, Come thou. Now the verb bo, signifies both to come and to depart; literally, to remove from one place to another. In this sense of going or departing, it is used in the prophecies of Jonah twice in one verse: i He found a ship (baa) going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it (labo) to go with them." It occurs again in this sense in the book of Ruth, and is so rendered in our translation: "He went (vayabo) to lie down at the end of the heap of corn." The going down or departure of the sun, is expressed by a derivative of the same verb in the book of Deuteronomy: "Are they not on the other side Jordan, by the way where the sun goeth down?" Joshua uses it in the same sense: "Unto the great sea, (Mebo,) towards the going down of the sun, shall be your coast." The passage, then, under consideration, may be rendered in this manner, putting the address to the south wind in a parenthesis: Arise, O north wind, (retire, thou south,) blow upon my garden, let the spices thereof flow forth, that my beloved may come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.

This conclusion, were any confirmation necessary to establish so plain a truth, is verified by the testimony of Le Bruin, already quoted, who, in the course of his travels in Palestine, found, from experience, that it produced an oppressive heat, not the gentle and inviting warmth which Sanctius supposed. No traveller, so far as the writer has been able to discover, gives a favourable account of the south wind; consequently, it cannot be an object of desire; the view therefore which Harmer first gave of this text, is, in every respect, entitled to the preference: "Awake, O north wind, (depart, thou south,) blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out."-PAXTON.

CHAPTER V.

Ver. 2. I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night.

See on ch. 6.9.

Ver. 4. My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him.

In the capital of Egypt, also, all their locks and keys are of wood; they have none of iron, not even for their city gates, which may with ease be opened without a key. The keys, or bits of timber, with little pieces of wire, lift up

other pieces of wire that are in the lock, and enter into certain little holes, out of which the ends of the wires that are in the key have just expelled the corresponding wires; upon which the gate is opened. But to accomplish this, a key is not necessary; the Egyptian lock is so imperfectly made, that one may without difficulty open it with his finger, armed with a little soft paste. The locks in Canaan, at one time, do not seem to have been made with greater art, if Solomon allude to the ease with which they were frequently opened without a key: "My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him."-PAXTON.

Ver. 5. I rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet-smelling-myrrh, upon the handles of the

lock.

When the spouse rose from her bed to open to her beloved, her hand dropped myrrh, (balsam,) and her fingers sweet-smelling myrrh, on the handles of the lock. In this remark, she seems to allude rather to a liquid than a powder; for the word rendered dropped, signifies to distil as the heavens or the clouds do rain, or as the mountains are said to distil new wine from the vines planted there, or as the inverted cups of lilies shed their roscid or honey drops. The same term is figuratively applied to words or discourse, which are said to distil as the dew, and drop as the rain; but still the allusion is to some liquid. As a noun, it is the name of stacte, or myrrh, distilling from the tree of its own accord, without incision. Again, the word rendered sweet-smelling signifies passing off, distilling, or trickling down; and, therefore, in its present connexion, more naturally refers to a fluid than to a dry powder. If these observations be just, it will not be difficult to ascertain the real sense of the passage.

When the spouse rose from her bed, to open the door of her apartment, she hastily prepared to receive her beloved, by washing herself with myrrh and water; or, according to an established custom in the East, by anointing her head with liquid essence of balsam: a part of which, in either case, might remain on her hands and fingers, and from them trickle down on the handles of the lock.PAXTON.

Ver. 7. The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me.

See on Ezek. 33. 2.

They plucked off her veil, in order to discover who she was. It is well known that the eunuchs, in the eastern countries, are at present authorized to treat the females under their charge in this manner.-BURDER.

Ver. 10. My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand.

In our translation, the church represents her Saviour as the standard-bearer in the armies of the living God. "My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand;" or, according to the margin, a standard-bearer among ten thousand. These phrases are made synonymous, on the groundless supposition that a standard-bearer tals, a standard-bearer is not the chief, more than among is the chief of the company; for among the modern Orienthe nations of Europe. He is, on the contrary, the lowest commissioned officer in the corps who bears the colours. This, however, seems to be merely a mistake of our translators, in rendering the phrase dagul meribabah. If we understand by the word dagul, such a flag as is carried at the head of our troops, then, as the Hebrew participle is the pahul, which has a passive, and not an active sense, it must signify one before whom a standard is borne; not the person who lifts up and displays it, but him in whose honour the standard is displayed. It was not a mark of superior dignity in the East to display the standard, but it was a mark of dignity and honour to have the standard carried before one; and the same idea seems to be entertained in other parts of the world. The passage, then, is rightly translated

thus: My beloved is white and ruddy, and honourable, as one before whom, or around whom, ten thousand standards are borne.

The compliment is returned by her Lord in these words: "Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners;" and again, "Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, terrible as an army with banners?" Mr. Harmer imagines that these texts refer to a marriage procession, surrounded with flambeaux. But what is terrible in a company of women, even although "dressed in rich attire, surrounded with nuptial flambeaux," blazing ever so fiercely? Besides, his view sinks the last member of the comparison, and, indeed, seems to throw over it an air of ridicule: Who is this that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and dazzling, like a bride lighted home with flambeaux? The common translation certainly sustains much better the dignity of the last clause, while it gives the genuine meaning of (Ow) aim, which, in every passage of scripture where it occurs, signifies either terrible, or the tumult and confusion of mind which terror produces-PAXTON.

Ver. 12. His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of water, washed with milk, and fitly set. Hebrew, for fitly set, "sitting in fulness;" that is, "fitly placed, and set as a precious stone in the foil of a ring." "See that youth, what a beautiful eye he has ! it is like a sapphire set in silver;" which means, the metal represents the white and the blue, the other part of the eye. The eyes of their more sacred idols are made of precious stones. "Washed with milk." Though people thus wash themselves after a funeral, the custom is also spoken of by way of figure, as a matter of great joy. "Oh! yes, they are a happy pair; they wash themselves with milk." "The joy is as great as being bathed in milk." But some do thus actually wash their bodies three or four times a month, and the effect is said to be cooling and pleasing. I suppose, however, it arises as much from an idea of luxury, as any other cause. The residence of the god Vishnoo is said to be surrounded by a SEA OF MILK, which may also be another reason to induce the devotee thus to bathe himself.ROBERTS.

The eyes of a dove, always brilliant and lovely, kindle with peculiar delight by the side of a crystal brook, for this is her favourite haunt; here she loves to wash and to quench her thirst. But the inspired writer seems to intimate, that not satisfied with a single rivulet, she delights especially in those places which are watered with numerous streams, whose full flowing tide approaches the height of the banks, and offers her an easy and abundant supply. They seem as if they were washed with milk, from their shining whiteness; and fitly, rather fully set, like a gem set in gold, neither too prominent nor too depressed, but so formed as with nice adaptation to fill up the socket.ΡΑΧΤΟΝ.

Ver. 15. His legs are as pillars of marble set upon sockets of fine gold; his countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.

"His thighs are as pillars of marble, fixed upon pedestals of fine gold ;" alluding to his sandals bound on his feet with golden ribands; or, perhaps, expressive of the feet themselves, as being of a redder tincture than the legs and thighs. The Asiatics used to die their feet of a deep red colour. Thus the lover in Gitagovinda says, O damsel, shall I die red with the juice of alactaca, those beautiful feet, which will make the full-blown land lotos blush with shame? (Sir W. Jones.)-BURder.

CHAPTER VI.

Ver. 4. Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah; comely as Jerusalem; terrible as an army with banners.

This and the next chapter give an idea of what were the notions of beauty in the bride; she was like the city of Tirzah, belonging to the tribe of Ephraim. A handsome Hindoo female is compared to the sacred city of Seedambaram. The following, also, are signs of beauty in an eastern wo

man: her skin is the colour of gold; her hands, nails, and soles of the feet, are of a reddish hue; her limbs must be smooth, and her gait like the stately swan. Her feet are small, like the beautiful lotus; her waist is slender as the lightning; her arms are short, and her fingers resemble the five petals of the kantha flower; her breasts are like the young cocoa-nut, and her neck is as the trunk of the arecatree. Her mouth is like the ambal flower, and her lips as coral; her teeth are like beautiful pearls; her nose is high, and lifted up, like that of the chameleon, (when raised to snuff the wind;) her eyes are like the sting of a wasp, and the karungu-vally flower; her brows are like the bow, and nicely separated; and her hair is as the black cloud.-ROB

ERTS.

Ver. 9. My dove, my undefiled, is but one: she is the only one of her mother, she is the choice one of her that bare her.

The conjugal chastity of the dove has been celebrated by every writer, who has described or alluded to her character. She admits but of one mate; she never forsakes him till death puts an end to their union; and never abandons of her own accord, the nest which their united labour has provided. Elian, and other ancient writers, affirm, that the turtle and the wood-pigeon punish adultery with death. The black pigeon, when her mate dies, obstinately rejects the embraces of another, and continues in a widowed state for life. Hence, among the Egyptians, a black pigeon was the symbol of a widow who declined to enter again into the marriage relation. This fact was so well known, or at least so generally admitted among the ancients, that Tertullian endeavours to establish the doctrine of monogamy by the example of that bird. These facts have been transferred by later authors to the widowed turtle, which, deaf to the solicitations of another mate, continues, in mournful strains, to deplore her loss, till death puts a period to her sorrows. These facts unfold the true reason, that the church is by Solomon so frequently compared to the dove.-PAXTON.

Ver. 11. I went down into the garden of nuts, to see the fruits of the valley, and to see whether the vine flourished, and the pomegranates budded.

See on ch. 7. 11, 12.

CHAPTER VII.

Ver. 1. How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince's daughter! the joints of thy thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a cunning

workman.

The word rendered joints means the concealed dress, or drawers, which are still worn by the Moorish and Turkish women of rank. Lady M. W. Montague, in describing her Turkish dress, says, "the first part of my dress is a pair of drawers, very full, that reaches down to my shoes, and conceals the legs more modestly than your petticoats; they are of a thin, rose-coloured damask, brocaded with flowers." -BURDER.

Ver. 3. Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins.

See on ch. 2. 8.

Ver. 4. Thy neck is as a tower of ivory; thine eyes like the fish-pools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bathrabbim; thy nose is as the tower of Lebanon, which looketh towards Damascus. Whatever is majestic and comely in the human countenance; whatever commands the reverence, and excites the love of the beholder,-Lebanon, and its towering cedars, are employed by the sacred writers to express. In the commendation of the church, the countenance of her Lord is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars: while in the eulogium which he pronounces on his beloved, one feature of her countenance is compared to the highest peak of that mountain, to the Sannin, which rises, with majestic

grandeur, above the tallest cedars that adorn its summits: "Thy nose is as the tower of Lebanon, which looketh towards Damascus." Calmet imagines, with no small degree of probability, that the sacred writer alludes to an elegant tower of white marble, which, in his days, crowned the summit of a lofty precipice, at the foot of which the river Barrady foams, about the distance of two miles from Damascus. When Maundrell visited the place, he found a small structure, like a sheik's sepulchre, erected on the highest point of the precipice, where it had probably stood. From this elevated station, which forms a part of Lebanon, the traveller enjoyed the most perfect view of the city. So charming was the landscape, so rich and diversified the scenery, that he confessedly found it no easy matter to tear himself away from the paradise of delights which bloomed at his feet. Nor was a very late traveller less delighted with this most enchanting prospect.-PAXTON.

Ver. 5. Thy head upon thee is like Carmel, and the hair of thy head like purple; the King is held in the galleries.

The only remarkable mountain on the western border of Canaan, is Carmel, which lies on the seacoast, at the south end of the tribe of Asher, and is frequently mentioned in the sacred writings. On this mountain, which is very rocky, and about two thousand feet in height, the prophet Elijah fixed his residence: and the monks of the Greek church, who have a convent upon it, show the inquisitive stranger the grotto, neatly cut out in the solid rock, where, at a distance from the tumult of the world, the venerable seer reposed. At the distance of a league are two fountains, which they pretend the prophet, by his miraculous powers, made to spring out of the earth; and lower down, towards the foot of the mountain, is the cave where he instructed the people. It is an excavation in the rock, cut very smooth, both above and below, of about twenty paces in length, fifteen in breadth, and very high; and Thevenot, who paid a visit to the monks of Mount Carmel, pronounces it one of the finest grottoes that can be

seen.

The beautiful shape and towering height of Carmel, furnish Solomon with a striking simile, expressive of the loveliness and majesty of the church in the eyes of her Redeemer: "Thy head upon thee is like Carmel, and the hair of thy head like purple; the King is held in the galleries." The mountain itself is nothing but rock. The monks, however, have with great labour covered some parts of it with soil, on which they cultivate flowers and fruits of various kinds; but the fields around have been celebrated in all ages for the extent of their pastures, and the richness of their verdure. So great was the fertility of this region, that, in the language of the sacred writers, the name, Carmel, is often equivalent to a fruitful field. This was undoubtedly the reason that the covetous and churlish Nabal chose it for the range of his numerous flocks and herds. -PAXTON.

Ver. 8. I said, I will go up to the palm-tree, I will take hold of the boughs thereof; now also thy breasts shall be as clusters of the vine, and the smell of thy nose like apples. See on ch. 2. 3.

Ver. 11. Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field; let us lodge in the village. 12. Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth: there will I give thee my loves.

In the gardens around Aleppo, commodious villas are built, for the use of the inhabitants, to which they retire during the oppressive heats of summer. Here, amid the wild and almost impervious thickets of pomegranate, and other fruit-bearing trees, the languid native and exhausted traveller find a delightful retreat from the scorching beams of the sun. A similar custom of retiring into the country, and taking shelter in the gardens, at that season, appears to have been followed in Palestine, in ages very remote.

The exquisite pleasure which an Oriental feels, while he reclines under the deep shade of the pomegranate, the apple, and other fruitful trees, in the Syrian gardens, which, uniting their branches over his head, defend him from the glowing firmament, is well described by Russel. "Revived by the freshening breeze, the purling of the brooks, and the verdure of the groves, his ear will catch the melody of the nightingale, delightful beyond what is heard in England; with conscious gratitude to heaven, he will recline on the simple mat, and bless the hospitable shelter. Beyond the limits of the gardens, hardly a vestige of verdure remains; the fields are turned into a parched and naked waste." In Persia, Mr. Martyn found the heat of the external air quite intolerable. In spite of every precaution, the moisture of the body being soon quite exhausted, he grew restless, and thought he should have lost his senses, and concluded, that though he might hold out a day or two, death was inevitable. Not only the actual enjoyment of shade and water diffuses the sweetest pleasure through the panting bosom of an Oriental, but what is almost inconceivable to the native of a northern clime, even the very idea, the simple recurrence of these gratifications to the mind, conveys a lively satisfaction, and a renovating energy to his heart, when ready to fail him in the midst of the burning desert. "He who smiles at the pleasure we received," says Lichtenstein, "from only being reminded of shade, or thinks this observation trivial, must feel the force of an African sun, to have an idea of the value of shade and water."-PAXTON.

CHAPTER VIII.

Ver. 2. I would lead thee, and bring thee into my mother's house, who would instruct me: I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate.

The fragrant odour of the wines produced in the vineyards of Lebanon, seems chiefly to have attracted the notice of our translators. This quality is either factitious or natural. The Orientals, not satisfied with the fragrance spices into their wines, to increase their flavour. To this emitted by the essential oil of the grape, frequently put practice Solomon alludes in these words: "I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate." But Savary, in his Letters on Greece, affirms, that various kinds of naturally perfumed wines, are produced in Crete and some of the neighbouring islands and the wine of Lebanon, to which the sacred writer alludes, was probably of the same species.-PAXTON.

Ver. 6. Set me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thine arm for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.

When a husband is going to a distant country, the wife says to him, "Ah! place me as a seal upon thy heart," i. e. let me be impressed on thy affections, as the seal leaves its impression upon the wax. "Let not your arms embrace another; let me only be sealed there:" "for love is strong as death, jealousy is cruel as the grave."-ROBERTS.

This alludes to jewels, having the name or portrait of the beloved person engraved on it, and worn next the heart, or on the arm. In the pictures of the eastern princesses and heroines, there is sometimes a large square jewel on the forepart of the arm, a little below the shoulder. "When all the persons had assembled in the divan, every one remained sitting or standing in his place without moving, till in about half an hour came two kapudschis, one of whom carried the imperial signet-ring, and presented it to the grand vizier, who arose from his sofa, and received the signet-ring with a kind of bow, kissed it, put it on his hand, took it off again, and put it in the bag in which it had been before, and placed both in a pocket at the left side of his kaftan, as it were upon his heart." (Schultz.) -ROSENMULLER.

Ver. 14. Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe, or to a young hart, upon the mountains of spices.

See on ch. 2. 8, 9.