A bowl of honey covered with thin slices of butter, is a food generally presented to travellers in Muhamedan Africa. I have often rested under the shade of a date-tree to partake of this food, which is accompanied with bread without leaven, which they knead and bake on hot stones, in a few minutes, whilst the traveller is waiting. These cakes are the size and shape of a pancake or a crumpet; and it has often occurred to me, when eating this food of travellers, that they are similar to what were baked by Sarah, Abraham's wife, for travellers whom the Patriarch entertained. If I recollect right, for it is many years since I was in that country, these cakes are called by the Arabs Lib Teff. "Though thou rentest thy face (thine eyes it is in the Hebrew) with painting." Jerem. iv. 30. "Paintedst thy eyes, and decked thyself with ornaments." Ezekiel xxiii. 40. "And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezabel heard of it, and she painted her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a window." 2 Kings ix. 30.* This custom of painting the eyes and eye-brows is practised to this day by all Muhamedan women, particularly by those of the Arabs: these ladies, to complete their toilette, tinge their eye 2 brows and eye-lashes with Alkahl, i. e. the powder of lead ore: this is done by means of a small bodkin of rose-wood, about the thickness of a crow's quill; this they wet with the tongue, and dip in the powder; they then draw it gently through the eye-lids, shutting the eye. This operation gives a languishing softness to the eye, and improves the sight. "And mix the Kahl's jetty dye, To give that long, dark languish to the eye, Which makes the maids, whom kings are proud to cull Vide Lallah Rookh. 'It is not painted in the original Hebrew, but adjusted her eyes with the powder of lead ore.' 2 There are many mines of this mineral in West Barbary and in Tafilelt; that produced by the Tafilelt mines is the best, is sold at double the price of the other, and is called El Kahl Félelly. Also the custom of dying the fingers with a decoction of the herb Henna, has been from time immemorial an indispensable part of the toilette of the Oriental ladies, and of those of Muhamedan Africa. An Arabian or Moorish (Lellah) lady, is not (m'haffore) completely attired, until she has performed these two operations. 21. "Then these men were bound in their hosen." Daniel iii. The English reader might understand this word to mean hose or stockings, but the Chaldeans did not wear stockings: the explanation of this term is not given in our translation of the bible, though hats are explained as turbans immediately after: the word probably means belts or sashes; Hazem signifies a belt or girdle in the Arabic, which being a cognate language with the Hebrew may signify the same in that language. "That the king and his princes, his wives and his concubines, might drink therein." Dan. v. 2. A concubine in the East, is very different from a concubine in the West. The concubine of the East in the king's palaces is constant to one man; she is domesticated, she remains in the house and does not forsake it, to live with any other individual; her manners and customs are the same with those of a married woman, and she is not accounted a disgrace to society. The only difference therefore is in the marriage ceremony, the moral conduct being in each irreproachable. "Clothed in sackcloth." Lamentations ii. 10. It is remarkable, that the customs of remote ages have not altered, but are still practised by the descendants of Ishmael. The common dress among the lower order of society in Northern Africa is sackcloth. "None shall appear empty before the Lord, every man shall give as he is able." Deut. xvi. 16. The custom in Oriental countries is here represented. In Marocco, one of the rules of the court or place of audience, called El M'ushoar, is, that none shall appear empty before the Cid, (a name given to the Emperor,) on days of ceremony, without testifying his obedience by a present; no one enters the imperial presence khawie, as the term is, i. e. empty-handed. Vide Shabeeny's Account of Timbuctoo, page 87. "He shall break also the image of Beth Shemish, that is in the land of Egypt." Jeremiah xliii. 13. The image alluded to, was probably that of Jupiter Ammon, which was erected in the Temple of the Sun at the Oasis of Hammon. It is ascertained that the sovereignty of Egypt extended formerly much farther to the westward than it does now. at the Oasis, i. e. a بيت شمش and a عين شمش There is an fountain of the Sun, and a temple of the Sun. Judging from the gradual encroachments made on Egypt by the sand, from the south and west, it may be presumed, that in no very remote age this Oasis was separated from Egypt by a small neck of saud only, and that the desert, now between it and Egypt, was at one time a fertile and cultivated territory belonging to Egypt, which is now a barren wilderness over which sand and dust are continually accumulating. "The river is mine, and I have made it." Ezekiel xxix. 9. The prophecy of Ezekiah, respecting Egypt, whose indignation is excited against the pride of Pharaoh, is remarkably accomplished, vide Ezekiah xxix. 9 and 10. and xxx. 12, 13, 14, 15.-The plagues are let loose against Egypt, an exterminating sword cuts down her warriors, foreign enemies ravage her land; Egypt, from the tower of Syene, unto the borders of Ethiopia, is become a solitude and a desert: such is the punishment of the pride of kings, for their arrogance in taking that glory to themselves, which belonged not to them, but to the high and omnipotent God.-Travellers who have visited Egypt in these days, will have perceived the effects of the severe accomplishment of these predictions of the prophet. All the celebrated canals which separated, of old, the waters of the Nile and multiplied its benefactions, increased its majesty and enlarged its magnificence, have been destroyed during many ages, insomuch that even the ruins of those canals, which in former ages formed the splendor of her cities, are scarcely discernible: the ravages committed, on the other hand, by the encroachment of the sands in Upper Egypt, on the productive plains of that country, fructified by the waters of the Nile, are strong demonstrations of the accomplishment of this prophecy. Thus it may be said, that, with the exception of those lands in Egypt which are submerged by the waters of the Nile, there is no habitable or cultivated land in the country. The destructive effects of the whirlwinds of dust and columns of sand from the desert, impelled by the wind, on the towns and over the country, threaten to bury the former, and to sterilize the latter, and thus to compel the inhabitants to quit their perilous abodes, to seek a more secure and comfortable habitation. There are three Arabic copies of the Pentateuch known to the Arabs, one of which three is written in the Samaritan character. It appears by some Mograbeen or Mauritanian historians that in a remote age, the Ethiopians conquered China after marching through Asia, and that they conquered also Mauritania, or El grarb; that Tirhakeh, king of Ethiopia, who warred I ' Classical Journal, No. 44, note in page 361. against Cambyses 2500 years since, built Kassar Pharawan, or the ruins of Pharaoh.' In confirmation of this historical record we may observe, that Strabo finds the Ethiopians in the western provinces of Africa,2 and Homer describes them as dwelling in the remotest regions of the earth, where the sun rises and where he sets. No notice would have been made respecting the following inaccuracies in Walpole's Travels, were they not calculated to mislead Oriental travellers, and such as are learning the modern Arabic language. The following sentence رایت ملاك الله العزيز is there translated, "I saw the powerful angel of God;" but he must be a powerful Arabian that can discover the word powerful in the above Arabic sentence: the words are, räit I saw, melk the angel, Allah of God, Elaziz the dear or beloved-"I saw the angel of the beloved God." It is unnecessary to observe that in the incorrect translation, as given in the work above quoted, love is changed into power, and transferred from God to the angel. Vide Walpole's Travels, Vol. ii. p. 181. In page 102 or 112 of the same work, the sentence is not "a friend his self," as it is there translated; but hebibune, a friend, Nafsûhû, to his soul, q. d. a lover of himself. does not mean a pound of olives, as it is translated in the above work, but ratel, a pound, zita, of oil, i. e. a pound of oil.-, zitune, is the Arabic word for olives. JAMES G. JACKSON. BIBLICAL CRITICISM. Διὰ τοῦτο ὀφείλει ἡ γυνὴ ἐξουσίαν ἔχειν ἐπὶ τῆς κεφαλῆς διὰ τοὺς ̓Αγγέλους. 1 Cor. xi. 10. It may be conceived, that enough has been already written on this subject, to supersede the necessity of additional remarks: ' Vide Shabeeny's Account of Timbuctoo, page 120. -yet, as the arguments in favor of the latter clause of the text, and those against it, do not appear to me to have been sufficiently discussed, I will trouble you with the following observations. It has been amply proved, that by ovoia we are to understand the veil which women were accustomed to wear; and the Ethiopic translators imagined such to have been its signification in this place: በአኋተዝ ፡ ኖቲዕ ፡ ትትገልበብ ፡ ኖሽሐ ፡ ብአኒት ፡ ፡ = ፡ . "For this reason, it is right that the woman's head should be veiled." Godwin, in his Moses and Aaron, enters into a succession of proofs, that it was accounted "signum subjectionis;" and Hottinger observes, "e vi argumentationis Paulinæ aliud sub ἐξουσίαν ἔχειν ἐπὶ τῆς κεφαλῆς intelligere nequeo, quam velamen capitis. Opponit Apostolus ἀκατακάλυπτῳ τῇ κεφαλῇ, et ἐξουσίαν ἔχειν ἐπὶ τῆς κεφαλῆς. Addo legem, ad quam mulieres Judææ se componere debent, Maim. Tract. MN, c. 24.”1 In the 16th Ep. (1. i.) of Aristænetus we discern a passage, which may be referred to this subject : Εκπλήττομαι νὴ τῶν θεῶν πῶς ἀθρόως ἅπαντα μεταβέβληκεν ἡ γυνὴ, καὶ πάρεστιν θαυμάζειν ἐκείνης βλέμμα προσηνὲς, μέτριον ἦθος, μειδίαμα σεμνὸν, κόμην ἀφελῶς πεπλοκισμένην, καλύπτραν ἀπ' αὐτῆς εὐ μάλα σεμ νὴν, βραχυλογίαν ἐν ἠρεμαίᾳ φώνῃ. We also read in Varro, "Rica a ritu, quod Romano ritu sacrificium fœminæ cum faciant, capita velant;" which custom is attested by Plutarch, and quoted by Seneca (Herc. Fur. 255.) "Namque ipsa veste tristis obducta caput, Velata juxta Præsides adstat Deos." The Mùbidan or Priests of the Magi, who attended the firetemples, were most frequently, if not always, veiled: and from the ancient practice of veiling women, which is still retained in the East, the husband was called in scripture D. St. Chrysostom terms the veil, σύμβολον ὑποταγῆς γυναικὸς καὶ ἐξου This I have omitted, as it merely relates to the trite discussion about "Tum numina sancta precamur .c&,רדיד 2 Palladis armisonæ, quæ prima accepit ovantes, Et capita ante aras Phrygio velamur amictu."—Virg. Æn. iii. 543. The following passage may be, likewise, adduced in explanation of this disputed verse: "Et positis aris jam vota in littore solves: Purpureo velare comas adopertus amictu; NE QUA INTER SANCTOS IGNES IN HONORE DEORUM HOSTILIS FACIES OCCURRAT, ET OMINA TURBET. Virg. Æn. iii. 404 |