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responding to one another, and dancing along the firm sand of the sea-shore, in the clear beautiful moonlight. The response, the dance, and the clapping of the hands, brought many parts of the Word of God to our minds. We remembered the song of Miriam at the Red Sea, when the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances,-'and Miriam answered them; that is, Miriam sang responsively to them: and also the song of the women of Israel after David's victory over the giant, they answered one another as they played, and said Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.' The words of the Psalmist were likewise brought to mind, 'O clap your hands, all ye people, shout unto God with the voice of triumph;' and again, 'Let the floods clap their hands; let the hills be joyful together,'-i. e. in full choir. The responsive form of Psalm cxxxvi, and others of a like kind, were fully illustrated by this interesting scene."-Narrative of a Mission of Inquiry to the Jews, p. 61.

"At night we heard Antonio and the other servants of our company, singing a song of vengeance on the robbers. It was in the style of those songs we had usually heard from Arabs-a single voice leading and then a chorus responding, with clapping of hands. It was to this effect:

"In style, this resembled Psalm cxxxvi.; though in sentiment it was the reverse of its strain of thankful love."-Narrative of a Mission of Inquiry to the Jews, pp. 313, 314.

"The Arab bard, singing sadly to the sound of his rebabeh, could not keep us long awake.

"The rebabeh is shaped like a miniature spade, with a short handle; the lowest and widest part, covered with sheepskin on both sides, is about one inch thick and five wide. The ghoss (bow) is simply a bent stick, with horsehair for strings. This instrument is perhaps a coarser specimen of the nokhara khana, which is played before the gateways of palaces in Persia."

"The music, although more varied in character and modulation, was essentially the same in its prevailing sadness. Truly all the merry hearted do sigh in this strange land, a land from which gladness is taken away, and mirth, where it does exist, hath a dash of grief and a tone of desperate sorrow. The sound of tabret and harp, of sackbut and psaltery, the lute, the viol, and the instrument of two strings, are heard no more in the land; and the 'rebabeh,' with its sighing one string, befits the wilderness and the wandering people who dwell therein.

"Not even the Emir, although he threw all the mirth he could command into his voice, and touched the string with quick elastic fingers, striking out notes and half-notes with musical precision; but although his dark eyes flashed, and his white teeth glistened, as he smiled seductively upon Musaid, and swayed his body to and fro and nodded his head to the measure of his minstrelsy, and triumphed over the bard, and won applause with every verse, he could not change the tone, there was the same sad minor running through the song.

"Those low complaining tones lingered in our ears long after the sounds had ceased, and the Arabs were gathered in sleep around the smouldering watch-fires." -LYNCH'S Expedition, p. 244.

Dancing has been incidentally noticed in several of the passages quoted. It appears to have been reserved

for great occasions, and to have been practised only by women. Hence the scorn with which Michal viewed David "leaping and dancing before the Lord" as he brought up the ark to Jerusalem (2 Sam. vi. 16). Dancing was much practised by the Egyptians, and there is an interesting picture on an ancient tomb at Thebes, representing a group of damsels dancing to the sound of timbrels. The boughs which they carry show that the dance is a religious ceremony, as it was an ancient custom to approach the temples of the gods carrying branches of trees. The same custom obtained amongst the Hebrews in their worship of the true God. When our blessed Lord entered Jerusalem, riding on an ass, branches of trees were strewn before Him by the multitude; and the victorious servants of the Lamb were seen in vision by the beloved Apostle, "with palms in their hands.”

The leader of the dance beats a sort of hand-drum : the other damsels are beating tambourines, one of which is circular, like the modern instrument; the others are of a nearly oblong shape with the sides curving inwards. They were made as at present, of the skin of an animal stretched tightly over a frame.

The Hebrew dances were also performed as religious ceremonies, and as Miriam and her companions had passed their lives in Egypt, and had acquired there the customs of the country, this picture is probably a perfect illustration of the dance of the daughters of Israel. -See OSBURN's Ancient Egypt.

It is customary for public dancers, at festivals in great houses, to solicit from the company they have been entertaining, such rewards as the spectators may choose to bestow. Hence, when Herod, pleased with the dancing of Herodias's daughter, "promised with an oath to give her whatsoever she would ask," she replied "give me here John Baptist's head in a charger (Matt. xiv. 7, 8). The presents usually are small

PRESENTS TO DANCERS.

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pieces of money, which the donor sticks on the face of the performer. A favourite dancer will have her face covered with such presents. The silver charger is

characteristic in this history of the beheading of John. By an ancient custom in Persia, the queen had a right, on the king's birthday, to demand of him any favour that she thought proper.

PREPARATION OF THE BODY FOR BURIAL.-EMBALMING.-PROFESSIONAL MOURNERS. SIGNS OF GRIEF.- MOURNING FOR HOSSEIN.-MOURNING IN EGYPT.-BIERS.-FUNERAL OF JEWESS. -FUNERAL PROCESSION.-MOURNING FEAST.-BURNING SPICES. -PERIOD OF MOURNING.

AMONG the Jews burial took place very soon after death, in consequence of the heat of the climate. No time was lost in making the necessary preparations. It was the office of the nearest and dearest relative to close the eyes of the deceased, whence the promise made to Jacob:-" Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes" (Gen. xlvi. 4). The body was then washed with water, as we read of Dorcas :-"It came to pass