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"It is no uncom

expressions, Mr. Jowett says that : mon thing to see an individual, or a group of persons, even when very well dressed, sitting with their feet drawn under them, upon the bare earth, passing whole hours in idle conversation: people in Europe would require a chair, but the natives here prefer the ground. In the heat of summer it is pleasant to them to while away their time in this manner under the shade of a tree. A person of rank in the East often sits down upon the ground, with his attendants about him. Richlyadorned females, as well as men, may be often seen thus amusing themselves. As may naturally be expected, with whatever care they may, at first sitting down, choose their place, yet the flowing dress by degrees gathers up the dust. As this occurs, they from time to time, arise, adjust themselves, shake off the dust, and then sit down again. The captive daughter of Zion, therefore, brought down to the dust of suffering and oppression, is commanded to arise and shake herself from that dust; and then, with grace and dignity, and composure and security, to sit down; to take, as it were, again, her seat and her rank amid the company of the nations of the earth, which had before afflicted her."-Christian Researches, pp. 282, 283.

The lamp was the only mode of producing an artificial light for domestic uses among the Hebrews: the "candle of the Bible had nothing in common with the modern article of that name, but must be regarded as simply another name for a lamp. We know nothing either of the material of which, or the shape in which they were made but we may assume that they were either of earthenware or metal, and that the form varied according to the use for which it was designed. We may also infer from the parable of the Ten Virgins that the ordinary lamp was of small size, and contained oil sufficient only for a few hours: whence it was the part of the prudent to take not only the lamps, but a

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ALLUSIONS TO LAMP.

future supply of "oil in vessels" to feed it with (Matt. XXV. 4).

Many of the notices of the lamp or the candle in Scripture have reference to a custom, which has in all ages been prevalent in the East, of keeping a light burning in the house throughout the whole of the night. The extinction of the light was an unlooked

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for and unfortunate occurrence, and hence gave rise to expressions significant of sudden and violent destruction. Thus we read in Job xxi. 17:-"How oft is the candle of the wicked put out;" in Prov. xx. 20:"Whoso curseth his father or mother, his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness;" and in Rev. xviii. 23:

"The light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee." On the other hand, the kindling or the maintenance of the light was an apt image of protection, continuance, and cheerfulness:- "And unto his son will I give one tribe, that David My servant may have a light alway before Me in Jerusalem" (1 Kings xi. 36;)

ALLUSIONS TO LAMP.

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"For David's sake did the Lord his God give him (Abijam) a lamp in Jerusalem" (1 Kings xv. 4); “Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me; when His candle shined upon my head!" (Job xxix. 2, 3). The two ideas are brought into contrast in Prov. xiii. 9:-"The light of the righteous rejoiceth, but the lamp of the wicked shall be put out." It is in allusion also to the above custom that, in the description of the heavenly Jerusalem, it is added to the words "there shall be no night there," that "they need no candle" (Rev. xxii. 5).

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CHAPTER IV.

INNS, PALACES, &c.

EASTERN INNS.-MODERN CARAVANSERAIS.-SOLOMON'S PALACE.
-JOSEPHUS'S DESCRIPTION OF IT.-MIDDLE COURT.-ASSYRIAN
PALACE. MONUMENTS
OF NIMROUD AND KHORSABAD.-
DECORATIONS OF WALLS.-HANGINGS IN PERSIAN PALACES.-
BANQUETING HALL.-SERIES OF COURTS.-HANDSOME CEIL-
INGS. TESSELATED PAVEMENTS.

THUS far we have described the ordinary house of the Hebrews and its arrangements. We now proceed to buildings of a public nature, such as inns, palaces, &c.

An Eastern inn is something very different from an inn in our country. It is a building without a land

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lord, without furniture, and without food or provender, though these latter can sometimes be purchased at shops attached to it. Thus the sons of Jacob on their journeys between Palestine and Egypt took all necessaries along with them, and one of them was obliged to "open his sack to give his ass provender in the inn" (Gen. xlii. 27). In the more frequented places, indeed, there appears to have been a kind of superintendent: for our Lord tells of the good Samaritan that "when he departed (from the inn) he took out two pence and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him" (Luke x. 35). Generally speaking, however, inns were situated in remote places: whence Jeremiah's exclamation:- -"Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place of wayfaring men, that I might leave my people and go from them (Jer. ix. 2); and in the same book we read that Johanan and a large party, wishing to escape the Chaldeans, "departed and dwelt in the habitation (or inn) of Chimham, which is by Bethlehem, to go to enter into Egypt" (Jer. xli. 17).

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We have in the words of modern travellers numerous graphic descriptions of the eastern inn, from which the following general account is drawn. The inns are of three sorts-caravanserais, khans, and menzils. The first are buildings designed to afford shelter to travellers in the deserts, and other remote situations; khans are similar buildings in a town; and menzils is a word of rather indefinite application, but seems generally to denote the houses of persons who are accustomed to accommodate travellers in places where there is no khan or caravanserai. The superior class of caravanserais appear very striking objects to the stranger, who takes them for palaces, fortresses, or castles; but this first impression wears off on a nearer approach, when it is seen that no enclosed buildings rise above the level of the enclosing wall. This wall is generally upwards of twenty feet high; and it sometimes

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