to custom and practice, at least of more modern, and probably, equally so of ancient times.

espe

No. 170.-xx. 5. In the name of our God we will set up our banners.] The banners formerly so much used were a part of military equipage, borne in times of war to assemble, direct, distinguish, and encourage the troops. They might possibly be used for other purposes also. Occasions of joy, splendid processions, and cially a royal habitation, might severally be distinguished in this way. The words of the Psalmist may perhaps be wholly figurative: but if they should be literally understood, the allusion of erecting a banner in the name of the Lord, acknowledging his glory, and imploring his favour, might be justified from an existing practice. Certain it is that we find this custom prevalent on this very principle in other places, into which it might originally have been introduced from Judea. Thus Mr. TURNER (Embassy to Tibet, p. 31.) says, "I was told that it was a custom with the soobah to ascend the hill every month, when he sets up a white flag, and performs some religious ceremonies, to conciliate the favour of a dewta, or invisible being, the genius of the place, who is said to hover about the summit, dispensing at his will good and evil to every thing around him."

No. 171.-xlii. 3. My tears have been my meat day and night.] It seems odd to an English reader to represent tears as meat or food, but we should remember that the sustenance of the ancient Hebrews consisted for the most part of liquids, such as broth, pottage, &c.

No. 172.-xliv. 20. Stretched out our hands.] The stretching out of the hand towards an object of devotion, or an holy place, was an ancient usage among both Jews and heathens, and it continues in the East to this time.

Pitts, in his account of the religion and manners of the Mahometans, speaking of the Algerines throwing wax candles and pots of oil over-board, to some Marabbot (or Mohammedan saint) says, "when this was done, they all together held up their hands, begging the Marabbot's blessing, and a prosperous voyage." (p. 17.) This custom he frequently observed in his journey. See Exodus 9. 29. 1 Kings 8. 22. Psalm 143. 6.

No. 173.-xlv. 3. Gird thy sword upon thy thigh.] The eastern swords, whose blades are very broad, are worn by the inhabitants of these countries under their thigh when they travel on horseback. Chardin takes notice of these particulars. He says, the eastern people have their swords hanging down at length, and the Turks wear their swords on horseback under their thigh. This passage and Sol. Song iii. S. shew they wore them after the same manner anciently. HARMER, vol. i. p. 448.

No. 174. lvi. 8. Put my tears into thy bottle.] Doth not this seem to intimate, that the custom of putting tears into the ampullæ, or urnæ lachrymales, so well known amongst the Romans, was more anciently in use amongst the eastern nations, and particularly amongst the Hebrews'? These urns were of different materials, some of glass, some of earth; as may be seen in MONTFAUCON'S Antiq. Expliq. vol. v. p. 116. where also may be seen the various forms or shapes of them. These urns were placed on the sepulchres of the deceased, as a memorial of the distress and affection of their surviving relations and friends. It will be difficult to account for this expression of the Psalmist, but upon this supposition. If this be allowed, the meaning will be, let my distress, and the tears I shed in consequence of it, be ever before thee, excite thy kind remembrance of me, and plead with thee to grant me the relief I stand in need of. CHANDLER'S Life of David, vol. i.

p. 106.

No. 175.-lviii. 6. Break their teeth.] This clause of the verse is understood as a continuation of the foregoing verse, and to be interpreted of the method made use of to tame serpents, which, Chardin says, is by breaking out their teeth. Music has a wonderful influence upon them. Adders will swell at the sound of a flute, raising themselves up on the one half of their body, turning themselves about, and beating proper time. (Harmer, vol. ii. p. 223.) Teixeira, a Spanish writer, in the first book of his Persian History, says, that in India he had often seen the Gentiles leading about the enchanted serpents, making them dance to the sound of a flute, twining them about their necks, and handling them without any harm. (See also PICART's Ceremonies and Religious Customs of all Nations, vol. iii. note. Niebuhr, vol. i. p. 152.)

p. 268.

No. 176.-lix. 14. Dog.] Though dogs are not suffered in the houses in the East, and people are very careful to avoid them, lest they should be polluted by touching them, there are great numbers of them in their streets. They do not belong to particular persons, nor are they fed regularly, but get their food as they can. It is considered right however to take some care of them and charitable people frequently give money to butchers and bakers to feed them, and some leave legacies at their deaths for the same purpose. (Le Bruyn, tom. i. p. 361.) Dogs seem to have been looked upon among the Jews in a disagreeable light, (1 Sam. xvii. 43. 2 Kings viii. 13.) yet they had them in considerable numbers in their cities. They were not shut up in their houses or courts, but seem to have been forced to seek their food where they could find it. (Psalm lix. 6, 14, 15.) Some care of them seems to be indirectly enjoined upon the Jews, Exod. xxii. 31. HARMER, vol. i. p. 220,

No. 177.-lxix. 9. The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.] PEYSONNEL, in his Remarks on BARON DU TOTT (p. 45.) describes a custom which probably is alluded to by the Psalmist. Those who are aggrieved stand before the gate of the seraglio; each carries on his head a kind of match, or wick, lighted and smoking, which is considered as the allegorical emblem of the fire that consumes his soul." The LXX. acquainted with this practice, have given a version of the passage more bold than our own, and more agreeable to the Hebrew. The seal of thine house hath MELTED me—i. e. consumed me by fire.

No. 178.-lxxii. 10. The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents.] Presents were sometimes made as an acknowledgment of inferiority and subjection. They were a kind of tribute from those who made to those who received them in this light we are doubtless to understand those spoken of in this verse. HARMER, vol. ii. p. 20.

No. 179.-lxxv. 4, 5. Lift not up your horn on high, speak not with a stiff neck.] This passage will receive some illustration from Bruce's remarks in his Travels to discover the Source of the Nile, where, speaking of the head-dress of the governors of the provinces of Abyssinia, he represents it as consisting of a large broad fillet bound upon their forehead, and tied behind their head. In the middle of this was a horn, or a conical piece of silver, gilt, about four inches long, much in the shape of our common candle extinguishers. This is called kirn, or horn, and is only worn in reviews, or parades after victory. The crooked manner in which they hold the neck, when this ornament is on their forehead, for fear it should fall forward, seems to agree with what the Psalmist calls, speaking with a stiff neck, for it perfectly

shews the meaning of speaking with a stiff neck, when you hold the horn on high, or erect, like the horn of a unicorn. See also Psalm xcii. 10.

No. 180.-lxxxiv. 7. They go from strength to strength.] The scarcity of water in the East makes travellers particularly careful to take up their lodgings as much as possible near some river or fountain. D'Herbelot informs us, that the Mohammedans have dug wells in the deserts, for the accommodation of those who go in pilgrimage to Mecca. (p. 396.) To conveniences perhaps of this kind, made, or renewed, by the devout Israelites in the valley of Baca, to facilitate their going up to Jerusalem, the Psalmist may refer in these words. Hence also there appears less of accident than we commonly think of, in Jacob's lodging on the banks of Jabbok, (Gen. xxxii. 22.) and the men of David's waiting for him by the brook Besor, (1 Sam. xxx. 21.) when they could not hold out with him in his march.

HARMER, vol. i. p. 421.

No. 181.-xc. 4. As a watch in the night.] "As the people of the East have no clocks, the several parts of the day and of the night, which are eight in all, are given notice of. In the Indies, the parts of the night are made known, as well by instruments (of music) as by the rounds of the watchmen, who with cries, and small drums give them notice that a fourth part of the night is passed. Now as these cries awakened those that had slept all that quarter part of the night, it appeared to them but as a moment." (Chardin.) It is apparent the ancient Jews knew how the night passed away, though we cannot determine by what means the information was communicated to them.

HARMER, vol. i. p. 210.