his head is, that Pharoah would take out the peg, which had the cup-bearer's name on the top of it, to read it, i. e. would sit in judgment, and make examination into his accounts; for it seems very probable that both he and the baker had been either suspected or accused of having cheated the king, and that, when their accounts were examined and cast up, the one was acquitted, while the other was found guilty. And though Joseph uses the same expression in both cases, yet we may observe that, speaking to the baker, he adds, that Pharoah shall lift up thine head from off thee, i. e. shall order thy name to be struck out of the list of his servants, by taking thy peg out of the socket." Bibliotheca Bibl. in locum, cited in STACKHOUSE's Hist. of the Bible, vol. i. p. 331.

No. 28-xli. 40. Thou shall be over my house, and according to thy word shall all my people be ruled.] The Easterns kiss what comes from the hand of a superior. The editor of the Ruins of Balbec observed that the Arab governor of that city respectfully applied the firman of the grand seignior (which was presented to him) to his forehead when he and his fellow travellers first waited on him, and then kissed it, declaring himself the sultan's slave's slave (p. 4.) Is not this what Pharoah refers to in these words: Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word, or on account of thy word, shall all my people KISS, (for so it is in the original) only in the throne will I be greater than thou; that is, I imagine, the orders of Joseph were to be received with the greatest respect by all, and kissed by the most illustrious of the princes of Egypt. HARMER, vol. ii, p. 48.

No. 29.-xlii. 15. By the life of Pharoah.] Extraordinary as the kind of oath which Joseph made use of may appear to us, it still cotinues in the East. Mr. HANWAY says, the most sacred oath among the Per

sians is "by the king's head;" (Trav. vol. i. p. 313.) and among other instances of it we read in the Travels of the Ambassadors, p. 204. "there was but sixty horses for ninety four persons. The mehemander (or conductor) swore by the head of the king (which is the greatest oath amongst the Persians) that he could not possibly find any more." And THEVENOT Says, (Trav. p. 97, part 2.) "his subjects never look upon him but with fear and trembling; and they have such respect for him, and pay so blind an obedience to all his orders, that how unjust soever his commands might be, they perform them, though against the law both of God and nature. Nay, if they swear by the king's head, their oath is more authentic, and of greater credit, than if they swore by all that is most sacred in heaven and upon earth."

No. 30.-xliii. 29. God be gracious to thee my son.] "This would have been called through all Europe, and in the living languages of this part of the world, the giving a person one's benediction; but it is a simple salutation in Asia, and it is there used instead of those offers and assurances of service which it is the custom to make use of in the West, in first addressing or taking leave of an acquaintance." (Chardin.) This account explains the ground of the scripture's so often calling the salutations and farewells of the East by the term blessing. HARMER, vol. ii. p. 40.

No 31.-xliii. 34. And he took and sent messes unto them from before him, but Benjamin's mess was five times as much as any of theirs.] The manner of eating amongst the ancients was not for all the company to eat out of one and the same dish, but for every one to have one or more dishes to himself. The whole of these dishes were set before the master of the feast, and he distri

buted to every one his portion. As Joseph, however, is here said to have had a table to himself, we may sup pose that he had a great variety of little dishes or plates set before him; and as it was a custom for great men to honour those, who were in their favour, by sending such dishes to them as were first served up to themselves, Joseph shewed that token of respect to his brethren; but to express a particular value for Benjamin, he sent him five dishes to their one, which disproportion could not but be marvellous and astonishing to them, if what Herodotus tells us, be true, that the distinction in this case, even to Egyptian kings themselves, in all public feasts and banquets, was no more than a double mess. lib. vi. chap. 27." (Bibliotheca Bibl.)

STACKHOUSE's Hist. of the Bible, vol. i. p. 338.

No. 32. xliv. 1. Sacks.] There are two sorts of sacks taken notice of in the history of Joseph, which ought not to be confounded; one for the corn, the other for the baggage. There are no waggons almost through all Asia, as far as to the Indies, every thing is carried upon beasts of burthen, in sacks of wool, covered in the middle with leather, the better to make resistance to water. Sacks of this sort are called tambellit; they inclose in them their things done up in large parcels. It is of this kind of sacks we are to understand what is said here, and all through this history, and not of their sacks in which they carried their corn. (Chardin.)

HARMER, vol. i. p. 429.

No. 33.-xliv. 5. Cup whereby he divineth?] Julius Serenus tells us, that the method of divining by the cup, among the Abyssinians, Chaldees, and Egyptians, was to fill it first with water, then to throw into it their plates of gold and silver, together with some precious stones,

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whereon were engraven certain characters: and, after that, the persons who came to consult the oracle used certain forms of incantation, and so calling upon the devil, received their answers several ways; sometimes, by articulate sounds, sometimes by the characters, which were in the cup, rising upon the surface of the water, and by this arrangement forming the answer; and many times by the visible appearing of the persons themselves about whom the oracle was consulted.

Cornelius Agrippa (de occult. Philos. 1. i. cap. 57.) tells us likewise, that the manner of some was to pour melted wax into the cup, wherein was water, which wax would range itself into order, and so form answers, according to the questions proposed.

SAURIN'S Diss. 38.

No. 34. xlvii. 19. Buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh.] From the Gentoo laws it appears that such a purchase as that made by Joseph was not an unusual thing. Particular provision is made in these institutes for the release of those who were thus brought into bondage. "Whoever, having received his victuals from a person during the time of a famine, hath become his slave, upon giving to his provider whatever he received from him during the time of the famine, and also two head of cattle, may become free from his servitude, according to the ordination of Pacheshputtee Misr.-Approved." "Whoever having been given up as a pledge for money lent, performs service to the creditor, recovers his liberty whenever the debtor discharges the debt; if the debtor neglects to pay the creditor his money, and takes no thought of the person whom he left as a pledge, that person be-comes the purchased slave of the creditor."

GENTOO LAWs, p. 140..

No. 35.-1. 10. They mourned with a great and very sore lamentation.] This is exactly the genius of the people of Asia, especially of the women. Their sentiments of joy or grief are properly transports, and their transports are ungoverned, excessive, and outrageous. When any one returns from a long journey, or dies, his family burst into cries that may be heard twenty doors off; and this is renewed at different times, and continues many days, according to the vigour of the passion. Especially are these cries long in the case of death, and frightful, for their mourning is right down despair, and an image of hell. I was lodged, in the year 1676, at Ispahan, near the royal square; the mistress of the next house to mine died at that time; the moment she expired, all the family, to the number of twenty-five or thirty people, set up such a furious cry, that I was quite startled, and was above two hours before I could recover myself. These cries continue a long time, then cease all at once; they begin again as suddenly, at day-break, and in concert. It is this suddenness which is so terrifying, together with a greater shrillness and loudness than one would easily imagine. This enraged kind of mourning continued forty days, not equally violent, but with diminution from day to day. The longest and most violent acts were when they washed the body, when they perfumed it, when they carried it out to be interred, at making the inventory, and when they divided the effects. You are not to suppose that those, who were ready to split their throats with crying out, wept as much; the greatest part of them did not shed a single tear through the whole tragedy.

CHARDIN in Harmer, vol. ii. p. 136.

No. 36.-1. 26. So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old, and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.] When Joseph died he was not only