a veil from head to foot. The companions of each attended them with songs and music of instruments; not in promiscuous assemblage, but each company by itself; while the virgins, according to the custom of the times, were all provided with veils, not indeed so large and thick as that which hung over the bride, but abundantly sufficient to conceal their faces from all around. The way, as they went along, was lighted with numerous torches. In the mean time, another company was waiting at the bridegroom's house, ready, at the first notice of their approach, to go forth and meet them. These seem generally to have been young female relations or friends of the bridegroom's family, called in at this time, by a particular invitation, to grace the occasion with their presence. Adorned with the robes of gladness and joy, they went forth with lamps or torches in their hands, and welcomed the procession with the customary salutations. They then joined themselves to the marriage train, and the whole company moved forward to the house. There an entertainment was provided for their reception, and the remainder of the evening was spent in a cheerful participation of the marriage supper, with such social merriment as suited the joyous occasion. None were admitted to this entertainment, beside the particular number who were selected to attend the wedding; and as the regular and proper time for their entrance into the house was when the bridegroom went in with his bride, the doors were then closed, and no other guest was expected to come in. Such appear to have been the general ceremonies which attended the celebration of a marriage. No doubt, however, among different ranks, and in different ages of the nation, the particular forms and fashions were often considerably different.

In modern times, the Jews have a regular, formal marriage rite, by which the union is solemnly ratified. The parties stand under a canopy, each covered with a black veil; some grave person takes a cup of wine, pronounces a short blessing, and hands it to be tasted by both; the bridegroom puts a ring on the finger of the bride, saying, By this ring thou art my spouse, according to the custom of Moses and the children of Israel! the marriage contract is then read, and given to the bride's relations; another cup of wine is brought and blessed six times, when the married couple taste it, and pour the rest out in token of cheerfulness; and, to conclude all, the husband dashes the cup itself against the wall, and breaks it all to pieces, in memory of the sad destruction of their once glorious temple.

FUNERAL CEREMONIES.-When a person died, some one of his nearest friends immediately closed his eyes. The relations rent their garments, from the neck downward in front to the girdle, and a cry of lamentation and sorrow filled the room. This continued, bursting forth at intervals, until the corpse was carried away from the house. In many cases, the cere monies of grief lasted eight days; for kings or other persons of distinguished rank, the time was extended commonly to a whole month, or thirty days. (Numb. xx. 29. Deut. xxxiv. 8.). It was usual, at the death of individuals of any importance, to employ some women to act as mourners on the occasion. These were not friends of the deceased,

but persons whose professed business it was to conduct the ceremonies of wailing and lamentation, whenever they were wanted, and who received always some compensation for their services. They chanted, in doleful strains, the virtues of the dead, thus raising, to a higher pitch, the sorrowful feelings of the relations, and causing them to find relief in floods of gushing tears. Such were the mourning women of whom the prophet speaks, in his pathetic lamentation over the miseries that were coming on his country. (Jer. ix. 17-20. Amos v. 16.) These waiings were often accompanied with some melancholy music of instruments. (Matt. ix. 23.) The company of mourners did not confine their songs of lamentation to the house; when the funeral procession moved to the grave, they accompanied it, all the way, filling the air with sadness, and compelling others to weep with their mournful sounds.

Besides rending the garment, sorrow was expressed, at times, by beating the breast; tearing the hair; uncovering the head; walking barefoot, covering the lip, or more properly the chin; scattering ashes or dust into the air; putting on sackcloth, and spreading ashes over the head, or sitting down in the midst of them. Sometimes they tore their faces with their nails, and wounded their flesh with painful cuttings; though this was a heathenish practice, expressly forbidden in the Jewish law. (Lev. xix. 28. Deut. xiv. 1, 2.) It was common, also, to take off the ornaments of dress, and neglect all attention to personal appearance; they refused to anoint their heads, to wash themselves, to dress their hair, to trim their beards, or to indulge themselves with any of the comforts of life. (2 Sam. i. 2, 11. xiii. 19. xiv. 2. xv. 30. xix. 4, 24.) These forms were not, of course, all, or even most of them, employed on common occasions of grief, or confined by any means to funeral seasons; they were the general signs of affliction, on any account, and were displayed to a greater or less extent, according to the measure of sorrow, real or pretended, which it was designed to express. After death the body was washed, and not unfrequently embalmed.

The Jews used no box or coffin for the dead. The corpse, wrapped in folds of linen and bound about the face with a napkin, was placed upon a bier, and so carried by bearers to the tomb. The bier was a kind of narrow bed, consisting in common cases, we may suppose, of only a plain and simple frame, but sometimes prepared with considerable ornament and cost. The bier or bed in which king Asa was laid after his death, was "filled with sweet odors, and divers kinds of spices, prepared by the apothecaries' art." (2 Chron. xvi. 14.) On one of these funeral frames lay the widow's son, when our Savior met the mournful procession, without the city gate. At his almighty word, the dead man immediately sat up. (Luke vii. 15.) It was common, at least in the later times of the nation, to bury soon after death. It was always inconvenient to keep a corpse long, because, by the law, every person who touched it, or who merely came into the apartment where it lay, was rendered unclean from the time, a whole week; and so was cut off not only from sacred privileges, but also from all intercourse with friends and neighbors.*

* Bib. Ant. vol. i.

III. MAHOMETANS.

To the several articles of faith, to which all his followers were commanded to adhere, Mahomet added four fundamental points of religious practice, viz: prayer five times a day, fasting, alms-giving, and the pilgrimage to Mecca. Under the first of these are comprehended those frequent washings or purifications, which he prescribed as necessary preparations for the duty of prayer. So necessary did he think them, that he is said to have declared, that "the practice of religion is founded on cleanliness, which is one half of faith, and the key of prayer." The second of these he conceived to be a duty of so great moment, that he used to say, it was the gate of religion, and that "the odor of the mouth of him that fasteth is more grateful to God than that of musk." The third is looked upon as so pleasing in the sight of God, that the caliph Omar Ebn Abdalazir used to say, "Prayer carries us half way to God; fasting brings us to the door of his palace; and alms procures us admission." The last of these practical religious duties is deemed so necessary, that according to a tradition of Mahomet, he who dies without performing it, "may as well die a Jew or a Christian." As to the NEGATIVE precepts and institutions of this religion, the Mahometans are forbidden the use of wine, and are prohibited from gaming, usury, and the eating of blood and swine's flesh, and whatever dies of itself, or is strangled, or killed by a blow, or by another beast. They are said, however, to comply with the prohibition of gaming (from which chess seems to be excepted) much better than they do with that of wine, under which all strong and inebriating liquors are included; for both the Persians and the Turks are in the habit of drinking freely. It were, however, both unreasonable and unjust to charge the practices of any body of people on their principles, where those principles manifestly teach that only which ought to be observed. It is to be feared few Christian sects could stand the test of so severe an ordeal as the trial of their faith as a body, by their works as individuals.

We have already stated, that amongst the moral principles of this religion, prayer forms a prominent part; five times a day-in the morning bebefore sunrise; directly after midday; immediately before sunset; in the evening after sunset; and again some time between that period and midnight. The criers from the minarets, or summits of the mosques, announce to the faithful the appointed hours for devout prayer: at those times the Mussulman, in whatever business he may then happen to be engaged, at home or abroad, must, in a brief, but earnest and supplicatory address, pour forth his soul to heaven.

Various ceremonies are prescribed for the due performance of the rite; but the doctors of the mosque with truth maintain, that it is to the devotional state of the heart, and not merely to the attitude of the body, that the Searcher of spirits looks. One of their ceremonies is in perfect congeniality with a religious feeling of universal influence-a feeling indicative of the devotional nature of man, and of the difficulty to practise a perfectly spiritual mode of worship. When the Persian turns his face to the east, which he considers to be peculiarly sacred to the sun, and the Sabean beholds, to use the beautiful language of Job, "the moon

walking in brightness," or directs his eye to the northern star, the view 353 of the objects of their worship kindles the fire of devotion, and checks the wanderings of their fancy. To the holy city of Jerusalem, the Jews constantly looked in the hour of prayer; and to the temple of Mecca every follower of Mahomet, in the seasons of adoration, religiously turns his eye. In imitation of the old Jewish custom, or rather in consonance with the general feeling of the Asiatics against all indiscriminate intercourse between the sexes, women are prohibited from attending the service of the mosque in the presence of the men.

The Moslem Sabbath is on Friday, because the prophet disdained to be thought a servile imitator of either the Jewish or the Christian systems. On that day, solemn prayers are to be offered to God, in the mosques; and the Koran is to be expounded by some appointed preacher. The larger the congregation, the more efficacious will be their the general observance of the day is not prescribed with that character of strictness, which distinguishes the Jewish Sabbath; for the Koran says, prayers. But "in the intervals of preaching and of prayer, believers may disperse themselves through the land, as they list, and seek gain of the liberality of God," by pursuing worldly occupations and innocent amusements, as the context shows is the meaning.

The practice of frequent ablutions is deemed very meritorious by the Mussulmen. The cleansing of the body is pronounced by Mahomet to be the key of prayer, without which it cannot be acceptable to God; and, in order to keep the mind attached to the practice, believers are enjoined to pour fine sand over the body, when pursuing their journies through the deserts of the east. describing the variety and the manner of performing the legal lustration, But as a Mahometan writer has observed, after "the most important purification is the cleansing the heart from all blameable inclinations and odious vices, and from all affections which may divert their attendance upon God."

Fasting is another of the Mahometan duties, although this may be voluntary and occasional. The month of Ramadan was distinguished for the purpose of abstinence; and in the revolutions of the lunar course, the Mussulman is compelled to bear the heat of summer, and the cold of winter, without mitigation or refreshment. prophet, a fast is ordained you, that you may fear God; the month of "O true believers," says the Ramadan shall ye fast, in which the Koran was sent down from heaven. Therefore let him among you, who shall be at home in this month, fast the same month; but he who shall be sick, or on a journey, shall fast the like number of other days." During this consecrated period, no gratification of the senses, or even support of the body, are allowed from morning until night. At night, however, the corporeal frame may be renovated, the spirits recruited, and nature may resume her right. In Ramadan, peculiar sanctity is recommended. The virtue of charity is more virtuous when performed in that season. is forbidden, nor must even Retaliation of injuries. A keeper of a fast (whether legal or voluntary) who does not abandon the voice be raised on account of enmity." lying and detraction, God does care not for his leaving off eating and drinking.

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The disciples of Mahomet are "forbidden to eat what dieth of itself, and blood and swine's flesh, and what has been offered to any idol, or strangled, or killed by a blow or a fall, or gored to death by another horned beast," unless life shall be found in it, after the goring, and the Mussulman shall himself kill it.

Carried half way to God by prayer, conducted to the heavenly portals by fasting, the good Mussulman procures admission to paradise by almsgiving.

A tenth part of the property, whether consisting of land, cattle, or goods, which has been for a twelvemonth in the possession of an individual, is the demand on his charity, by the Mahometan law. The tax is no longer levied upon stationary property, but only on goods imported by way of trade: its appropriation has in most countries been changed from the support of the indigent to purposes of state; while the prince settles the matter with his conscience, by erecting some mosques, and supporting a few idle fakirs. The duty of alms-giving is not, however, considered to be performed in all its extent, unless, in addition to the legal alms, the believer makes donations to the poor. Hassin, the son of Ali, and grandson of Mahomet, twice in his life divided his goods between himself and the distressed; and the caliphs Omar and Abu Beker every week distributed abroad in charity the difference between their expenses and revenue. The productions of cornfields, olive grounds, and vineyards, are not gathered in the east with minute scrupulosity. To the poor were assigned the gleanings; Job describes them as gathering the harvest dew even in the vineyard of the unjust; Mahomet permits his disciples to enjoy corn, dates, pomegranates, olives, and all other divine blessings, but commands that in the harvest and vintage the poor shall have their right.

It is well known that the rite of circumcision is practised amongst the Mahometans. In the Koran, however, there are no positive injunctions as to the performance of circumcision, but as it had been invariably practised in Arabia by the Ishmaelitish Arabs, the descendants of Abraham, Mahomet speaks of it as a matter in universal use, and apparently as not wanting the sanction of a legislator to insure its continuance. On the performance of this rite, religious instruction is to be commenced. Order your children to say their prayers, when they are seven years of age, and beat them if they do not do so, when they are ten years old.

Wine is prohibited to the Mussulman; but he, nevertheless, frequently drinks it; for, according to Mr. Mills, the crime may be indulged to any extent, short of outrageous disorder.

Gaming is also forbidden, with the exception of chess, because that does not depend upon chance, but on the skill of the player.

In Turkey, where the greatest strictness prevails in respect to the right performance of religious ceremonies, and where the Mahometan law touching their religious practices is more scrupulously observed than in any other part of the world, the true believers are wont even to suspend their devotions, should they chance to receive any pollution from dirt, until the impurity is removed, by water, or other necessary means. The fountains which are placed round the mosques, and the baths, which