superior for his protection: But superiors give no presents to their inferiors." Travels, vol. i. p. 68. No. 808.-ix. 24. And the cook took up the shoulder and that which was upon it, and set it before Saul.] The shoulder of a lamb is thought in the East a great delicacy. Abdolmelek the caliph, (Ockley's Hist. of the Saracens, vol. ii. p. 277.) upon his entering into Cufah, made a splendid entertainment. "When he was sat down, Amrou the son of Hareth, an ancient Mechzumian, came in: he called him to him, and placing him by him upon his sofa, asked him what meat he liked best of all that ever he had eaten. The old Mechzumian answered, an ass's neck well seasoned and well roasted. You do nothing, says Abdolmelek: what say you to a leg or a shoulder of a sucking lamb, well roasted and covered over with butter and milk?" This sufficiently explains the reason why Samuel ordered it for the future king of Israel, as well as what that was which was upon it, the butter and milk. HARMER, vol. i. p. 319. No. 809.--ix. 26. And they rose early, and it came to pass about the spring of the day, that Samuel called Saul to (on) the top of the house, saying, up, that I may send thee away.] Sleeping on the top of the house has ever been customary with the eastern people. "It has ever been a custom with them, equally connected with health and pleasure, to pass the night in summer upon the house-tops, which for this very purpose are made flat, and divided from each other by walls. We found this way of sleeping extremely agreeable; as we thereby enjoyed the cool air, above the reach of gnats and vapours, without any other covering than the canopy of the heavens, which unavoidably presents itself in different pleasing forms upon every interruption of rest, when silence and solitude strongly dispose the mind to contemplation." WooD's Balbec, Introduction. No. 810-x. 1. And kissed him.] The kiss of homage was one of the ceremonies performed at the inauguration of the kings of Israel. The Jews called it the kiss of majesty. There is probably an allusion to it in Psalm ii. 12. No. 811.-x. 5, 6. Thou shalt meet a company of prophets coming down from the high place, with a psaltery and a tabret.] We are told in a book which gives an account of the sufferings of the crew of an English privateer wrecked on the African coast in 1745, and which occasionally mentions the education of their children, and their getting the Koran by heart, that "when they have gone through, their relations borrow a fine horse and furniture, and carry them about the town in procession with the book in their hands, the rest of their companions following, and all sorts of music of the country going before." Shaw mentions the same custom. (Trav. p. 195.) This seems to be a lively comment on these words, which describe a procession of prophets or scholars. HARMER, vol. ii. p. 106. No. 812.-x. 24. All the people shouted and said, God save the king.] The acclamations of the people attended the ceremony of the inauguration of the Jewish kings. This fully appears in the case of Saul, and also of Solomon: for when Zadok anointed him king, they blew the trumpet and said, God save king Solomon, 1 Kings i. 39. No. 813.-x. 27. And brought him no presents.] When D'Arvieux was attending an Arab emir, a vessel happened to be wrecked on the coast. The emir per ceived it from the top of the mountains, and immediately repaired to the shore to profit by the misfortune. Staying some time, it grew so late that he determined to spend the night there under his tents, and ordered supper to be got ready. He says that nothing was more easy, for every body at Tartoura vied with each other as to the presents they brought, of meat, fowl, game, fruit, coffee, &c. Were they not presents of this kind, that the children of Belial neglected to bring? HARMER, vol. ii. p. 15. No. 814.-xiii. 19, 20. Now there was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel, for the Philistines said, lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears: but all the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen every man his share.] The policy of the Philistines has been imitated in modern times. "Mulei Ismael went farther towards a total reduction of these parts of Africa than his predecessors had done. Indeed the vigorous Mulei Rashid, his brother and predecessor, laid the foundation of that absoluteness; but was cut off in the height of his vigour, his horse running away with him in so violent a manner, that he dashed out his brains against a tree. But this sherif brought multitudes of sturdy Arabs and Africans, who used to be courted by the kings of Morocco, Fez, &c. to such a pass, that it was as much as all their lives were worth to have any weapon in a whole dowar (moveable village, or small community) more than one knife, and that without a point, wherewith to cut the throat of any sheep or other creature, when in danger of dying, lest it should jif, as they call it, i. e. die with the blood in it, and become unlawful for food." MORGAN'S Hist. of Algiers, p. 196. No. 815.-xiv. 14. And that first slaughter which Jonathan and his armour-bearer made was (of) about twenty men, within as it were a half acre of land, which a yoke of oxen might plough.] This manner of measuring a space of ground by a comparison from ploughing seems to have been customary in these times, from what is here said of Jonathan. A similar instance also occurs in Homer. For, speaking of contending chiefs, he says, So distant they, and such the space between, For the explanation of the comparison, it may be proper to add Dacier's description of the manner of ploughing. "The Grecians did not plough in the manner now in use. They first broke up the ground with oxen, and then ploughed it more lightly with mules. When they employed two ploughs in a field, they measured the space they could plough in a day, and set their ploughs at the two ends of that space, and those ploughs proceeded towards each other. This intermediate space was constantly fixed, but less in proportion for two ploughs of oxen, than for two of mules; because oxen are slower, and toil more in a field that has not yet been turned up; whereas mules are naturally swifter, and make greater speed in a ground that has already had the first ploughing." A carucate, or plough land in Domesday Book, from caruca, is as much land as will maintain a plough, or as much as one plough will work. No. 816. xiv. 15. So it was a great trembling.] In the Hebrew it is, a trembling of God, that is, which God sent upon them. This was called by the heathens a panic fear: and, as it was thought to come from the gods, made the stoutest men quake. So Pindar excellently expresses it: -Ev yàp Δαιμονίοισι φόβοις Φευγονίαι καὶ Παίδες Θεων. Nemea, ix. 63, When men are struck with divine terrors, even the children of the gods betake themselves to flight. No. 817. xv. 12. Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set him up a place.] In this place the LXX. read Zapa a hand, probably because the trophy or monument of victory was made in the shape of a large hand, (the emblem of power,) erected on a pillar. These memorialpillars were much in use anciently: and the figure of a hand was by its emblematical meaning well adapted to preserve the remembrance of a victory. Niebuhr (Voyage en Arabie, tom. ii. p. 211. French edit.) speaking of Ali's mosque at Mesched-Ali says, that "at the top of the dome, where one generally sees on the Turkish mosques a crescent, or only a pole, there is here a hand stretched out, to represent that of Ali." Another writer informs us that at the Alhambra, or red palace of the Moorish kings, in Grenada, "on the key-stone of the outward arch (of the present principal entrance) is sculptured the figure of an arm, the symbol of strength and dominion." Annual Register for 1779, Antiquities, p. 124. No. 818.-xvi, 1. Fill thy horn with oil. It is the custom of Iberia, Colchis, and the adjacent country, where the arts are little practised, to keep liquors in horns, and to drink out of them. Probably the eastern horns had chains affixed to them, so that they might occasionally be hung up. If this were the case, it may account for the prophet's supposing that drinking vessels were hung up. Isaiah xxii. 24. HARMER, vol. i. p. 382. |