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Judges, xvi. 21. But the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, [margin, bored out] and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison house.

Scooping out the eyes, is a common punishment under Eastern tyrants, as oriental history bears witness.

Judges, xvii. 6. In those days there was no king in Israel; but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

There was no king, strictly speaking, in Israel, for ages after; but the meaning evidently is, no supreme magistrate. Samuel, without pretending to royalty, was invested with higher authority than any of their kings. The natives of Ceylon often style the governor, and judges of the Supreme Court, rajas or kings.

Judges, xviii. 19. And they said unto him, Hold thy peace, lay thine hand upon thy mouth, and go with us, and be to us a father and a priest.

Low-caste people, when listening to a superior, cover their mouth with their finger. When astonished, they rest the cheek on the palm of the hand, cover the lips with two fingers, or put the fore-finger between the teeth.

1 Samuel, v. 4. And the head of Dagon, and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshhold; only the stump [margin, or fishy-part] of Dagon was left to him.

Dagon, in figure a mer-maid, (sea-maid,) was doubtless a figure of Noah's preservation. It seems the same with the Vishnoo of India-represented in the Budhuist temples in the human form, and painted the colour of the sea.

1 Samuel, vi. 12. And the kine took the straight way to the way of Beth-Shemesh, and went along the highway, lowing as they went, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left; and the lords of the Philistines went after them into the border of Beth-Shemesh.

If bullocks when yoked, were as refractory in Judea as they are in Ceylon, the Divine interposition must have been very remarkable, especially as the calves of the milch kine, in the text, were shut up, at home. In a meadow, it is extremely difficult to catch them; and when yoked they are often very troublesome. Two usually draw a cart, and unless carefully driven, they will turn out of the road, and run with great fury.

1 Samuel, ix. 7. For the bread is spent in our vessels.

The Tartars at the approach of winter, make similar provision for a journey in pursuit of cattle allowed to ramble over a right of pasturage through the summer. Each proprietor, on sending them to graze, sets his mark on his beasts; and in the course of his ramble in search of them, makes inquiries of people scouring the plain on the same errand.

1 Samuel, ix. 7, 8. There is not a present to bring to the man of God: What have we? And the servant answered Saul again, and said, Behold I have here at hand the fourth part of a shekel of silver; that will I give to the man of God, to tell us our way. See also Genesis, xliii. 11; and Judges, iii. 17, 18.

Presents are essential to intercourse between superiors and inferiors throughout the East. They are considered not in the light of bribes, but as tokens of acknowledgment of superiority and dependence. The pepper-corn, the rose, and the like, required by a landlord of his tenants on court-days in Europe, seem fragments of the same usage. A Cingalese having to solicit a favour of a superior, when

away from home, says, I must go to my village, and procure the presents. When rejected by a European, it is considered disrespectful. On presenting them to me, I have either declined receiving them, and explained my reason, or at their solicitation, accepted them, and told the persons to come in future with none.

1 Samuel, xiii. 19. Now there was no smith found throughout the land of Israel: (for the Philistines said, Lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears.)

The Arabs in some cases, suspecting the people of a disposition to emancipate themselves, have allowed the inhabitants of a subjected village but one knife.

1 Samuel, xvii. 10. And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man that we may fight together.Verse 43. And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.

The Cingalese frequently utter imprecations in the name of the most malignant of their deities.

1 Samuel, xix. 16. And when the messengers were come in, behold, there was an image in the bed, with a pillow of goat's hair for his bolster.

With several respectable authorities, I am inclined to think the article described as a bolster, was in fact a curtain suspended to guard the sleeper from gnats; and which was happily calculated to deceive the messengers, in case they insisted on glancing into the room to satisfy themselves whether or not David were there. The same word is used for it, which in 2 Kings viii. 15, is rendered a thick cloth. Moschetto curtains are hung about the superior order of beds in the East. The sting of the moschetto resembles that of a bee or gnat, and often by day

and night the annoyance is such as can hardly be conceived by people in Europe. I have seen natives unable to sleep till they had destroyed those buzzing about them, by smiting their hands together, at which experience seems to have made them dexterous.

1 Samuel, xix. 15. And Saul sent the messengers again to see David, saying, Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may slay him.

A mat and pillow form all the bed of the common people of the East: and their rolling up the one in the other has often struck me as illustrating the command to rise, take up thy bed, and walk, Luke v. 19. Mark ii. 4, 11. Acts ix. 34.-Peter said to Eneas, arise and hereafter spread thy bed for thyself. David's bed was probably the duan or raised bench, with two quilts, one doubled and serving for mattrass, and the other as a covering. It was probably not unlike a sailor's hammock laid on the floor or bench. The writer remembers seeing three clay benches for sleeping on, at a small post-house at Vowwol-tongy near Jaffna; on one of which he lay several hours. 2 Kings, xi. 2, "In the bed-chamber" -not for sleeping, it should seem, but rather, the bed-warehouse.

↑ Samuel, xxi. 13, 14. And he changed his behaviour before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard. Then said Achish unto his servants, Lo, ye see the man is mad.

The attention bestowed on the beard by the Turks, may suggest to us how reasonable was Achish's opinion, that David when he let his spittle fall upon it, was deranged. They let it grow, kiss it, and swear by it. In the Yemen mountains, the simple

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people inquired of some travellers, what crime their European servant had committed, as he was observed to have whiskers without a beard! Cutting off the beard, was evidently a token of deep mourning, Is. xv. 2; Jer. xli. 5; neglecting it, a mark of dejection, Gen. xli. 14; 2 Sam. xix. 24. "Pliny telleth us out of Varro, that the Romans had no barbers till 454 years after the city was built." Trapp. Mr. Dumont, in an Essay on the conduct of David, at the court of Achish, king of Gath, seems to have proved, First, That if David had counterfeited madness on the occasion, he would not have committed any sin. Secondly, That David did not feign himself mad, as is generally supposed. And thirdly, That this heir-apparent to the crown of Israel, had not, at the court of Gath, the least degree of madness, either real or feigned. Saurin's Sermons, Vol. 4.

1 Samuel, xxviii. 12. And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice: and the woman spake to Saul, saying, Why hast thou deceived me? for thou art Saul,

The insertion of when, for which there seems not sufficient authority, implies some time for the settlement of the spell, but the fright of the woman on finding her arts might be dispensed with, and the affecting interview between Saul and Samuel, seem to denote a divine interference independent of occult influence.

2 Samuel, v. 8. And David said on that day, Whosoever getteth up to the gutter, and smiteth the Jebusites, and the lame, and the blind, that are hated of David's soul, he shall be chief and captain. Wherefore they said, The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.

"The LAME and the BLIND shall not come into the house the LAME and the BLIND are hated of

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