"Turn in, my lord, turn in to me, fear not." She in vited him to take refuge in her own division of the tent, into which no stranger might presume to enter; and where he naturally supposed himself in perfect safety. e The married women among the orientals, are reduced to a state of great subjection. In Barbary, they regard the civility and respect which the politer nations of Europe pay to the weaker sex, as extravagance, and so many infringements of that law of nature, which assigns to man the pre-eminence. The matrons of that country, though they are considered indeed as servants of better station, yet have the greatest share of toil and business upon their hands. While the lazy husband reposes under some neighbouring shade, and the young people of both sexes tend the flocks, the wives are occupied all the day long, either in toiling on their looms, or in grinding at the mill, or in preparing bread or other kind of farinaceous food. Nor is this all; for to finish the day, " at the time of the evening," to use the words of the sacred historian, "even at the time that women go out to draw water," they must equip themselves with a pitcher or goat's skin, and tying their sucking children behind them, trudge out in this manner, two or three miles, to fetch water. In Palestine, where the women of superior rank, at least, are treated with more respect, the married ladies commonly express their submission and regard, by kissing the beards of their husbands. To such a state of connubial society, the Psalmist seems to allude in these words: "So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty; for he is thy Lord, and worship thou him."8 d Judg. iv, 18. e Trav. vol. ii, p. 5. f Shaw's Trav. vol. i, p. 432. 8 Psa. xlv, 11. In the kingdom of Algiers, the women and children are charged with the care of their flocks and their herds, with providing food for the family, cutting fuel, fetching water, and when their domestic affairs allow them, with tending their silk worms. The daughters of the Turcomans in Palestine, are employed in the same mean and laborious offices. In Homer, Andromache fed the horses of her heroic husband. It is probable, the cutting of wood was another female occupation. The very great antiquity of these customs, is confirmed by the prophet Jeremiah, who complains that the children were sent to gather wood for idolatrous purposes; and in his Lamentations, he bewails the oppressions which his people suffered from their enemies, in these terms: "They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood."j Hence the servile condition to which the Gibeonites were reduced by Joshua, for imposing upon him and the princes of the congregation, appears to have been much more severe than we are apt at first to suppose : “Now, therefore, ye are cursed, and there shall none of you be freed from being bondmen, and hewers of wood, and drawers of water for the house of my God." The bitterness of their doom did not consist in being subjected to a laborious service, for it was the usual employment of women and children; but in their being degraded from the characteristic employment of men, that of bearing arms, and condemned with their posterity for ever to the em ployment of females. In ancient Greece, the women were strictly confined within their lodgings, especially virgins and widows; of whom the former, as having less experience in the world, i Iliad. lib. viii, 1. 187. j Lam. v, 13. * Josh. ix, 23. were more closely watched. Their apartment was commonly well guarded with locks and bolts; and sometimes they were so straitly confined, that they could not pass from one part to another without permission. New-married women were almost under as strict a confinement as virgins; but when once they had brought forth a child, they commonly enjoyed greater liberty. This indulgence, however, was entirely owing to the kindness of their husbands; for those who were jealous or morose, kept their wives in perpetnal imprisonment. But how gentle and kind soever husbands might be, it was considered as very indecent for women to go abroad. Euripides accord "Women should keep within doors, and there talk."* * Potter's Grecian Antiq. vol. ii, p. 310. 1 Tim. v, 14. ・・ He improper for her to appear much in public; for in Hebrew she is called (y) Almah, from a verb which signifies to hide or conceal, because she was seldom or never permitted to mingle in promiscuous company. The married women, though less restrained, were still expected to keep at home, and occupy their time in the management of their household. In the book of Proverbs, the wise man states it as a mark of a dissolute woman, that "her feet abide not in her house;"a while every wise woman," by her industrious and prudent conduct, "buildeth her house." "She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness." b " Oriental women suffer little from parturition; for those of better condition are frequently on foot the day after delivery, and out of all confinement on the third day. They seldom call midwives, and when they do, they are some times delivered before they come to their assistance; the poorer sort, while they are labouring or planting, go aside, deliver themselves, wash the child, lay it in a clout, and return to work again. The same facility attended the Hebrew women in Egypt; and the assertion of the midwives seems to have been literally true: "The Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are lively, and are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them." When a child was brought into the world, the ancient Greeks washed it with water; in Callimachus, the mother of Jupiter, as soon as he saw the light, sought for some clear brook to purify the body of so dear a progeny : Αύμκα διζητο ριον ὕδατος ᾧ κε τεκοιο Αυμάλα χυλώσαλο στον ୪ a Prov. vii, 11. ενα χρώτα λοεσσαι b Ch. xiv, I; and ch. xxxi, 27. Morier's Trav. vol. i, p. 106, 107; and Forbes's Orient. Hymno in Jovem, v. 14. © Exod. i, 19, Mem. vol. iii, p. 256. 66 The next action deserving of notice, is cutting the child's navel, which was done by the nurses; whence originated the proverbial saying among the Greeks, thy navel is not cut," meaning, you are an infant, and scarce separated from your mother. Then the nurse wrapped the child in swaddling bands, lest its tender and flexible limbs should be distorted. When a son is born, some confidential servant is usually the first to carry the glad tidings to his master, and obtains a gift to which he reckons himself entitled. But the birth of a daughter produces no rejoicings; on the contrary every one is as backward to inform the father of it, as they were forward on the birth of a son. To this circumstance the prophet alludes with great force and beauty: "Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A man child is born unto thee, making his heart very glad.e" Weakly or deformed children, the Lacedæmonians ordered to be cast into a deep cavern, thinking it neither for the good of the children themselves, nor for the public interest, that they should be brought up; but many persons exposed their children, when they were not willing they should perish, only because they were unable to maintain them. Children were commonly exposed in their swaddling clothes, and laid in a vessel; thus, Ion was exposed by Creusa, and Moses by his mother when she could conceal him no longer. The parents frequently tied jewels and rings to the children they exposed, or any thing else by which they might afterwards discover them, if providence took care of their safety; or to encourage such as found them, to nourish and educate them if alive, or to give them human burial if dead. These circumstances the prophet Ezekiel in e Jer. xx, |