ages, but had been assumed, and was often worn by persons of inferior rank; but it is by no means improbable, that the extravagance of the female sex in his time, which seems to have arisen to an unprecedented height, might have confounded in some measure, the distinctions of rank, by inducing the nobility of Judah to affect the state and ornaments of their princes.

Persons of distinction in various countries of the east, wore chains of silver and gold; and not satisfied with this, ostentatiously displayed their wealth and rank, by sus pending chains of the same precious metals about the necks of their camels. Silver chains, according to Po cocke, hung from the bridles of the seven military agas in Egypt, to the breastplates of their horses. The camels of the kings of Midian, whom Gideon discomfited, were, agreeably to this custom, adorned with chains of gold.

The signet used by kings and persons of rank in the east was a ring which served all the purposes of sealing. All the orientals, instead of signature by sign manual, usé the impression of a seal on which their name and title (if they have one) is engraved. Among an intriguing and malicious people, it is so easy to turn the possession of a man's seal to his disgrace, by making out false documents, that the loss of it always produces great conThis shews how much Judah put himself in the power of Tamar, when he gave her his signet; and one reason of his anxiety, "Let her take it to her, lest we be ashamed," may therefore mean something beyond the mere discovery of the immoral action; "Lest by some undue advantage taken of the signet, I may be endangered." In an Indian court, the monarch still takes the Trav. vol. i, p. 264.

cern.

ring from his finger, and affixes it to the decree, and orders the posts to be dispatched to the provinces, as in the reign of Ahasuerus." When an eastern prince delivers the seal of empire to a royal guest, he treats him as a superior; but when he delivers it to a subject, it is only a sign of investiture with office. Thus the king of Egypt took off his ring from his hand and put it upon Joseph's hand, when he made him ruler over all his dominions; and the king of Persia took off the ring which he had taken from Haman and gave it unto Mordecai.▾

(

The orientals looked upon a seat by a pillar or column as a particular mark of respect. In the Iliad, Homer places Ulysses on a lofty throne, by a pillar; and in the Odyssey, he more than once alludes to the same custom." The kings of Israel were, for the same reason, placed at their coronation, or on days of public festivity, by a pillar in the house of the Lord. Joash, the king of Judah, stood by a pillar when he was admitted to the throne of his ancestors ; and Josiah, one of his successors, when he made a covenant before the Lord.

The subjects of oriental princes approach them with expressions of reverence, homage, and submission, which amount nearly to religious adoration; and even when not carried so far, are equally degrading and absurd. Forgetting the erect dignity of the human character in their intercourse with fellow-mortals, and what every man owes

W

Morier's Trav. vol. i, p. 49. For Malcom's Hist. of Persia, vol. ii, p.

Lib. vi, 1. 307; lib. xxiii, 1. 93; and lib. viii, 1. 66. * 2 Kings xi, 14.

› Ch. xxiii, 3.

to himself, in the presence of the great they are not satis fied with yielding them that respect to which they are fairly entitled, but humble themselves to the very dust before their horses feet, and kiss the earth in token of their obedience." When Joseph's brethren were introduced to him, they bowed down themselves before him, with their faces to the earth. The kings of Persia, in the height of their power, never admitted any person into their presence without exacting this act of adoration; the name which it uniformly received. The expressions, therefore, of the prophet Isaiah, "They shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth; they shall lick the very dust," "are only general poetical images taken from the manners of the country, to denote great respect and reverence; and such splendid figures, which frequently occur in the prophetical writings, were intended only as general amplifications of the subject, not as predictions to be understood and fulfilled precisely according to the letter."a

"When the king" of Persia " is seated in public, his sons, ministers and courtiers, stand erect, with their hands crossed, and in the exact place of their rank. They watch the looks of the sovereign, and a glance is a mandate. If he speak to them, you hear a voice reply, and see their lips move, but not a motion nor gesture betrays that there is animation in any other part of their frame." When he places himself at the windows of his palace, his domestics take their station in the court before it, hard by the fountain which plays in the middle, to watch the looks of

* Morier's Trav. vol. i, p. 280. a Lowth on Isaiah, vol. ii, p. 307. b Orme's Hist. of Military Transactions, vol. iv, p. 426. Malcom's Hist. of Persia, vol. ii, p. 554.

their lord. A principal part of the regal state in Persia consists in the number of the men who stand before the monarch; and we learn from the address of the queen of Sheba to Solomon that he was not indifferent to this part of eastern splendour. It is reckoned an act of great humility in the king of Persia, or even in a person of high rank, to walk on foot, this being a part of the service exacted from servants. When a prince or great man goes abroad, he is mounted on a horse, and always attended by a multitude of servants on foot, one bearing his pipe, another his shoes, another his cloak, a fourth his saddlecloth, and so on, the number increasing with the dignity of the master. These statements impart great force to the remark of the wise man: "I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth."e

The compliments which they addressed to their princes, and the manner in which they spoke of them, were not less hyperbolical. The address of the wise woman of Te koah to David, furnishes a memorable example of the extravagant adulation in which they indulged, and which seems to have been received with entire satisfaction by one of the wisest and holiest of men: "As an angel of God, so is my lord the king, to discern good and bad;" and again, "My lord is wise according to the wisdom of an angel of God, to know all things that are in the earth." Equally hyperbolical was the reply of a Persian grandee to Char din, who objected to the price which the king had set upon a pretty rich trinket : " Know that the kings of Persia have a general and full knowledge of matters, as sure as

Malcom's Hist. of Persia, vol. ii, p. 522.

◄ 1 Kings x, 8. Morier's Trav. vol. i, p. 130.

Eccl. x, 7. Morier's Trav. vol. i, p. 166.

f2 Sam. xiv, 17, 20.

:

it is extensive; and that equally in the greatest and in the smallest things, there is nothing more just and sure than what they pronounce." This incident admirably shews the strong prepossession of these Asiatics in favour of their kings, or rather of their own slavery; and gives some plausibility to the remark of Mr. Harmer, that there may be more of real persuasion in such addresses than we are ready to apprehend. In the estimation of the Persian courtier, the knowledge of his prince was like that of an angel of God. If the ancient Egyptians supposed their princes were possessed of equal knowledge and sagacity, which is not improbable, the compliment of Judah to his brother Joseph was a very high one, and, at the same time, couched in the most artful terms "Thou art even as Pharaoh ;" knowing, and wise, and equitable as he. But it cannot be inferred, with any degree of certainty, from these customs, that either the Persian grandee, or the brother of Joseph, really believed such compliments were due. The former, most probably, thought it incumbent upon him to support the dignity of his master, especially in the presence of many of his nobles, or expressed himself in such extravagaut terms, merely in compliance with the etiquette of the court; and as for Judah, it was his desire to soothe with good words and fair speeches the second ruler in Egypt, whose resentment he knew it was death to incur; and no compliment could be supposed more acceptable to an Egyptian grandee than the one which he paid to his unknown brother. The same remark applies, with little variation, to the woman of Tekoah; her design was to soothe the mind of her sovereign, to mitigate, and, if possible, to extinguish his just resent8 Harmer's Observ. vol. iii, p. 517.