1 perior part of his body upon his left arm, the lower part being stretched out at length, or a little bent; his head was raised up, and his back sometimes supported with pillows. If several persons lay upon the same bed, then the first lay on the uppermost part, with his legs stretched out behind the second person's back; the second person's head lay below the bosom of the former, his feet being placed behind the third person's back; and the rest in like manner: for though it was accounted mean or sordid at Rome to place more than three or four upon one bed, yet, as we are informed by Cicero, the Greeks used to crowd five, and often a greater number, into the same bed. Persons beloved commonly lay in the bosoms of those that loved them the fact is thus attested by Juvenal: : "Cœna sedet, gremio jacuit nova nupta mariti.” Sat. ii, 1. 120. And for the same reason, according to the well-known custom, the beloved disciple lay in the bosom of his Lord, at the celebration of the passover. The head of the second being opposite to the bosom of the first, if he wanted to speak to him, especially if the thing was to be secret, he was obliged to lean upon his bosom: thus the apostle John, wishing to speak secretly to his Lord, leaned from necessity upon his bosom. In conversation, those who spoke, raised themselves almost upright, supported by cushions. When they ate, they raised themselves on their elbow, and made use of the right hand; which is the reason our Lord mentions the hand of Judas in the singular number; "He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me."k Sometimes the Greeks and Romans used both hands, to which practice, the i John xiii, 23. Potter's Antiq. vol. ii, p. 377. Plin. Epist. iv, p. 22. j Horace, Ode i, 1. 27. * Matth. xxvi, 23. manus unctæ of Horace refers ;' but if the custom existed among the Jews, the right hand was commonly used; or at the time when our Lord made that declaration, he and his disciples were using only their right hands. At a Grecian entertainment, it was customary to place the guests according to their quality; in Homer, the chief persons had the uppermost seats; and in succeeding ages, a person was appointed that bore the name of (ovouaxλntwg,) nomenclator, whose business it was to call every guest by name to his proper place. In the heroic ages, they seem to have been placed in long ranks, and the chief persons at the head of each rank, on both sides of the table. Thus, when Achilles entertained Agamemnon's ambassadors, he placed himself uppermost in one rank, and Ulysses, as the principal ambassador, in the other:" ατας κρεα νειμεν Αχιλλεύς, Αυτος δάντιος ιζεν Οδυσσήος θεοιο, ο Il. lib. ix, 1. 217, 218. When a Persian comes into an assembly, and has saJuted the house, he then measures with his eye the degree of rank to which he holds himself entitled; he straightway wedges himself into the line of guests, without offering any apology for the general disturbance which he produces. It often happens that persons take a higher seat than that to which they are entitled. The Persian scribes are remarkable for their arrogance in this respect, in which they seem to bear a striking resemblance to the Jews of the same profession in the days of our Lord." The master of the 1 Epist. i, 16, 23." Seid Ali," says Mr. Martyn, "while burying his hand in the dish with the Professor, softly mentioned some more of my objections." Memoir of the Rev. Henry Martyn, p. 386. m Odyssey, lib iii, 1. 389, 469. n Mark ix, 39. entertainment has, however, the privilege of placing any one as high in the rank of the assembly as he may choose. And Mr. Morier saw an instance of it at a public entertainment to which he was invited. When the assembly was nearly full, the governor of Kashan, a man of humble mein, although of considerable rank, came in and seated himself at the lowest place; when the master of the house, after numerous expressions of welcome, pointed with his hand to an upper seat in the assembly, to which he desired him to move, and which he accordingly did. These circumstances furnish a beautiful and striking illustration of the parable which our Lord uttered when he saw how those that were invited, chose the highest places.° Some who affected a more free and easy way of living, disregarded the usual custom, and desired every man to take the place which pleased him best; but this licence often failed to produce the sociality and good humour which the entertainer expected, and occasioned disputes among the company, about what were reckoned the most honourable seats. So the proud and ambitious Pharisees acted in the time of our Lord, which drew from his lips that pointed reproof: They love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues." The master of the family sometimes acted the part of nomenclator among the Jews, assigning to every one his proper place; for when our Lord, at a public entertainment, "marked how they chose out the chief rooms," he put forth a parable to those that were bidden, saying unto them, "When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room, lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him, and he that bad thee • Luke xiv, 8-11. P Matth. xxiii, 6. and him, come and say to thee, Give this man place, and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room." Eustathius says it was a very ancient custom at Lacedæmon, for the eldest person to go before the rest, to the couches at the common hall, unless the king gave the precedence to another, by calling him first. This custom may be traced to a very remote origin; for thus Joseph arranged his brethren, according to their age, in a row, on one side of the table; while the Egyptians sat under him, according to their rank or years, on the other: "And they sat before him, the first-born according to his birthright, and the youngest according to his youth; and the men marvelled one at another." They did not marvel that they were seated according to their age, for this appears to have been the established custom even in that remote period; but how Pharaoh's prime minister knew their respective ages, who, in their opinion, was an utter stranger to their history.". Before the Greeks went to an entertainment, they washed and anointed themselves; for it was thought very indecent to appear on such an occasion, defiled with sweat and dust; but they who came off a journey, were washed and clothed with suitable apparel in the house of the entertainer, before they were admitted to the feast. When Telemachus and Pisistratus arrived at the palace of Menelaus, in the course of their wanderings, they were immediately supplied with water to wash, and with oil to anoint themselves, before they took their seats by the side of the king. Ες ρασαμινθες βαντε ευξεςες λεσαντο, &c. Odyss. lib. iv, 1. 48. * Gen. xliii, 33. 4 Luke xiv, 7, 8. The oil used on such occasions, in the palaces of nobles and princes, was perfumed with roses and other odoriferous herbs. They also washed their hands before they sat down to meat. To these customary marks of respect, to which a traveller, or one who had no house of his own, was entitled, our Lord alludes in his defence of Mary: " And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house; thou gavest me no water for my feet, but she hath washed my feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss; but this woman, since the time I came in, hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint; but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment."r Homer mentions it as a custom quite common in those days for daughters to wash and ¶ Potter's Grecian Antiq. vol. ii, p. 369, 370. Odyss. lib. i, 1. 146.— The heralds poured water on the hands of the guests. Lib. x, 1. 450; lib. xxi, 1. 270. Adam's Rom. Antiq. p. 439. Homer's Iliad, lib. x, l. 575 ; lib. xxiv, 1. 465. r * Luke vii, 44.-The Jews possessed a native balsam so precious that it sold for double its weight in silver. The tree which produced it, according to Pliny and Strabo, was peculiar to the vale of Jericho, and was more like a vine than a myrtle. Plin. Hist. Natur. lib. iv, cap. 14. Joseph. Wars, b. i, cap. 7, sec. 6.-It bears a resemblance to the fir, but it is lower, and is planted and cultivated like the vine. At a certain season of the year it sweats balsam; but it is often necessary to cut the young shoots with sharp stones, and gather at the incisions the juice, which drops down like tears. When Alexander of Macedon was at Jericho, a spoonful of the balm was all that could be collected on a summer's day; and in the most plentiful year, the great royal park of these trees yielded only six gallons, and the smaller one only one gallon. The juice is tenacious, and very like milk; but when received in shells it coagulates. Strabo says it gives wonderful relief in headaches, incipient suffusions of the eyes, and dimness of sight. Strabo, lib. xvi, p. 763.—“ At the present time,” says Buckingham, "there: is not a tree of any description, either of palm or balsam, and scarcely any verdure or bushes, to be seen about the site of this abandoned city." Trav. vol. ii, p. 70. |