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and set forth very handsomely. If he had a wife attending him, she was carried in another. This is apparently a mark of distinction.

There is another Eastern vehicle used in their journies, which Thevenot calls a coune. He tells us, the counes are hampers, like cradles, carried upon camels' backs, one on each side, having a back, head, and sides, like the great chairs sick people sit in. A man rides in each of these counes, and over them they lay a covering, which keeps them both. from the rain and sun, leaving as it were a window before and behind upon the camel's back. The riding in these is also, according to Maillet, a mark of distinction: for, speaking of the pilgrimage to Mecca, he says, ladies of any figure have litters; others are carried sitting in chairs made like covered cages, hanging on both sides of a camel; and as for ordinary women, they are mounted on camels without such conveniences, after the manner of the Arab women, and cover themselves from sight, Part i. p. 177, 178. "Lett. dern. p. 230.

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* Rachel seems to have been brought away by Jacob out of Mesopotamia in the same manner, Gen. xxxi. 34, consequently she rode upon an hiran, after the Arab mode, which is a piece of serge, la Roque tells us, p. 127, of his Voyage into Palestine, about six ells long, laid upon the saddle, which is of wood in these countries, in order to make the sitting more easy; and which hiran, he informs us, is made use of as a mattrass, when they stop for a night in a place, and on which they lodge; as their wallets serve for cushions, or a bolster. It was the hiran, I presume, part of the camel's furniture, under which she hid her father's Teraphim, and on which she sat, according to their customs, in her tent, and therefore unsuspected. Sir J. Chardin's MS. mentions this circumstance, and it is, I think, a very natural illustration of the passage.

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and the heat of the sun, as well as they can, with their veils.

These are the vehicles which are in present use in the Levant. Coaches, on the other hand, Dr. Russell assures us, are not in use at Aleppo; nor do we meet with any account of their commonly using them in any other part of the East but one would imagine, that if ever such conveniencies as coaches had been in use, they would not have been laid aside in countries where ease and elegance are so much consulted.

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As the caravans of the returning Israelites are described by the Prophet, as composed, like Mr. Dawkins's to Palmyra, of horses and mules, and swift beasts; so are we to understand, I imagine, the other terms of the litters and counes, rather than of coaches, which the margin mentions; or of covered waggons, which some Dutch commentators suppose one of the words may signify, unluckily transferring the customs of their own country to the East; or of chariots, in our common sense of the word.

For though our translators have given us the word chariot in many passages of Scripture, those wheel-vehicles which those writers speak of, and which our version renders chariots, seem to have been mere warlike machines; nor do we ever read of ladies riding in them. On the other hand, a word derived from the same original is made use of for a seat any how moved,

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such as the mercy-seat, 1 Chron. xxxviii. 18, where our translators have used the word chariot, but which was no more of a chariot, in the common sense of the word, than a litter is; it is made use of also, for that sort of seat, mentioned Lev. xv. 9, which they have rendered saddle, but which seems to mean a litter,

or a coune.

In these vehicles many of the Israelites were to be conducted, according to the Prophet, not on the account of sickness, but to mark out the eminence of those Jews, and to express the great respect their conductors should have for them.

OBSERVATION XII.

Method of wearing their Swords in Travelling.

THE Eastern swords, whose blades are very broad, are worn by the inhabitants of those countries under their thigh, when they travel on horseback.*

The MS. C. takes notice of these particulars, in two notes on Judges iii. In one of them he mentions the last of these circumstances after this manner: The Eastern people have their swords hanging down at length, and the Turks wear their swords on horseback under their thigh. Psalm xlv. 3, and Cant. iii. 8, shew

The sword, says Dr. Russell, MS. note, is fixed on the saddle by a girth. EDIT.

they wore them after the same manner anciently.

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OBSERVATION XIII.

Travellers on Horseback attended by Persons on Foot.

WHERE travellers are not so numerous as in caravans, their appearance differs a good deal from that of those that journey among us. To see a person mounted, and attended by a servant on foot, would seem odd to us: and it would be much more so to see that servant driving the beast before him, or goading it along yet these are Eastern modes.

So Dr. Pococke, in his account of Egypt, tells us that the man, (the husband, I suppose, he means,) always leads the lady's ass there; and if she has a servant, he goes on one side ; but the ass-driver follows the man, goads on the beast, and when he is to turn, directs his head with a pole.

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The Shunamite, when she went to the Prophet, did not desire so much attendance, only requested her husband to send her an ass, and its driver, to whom she said, Drive, and go forward, slack not thy riding for me, except I bid

The passage alluded to does not clearly prove this: the long swords or scimetars hang down upon the back part of the thigh almost to the ground, but are not girt on the thigh. The passage in Judges refers to a concealed sword or weapon, not worn in the usual fashion. EDIT.

Vol. i. p. 191.

thee. 2 Kings iv. 24. It appears from the Eastern manner of the women's riding on asses, that the word is rightly translated drive, rather than lead; and this account of Dr. Pococke will also explain why she did not desire two asses, one for herself, and the other for the servant that attended her.

Solomon might refer to the same, when he says, I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth. Eccl. x. 7. My reader however will meet with a more exact illustration of this passage in a

succeeding chapter.

OBSERVATION XIV.

Their Method of travelling on Foot.

THEY that travel on foot are obliged to fasten their garments, at a greater height from their feet than they are wont to do at other times.

This is what some have understood to be meant by the girding their loins: not simply their having girdles about them, but the wearing their garments at a greater height than

usual.

There are two ways of doing this, Sir J. Chardin remarks in his MS. after having informed us that the dress of the Eastern people is a long vest, reaching down the calf of the leg, more or less fitted to the body, and fastened

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