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house of the Chief Pharisee, whose guest he then was, and to whom he was making the application for a very different purpose. In Dr. Pococke's account of an entertainment made by the governor of an Egyptian village, for the cashif, or chief of the district, with whom he travelled, he says, the custom was for every one when he had done eating, to get up, wash his hands, and take a draught of water; and so in continual succession, until the poor came in, and ate up all; for the Arabs never set by any thing that is brought to table when they kill a sheep, they dress it all; call in their neighbours, and the poor, and finish every thing. An Arab prince will often dine in the street before his door, and call to all that pass, even to beggars, in the usual expression of Bismillah; that is, in the name of God: these poor people then sit down, partake of the dinner, and when they have done, retire with the usual form of returning thanks.

The familiarity to which I allude in the entertainment at the Pharisee's house, where Mary uses the box of ointment, is not only common, but is far from being deemed either disrespectful or displeasing. During my visit at Cambay I usually wore a cornelian ring containing my name cut in Persian characters; which I used as a seal to official papers at Dhuboy. This being observed by the sciddees and nabob's attendants when we supped at his garden-house, they approached me with that sort of freedom I have just mentioned, not only to admire the ring, but to take it off my finger, and hand it round among each other, and to the servants of the vizier and noblemen present, exclaiming Yacoob Forbés: this was circulated, and

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by that appellation I found myself afterwards generally known and greeted throughout the city of Cambay.

The Asiatic females, especially among the wealthy Moguls and Persians, are now exactly in the same situation as they were placed by a Persian monarch some thousand years ago; the story of Ahasuerus and Vashti is completely descriptive of modern orientalism. Here we behold an eastern monarch, in the zenith of power, reigning over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces, extending from India to Ethiopia; "making a feast unto all the people that were present in Shushan the palace, both unto great and small, seven days, in the court of the garden of the king's palace; where were white, green, and blue hangings, fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble; the beds were of gold and silver, upon a pavement of red, and blue, and white, and black marble."-Esther, ch. i. ver. 5, 6. This is exactly descriptive of the shahmyanah, or large canopy, spread upon lofty pillars, in the gardens and courts of the Mogul palaces, and attached by similar cords of various colours; of which I have already spoken. Some of these awnings, belonging to the Indian emperors, were very costly, and distinguished by various names; the most so was that called the bargah, mentioned in the Ayeen-Akbery, belonging to the emperor Akber; which was of such magnitude, as to contain ten thousand persons; and the erecting of it employed one thousand men for a week, with the help of machines; one of these shahmyanahs, without any ornaments, cost ten thousand rupees.

I cannot illustrate what the beds of silver and gold were, from modern Asiatic furniture. The divan, or

hall of audience, as also the room for receiving guests in private houses, is generally covered with a Persian carpet; round which are placed cushions of different shape and size, in cases of gold and silver kincob, or of scarlet cloth embroidered: these are occasionally moved into the courts and gardens, and placed under the shamyanah, for the accommodation of company. Respecting another kind of bed mentioned in Scripture, I think there can be little doubt, that it means the palanquin of Hindostan, or something very similar ; in which the prince not only reclines, or sits in state in paying visits of ceremony, but the traveller also reposes during a journey, as if he were in his own bed. I have been in a situation nearly nine months together, in which I not only travelled in my palanquin during the day, but slept in it every night, with the purdoe or curtain dropped round it; either in or out of a tent, under a shamyanah, or a banian-tree, as the weather permitted.

The words in Solomon's Song, to which I allude, exactly describe the procession of an Indian prince in his palanquin, surrounded by his guards: "Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant? Behold his bed, which is Solomon's; threescore valiant men are about it, of the valiant of Israel; they all hold swords, being expert in war; every man hath his sword upon his thigh. King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon; he made the pillars thereof of silver, the bottom thereof of gold; the covering of it of purple; the midst thereof being paved with love for the daughters of Jerusalem."-Solomon's Song, ch. iii. ver. 6,7,

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8, 9, 10. The latter may correspond more with the hackeree, or Indian chariot, drawn by oxen.

The history of Ahasuerus affords a most remarkable instance of the venality, corruption, and cruelty, of an oriental tyrant. This sovereign of Media and Persia, encircled by wealth, splendour, and power, accepts of ten thousand talents of silver (offered by a nobleman whose pride was offended at the neglect of a foreigner), to issue a decree, by which some hundred thousand unfortunate captives dispersed throughout his extensive empire, were commanded to be put to death. "And the king took his ring from his hand, and gave it unto Haman; and letters were sent into all the king's provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, and to take the spoil of them for a prey. Let the royal apparel be brought which the king useth to wear, and the horse that the king rideth upon, and the crown royal which is set upon his head; and let this apparel and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king's most noble princes, that they may array the man withal whom the king delighteth to honour, and bring him on horseback through the streets of the city, and proclaim before him, Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honour.-Esther, ch. iii. ver. 8, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15. ch. vi. ver. 8, 9.

In this history we see an exact description of the mode of conferring honour on the favourite of a sovereign; a princely dress, a horse, and a ring; these are now the usual presents to foreign ambassadors; such as I have seen exchanged between the Mahratta peshwa, and the nabob of Cambay and presented to an Eng

SCRIPTURAL ILLUSTRATIONS.

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lish chief, or the commander of a British army. The taking off the signet from the royal finger, and affixing it to the decree; dispatching the halcarras, or posts, to the provinces, and several other preceding circumstances, are still constantly practised in an oriental durbar.

These frequent quotations from Scripture, to illustrate the manners and customs of Hindostan, will I trust be excused. Gibbon the historian, although no friend to Christianity, has candidly acknowledged, that "if the Sacred Writings be considered but as human productions, they deserve to be studied, as one of the most curious and original monuments of the East." And Granville Penn, a writer of a very different spirit from Gibbon, says, "that it is impossible for the utmost power of human industry and circumspection to gather in the harvest of sacred criticism so completely, as that here and there an ear should not remain behind for the gleaner who comes after;" and it is with these, and no loftier pretensions, that such are now offered to the reader.

I mentioned the taste of the Moguls and Persians at Cambay for poetry and the belles-letters during an evening entertainment. The day following I was introduced to a Brahmin, with whom I was agreeably surprised and very much delighted. He was intimate with Sir Charles Malet, and had profited by his acquaintance: he understood English, and having access to his friend's library, he read our books with great facility, and particularly studied a voluminous dictionary of arts and sciences, from whence he had acquired a fund of useful knowledge and a liberality of sentiment uncommon in his caste. He was fond