mosque on the coast of Syria, built by one Sultan Ibrahim, in which he is deposited, tells us "We were admitted to see his tomb, though held by the Turks in great veneration. We found it only a great wooden chest, erected over his grave, and covered with a carpet, of painted calico, extending on all sides down to the ground. It was also tricked up with a great many long ropes of wooden beads hanging upon it, and somewhat resembling the furniture of a button-maker's shop. This is the Turks' usual way of adorning the tombs of their holy men, as I have seen in several other instances. The long strings of beads passing in this country for marks of great devotion and gravity."

Several of their sacred tombs have much more valuable ornaments than these; the several large incense-pots, candlesticks for altars, and other church furniture, being the spoils of Christian churches at the taking of Cyprus, which Maundrell saw in the mosque where Sultan Ibrahim lies, were I suppose devout donations to the tomb, not to the mosque.

So Chardin, describing the tomb of a Persian female saint, gives an account of several vessels of silver that hang over it, of considerable weight, called candils, in form somewhat resembling lamps, but not used to give light, or indeed capable of holding any oil, besides the

Shaw in like manner speaks of the tombs of the marabbots as adorned with beads, ribbons, and such trinkets, p. 8, note. P. 14.

tomb's being inclosed with a grate of massive silver, ten feet high, and crowned at the corners with four large balls of solid gold.'Other instances might be produced of great riches lodged in the sepulchres of the Eastern saints, reverenced by the disciples of Mohammed.

It seems then by no means natural to suppose, the garnishing the tombs of the righteous means only the white-washing them; but it may be difficult precisely to say to what ornaments our LORD refers. Great riches, it is said by Josephus, were lodged in the tomb of David; and Benjamin the Jew, in his Itinerary, speaks of a lamp's burning in the cave of Machpelah, which he visited with devotion, and speaks of casks of dry bones of many of the Jews as lodged there, but says not at whose expense the lamp was lighted up."

Dr. Shaw has given an account of the form of the Eastern sepulchres, but he has mentioned no other way of garnishing them, but the white-washing them, and strewing them with herbs and flowers. I thought these additional remarks might not be wholly unacceptable.

m

Tome 1, p. 204.

P. 85, 86.-He does not and if he did, who would believe him? Is not his whole Itinerary an arrant forgery, made on purpose to support the spirits of his wretched countrymen, and to persuade them, that the sceptre had not yet departed from Judah, nor a lazgiver from between his feet: for he pretends he found the Jews in great power in different parts of the East; and that therefore the time for the coming of the Messiah is not yet. EDIT.

OBSERVATION XXV.

Songs and Music used daily at Graves, in Commemoration of the Dead.

AMONG other methods of doing honour to those that have been long dead, in the East, is the using music and songs daily at their graves; and some footsteps of this practice may be remarked in the Old Testament, though with less frequency.

Sir John Chardin found at Ujod, a village in the south of Persia, a small mosque, in which was the tomb of the brother of one of their kings; over the entrance of the mosque there was, he tells us, a gallery, in which, every morning and evening, they played on the flute and tymbals, in honour of the prince who was buried there, and, it seems, with a view of pointing out the nobleness of his extraction.°

This seems to be stated music; d'Herbelot has given an instance of singing and music, in honour of the dead, which appears to have been occasional. Babur, a prince descended from the celebrated Tamerlane, fell into a dangerous illness, from which he recovered very slowly. The better to re-establish his health, he resolved, for the sake of change of air, to remove from Herat to a city called Tous, where Tome 2, p. 96, 97.

it seems was the sepulchre of a great Persian saint, called the Iman Riza, which circumstance occasioned this city's being named Meschad Mocaddes, which signifies the Holy Sepulchre. To this sepulchre he made presents worthy of so great a prince. He accompanied this liberality with exemplary piety and devotion, abstaining from wine, and passing whole days in the mosque and sacred gardens belonging to it, which mosque had been built in honour of this Iman, whose praises he caused his musicians to sing.

The word that is used to express the honour annually done to the daughter of Jephthah, seems to insinuate that they honoured her grave with music and songs, four days every year. Our translation, as well as that of the Septuagint, supposes the word signifies their lamenting her, which is without doubt the general thought; but what was the mode of their lamenting? by talking with her, say our translators in the margin, which supposes her life; but most probably by music and songs at her grave, as Persian saints of later times have been honoured.

The word in the original nun letannoth, certainly signifies to reward, and it appears to be used, in another passage of the book of Judges, to reward by celebrating with music and songs: Judges v. 11. They are delivered from the noise of archers in the places of drawing water ; there (un yetannu) shall they rehearse the righ• Biblioth. Orient. art. Babur, or Barbor, p. 163.

teous acts of the LORD, even the righteous acts towards the inhabitants of his villages in Israel: then shall the people of the LORD go down to the gates.

The blessing the LORD in the 9th verse, and the speaking of travellers on horseback and on foot, perfectly agree with the notion of their rehearsing, or rewarding the righteous acts of the LORD with music and songs. I have also elsewhere shown, that the Orientals are wont to choose the neighbourhood of water for their parties of pleasure, which are often very musical.

The using then this word by the writer of the book of Judges, in the case of Jephthah's daughter, who evidently appears to use it in the sense of music and songs in another passage of that book, may be considered as a trace, faint if you will, of that custom's obtaining among the Jews which has since been observed, on some occasions in Persia. Josephus represents the death of Jephthah's daughter as very heroic, and also patriotic; such an annual solemnity at her grave then, by the virgins of Israel, was extremely natural, and deserved to be recorded her dying childless, on account of the meeting her father with timbrels and dances, was naturally rewarded by annual music and songs at her tomb.*

Outlines of a Comment. on Sol. Song, p. 198, note.

* Still this supposes that Jephthah's daughter was sacrificed; whereas she only appears to have been consecrated to GoD so as to live in a state of celibacy; which state among the ancient Jews, was deemed a state both of affliction and reproach. EDIT.