seen exemplified every day in the conduct of the modern Heathen, in reference to their strong wish to have the English present at their great festivals.

The object in this appears to be, that they may increase the admiration and zeal of the multitude, the priest declaring that the English make great offerings. I have no doubt, that money has often been given by the English to assist in defraying the expenses of heathen sacrifices, and that in this way much harm has been done to Christianity,

CHAP. XXXI.

We have therefore brought an oblation for the Lord, what every man hath gotten, of jewels of gold, chains, and bracelets, rings, earrings, and tablets, to make an atonement for our souls before the Lord.-Verse 50.

There is not a man in a thousand who does not wear an ear-ring or a finger-ring; for, without such an ornament a person would be classed amongst the most unfortunate of his

race.

Some time ago, a large sacrifice was made, for the purpose of removing the cholera morbus, when vast numbers came together with their oblations. The people seemed to take the greatest pleasure in presenting their ear-rings, finger-rings, bracelets, and other ornaments, because they were dearer to them than money, and consequently were believed to be more efficacious in appeasing the gods.

When people are sick, they vow to give a valuable jewel to their god on being restored.

CHAP. XXXIII.

Those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides.-Verse 55. See 2 Cor. xii. 7.

People in the East, in consequence of their light clothing, of the exposed state of their feet, and the narrowness of the paths, have a great dread of thorns. Those who carry the palankeen, or who travel in groups, often cry aloud, Mullu,

mullu ! "A thorn, a thorn! The sufferer soon throws himself on the earth; and some one, famous for his skill, extracts the thorn.

Does a person see something of a distressing nature? he asserts: "That was a thorn in my eyes." A father says of "He is to me as a thorn." "His vile expres

his bad son, sions were like thorns in my body." A person going to live in an unhealthy place, or where there are quarrelsome people, is said to be going " to the thorny desert."

DEUTERONOMY.

CHAP. I.

The Amorites, which dwelt in that mountain, came out against you, and chased you, as bees do.-Verse 44.

Numerous armies are compared to bees; and concerning a multitude who go to chastise a few, it is remarked: "Yes, they came upon us as bees." A person who has provoked a man of numerous connexions, is sometimes warned in this manner: "Yes, you will have them as bees upon you.” Of any thing which has come suddenly, and in great numbers, it is said, "Alas! these things come as bees upon us.”

CHAP. III.

For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? Nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man.-Verse 11. This is a very curious account of a giant king: his bedstead was made of IRON, and we are able to ascertain its exact length, nine cubits, that is, "after the cubit of a man." This alludes to the Eastern mode of measuring from the tip of the middle finger to the elbow, which will be found to be in general

eighteen inches. Thus his bedstead was thirteen feet six inches in length, and six feet in breadth.

The hawkers of cloth very seldom carry with them a yard wand; they simply measure from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger, counting two lengths of that for a yard.

CHAP. IV.

Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female.-Verse 16.

"Such as Baal-Peor, and the Roman Priapus, Ashteroth or Astarte."-Dr. ADAM CLARKE.

The prophet Ezekiel says, in his address to Jerusalem, "Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them." (Ezek. xvi. 17.) The margin has for images of men, "images of a male;" and the Vulgate has it, imagines masculinas.

Calmet observes: "Probably the prophet might have intended, in this passage, an allusion to those obscene figures which were carried in the ceremonies of Tammuz or Adonis.

"Origen believed Baal-Peor to be Priapus, or the idol of turpitude;" and St. Jerome says, "This idol was represented in the same obscene manner as Priapus."

The image made and worshipped by the Jews corresponds with the Baal-Peor of Assyria, the Lingam of India, the Osiris of Egypt, the Phallus (Paλλos) of the Greeks, and the Priapus of the Romans. It is worshipped by men and women, in nearly all the temples of India and North Ceylon; and is openly exposed on many of their sacred buildings. The wives of the weavers, goldsmiths, and Pandaarams, (excepting at certain times,) wear this image, enclosed in silver shrines, which hang pendent on the breast, or are tied to the arms. When devotees die, it is buried with them.*

But the prophet Ezekiel gives also this account of the manner in which it was worshipped: "And tookest thy broidered garments, and coveredst them: and thou hast set mine oil and mine incense before them. My meat also which I gave thee,

⚫ See the drawings in the remarks on Isaiah iii. 20.

fine flour, and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou hast even set it before them for a sweet savour." (Ezek. xvi. 18, 19.) The Hindoos, in worshipping the Lingam, observe the following order. The image is first anointed with gingelly "oil," which is afterwards washed off with lime-juice and pure water. A composition made of the following articles is then poured upon it: Water of the unripe cocoa-nut, rose-water, milk, plantains, "honey," rice, "flour," sugar, sandal-dust, powder of the bezoa stone, nutmeg, saffron, and camphor. Then the whole is washed off with the water of unripe cocoanuts.

At the offering of the "incense," cakes are presented, made of the following grains: Kadali, Cicer Arietinum; Tuvari, Cytisus Cajan; Ulanthu, Phaseolus Mungo; Pyru, Phaseolus Radiatus; Paddy, Oriza Sativa; Tinne, Panicum Italicum; Ellu, Sesamum Orientale; and Kadaku, Sinapis Chinensis.

The "broidered garment" mentioned by the prophet, which is generally made of silk, (though I have seen one of cotton,) is then reverently drawn over the image.

Who can avoid being struck with these resemblances? Who can avoid being appalled at the wickedness of the Jews? See the observations on 2 Chronicles xiv. 5, on Amos v. 26, and on Isaiah iii. 20.

And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them.-Verse 19. See Job xxxi. 16, 27.

The first day of the week is called Naitu-Killami, that is, "Sunday," and many people eat only once on that important day. Before the sun has gained the meridian, the devotee forms his fingers into a kind of diagonal plait, and looks at the sun through the small apertures of his fingers thus made. He then places his hands together, and presents them to it, as an act of adoration, and prostrates himself three times on the earth: after which he takes his solitary meal. Those, also, who are affected with a pain in the eyes or head, before the sun has come to his meridian, keep this fast.

He may do this to the number of 108, or 1008.

CHAP. V.

He wrote them in two tables of stone.-Verse 22.

The Hindoos ascribe the invention of writing to Brahma or Siva. They say that those zigzag marks on the skull, (called the "sutures,") are characters written by the Divine Hand, descriptive of every man's fate.* Thus men urge in excuse for their crimes: "It was written on our foreheads; what could we do?"

The promises of kings or good men are said to be "written on stone," which means that they are certain and durable. The promises of bad men are like those "written in water;" the pen may form the letters in that element, but no trace will be left behind.

CHAP. VI.

Thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children.-Verse 7. The Hebrew has, for teach, "whet or sharpen."

If you inquire how a good schoolmaster teaches his pupils, the answer will be, Very koormeyāna, that is, "Sharply, makes sharp, they are full of points." A man of a keen and cultivated mind is said to be full of points. "He is well sharpened."

CHAP. VII.

Moreover the Lord thy God will send the hornet among them.-Verse 20. See Exodus xxiii. 28; Joshua xxiv. 12; Psalm cxviii. 12.

To the people in England this may appear a puny way of punishing men; but they should recollect that the natives of the East wear scarcely any clothes, having, generally speaking, only a piece of cloth round their loins. They are, therefore, much more exposed than we are to the sting of insects. The

Sir Walter Scott, in his Life of Napoleon, (vol. iv. p. 95,) says of the wounded Turks, after the battle, "Some of them, of higher rank, seemed to exhort the others to submit, like servants of the prophet, to the decree, which, acording to their belief, was written on their foreheads!"