Eastern manners : illustrative of the old testament history

Chapter IV. Life In The Desert

Song and dance — travelling — qualities of water — honey — serpents — illustrations of Mosaic laws — restoration of garments at night— diet— leprosy — eating salt — Goelism — waters of jealousy— cutting of flesh and hair — seething kid — paying for watercursing an enemy — hornets, - - 132

Chapter V. Life In Canaan

Wars — artifices — offering presents - v — stratagems — lapping water— massacres of royal families—riddles —setting fire to fields— treatment of prisoners — spoils— idols— reapers— sleeping at the feet of the great — business at the gates— pulling off the shoe — sleeping on roof— executions, - - 172

Chapter VI. Life In Canaan Continued

War summons — single combats — heads of enemies — triumphal processions — princes' dress — haremsbeds— general massacres— treatment of the dead — elegy— beards— expression of grief— usurpationsconcealment in wells— reverence due to royalty, 216

Chapter VII. Life In Canaan Concluded

Presents according to rank necessary— chiefs in search of fodder— heathen gods— running before the great — mantle of the prophets— marks of humiliation — gardens — baldness — rain — coup-de-soleil — ladies travelling — salutations — panics in war — rapacity of dogs — pyramids of heads — walking on fire — Simoom — royal funerals, - 254

Chapter VIII. Babylonian And Persian Life

Absolute power — court and festivals — Sultana — difficulty of access to kings — astrologers— eunuchs — vizier— pride of grandees— records— honours— banquet— effects of royal anger— laws irreversiblecouriers— dromedaries— dreams—symbols — rewards and punishments, - 287

Preface

The design of the following little work is to illustrate some of the most striking and remarkable events in sacred history. In following the chequered fortunes of the people of God, the reader of the Bible meets with a great variety of incidents and manners that cannot be reduced to any comparative standard with which he is acquainted ; and he finds himself often at a loss to form a correct idea of transactions bearing little or no resemblance to the course of things in this part of the world. The well-known permanence of Oriental customs offers a reasonable prospect of throwing light on such peculiarities of the word of God ; and, accordingly, ever since the era of the Reformation, a class of adventurers have gone forth, with the Bible in their hand, to explore every region in that quarter of the world, examining and comparing with its present state, whatever was 1* 5

6 PREFACE.

memorable or characteristic in the scenes and manners described in the sacred story, and furnishing, by their various observations, a vast collection of curious and interesting illustrations of the Scriptures. From such ample sources of information, which the enterprising spirit of modern times has opened, several learned works have been compiled, by the aid of which the professional student of the Bible, and others of mature understanding, may acquire a thorough knowledge, not only of the more obvious traits of Eastern manners, but also of all the lighter allusions to those peculiarities which lie concealed under the veil of metaphor, or verbal statement. But as all of these are either so expensive as not to be generally accessible, or so mixed up with dry and tedious disquisitions as to be destitute of all attraction to the young, whom it is a matter of great importance to interest in the study of the Bible, it has long appeared desirable to the compiler of this work, to furnish a book of such a nature as should contain within a manageable compass, an illustration of all the more important parts of sacred history. Accordingly, such being the task he has imposed upon himself, it did not enter into his plan to give a regular and systematic treatise, or to classify the various facts of the sacred writings that relate to the subject of Eastern manners. His whole design being to excite the curiosity and interest of the juvenile mind in the most instructive and important of all histories, he has been guided, in the composition of this work, by what seemed most calculated to strike the imagination of the young student of the Bible. Omitting therefore all minor points and details which would embarrass the understanding and fatigue the attention, he has confined himself to the more prominent and characteristic circumstances that are presented in the sacred narrative, giving them an additional interest, by the introduction of an illustrative story or extract. The book will thus form a sort of commentary, in which the illustrations it embraces run parallel with the course of the history.

It would be impossible to specify all the authorities on which the statements contained in the following pages are made. For, besides the works of Michaelis, Harmer, Burder, Calmet, Home, Roberts, Brown, and Paxton, which have been

8 PREFACE.

frequently consulted in the course of the composition, the author, determined to take nothing at second hand, has, for almost every fact and illustration he has made applied to the fountain head — the works of travellers and historians, many of which have appeared since the writers above mentioned gave their learned labours to the world, and which are the best sources, inasmuch as they contain the testimony of those who themselves have seen and described

" The manners living as they rise." Currie Manse, July 1838.

EASTERN MANNERS.

Chapter I. Patriarchal Life

Patriarchs a pastoral race — resemblance between them and the Bedouin Arabs traced in the wandering habits of the Arab shepherds — Abraham's emigration into Egypt — Arabs still remove at certain seasons into that country — Abraham's expedition against the confederate kings — insignificance and short duration of Arab wars — Abraham's entertainment of the angels — hospitality of the Arabs — change of name common.

The Hebrew nation traced their descent to a tribe of wandering shepherds, whose original settlement lay along the spacious and fertile plains of Chaldea, and who, at the time when their history opens, were encamped at Charran — a barren and uninteresting tract of that territory, but memorable in their annals, by the death of the aged Sheik Terah ; the succession of his eldest surviving son, Nahor, to the hereditary honours of the clan ; and, especially, by the departure of a colony, under the auspices of Abraham, to form an independent tribe in a distant land. The separation of that chief and his family from the parent stock, though made in compliance with an express command of God, was yet conformable to the practice of Eastern herdsmen, who are constantly sending forth adventurers in quest of new and more extensive pastures, and was encouraged, by a prospect the most tempting to the leader of a pastoral people — the entire possession of a country abounding in all those natural resources on which the wealth of such a people mainly depends. Accordingly, no sooner had he and his followers reached the land of their adoption, than they dedicated themselves to the simple cares, to which they had been trained by their fathers on the banks of the Euphrates ; and, refusing to mingle with the native population, most of whom were associated in towns, or engaged in the regular pursuits of husbandry, they spread themselves over the unoccupied plains, and maintained inviolate the character and habits of a nomadic tribe.

Throughout the whole of their history, this patriarch and his immediate descendants sustain the simple character of pastoral chiefs ; and though, when in Canaan, they were on the scene, where they were destined to be the founders of a powerful and flourishing people, yet, far from displaying those qualities of superior wisdom, or adventurous enterprise, which have been for the most part the means of procuring for others the distinction of founders of a nation, they were known to the people among whom they sojourned, only as peaceful unambitious shepherds, whose lives were spent among the slaves and flocks that owned them for their lords ; and who owed whatever influence they had gained among the native princes, solely, through the blessing of God, to their great opulence, acquired by superior sagacity in the breeding of their cattle, or successful barter of their produce with the inhabitants of the neighbouring town's and villages. One distinction alone they possessed above their contemporaries, that, having renounced the Sabian idolatry — the worship of the starry host, which had become then the almost universal religion of the world, they appeared in Canaan as the acknowledged servants of one true God, to whom, with pious care, they dedicated an altar, wherever they established their head quarters, and the knowledge of whom they transmitted from sire to son as the peculiar and inalienable inheritance of the tribe. But, apart from their religious peculiarities, the chiefs of the Hebrew family had no claims to raise them above the obscurity of their native plains, or to attach importance to their name. The call from God, though it had led them to pitch their tents beneath other skies, and to wander over regions remote from the land of their birth, neither interfered with the humble tenor of their pursuits, nor altered the character of their primitive condition. Bred originally to the occupation of shepherds, and retaining, amid all their changes of fortune, a decided predilection for that ancient mode of life, their short and simple annals consist only of such incidents as make up the life of those whose principal care was to provide for and protect their cattle ; and in all points relating to their state of society — their habits of life — their knowledge of the arts — even their prejudices and their notions of honour, they were exactly on a level with the numerous migratory hordes that divided with them the pastoral regions of Mesopotamia and Canaan.

This resemblance between the inhabitants of ancient Palestine and the neighbouring countries, might have opened up a source of much valuable information respecting the manners and customs described by Moses, had not the history of the patriarchs belonged to a period anterior to the existence of all written records. But although no memorials exist of the contemporaries of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, yet the want of these may be supplied much better than the remoteness of the period would lead us to suppose, by a knowledge of their descendants, the Arabs of the present day, who, tracing their descent from a collateral branch of the family of Abraham, perpetuate the memory of that alliance by a faithful adherence to the way of their fathers, and among whom various causes have contributed to maintain the manners of ancient times in almost as much purity as in the days of Ishmael, their celebrated founder. In almost all parts of the East, particularly in the deserts of Arabia and the mountainous regions of Syria and Palestine, there are to be found people of this description, who, disdaining the regular pursuits of artificial society, move about from place to place, as the want of pasturage for their cattle, or the sale of their produce may require. Imbibing from that mode of life a love of liberty, and a spirit of independence which has never bowed to the yoke of a foreign conqueror, they have kept themselves uniformly separate from all other people; insomuch that they have undergone, in the lapse of centuries, probably as little change as the mountains and valleys which are the scene of their wanderings: — and while the inhabitants of other countries have been passing through various gradations of the social state — have been exterminated by the sword of the ruthless invader, or become so blended by general intercourse with other nations as to have lost the distinguishing characters of their birth, this singular people have remained a pure and unmingled race, have preserved iheir unity of character through a succession of ages, and maintained among all the tribes into which they have branched, and in all the countries over which they are scattered, such an inviolable attachment to the same usages, as establishes their

See page 13.

common origin, and affords the strongest evidence that these usages are the inheritance of a remote antiquity. All the descriptions which ancient history has given of them, are verified to the letter by their present condition. Their primitive form of government — the erratic life of which they are so passionately fond — their property consisting wholly of flocks, which they conduct from place to place, to feed on the spontaneous produce of nature — their rude dwellings of goats' hair cloth, which they can pitch and remove at pleasure — their encampments beneath the umbrageous shade of a group of palm trees, or in the vicinity of a flowing stream — their simple diet, consisting of milk and unleavened bread, and occasionally heightened by the luxury of a lamb from the flocks — their pacific and hospitable character in the camp — and their readiness to assume an attitude of hostility — all these carry us back to the simplicity of the first ages ; and bespeak the Arabs of the present day to be the genuine representatives of those ancient shepherds, who, in the age of Moses, dwelt under similar tents, and led their sheep and their camels to browse on the same pastures, and to drink at the same springs. So obvious, indeed, is this resemblance between the primitive and the present race of Asiatic shepherds, that all travellers have remarked it ; and it was the deliberate opinion of one* who had the best opportunities for forming an accurate opinion, " that the sacred historian of the children of Israel will never be thoroughly understood, so long as we are not acquainted with the Arabian Bedouins, and the countries in which they live and pasture." A few general observations on the state and hab-

* Burckhard*. 2 its of these Arab shepherds may form not an inappropriate introduction to the narratives by which it is the design of this and the following chapter to illustrate the incidents of patriarchal history.

Their societies are of the simpliest kind — the only form of government subsisting among them being that most ancient and universal one, which gives to the head of a family the sole and undisputed control of all its members. The chief takes the name of Sheik or lord, and as in every tribe there is one principal family to whom the honour of supplying him belongs, this office of dignity either devolves by hereditary right on the first-born of the senior family, or is conferred by election on whatever branch of it the general voice considers worthy of elevation to the supreme command. The occupier of this high station is invested with the authority and privileges of a petty sovereign. His will, regulated by established usages, serves instead of a written law, and no foreign power dare interfere with the exercise of the authority that belongs to the head of an independent tribe. The more numerous his family, dependants, and allies, the more extensive is his power and influence. For although the original stock may branch out into a number of separate families, each of whom is governed by its respective chief, and may be joined also by other smaller tribes, which, too weak to live independent, court the alliance and protection of their more powerful neighbours, yet all these regard themselves as subordinate branches of one vast family, and are maintained in the bonds of common union, by sentiments of attachment and homage to him from whom they trace their origin, and to whom they acknowledge submission. Such a union of families constitutes a tribe ; and so strongly does the hereditary tie of connexion impress itself on the minds of these wandering people, and give a tone and bias to their feelings, that all the individuals composing a tribe, let them be ever so numerous and widely dispersed, call themselves the children of their chief, even although he whose name they assume, may have been long dead, and they never united to him by the bonds of consanguinity: — a feeling naturally rising out of their primitive form of society — of which many traces occur in sacred history, and which has been perpetuated in the well known appellative, " the children of Israel," who, long after they had settled down into a regular community, retained the character and habits of a nomadic tribe. ■

The manner of life of these Eastern shepherds corresponds with the simplicity of their social condition. Their roving habits, unfavourable to the erection of any elaborate or fixed habitation, have taught them the art of rearing a simple and temporary shelter, which, from its being introduced and peculiarly used by them, has given them the name of Scenites, or dwellers in tents, and whose great recommendation to a wandering people is the facility with which it admits of being raised and transported at will to any distance. It is a rude structure, consisting generally of a row of stakes, twelve or fifteen feet high, stuck into the ground, and converging at the top — -on these are laid others in a horizontal position, and over the whole is thrown a covering of goat's or camel's hair, forming an inclined plane for the rain to run off — and kept firm by having its extremities stretched down by cords fastened to hooked wooden pegs driven into the ground. The poles on which this simple building rests, are full of hooks, on which are hung the few utensils which their habits require — consisting of large bags for water made of tanned camel-skins, goat-skins for milk and butter, a mortar, a handmill, wooden bowls, and iron chains for fastening the feet or knees of the cattle. Such are the materials of the tent, which is generally of an oblong figure, not unlike the inverted hull of a ship. It varies in size according to the amount of persons requiring accommodation in it; and, by simply dropping a curtain at each of the divisions, it may be turned into a number of separate apartments — an expedient always resorted to where there are women, with whom Eastern manners make it a crime for strangers to mingle.

Beneath this canopy of skins or black hair-cloth, sufficient to exclude the rain and the dew, the Arab shepherd finds, wherever he wanders, a home, in which his attachments centre ; supplies the few wants of a nature that is a stranger to the luxuries of artificial life ; and, in the proud consciousness of a liberty unbounded as the desert, enjoys a pleasure and elasticity of soul, often unknown to the possessor of a lordly palace. The residence o'* the chiefs, though consisting of the same slender o»)d movable structure, is as much superior to the squalid tent of a common Arab, as the stately mansion of a European nobleman is to the hut of his meanest retainer. Known at once by its position in the centre of the camp, and by a piece of coloured cloth suspended as a flag from the top, it is conspicuous also by its superior dimensions — by the fineness and varied colours of the covering without, and by the air of greater convenience and elegance that reigns within. Besides having a tent of audience, in which they receive those they intend to honour, and separate tents for their wives and domestics — these petty sovereigns, rich, like the patriarchs, in gold and silver, have their residence fitted up in a style corresponding to their rank and their ideas of ornament, and when visited by strangers of importance, display their hospitality with all the parade of splendour and royal ceremony. Around the dwelling of the chief, the tents of his followers are ranged in a line, or more frequently in form of a crescent or a square, the circuit of which varies in size, according to the strength of the tribe, and the area of which serves the double purpose of affording an enclosure to the cattle from the attacks of ravenous beasts by night, and a space for the people to assemble in, to receive the commands of the chief, when he gives the signal for departure, or summons them to arms in cases of danger. It is a very interesting spectacle for the traveller to witness one of these portable villages pitched on a spot where the wild and boundless solitude exhibits nowhere else the slightest traces of life or motion — with a group of the swarthy wanderers, with their turbaned head-dress and flowing drapery, squatted on the ground, partaking of their simple repast, or listening with silent curiosity to a tale of wonder; while others are leading the sheep and the camels to graze or to water.

The picturesque simplicity of this pastoral scene is equalled only by the appearance presented by the same people in the course of decamping to new pastures. A tribe, comprising fften a thousand people, divided into a number of separate families, and these again consisting of persons of every age, sex, and condition, together with an immense retinue of flocks, and all the appurtenances belonging to their way of living, suggests the idea of a motley 2* assemblage, the marching of which over a large tract of country, seems inevitably attended with the greatest confusion and disorder. But so accustomed are these pastoral people to an itinerant mode of life, and so well acquainted with the habits and management of their cattle, that no sooner are their tents struck, and the signal given for departure, than each with the greatest expedition falls into his place, applies himself with alacrity to the part he has to bear in the removal of the camp, and the whole procession moves forward with a regularity as beautiful as it is surprising. The lead is taken by the sheep and goats, marshalled under their respective herdsmen ; and, notwithstanding the want of roads and enclosures, the art of these devoted shepherds enables them to conquer the difficulty of keeping their vagrant charge in the line of march, by going first themselves, and calling every now and then to some male of the flock, generally a he-goat, which they have taught to answer to a name, and the movements of which, as he takes the lead, are implicitly followed by the rest.

The next place is occupied by the beasts of burden — the camels and the asses, laden with the furniture of the tents, or bearing those members of the tribe who, from age or sickness, are unable to walk. These again are succeeded by a band of old men, women, boys, and girls, the stoutest and most active of whom are charged with carrying the infants in their arms, or on their backs : — while the Sheik and heads of the principal families, mounted on horseback, occupy the rear, and never quit that position, unless they are required to step aside to bring up some stragglers of the flock, or to ride forward and report if all is right and safe in the advanced divisions of the party. In this manner they proceed, a space being left between each successive family, of a hundred yards, or of such extent as may prevent the risk of any of the sheep or camels of one division straying from it, and mingling with those of another; and the same order is observed, till their arrival at the intended station allows the tents to be pitched, and the bleating flocks to range at will over the pastures. From necessary attention to the safety of the young and tender, both of the families and flocks, this pastoral procession moves tardily along, and several days often elapse before it reaches the place of destination — but it is of little consequence to these wandering people where or when they make their intermediate stages, since their whole care is engrossed with their cattle, with whose slow movements they patiently keep pace, and, provided these have herbs and bushes to graze on by the way, and the supply of water they carry with them lasts, they can halt at any place, and in an hour's time compose themselves for the night.

Long before sun-rise, they are again in motion, and all hands are busily employed in preparing to renew their journey. The men hastily go round to milk the females of their flocks, and undo the ropes that are fastened on the knee-joints of the old camels and goats by night ; while the women occupy themselves, in striking and wrapping up the tent, and making the camels successively advance and kneel down to receive the simple furniture on their backs. These preparations completed, they commence their march, observing from day to day the same order and regularity, till they come in sight of their principal halting place — when, amid the bleating of the flocks, glad to return to their old pastures, the attendants move forward, and with the greatest expedition unload the camels, unfurl the tents, and arrange the water-skins ana other household stuff, on the many-hooked pillar that stands in the centre, or the mat that is spread on the ground.

The immense numbers of cattle transported in this manner over the plains of the East, will ap-.« pear incredible to those whose notions of a flock are formed on the comparatively small scale on which pastoral concerns are conducted amongst us. But in those regions of Asia that are frequented by the Arab shepherds, where either the people are too indolent to undertake, or the ground too sterile to reward, the labours of cultivation, the breeding of cattle is carried on to an almost unlimited extent ; and from the habits of these people, who rarely make use of animal food, and have few opportunities of disposing of the produce of their flocks, but at the neighbouring towns and villages, where the sales bear little proportion to the annual increase, their stock does not suffer much diminution ; insomuch, that some Arab tribes, which can muster but a few hundred men and horses, are said to be possessed of many thousand camels, and a still larger number of sheep and black cattle. A more remarkable proof of the almost countless flocks which these wandering shepherds sometimes lead about with them, is afforded in the travels of Chardin, who had the good fortune to witness the emigration of a pastoral tribe at no great distance from Aleppo. The chief of that horde had more than ten led horses, adorned with rich trappings of solid gold and silver, and was accompanied by many subordinate shepherds, all of them mounted in an equally superb manner. About an hour after his wives, and those of his principal attendants, passed along in a row, some of whom were seated in covered vehicles, and others rode on horseback or on camels. But the imposing part of the scene, which produced astonishment and even terror on the mind of Chardin, was the vast number of the flocks — the whole country for ten leagues being covered with them ; and some of the principal attendants assured the traveller, that they had altogether under their charge four hundred thousand beasts of burden, camels, horses, oxen, and asses, and three millions of sheep and goats.

The task of providing food for such a multitude of animals, which, enormous as it may appear, considered as the property of a single individual, does not exceed what may often be found in many parts of the East, is one main cause of the difference that exists between the habits of these pastoral people and those of their more stationary neighbours, who cultivate the soil ; and hence, how strongly soever the former might be disposed to yield to the inclination that seems natural to man, to adopt the comforts of settled life, and establish themselves in a permanent abode, they are prevented from gratifying it by the nature of their condition, which lays them under the necessity of frequently removing from one place to another. Such overgrown flocks soon cause the most abundant pastures to disappear ; and the supply of new ones, as the old become exhausted, which, with these keepers of sheep, must take precedence of all other cares, both occasions a perpetual shifting of the scene, and implies the possession of a range of territory vastly more extensive than would be required for the same number of people, if they dedicated themselves to the culture of the fields. Their life is thus spe*nt in a constant succession of journeyings, their stay in any place being always re« gulated by its capability of affording subsistence to their cattle; and, strangers as they consequently are to those local attachments which bind the heart of man to a spot hallowed by the recollections of a long residence, or that has been trained to beauty and productiveness under his fostering care, they rest and decamp as circumstances require — with equal indifference whether their tents are spread within reach of an inhabited place, or hid in the depths of a trackless solitude — traverse regions which they one day enliven with the picturesque beauty of an arcadian scene, to be left the next a lifeless and desolate waste ; and move about in this ceaseless manner, finding a home for themselves, and food for their beasts, in places at one time widely remote from their encampments at another.

Far and wide, however, as their wanderings are, these nomadic hordes do not enjoy the license of indiscriminate pasture, wherever chance may direct their course; — a license which, besides the risk it might expose them to, in the boundless regions they frequent, of coming to spots either totally barren, or possessed but of scanty resources would produce a constant collision between rival tribes engaged in the same occupation, and shifting about by the same necessities. To obviate such consequences, every tribe has a portion of territory, to which, either by conquest or immemorial possession, it claims the exclusive right, although not a single individual can call a foot of it his own, and the boundaries of which, as there are no inclosures, are indicated by the natural features of the country. Where the herbage is rich and plentiful, as on the spacious plains that lie on the banks of the Euphrates, the Jordan, and the Nile, on which the grass, reaching almost the stature of a man, is so