URBANITY OF ORIENTALS.-GREETINGS.-WASTE OF TIME IN SALUTATIONS.-KISS.-COURTESY IN BUYING AND SELLING.PRESENTS.-OBEISANCES.-KISSING THE ROBE.-TOUCHING THE HEM OF THE GARMENT.-DISMOUNTING.-SPREADING GARMENTS. -PLACING ON HORSEBACK.-FIXING A SPEAR.-DEPUTATIONS. -STANDING UP.-SEAT AT THE RIGHT HAND.-COVERING THE FEET.

SOCIAL intercourse among Orientals has always been marked by great urbanity, and even formality. In the patriarchal age mutual inquiries as to health were exchanged:" He (Joseph) asked them (his brethren)

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of their welfare, and said, Is your father well, the old man of whom ye spake? Is he yet alive?" (Gen. xliii. 27): Moses and his father-in-law " asked each other of their welfare:" and so, again, the spies "came to the house of the young man the Levite, and saluted him;" or, as the words literally mean, "asked him of peace" (Judg. xviii. 15-margin). Occasionally we meet with formal salutations, such as: "God be gracious unto thee" (Gen. xliii. 29); "Peace be with thee" (Judg. xix. 20); "Peace, peace be unto thee, and peace be to thine helpers" (1 Chron. xii. 18); "The Lord be with thee" (Judg. vi. 12); "The Lord bless thee" (Ruth ii. 4); "The blessing of the Lord be upon you: we bless you in the name of the Lord” (Ps. cxxix. 8). Similar to these were our blessed Lord's greetings to His disciples, "Peace be unto you" (Luke xxiv. 36; John xx. 19), though they differed from other greetings in that they positively conveyed the blessing they expressed.

The salutations of the modern Orientals are carried even to an absurd extent :- "This is, indeed, the land of good wishes and overflowing compliments. Every passer-by has his 'God bless you!' Conversation is sometimes among strangers made up of a very large proportion of these phrases; for example, 'Good morning!' Answer, 'May your day be enriched!' 'By seeing you.' "You have enlightened the house by your presence.' Are you happy?' 'Happy; and you also?' 'Happy.' 'You are comfortable, I am comfortable;' meaning, 'I am comfortable, if you are.' These sentences are often repeated; and, after any pause, it is usual to turn to your neighbour, and resume these courtesies many times. In the southern half of Palestine, I subsequently found the ordinary salutation between persons on the road to be literally, 'Good luck!' to which the person saluted replies, 'May God give you good luck !'"--JOWETT's Researches in Syria, &c., p .90.

ELABORATE GREETINGS.

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The common Eastern salutation is, "Peace be with you!" the speaker laying his right hand upon his heart. The answer is, "With you be peace!" Aged people are inclined to add, "And the mercy and blessing of God." A traveller in the desert* writes :-" Through all the route we had met few passengers. One or two caravans, or a lonely wanderer with his camel, had passed at times, and given us the usual salute of Peace be unto you!" "

Much time, as may be imagined, is consumed in these elaborate civilities, and hence the necessity for our Saviour's direction to His disciples: "Salute no man by the way" (Luke x. 4), with which we may compare that of Elisha to his servant:-"If any salute thee, answer him not again" (2 Kings iv. 29). Referring to this latter passage, a modern traveller observes :- "An incidental occurrence showed us the meaning of Elisha's command to his servant Gehazi, to salute no man by the way. A Bedouin acquaintance of one of our camel-drivers meeting him on the road, the two friends occupied no small time in salutation. They kissed each other five times on the cheek, holding the hand at the same time; then asked three or four questions of each other, and not till this was done did they resume their journey. If Gehazi, a man so well known, had done this to every one he met, he would not have reached Carmel before his master."Narrative, p. 110.

Intimate friends greeted one another with a kiss and an embrace without regard to sex:- "And Esau ran to meet him (Jacob), and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him" (Gen. xxxiii. 4); "Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice, and wept. He (Laban) ran to meet him (Jacob) and embraced him and kissed him" (Gen. xxix. 11, 13); "And he (Aaron) went and met him (Moses) in the mount of God, and kissed him" (Ex. iv. 27). In the present *Mr. Carne. See his Lecture, p. 190.

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COURTESY IN BARGAINING.

day such ardent demonstrations of affection are not confined to friends. "It was interesting," observes a traveller, speaking of the friendly tribes of Arabs, "to see their meeting in the desert. From their wandering habit of life, and their frequent and distant journeys, they seldom meet; but when they do, the pressing of the hand to the heart, the kiss on the cheek, the passionate exclamations and gestures of joy, prove the sincerity and fervour of their feelings." CARNE'S Eastern Letters, p. 206.

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The studied courtesy of the Orientals is nowhere more conspicuous than in the expressions used by them in buying and selling. Let us take, as an example, the interview between Abraham and Ephron, the Hittite :-" Abraham stood up and bowed himself to the people of the land. . . and he communed with them, saying, If it be your mind that I should bury my dead, intreat for me to Ephron that he may give me the cave of Machpelah . . . for as much money as it is worth. . . and Ephron answered. . . nay, my lord, hear me: the field give I thee, and the cave that is therein, I give it thee... and Abraham bowed down himself before the people of the land. And he spake unto Ephron . . . saying, But if thou wilt give it, I pray thee, hear me: I will give thee money for the field. . . . And Ephron answered. . . My lord, hearken unto me: the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver: what is that betwixt me and thee?" (Gen. xxiii. 7-15).

In a like manner we are told that :- "In attempting to make purchases of the Persians, as we had repeated occasion to notice. . . the article desired is always at the outset. . . a present to you; and its owner your servant and your sacrifice. And if you request his terms, he reiterates the same assurance, until you strongly insist on his naming the price, when he at length tells you, that since you will not take the article without paying him for it, you must set your

EGYPTIAN MODE OF BARGAINING.

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own price; for he can sell nothing to you. Name a reasonable sum, and he will flatly reply that you shall not have it for that; and by this time his interest has got so much the better alike of his modesty and generosity, that he will demand twice or thrice its known value, which you must pay, or take the trouble of beating him down. This is done by simply leaving him, as he will quickly call after you to take the article at the price you had offered. I know not how often I have, in imagination, stood by the side of Abraham, negotiating with the sons of Heth for a place to bury his dead, when I had been purchasing even the most trifling article in Persia.

"This contract exhibits less formality than business transactions commonly possess in Persia at the present time. The bereaved patriarch was little disposed to be particular in relation to the price he should pay for a place to bury his deceased Sarah; and his neighbours would not probably be apt, in those mournful circumstances, to practise all the finesse that was common in trade, or fully develop their avaricious propensities. The general resemblance, however, to Persian transactions is very striking."-PERKINS's Residence in Persia, pp. 167, 168.

"The peasants in Egypt will often say, when a person asks the price of anything which they have for sale, Receive it as a present (as Ephron did to Abraham, when the latter expressed his wish to purchase the field and cave of Machpelah). This answer

having become a common form of speech, they know that advantage will not be taken of it: and when desired again to name the price, they will do so."LANE'S Modern Egyptians, ii. 150.

If the meeting, instead of being a casual one, was prearranged for some special object, the visitor never went empty-handed: it was, and still is, absolutely essential that he should take some present with him. The references to this custom in Scripture are very