BURNING ODOURS FOR THE DEAD. ... 323 و, "all the valiant men arose and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Bethshan, and came to Jabesh, and burnt them there (1 Sam. xxxi. 12): but this was a step taken on an emergency, as the only means of securing the remains : at Asa's funeral, again, "they made a very great burning for him," but the materials for the conflagration consisted of the "bed which was filled with sweet odours and divers kind of spices prepared by the apothe caries' art" (2 Chron. xvi. 14): and such appears to have been the usual custom with men of the highest dignity, for we read of Jehoram:-" His people made no burning for him, like the burning of his fathers (2 Chron. xxi. 19); and on the other hand of Zedekiah : "Thou shalt die in peace and with the burnings of thy fathers, the former kings which were before thee, so shall they burn odours for thee " (Jer. xxxiv. 5): and in this sense probably we are to understand the expression in Amos vi. 10:-"A man's uncle shall take him up, and he that burneth him," though this may otherwise be explained of burning the bodies on account of the vast numbers of the dead which admitted of no other mode of disposing of them. After the burial the lamentation was carried on generally for seven days, as in the case of Jacob:"He (Joseph) made a mourning for his father seven days" (Gen. 1. 10); and again in the case of Saul and his sons:- 66 They took their bones, and buried them under a tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days" (1 Sam. xxxi. 13). For illustrious persons the mourning was continued thirty days, as for Aaron ::-"When all the congregation saw that Aaron was dead, they mourned for Aaron thirty days" (Num. xx. 29); and again for Moses: :-"The children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days" (Deut. xxxiv. 8). In Egypt the term was extended to seventy days; in reference to Jacob we read:-" The Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten days" (Gen. 1. 3). The 324 PERIOD OF MOURNING. period in that country at the present time appears to be forty days: Towards the close of the first Thursday after the funeral, and often early in the morning of this day, the women of the family of the deceased again commence a wailing in their house, accompanied by some of their female friends; and in the afternoon or evening of this day, male friends of the deceased also visit the house. On the Friday morning the women repair to the tomb; where they observe the same customs which I have described in speaking of the ceremonies performed on the two grand "'eeds;' generally taking a palm-branch, to break up, and place on the tomb; and some cakes or bread to distribute to the poor. These ceremonies are repeated on the same days of the next two weeks; and again, on the Thursday and Friday which complete, or next follow, the first period of forty days after the funeral."-LANE's Modern Egyptians, iii. 171. FIRST NOTICES OF AGRICULTURE AND THE PASTORAL LIFE. THE MECHANICAL ARTS. MANUFACTURES. COMMERCE. JEWISH PLOUGHS. GOAD. SOWING. TREADING IN THE GRAIN. HARVESTING. - DIFFERENT MODES OF THRESHING.-TREADING OUT THE CORN.MACHINES. BEATING OUT WITH A STICK. - WINNOWING. GARDENS.-SUPPLY OF WATER.-WATERING WITH THE FOOT. THE Occupations of mankind, as described in the Bible, varied at different periods. Of our first parent in the time of his innocence, we read that "the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it and to keep it" (Gen. ii. 15). After the fall harder labour was imposed upon him, and it was said to him :-' "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread" (Gen. iii. 19). Accordingly we find his sons Cain and Abel betaking themselves to the two kinds of livelihood which the land offered them, viz. : agriculture and sheep-feeding :-"Abel was a keeper |