alluded to in Scripture. The sheaves being opened out upon the floor, the grain is trodden usually by oxen, arranged from three to five abreast, and driven in a circle, or indeed in any direction, over the floor.

It was one of the lesser laws of mercy, of which many are found in the books of Moses, that the oxen engaged in this labour should not be muzzled to prevent them from tasting the

1

corn. This freedom of the labouring animals is now the rule throughout the East; nor do we remember, in any instance in which the operation came under our own notice, to have seen them subject to any restraint in this respect. It is probable that the harvest of Boaz was threshed by oxen. But this is not certain, for we find threshing instruments in use not far from Bethlehem in the time of David, to whom Araunah offers them for fuel,

and the oxen by which they were drawn for sacrifice." Their existence is also implied in the expression which occurs in Scripture, made them like the dust by threshing,' which is a result not so much of the treading of cattle, as of the working of the threshing implement, which cuts up the straw, and makes it fit for fodder. The ancient Hebrews seem to have possessed both of the implements now in use. One of them, represented

1 Deut. xxv. 4.

2 2 Sam. xxiv. 22.

32 Kings xiii. 7.

in the annexed figure, is very much used in Syria. It is composed of two thick boards fastened together side by side, and bent upward in front, to prevent its course from being obstructed by accumulations of straw. The under part is

furnished with rough stones, embedded in holes made for the purpose, and sometimes with iron spikes instead of stones. This is commonly drawn over the corn by oxen, a man or boy standing upon it to increase the weight.

The other consists of a frame, in which are fixed three rollers, armed with iron teeth, and surmounted by a seat, in which the driver sits-not so much for his own ease, as to add the advantage of his weight. It is drawn by two oxen, and breaks up the straw more effectually than the one first described, and is in other respects a better implement; but it is not now often seen in Palestine, though often enough in other parts of Syria, and very common in Egypt.

The winnowing was performed by throwing up the grain with

a fork against the wind, by which the chaff and broken straw were dispersed, and the grain fell to the ground. The grain was afterwards passed through a sieve, to separate the morsels of earth and other impurities; and it then underwent a final purification, by being tossed up with wooden scoops, or short-handed shovels, such

as we see figured in the monuments of Egypt.

How exactly the ancient agricultural customs of the book of

Ruth are preserved to this day in Palestine, may be seen from the following extract from Robinson :-'The wheat harvest here in the mountains (or Hebron) had not yet (May 24) arrived; but they were threshing barley, adas or lentiles, and also vetches, called by the Arabs kersenna, which are raised chiefly for camels. The various parcels had apparently lain here for several days; the people would come with their cattle and work for two or three hours, and then go away. Some had three animals, some four; and once I saw two young cattle and a donkey driven round together.1 In several of the floors they were now winnowing the grain by tossing it up against the wind with a fork.

'Here are needed no guards around the tent. The owners of the crops came every night and slept upon their threshing floors to guard them; and this we found to be universal in all the region of Gaza. We were here in the midst of scenes precisely like those of the book of Ruth, where Boaz winnowed barley, and laid himself down at night to guard the heap of corn.' 2 The custom is by no means confined to the neighbourhood of Gaza. Throughout the East, the owner guards thus the precious produce of his fields at night while it is exposed-and that in person, like Boaz, unless he is a very great man indeed, or unless he has sons to perform the duty for him. Boaz had no sons; and although he had an overseer of the labours of the field, he watched his corn in person, that too great temptation to connive at depredation might not be placed in the way of persons whose interest was not altogether one with his own.

1 This conjunction, even in labour, of diverse animals, was forbidden by the law of Moses in ploughing, which prohibition must also have extended to threshing. The ox and ass are particularly mentioned, and the instance before us gives the practice against which the injunction was levelled. The unequal nature of the animals must have rendered the conjunction distressing to both, and the horns of the ox could not but have been of some annoyance to the ass.

2 Biblical Researches, ii. 445, 446.

VOL. III.

с

Twenty-seventh Week-Seventh Day.

THE LEVIRATE LAW.1-RUTH III., IV.

ACCORDING to the custom described yesterday, Boaz went one night at the close of the harvest, and lay down at the end of the heap of corn which had been winnowed. When he was fast asleep, a woman came into the field, and approaching very softly, uncovered his feet, and lay down there. At midnight the man awoke, and was much startled to find some one lying at his feet; he then turned himself, and perceived that it was a woman.

The incident thus far has been well illustrated by Mrs Postans: Natives of the East care little for sleeping accommodation, but rest where weariness overcomes them, lying on the ground. They are, however, careful to cover their feet, and to do this have a chudda, or sheet of coarse cloth, that they tuck under the feet, and drawing it up over the body, suffer it to cover the face and head. An Oriental seldom changes his position, and we are told that Boaz did so because "he was afraid;" the covering of the feet, in ordinary cases, is consequently not disturbed. I have frequently observed the singular effect of this custom when riding out in a native city before dawn; figures with their feet so covered, lying like monumental effigies in the pathway, and in the open verandahs of the houses-a practice that at once explains the necessity for closing the city gates when it is dark, as we read was the case at Jericho, in Josh. ii. Neither men nor women alter their dress at night; and the labouring class, or travellers in a serai, where there are men, women, and children, rest together, the men with their feet covered, and the women wrapped in their veils or sarees.'

Boaz soon found that the woman was Ruth. She had come thither at the suggestion of Naomi, who informed her that

1 This term is usually employed to designate the law which required the nearest relative to marry the widow of a man who had died childless.

Boaz was the nearest kinsman of her deceased husband; and seeing that he had died childless, on him, according to the old patriarchal practice, adopted by the law of Moses, devolved the duty of making her his wife, in order that, if she had children, the eldest should be counted the legal heir of the deceased, so that his name might not be lost in Israel, nor his heritage pass into another family. This was a public duty which a man could not refuse to discharge without discredit; and it was of great importance to the woman, seeing that her place in the social system of the Hebrews, and all the consideration that belonged to motherhood, depended on it. We see an ancient instance of this in the anxiety which Tamar manifested that the conditions of this obligation should not be left unaccomplished. Gen. xxxviii. To Naomi it was of special importance; for if Ruth married thus, the first child to which she gave birth would be accounted as belonging to Naomi's deceased son-therefore her grandson; and she would thus be once more restored to her place as a mother in Israel.

This was the mode in which Ruth was to claim from Boaz the discharge of this solemn duty to the living and to the dead. The act is strange and startling to us. It must be accounted for, partly by the customs already alluded to, partly by the simple manners of these ancient times, and much by the consideration of the difference of ideas as to modest demeanour in different ages and nations. Thus, for instance, the exposure of the face to public gaze, is at this day regarded as the height of infamy and immodesty by an Eastern woman, which yet with us is the common practice, and is consistent with the most perfect decorum. We can hardly suppose that so serious and godly a woman as Naomi would have given such counsel had there been anything, according to the views of the times, conventionally wrong in it, or calculated to offend the moral sense of the age. Had that been so, she must have been aware of the danger of disgusting such a man as Boaz, instead of ensuring his protection; and we think that his appreciation of at least the motive of the proceeding, must be regarded as stamping its true character, when he emphatically declared, 'All the city of