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blue surface are seen through the openings left by the downward bends in the outline of the western hills.

The mountain itself, as viewed from the south-west, presents a semi-globular appearance; but from the north-west it bears the aspect of a truncated cone. 'It is,' says Pococke, 'one of the finest hills I ever beheld, being a rich soil that produces excellent herbage, and is most beautifully adorned with groves and clumps of trees.' These are chiefly, according to Burckhardt, composed of the oak and wild pistachio; but there are also (says Hasselquist) the carob-tree, the terebinth, the holly, and the myrtle, not to mention the large variety of other plants and flowers which cover the surface. The verdure is less abundant on the south than on the other sides of the mountain. There are ounces and wild boars in the wooded parts (Burckhardt); and Hasselquist saw the rock-goat and fallow-deer. Red partridges, also, are in great numbers. William Biddulph, who was there early in the seventeenth century, gives a much fairer account of the mountain than some subsequent travellers. We beheld,' he says, 'the prospect of the mountain to be very pleasant, somewhat steepie, but not very high nor very large, but a comely round mountaine, beset with trees and thicke bushes, which at that time of the yeere flourished greene.' Besides the travellers cited in the course of the note, see Maundrell's Journey; Jolliffe's Letters from Palestine, i. 40; Rae Wilson's Travels, p. 367; Carne's Letters from the East, p. 253; Robinson's Biblical Researches, iii. 210227; Schubert's Morgenland, iii. 174-180; Lord Nugent, Lands Classical and Sacred, ii. 204, 205.

15. Sisera lighted down off his chariot, and fled away on his feet.-This seems rather strange conduct; but it is evident that the chariots being so hotly pursued, particularly perhaps his own chariot, which may have been distinguished by its greater splendour-he saw that his only chance for safety was to escape on foot, when he had an opportunity to do this unnoticed, calculating that Barak would continue the pursuit of the chariots, as actually happened.

18. Into the tent.'-We must consider these Kenites as Arabs, and estimate their proceedings accordingly. Sisera's claim on Jael, in the absence of Heber, was perfectly proper. When a stranger comes to an Arab camp where he has no acquaintance, he proceeds to the first tent, and if the proprietor is himself absent, his wife or daughters are not only authorized, but required to perform the duties of hospitality to him. As a character for liberal hospitality is an actual distinction to an Arab, no one can with honour repel from the tent a stranger who claims hospitality, nor, in ordinary circumstances, does any one desire to do so on the contrary, there is rather a disposition to contend who shall enjoy the privilege of granting him entertainment. In the present instance Sisera's application to the tent of the sheikh, whose privilege it was more especially to entertain strangers, was in the common course of things. As belonging to a friendly people, Sisera's claim for protection was as valid as a common claim for hospitality, and could not be refused. Having once promised protection to a person, and admitted him to his tent, the Arab is bound not only to conceal his guest, but to defend him even with his life, from his pursuers; and if his tent should be forced and his guest slain there, it is his duty to become the avenger of his blood. On these sentiments of honour Sisera seems to have relied; particularly after Jael had supplied him with refreshments, which, in the highest sense, are regarded as a seal to the covenant of peace and safety: and, in fact, after all this, an Arab would be bound to protect with his own life even his bitterest enemy, to whom he may have inadvertently granted his protection. It is probable that Jael introduced Sisera for safety into the inner or woman's part of the tent. This she might do without impropriety, although it would be the most grievous insult for any man to intrude there without permission. There he was safe, as a pursued man.

19. She.... gave him drink.—It is very likely that Sisera not only desired to have some refreshment, because he really wanted it, but as a seal to the pledge of protec

tion which he had received in the words 'Fear not,' which Jael had addressed to him. At least his mind seems to have been satisfied; for he had then no hesitation to recruit his weary frame with sleep. A person who needs protection always feels quite at rest on the subject when he has once obtained meat or drink. This is the case even with a captive enemy, and much more so with a guest, as Sisera was. We have illustrated part of this subject in the note to Num. xviii. 19; and we now limit our attention to the single point to which we have adverted. The usage was not peculiar to the Orientals. We find it in Homer. Lycaon had been a captive to Achilles, who sent him to Lemnos to be sold: but he escaped from thence, and was again found by Achilles on the field of battle. He thus commences his plea for life :— I clasp thy knees, Achilles! Ah, respect And pity me. Behold! I am as one Who hath sought refuge even at thy hearth.'

A very striking instance of the force of this feeling, as connected with the simple act of receiving drink from a captor, occurs in Bohaeddin's Vita Saladini. During a truce between the Crusaders and the Saracens, in the Holy Land, Reginald, lord of Kerak, cruelly pillaged and imprisoned the (pilgrim) caravan returning from Mecca to Egypt; adding insult to breach of faith-"Let your Mahomet deliver you!" Fired with indignation thereat, Saladin the sultan vowed to despatch him with his own hand, if he could ever make him prisoner. The fatal battle of Hattin, in which the Crusaders were defeated, and their principal commanders taken, gave him that opportunity. He then ordered the captives into his presence -Guy de Lusignan, the king of Jerusalem, his brother Geoffry, and Count Reginald. Saladin presented Guy, who was nearly expiring for thirst, with a delicious cup cooled with snow, out of which the king drank, and then gave it to Reginald. "Observe," said Saladin, "it is thou, king, and not I, who hast given the cup to this man." After which he said to Reginald-" See me now act the part of Mohammed's avenger." He then offered him his life, on condition of his embracing the Mohammedan faith; and on his refusal, the sultan first struck him with his drawn scimitar, which breaking at the hilt, his attendants joined and despatched him.' Here we see that Saladin felt and intended that the cup which he gave Lusignan should be received as a pledge of protection. So it was probably understood by the king, whose good-natured attempt to include Reginald in the concession, obliged the sultan to call his attention to the fact that the force of the pledge depended on its being received immediately from the person with whom the power to grant protection rested.

20. Thou shalt say, No.'-Sisera seems to have felt quite certain that the pursuers would not dare search the haram, after the woman had denied that any man was there. Indeed, it is almost certain that they would not have done so for the Hebrews had too long and too recently been themselves a nomade people, not to have

CHAPTER V.

The song of Deborah and Barak. THEN sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam on that day, saying,

2 Praise ye the LORD for the avenging of Israel, when the people willingly offered themselves.

3 Hear, O ye kings; give ear, O ye princes; I, even I, will sing unto the LORD; I will sing praise to the LORD God of Israel.

known that a more heinous and inexpiable insult could not be offered to the neutral Kenite Emir, than to disturb the sanctity of his haram, or even to enter, unpermitted, the outer part of his tent. We very much doubt whether they would have ventured, even if they had been certain that Sisera was there, to have entered to kill him, or take him thence, while under Heber's protection, although they might possibly have tried means of withdrawing him from that protection.

21.Nail of the tent.'-This was probably one of the large pins which are driven into the ground, and to which are attached the ropes which, at the other extremity, are fastened to the poles of the tent in order to keep them erect. These pins are generally of wood, but sometimes of iron, and are driven into the ground by a mallet, which is apparently the 'hammer' of the text. It would seem that Jael could find no instrument more suited to the purpose.

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3 Heb. flowed.

It is very likely that Jael, when she first invited Sisera to the protection of her husband's tent, had no intention to destroy him. But as he slept, the thought seems to have occurred to her that the greatest enemy of the Israelites now lay helpless before her, and that it was in her power to win great favour from the victors by anticipating the almost certain death which awaited the chief captain of Jabin's host. When we reflect that there was peace between Jabin, king of Hazor, and the house of Heber the Kenite,' and that it was in the knowledge that he deserved no wrong at their hands, that Sisera accepted the shelter which Jael offered; and when, moreover, we consider that the emir, Jael's husband, had no interest in the result, save that of standing well with the victorious party, it will be difficult to find any other motive than that which we have assigned-the desire to win the favour of the victors-for an act so grossly opposed to all those notions of honour among tent-dwellers on which Sisera had relied for his safety. It was a most treacherous and cruel murder, wanting all those extenuations which were applicable to the assassination of king Eglon by Ehud. The time is gone by when commentators or historians might venture to justify this deed. Our extended acquaintance with the East enables us to know that those Orientals whose principles would allow them to applaud the act of Ehud, would regard with horror the murder, in his sleep, of a confiding and friendly guest, to whom the sacred shelter of the tent had been offered. That Deborah, as a prophetess, was enabled to foretel the fall of Sisera by a woman's hand, does not convey the Divine sanction of this deed, but only manifests the Divine foreknowledge; and that the same Deborah, in her triumphant song, blesses Jael for this act, only indicates the feeling, in the first excitement of victory, of one who had far more cause to rejoice at the death of Sisera than Jael had to inflict it.

22. As Barak pursued Sisera.'-He continued to pursue the chariots after the escape of Sisera (v. 16), but, not finding Sisera when he had routed the whole host, appears to have hastened back to seek the fugitive.

4 LORD, 'when thou wentest out of Seir, when thou marchedst out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled, and the heavens dropped, the clouds also dropped water.

5 "The mountains 'melted from before the LORD, even that Sinai from before the LORD God of Israel.

6 In the days of 'Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied, and the "travellers walked through byways.

4 Exod. 19. 18.
5 Chap. 3. 31.
8 Heb. crooked ways.

6 Chap. 4. 18.

7 The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel.

8 They chose new gods; then was war in the gates was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel?

:

9 My heart is toward the governors of Israel, that offered themselves willingly among the people. Bless ye the LORD.

10 Speak, ye that ride on white asses, ye that sit in judgment, and walk by the way.

11 They that are delivered from the noise of archers in the places of drawing water, there shall they rehearse the 'righteous acts of the LORD, even the righteous acts toward the inhabitants of his villages in Israel: then shall the people of the LORD go down to the gates.

12 Awake, awake, Deborah: awake, awake, utter a song: arise, Barak, and lead thy captivity captive, thou son of Abinoam.

13 Then he made him that remaineth have dominion over the nobles among the people: the LORD made me have dominion over the mighty.

14 Out of Ephraim was there a root of them against Amalek; after thee, Benjamin, among thy people; out of Machir came down governors, and out of Zebulun they that "handle the pen of the writer.

12.

15 And the princes of Issachar were with Deborah; even Issachar, and also Barak: he was sent on foot into the valley. For the divisions of Reuben there were great 'thoughts of heart.

16 Why abodest thou among the sheepfolds, to hear the bleatings of the flocks? 15 For the divisions of Reuben there were great searchings of heart.

17 Gilead abode beyond Jordan: and why did Dan remain in ships? Asher continued on the seashore, and abode in his "breaches.

18 Zebulun and Naphtali were a people that jeoparded their lives unto the death in the high places of the field.

19 The kings came and fought, then fought

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the kings of Canaan in Taanach by the waters of Megiddo; they took no gain of money.

20 They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera.

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21 The river of Kishon swept them away, that ancient river, the river Kishon. O my soul, thou hast trodden down strength.

22 Then were the horsehoofs broken by the means of the 20pransings, the pransings of their mighty ones.

23 Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the LORD, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the LORD, to the help of the LORD against the mighty.

24 Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be, blessed shall she be above women in the tent.

25 He asked water, and she gave him milk; she brought forth butter in a lordly dish.

26 She put her hand to the nail, and her right hand to the workmen's hammer; and 21with the hammer she smote Sisera, she smote off his head, when she had pierced and stricken through his temples.

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27 At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down: at her feet he bowed, he fell: where he bowed, there he fell down dead.

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28 The mother of Sisera looked out at a window, and cried through the lattice, Why is his chariot so long in coming? why tarry the wheels of his chariots?

29 Her wise ladies answered her, yea, she returned answer to herself,

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30 Have they not sped? have they not divided the prey; to every man a damsel or two; to Sisera a prey of divers colours, a prey of divers colours of needlework, of divers colours of needlework on both sides, meet for the necks of them that take the spoil?

31 So let all thine enemies perish, O LORD: but let them that love him be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might. And the land had rest forty years.

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Verse 1. "Then sang Deborah.'-The fine triumphal ode in this chapter is a noble specimen of Hebrew poesy; the more prominent beauties of which will not fail to strike the reader even as seen through the disadvantages of a translation, made at a time when the principles of Hebrew poetry were but little understood. It has been ably analyzed and illustrated by Bishop Lowth and others.

Its design,' says Dr. Hales,' seems to be two-fold, religious and political: first, to thank God for the recent victory and deliverance of Israel from Canaanitish bondage and oppression; and next, to celebrate the zeal with which some of the tribes volunteered their services against the common enemy; and to censure the lukewarmness and apathy of others, who staid at home, and thus betrayed the

public cause; and by this contrast and exposure to heal those fatal divisions among the tribes so injurious to the common weal.'

Much ingenious but somewhat too lax criticism has been produced to shew that this poem must have been in fact composed long after the events to which it relates. Much has been inferred from a supposed resemblance which it bears to Ps. Ixviii., whence it has been supposed that the psalm was the original from which this was imitated. But it is surely quite as reasonable to infer that certain ideas and phrases in this ancient theophania were transferred to the psalm, which is admitted to have been composed on occasion of the removal of the ark by David. The allegation is part of a system which denies to the early books of Scripture the antiquity which they claim, and assigns them to a much later age than the events which they describe. That this ode does however belong to the carlier time, might be shewn by no small amount of internal evidence. Thus it alludes to several historical facts, which are not mentioned in ch. iv., nor anywhere else in Jewish history; and which are such as a later writer would not have been likely to invent. Such are the mention of Jael in v. 6, a leader apparently contemporary with Shamgar (Judg. iii. 31), who is elsewhere entirely passed over. So too, in ch. iv., only the tribes of Zebulon and Naphtali are spoken of (comp. v. 18); but in v. 14, 15 of the song, Ephraim, Benjamin, Manasseh, and Issachar, are represented as having been present at the battle. In v. 23 the poetess invokes curses on Meroz, of which there is elsewhere no mention. All these are beyond the invention of a later poet; at least, they give to such a supposition the greatest degree of improbability. So too the mention of the mother of Sisera probably rests upon family circumstances, well known to the Israelites of the day; while a later poet, in employing an ornament of this kind, would have been far more likely to have introduced the wife or children of the unfortunate chief, lamenting the destruction of a husband and a father.-In the second place, the poem exhibits no allusion whatever to events of a later age, nor any traces of a later language. On the other hand, there are traces of the more ancient views in respect to God, which in later ages were changed,-e. g., God is represented as dwelling on Mount Sinai; while afterwards Zion becomes his habitation.

The following may be mentioned as among the most important of the works and treatises which have been written in illustration of this Song, to some of which we have ourselves been much indebted:-Schultens, Obss. Philol. Crit. ad Debora et Mosis Cantica, 1745; Lüderwald, Spicileg. Obss. in Debora Epinicium, 1772; Schnurrer, Comment. Philol. in Cantic. Debora, 1775; Weston, An Attempt to translate and explain the difficult Passages in the Song of Deborah, 1788; Hollman, Comment. Philol. Crit. in Carmen Debora, 1818; Kalkar, De Cantico Debora, 1834; Robinson, Interpretation of Judges v., in the American Biblical Repository for 1831.

2. For the avenging of Israel.-The original words thus translated have, says Dr. Robinson, 'been a crux interpretum in every age.' The Vatican copy of the Septuagint has ἀπεκαλύφθη ἀποκάλυμμα ἔν Ισραήλ, ‘a revelation has been revealed in Israel-a version which stands in no possible connection with the context; while it seems impossible to discover how the Vulgate makes out from the Hebrew words the sense ad periculum, which it gives thus: qui sponte obtulistis de Israel animas vestras ad periculum, who of Israel freely exposed your lives to peril.' The verb y parah, sometimes means 'to let loose, to free from restraint,' whence the version of Luther and many other continental translators; but it occurs in a bad sense whenever so employed elsewhere (Exod. xxxii. 25; Prov. xxix. 19), and neither in a good or bad sense does that interpretation suit the context. Our own version, although not very clear, is preferable to any of these, and appears to have been derived from the Syriac, in which the word in question signifies to avenge. Still the sense thus obtained is not produced without a painful and scarcely justifiable inversion of the whole sentence; and, upon the whole, the

version offered by the Alexandrian codex of the Septuagint, which has the sanction of Theodotion, and has been in modern times produced by Schnurrer, is critically the most correct, as it certainly is the most intelligible of any'that the leaders led in Israel.' It has been adopted by Dr. Robinson, who translates the verse thus:

That the leaders led in Israel,

That the people willingly offered themselves,
Praise ye Jehovah!'

He shews how suitable it is to the context by remarking: Israel had long been sunk in despondency, and was incapable of making an effort to throw off its chains. Hence the prophetess begins with a burst of gratitude to God, that the nation had once more roused itself to action. The second clause refers, by common consent, to the people, who spontaneously came forward to the war: what then could be more suitable or natural, than that the first clause should contain a reference to the princes and rulers of the people, who did the same? We see in the case of Barak how unwilling they were to lead the way; and the same fact is asserted in v. 17. That this unwillingness was overcome, both on the part of the rulers and of the people, the prophetess makes the opening subject of her song of praise.' 6. In the days of Shamgar....in the days of Jael.'-Of Shamgar see the note on iii. 31. In the interval which followed between him and the oppression by Jabin, we may perhaps place Jael, who is here spoken of along with Shamgar, as a judge or deliverer of Israel; but who is nowhere else mentioned in the Jewish annals. The older interpreters have generally supposed this person to be the same with the wife of Heber, mentioned below. There is, however, no ground whatever for this assumption, except the identity of the names; and in the multiplicity of instances in which different Hebrews bore one and the same appellation, this ceases to be an argument for an identity of persons here. There are besides several considerations against this assumption. The wife of Heber is nowhere spoken of, except as the destroyer of Sisera; had she been formerly celebrated, there could hardly have failed to be some distinct allusion to it. Further, the phrase in the days of any one, is nowhere employed except in reference to persons who have made an epoch in history by their character and distinguished standing; e. g., Gideon, Judg. viii. 28; Saul, 1 Sam. xvii. 12; David, 2 Sam. xxi. 2.

7. The villages ceased.'-What goes before in italics, rather mars than improves the sense. It is easy to understand that the inhabitants of the villages and small towns, being peculiarly defenceless and exposed to oppression, in so troubled a state of society, would in time abandon their homes and repair to the fortified towns and the caverns of the mountains, so that at length an occupied village could scarcely be found in the country. Dr. Robinson proposes 'the leaders ceased.' But the reasons advanced for it seem to us of little weight, and the sense of the authorized version is not only better supported, but appears much more suitable to the context.

'A mother in Israel.'-Deborah here calls herself 'a mother in Israel' in the sense of benefactress; just as distinguished men are termed fathers of their country,' or 'fathers' in general. Job xxix. 16; Gen. xlviii. 5. Compare also the use of the phrase father towards a prophet (2 Kings vi. 21; xiii. 14).

8. Was there a shield or spear scen. . . . in Israel.'We thus see that it was the policy of the northern Canaanites, while the Israelites were in subjection, as it was afterwards of the Philistines (1 Sam. xiii. 9), to deprive the people of their arms. Did Shamgar's employment of the ox-goad arise from the want of a better weapon? This text affords us an opportunity of noticing shields and spears, which are so often mentioned in the Bible, accompanied by such pictorial illustrations as will, at one view, bring the whole subject fully before the reader. They exhibit the various forms of these offensive and defensive arms among the same and among different ancient people, and also among those modern Oriental nations which are supposed to have preserved the ancient forms of these weapons. From these, and from

i

the statements which we annex, some ideas of the form of the Hebrew weapons may be collected. We are not to suppose that there was anything peculiar in their shape or substance. There are fewer peculiarities in the arms of most nations than in anything else belonging to them. The act of warfare itself brings them acquainted with the weapons of their neighbours, and perhaps of remote nations; and a people is seldom slow in adopting from a conquered or conquering enemy, improved or varied forms of the arms which they mutually employ. Hence, as we know little or nothing precisely concerning the forms of the Hebrew arms, we may safely consider them as represented by those of the nations with which they were acquainted.

SHIELDS.-The shield is unquestionably the most ancient and most general piece of defensive armour in the world. When it was first invented we cannot say: but it is mentioned in the Bible long before helmets or other defensive armour. It is the only defensive armour mentioned in the books of Moses. The Egyptians as usual claim the honour of the invention; and before it was discovered, men probably endeavoured to break the force of blows by investing-as Diodorus tells us that the first kings of Egypt did their persons in the skins of lions and bulls. Among the means for this purpose, the superior convenience and efficacy of such a contrivance as a shield, could not fail soon to occur to the mind: and accordingly, there is hardly any nation in which the shield, in some form or other, is not employed. Savages, who have not the least idea of such defences as the helmet or cuirass, are yet seldom found without the shield.

There are three, if not four, sorts of shields mentioned in Scripture; or, at least, there are four names by which they are distinguished. The largest seems to be that called tzinnah, which was twice the size of the ordinary shield, as we learn from 1 Kings x. 16, 17; 2 Chron. ix. 16, where 600 shekels of beaten gold were employed in the construction of the one, and 300 shekels of the other. Formidable as this weight of metal for the tzinnah is, it probably does not give an approximating idea of its full weight, and still less of its size, as shields were almost never wholly of metal, but were of wood or skin covered with metal. We may suppose the tzinnah to answer to the larger kind of shields which were used in ancient nations. Concerning these and other ancient arms there are very complete indications in Homer's Iliad. Among his heroes, as well as in other times and nations, these larger shields were chiefly used by persons fighting on foot. Their length was nearly equal to that of a man, as

LARGE EGYPTIAN SHIELD.

we gather from several passages in that old poet: thus, he says of Hector :

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'So saying, the hero went, and as he strode, The bull-skin border of his bossy shield Smote on his heels, and on his neck behind. There are some specimens of such large shields among the paintings of the ancient Egyptians; and being measured with the figures of the warriors who bear them, they are found to be as high as from the heel to the neck. They do not often occur in the paintings, and are of a different shape from those in common use, being broader in proportion to their length, and not being rounded at the summit, but pointed, something like a Gothic arch. The great size of the larger shields is also implied in the intimations which we find of the bodies of the slain being carried on a shield; as in the famous injunction of the Spartan mother to her son, Either bring back this buckler, or be brought back upon it.' This refers also to the sentiment of honour connected with the preservation of the shield. It was natural enough for a man, when escaping, to desire to disencumber himself of such a burden and incumbrance as the larger kinds of shields were; and therefore the sentiment of honour was brought in, which made it disgraceful to lose the shield under any circumstances. The civilized Greeks and Romans, and the barbarous Germans, equally shared this sentiment. Among the latter, those who left their shields in the enemy's power, were excluded from civil and religious privileges, and often sought a release from ignominy in a voluntary death. The Hebrews participated in this feeling; and David, in his fine elegiac ode on the death of Saul and Jonathan, does not omit to mention this among the subjects of national regret, Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither let there be rain, upon you, nor fields of offerings: for there the shield of the mighty is vilely cast away? (2 Sam. i. 21.)

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The length of these shields seems to shew that they were either oblong or oval; and that they were hollow, which implies external convexity, we gather from their being described as 'enclosing' or 'encompassing' the body. Homer has such expressions, and so has David (With favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield,' Ps. v. 12), which seems to prove the analogy in this respect. Tyrtæus, in one of his hymns still extant, is very precise on this point: The warrior stands in the contest firm upon both feet: the hollow of the spacious shield covering, below, his sides and thighs, and his breast and his shoulders above.' The manner in which these large heavy shields were used may be collected by a comparison of the different passages in Homer. They were supported by a leathern thong which crossed the breast. So Agamemnon advises the warriors to 'Brace well their shields,' and foretels that before the approaching battle is over

Every buckler's thong

Shall sweat on the toil'd bosom.'

And so in the battle itself, Pallas finds Diomede beside his chariot,

'Cooling the wound inflicted by the shaft
Of Pandarus; for it had long endured
The chafe and sultry pressure of the belt,
That bore his ample shield.'

His wound was on the right shoulder; whence we may infer that the belt hung from that shoulder, and crossed the breast to the left side, where it was attached to the shield, which could, of course, be moved at pleasure, behind, or in front. Lighter shields had sometimes a thong fastened to the handle, by which they were hung round the neck, and carried in any convenient position when not in use,-upon the arm, at the back, or even on the hip. In action, and indeed often out of action, shields of different sizes were carried and swayed by means of a handle fixed to its inner surface; or, if large, by two loops or handles, through one of which the arm was passed while the hand grasped the other. Among the Egyptians, the thong by which the shield was hung at the back, so high that its top rose above the head of the bearer, passed over the right shoulder and under the left arm. The

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