touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and there rose up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. Then the angel of the LORD departed out of his sight.

22 And when Gideon perceived that he was an angel of the LORD, Gideon said, Alas, O LORD God! 1°for because I have seen an angel of the LORD face to face.

and because he hath cut down the grove that was by it.

31 And Joash said unto all that stood against him, Will ye plead for Baal? will ye save him? he that will plead for him, let him be put to death whilst it is yet morning: if he be a god, let him plead for himself, because one hath cast down his altar.

32 Therefore on that day he called him

24 Then Gideon built an altar there unto the LORD, and called it "Jehovah-shalom: unto this day it is yet in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

25¶ And it came to pass the same night, that the LORD said unto him, Take thy father's young bullock, "even the second bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath, and cut down the grove that is by it:

26 And build an altar unto the LORD thy God upon the top of this "rock, in the ordered place, and take the second bullock, and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the grove which thou shalt cut down.

27 Then Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as the LORD had said unto him and so it was, because he feared his father's houshold, and the men of the city, that he could not do it by day, that he did it by night.

28 And when the men of the city arose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was cast down, and the grove was cut down that was by it, and the second bullock was offered upon the altar that was built.

29 And they said one to another, Who hath done this thing? And when they enquired and asked, they said, Gideon the son of Joash hath done this thing.

30 Then the men of the city said unto Joash, Bring out thy son, that he may die: because he hath cast down the altar of Baal,

10 Exod. 33. 20. Chap. 13. 22. 14 Or, in an orderly manner.

15 Heb. clothed.

him, because he hath thrown down his altar.

33 Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the children of the east were gathered together, and went over, and pitched in the valley of Jezreel.

34 But the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet; and Abiezer was gathered after him.

17.

35 And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh; who also was gathered after him: and he sent messengers unto Asher, and unto Zebulun, and unto Naphtali; and they came up to meet them.

36 And Gideon said unto God, If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said,

37 Behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand as thou hast said.

38 And it was so: for he rose up early on the morrow, and thrust the fleece together, and wringed the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water.

39 And Gideon said unto God, 18 Let not thine anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once: let me prove, I pray thee, but this once with the fleece; let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew.

40 And God did so that night: for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground.

Verse 2. Made them dens.'-That is, prepared or fitted up as residences the dens and caves of the mountains. They did not make them de novo in the sense of cutting out, excavating, or constructing them, for it is said they were already in the mountains; but they so worked upon them as to adapt them for dwelling-places and strongholds against their enemies.

-Caves.'-See the note on Gen. xix. 30. Let us add a very appropriate incident here, as related by William of Tyre. When Baldwin I. presented himself with some troops before Askelon, the citizens were afraid to come out to give him battle. On this, finding it would be of no

advantage to remain there, he ranged about the plains between the mountains and the sea, and found villages whose inhabitants having left their houses had retired with their wives and children, their flocks and herds, into subterraneous caves. This also illustrates ch. v. 7.

3. When Israel had sown.'-It will be recollected that the Midianites were chiefly wandering herdsmen--that is, just such a people as the Bedouin Arabs are at the present day. The oppression to which the Israelites were at this time subject, was, therefore, of a very different nature from those which they had previously experienced; and from the minute and expressive details which are given, we dis33

cover, without difficulty, that they had never before experienced anything so grievous. Under this view let us illustrate these details by the present conduct of the Bedouins towards cultivators.

4. Encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth .... and left no sustenance for Israel.'-It may be stated as a maxim, that whenever the nomade is master of the cultivator, the impoverishment and ultimate ruin of the latter are inevitable. The Bedouin Arabs come up from their deserts in the spring, and perhaps remain through the summer in the territories of those cultivators who are so unfortunate as to lie at their mercy. If there is not an established understanding between the nomades and the cultivators, as to the proportion which the latter are to pay for exemption, the Bedouins encamp and pasture their cattle in the cultivated grounds, after securing such corn and other vegetable products as they may happen to require for their own use during the remainder of the year. Thus the 'increase of the earth is destroyed,' and no sustenance' remains to reward the cultivator for the labour and patience he has spent on its production.

• Neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass.'-The Bedouins, when thus oppressing the cultivator, seize all the cattle that are brought abroad, and add them to their own flocks and herds; and as it is impossible and useless to keep them continually in confinement, the inhabitants soon become deprived of all their cattle, like the Israelites. Even their persons are not safe; as the Bedouins will not scruple to rob of his clothes and property any person whom they can find beyond the protection which the walls of the towns and villages afford,-if they do not kill him, or detain him as a prisoner till his friends have been induced to pay heavily for his ransom. We do not know whether the Midianites entered the towns. It is possible that they did not, as their visits were annual, and they do not appear to have taken or occupied any towns. This aggravation was not necessary to reduce the people to ruin, and oblige them to relinquish their paternal fields and pleasant homes, to retire to the dens which are in the mountains.' doubtless the Midianites could enter the towns, and destroy and plunder at pleasure such property as the fugitives had left behind. It is possible that the Israelites returned to their homes for the season after the invaders had withdrawn for the year. The nomades usually come towards the end of April or beginning of May, and remain till September. In the period of their absence, some useful products might be raised, to eke out a subsistence during the period of their stay, and perhaps part of the barley harvest might in a favourable season be got in and carried off to the mountains before the Midianites arrived. This miserable state of things could not long be borne; and accordingly we find that the period in which the Israelites were subject to this urgent oppression of the Midianites was shorter than that in which any other of their oppressors tyrannized over them.

Then

In Western Asia, those cultivators who are subject to such annual incursions generally make a compromise with the invaders, agreeing to pay them a heavy tribute, on the condition that the harvests shall not be touched, or the cattle driven off. Even powerful communities, which might be able to cope with the Bedouins, often enter into a compromise of this sort, to prevent the necessity for continual warfare and watchfulness. With these, the arrangement is a matter of convenience; but miserable is the condition of those with whom it is a matter of necessity, and to whom it is the only alternative on which they can secure a scanty subsistence from their own fields. The tribute, usually paid in produce, is generally very heavy; besides which the chiefs expect extraordinary presents, and what is received in one year as a present, is certain to be exacted in the next year as a right. Thus the pressure accumulates till it can no longer be borne; cultivation is then relinquished, and whole settlements are abandoned by their inhabitants, who disperse themselves into other villages or towns, or form a new settlement where they hope to be more at ease. This does not perhaps often happen; but individual families are continually changing

one village for another, in the hope of that relief which they can nowhere find. In the Hauran, for instance, as described by Burckhardt, very few individuals die in the villages in which they were born. This continued wandering,' says that traveller, is one of the principal reasons why no village in the Hauran has either orchards, or fruit trees, or gardens for the growth of vegetables. "Shall we sow for strangers ?" was the answer of a Fellah, to whom I once spoke on the subject, and who by the word "strangers meant both the succeeding inhabitants and the Arabs who visit the Hauran in the spring and summer.' Even in the pashalic of Bagdad, the government of which is enabled in ordinary circumstances to keep the Arabian tribes of his territory in some degree of order, no persons dare undertake the cultivation of the soil at any considerable distance from the city, except the Seids, who claim to be descended from Mohammed, and the supposed sanctity of whose character renders them comparatively secure from depredation. Yet even they are often obliged to erect a fort on their grounds, in which a strong guard is stationed at the time of harvest. These details will help to shew the distressing situation of cultivators when exposed to the oppression of pastoral tribes.

5. Grasshoppers.'-Rather, locusts'-a most expressive comparison.

11. Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.'-This is a most expressive illustration of the preceding remarks. Gideon was obliged to thresh his wheat in a small quantity, and in an unusual place, to conceal it from the Midianites. This shews that the oppression of the Hebrews from the Midianites was in the severest form, seeing that they could not retain any part of their own produce except by stealth. The smallness of the quantity is shewn by the manner in which it is threshed, which was not with cattle, as usual with large quantities, but by means of the flail, which was seldom employed but in threshing small quantities. And then the threshing was near the winepress, that is, in ground appropriated to another purpose. The flail also falling on corn placed on the dead ground, not on a boarded floor as with us, made but little noise, whereas the bellowing of the oxen might, in the other case, have led to detection. It will be observed that this threshing-ground was in the open air, else Gideon could not have expected dew to fall on the ground, or on the flecce which he spread out there (vv. 37-40). [APPENDIX, No. 25.]

15. My family is poor.'-Literally, 'my thousand is the meanest' or 'poorest.'-From Exod. xviii. 25, it appears that the Israelites were divided into tens, fifties, hundreds, and thousands-a division recognised in Micah v. 2: Thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah,' etc. These thousands' embraced, of course, numerous families, and the assertion of Gideon seems to be, that the thousand to which his belonged had become not only much diminished in numbers, but also impoverished in resources, so that they could do but little towards withstanding an enemy.

And I am the least in my father's house.'-From which it would seem that he was either the youngest, or in his own apprehension the least competent for the task proposed to him. It would represent himself as wanting in the ability, rank, and influence which could alone be expected to induce his countrymen to join his standard against the Midianites.

19. The flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot. The circumstances of this entertainment are, to a considerable extent, illustrated by the notes to Gen. xviii. The broth is the most peculiar circumstance of this hastily prepared meal. It leaves us to infer, either that Gideon boiled or stewed the kid, and served up the meat and soup separately, or else that he stewed one part of the kid, and roasted or broiled the other. Both methods are consonant to Oriental usages; and perhaps the latter is the best hypothesis, as the animal thus divided might be the more speedily dressed. In this case, the roasted part was probably prepared in the most usual way of providing a hasty dish,—that is, by cutting the meat into small pieces,

several of which are strung upon a skewer, like larks, and so roasted, or rather broiled: as several of these skewers of meat can be dressed together, a meal may in this way be very soon prepared. This dish is called kaboob, and is very common in Western Asia. When meat is thus dressed in two ways, the stew is generally intended for immediate use, and the kaboob for a future meal, or for the traveller to carry with him for his refreshment on the way. As Gideon brought the meat, as distinguished from the 'broth,' in a basket, it was probably intended by him that the stranger should take it away with him in that basket for his future use. This was a proper mark of careful hospitality and attention. The basket was probably a small hand-basket made of palm-leaves or rushes.

We

25. The second bullock.'-Commentators are perplexed about the description of this bullock as the 'second. would hazard a conjecture, that as the Midianites took away all the cattle of the Hebrews that they could lay hands on, Gideon's father had very few cattle, the second of which, in point of age, he is directed to offer as the fittest for sacrifice. It is singular that one of seven years old should be selected, three years being the usual age. Was it with reference to the seven years which the oppression of the Midianites had lasted? or, was it that this bullock, although seven years old, was the youngest above three years of age, and therefore the most proper for sacrifice? This alone would imply how slender the herd of Joash had become. Perhaps he had but two bullocks above three years of age, this being the second of the two. - The grove.-The word translated grove' here and elsewhere is Nasherah, and the rendering is after the Septuagint. It has, however, been much doubted whether this be the real signification of the word; and the best Hebrew scholars of this and the last age have rejected the interpretation. The reasons against it are of great weight. It is urged that the word almost always occurs with other words denoting idols and statues of idols; that the verbs which are employed to denote the making of an Asherah are incompatible with the idea of a grove, being such as to build, to shape, to erect; that the words used to denote its destruction are such as breaking to pieces, subverting; that the image of Asherah is described in 2 Kings xxi. 7, as being placed in the temple; and that Asherah is coupled with Baal in the same way that Ashtoreth is in Judg. ii. 13; x. 6; 1 Kings xviii. 19; 2 Kings xxiii. 4, and particularly in Judg. ii. 13; iii. 7, where the plural form of both words may be regarded as of itself denoting images

of this goddess. The signification 'grove' is indeed utterly incongruous with 2 Kings xvii. 10, where we read of 'setting up groves under every green tree.' Moreover, even the Septuagint, which may be regarded as the source of this strange interpretation, renders the word by 'Astarte' in 2 Chron. xv. 16 (as the Vulgate has done in Judg. iii, 7), and conversely renders 'Ashtoreth' by 'groves' in 1 Sam. vii. 3. On the strength of these arguments most modern Biblical critics conceive that Asherah is but a name for Ashtoreth, and that it more especially denotes the relation of that goddess to the planet Venus: for although the pri mary relation of Baal and Ashtoreth was to the sun and moon, they came in the course of time to be connected in the religious conceptions of the Syro-Arabians with the planets Jupiter and Venus as the two stars of good fortune. 31. Will ye plead for Baal?' etc.-The meaning of Gideon's father is certainly not very clearly produced in this translation of his speech. What he means to say, according to the original, and the best versions, is to the effect, Is it for you to become the avengers of [or to contend for] Baal? If he be, as you say, a god, he must be well able to avenge [or contend for] himself, and his insulter, even should ye spare him, will be found dead by break of day. If, therefore, he be a god, let him avenge himself upon [or contend with] the man who hath cast down his altar.

32. 'Jerubbaal.-The name is derived from the burden of his father's speech, Let Baal avenge,' or, as some interpret, 'Let Baal contend.'

38. A bowl full of water.'-See the note on Gen. xxvii. 28, which will partly explain what seems to us extraordinary in this abundant dew. It will be observed, that we are to look for the miracle in its having fallen at one time upon the fleece, without any on the floor, and that, another time, the fleece remained dry while the ground was wet with dew. The quantity also may have been more than usually abundant; but less so than would seem to us in regions where dews fall lightly. We remember, while travelling in North-western Asia, to have found all the baggage, which had been left in the open air, so wet, when we came forth from the tent in the morning, that it seemed to have been exposed to heavy rain, and we could with difficulty believe that no rain had fallen. So also, when sleeping in the open air, the sheep-skin cloak which served for a covering has been found in the morning scarcely less wet than if it had been immersed in water. [Verse 25, APPENDIX, No. 26.]

CHAPTER VII.

7 Gideon's army of two and thirty thousand is brought to three hundred. 13 He is encouraged by the dream and interpretation of the barley cake. 16 His stratagem of trumpets and lamps in pitchers. 25 The Ephraimites take Oreb and Zeeb.

THEN Jerubbaal, who is Gideon, and all the people that were with him, rose up early, and pitched beside the well of Harod: so that the host of the Midianites were on the north side of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley.

2 And the LORD said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me.

3 Now therefore go to, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, 'Whosoever is fearful

and afraid, let him return and depart early from mount Gilead. And there returned of the people twenty and two thousand; and there remained ten thousand.

4 And the LORD said unto Gideon, The people are yet too many; bring them down unto the water, and I will try them for thee there: and it shall be, that of whom I say unto thee, This shall go with thee, the same shall with thee; and of whomsoever I go say thee, This shall not go with thee, the same shall not go.

unto

5 So he brought down the people unto the water: and the LORD said unto Gideon, Every one that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself; likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink.

6 And the number of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, were three hundred men but all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water.

7 And the LORD said unto Gideon, By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand and let all the other people go every man unto his place.

:

8 So the people took victuals in their hand, and their trumpets: and he sent all the rest of Israel every man unto his tent, and retained those three hundred men: and the host of Midian was beneath him in the valley.

9 And it came to pass the same night, that the LORD said unto him, Arise, get thee down unto the host; for I have delivered it into thine hand.

10 But if thou fear to go down, go thou with Phurah thy servant down to the host:

11 And thou shalt hear what they say; and afterward shall thine hands be strengthened to go down unto the host. Then went he down with Phurah his servant unto the outside of the armed men that were in the host.

12 And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the sea side for multitude.

13 And when Gideon was come, behold, there was a man that told a dream unto his fellow, and said, Behold, I dreamed a dream, and, lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came unto a tent, and smote it that it fell, and overturned it, that the tent lay along.

14 And his fellow answered and said, This is nothing else save the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel: for into his hand hath God delivered Midian, and all the host.

15 And it was so, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream, and 'the interpretation thereof, that he worshipped, and returned into the host of Israel, and said, Arise; for the LORD hath delivered into your hand the host of Midian.

16 ¶ And he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a trumpet in every man's hand, with empty pitchers, and "lamps within the pitchers.

17 And he said unto them, Look on ine, and do likewise: and, behold, when I come to the outside of the camp, it shall be that, as I do, so shall ye do.

18 When I blow with a trumpet, I and all that are with me, then blow ye the trumpets also on every side of all the camp, and say, The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon.

19 So Gideon, and the hundred men that were with him, came unto the outside of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch; and they had but newly set the watch and they blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers that were in their hands.

20 And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal: and they cried, The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon.

21 And they stood every man in his place round about the camp: and all the host ran, and cried, and fled.

22 And the three hundred blew the trumpets, and the LORD set every man's sword against his fellow, even throughout all the host and the host fled to Bethshittah in Zererath, and to the 'border of Abel-meholah, unto Tabbath.

23 And the men of Israel gathered themselves together out of Naphtali, and out of Asher, and out of all Manasseh, and pursued after the Midianites.

24 And Gideon sent messengers throughout all mount Ephraim, saying, Come down against the Midianites, and take before them the waters unto Beth-barah and Jordan. Then all the men of Ephraim gathered themselves together, and took the waters unto Beth-barah and Jordan.

Verse 1. The well of Harod.'-This well or fountain was situated not far from Gilboa, on the borders of Manasseh. It is probably the same which is mentioned in 1 Sam. xxix. Î. As the word Harod means 'fear,' or 'trembling,' it is likely that it obtained its name either

from the panic which here seized the Midianites, or, still more probably, from the fear which induced many of those who had joined Gideon's standard to turn back from that place, as related in v. 3, where indeed the very word occurs. [See 2 Sam. xxiii. 25, where Harodites are spoken of.]

CHAP. VII.]

6. Lapped, putting their hand to their mouth. . bowed down upon their knees to drink water.'-These two modes of action have been differently understood, and the first in particular has been the subject of various interpretations. The dog drinks by shaping the end of his long thin tongue into the form of a spoon, which it rapidly introduces into, and withdraws from, the water, throwing each time a spoonful of the fluid into its mouth. The tongue of man is not adapted to this use; and it is physically impossible for a man, therefore, to lap, literally, as a dog laps. The true explanation, probably, is, that these men, instead of kneeling down to take a long draught, or successive draughts, from the water, employed their hand as the dog employs its tongue--that is, forming it into a hollow spoon, and dipping water with it from the stream. We have often seen it done, and the comparison to the lapping of a dog spontaneously occurred to our mind. Practice gives a peculiar tact in this mode of drinking; and the interchange of the hand between the water and the mouth is so rapidly managed as to be comparable to that of the dog's tongue in similar circumstances. Besides, the water is not usually sucked out of the hand into the mouth, but, by a peculiar knack, is jerked into the mouth, before the hand is brought close to it, so that the hand is approaching with a fresh supply almost before the preceding has been swallowed: this is another resemblance to the action of a dog's tongue. When travelling with small caravans, we have had opportunities of seeing both processes. On coming to water, a person who wishes to drink cannot stop the whole party to wait for him; and therefore, if on foot, any delay would oblige him to unusual exertion in order to overtake his party. Therefore he drinks in the manner we have described; and has satisfied his thirst in much less time than one who, having more leisure, or being disposed to more deliberate enjoyment, looks out for a place where he may kneel or lie down to bring his mouth in contact with the water, and imbibe long and slow draughts of the pleasant fluid. This consumes so much time, that few but those who are mounted indulge in it, as they can ride on before and satisfy themselves by the time their party comes up, or, if they linger behind after it has passed on, can easily overtake it again. This last was the course usually adopted by the writer and other Europeans, who were unprovided with drinking vessels, and to whom the difference of time was of no importance; as they were not practised in that facile and cleanly use of the hand in drinking which was so easy to the natives, and which scarcely interrupted their progress. This explanation may help to shew how the distinction operated, and why those who 'lapped, putting their hand to their mouth,' were considered to evince an alacrity and readiness for action which peculiarly fitted them for the service on which Gideon was engaged.

10. Go thou with Phurah thy servant down to the host.' --The ideas of the Hebrews concerning the character of a spy were very different from those which prevail in modern Europe. The office was usually undertaken either by the commander-in-chief himself, or by some other person of high consideration. Joshua and Caleb were among those sent as spies into Canaan; and now Gideon is instructed to undertake the same office. It was much the same among the Greeks: indeed there are some lines in the tenth book of the Iliad which seem rather a striking illustration of this passage. In a night consultation among the Grecian kings and chiefs, about the operations of the following day, Nestor inquired whether there was no chief whom the prospect of the glorious recompense of

renown

'Extensive as the heav'ns, and fair reward,'

would not induce to undertake the perilous duty of proceeding as a spy to the Trojan camp? The task was accepted by Diomede in these words:

I, Nestor, feel such courage; and myself
Will enter Ilium's host, encamp'd so nigh:
But shall adventure with a livelier hope,

[B.C. 1249.

And be embolden'd much, some valiant friend
Advent'ring with me; for a friend may spy
Advantage ere myself, and may advise
Its happiest uses overseen by me.

He ceased, and willing to partake his toils
Arose no few.'

Among these were some of the most distinguished princes in the host, as both the Ajaxes, Menelaus, and Ulysses. From the varions candidates for the distinction, Agamemnon advised Diomede to select whichever he considered the most deserving and best able to assist him, without respect to pedigree or power. He accordingly chose Ulysses; and the two proceeded together on their glorious enterprise. The sequel is minutely related. After gaining some information by the way from a counter-spy, whom they afterwards slew, they proceeded to the place where the Thracian allies of the Trojans lay encamped.

"They, wearied, slept profound; beside them lay,
In triple order regular arranged,

Their radiant armour, and their steeds in pairs.' Among the sleepers, the two illustrious spies committed terrible havoc, and returned safely, and with rich spoil and important intelligence, to their own camp.

Every one will also recollect the popularly-known instance, in our own history, of king Alfred, who did not think it beneath his character to act as a spy, and who, under the disguise of a harper, went to the camp of the Danes, and remained there several days, caressed and unsuspected, making observations and collecting information which tended much to the success of his subsequent enterprises.

12. Like grasshoppers.'-Rather, like locusts,' which is here far more significant.

- ' And their camels.'-This alone indicates the nomade or semi-nomade character of the Midianites. See the note on Num. xxxi. 2. That the Midianites abounded in camels at a comparatively late period, appears from Isa. lx. 6; and indeed we generally hear something about camels whenever we meet with this people in Scripture.

13. A cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came unto a tent . . . and overturned it!To understand this, it is necessary to recollect that Gideon's force was in the hill of Moreh, and that the Midianites were below in the valley. The barley-cake which the man saw in his dream, doubtless seemed to roll down the hill into the valley, overturning the tent with which it came in contact. This naturally enough connected it with Gideon, nor less so the apparent inadequacy of the cause to produce this result. If it had been a great stone, it would have been no wonder that the tent had been overturned by it; but that it should be overturned by a barleycake seemed as little likely, in human probability, as that Gideon with his little band should overthrow the vast host of Midian. That it was not only a cake, but a barley-cake, seems a circumstance designed to shew more strongly the insignificance of the cause. And that it was so understood, seems to imply that wheat bread had already become the substantial food of the people, barley having become limited in its use as the food of cattle, and of the poorest classes of the community. It is generally stated, by old writers, that the use of barley was known before that of wheat; but it gradually sunk in importance when wheat came into extensive use; so that ideas of poverty and degradation became associated with cakes of barley. Among the Romans, cohorts and individual soldiers who misconducted themselves were, among other punishments, allowed only barley bread for food, instead of wheat; whence, among them also, bread of barley was associated with ideas of dishonour and insignificance.

16. 'Pitchers.'-Made of earthenware, so as to be easily broken. They were probably of the forms in use among the ancient Egyptians, as represented in the annexed engraving, some of which were very well suited to the purpose for which they were on this occasion employed, namely, for containing the lights until the proper time came for disclosing them.