says Burckhardt, a boy would feel himself insulted were any one to say, "Go and drive your father's sheep to pas"You ture;" these words, in his opinion, would signify, are no better than a girl." These young women set out before sunrise, three or four together, carrying some water and victuals with them, and they do not return until late in the evening. Throughout the day they continue exposed to the sun, watching the sheep with great care, for they are sure of being severely beaten by their father should any be lost. These young women are in general civil to persons who pass by, and ready enough to share with them their victuals and milk. They are fully able to protect their flocks against any ordinary depredation or danger, for their way of life makes them as hardy and vigorous as the men.

- for she kept them.'-Nachmanides says here: 'This shews that Laban's flocks were altogether under the care of Rachel, whose habitual occupation it was to tend them, and that Leah did not at any time join her, either because the heat of the sun might prove injurious to her eyes, or on account of her more advanced age, which rendered it proper that she should be employed within the house.'

17. Leah was tender eyed.'- Many commentators have been of opinion that the intention of this verse is to describe the respective perfections of each sister; that Leah had soft and beautiful eyes, but that Rachel excelled her in form and feature. The more general interpretation, however, is that Leah had weak or diseased eyes, which the Orientals regard as a very great defect. We think the latter opinion is best supported by the original word nie, which usually indicates something tender, weak, or delicate.

18. I will serve thee seven years for Rachel thy younger daughter.'-We have already remarked on the Oriental custom for the bridegroom to make payments proportioned to his means to the parents of the bride, as well as to settle a dowry upon herself. For a more explicit account of this matter, see the note on ch. xxxiv. Meanwhile this text leads us to remark, that when the young man, although otherwise an unexceptionable match, had no property which enabled him to furnish the requisite payments and presents, some service or enterprise was occasionally accepted from the suitor as an equivalent. Thus Jacob, being destitute of property, and having no other prospect than a younger brother's share in the inheritance of his father, offers seven years' service as an equivalent for what Laban might otherwise have expected in parting with his daughter. In a similar case, when another unprovided younger brother, David, loved Michal, the daughter of King Saul, the father proposed to the suitor, and actually accepted from him, a successful enterprise against the Philistines as an equivalent for the ordinary advantages which the father derived from the marriage of his daughter (1 Sam. xviii. 25). The usage of an unprovided young man serving the father, whose daughter he sought in marriage, has been found by travellers to exist in many countries distant from each other. Out of various illustrations which we could quote, we shall content ourselves with one mentioned in Burckhardt's Travels in Syria, which not only affords a striking parallel, but is the more interesting from its occurring at no very great distance from the scene of patriarchal narrative. In his account of the inhabitants of the Haouran, a region south of Damascus, this traveller says, 'I once met with a young man who had served eight years for his food only; at the expiration of that period he obtained in marriage the daughter of his master, for whom he would otherwise have had to pay seven or eight hundred piasters. When I saw him he had been married three years; but he complained bitterly of his father-in-law, who continued to require of him the performance of the most servile offices without paying him anything, and thus prevented him from setting up for himself and his family.' In his account of Kerak, the same traveller describes it as a customary thing for a young man without property to serve the father five or six years, as a menial servant, in compensation for the price of the girl. Thus Jacob also served seven years for Rachel; and it was well for him that, according to the

touching and beautiful expression of the text, these seven years seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he bore to her.'

19. It is better that I give her to thee, than that I should give her to another man.'—We have already_remarked, that the propriety of giving a female in marriage to the nearest relation who can lawfully marry her, is to this day generally admitted among the Bedouin Arabs and other Oriental tribes. The same principle was certainly in operation in the patriarchal times; but its close application in the present instance seems to have escaped notice. It will be observed that Jacob was the first cousin tc Laban's daughters, and, according to existing Arab usages, he had in that character the best possible claim to them, or to one of them, in marriage. His elder brother, Esau, had perhaps in this view a preferable claim to the elder daughter, Leah; but Jacob, himself a younger brother, had an unquestionable claim to Rachel, the youngest daughter of Laban, and therefore, independently of his affection for her, it was quite in the customary course of things that he should apply for Rachel in the first instance. Among all the Bedouin Arabs at the present day, a man has the exclusive right to the hand of his first cousin; he is not obliged to marry her, but she cannot be married to another without his consent. The father of the girl cannot refuse him if he offers a reasonable payment, which is always something less than would be demanded from a stranger. For this, and much other information in the course of these notes, we are indebted to Burckhardt, whose work on the Bedouins supplies a valuable mass of information, the applicability of which to the illustration of the Scriptures does not appear to have been hitherto perceived.

24. And Laban gave unto his daughter Leah Zilpah his maid for an handmaid.'-It is still customary in the East for a father, who can afford it, to transfer to his daughter, on her marriage, some female slave of his household, who becomes her confidential domestic and humble friend in her new home, but not the less a slave. This slave forms a link between the old and new households, which often proves irksome to the husband; but he has little, if any, control over the female slaves in his establishment.

25. In the morning, behold, it was Leah.-To the European reader it must seem difficult to understand how such a deception as this could be effected. But it is seen to be quite feasible when we consider the marriage customs of the East. Among most of the people of Asia the bride is closely veiled during the marriage ceremonies, and remains so while conducted to her husband's house or tent. The Rev. John Hartley, in his Researches in Greece and the Levant, relates an anecdote of a young Armenian in Smyrna, who solicited in marriage a younger daughter who had obtained his preference. The girl's parents consented to the match; but when the time for solemnizing the marriage arrived, the eldest daughter was conducted by the parents to the altar, and the young man was quite unconsciously married to her. The deception was not discovered till it could not be rectified. Mr. Hartley adds, 'It was in a conversation with an Armenian of Smyrna that this fact was related to me. I naturally exclaimed, "Why, that is just the deception that was practised upon Jacob!" "What deception?" he exclaimed. As the Old Testament is not yet translated into any language with which the Armenians are familiar, he was ignorant of the story. Upon giving him a relation of Jacob's marriage, as it is related in Gen. xxix., he assented to it at once as a circumstance in no respect improbable.'

26. It must not be so done in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn.-It seems very likely that Laban was correct in this statement. His fault was, that he did not acquaint Jacob with the customs of the country before he made his bargain with him. The same usage still exists in many parts of the East. Mr. Hartley says that the father, who imposed upon a young man as related in the preceding note, excused his conduct in precisely the same way as Laban, alleging that custom did not warrant the marriage of the younger before the elder daughter. But perhaps this usage has the largest and most distinct

operation in India, where, as we learn from Halhed's translation of the Gentoo Laws, and from Mr. Roberts's Oriental Illustrations, the same custom is also observed in the case of younger brothers, but is not observed altogether so strictly as when females are concerned. We have heard of cases in which, when a man wished to obtain a younger daughter, he found it the best course to do all in his power to promote the previous marriage of her elder sister. A father also will often exert all his powers to get off his elder daughter, when a very advantageous and acceptable match for the younger is proposed to him. In India, when the elder daughter happens to be blind, deaf, or dumb, or particularly deformed, the observance of this rule is dispensed with.

27. Fulfil her week.'-We read that a great feast was made, after which Leah was consigned to Jacob. It is not said how long the feast lasted, but it was doubtless a week; and now Laban says in effect: Let there be another week of feasting for Rachel, after which she also shall be given to thee, and then thou shalt serve me yet other seven years.' It is evident that the marriage of Jacob with Leah and Rachel took place nearly at the same time. As to the seven days' feasting, the Rabbins acquaint us that this term was a matter of indispensable obligation upon all married men; and that they were to allow seven days for the marriage of every wife they took, even though they should marry several on the same day. In this case they had so many wedding weeks, successively, as they married wives. These seven days of rejoicing were commonly spent in the house of the woman's father, after which the bride was conducted in great state to her husband's house. Thus we read that Samson's wedding entertainment lasted seven full days (Judges xiv. 17, 18), and also that of Tobias (Tobit xi. 19). When the bride was a widow, the festivities lasted but three days. Similar practices have prevailed among other nations. The famous Arabian romance

of Antar, translated by Mr. Terrick Hamilton, is full of allusions to this custom.

31. Leah was hated.'-Dr. Turner and others endeavour to mitigate the force of this expression, by alleging that the word hatred' is sometimes employed to denote a lesser degree of affection, as in Deut. xxi. 15-17; Mal. i. 3, compared with Rom. ix. 13; Luke xiv. 6, &c. This is doubtless true; but there seems not much reason to think that the word occurs here in this its exceptional signification. Leah had been a party to the cruel fraud practised by Laban upon Jacob, in a matter in which his tenderest affections were concerned; and in that there was quite enough to awaken a dislike to her on his part, which could only be subdued or overcome by his viewing her as the mother of his sons. That Leah considered herself an object of aversion to her husband is evinced by her complaint in the next verse, and by the names which she gives to her sons.

32. Reuben.'-127. This name is composed of two words, N, behold a son,' which form paranomasiæ

raah רָאָה יְהוָה reu, with רְאוּ :with the sentiment she utters

Jehovah, the Lord hath looked,' and with "a beonyi, my affliction.' A remark of Dr. Philippson, quoted in De Sola's Version, has an important bearing upon this and other names-and they are many-in which the exact etymological connection between the name and the signification assigned to it, cannot be grammatically construed: 'It cannot be expected that names given from the impulse of the moment, and under the influence of strong excite ment, should preserve strict etymological precision. On the contrary, if the name preserves some resemblance in sound with the sentiment by which it has been dictated, that is to the full as much as can be expected or performed. This axiom must be borne in mind, not only with respect to this, but to most of the other names.'

AND when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die.

2 And Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel: and he said, Am I in God's stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?

3 And she said, Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; and she shall bear upon my knces, that I may also 'have children by her.

4 And she gave him Bilhah her handmaid to wife and Jacob went in unto her.

5 And Bilhah conceived and bare Jacob

a son.

11 And Leah said, A troop cometh and she called his name 'Gad.

12 And Zilpah Leah's maid bare Jacob a second son.

13 And Leah said, 'Happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed and she called his name Asher.

14 And Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them unto his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, Give me, I pray thee, of thy son's mandrakes.

15 And she said unto her, Is it a small matter that thou hast taken my husband? and

1 Heb. be built by her.

4 That is, my wrestling. 5 Called, Matth. 4. 13, Nephthalim. 8 That is, happy.

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wouldest thou take away my son's mandrakes also? And Rachel said, Therefore he shall lie with thee to night for thy son's mandrakes. 16 And Jacob came out of the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him, and said, Thou must come in unto me; for surely I have hired thee with my son's mandrakes. And he lay with her that night.

17 And God hearkened unto Leah, and she conceived, and bare Jacob the fifth son.

18 And Leah said, God hath given me my hire, because I have given my maiden to my husband and she called his name 'Issachar.

19 And Leah conceived again, and bare Jacob the sixth son.

20 And Leah said, God hath endued me with a good dowry; now will my husband dwell with me, because I have born him six sons and she called his name 1°Zebulun. 21 And afterwards she bare a daughter, and called her name "Dinah.

22 T And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her, and opened her womb. 23 And she conceived, and bare a son; and said, God hath taken away my reproach : 24 And she called his name Joseph; and said, The LORD shall add to me another son.

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25 ¶ And it came to pass, when Rachel had born Joseph, that Jacob said unto Laban, Send me away, that I may go unto mine own place, and to my country.

26 Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served thee, and let me go for thou knowest my service which I have done thee.

27 And Laban said unto him, I pray thee, if I have found favour in thine eyes, tarry: for I have learned by experience that the LORD hath blessed me for thy sake.

28 And he said, Appoint me thy wages, and I will give it.

29 And he said unto him, Thou knowest how I have served thee, and how thy cattle was with me.

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30 For it was little which thou hadst before I came, and it is now increased unto a multitude; and the Lord hath blessed thee since my coming and now when shall I provide for mine own house also?

:

31 And he said, What shall I give thee? And Jacob said, Thou shalt not give me any

9 That is, an hire.

thing: if thou wilt do this thing for again feed and keep thy flock:

me, I will

32 I will pass through all thy flock to day, removing from thence all the speckled and spotted cattle, and all the brown cattle among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats: and of such shall be my hire.

33 So shall my righteousness answer for me 15 in time to come, when it shall come for my hire before thy face: every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and brown among the sheep, that shall be counted stolen with me.

34 And Laban said, Behold, I would it might be according to thy word.

35 And he removed that day the he goats that were ringstraked and spotted, and all the she goats that were speckled and spotted, and every one that had some white in it, and all the brown among the sheep, and gave them into the hand of his sons.

36 And he set three days' journey betwixt himself and Jacob: and Jacob fed the rest of Laban's flocks.

37 And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chesnut tree; and pilled white strakes in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods.

38 And he set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks in the gutters in the watering troughs when the flocks came to drink, that they should conceive when they came to drink.

39 And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle ringstraked, speckled, and spotted.

40 And Jacob did separate the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the ringstraked, and all the brown in the flock of Laban; and he put his own flocks by themselves, and put them not unto Laban's cattle.

41 And it came to pass, whensoever the stronger cattle did conceive, that Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the cattle in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods.

42 But when the cattle were feeble, he put them not in so the feebler were Laban's, and the stronger Jacob's.

43 And the man increased exceedingly, and had much cattle, and maidservants, and menservants, and camels, and asses.

11 That is, judgment. 12 That is, adding.

13 Heb, to morrow.

Verse 1. When Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister.'-Her envy was no doubt sharpened in this case by the fact that Leah was her sister, and by the knowledge that she was herself the favourite and elected wife. She must have feared that she should lose her ascendancy over Jacob by the want of children. The natural domestic evils of polygamy must be rendered more intense when the wives are sisters; and this seems to be stated in the law as a reason why such marriages should not in future be contracted: Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister, to ver her, beside the other in her lifetime.' Jacob was, in a great measure, forced by circumstances into such a connection; but it does not appear that a marriage with two sisters at once, was at this time considered singular or improper. The Arabians, who retained many patriarchal usages which the law forbade to the Jews, continued the practice until the time of Mohammed, who declared such connections unlawful.

3. That I may also have children by her.'-This is similar to the case of Sarah giving Hagar to Abraham. Such things happen to this day in India and China, often with the full concurrence, and even at the request of the lawful wife when she is herself sterile, or when her children are dead, and she has ceased to hope for more.

14. Mandrakes.'-The word DN77 dudaim, in the plural form, occurs only in these verses and in Solomon's Song vii. 13. From the two passages together, we learn that the dudaim was collected in the fields; that they were fit for gathering at the time of the wheat harvest in Mesopotamia; that they were found also in Palestine; that they were noted for their peculiar odour; and that they were supposed to possess certain virtues in assisting productive conception. From this it is manifest that there is little to

MANDRAKX (Atropa Mandragora).

guide us in determining what plant is intended, especially as no similar name has been recognised in any of the cognate languages. Without wasting space in enumerating the interminable conjectures which have been offered, we may remark that the one which our authorized version offers, mandrakes,' exhibits the interpretation which has been most generally received, and which has at least as good claim to attention as any other. It has the sanction of the Septuagint, which in this place translates dudaim by λa uavdpayop@v, mandrake apples,' and in Solomon's

Song by oi uavdpayópai, mandrakes.' With this Oukelos and the Syriac version agree; and this concurrence of authorities, with the fact that the mandrake (Atropa mandragora) combines all the circumstances and traditions required for the dudaim, has given to the current interpretation its present prevalence. The following is the substance of the information concerning this plant collected by the present writer in his Physical Geography and Natural History of Palestine, pp. 264, 265. The mandrake abounds in Galilee, and yields ripe fruit in May. This plant has a long taper root, shaped like a parsnip, and almost of the same colour, but a little darker. This root runs three or four feet deep in the ground; and is sometimes single, but often divided into two or three branches (probably according to the age of the root). Immediately from the crown of this root rises a circle of leaves, as in the lettuce, which indeed they greatly resemble, except in the colour, which is of a darker green. This tuft of leaves is at first erect; but when they attain their full growth, they spread open, and lie upon the ground. They are more than a foot in length; and in the middle are four inches broad, growing narrow towards both ends. Among these come out the blossoms, which are of a purple colour in Palestine, but in this country of a greenish white; and this, with other circumstances, would suggest that the plant is somewhat varied by the difference of climate, by which in our own it has been divested of some of the qualities which constituted its claim to be regarded as the Hebrew dudaim. In Palestine, the fruit attains the size, and is of the colour of a small apple, ruddy, and of a most agreeable odour. Our guide,' says Mariti, thought us fools for suspecting it to be unwholesome. He ate of it freely himself; and it is generally valued by the inhabitants as exhilarating their spirits, and for its genial virtue' (Travels, ii. 195). When at Nazareth (May 16th), Hasselquist writes: What I found most remarkable in this village, was the great quantity of mandrakes that grew in a vale below it. I had not the pleasure to see the plant in blossom, the fruit now hanging ripe to the stem, which lay withered on the ground; but I got several roots, which I found it difficult to procure entire, as the inhabitants had no spades, but a kind of hoe, or ground-axe; with this they cut up the earth, and hurt the root, which in some plants descended six or eight feet under ground. From the season in which this mandrake blossoms and ripens its fruit, one might form a conjecture that it is Rachel's dudaim. These were brought her in the wheat harvest, which in Galilee is in the month of May, about this time, and the mandrake was now in fruit' (Travels, p. 160). He says he had not noticed it in Judæa; but it was there that Mariti observed it. This account, as far as it goes, agrees with that of the Abbate; but he adds that the Arabs call it by a name which signifies tufah-al-Shaitun, 'the devil's meat'-perhaps (but he does not say) from the character of its stimulating qualities, to which we have already alluded, and for which Maundrell also states that the chief priest of the Samaritans informed him the mandrake was still celebrated.

16. Leah went out to meet him.'-It is supposed by Abarbanel that each of Jacob's wives occupied separate apartments; and that wherever Jacob passed the night, there he also supped. Therefore Leah went forth to inform him that she had prepared for his reception. This is in accordance with the custom of the East; and we therefore prefer it to another interpretation which assumes that Jacob's general abode was in Rachel's apartments, from which it would not have been becoming in Leah to call him away, and she therefore goes forth to meet him, to conduct him to her own abode. But in fact a husband, in the East, has no power of showing such partiality in the distribution of his time and attentions as this latter explanation supposes. The usages of Western Asia, before and since Islam, are utterly opposed to it. Even Mohammed, who had nine wives, and was more attached to some of them than to others, spent his nights at their different houses, in regular order, which he durst not vary. But at length he ventured to put forth a pretended revelation permitting him

to dispense with this usage, and to spend his time where he pleased; which drew from Aayeshah the remark-which only her undoubted belief in the truth of these revelations prevents us from supposing sarcastic-I see nothing in which your Lord doth not hasten to please you; whatsoever you wish, he doeth.' It does not seem, however, that even this contrivance enabled him to break through the stern exactions of custom. He was in Aayeshah's house when seized with the illness of which he died; and feeling reluctant to move, or being, from failing memory, uncertain in the matter, he asked with some impatience, Where must I be to-morrow? where must I be to-morrow?' On which his wives agreed that he should be in the house of whichever of his wives he pleased. So,' says Aayeshah, who relates the anecdote, he remained in my house till he expired.' It also appears that, even when he went on a journey, Mohammed did not venture to select the wife he might himself have preferred, but, to satisfy the others, chose her by lot (Mischat ul-Masabih, ch. x.). Secondary wives, or slave-girls, were not entitled to the same consideration: but the Jewish writers are of opinion that both Leah and Rachel manumitted their bond women Zilpah and Bilhah when they introduced them to Jacob, and did not retain such authority over them as Sarah had retained over Hagar. These facts are worth knowing, as tending to illustrate the matrimonial position of Jacob, of the father of Samuel, and of other personages of Scripture history who had more than one wife.

my

20. Now will husband dwell with me, because I have born him six sons.'-Many reasons concur to render the possession of sons an object of great anxiety to women in the East. The text expresses one of those reasons. Sons being no less earnestly desired by the husband than by the wife, a woman who has given birth to sons acquires an influence and respectability, which strengthen with the number to which she becomes a mother. To be without sons, is not only a misfortune, but a disgrace to a woman; and her hold on the affections of her husband, and on her standing as his wife, is of a very feeble description. Divorces are easily effected in the East. An Arab has only to enunciate the simple words, ent taleka-thou art divorced' which, in whatever heat or anger spoken, constitute a legal divorce.

6

21. And afterwards she bare a daughter, and called her name Dinah.-The simplicity of this announcement, contrasted with the exuberant thankfulness and exultation which accompany the birth of sons, in this and the preceding chapter, is remarkably expressive to persons acquainted with the customs and feelings of the East. When there is a prospect of a child, both the parents hope and pray that it may be a son. All their desires centre in male offspring, which is everywhere regarded as the greatest of blessings; and the disappointment is most acute when the child proves to be a female. This is not that the possession of a daughter is in itself regarded as an evil, but because her birth disappoints the sanguine hopes which had been entertained of the greater blessing. Time enables the little creature to win her way to the hearts of her parents. But it is only time that can reconcile them to their disappointment; and, in the first instance, the household in which a female child has been born has the appearance of having been visited by some calamitous dispensation. Her birth is quite unmarked by the rejoicings and congratulations which greet the entrance of a son into the world, and every one is reluctant to announce the untoward event to the father; whereas, when the infant is a boy, the only question is who shall be foremost to bear to him the joyful tidings that a man-child is born into the world.'

31.If thou wilt do this thing for me, I will again feed and keep thy flock,' etc., to v. 36.-There is a difficulty in this passage which will not escape the notice of the careful reader. The terms of the agreement were that, in consideration for Jacob's services, Laban should allow to him all the sheep and goats of a certain description which should thereafter be born. The agreement refers to no present distribution of the flocks; yet we find Laban immediately selecting the animals of the description defined by Jacob,

and sending them three days' journey distant from the others, under the charge of his sons. Perhaps the first impression of the reader will be, that Laban, for the greater security, placed with his sons the animals of the class (parti-coloured) defined by Jacob, leaving with him those of one colour, and that from time to time an exchange was effected, the parti-coloured animals in the one-coloured flock of Laban, fed by Jacob, going to the parti-coloured flock of Jacob, fed by Laban's sons; and the one-coloured animals produced in Jacob's parti-coloured flock, in charge of Laban's sons, being transferred to the flock in charge of Jacob. But this hypothesis assumes that Laban made over to Jacob in the first instance all the parti-coloured animals in his flocks, whereas the agreement only states a prospective advantage. We have therefore no doubt that the solution offered by Dr. Adam Clarke is the most reasonable. He supposes that the separation was a stratagem of Laban, for the purpose of diminishing Jacob's chances as much as possible, by leaving him with a flock that did not contain a single animal of the sort to which he was to be entitled, and from which it might therefore be expected that the smallest possible proportion of parti-coloured animals would proceed. The counter stratagem of Jacob, and its result, appear in the sequel of the chapter.

The principle of this arrangement, that of the shepherd being paid by a certain proportion of the produce, still subsists in the same country; and the singular mode of determining the proportion is alone peculiar. We learn from Burckhardt that the Arabs of the Jebel Haouran (called the Ahl Jebel) are the shepherds of the people of the plains, who intrust them with their flocks during winter, to pasture among the rocks and mountains. In spring the Arabs restore the flocks to the proprietors, receiving for their trouble one-fourth of the lambs and kids, and a like proportion of the butter made from the milk during the spring months. This fact is further valuable as shewing the proportion which would be considered a fair recompense. That which accrued to Jacob under his contrivance must very greatly have exceeded this.

36. Three days' journey. The computation of distances by days' journies is often mentioned in Scripture, and is also found among Greek, Roman, and Arabian authors, while it is still the common mode of computation in the East. This sort of measurement is, from the nature of the thing, very fluctuating and uncertain. It must be generally understood as denoting the distance which a man can walk in one day; that is, in one of several successive days during a journey, which is necessarily less than the distance which a man can travel in one day, by a great or even an ordinary exertion, which he is not required to sustain on ensuing days. But the distance which a man can go in a day is affected by so many varying circumstances-such as the nature of the ground, the state of the roads, the time of the year, etc.-that it was soon found to be needful that there should be some standard, more or less fixed, for the measurement of an average day's journey. Authors of different ages and countries vary somewhat in their statement of this average: but the measurement most commonly given to a day's journey is 180 stadia, which we may regard as equal to twenty-three miles. This is very nearly the present estimate of a day's journey in the East. In our own experience, a day's journey was found to be exceedingly variable in popular use: but the average result of these variations was about twenty-three miles; and we usually expected that we had about so far to go, in order to reach any place which we were told was a day's journey distant. It is true that this was the walk of a horse; but it does not exceed the walking pace of a man, and we were always accompanied by men who for many successive days went the same distances on foot without apparent fatigue. Flocks of sheep travel more slowly, and it is therefore not likely that the days' journies in the present text were so long as these; that is, if they were the actual days' journies, and not a fixed measurement of distance derived from the walk of a man. The estimate of distances by hours is very usual in Western Asia; and as days are aggregates of hours, this measurement may afford corroborative evidence of the ex