A salt, dry flitch of bacon to prepare ; If they had fresh meat, 'twas delicious fare, DRYDEN. No. 700.-xxxviii. 8. The women who assembled at the door of the tabernacle.] A laver of brass was made of the mirrors of the women who thus assembled. Some have derived this from a custom of the Egyptian women, who used to go to the temple with a looking-glass in one hand, and a timbrel in the other. Vid. CYRIL de Adoratione in Spiritu et Virtute, tom. i, k 2. p. 64, No. 701.-LEVITICUS ii. 1. When any will offer a meat-offering unto the Lord, his offering shall be of fine flour. FLOUR of the finest sort formed a part of the sacrifical offerings not only of the Jews but of the Greeks likewise. Thus Homer represents Eumæus as acting. -Then on the board display'd The ready meal before Ulysses laid, With flour imbrown'd. This flour, says Dacier, was made of parched corn. When the ancients fed upon any thing that had not been offered in sacrifice, they sprinkled it with flour, which was used instead of the hallowed barley, with which they consecrated their victims. Since some honours were paid to the gods in all their feasts, this sprinkling of the flour by Eumæus was a religious act. Flour was sometimes used by the Greeks as a substitute for animals in their hecatombs. They invented a method of imposing upon the gods by offering one animal only, and for the remainder substituting little images of paste. No. 702.-ii. 1. And he shall pour oil upon it.] This was done to give the offering a grateful relish, according to Maimonides. The heathens used oil in their sacrifices, only not mixed with flour; but poured upon the flesh of the beast that was sacrificed, to make it burn the better upon the altar. So Virgil: Pingué superque oleum fundens ardentibus extis. En. vi. 254. Frankincense was also put thereon. This was to make a sweet odour in the court of the tabernacle, which otherwise would have been offensive by reason of the flesh which was daily burned there. This was common also in the sacrifices of the Gentiles, as appears by a passage in Ovid: Da mihi thura, puer, pingues facientia flammas, L. v. de Tristibus, Eleg. v 11. No. 703.-vi. 13. It shall never go out.] This cir cumstance was so famous, that it was imitated by the Gentiles, who thought it ominous to have their sacred fire go out; and therefore appointed persons to watch and keep it perpetually burning. The great business of the vestal virgins at Rome was to look after what was called the eternal fire; imagining that the extinction of it purported the destruction of the city. The Greeks also preserved an inextinguishable fire at Delphi; so did the Persians, and many other people. See Bochart Hieroz, p. i. lib. 2. cap. 35. and Oriental Customs, No. 51. the Persians took great care to preserve a continual fire. 2. Curtius, giving an account of the march of Darius's army, says, the fire which they called eternal was carried before them on silver altars; the Magi came after it, singing hymns after the Persian manner; and three hundred and sixty-five youths clothed in scarlet followed, according to the number of the days in the year. No. 704.-vii. 8. The priest shall have to himself the skin of the burnt-offering which he hath offered.] It is probable that Adam himself offered the first sacrifice, and had the skin given him by God, to make garments for himself and his wife. In conformity to this, the priests ever after had the skin of the whole burnt-offerings for their portion. This was a custom amongst the Gentiles, who gave the skins of their sacrifices to their priests; by whom they were employed to a superstitious use, by laying upon them in their temples, hoping to have future things revealed to them in their dreams. This Dilherrus hath observed from Virgil: -Huc dona sacerdos Quum tulit, et cæsarum ovium sub nocte silenti En. vii. 1. 86. "Hither when the priest had brought offerings, and in the deep silence of night laid him down on the outspread skins of the victims slain, and disposed himself to sleep, he sees many visionary forms fluttering about in wondrous ways, hears various sounds, and enjoys interviews with the gods." We find the priests of Hercules pellibus in morem cincti (Virg. Æn. viii. 282.) clad in skins after their manner, and in Lucian (de Dea Syr. tom. ii. p. 913. edit. Bened.) we meet with a remarkable rite, of the offerer himself squatting on his knees, upon the skin of the sacrificed sheep, and putting the head and feet of the victim upon his own head. No. 705.-vii. 15, 16. And the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace-offerings for thanksgiving shall be eaten the same day that it is offered on the morrow also the remainder of it shall be eaten.-] The longest time allowed for eating the flesh of any of the Mosaic sacrifices was the day after that on which they were killed; the eating of it on the third day is declared to be an abomination. This precept may be thought to have been unnecessary in so warm a climate; but we are to remember that the drying of meat is often practised in those hot countries : that it is sometimes done with flesh killed on a religious account; and that this probably was the cause of the prohibition. The Mahometans who go in pilgrimage to Mecca are required to sacrifice sheep; part of which they eat; part they give to their friends, and part they dry for use at other times. HARMER, vol. iii. p. 157. No. 706-xi. 2. These are the beasts which ye shall eat.] The directions given by Moses in this chapter respecting clean and unclean beasts have a remarkable parallel in the laws of Menu. He forbids the brahmins eating the milk of a camel, or any quadruped with the. hoof not cloven. He orders to be shunned, quadru peds with uncloven hoofs; carnivorous birds, such as live in towns; birds that strike with their beaks; webfooted birds: those which wound with strong talons; those which dive to devour fish; all amphibious fisheaters; also tame hogs, and fish of every sort. There are a variety of other circumstantial prohibitions, connected with those already cited, of a nature very similar to this specimen. No. 707.-xi. 33. And every earthen vessel whereinto any of them falleth, whatsoever is in it shall be unclean, and ye shall break it.] The regard which the Jews pay to ceremonial purity is very great. The minutest attention is given by them to the vessels which are used in domestic economy, that they may avoid pollution. Leo of Modena informs us (page 8.) that "the vessels wherewith they dress their meat and serve it must all be bought new. They presume that some forbidden meats may have been dressed or put into them, and the fume may have pierced into the very substance of the vessel. If it be of metal or stone which |