garding the morning as the best time for beginning to drink wine, and seldom leave off till night. This often takes place in gardens and orchards, in pavilions, or under the shade of trees, with fruits at hand, and amid the perfume of flowers.

In the 'Thousand and One Nights,' we often read of removing the table of viands,' and bringing in 'the table of wine.' This is not usually the case now, the forbidden beverage being seldom introduced in general society either during or after meals, or at other times. Select parties are rather made up, as seems to have been frequently the case in Biblical times, for the express purpose of drinking wine. In modern Egypt, as Mr. Lane tells us, 'the table of wine is thus prepared: A round japanned tray, or a glass dish, is placed on a low stool-like table. On this are generally arranged two cut-glass jugs, one containing wine, and the other rocoglio, and sometimes two or more bottles besides; several small glasses are placed with these, and glass saucers of fresh and dried fruits, and perhaps pickles; lastly, two candles, and often a bunch of flowers stuck in a candlestick, are put upon the tray.'

In one place (xxv. 13), 'the cold of snow in the time of harvest' is named as 'a very pleasant thing.' This has suggested that the Hebrews, during their warm summers, were accustomed to cool their drinks with snow or ice. The supposition is highly probable, as the practice referred to is of great antiquity, and still prevails in the East wherever snow or ice can be obtained. The Persians, for instance, consume great quantities during summer, preserving it for the purpose in pits in the way particularly described by Chardin.1 Snow is also preserved when it can be procured, as they are of opinion that drinks cooled with snow are colder and more agreeable than those into which ice is put. They know, in fact, and have known for ages, as probably did the Israelites, -what we, with all our parade of science, have only lately discovered, that snow, stored away in mass, consolidates into an ice, colder and less easily melted than common ice, and

1 Voyages, iv. 15. Edit. Langles.

therefore preferable not only for convenience in storing, but for actual use. Here, then, we have a reason why snow rather than ice is mentioned in this proverb. We make no question that this snow, frozen or unfrozen, was used in substance like our own ices, as well as for mixing with drinks. We read the other day 'a tale of the Holy City,' entitled 'Zillah,' the author of which, although he falls into many strange errors, evinces generally a more extensive and accurate knowledge of ancient Jewish customs than many would think. In one place he describes refreshments as being served round in the palace of king Antigonus, some of which consisted of 'snow from Lebanon, preserved since the winter, and flavoured with perfumes, so that it bore a pretty close resemblance to our modern ices.' We have not been able to trace the authority for this statement, but the facts we have already stated leave us in no doubt of its accuracy.

Shortly after, in the same chapter (verse 27), we read with surprise that it is not good to eat much honey.' We must remark that honey was of far more importance formerly than it is now. There was no sugar, and honey had to supply its place, besides being eaten in its primary state. Vast quantities of it must therefore have been consumed; and thus the importance assigned to it in Scripture becomes intelligible. The injuriousness of excessive indulgence in honey, and that the honey of Palestine, is, however, historically attested. The English who attended Edward I. into the Holy Land, died in great numbers, as they ventured, in the month of June, to attack a fortified place. This destruction is ascribed by the historian partly to the excessive heat, and partly to their inordinate indulgence in fruits and honey.

These facts, taken together, will be found to explain or illustrate many of the feasting usages to which the sacred writers refer.

Ice is almost unknown in Palestine and Syria; and yet there is no country in the world, perhaps, in which ice and iced drinks are more commonly used during the hot summer months. Itinerant

vendors of ices are never absent from the streets of Damascus. Snow is used instead of ice. During the winter, when it falls thickly on Hermon and Anti-Lebanon, it is thrown together in vast quantities in pits and caves, where it remains during the summer. A fresh supply is brought from the mountain reservoirs to the city every day. There are two or three villages in Anti-Lebanon whose inhabitants are exempted from taxation, on condition of their supplying the city with snow at a fixed tariff during the summer. I have often seen in the early morning the long file of donkeys, laden with bags of baked snow, entering the gates of Damascus. They go to the mountains in the evening, make up their loads during the night, and travel so as to reach the city before sunrise. The distance is from six to seven hours.

Eleventh Week-First Day.

APPLES OF GOLD IN PICTURES OF SILVER.-PROV. XXV. II.

2

WHAT are we to conceive of the 'apples of gold in pictures of silver,' of which one of the Proverbs speaks? It is impossible to affix any distinct idea to these words, a circumstance which is alone sufficient to show that they have been misunderstood. Many other translations have been proposed. One1 renders the words 'an apple of gold in a sardina (cornelian) collar ;' another, apples of gold in beds of silver;' suggesting that 'apples of gold' were fixed upon the columns of a bed of silver, or else suspended ornamentally in some way from beds of the latter metal. The Scripture certainly mentions beds of gold and silver; and ancient history states that Sardanapalus had a large number of them, and the Parthian kings slept on beds of gold. Beds of brass are mentioned in the Trojan war; and the king of Bashan had a bed of iron. It is therefore not intrinsically improbable, that in the reign of Solomon, when the precious metals were so plentiful in his realm, there should have been beds of silver; and if so, we may conceive that 'apples of gold' might be applied ornamentally with good effect. But as

we are not allowed to think of high four-post bedsteads in connection with the East, the explanation to which we have referred so far lacks verisimilitude, as to lead instinctively to its rejection by those who have made the ancient and modern East their study. We do not find quite the same objection to the explanation which assumes that the apples of gold were figures of apples in gold upon a silver ground, and who translate: Apples of gold enchased in silver,' or 'among figures of silver.' Considering that the Hebrews, in their highest style of costly ornamentation, and notably in the time of Solomon, 1 The Septuagint. 2 The Vulgate. 3 Esther i. 6.

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employed figures of fruits in precious metals, we incline very favourably to this explanation, or slightly prefer to it another which is more generally received, and is in itself both beautiful and probable. This is, that the 'apples of gold' were oranges or lemons in baskets of silver, or of silver net-work, through which the golden yellow of the fruit appeared.

In either case we are clear, that, whether real or imitated, apples are not intended. For one reason, the apple is of small value in Palestine, or anywhere else in the Levant; except, perhaps, in some parts of the mountainous country south-east of the Black Sea, where we have found that the elevation, by neutralizing the effect of latitude, produces a climate so far favourable to the apple-tree as to enable it to yield a fruit which might not disgrace our own orchards. But, upon the whole, the apples of the Levant, where any are found, are execrable, and held in no esteem whatever. It is somewhat different with regard to oranges; but the climate of Palestine is not favourable to that fruit, and it is neither very abundant nor very good. On the other hand, the variety of fragrant lemon called the 'citron,' attains its highest perfection in that country, and is very abundant; and by the consent of the Jewish writers themselves, as well as from the probability of the case, we apprehend that 'citron' is always to be understood by the word translated 'apple' in the common version. In the present text it is peculiarly and beautifully appropriate. That the citron was well known to the Hebrews we learn from Josephus, who mentions, that on one occasion, at the Feast of Tabernacles, King Alexander Janneus was pelted in the temple with citrons, which the Jews had in their hands-for which he assigns the reason, that the law required that at that feast every one should have bunches of the palm-tree and the citrontree. The Jews still thus understand the injunction, and as the fruit is not produced in this country, they import large quantities for the occasion.

Now, then, we are enabled to understand the sacred writer to mean, that 'a word fitly spoken,' that is, spoken at the fit or proper time, is like placing an apple of gold, or a citron, in a