(which is saying, in other words, that half a pound of these drugs is sufficient to embalm a single body,) I would observe, that our English surgeons require a much larger quantity of drugs for embalming; and in a receipt which I have seen, of a very eminent one, the weight of the drugs employed is above one-third of the weight Nicodemus brought. Much less indeed would be wanted where the body is not embowelled, but even the cerate, or drugs used externally in our embalmings, is one-seventh of the weight, I find, of the myrrh and aloes that were brought for embalming our LORD. However, be this as it may, as it appears from what Josephus says of the funeral of Aristobulus, the last of the High-priests of the family of the Maccabees, that the larger the quantity of the spices used in their interments, the greater honour was thought to be done to the dead, we may easily account for the quantity Nicodemus brought in general, though we may not be able to tell, with the precision that could be wished, how it was disposed of. Dr. Lardner has not, I think, mentioned this passage; but it entirely answers the objection of this Jew.

A passage from Drummond's Travels ought not to be omitted here, in which he gives an account of the manner in which a large quantity of spices and perfumes was made use of, to do honour to the dead. It seems, according to a tradition that prevailed among the Turks, Antiq. lib. 15. p. 746. Ed. Haverc.

"An eminent prophet, who lived in Mesopotamia many ages ago, whose name was Zechariah, was beheaded by the prince of that country, on account of his virtuous opposition to some lewd scheme of his. His head he ordered to be put into a stone urn, two feet square, upon the top of which was an inscription, importing, that that urn inclosed the head of that great prophet Zechariah. This urn remained in the castle of Aleppo, till about eight hundred years ago, when it was removed into an old christian church in that city, afterwards turned into a mosque, which decaying, another was built near it, and the place where the head was deposited choaked up by a wall. About forty years before Mr. Drummond wrote this account, (which was in December, 1748,) consequently about the year 1708, a zealous grand Vizier, who pretended to have been admonished in a dream to remove this stone vessel into a more conspicuous place, had it removed accordingly, with many religious ceremonies, and affixed in a conspicuous part of a mosque and in the close of all it is said, "the urn was opened, and filled with spices and perfumes to the value of four hundred pounds.'

Here we see in late times honour was done to the supposed head of an eminent saint, by filling its repository with odoriferous substances. The bed of sweet spices in which Asa was laid, seems to have been of the same kind, or something very much like it. Might 'P. 237, 238.

"2 Chron. xvi. 14.

not large quantities of precious perfumes in like manner be strewed, or designed to be strewed, about the body of our LORD? This would require large quantities.

Zechariah of Mesopotamia had been dead so long, that nothing of this kind could be done with any view to preserve his head from decay, it was merely to do him honour: the spices used by the Jews in burial might be for the same purpose.

OBSERVATION XXI.

Burning Perfumes at the Graves of the Dead designed

to do them honour.

THE ancient Jews, we are told in the Scriptures, were wont to make great burnings for their princes: but whether this was when they carried them in procession to the grave; or from time to time afterwards, when they visited their tombs with solemn mourning; or in any other manner different from either of those two; cannot be determined, I believe, by the Scriptures themselves: but it may not be improper to set down here, an account that is given of the manner in which the modern Jews are wont to honour the graves of those they reverence, and which is not commonly known, or at least attended to.

x

When De la Vallé visited the Holy Land,

2 Chron. xvi. 14, ch. 21. 19. Jer. xxxiv. 5. VOL. III.

G

his curiosity carried him to Hebron, which is not often now, I think, visited by Christians: but it is a noted place for Mohammedan pilgrimages.y He informs us," that the cave of Machpelah, in which Abraham and the other patriarchs, with their wives, were deposited, is now covered with a considerable building, which was once a Christian church, but turned into a mosque. Adjoining to this is a house, in which Abraham is supposed to have dwelt, when he resided at Hebron, the Ciceronis of the Holy Land, forgetting that by faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. Heb. xi. 9.

Neither into the cave, nor this mosque built over it, nor this adjoining house of Abraham, it seems are either Jews or Christians permitted to enter; the nearest access with which they are indulged is, according to him, certain holes, made in the wall leading to this very sacred repository. "There, we Christians," he says,

said our prayers in the best manner we were able. The Jews also attended with great assiduity, and poured out their divers odoriferous things; they burnt perfumes there, some sweetscented kinds of wood, and wax candles."

Here we see the modern Jews honouring a sepulchre, for which they have a great veneration, with lighting at it wax candles. They D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, art. Khalil and 2 Tome 2, p. 99.

Ilagge.

then, perhaps, garnished the tombs of the righteous, in ancient times, in the same manner. And as they now burn 'perfumes here, they might possibly after the same manner honour the graves of those they reverenced, both kings and prophets, as well as moisten them with odoriferous substances of a liquid nature.

And as they now burn these perfumes at some distance from the cave, in which the bones of Abraham are supposed to remain, they might, in somewhat the like manner, make a large pile of sweet-scented wood, at some distance from the mouth of the subterraneous repository for their royal dead, which they had curiously scooped out of the rock. At Hebron they are forced to burn their perfumes at some distance, which they think, however, answers the purpose; they might do the like anciently for the sake of convenience.

After all I must remark, that we have no account of that kind of burning used for kings, at their death, as used for any other persons : neither for priests, or prophets. Nor is the Hebrew word the same with that used for burning incense; but derived from that which expresses the burning the bodies of Saul and his sons, after they had hanged some time on the

b

a Matt. xxiii. 29.

The original, in 2 Chronicles xvi, 14. stands thus: mbina narw 19 won vayisruphu lo serephah gedolah. And they burned a great burning for him. saraph therefore is the verb which is used to designate this kind of funeral burning; but op katar is the term that is used to express sacrificial burnings of incense-offerings, &c. EDIT.