the master of the horse furnishes him with a single horse, and when that is weary, he dismounts the first man he meets, and takes his horse. There is no pardon for a traveller that should refuse to let a chappar have his horse, nor for any other who should deny him the best horse in his stable. (See HANWAY's Trav. vol. i. p. 262.)

The Jews, and inhabitants of other provinces, were compelled by the Roman governors or the tetrarchs to furnish horses, and themselves to accompany their public messengers, as those on public business might compel the horses of them on the road to attend them. The Persian couriers wore a dagger as a mark of authority, called hanger, from which the name of angari is supposed by some to be derived. (CHARDIN's Trav. vol. ii. p. 242.)

A very full and clear account of these messengers is afforded us in CAMPBELL'S Travels, part ii. p. 92. "As I became familiarized to my Tartar guide, I found his character disclose much better traits than his first appearance bespoke. I began insensibly to think him a very entertaining fellow. Perceiving I was very low spirited and thoughtful, he exhibited manifest tokens of compassion, and taking it into his head that I was actually removed for ever from my friends and my family, he spoke in a style of regret and feeling that did honour to his heart; and, to say the truth, he did every thing in his power to alleviate my feelings, conversing with me either by means of the interpreter, or in broken lingua franca, supplying all my wants cheerfully and abundantly, changing horses with me as often as I pleased, and going slowly or galloping forward just as best suited my inclination or humour.

The first object he seemed to have in view on our journey, was to impress me with a notion of his consequence and authority, as a messenger belonging to the

sultan. As all these men are employed by the first magistrates in the country, and are as it were the links of communication between them, they think themselves of great importance to the state, while the great men, whose business they are employed in, make them feel the weight of their authority, and treat them with the greatest contempt. Hence they become so habitually servile to their superiors, and by natural consequence insolent and over-bearing to their inferiors, or those who, being in their power, they conceive to be so.

As carriers of dispatches, their power and authority wherever they go are in some points undisputed, and they can compel a supply of provisions, horses, and attendants, whenever it suits their occasion; nor dare any man resist their right to take the horse from under him, to proceed on the emperor's business, be the owner's occasion ever so pressing.

As soon as he stopped at a caravanserai, he immediately called lustily about him in the name of the sultan, demanding, in a menacing tone of voice, fresh horses, victuals, &c. on the instant. The terror of this great man operated like magic; nothing could exceed the activity of the men, the briskness of the women, and the terror of the children, (for the caravanserais are continually attended by numbers of the very lowest of the people) but no quickness of preparation, no effort could satisfy my gentlemen, he would shew me his power in a still more striking point of view, and fell to belabouring them with his whip, and kicking them with all his might."

No. 377.-v. 47. If ye salute your brethren.] The eastern salutations differ considerably, according to the rank of the person whom they salute. The common salutation is laying the right hand on the bosom, and a little declining their bodies; but when they salute a

person of great rank, they bow almost to the ground, and kiss the hem of his garment. (SANDYS, Trav. p. 50.) Inferiors, out of deference and respect, kiss the feet, the knees, or the garments of their superiors. (SHAW, Trav. p. 237.) And the hand also. (D'ARVIEUX, Voy. dans la Pal. p. 8.) When Lord Macartney was introduced to the emperor of China, in 1793, it was observed, that every one of the Chinese prostrated themselves upon the ground; and at the grand ceremony on the emperor's birth-day, the people kneeled, and bowed nine times, with as much solemnity as if they had been worshipping a deity.

No. 378.-vi. 1. To be seen by men.] In the distribution of alms it is absolutely necessary to avoid ostentation. Charity to men should proceed from love to God; such a principle alone can render it acceptable in his sight. Our Lord found it necessary to deliver an explicit precept upon this subject. This he introduces by an admonition-take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen, deadman of them. This word is very significant, alluding to such a beholding or looking on as there is at a theatre for men that act parts, or strive for masteries, whose reward consists only in the approbation and applause of the spectators. In this sense the word is evidently used by our Lord, who speaks of the reward as consisting in being thus beheld and observed. (ver. 3.)'

No. 379.-vi. 2. Do not sound a trumpet before thee.] This may be an allusion to the trumpet which was sounded before the stage-players and gladiators, when they were brought into the theatre, and by which the company were called together. Trumpets were also used in very ancient times to assemble people together in companies. The pharisees, it is possible, might carry

matters to such an excess of pride and vain glory as literally thus to proclaim their liberality; but probably we are to understand it of the pompous and public manner in which they spoke of and dispensed their benevolence. Chardin relates, that in the East the dervises use rams' horns, which there are remarkably long, for trumpets, and that they blow them in honour of the donor, when any thing is given them. It is not impossible but that some of the poor Jews that begged alms might be furnished like the Persian dervises, who are a sort of religious beggars, and that these hypocrites might be disposed to confine their almsgiving very much to such as they knew would pay them this honour.

HARMER, vol. i. p. 474. note.

No. 380.-vi. 5. Pray in the corners of the streets.] Such a practice as is here intimated by our Lord was probably common at that time with those who were fond of ostentation in their devotions, and who wished to engage the attention of others. It is evident that the practice was not confined to one place, since it may be traced in different nations. We have an instance of it related by AARON HILL, (in his Travels, p. 52.) "Such Turks as at the common hours of prayer are on the road, or so employed as not to find convenience to attend the mosques are still obliged to execute that duty: nor are they ever known to fail, whatever business they are then about, but pray immediately when the hour alarms them, in that very place they chance to stand on: insomuch that when a janissary, whom you have to guard you up and down the city, hears the notice which is given him from the steeples, he will turn about, stand still, and beckon with his hand, to tell his charge he must have patience for a while; when taking out his handkerchief, he spreads it on the ground, sits cross legged, thereupon, and says his prayers, though in the open

market, which having ended, he leaps briskly up, salutes the person whom he undertook to convey, and renews his journey with the mild expression of ghell johnnum ghell, or, come, dear, follow me." It may be proper to add, that such a practice as this is general throughout the East.

No. 381.-vi. 7. Vain repetitions.] As prayer is unquestionably one of the principal means by which our dependance upon God is expressed, and our homage is avowed, it cannot be conducted with too much seriousness and reverence. The Jews had very much lost the spirit of this devout exercise, and had suffered themselves in some instances to be influenced by heathen practices one of these our Lord in particular prohibits, that of using vain repetitions. Mù Barlodoynonte. This word is derived from Barlos, a stutterer, properly one who cannot speak plain, but begins a syllable several times before he can finish it, and λoyos, speech. From hence is derived the name of Battus, a silly tautological poet, mentioned by Suidas, to whom Ovid is thought to allude in the answer of that babbling Battus to Mercury:

-sub illis

Montibus, inquit, erunt, et erant sub montibus illis.

Metam. lib. ii. 1. 703.

-they should

Be near those hills, and near those hills they were.

Hammond says, that though Christ spake not Greek in this sermon, and therefore did not himself refer to the name and style of Battus, the evangelist, or his translator, rendered his Syriac expression by the proverbial Greek word.

The practice of the heathen may be understood from their writings. Eshylus has near an hundred verses at