с and before the invention of cannon they really were so. Houses were often built upon the wall," from which persons in danger were sometimes allowed to escape, as the spies from Jericho, and Paul from Damascus. It is somewhat remarkable, however, that although the walls and gates of the eastern cities are sometimes very strong, the one being stone below and brick dried in the sun above, and the other, like the gates of Algiers, gate within gate, and the outer plated with iron, like that mentioned in Acts xii. 10; yet the locks and keys of these gates are often of wood, of a very simple construction. For Thevenot when speaking of Grand Cairo, says, that "all their locks and keys are of wood, and they have none of iron; no, not for their city gates, which may all be easily opened without a key. The keys are bits of timber, with little pieces of wire, that lift up other pieces of wire which are in the lock, and enter into certain little holes, out of which the ends of wire that are in the key having thrust them, the gate is open." These, however, are only for times of peace, when the gates are open during the night; for in times of war they are not only locked, but have wooden bars, which draw out from holes in the walls on each side, to secure the gates against every violence. Indeed, Dr. Russel tells us that, owing to the great extension of commerce with European nations, the wooden locks have been generally disused, except in the bazars, khanes, and stables. The walls of the mud houses in the East are commonly built very thick, for the double purpose of excluding the heat and rendering them more durable. Mere exposure to the air, however, is hurtful to such perishable a Josh. ii. 15. d Part i. P. 143. b 2 Cor. xi. 33. eRay's Travels, part i. p. 19. * Egmont and Heyman, vol. i. p. 330. ⚫ Pitts, p. 10. b a materials, and therefore they cover them with a composition of one part sand, two parts wood ashes, and three parts of lime, well mixed, and beaten with wooden mallets for three days and three nights incessantly. This defends the external surface for a considerable time, but, unless regularly repaired, it becomes soaked with wet; the hot winds crack it while drying, and the next shower that falls makes it separate from the wall. It is to the perishable nature of these mud walls that the Psalmist alluded, when he said, that the wicked shall be as a bowing wall, and as a tottering fence;" and Isaiah had the same thing in his eye when" he told the Jews, that "their iniquity should be to them as a breach ready to fall, as a swelling out in an high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly in an instant." One would suppose that the doors of such houses would be plain; but this is not always the case, for they are often adorned with marble portals, covered and inlaid with great beauty. And Buxtorff tells us that, after the destruction of Jerusalem, the wise men enjoined that in all their rejoicing they should have a memorial of destruction to remind them of the temple, and inspire them with sentiments like those of David, when he said, "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.” Accordingly, when any person built a house, he was instructed to leave a cubit square, at least unfinished near the door, to remind the possessor of the destruction of their ancient city, and to inscribe it either with the above words in Ps. cxxxvii. 5, or with the words ¡n zecer leherben, the memorial of destruction; and since God hath said in Deut. vi. 9, "thou shalt write the words of the law on the posts of thy house, and on thy a Shaw, p. 206. g b Chardin. < Ps. lxii. 3. е Maundrell, p. 125. f Synag. Judaic. cap. 31. d Ch. xxx. 13. 8 Ps, cxxxvii. 5. gates," therefore upon the gates of their houses, and the doors of their chambers, did they fix a sheet of parchment, which they called Mezuzè, on which had been written Deut. vi. 4-9. ix. 13-20. and which, being rolled up, they put into a cane or box, and fixed it to, or inclosed it in the right hand post of the door. Their synagogues required no such parchment, because they were not to dwell in; and, by the same rule, all other houses not intended for residence were exempted; but the pious made these a motive to piety, for, by touching the right hand post, on entering or leaving a room, they either said, or seemed to say, "Lord keep me in my going out and coming in, from this time forth and for ever." The form of eastern houses of note are remarkably uniform: it is probable, therefore, that the ancient habitations of the Jews of rank resembled the following description of Dr. Shaw, where he tells us that "their houses are commonly built in the form of a square, with an open court in the middle, having only a small latticed window or balcony looking into the street, whilst all the other windows open into their respective courts or quadrangles. Indeed all the beauty and elegance of their houses is only to be seen from these courts; for, whilst a fountain is cooling the air by throwing its water to a considerable height in the middle of the court, the court itself is paved with marble, and the precincts of the court are surrounded with a cloister (as the cava ædium of the Romans was with a peristylium or colonnade,) over which, when the house has one or more stories, there is a gallery erected of the same dimensions with the cloister, having a ballustrade, or else a piece of carved or latticed work going round about it, to pre a Part iii, ch. 3. sect. 5. vent people from falling from it into the court." The doctor gives us a drawing of one of these fronts, telling us, at the same time, that the only entry into the several apartments is by these cloisters and galleries. With the above agrees the following account of Dr. Russell, where, after having mentioned the quadrangular form, he says, "that side of it which is towards the street is generally plain, consisting of a low door, finished according to the taste of the possessor, and one or more small windows, to prevent any communication with the women's apartments. The doors are often double, and so contrived as that, when open, one cannot see into the court." They have also benches, where the master often sits for his amusement, receives visits, and despatches business; few persons, not even the nearest relation, having farther admission, except on extraordinary occasions; a circumstance alluded to in Ezek. xxxiii. 30. With respect to the windows of the eastern houses, they are either latticed in the dry season with wood, metal, or wire, like those mentioned in Cant. ii. 9, or furnished in the wet season with some semi-transparent substance, to exclude the rain; for glass was not then invented, and in most places is not yet introduced. The common substitute are oyster shells, paper, &c. Such is the appearance of the eastern houses next the streets; and it must be acknowledged that an eastern city is generally an uninteresting object, unless one is permitted to enter the court, where the splendor of the edifice is alone to be seen. Let us enjoy, then, this privilege, and visit the interior of the building. Houses commonly consist of a first story, ornamented with arches, and an upper story which is flat on the top, and either terraced with hard plaster or paved with a Russell's Aleppo, p. 3. b Shaw, p. 207. stone. Before this upper story, and above the arches which surround the first story, is a colonnade or gallery, called a porch in Judges iii. 23, if not round the whole court, at least fronting the west: branching off from which gallery are their rooms and kiosks, which latter are a sort of wooden divans that project a little from the other buildings, and hang rather over the street. They are raised about a foot and a half higher than the floors of the rooms with which they are connected, and, by having windows in front and on each side, they enjoy a great draught of air, which makes them cool in summer, the advantage chiefly intended by them. Besides the first and second stories, there is often a third, which consists of one or two rooms only and a terrace, that have a communication with the common gallery and with the porch or street, without disturbing the house. These upper rooms, in Barbary, are called olee, the houses themselves being called dar or beet. And as they oliè is often spoken of in the Old Testament, and the vɛpwov, which corresponds with it, in the New; so Dr. Shaw supposes the places meant by them to have been these smaller rooms upon the roof, or third story, that were apart from the rest of the house. When it was formerly said that the doors of the eastern houses are low, for fear of the Arabs, the meaning was, that the street door was of this description, for the doors into the apartments round the court are in general large, to give a free admission to the air; and whilst they are provided with folding doors, to shut them during the night or in cold weather, they have also veils to serve in place of these during the day. The first floor, in these great houses, is the ordinary dwelling ■ Russell's Aleppo. ⚫ Judg. iii. 20-23. 2 Sam, xviii. 24. Acts ix. 37. xx. 8, 9. 2 Kings iv. 10. ix. 2. xxiii. 12. d Page 214, &c. |