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agreeable kind. They that consult the ori-: ginal will find the singular, not the plural, is made use of Ps. xlvii. 1, O clap your hands (your hand) all ye people, vpn cwyn bɔ kol haammeem tikeoo kaf, shout unto God with the voice of triumph; and in like manner, 2 Kings xi. 12, He brought forth the king's son, and put the crown upon him, and gave him the testimony; and they made him king and anointed him; and clapt their hands, (but in the original they clapt the hand,) and said, God save the king.

We use the term clap, but sometimes, where the word hand is used in the singular number, it is joined with a verb that strongly expresses an applying the hand with softness, wherever it is that we suppose the hand, in such cases, is applied, and consequently the term clap I think, should not be the word made use of, in translating these passages, at least without a softening epithet. So Is. lv. 12, The mountains and the hills shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap (or gently apply) the hand, not their hands. For the

yimchaoo kaf. The root machah, signifies to wipe, smooth off, sweep away, and seems to signify, in some of the above passages, that action which dumb persons make use of when they wish to express a thing done or finished, a person who is gone away, gone off, or a thing that is lost: they hold the left hand open in a hori zontal position, and then with the open right hand, wipe it off smartly from the palm to the finger ends. I have seen the Asiatics use this form when they wished more forcibly to express that a thing was over, gone, finished, ended, &c. - EDIT.

The same word is used Ps. xcviii. 2, and hand is in the singular number; and both these observations are, in like

word is used for blotting out what is written in a book, by applying water to it, Num. v. 23, which is wont to be done with a sponge, or some other soft substance; and for compassionately wiping away tears from the face, Is. xxv. S and consequently must signify, one would imagine, a gentle application of the hand somewhere, and therefore probably to the mouth, according to the present Eastern mode, among the women, of testifying joy.

OBSERVATION LI.

Dancing and Music used in doing Persons Honour.

THE dancing and playing on instruments of music, before persons of distinction, when they pass near the dwelling-places of such as are engaged in country business, still continue in the East.

When the Baron de Tott was sent by the French government, to inspect the factories of that nation in the Levant, having proceeded from Egypt to the maritime cities of Syria, he manner, applicable to Ezek. xxv. 6, where indeed the joy was not of that placid kind, which the expression commonly imports. HARM.

The female mode of expressing exultation is termed the Ziraleet in Syria: it is a sharp loud cry of joy, made in concert by a quick and somewhat tremulous application of the tongue to the palate, producing the sound heli li li li li li li li: or Lille, lillè, lille pronounced as often as a person can do in one breath. It seems to be a corruption of the Mohammedan confession of faith. La Ullah illa ullahTHERE IS NO GOD BUT Gon, which in the rapid shrill pronunciation of the women might be easily converted into the Lille lille of the Siraleet. See Russel vol. i. p. 140, and 383. EDIT.

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went from them to Aleppo, and returning from thence to Alexandretta, in order to visit Cyprus, and some other places of which he has given an account in his memoirs, he tells us, that between Aleppo and Alexandretta, he saw on a sudden, the troop the governor of Aleppo had sent with him, to escort him, turn back and ride towards him. "The commander of the detachment" then shewed me the tents of the Turcómen, pitched on the banks of the lake, near which we were to pass.-It was no easy task to keep my company in good spirits, within sight of six or seven thousand Asiatics, whose peaceable intentions were at least doubtful.

"I took care to cover my escort with my small troop of Europeans; and we continued to march on, in this order, which had no very hostile appearance, when we perceived a motion in the enemy's camp, from which several of the Turcomen advanced to meet us; and I soon had the musicians of the different hordes, playing and dancing before me all the time we were passing by the side of their camp.'

The translation does not determine, whether these musicians were of the male or female sex; but I doubt not but that it would appear, on consulting the original French, that they were women that played and danced before M. de Tott, the French inspector, while passing along the side of that large encampment. We cannot after this wonder at the account

Two well-known cites of Syria.
Consisting of a hundred horsemen.
Memoirs, part iv. p. 131, 132.

of the sacred historian, that when Saul and David were returning from the slaughter of Goliah, the great hero of the Philistines, the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing to meet king Saul, with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of music. That is, as I apprehend, the women of the several villages of Israel near which he passed, in returning to his settled abode, universally paid him the honour of singing and playing before him for some considerable way, while he passed along in the road near to them. All Israel were engaged in rural employments, as well as these Turcomen.

De Tott ascribes the honours paid him by these Asiatics to the hope of a reward: "I took leave of them, by presenting them with that reward, the hope of which had brought them to attend us, and with which they were very civil to go away contented.”

I would

remark, that the Eastern princes sometimes cause money to be scattered in processions on joyful occasions, according to this very writer;' however the satisfaction that succeeded great terror, upon the death of Goliah, was enough to engage the Israelitish women universally to pay this honour to their own king, and an heroic youth of their own nation, who had been the instrument of effecting such a great salvation for their country, without any lucrative Considerations whatever.

J 1 Sam. xviii. 6. * P. 132. Part i. p. 123, 124.

OBSERVATION LII.

Some Account of the ancient Eastern Dances.

THE Eastern dances, with which the great in those countries have been sometimes honoured, are extemporaneous, if I may be indulged the expression, as well as their songs.

I have elsewhere taken notice of the extemporaneousness of their songs; and I will here set down a passage, from the letters of lady Wortley Montague, which shews their dances are equally free. "Their manner of dancing is certainly the same that Diana is said to have danced on the banks of Eurotas. The great lady still leads the dance, and is followed by a troop of young girls, who imitate her steps, and if she sings, make up the chorus. The tunes are extremely gay and lively, yet with something in them wonderfully soft. The steps are varied according to the pleasure of her that leads the dance, but always in exact time, and infinitely more agreeable than any of our dances, at least in my opinion. I sometimes make one in the train, but am not skilful enough to lead. These are the Grecian dances, the Turkish being very different.'

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This gives us a different apprehension of the meaning of the words in Exod. xv. 20, than we should otherwise form: Miriam the prom Vol. ii. p. 48 46.

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