larly from his entertaining the three angels, that they were generally eaten new, and baked as they were needed." Sometimes, however, they were made to keep several days; for the shew bread might be eaten after it had stood a week before the Lord. The pretence of the Gibeonites, that their bread had become mouldy from the length of the road, although it was taken fresh from the oven when they left home, proves, that bread for a journey was made to keep a considerable time. In every one of these minute circumstances, the sacred volume perfectly corresponds with the statements of modern travellers.

One species of bread used in ancient Palestine, bears the name of nekoudim, in the history of the kings, about the meaning of which, some diversity of opinion prevails. The word occurs in the instructions which Jeroboam gave to his wife, and is rendered cracknels in our translation: "And Jeroboam said to his wife, --- take with thee ten loaves, and (p) cracknels, and a cruise of honey, and go to him; he shall tell thee what shall become of the child." Buxtorf supposes, that the original term signifies biscuits, either because they were formed into little buttons, or because they were pricked full of holes in a particular manner. The last idea was adopted by our translators; for cracknels are a sort of bread which is full of holes, and formed into a flourish of lattice work. But the word is derived from a participle, which no where signifies pierced with holes, or formed into net work, but spotted or speckled. It is accordingly used by Moses, to signify those cattle in the flocks of Laban, which were marked with spots. In the book of Joshua, it denotes those mouldy spots on the bread of the Gibeonites, which they pretended the length of their journey had occasioned. In the feminine gen" This is still the custom among the Arabian shepherds. Buckingham's Trav. vol. ii, p. 244, 246, 251. Gen. xxxiii, 32, 33. » Josh. ix, 12.

der, it denotes studs or spots of silver; and is rendered in the Septuagint, syμatov; and by the Vulgate, vermiculatas, inlaid. The idea of Mr. Harmer is, therefore, to be preferred, that it denotes cakes or loaves strewed, and by consequence spotted with coriander and other seeds; a sort of bread which is still quite common in Syria, and many other countries of the east.

In primitive times, an oven was designed only to serve a single family, and to bake for them no more than the bread of one day; a custom which still continues in some places of the east; but the increase of population in the cities, higher degrees of refinement, or other causes in the progress of time, suggested the establishment of public bakehouses. They seem to have been introduced into Judea long before the captivity; for the prophet Jeremiah speaks of " the baker's street," in the most familiar manner, as a place well known. This, however, might be only a temporary establishment, to supply the wants of the soldiers assembled from other places, to defend Jerusalem. If they received a daily allowance of bread, as is the practice still in some eastern countries, from the royal bakehouses, the order of the king to give the prophet daily a piece of bread, out of the street where they were erected, in the same manner as the defenders of the city, was perfectly natural. The custom alluded to, still maintains its ground at Algiers, where the unmarried soldiers receive every day from the public bakehouses, a certain number of loaves. Pitts indeed asserts, that the Algerines have public bakehouses for the accommodation of the whole city." The women prepare their dough at home, * Shaw's Trav. vol. i, p. 454. u P. 65.

9 Song i, 11. s Jer. xxxvii, 21. Observ. vol. i, p. 422, 423.

and the bakers send their boys about the streets, to give notice of their being ready to receive and carry it to the bakehouses. They bake their cakes every day, or every other day, and give the boy who brings the bread home, a piece or little cake for the baking, which is sold by the baker." Small as the eastern loaves are, it appears from this account, that they give a piece of one only to the baker, as a reward for his trouble. This will perhaps illustrate Ezekiel's account of the false prophets, receiving pieces of bread by way of gratuities: "And will ye pollute me among my people, for handfuls of barley, and pieces of bread ?" These are compensations still used in the east, but of the meanest kind, and for services of the lowest sort.

V

They have other ways of preparing their corn for food, besides making it into bread. Burgle is very commonly used among the Christians of Aleppo; which is wheat boiled, then bruised in a mill so as to separate it from the husk, after which it is dried, and laid up for use. The drying of burgle, though mentioned by some writers as a modern operation, seems to throw light on a remarkable passage in the history of David; the concealment of his two spies in a well whose mouth was covered with corn. The custom of exposing corn in this way, must have been very common in Judea, else it had rather excited suspicion in the minds of the pursuers, than diverted their attention from the spot where the spies were concealed. That the well's mouth was covered on that occasion with

" The chief baker among the Persians was dignified with the title of Mirza, or lord; from whence it may be inferred that Pharaoh's chief baker was a person of equal dignity. Morier's Trav. vol. i, p. 103.

burgle or boiled wheat, is exceedingly probable; for Dr. Russel observes," that in preparing it after it has been softened in warm water, it is commonly laid out in the court-yard to dry. It could not be flour or meal; for they grind it only in small quantities, and as they want it, and never are known to expose it in this way. Bishop Patrick supposes it was corn newly thrashed out, she pretended to dry; but if this was practised at all, of which we have no evidence, it was by no means common, and therefore calculated rather to betray, than to conceal the spies. Besides, the same word is used to signify corn beaten in a mortar with a pestle, not on the barn floor with a thrashing instrument; now burgle is actually pounded in this manner. It was therefore burgle or boiled wheat, which d'Arvieux expressly says is dried in the sun; adding that they prepare a whole year's provision of it at once. Wheat and barley were prepared in the same way by the ancient Romans; which renders it very probable that the custom was universal among the civilized nations of antiquity. This is the reason that neither the exposure of the corn, nor the large quantity, produced the least suspicion; every circumstance accorded with the public usage of the country, and by consequence, the preparation of this species of food is as ancient as the days

Sawick is a different preparation, and consists of corn parched in the ear; it is made, as well of barley and rice, as of wheat. It is never called in the inspired volume, parched flour or meal, but always parched corn; and

w Trav. vol. i, p. 117. See also Dr. Clarke's note, Harmer's Observ. vol. i, p. 473. x Prov. xxvii, 22.

y Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. xviii, c. 14.

z See Harmer's Obs. vol. i, p. 468.

consequently, seems to remain after the roasting, and to be eaten in the state of corn. In confirmation of this idea, we may quote a fact stated by Hasselquist, that in journeying from Acre to Sidon, he saw a shepherd eating his dinner, consisting of half ripe ears of wheat roasted, which he eat, says the traveller, with as good an appetite as a Turk does his pillaw. The same kind of food, he says, is much used in Egypt by the poor; they roast the ears of Turkish wheat or millet; but it is in his account far inferior to bread. Dr. Shaw is of a different opinion; he supposes the kali, or the kali, or parched corn of the Scriptures, which he translates parched pulse, means parched cicers. But we frequently read in Scripture of dried or parched corn; and the word used in those passages, is most naturally to be understood of corn, and not of pulse. Besides, Rauwolf asserts that cicers are used in the east only as

part of the desert after their meals. But it cannot be reasonably supposed, that Boaz would entertain his reapers with things of this kind: or that those fruits which in modern times are used only in deserts, formed the principal part of a reaper's meal, in the field of so wealthy a proprietor. This, however, the opinion of Dr. Shaw requires to be supposed; for it is said in the inspired record, "He reached Ruth parched corn, and she did eat, and was sufficed, and left." Nor can it well be supposed, that a trifling article in a desert would have been thought of so much importance by an inspired writer, as to obtain a prominent place in his account of the provisions with which the armies of Israel were supplied, immediately after crossing the Jordan. "And they did eat of the old corn of the land, on the morrow after the passover, unleavened cakes, a P. 166, 167. Ray's Collec. of Trav. vol. i, p. 68.

C

Ruth ii, 14.