troduces into his description of the mean origin, and miserable condition of God's ancient people, under the cruel oppression of Pharaoh: "Thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusalem, Thy birth, and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite. And as for thy nativity in the day thou wast born, thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all. None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the loathing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born." The founders of the Jewish people sojourned in the land of Canaan, where the Amorites and the Hittites bore the principal sway, without power or inheritance, or possession of any kind, except a burial place, often in fear of their jealous neigh bours, and compelled to wander from one nation to another. Driven by famine from that country, they took refuge in Egypt, the open field in which they were cast. There the government, envying their prosperity, and fearing the rapid increase of their numbers, withdrew their favour and protection, reduced them to slavery, ruled over them with rigour, embittered their lives with intolerable oppression, and meditated nothing less than their utter extermination. Their male children were ordered to be strangled in the birth; and it is not unlikely that many were, like Moses, exposed in the open field. That devoted people had no protector, none to interest themselves in their affairs, none to pity their extreme wretchednes. No care was taken of their infant state, to preserve and nurse it; but every art was employed which a Ezek. xvi, 3, 4, 5. barbarous policy could dictate, to destroy it in the very beginning of its career. The new-born infant, naked, polluted, and destitute, is not in greater peril when exposed in the open field, than was the chosen seed in the land of Egypt: "And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, live." Barrenness is still reckoned a disgrace in the east, and male children are desired beyond all other blessings, even by the lowest orders... It is well known how strikingly this feeling characterised the Jewish women; but in them it was probably not a merely natural sentiment, but combined with religious hopes, which taught them to look for the birth of a child, in whom all the families of the earth were to be blessed. "It was a common practice, in almost every country, to distinguish from others of the same name, by giving him a surname derived from the trade or occupation of his parent. The English language furnishes us with examples of this in the surnames of Baker, Taylor, Carpenter, and the like; and what is still more to the point, it is at this day the custom in some of the oriental nations, and particularly among the Arabs, to distinguish any learned and illustrious man that may chance to be born of parents who follow a particular trade or art, by giving him the name of such trade or art as a surname, although he may never have followed it himself. Thus, if a man of learning happen to be descended from a dyer or a taylor, they call him the taylor's son or the dyer's son, or frequently omitting the word son, simply the dyer or the taylor. According to this custom, the remark of the Jews, h Malcom's Hist. of Persia, vol. ii, p. 520. Lady M. W. Montagu's Lett, vol. i, p. 238, 239. in which our Saviour is termed the carpenter, may be considered as referring merely to the occupation of his reputed father: and that ought to be understood in this place, as meaning nothing more than 78 TEXTÓVOS VIÓS, the son of the carpenter. This explanation of the term is supported by the authority of another evangelist, who resolves it by this very phrase." . The child, as soon as it is born, is committed to the care of a nurse; if it be a boy, the father appoints a steady man, from the age of two years, to be his keeper; and such it may be supposed were the persons who brought up Ahab's sons. But if it be a female, it is entrusted to the care of a female nurse, who is commonly attached to it for life. When Rebecca left her father's house on being betrothed to Isaac, we read that she was accompanied by her nurse, who never left her till the day of her death; an event which is not deemed unworthy of being recorded by the pen of inspiration: "Here Deborah, Rebecca's nurse died." This is a clear proof that nurses were sometimes held in great estimation. When the mother dies before she has suckled her child, its life has been sometimes preserved by the milk of its father's breast. This curious fact was not unknown to Aristotle, who says, they that have a small quantity of milk, yield it in abundance when their breasts are sucked, that women who are past age by being often sucked, and even males, have yielded milk in sufficient quantity to nourish an infant. Humboldt declares, in his Personal m h Luke ii, 51, 52. i Matt. xiii, 55. J Mosheim's Commentaries, &c. vol. i, p. 111, 112. 1 Forbes's Orient. Mem. vol. iii, p. 141. m Hist. of Animals, book i, ch. 12; and book iii, ch. 20. Narrative, that he saw a man, an inhabitant of Arenas, a village not far from Cumana, Fransisco Lozano, who suckled a child with his own milk. "The mother having fallen sick, the father, to quiet the infant, took it into his bed, and pressed it to his bosom. Lozano, then thirtytwo years of age, had never remarked till that day that he had milk; but the irritation of the nipple, sucked by the child, caused the accummulation of that liquid. The milk was thick and very sweet. The father, astonished at the increased size of his breast, suckled his child two or three times a-day, during five months. We saw the certificate which had been drawn up on the spot to attest this remarkable fact, eye witnesses of which are still living (1799). They assured us, that during this suckling, the child had no other nourishment than the milk of his father. Lozano, who was not at Arenas during our journey in the missions, came to us at Cumana. He was accompanied by his son, who was then thirteen or fourteen years of age. Mr. Bonpland examined with attention the father's breast, and found it wrinkled like those of women who have given suck." The existence of milk in the breast of a male, was known so early as the days of Job: "His breasts are full of milk, and his bones are moistened with marrow." On the day when the child is to be weaned, the orientals give an entertainment to their friends and relations; a custom which may be traced to a very remote antiquity; for "Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned."P Second marriages, during the life of the first wife, are greatly opposed by ladies of superior rank; whose power n Personal Nar. vol. iii, p. 46, 47, 48. ful relations, considering such a step as an insult both to herself and her family, seize the first opportunity of revenge. How forcibly this illustrates what Laban said to Jacob, when he made an agreement with him on mount Gilead: "If thou shalt afflict my daughters, or if thou shalt take other wives beside my daughters, no man being with us (to avenge our insulted honour) see, God is witness betwixt me and thee." q It is the custom, in many parts of the east, to carry their children astride upon the hip, with the arm round the body. In the kingdom of Algiers, when the slaves take the children out, the boys ride upon their shoulders; and in a religious procession, which Symes had an opportunity of seeing at Ava, the capital of the Burman empire, the first personages of rank that passed by, were three children borne astride on men's shoulders. It is evident from these facts, that the oriental children are carried sometimes the one way, sometimes the other. Nor was the custom in reality different in Judea, though the prophet expresses himself in these terms: "They shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders;" for, according to Dr. Russel, the children able to support themselves, are usually carried astride on the shoulder; but in infancy they are carried in the arms, or awkwardly on one haunch. Dandini tells us, that on horseback the Asiatics " carry their young children upon their shoulders with great dexterity. These children hold by the head of him who carries them, whether he be on horseback or on foot, and do not hinder 4 Gen. xxxi, 50. Morier's Trav. vol. i, p. 58. ' Harmer's Observ. vol. iv, p. 294, note. V S s Pitt's Trav. p. 68. " Isa. xlix, 22. t Syme's Hist. of Ava, p. 169. ▾ Hist of Aleppo, vol. i, p. 441. |