which I have never been able to see. I refer the reader to Josephus against Appian* for the original institution of this holy day.t

FUNERALS.

A person when dying is visited by all his friends and relations to take leave of him. The elders of the place congratulate the dying man that his journey is at an end, and his pilgrimage accomplished on the face of the earth. They encourage him by reciting allegories and playing upon instruments, which they believe assist the spirit in its migration from the body to the invisible world, During the period of a last illness, they read to those about to depart the fifteenth chapter of Genesis, fifteenth verse, containing the Lord's intimation to Abraham of his dismission from the body: Genesis xxxv. 25,—the mourning of Jacob for his son Joseph; xlix. 29,-the injunction of the

+ Difference of observance of the Sabbath, see the Rabbinical Laws,-Arbab Turim; Orach Chaim; Hilchoth Shabbath.

same patriarch in anticipation of his decease; also Numbers xx. 24-26, and Deut. xxxii. 50, wherein Moses and Aaron are reminded of their mortality, the object evidently being to impress the dying man with the solemn truth that it is appointed unto all men once to die; that his is no extraordinary case,-"the fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?" In the hour of dissolution and in the very article of death, they resound in the ears of the dying man,

HEAR, O ISRAEL, THE LORD THY GOD IS ONE LORD!" They cry aloud several times, "Go, sleep with thy fathers." They have no confession, no uncleanness, no lights, like their brethren elsewhere.

TREATMENT OF THE CORPSE.

The nearest male relations close the eyes of the corpse with a bandage; they then wash it, dress it in clean linen, and lay it in a dark room. They then proceed to seek a place of sepulture. In carrying the body to the grave, the children, friends, relations, (male and female,) take the

lead in the ceremony ;-the corpse being borne by the elders of the place. A woman and a young man precede the body singing praises, with the accompaniment of instrumental music, until they arrive at the place of interment, when at once the scene, hitherto animated, changes into one of the deepest affliction and mourning; this is a very ancient practice, and might be traced as far back as the days of Jacob. (See Genesis xlvi. 4.)

A great lamentation is made, during which the women smite themselves with their right hand on the breast. When this is over, they lower the body into the grave, dug three or four feet deep, during which time the female relatives of the deceased tear their hair and wound their faces with their nails. The applications thus practised are not peculiar to the Jewish people elsewhere. They are derived by those of Daghistan from early times, which may be seen by consulting Genesis 1. 3; Deut. xxxiv. 8; 1 Samuel xxxi. 13; Amos v. 16, where mention is made of those skilful in lamentation being called to wailing. Also in Jeremiah ix. 20, where it is written, "Hear the word of the Lord, O ye women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth, and teach your daughters wailing, and

every one her neighbour lamentation; for death is come up into our windows," &c.

The corpse

For

being then interred without coffin or any other ceremony, they depart to their houses. forty days (Sabbaths excepted) their neighbours occasionally bring them food, which is called DND the bread of bitterness. During those days the elders visit the mourners, to whom the latter repeat, Alas, alas, my father, my brother, my kinsman! They then indulge their grief and sorrow.*

לחם אונים

On the fortieth day, (excepting always Sabbaths and feast days,) all the relations and friends of the deceased go to the sepulchre, and carry thither a stone or piece of wood, which is set up as a monument. They depart in silence to the house of the deceased. Their neighbours and friends being gathered together, each one produces some provision, and they sit down to eat. The elders of the place hand the mourners a cup of

*The modern Jews do not allow females to follow a funeral or touch a male corpse, which they consider unclean, nor do they permit women to visit the burial-ground during their monthly period, of which custom the Jews in the Caspian are ignorant.

wine or other liquor, which they call on the cup of consolation, saying, "Take, drink, and remember thy grief no more."

For scripture illustrations of the antiquity of these customs, reference may be made to 2 Samuel iii. 35, and Jeremiah xvi. 4-7, where the prophet threatens that for the sins of the people, "Neither shall men tear themselves for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother." Should any young man die unmarried, the virgins put on sackcloth, and ashes on their head, for forty days, with great lamentation.

I was also informed, that the chiefs of the Jews, when dying, command their bodies to be burnt. This is held in great abhorrence by the Jews throughout the world; and yet it was practised in the time of King Saul and King Asa; and for great men not to be burned was considered a sign of inferiority and disgrace. In proof of which, I have only to refer the attentive reader to the following scriptures: 2 Chron. xvi. 14; xxi. 19; Jerem. xxxiv. 5; Amos vi. 10.

In respect of lamentation for the dead, they are free from those ceremonies which characterise