ORIENTAL CUSTOMS.

VOLUME II.

THE FOURTH EDITION.

ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL.

고

OR AN

ILLUSTRATION

OF THE

SACRED SCRIPTURES,

BY AN

EXPLANATORY APPLICATION

OF THE

CUSTOMS AND MANNERS OF THE EASTERN NATIONS,

AND ESPECIALLY

THE JEWS, THEREIN ALLUDED TO.

COLLECTED FROM THE MOST

CELEBRATED TRAVELLERS, AND THE MOST EMINENT CRITICS.

BY

THE REV. SAMUEL BURDER, A. M.

OF CLARE-HALL, CAMBRIDGE; LECTURER OF THE UNITED PARISHES OF CHRIST-
CHURCH, NEWgate-street, and St. Leonard, fosteR-LANE, LONDON;
AND CHAPLAIN TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE DUKE OF KENT.

VOLUME II.
FOURTH EDITION.

As a due consideration of foreign testimonies and monuments often gives great
light to what is obscurely expressed in the Scripture; so where the Scripture in these
things, with such allowances as it every where declares itself to admit of, may be
interpreted in a fair compliance with uncontrouled foreign testimonies, that inter-
pretation is to be embraced.

DR. OWEN.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN,

And the evening and the morning were the first day. THE Mosaical method of computing days from sun

set to sun-set, and of reckoning by nights instead of days, prevailed amongst the polished Athenians. And from a similar custom of our Gothic ancestors, during their abode in the forests of Germany, words expressive of such a mode of calculation (such as fortnight, se'nnight) have been derived into our own language. The same custom, as we are informed by Cæsar, prevailed among the Celtic nations. "All the Gauls," says he, "measure time, not by the number of days, but of nights. Accordingly they observe their birth-days, and the beginnings of months and years, in such a manner, as to cause the day to follow the night.

No. 602.—iv. 3. Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord.] "To offer to the Deity the first-fruits of the tender herbage, springing up in the vernal season, and of the different kinds of grain and fruits matured by a warm sun, was the prac