Abraham "sat in the tent door in the heat of the day. And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground, and said, My Lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant. . . . And they said unto him, Where is Sarah thy wife? And he said, Behold, in the tent. And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; and lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him."

When Mr. Buckingham was on his way to Orfah, the "Ur" of the Bible, and was travelling over a plain, he

visited the tent of a Sheikh, which was pitched at different periods near all his villages successively. "When we alighted at his tent door," writes Mr. B., "our horses were taken from us by his son, a young man well dressed. His father was sitting beneath the awning in front of the tent itself, and rose up to receive us, exchanging the salute of welcome, and not seating himself till all his guests were accommodated. The tent occupied a space of about thirty feet square, and was formed by one large awning, supported by twenty-four small poles, in four rows of six each, the ends of the awning being drawn out by cords fastened to pegs in the ground. The half of this square was open in front and at the sides, having two rows of poles clear, and the third row was closed by a reeded partition, behind which was the apartment for the females, surrounded entirely by the same kind of matting. The form of Abraham's tent seems to have been exactly like the one in which we sat; for in both there was a shaded open front, in which he could sit in the heat of the day, and yet be seen far off; and the apartment of the females where Sarah was, when he stated her to be within the tent, was immediately behind this, in which she prepared the meal for the guests, and listened to them."-See BUCKINGHAM'S Travels in Mesopotamia, vol. i. pp. 30-34.

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BEDOUIN TENTS NEAR TEKOA.

During an excursion to Engedi, Dr. Robinson passed a night in an Arab camp, of which he writes as follows:

"In the bright light of the moon, the scene was highly romantic. We were here on the lofty hill-side, looking out upon the dark mass of the Frank Mountain, and the sacred region of Bethlehem; while around us were the black tents, the horses picketed, and the numerous flocks of sheep and goats, all still, like the silence of the desert.

"We rose soon after four o'clock, and looked about upon the encampment. All was already in motion at this early hour. There were about six hundred sheep and goats, the latter being the most numerous; and the process of milking was now going on. They have few COWS. The six tents were arranged in a sort of square ; they were made of black hair-cloth, not large; and were mostly open at one end and on the sides, the latter being turned up. The tents formed the common rendezvous of men, women, children, calves, lambs, and kids. The women were without veils, and seemed to make nothing of our presence. Here we had an opportunity of seeing various processes in the housekeeping of nomadic life. The women in some of the tents were kneading bread, and baking it in thin cakes in the embers, or on iron plates over the fire. Another female was churning the milk...... In another tent a woman was kneeling and grinding at the handmill."Dr. ROBINSON'S Researches, vol. ii. pp. 179, 180.

TENTS OF THE TURKMANS.

“The winter habitations of the Turkmans in the hilly districts are, as I have mentioned before, erected on the declivity of the hills, so as to be, by their position, somewhat sheltered from the northerly winds. Sometimes five or six families live together on one spot in as many tents; but for the greater part tents of single families are met with at one or two miles distance from each other. In proportion to the arable land, which the hilly parts contain, these districts are better peopled than the plain, where a thousand tents are scattered over an extent, of the most fertile country, of at least five hundred square miles. The structure of the habitations of these shepherds is, of course, extremely simple; an oblong square wall of loose stones, about four feet high, is covered over with a black cloth made of goats' hair, which is supported by a dozen or more posts,

so that in the middle of the tent the covering is elevated about nine feet from the ground. A stone partition is built across the tent near the entrance. I found in every tent that the women had uniformly possession of the greater half to the left of the door; the smaller half, to the right hand side, is appropriated to the men, and there is also a partition which generally serves as a stable for a favourite horse of the master or of one of his sons. The rest of the horses and cattle are kept in caverns, or in smaller huts built on purpose.... The Turkmans have also a kind of portable tent made of wood, like a round bird-cage, which they cover with large carpets of white wool. The entrance may be shut up by a small door it is the exclusive property of the ladies, and is only met with in families who are possessed of large property." -BURCKHARDT's Travels in Syria, pp. 635, 636.

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FEAST OF TABERNACLES.

LEVITICUS XXiii. 33, &c.

"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the Lord.... When ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the Lord seven days: on the first day shall be a Sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a Sabbath. And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm-trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days.... Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths (tents): That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt I am the Lord your God."

* See "The Harem," in chapter ii.

JOHN vii. 37-39.

"In the last day, that great day of the Feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water."

The feast of tabernacles was so called because the Israelites kept it under green tents, or arbours, in memory of their dwelling in tents in their passage through the wilderness. It was one of the three great solemnities, wherein all the males were obliged to present themselves before the Lord. It was celebrated after harvest, on the 15th day of the month Tisri, which answers to our month of September. The feast continued eight days; but the first day and the last were the most solemn. Therein they returned thanks to God for the fruits of the earth they had then gathered in, and were also put in mind that they were but pilgrims and travellers in this world.-CRUDEN'S Concordance.

We are assured, that on the eighth day of the feast, the Jews presented at the temple the first fruits of their later crop; that is, of such things as were the latest in coming to maturity;-that they drew water out of the fountain of Siloam, which was brought into the temple, and being first mingled with wine, was poured out by the priests at the foot of the altar of burnt-offerings. The people in the mean time sung those words of the prophet Isaiah, "Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation." (xii. 3.) It is supposed that this custom was intended to solicit the blessing of the autumnal rains for the approaching seed-time, they being of so great consequence after the drought of an Eastern summer; and it appears to have been first practised by the Jews after their return from captivity in Babylon. It was then that the prophet Zechariah said, "It shall come to pass, that every one that is left